1. Maizie
Chapter one
Maizie
Five Years Later
“ W ait, you need to sing ‘The Alphabet Song,’” I remind my son, Colby, as he’s washing his hands.
The little stinker always tries to lather up and then rinse right away after going to the bathroom, especially when we’re at the park.
I can’t really blame him. There’s a bright sun in the sky, and he’s having a great time.
But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to make sure his hands are clean before I let him run back outside.
“I know, Mom,” he says, like the very idea is equal parts annoying and exhausting.
“I know you know, son. But sometimes you like to tell me you forgot.” My mouth tips up in a smile. You could fill a lake with all the things he “forgets” when he doesn’t want to do them to begin with.
“Can we see if Pepper can come play?” he asks, begging me with his wide brown eyes.
Pepper is my friend Wyatt’s puppy—the one Colby fell in love with.
Hell, he even named the fur ball. I wish I’d thought to call Wyatt and ask if we could take him to the park with us.
Those two tire each other out better than anything I could come up with.
Pepper and Colby—not Wyatt and Colby, though sometimes I think Wyatt is as much of a kid as Colby, and he’s been known to stop by the park a time or two and run around with my son.
And I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t mind seeing Wyatt.
Since moving back to Shine and getting a job at Thorn and Thistle—the bar owned by the club—he and I have had an easy friendship.
Naturally, I found him attractive the moment I met him.
I doubt any woman with a pulse could deny his boyish charm wrapped in a sexy-as-hell body, but he's a brother, and I have a strict no-biker rule.
That doesn’t mean I don’t occasionally let myself fantasize about wrapping my thighs around his tight shoulders and letting him do all the things I imagine a man like him would be very good at.
But that’s where those thoughts have to stay—in my imagination.
“Not today, buddy. We’re not going to be here much longer.”
It’s my day off from the bar, and I have a mountain of laundry on the couch that needs folding, plus a week’s worth of dust and dirt that needs to be cleaned up around the house.
Granted, we don’t live in a pigsty, but if I’ve learned anything about keeping a house clean with a five-year-old boy, it’s that if you don’t stay on top of it, it turns into a disaster zone in no time.
Colby pouts, but I ruffle his sandy-blond hair and then tickle him behind his ear. His frown turns into a laughing smile.
“Next time we come to the park, I promise I’ll ask Wyatt if we can bring Pepper,” I tell him.
“When?”
“In a couple days.”
“ What day?” he asks, obviously annoyed with my lack of having a firm day.
“How about Tuesday after school?” I don’t go in to work until five, so that gives us a couple hours at the park.
Colby tilts his head and squints his eyes as though he’s considering the plan.
I chuckle. “I’m sorry, do you have a better offer that I don’t know about?”
“I’m counting the days,” he says. “Two days and I get to play with Pepper.”
“Yes, son. Two days.”
“Yes!” he exclaims, throwing his hands in the air as he runs out of the bathroom.
I laugh and follow him out. A man is talking with my friend Mia at the park bench where we’d been sitting, enjoying the afternoon sun and some iced coffees.
When he turns and faces me, my breath catches.
Nolan Dawson.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Colby runs over to the bench, grabs his water that’s sitting next to Mia, and guzzles it down.
My first instinct is to grab Colby and get the hell out of here, but I’d look like a lunatic in front of my friend—and that would open up a can of worms I’m nowhere near prepared to take on. I hurry over, fear working its way through my entire body.
“Nolan, you remember Maizie, right?” Mia says.
Nolan doesn’t answer right away—his gaze zeroed in on my son.
“Colby, go play a bit more before we have to go,” I say, wanting my kid as far away from the man standing in front of him as possible.
“Yeah, uh, hey, Maizie. Long time.”
“Hello,” I reply coldly.
“I think you were about to tell me what you were doing here, Nolan,” Mia says. Her tone is a bit gentler than mine, but not by much. No surprise there. From what she’s told me, he really fucked her over when he was living in Phoenix.
“Business,” he says, pinning me with his stare.
Heard that one before .
“Does our grandmother know you’re here?” Mia asks.
Nolan finally shifts his eyes in her direction. “I was going to stop by and say hi. But I saw your car, so I thought I’d stop.”
“How long are you in town for?” Mia asks.
Nolan shrugs. “Not sure. You want a departure date or something, little sis?” That air of overconfidence I found so attractive all those years ago makes me want to punch him in the throat now.
“Yes, actually, I do. After the shit you pulled in Phoenix, I don’t expect Grandma is looking forward to a visit from you.”
Don’t mention the club, Mia.
I don’t know what Knox—her boyfriend and the club’s VP— has told her about the Bone Breakers, but they aren’t exactly on friendly terms with the Black Roses.
Not after a few of their guys went missing almost two years ago, before she came back to Shine.
As far as I know, the Bone Breakers never found answers as to where their missing members disappeared to.
Hell, even I don’t know the details. But I do know we were told to keep our eyes peeled for the patch Nolan is wearing on his cut and report back to the club prez—my boss—Ozzy if we saw anyone wearing it around town.
I stay out of club business, but when that directive was given, I’ll be the first to admit…
it scared me. Especially considering what happened about nine months after the last time I saw Nolan Dawson.
“Jesus Christ, Mia. I was close and wanted to see my old stomping grounds and say hello to my family. I don’t need a fucking lecture from you,” he says. “That was years ago. Can’t you just move on already?”
Mia shakes her head. “If you would have apologized or taken any accountability after the shit you pulled in Phoenix, then maybe I would have been able to let it go. But instead, you show up here in a fucking Bone Breakers cut, acting like you own the goddamn town. Newsflash—you don’t.”
Nolan laughs, but there’s no humor in his tone. “What do you know about cuts, Mia?”
Don’t do it.
“My boyfriend wears one. Only his says Black Roses . You remember Knox Turner, don’t you?”
Goddamnit .
Nolan’s mouth turns up in a sharp smile. “He’s the VP, right?”
“Yup. And I know for a fact he wouldn’t appreciate you lurking around town or visiting with our grandmother, though I doubt she’d even open the door for you.”
Nolan’s smile stays in place as he turns to me. “What about you, Maizie? Would you open the door for me?”
Before I can answer, Mia cuts in. “She absolutely would not, Nolan. Get the fuck out of here.”
The man doesn’t pay his sister any mind as he holds me with his knowing stare.
He knows I opened the door for him years ago—or rather, my legs—and not a day goes by that I’m not reminded of that fact.
I’ll never regret having my son, but I’ll regret who his father is until my last breath, and the fact that he laid eyes on Colby after all these years.
I’m not a fucking idiot. Nolan took one look at Colby and I saw the wheels turning behind those shrewd eyes.
They have the same light-brown hair and dimple on their cheek when they smile.
It’s not as though Nolan didn’t know I was pregnant.
He just never bothered to find out what I did about the pregnancy after I told him.
I’ve spent years without anyone knowing my secret.
And he’s a big enough asshole to spill it right here and now in front of one of my best friends, whose old man is not only the Black Roses VP but also one of my bosses.
And I’m so fucking terrified that all I can do is stand here and stare at him, praying he has a shred of human decency.
Nolan finally looks toward the street and steps back from us. “Pleasure as always, little sister. Make sure to tell your old man I said hello,” he says, then turns and walks away.
Mia and I don’t take our eyes off of him until he gets on his bike that’s parked about a block away and rides off.
“I am so sorry. He’s a pig,” Mia says, turning to face me.
My brows draw together as I meet her apologetic gaze. “What do you mean?”
“The way he was flirting with you.” She releases an exaggerated shudder. “Like you’d ever be interested in my loser brother.”
I shoot her a weak smile. “It’s okay. Guys like that are all talk anyways.” I would know. “He was probably trying to piss you off more than anything.”
“He certainly loves to do that,” she says.
“Do you want to come over for dinner tonight? I’m sure my grandmother would love to see you and Colby.
And I need to fill her in about her grandson being here.
Knox is going to be fucking pissed.” She blows out a breath and swipes a hand over her face.
“My brother is in an MC that my boyfriend’s club hates. Jesus fucking Christ.”
I sit down, but keep my ears open for the sound of a motorcycle engine. “I know the clubs aren’t exactly friends, but do you know why?” Even though I stay out of club business, it looks like their business has landed in my lap.
Mia shrugs and blows out a long breath. “Not really. I think it had something to do with Lucy and that cult she was raised in. Lucy said they used to buy meth from the leaders, and that’s how she knew who they were.
But she’s honestly been pretty tight-lipped about them.
I remember they were at a club party a couple years ago, and afterward, some other members came looking for the guys who went missing.
But that was the last time I saw or heard anything about them. ”