TWENTY-NINE
Cain
Cain’s sweet baby knew she held all the cards.
And if she’d thought about it, she’d realize she’d held them all this time.
He was the fortunate prick who was rewarded by being in her world. The world he’d kept coming back to because he couldn’t help himself.
“I didn’t know the things he’d done, Harper.” He stated and watched her eyes enlarge. “Damon withheld the full specs of info I paid for.”
“That little fucking bandy-legged shithead.” She bit out.
Grinder choked on a laugh, and Cain felt a surge of dark heat at her outburst.
“It’s on me, though. I should have made sure who Hades was before—”
“Before you rolled into town and started bullying me.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Did I bully you, or was I worshipping you, sweet baby?”
“Okay, Romeo, take it down a notch. This ain’t gonna end how you want it to.” Warned Grinder, but Cain ignored the other man, with only eyes for his woman.
He was in a predicament, or he’d already be grabbing Harper onto his lap and putting his hand around her throat to kiss the frown off her face.
“What did you tell them?”
Cain kicked up an eyebrow. Was his wife fishing to see if he’d told her daddy they were married? No, that was their shared dirty little secret for now.
Harper was his, and he needed to survive to prove it. Rider Marinos would have shot him full of holes if he’d revealed Cain was his son-in-law after the compound break-in.
But he liked that his woman was worried. As she chewed on her lip, he winked at her.
“I told them enough.”
“Enough to kill you, I know.”
“Are you worried about me, baby? You don’t have to be. I’m gonna be okay.”
“Hardly.” She huffed. Yet her eyes were all over him, and he fucking loved it.
“Did you talk to Hawk?”
“A little. I doubt he wants a nephew. And I’m not interested in calling him uncle. He told me he was the one who stabbed Hades. I would have done it, too, if I’d known. I wasn’t fighting for a rapist, Harper.”
She frowned again. Was that relief in her eyes?
“It was fate that we met.” Her frown became even more profound, and he watched tears fill her eyes, but she was still too far away. He wanted to touch her, soothe her fears, and gulp in her breath right down to his lungs. “Remember? In the ER that day? That nosy little blonde kid wanted to see my bloody wound. We shouldn’t have met that day, but we did.”
“And then you ruined the meet-cute by being the big bad bounty hunter who lied and manipulated me,” she snapped.
Cain grinned.
“Not for long. I kept coming back for you. Not my revenge.”
“You’re lying.”
He held up the cuffed hands on his lap. “I have no reason to lie, baby. I saw you, and my brain fucking exploded. Revenge? What fucking revenge? It all went by the wayside. I just wanted you.”
“Slick-tongued motherfucker, you might be related to Juicy after all.” Snorted Grinder, “This is the weirdest hostage sitch I’ve ever been part of, and I include when I kidnapped my old lady.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re entertained.” Bit Harper. “This is just my life that’s been upturned and ruined.”
“Not ruined, Harper.” Interjected Cain. “I’m gonna make it right.”
“How? My dad will kill you. How can you make anything right when you’re dead?”
“That won’t happen.”
“Don’t bank on it,” a deep male voice said from the back of the room. Rider Marinos was coming through the doorway. He strolled over and stopped next to Harper. “I gave you two minutes. Did you get the goodbyes over with?”
“Not quite.” She mumbled. “I got distracted by other things.”
“Then make it quick and get out of here.” His tone caused Cain to narrow his eyes.
“She’s not telling me goodbye.” He practically snarled the words, forcing Harper to look away from her father and back at him. Where her eyes always should be.
Saying goodbye to Harper was impossible.
He’d faced the reality that he could be killed here. It just meant he’d have to find her in the next life. Being without her was not something he could face. And when Harper stared at him with fear, she felt it too. He knew she did.
“Leave, Harper. Go up to the house with your mother.” Rider issued.
“Wait.” He barked, and her tear-filled eyes flared, unsure who to listen to. His sweet baby was so conflicted. He addressed Rider. “I gave you all the information and evidence I had against your club. There are no more copies anywhere. I told you why I’d come to you. I could have stolen her from underneath your noses and taken her somewhere no one would have found her. But I know what her family means to Harper, so I did it this way.”
His girl hissed, scandalized, but there was heat in her cheeks. “Shut up before he shoots you in the face, Cain.”
“That won’t happen, baby,” he smiled to reassure her.
“Like I already said, don’t bet on it.” Rider curled his lip.
Harper reached out and clutched the edge of her father’s leather vest as if it were a practiced move, and he felt his gut clench. It would be the last time she looked for comfort from another man. She was his woman to comfort, soothe, and torment with adoration and obsession.
“She wants to be with me, Rider.” He went all in. What the fuck did he have to lose at this point?
He needed to remain alive to earn his wife. If it took him a lifetime, Cain would work to win Harper’s love, devotion, loyalty, and every smile. He wanted to own each beat of her loving heart until she breathed for him. Like he lived for her. He’d end each day wishing he’d done more to deserve her because a life without Harper was no life.
Rider looked like he wanted to rip Cain’s head off his shoulders. That was fair, but it didn’t mean Cain would back down, so he held the other man’s stare.
“Is that right?” he turned to his daughter, who was a sweet trembling girl, but so defiant as she shot Cain a are you fucking insane glare. He winked at her. “Go on, Harper, tell the guy who has the same face as the man who violated your mother for years that you want to be with him?”
Cain snarled, his blood burned. “Don’t you fucking talk to her like that. None of this is her fault.”
She weakly pleaded, “Dad, don’t.”
“Is that what you want?”
Her gaze snapped between them. “I…”
His fucking soul roared to go to her, hold her, make it right.
There was no one in the world he’d offer what he was about to, because no woman had ever meant a thing to him until Harper.
“Don’t make her answer something she doesn’t want to. You’re making her choose between me and her family. This trouble is between you and me, Marinos.”
“There’s not a fuckin’ thing you can say to me. I told you that last night.”
“I think there is. I want a chance with Harper. For her to choose independently, not because she’s pushed by family loyalty.” He locked eyes with her for a second, trying to tell her to trust him. To trust that everything he’d said and done, he’d meant it because he couldn’t stay away from her.
She’d become his reason, and his whole mission.
“I’ve researched MCs, and some clubs have initiations.”
Rider’s eyebrows hiked into his hair. The imposing man looked ready to strangle him. “If you think you’re asking to join my club…”
“I’m not. I don’t want to be a member.”
Harper exhaled. Did his little wife want that? She’d have to make do with him being an unhinged motherfucker and not a biker thug. She’d love him, anyway. He’d make sure of it; he was excellent at kidnapping. He could wait for her to love him back.
“I read about an MC out east that still does the five-day initiation ritual. No holds barred. And if the guy still stands after five days, he earns his patch. I don’t want the patch, but I want a free shot with Harper, with no one standing in my way. Only she can turn me away.”
“Oh, boy, shit just got good,” Grinder remarked, climbing to his feet to stand at Rider’s side. Cain was the focus of his open curiosity despite his silence.
It was Harper who exclaimed. “What does that mean? What is he saying he wants to do?”
“It’s a beat down, princess.” Grinder answered, “A prospect steps into the ring with several club members, accepting their blows without defending himself until he’s unable to withstand the punishment. Only fists are allowed, no weapons. And if he manages to fight the next night, it’s just more of the same. He’s patched in if he’s alive and standing after five days. It’s archaic as fuck, and the Souls have never gone with it before, not even with the mad fuck previous prez.”
Cain continued to stare at Rider, awaiting his decision about whether to kill him.
“What the hell?” Harper exclaimed. “Dad, say it’s not happening.” Her voice climbed higher, more panicked. And there was not a thing he could do to calm her. “Dad! Say something. Say this isn’t what we do. Send him away. He won’t repeat anything he knows, will you, Cain?” Cain stayed silent, yet he deeply admired her courageous and caring nature for trying to save him.
This was the only way any Souls would ever give him a chance with Harper without interference. He’d been so close to breaking into her apartment when he returned to Colorado. To take her to an undisclosed location far away. But he realized she would grow to resent him in time if he separated her from her family.
So, like the insane bastard she’d accused him of being, he went to the opposite extreme for her.
“Dad!” her high-pitched voice trembled. “I don’t want this. Just send him away. He can’t do this. It’s barbaric. He’ll get killed.”
His sweet baby loved him.
“I’ll tell him goodbye, Dad.” She stated, and that’s when Cain’s eyes flared.
“No, the fuck you won’t, little girl.” He gritted through his teeth.
“Yes, I will.”
“Rider, do you accept?” he asked the stoic man, observing everything.
“Dad, don’t. Please, don’t.” She pleaded.
Rider looked at his daughter, and there was obvious love for her. But then, his smirk was in place when he faced Cain. And Cain knew his answer.
He smiled with relief as Rider said, “Yes, I accept.”
The president thought he was going to lose.
Well, Cain had a different outcome in mind.
Because he had something worth fighting for. For the first time in his life. He had a future to go to.
And it was Harper.
“Fuck. I think he’s crazier than a cracker, Rider.” Grinder cackled.
The last thing he saw was her rushing from the basement, her sobs ringing in his ears.
“Good.” He exhaled, nodding.
The finality of it lowered his shoulders.
His future was right there, and nothing, or no one, was taking away his chance with Harper.
“When can we do this?”