12. Tyke
12
TYKE
"Why are you here, Connor?" I shut the door behind us before turning to face the guy. "Really?"
I’m no idiot. Rae messaged him again and summoned the fucked-up kid here on a promise that she'd cash in on the hour she owed him for giving us Maddie's location. He didn't know my daughter was already gone, so there was no motivation for him to drive his ass here other than the offer of her time.
Other than the sweet bliss found by basking in the afterglow of her attention.
Connor moves around the room, surveying the pictures on the wall. "She needs better than what you'll give her, Tyke.” His eyes are wild as he turns to gauge my reaction—the raw honesty of a man still in love.
In love with what's mine. Don't give a shit if he had her first. The moron didn't know how to keep Rae satisfied. How to make her happy. Fuck—I don't know for sure if I’m able to do either of those things, but I damn well know I'll try twice as hard as this idiot before I let her get away.
"I've already given her more than what you did." I shake my head and laugh at the asshole. "Probably took half the effort, too. That's the difference between boys and men: us older guys got the experience to fix the mistakes you young guns make."
He huffs a laugh, raising one eyebrow as he glances to the floor. “Mistake, huh?”
“Don’t know what else you’d call your history with her.”
He nods, glancing at my brother as though seeking his input in all of this.
Digger leans a shoulder against the wall, sconce behind him casting his face in shadow. He says nothing, letting his body language do the hard yards for him.
He’s as fed up with this arrogant fuck as I am.
“Where’s my daughter, Connor?”
Terry's son steels his jaw, tongue pressing against the inside of his lower lip. "Why don't you ask your brother?"
Rage has me flexing my shoulders back, my spine popping under the tension.
"Cut the shit," Digger growls, stepping forward. "You know that if we had a line with Fox, we wouldn’t have asked you here.”
“Don’t know how you expect me to sort your family issues.” Connor shrugs. “Got nothing to do with me.”
“Get him out,” I bark. “He’s no fuckin’ use here. He can leave.”
Digger advances on the kid, Connor’s eyes going wide. “Hey.” He lifts his hands, head tipping. “Easy now. A little banter isn’t all that bad, is it?”
“Talk.” I move behind my desk, fingering the letter opener that’d look good protruding from his neck.
He tracks the glide of my fingertips and swallows. "Fine." His jaw tic relays his frustration at being here without weaponry. It was the sole stipulation we had for him to get his hour—no knives.
Fuck knows what else he has concealed, though.
"From what I can understand, my father knows Fox is working you for leverage on that Plymouth Street lot, but he doesn't know how. It's more a project to keep your brother occupied than anything Dad believes will pay off.” He lifts a hand to keep me quiet and continues. “But given Ronan has been his tail, providing the illusion of safety from you lot for the past few years, I’d say it won’t be long before my dad knows Fox has Maddie.”
"That's why she needed to be home yesterday." There's no telling what Terry will do once he knows he has that power over me. "What's it going to take, Connor?"
He runs his teeth across his bottom lip, his fingers chasing the stitching on the Chesterfield's rolled arm. "I want her .”
Digger laughs. Fucking throws his head back and belts a laugh I haven’t heard in a good God damn while. “Uh, no. Not happening.”
The fire in Connor's eyes flares. "Not your choice, old man. Give me my hour with Rae alone, and let her decide."
My gut says we've got nothing to worry about. She said it herself: she doesn't love him anymore. Maybe never truly did. But the thought of her contained in a goddamn room, unprotected, with the sum of her nightmares has me itching to shove this cocky asshole out the fucking gate with a goddamn bullet on his tail for good measure.
Connor shifts his attention from Digger to me, reading the hesitation. "What's her future here, Tyke?" He drops his ass onto my fucking sofa, perched on the arm of the seat. “How does Rae fit into this old boys’ club of yours?”
I lift the letter opener and stab it into the surface of my desk. “She has a place at our side as long as she fuckin' wants it, Connor. Unlike you, we don't put caveats on our love for her." I move around the front of my desk and rest against it, arms folded, while I study the son of a fucking sociopath. Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
He jerks his head toward the door, where Rae probably waits with bated breath for the result of this meeting. "You made her an ol' lady, right?" He sneers at the title our women wear with pride. "Does Rae strike you as the kind of woman content to sit pretty on the back of your bike, keeping her mouth shut?"
"Who said she'll do either of those things?" Rae wants a bike; she'll get a bike. She wants to have a voice; I'll damn well give her the platform.
Women are to be revered here, not feared, unlike Terry's stance on the fairer sex. The fucker performed a miracle the day he found a woman willing to open her cunt long enough to let the sick fuck father a child.
"We were good together, her and I.” Connor’s eyes narrow. “Crazy bitch loved how hard I gave it to her."
“Easy.” I lift a finger in warning.
He smirks. “She not screaming for you like she was for me?”
The crack of my backhand ricochets off the paneled walls surrounding us.Blood pounds through my veins.
"What's the matter?" Connor spits on the carpet, shrugging against Digger's hold on him. "Can't stomach the truth?" My brother has his arms looped over Connor's biceps, pinning them behind his back. Digger's sheer size keeps the kid from standing, let alone using his arms. "You do understand she's had plenty of dicks plow that pussy before your dirty fucking sausage sniffed her out."
"You got a fuckin' death wish runnin' that mouth of yours?" I ask with a lilt of laughter, reaching for the letter opener. He's his old man's kid, through and through. Madder than a March hare.
"Maybe." Connor shrugs. “Maybe I’m just at the point where I don’t give a fuck anymore.”
Unlike his father, he's honest to a fault. The whole goddamn reason why I took his word when he admitted he had no idea where Fox had taken Maddie. Connor wouldn't come here and lie. Not when he can cause twice the damage through the truth alone. He was the kid, growing up, who would have broken your front window with his football and then walked straight up to your door to tell you so. The teen who would have run your cat over with his car and then taken it to the vet, leaving you a note on where to find it. Terry may have trained Connor into a killer, but there was one quality that he couldn't beat out of the kid no matter how many times he tried.
Every opportunity I've known for this kid to lie, he chose to stay honest—although not often fair.
"Why are you coming here with this fool's notion you can get Rae back if you know your old man wouldn't stand for it?" I lean my ass against the front of my desk and fold my arms, opener still in my fist. "Can't tell me she's worth that risk for you." Connor's slated to take over his father's empire when the asshole either kicks the bucket or abdicates. Rae's something special, alright, but I wouldn't have pinned her as worth giving up a guaranteed million-dollar future for.
Surely.
"Since when have I done everything the old bastard tells me?" Connor grins, gaze shifting behind me to a photo of my father and his two closest friends. "You always do what your father told you, Tyke?"
He has me there. "You move my daughter for Terry?”
Connor swings his chin around, the corners of his mouth upturned. "Nice try, old man."
Old. Pfft. Fucking young enough to satisfy your woman, you little shit.
"Gonna ask you an honest question, Connor. As the father figure you so clearly don't have." I set the letter opener on my desk and take a deep breath. "Say she believes your shit." I pin him with a hard stare, noting Digger stiffen in my periphery. "Say she decides to go with you. How the fuck you think you'll keep her safe? Living under your daddy's roof, you're as close to the fuckin' fire as you can get."
He hangs his head, a mess of black hair slipping over his eyes. I can't tell if the fucker grins or steels his jaw. The lack of indicators makes me push off the desk edge and stand taller.
"I know that, Tyke." Kid lifts his head and swallows hard. "I wouldn’t stick around if Rae came with me."
"You'd take her on the run?" Digger snorts. "Even I know that's fuckin' stupid." He points to the tattoo creeping up the side of Connor's neck into his hairline. "You're pretty fuckin' recognizable."
"In America, sure." He twists, failing to get a proper look at Digger as he talks. "Europe is a whole new world."
"A world with just as many questionable people as there are here." I shift around my sofa and sit, facing the kid with elbows resting on my knees. "Doesn't matter where you run, Connor. There's always someone willing to do what it takes for the right price."
He runs his teeth over his bottom lip, pensive. "Maybe you could talk to Marco?" Hope shines in his crazed eyes. "See if his family can help?"
“First off,” I say with a slight chuckle. “I ain’t doin’ shit if it means sending Rae anywhere with you. And second, Marco wouldn't call his family if it were his neck in the noose." Relations went south years ago. Honor is the only thing keeping him alive at this point. "Leave Rae here if you care about her. She's safe with us." I study him a moment before adding, "She's loved."
No way would I entertain his fucking delusion of taking her back, of stealing the woman who's got a chokehold on my heart. But shit, the kid hurts. It's evident in his downturned gaze, how he worries his bottom lip, the tension in his shoulders.
She’s the last fucking thing keeping him going, and I’m willing to bet she knows it.
"Leave her here." He scoffs at the notion, words a thinly veiled threat when he continues to speak. "Like keeping pretty things in cages, do you, Tyke?" He narrows his eyes, leaning forward in my brother's restraint to level our gazes. "Rae isn't the kind of woman who likes to be stuck indoors, Tyke. She wants freedom. To explore."
I nod to Digger, allowing him to loosen his grip on the kid. The conversation has been civil so far; his care for Rae appears genuine. I've got no other reason to believe he's a threat, and if he's more comfortable, he's more likely to listen to what the fuck I have to say. My brother slides his arms free, giving Connor full use of his.
He takes the gesture with civility I'd never see from his old man, nodding once to Digger and repositioning himself on the seat to sit a little taller.
A little prouder.
Respect. It gets you a fuckin' long way in this world.
"Rae will get her freedom to head when and where she pleases when the time's right," I assure him. “You don't need to worry about that." I've been dreaming, myself, of sticking her on a bike and taking her cross-country to the cabin, spending a night or three with only the stars and an open fire for company.
Would even let Digger tag along if it makes her happy.
“Pressure is on, though, kid." I clasp my hands together. Draw a fucking deep breath and circle the goddamn conversation back to where it matters. "The longer we fuck around talkin' about your broken heart, the likelier it is something happens to my daughter, and your bruised pride will be the least of your worries." Tongue tip pressed to my top teeth, I smile. "Tell me where my fuckin' daughter is, Connor, or you can fuck right off and keep hopin' a miracle brings Rae back to you while you're jackin' off to her memory in your bed at night."
He shakes his head. “You expect me to step back and do nothing while you fuck my woman?"
“For the last goddamn time, she ain't your woman," I growl through a stiff jaw, hands turning to fists. "I won’t say it again."
"She's Reaper property now," Digger gloats, arms folded high on his chest. “ Our property.”
I swallow the swell of pride that hearing him say those words creates. Yeah, she is ours. She's where she belongs—with a family that'll love and treat her right. Encourage her.
“She like hearing you call her that?” Connor taunts. “Last I checked, Rae ain’t the kind of woman who likes to be owned.”
Can’t say I’ve asked her direct, but "Yeah. She is." Pretty damn sure she would be considering the look in her eye when she got her patch.
"You offer a whole lotta advice about what Rae does and doesn’t like for a guy who couldn’t get it right.” Digger smirks. “You need to let it go, Connor." He shakes his head, settling on the arm of a sofa. “She’s doin’ well here, and that’s not somethin’ you need to take to heart.”
Connor’s nostrils flare, jaw twitching as he presses his teeth tight. "It's fuckin' shit."
"Yeah, it is," I agree. "You want to hear her say it's over between you for the millionth time? Would that get it through your skull? Because I'll fuckin' bring her in here so she can break your heart all over again if you like, but I'm not that fuckin' mean to do it for kicks."
The kid stares off to the side, jaw working the problem in silence.
I exchange a look with Digger, which suggests he should track her down anyway, and he nods, turning heel to do as asked.
Connor glances up as the door clicks behind my brother, sighing and dropping his head back on the sofa. "I can't believe I'm gonna say this but treat her right, yeah, Tyke?" He meets my eye before adding, "Like the fuckin' queen she is."
"Wouldn't dream of doing anything less." I rub my palms down my jean-clad thighs. "What will you do with yourself, Connor? What's your exit strategy from this mess?”
He rubs a hand over his face and sinks into the seat. "I don't know. I guess I'll help you find Maddie and then figure out what the fuck I want from my future. This shit with Rae? It got between the old man and me. He doesn’t trust me anymore; I fucking know it. But I'll be real with you, Tyke. I don't know if I'm better off staying close so that he doesn't suspect a thing or taking my chances and getting as far away as possible, hoping one day I get a call to say he’s dead."
"You won't miss him when he's gone?"
Connor snorts.
"I get he's an asshole, kid, but he's still your father." Fuckin' hated what mine did as well, but he was the man who took me in and raised me when he didn't have to. I could never lose the respect for that, no matter how bad Shotgun fucked up in his final years.
"Yeah." He works his jaw left to right and back. "He's my father, but he's never been my dad . You hear me?"
"I hear you." Same thing I'd say about Charlene. She was the kids’ mother, but she was never their momma. Not an ounce of care or love in those years, just a whole lot of resentment for duty. I scrub a hand over my face. Can't believe I'm about to say this. "You want me to table you stayin' here for a while?"
Connor's sharp gaze flicks to mine, his head still at an angle. "Pardon?"
"You need somewhere to lay low until you figure out where you’re headed?”
"Well, yeah, but fuck, Tyke. We hate each other." He chuckles. “You just told me I need to let Rae go and stay the fuck away from her.”
That I did, but "I don't hate you, kid." I rise and head for a fucking drink. "I hate where you've come from. I hate the things he had you do and that, because of what he did to you, you probably enjoyed doing them." I pull the crystal stopper with a sigh. "I hate what he made you."
"You never asked Kane to kill a man?" He raises an eyebrow.
"Nope." Fuck that. Asked your damn brother, though, you hypocrite. As though Digger means less. What the fuck? "Not my son's job. I got an enforcer for that shit."
"Minion," Connor states. He sighs. "I don't know, Tyke. I appreciate the offer, but I don't think it would do either of us any good."
He’s probably right—nothing but my big heart getting me in the shit again.
I smash back two fingers of whiskey and then stare at the photo in front of my face, the tumbler still clutched in my hand. It's a foundation photo of the men and women who assembled the club close to sixty years ago. Twenty-one like minds who started something they never dreamed could become this big. One mother chapter became two when the membership exceeded fifty, eventually becoming the nine-chapter monstrosity it is now, with almost two hundred paid members on the books.
And yet, the main principle those founding members agreed on still stands firm, even after all these years and all the shit the world's been through. We welcome all kinds. We don't discriminate.
Unlike our brethren clubs, we let our women ride. Female members can hold officer positions if the bill fits. All races and genders are welcome in our ranks. I don’t give a fuck about your pronouns, just if you do your goddamn job right.
We also never turn a person away because of their last name.
We do what we can, even if that means extending our reach outside the club walls.
"You want me to ask Marco anyway?” I pour another drink and then turn to face the kid. “See if he has a use for you?”
He frowns, his thumb rubbing back and forth across his bottom lip. "You'd do that?"
"Next best place I can think of for you to go," I shrug. “He may not be on good terms with his family, but he still sits under the protection they provide."
Connor nods, seeming to work the idea through his mind when the door opens with a soft knock.
"Hey." Rae steps in, Digger on her heels. His hand rests on her shoulder to encourage her forward. "You wanted to see me?"
I gesture for her to come in and then drain my cup. "Not me, babe. You two need to sort shit out for good, lay some ground rules goin' forward." I set the tumbler next to the half-empty bottle and then cross the room to where Rae hesitates, focusing on Connor, who sits with his head in his hands. "Be nice." I lean in and place a kiss on her temple. "We'll be just outside the door."
Digger frowns. "You sure this is a good idea?"
I grab him by the sleeve and drag him toward the door. "Nope, but it needs to happen." He reluctantly follows as I call out to Connor. "You've got five minutes. Make them count, and for fuck’s sake, don't try anything stupid. I don't feel like getting my hands bloody today."