Chapter Eleven
Mustang
'Daddy, it smells like grass again. Mommy says I can’t come out of her room until her friend leaves, but I’m hungry.'
His daughter’s call was like a track set on repeat in his head.
His blood had gone from cool to boiling in a matter of ten seconds.
He was so mad he could hardly see straight.
He was pulling into his garage in under three minutes—a new record.
He’d barely killed the engine on his Road King before he held out his hand and barked, “Off.”
He didn’t need to say it at all, his woman already in motion.
“In the truck.”
She nodded and was reaching for the passenger door as he got off his hog and stomped his way around to the driver’s side.
He was peeling out of his driveway without his seatbelt seconds later.
As he drove, Tess didn’t say a word. Didn’t ask a question. Didn’t even flinch.
Mustang added that to the list of reasons why he thought he might just ride with her forever.
The five minutes it usually took for him to get to Trix’s place took three in his rage. He came to a screeching halt in the parking lot, his truck filling two vacant spots, and him not the least bit concerned about it.
“Out,” he growled before he bolted from his seat.
It took Tess a second longer to meet him in front of his truck, but she kept pace with him when he took her hand and dragged her behind him to Trix’s second story unit, her heels clicking to the beat of her hurried steps.
When he was in front of the door he wanted, he pounded his fist loudly against it then immediately reached for the handle. It was locked, so he pounded again. He was two seconds away from striking it with his heel when he heard the deadbolt slide free before the door was opened.
“What the fuck?” Trix scoffed in greeting.
Mustang looked at Tess and demanded, “Stay right here.”
She nodded and he let go of her hand as he stepped toward Trix and caught hold of her chin. He gripped her hard as he searched her eyes, and she tried but failed to fight against him.
“Mustang, let me go! You’re such an asshole!”
She wasn’t high. At least not yet.
This did not calm him down.
He freed her chin and brushed past her as she cried, “What are you doing? And who is she? Who are you ?”
Mustang stopped dead in his tracks, twisted until he had line of sight to those gorgeous golden-brown eyes and said, “Not a fuckin’ word.”
She stared back at him, keeping those perfect lips closed, and he continued through the apartment.
The apartment that wreaked of weed.
Trix’s bedroom door was cracked. He pushed it open, spotted MK on the bed, her eyes glued to the doorway, and headed straight for her. She was ready, arms extended in anticipation. As he scooped her up and against his chest, he said, “We’re leavin’, baby. Let’s get some shoes on.”
They hit her room just as Trix started down the hallway.
“You can’t take her. It’s Saturday! You don’t get her until tomorrow,” she hollered.
Mustang ignored her as he helped MK into the first pair of shoes he saw. When her feet were covered, he picked her up a second time, brushing Trix out of the way as he headed for the front door.
“Hey! I’m talking to you!”
Still ignoring her, he stopped in the still open doorway, his eyes on Tess as he said, “MK, this is my friend, Tess. She’s gonna take you to the truck, alright?”
Tess nodded as MK murmured, “Okay, daddy.”
He set his little girl on her feet, and Tess reached for her hand.
“Hi. I’m so glad to meet you,” Tess said as they started for the truck.
MK looked back over her shoulder at Mustang, but Tess kept talking, recapturing her attention.
“Your dad always calls you MK when he talks about you. Do you mind if I call you Mary-Kate?”
Trix was still making a fuss behind him, but he tuned her out, blocking the exit as he watched his woman with his little girl. Seeing them hand in hand did something to him—something he felt down deep.
He’d known since the moment he laid eyes on Tess he wanted her.
After he’d had her, he knew he wanted more.
The more he learned about her, the more certain he became.
Without knowing it, she was who he’d been waiting for.
MK’s hand tucked inside of hers, he admitted he didn’t just want Tess for himself.
He wanted MK to have her, too.
Someone kind, nurturing, and beautiful inside and out.
There was plenty of him she hadn’t yet seen—but he’d show her.
He’d make sure she accepted it. Accepted him.
He wouldn’t have it any other way.
As soon as he’d lost sight of them on their trip down the stairs, he shifted his focus, turning his attention on the reason he was there.
He got in Trix’s space, and her eyes got wide as she backed into the door.
“You? Shut the fuck up,” he yelled.
He then looked into the living room. Trix’s friend was on his feet—his blunt abandoned on the coffee table as he stared at Mustang in a dazed uncertainty.
“What’d I tell you?” sneered Mustang as he barreled toward the man. “What’d I tell you, motherfucker?!”
This time, when he had him by the shirt, Mustang didn’t hold back. He slugged him hard across the cheek. Once. Twice. Three times.
Trix started yelling as the man tried to cower away from Mustang. He couldn’t get small enough, Mustang’s grip on his shirt preventing him from crumbling to the floor.
“Fuck, man. It’s just weed!” he cried pathetically.
“I warned you, you dumb fuck. Did I not? Pretty sure I did.”
Mustang punched him in the nose, until he heard it crack, then punched him once in the throat before he finally let go. The man collapsed in a heap on the floor, choking for air.
“What the hell is wrong with you?! Who do you think you are? Get out of here, you jackass!” screeched Trix.
Mustang turned on her then. She lost most of her bravado when she caught sight of his face, and she took two steps back.
“If I ever hear you tell my girl to stay behind a closed door while you or anyone else is out here gettin’ high, I will relieve you of your duties as her mother,” he warned.
She huffed, squaring her shoulders with new confidence as she argued, “You won’t. I’ll take you to court. I know shit—shit on you and the club. You won’t get her.”
“Try me, bitch. I tolerate you for her. I follow our court ordered custody agreement for her . But you fuck with my girl, I will go above the law. You want her? Fuckin’ act like it, or she’s mine.”
He stormed out, buzzing with rage—MK’s call still playing on repeat in his head.
When he reached the truck, he knew he needed to calm down.
He didn’t get behind the wheel but stood outside the door and forced himself to breathe.
Glancing through the window, he locked eyes with Tess. He could see her worry, and he felt her fear—fear he could tell she was trying to hide.
It took him a minute, but when he felt in control, he opened the door and climbed into his seat.
He didn’t look at Tess as he started the engine and began to back out of the parking space. When he pointed his truck toward home, he heard her breath catch, and he knew why. He could already feel his right hand starting to swell.
“Daddy?” MK called softly.
Mustang caught her hazel-blue eyes in her reflection of his rearview mirror.
“Can I have some strawberries and goldfish when we get home?”
“Yeah, baby,” he said, refocusing his attention on the road. “I think we still have some berries.”
It was then Tess reached over and gently coaxed his right hand off the steering wheel. He let her have it, and she brought it into her lap, carefully lacing her fingers between his with one hand, covering his bruised knuckles with his other.
He glanced at her, and he felt her fear had subsided.
Her golden-brown eyes were calm, and he saw all he needed to see.
His Tess, pretty in pink and wild like the wind, stared back at him unwaveringly.
Never before had he invited a woman he’d taken to bed into his home.
That was about to change.