TWENTY-SEVEN
Harper
What a humiliating mess.
All of her life, Harper had strived to make her parents proud.
Sure, she’d had times of clashing with them—teenagers figuring themselves out always do. But deep down, she’d always wanted their approval and ensured her family was at the heart of her decisions.
“What’s on your mind?” They were in her dad’s office/mom’s library. And she was nervous as hell.
Her dad was sitting in his desk chair, and her mom was perched on the arm of the couch. Harper couldn’t sit. She had too much nervous energy zipping around her bloodstream.
“I want to preface this by saying everything I’ve tried to do was for the family, which sounds like an excuse now.”
That felt like a lie since she’d wanted to be with Cain despite knowing everything about him. “And I think, for a time, I neutralized it, but I don’t know.” She fidgeted with a silver ring on her middle finger, unable to look at her parents.
“Doodle, just spit it out.” The authoritarian voice of Rider made her clash eyes with him.
“Okay, I just need you to listen and let me say everything first.” She inhaled. “There’s a man. I’ve been involved with a man.”
It was Zara who responded first by frowning. “That’s an odd way to say you’ve been dating, sweetheart.”
Yeah, because he forced her into marrying him, hoping to break her dad’s heart when he found out. There was zero dating involved.
“His name is Cain, and he’s from California.”
Her parents shared a look between them.
“And what I thought was a chance meeting, it wasn’t. He targeted, befriended, and let me believe he was interested in me. To cut to the chase, he wanted to hurt the club, Dad. He believed you and the Souls killed his father decades ago, and he wanted revenge.”
Harper shot up a hand when Zara opened her mouth to speak.
“Please, just let me finish, Mom. I wish that were the worst of it.”
It was Rider who looked at her shrewdly, his face unreadable. “Go on.”
“I thought I got him to back off. Told him if it happened, his father must’ve been an asshole.” She shot her mom an apologetic look. “Sorry, Mom. But he must’ve deserved it. I thought we were on the same page… but I didn’t have the full picture until recently. That’s why I’m telling you now—it was too big to keep to myself.”
Her eyes burned, but she fought back the tears. “This man didn’t raise Cain. He only found out a few years ago. But his real father…” She met each parent’s gaze, locking onto the head of their family. “His father was Hades, Dad. His MC was the Raging Rebels. Cain knows you and Hawk took him out, and the Souls destroyed the club.”
It was as quiet as a fresh snowfall, and Harper felt anything but peaceful.
When she looked at both of them, neither reacted as she expected. Her lungs whipped air through her lips.
“Mom, I’m so sorry. As soon as I knew who Cain’s dad was… it was too big of a secret to keep to myself. I’m so sorry.”
“Sweetheart, take a breath before you pass out,” Zara said calmly. Too calmly. She then glanced at her husband, rubbing his clipped beard and staring at Harper.
Rider’s silence was terrifying.
Harper inhaled. Her heart was beating too fast.
She was ready to face their anger, but amongst her dread, she was worried about Cain and what would happen to him now.
Feeling split down the middle, she never imagined siding against her family, let alone arguing to save someone from her dad’s wrath.
But she couldn’t see a way out of this.
It could only end one way.
“Please, can you say something? I know you’re disappointed in me for not telling you sooner. I’m mad at myself for not knowing how to stop this chaos.”
She would hyperventilate if someone other than herself didn’t speak soon.
“Rider,” Zara said with an easy, calm voice. “Tell her.”
Tell her what?
And why wasn’t anyone screaming at her? Why wasn’t her mom crying? Suddenly, things weren’t adding up, and she couldn’t figure out what was happening.
“I’d like to think we’ve been fair parents, right, Icy?” he said to his wife, though he looked at Harper. Oh god, it was even worse than she imagined—her heart sank. “We let the kids make their own decisions, facing up to the consequences if those choices fucked up. We gave you kids responsibilities, and I think, mostly, you three have done well.”
Oh shit, here it came.
“Harper, I’m so fuckin’ disappointed in you. What do I always say, huh? We’re stronger as a family. As one element. If we fight, we fight together.”
“I know, Dad, but…”
Her heart splintered, seeing his displeasure in her.
“Do you think I give one fuck about anyone knowing what happened to Hades? That me and Hawk, or the club, give a fuck? I’d kill that cunt in the middle of a live broadcast if he were here today. Hawk would say the same.” He leaned back in the large leather seat, her father’s frame filling the entire chair. He was still fit for his age as he laced his fingers over his flat torso, giving a relaxed appearance.
“The FEDs dropped the Rebels’ arson case decades ago. They looked at us for a long fuckin’ time and found nothing.”
“There is no statute of limitations on certain cases, Dad. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“So you thought you’d burden the whole fuckin’ thing on your skinny shoulders.”
Oh, the Marinos part of her took offense at that, like she wasn’t capable of handling family shit because she was a girl.
She tipped her chin up, defiant. “I handled it just fine. For months. Cain did nothing.”
“Oh, that slick fucker did plenty.”
Her eyes went wide.
“Rider,” Zara cautioned.
She had no idea what secret her parents were sharing with their eyes.
“At the last count, he lost us a few million in construction hold-ups and permits. As for the evidence, he thinks he has against the Souls. So what?” Her dad shrugged, holding her incredulous stare. “It’s my job to keep this club safe, Harper. Not you . Not my daughter. My job .” His voice got harder. “I can see you’re already beating yourself up about this, so I don’t need to strip you a new one.”
And just when Harper thought they’d gotten over the worst of it, she exhaled as he continued.
“There was a guy who freaked your mom out a while back. He looked enough like Hades to have us both taken aback for a second. Same hair, coloring, and build.”
Harper swallowed.
Her dad tipped his head back. “Imagine my surprise when that guy arrived late last night at the clubhouse. He purposely set off the alarms around the perimeter and then sat on a fold-out chair outside the entranceway while the on-duty prospects scrambled. He then told them he needed to talk to the president.”
Had Harper been sitting, she would have sprung to her feet. But since she was already standing, the floor started shaking beneath her, clutching at the dread in her belly as it swished from side to side.
Was Cain already dead?
Oh, god, please, no. Don’t let him be dead.
“Yeah, doodle-bug, I wanted to see that look on your face so I’d know where your loyalty was.”
Emotion choked her words. “It’s with us, the family, always, you know that.”
Was he dead? Had they killed him?
“Yeah, sweetheart, I know. But it’s also with the son of the man who tortured your mother.”
She felt sick. “Don’t say that,” she pleaded, batting a stray tear off her cheek. “Mom, I didn’t know he was that man’s son, I swear it. And Cain didn’t know what Hades had done until I told him. He thought he was a saint who biker thugs had killed for no good reason.”
Dammit, she was defending Cain again. Harper shut her mouth, frightened to ask the question that was burning inside her heart, but the question was too big to hold in, and her dad wasn’t volunteering it.
“Is he dead?”
“Would it matter?” he asked, eerily low. “Don’t we kill anyone who tries to fuck with us?”
The ball of fire grew into the biggest rock of pain in her belly, and Harper bit down on the inside of her bottom lip to contain the scream, wanting to erupt.
Cain was dead.
How could she go on without him?
She needed him to exist so she could hate him, but he was gone now.
She didn’t know she’d hyperventilated until Zara came to Harper. “Baby, slow down, or you’ll pass out. Your father hasn’t killed Cain.”
On a staggered inhale, she froze. “What? He isn’t dead?”
“Not yet,” Rider said forebodingly. “But my girl, this little emotional breakdown showed me more than I wanted to see. Whatever you had with him stops right now.”
Dear god, he wasn’t dead. Harper’s legs turned to jelly, and she leaned against a bookcase to hold herself up.
“Why did he come here?”
“You don’t know?”
“No.”
“He laid out everything you’ve told us today. It was quite the conversation. He even met his uncle Hawk.”
Whoa. She’d heard a long time ago from Sunny how her father and Uncle Juicy were half brothers and they had unknown other half siblings in the world somewhere because of their abusive priest father. That meant Hades was related to Hawk.
Air trapped in her throat. “Is…”
Her dad narrowed his navy eyes. He was all prez at that moment. “Is he what, Harper? Did Hawk hurt him? If you dare ask, I’ll break every single bone in his body right now.”
“Chill out, Ambrosio,” his wife said softly, using his given Greek name. Then, to Harper, she said, “As your father said, Cain confessed his plans and what he’d done so far.”
“Cocky little fuck.” Rider curled a lip, but Harper thought he looked impressed, too. Or was that just wishful thinking on her part? She was so confused her brain couldn’t catch up with her raging emotions. “Walked right into my clubhouse and told me he’d been planning to destroy us.”
“How did Hawk take it?”
“How Hawk takes everything. They eyed each other up like animals. Juicy is out of town, or it would have been a three-way reunion for the uncles and nephew.”
“Are… are you planning to kill him?”
“Should I, Harper?” her dad asked.
“You’re the president. That’s up to you.”
He chuckled darkly. “I think that’s the first time you’ve ever been diplomatic. What’s happened to our girl, Zara?”
His wife clicked her tongue, retaking her seat. “You’re being deliberately obtuse and cruel, Rider. You can see how she’s suffering right before your eyes.”
That’s when her father’s sternness dropped, and he rubbed a hand over his face, sighing. “This is fucked up.” He said. “He asked to apologize to Zara.”
Harper’s eyes got wide. “He did?”
“For scaring her.”
Oh. Harper blinked. “Are you sure it was Cain who came to see you? That doesn’t sound like him.”
Reaching for his phone, her dad swiped the screen and then turned it around for her to see the live camera feed. The sight of the gorgeous blond man sent her heart plummeting. Very much alive as the video showed him handcuffed, sitting on a cot in what looked like a basement room within the clubhouse. He was talking to Grinder.
“He had a lot of interesting shit to share.”
She tried to school her face. If he’d told them about marrying her, she’d kill Cain herself.
“He wants to make amends, he claims. For trying to break my club. For plotting to leave my wife without her husband when he handed over info to the FEDs about me. The fuckin’ conceited balls on him.”
Harper gulped a breath after each sentence her father shared in his no-nonsense tone. “And do you know why he’s turned over a new leaf, Harper?”
All she was capable of was shaking her head no. She’d stopped trying to understand that monster. He made her heart race, and she couldn’t imagine life without him, even if he was evil.
“The arrogant prick strolled into my club with his swelled ego, confessed about his revolting daddy revenge, and oh, he wants to claim my fuckin’ daughter while he’s at it.”
The floor shifted this time, and her nails dug into the bookcase to keep the world from tilting.
It was the first time her dad growled, displaying his anger. “Over my fuckin’ dead body, will that happen, Harper,” He stated coldly, the blaze of his stare burned down to her soul. “Do you hear me? I see what that news means to you. You never could keep any emotion off your face. But it ain’t happening.”
Harper’s mind was whirling like it had been put on a fast laundry spin cycle. All her thoughts stacked up and demanded attention, but she couldn’t latch on to just one. As she bounced her gaze between parents, there was only one thing she wanted to say, and it burned clean off her tongue, knowing she wouldn’t disappoint them again, even if it killed her.
But she had to follow the screaming in her soul.
The words, “It won’t happen,” were forced from her, a protest deep within her soul. She swiped another errant tear and glanced at her mom, who had nothing but love and empathy on her serene face. Her mom was exceptional and deserved a better daughter. She turned to her dad. “But I need to see him.”
The chilly silence descended on the room.
She had one thought: to put her eyes on her husband.
Even if it was for the last time.