Chapter 2 LEO #2
“We’re on your side, Leo,” Dash said.
“Are you?”
“You know we are.” He frowned and took a drink of his beer. “Just worried.”
“Don’t be. I’m good.”
He opened his mouth, like he was going to say something else, but Emmett spoke first. “About Cass.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” I raised the bottle to my lips.
“You two had a hell of a blowout last night.”
“Yeah,” I grumbled. I’d lost my fucking mind and forgotten that everyone had been listening from Luke and Scarlett’s deck.
“How’d you leave things?” Dash asked.
Not well. “Ran into her at the coffee shop this morning. Told her I wanted a paternity test.”
Dash and Emmett both cringed.
“Put yourself in my shoes. You’d want one too. Why is everyone so sure she’s telling the truth?”
“Maybe because she is,” Emmett muttered.
I flipped him off.
“You need to talk to her, Leo,” Dash said. “After the kidnapping, she went back to Missoula. I figured she’d stay there. Luke said she’s going to school. But it sounds like she’s moving home.”
Because she was pregnant. That word was the reason I was hungover. “I’ll figure it out.”
“She’s tied to you now,” Emmett said. “Which makes her tied to the club.”
“There is no club.”
Dash’s glare was like a flamethrower. “We’re still brothers.”
“What’s your point?” I pinched the bridge of my nose. This headache was going nowhere.
“You need to keep an eye out for her. Like we talked about yesterday, before she showed at the barbeque, the Warriors might still be a threat. We have no idea if and how they’ll retaliate.”
Christ. This just got more and more complicated.
After Scarlett and Cass had been kidnapped, the FBI had raided the Warrior clubhouse in Ashton. Between the kidnapping and a video that Scarlett had captured on her phone when she’d spent some time at the Warrior clubhouse with an ex, the feds had gathered enough to obtain a warrant.
The Warriors were finished. Most faced prison sentences, even a few members who’d once been Kings. Traitors. Some of the minor players had been released on bond, but none of them had the balls to call the shots.
It was unlikely that we’d ever hear from them again.
But . . . there was a chance. And we had family members on the line. We wouldn’t drop our guard and risk a wife getting hurt. Or a child.
I had a new stake in this game, didn’t I?
My head began to swim, and I set my beer aside as the world tipped upside down. The air was too thin and my pulse roared in my ears.
“Leo.”
Emmett’s voice was wrong. Muted. Distant.
“Breathe.” A strong hand landed on my shoulder, forcing me to bend. “Head between your knees. Breathe.”
I closed my eyes and dragged in a breath. Then another. Then another. Over and over until the floor righted itself and the white spots cleared from my vision.
When I looked up, Dash’s hand was still on my shoulder and the understanding in his eyes made me feel like a fucking tool.
“I can’t have a kid,” I whispered, then dropped to my ass, leaning against the drawers of the tool chest and raking my hands through my hair.
Dash crouched in front of me. “You can. You are.”
“I’m not made for this.”
“I get it. I went through the same damn thing when Bryce got pregnant.”
“What do I do?”
“Talk to Cass. She’s probably as freaked as you are, if yesterday’s fight was anything to go by.”
I nodded and gulped more air.
Then Emmett was there, at my side and handing me my beer. “Let’s work on something for a while. Hit the booth or tinker on a bike. Enjoy a Sunday at the shop, just the three of us. Like old times.”
“There’s that ’73 Firebird in the back lot,” Dash said. “It’s just sitting there. We could roll it in and see what she’s gonna take.”
Dash had bought the car at an auction in Great Falls. He’d met a collector who’d fallen on hard times and been forced by his bank to liquidate some of his holdings. He’d kept his restored cars, but the partial projects and junkers had been hocked. Dash had scored the Firebird for a steal.
“I’m game,” I said. “That’s a sweet car.”
Or it would be.
First, it would need an overhaul. The old, rusted body parts would need to be cut away and replacements refabricated. It probably needed a new engine and a whole list of other upgrades, but when it was done, I saw it in a fiery red-orange.
The color of Cass’s hair.
Firecracker.
What the actual hell had I been thinking? Going bare?
“I’m a fucking idiot. With Cass. And I should have put it together that she’d been taken with Scarlett, but I didn’t.
” That night at The Betsy, had she even told me her name?
In my head, she’d been Firecracker. And after the kidnapping, she’d gone immediately from Ashton to Missoula, so I hadn’t seen her.
Smart woman. She’d gotten the fuck out of Dodge.
“At least you remembered her face,” Emmett said. “Pretty sure I hooked up with her friend and I can’t remember her name or her face.”
Dash just shook his head and chuckled. “Let’s never tell my wife that we’re having this conversation. She’d castrate me in my sleep.”
“Come on.” Emmett held out a hand to help me to my feet. Then I followed him and Dash to the back field, where we kept old parts and old cars.
It took us an hour to make space for the Firebird in the shop and get it hauled inside.
We did a cursory assessment of the remodel, taking in the wear and tear on the shell and interior.
The engine block was cracked and would be trashed.
Dash made a list of the repairs while I sketched out the design.
“This is going to be a badass ride.” Emmett took my drawing and held it up.
“Hell yeah.” It would be the car I’d want one day. For the times when I couldn’t ride my bike but wanted to drive in style.
Emmett took his empty beer bottle to the garbage can, tossing it inside. “All right, I’m outta here. I promised Mom I’d swing by and say hi. Hopefully I can beg lunch off her.”
“I’d better get home too.” Dash took his bottle and mine to toss out. “We’re going to take the boys to buy fireworks for the Fourth.”
We were supposed to have a big get-together at their place. Burgers. Beers. Fireworks after dark. A party I’d normally look forward to. As it was, I didn’t feel like being around all the wives and kids.
Maybe I’d skip out this year and head to The Betsy instead.
“I’ll lock up,” I told the guys, shaking their hands and waiting until the rumble of their bikes disappeared down the road.
Then I took another look at the Firebird.
I’d sketched it in black and white, but I couldn’t get that bright, flaming color out of my head.
“Fuck.” I ran a hand over my jaw. My headache was gone, and I was hungry for the first time all day. But I didn’t want to go home. Not only because the fridge was empty, but because I’d be empty there too.
So I locked up the garage, climbed on my bike and went to the place where I didn’t have to think. Where I didn’t have to be anything but fun.
The parking lot at The Betsy was empty. I didn’t dare drive around back because I knew exactly what I’d see. A shining black car with a pair of skintight jeans and lace panties beside a tire. Locks of red hair spread over a glossy hood. And a pair of caramel eyes that had been my undoing.
It was twenty minutes before they officially opened at one, but it wouldn’t be the first time I’d come early, pounded on the door and someone had let me in.
Why did that suddenly feel so pathetic?
Before I realized where I was going, I put The Betsy behind me and drove across town toward Cass’s house. I parked in front of Luke and Scarlett’s place, then crossed the street for her door with my heart in my throat.
Now that last night’s drunken, angry haze had cleared, I knew this feeling. I fucking hated this feeling.
Fear.
Dash and Emmett had been right to warn me. To push me to talk to Cass.
Swallowing hard, I pressed the doorbell and when Cass opened it too soon, I still wasn’t ready to face her. Maybe I’d never be ready.
Her caramel gaze flared. Her face was pale, too pale, but there was a spark there—fury. Her cheekbones seemed too sharp in her face, but she was beautiful, especially with that auburn hair that shone copper under the sun.
Beautiful? How did I get that thought out of my head? Because I needed it gone to do what I was here to do.
“Peephole.” I pointed to the door.
“Huh?”
“You were kidnapped a month ago. Have a shred of self-preservation and check the goddamn peephole before you open the door.”
Her lip curled. “How do you know I didn’t?”
“Because you opened the door with a smile on your face.” That smile wouldn’t have been for me.
“My parents went for a walk. I locked the door behind them. I thought they were back.”
Whatever the reason, she needed to be more careful. This world was a dangerous place. The biggest hazard? Me. The man currently standing on her front porch.
“What are you doing here, Leo?” She crossed her arms over her chest.
Cass was too good for a man like me. For the brand of trouble I’d bring to her life.
What was I doing here? I was here to scare her off. To chase her the fuck out of Clifton Forge for good.
“Can we talk?”