Chapter 6
LEO
We will have you.
Cass’s words ran on repeat. Everything she’d said kept bouncing through my mind like a silver pinball through its machine. For hours I’d been driving around, and those words wouldn’t go away.
Damn if she wasn’t right. I’d said I was leaving, that she’d get nothing from me, but I hadn’t walked away. I was all talk with no follow-through. Cass hadn’t reached out to me in months, but the day she’d returned, I’d gone to her.
I was drawn to her, more than I was willing to admit.
“Fuck me.” I pounded a fist on the steering wheel as I drove toward home.
What I really wanted was to get on my bike and hit the road. To get some air and clear my head. Except it was cold and I preferred not to freeze my ears, nose and balls off.
My house, as always, was dark and empty when I pulled into the driveway. I’d walk through the door and behind it there’d be nothing but lonely rooms and too much silent space to avoid thinking.
Lately, on nights like this when I knew I wouldn’t be able to shut my brain off, I’d go to the basement and beat the shit out of a heavy bag until I was physically exhausted enough to sleep. But a brutal workout didn’t appeal tonight.
Why had I bought such a big place? A year ago, I’d bought this home when everyone else was getting married and growing up.
It was Emmett’s fault. While I was at The Betsy most nights, Emmett was becoming this businessman, with properties and investments all over town.
He’d built his own house in the mountain foothills, wanting land of his own.
He’d said something to me one day about putting his money to work for him and I’d got to thinking maybe I should be doing the same.
Making an investment instead of keeping a load of cash in the bank.
Everyone around me was bragging about their acreage and interest rates and equity value, so I’d decided it was time to spend some of the money I’d stashed away.
Years of being with the club had set me up for life.
That money hadn’t been made legally so it was locked in my safe to spend as cash around town—I didn’t need much to exist on.
What I earned from the garage had gone to the bank.
My realtor had shown me this place first. I’d liked it. I’d bought it.
The street was quiet and there was distance between me and the neighbors, part of the reason I hadn’t done much searching around town. I could go to the detached shop and crank up the music, work on my bike or whatever project I felt like, and no one complained about the noise.
But as I stared at the black windows, covered with blinds Scarlett had chosen for me a few months ago, I realized it was all a damn mistake. I should have stayed in my shitty duplex where at least the neighbor’s lights were usually on.
I’d lived at the duplex in town for over a decade, even back in the day when I’d spent most of my nights at the clubhouse. The duplex was cheap. The guy next door was quiet. I wasn’t home much, especially in the summers when the days were longer.
But it was a crash pad. That was where I’d taken women to fuck, never to my own home.
Except Cass.
She’d been the only one I’d brought here. She’d been . . . special. Extraordinary. Phenomenal in bed, letting me have my control and so damn responsive.
“Fuck me.” Now I was hard. I rubbed my hands over my face.
Go inside.
Walk away.
Move to Dallas and forget this goddamn place.
The truck sat idling in the driveway and I couldn’t bring myself to shut it off. Why had I gone to Cass’s house when I should be inside packing?
I opened my mouth, testing my jaw where her dad had punched me. It would be sore for a few days. He’d hit me square and solid. Good for him. Cass deserved a guy like that watching over her. Keeping the assholes like me at bay.
Maybe he’d do that for the baby too.
It’s a girl.
A girl.
My curiosity was making me insane. I shouldn’t care. But the image of a little girl with Cass’s red hair was stuck in my brain. Maybe she’d have my eyes, not that I’d find out.
Except I could.
All I had to do was stay.
My ribs felt too tight, squeezing so hard I couldn’t draw in a long breath. Cold as it was, I rolled down the window and gulped the freezing air.
Why wasn’t I gone already? My own father had walked away without a backward glance. It should have been easy for me to follow in those footsteps. Hell, it was in my DNA.
Go inside, Leo.
I shoved the truck in reverse.
Without thinking, I drove to the place where I used to find my answers.
The clubhouse.
The garage was dark except for exterior lights that cast yellow circles onto the frozen pavement. I passed it and rolled down the lot to the building swathed in shadow.
There used to be so much life here. Now the clubhouse looked like a skeleton. Most days, I didn’t let myself even glance this direction. It was too hard to see it abandoned and without a line of bikes parked out front.
The trees around the clubhouse had grown taller, their limbs bare and their leaves scattered at their snow-covered roots. More skeletons. How many times had I puked in those trees after too much to drink? How many women had I taken into the grove for a quick fuck?
Those had been the good times, right?
The windows were all boarded up from the inside. It was a task that Dash, Emmett and I had done after the Kings had disbanded. Screwing the sheets of plywood up had been like driving nails into my own coffin. But I’d done it, mouth closed, because that was what the brotherhood had decided.
The front doors were locked with a thick chain and padlock. I had a key. I could go inside.
But it would be even emptier than my house. The last time we’d gone in, the smell had bothered me the most. Instead of leather and tobacco, it had smelled like dust and putrid, stale air.
The scent of dead memories.
What do I do? Silence. Empty, crushing silence.
There were no answers here.
I hated that I knew exactly where I’d find them.
“Son of a bitch.” I flipped the truck around and aimed its tires toward the opposite end of town. Every cell in my body seemed to rattle the closer and closer I got to Cass’s place until my muscles were practically vibrating.
Her street wasn’t as dark as mine, a combination of porch lights and Christmas decorations still hanging from eaves.
They cast her neighborhood in a soft, yellow glow.
One of the nice features of an old-model truck like mine was that you could shut the lights off, where with the newer models everything ran on auto controls.
I flipped mine off and crept toward Cass’s driveway, parking against the sidewalk.
The clock on the dash showed it was just past midnight.
No doubt her dad would shoot me if he knew I was here at this hour.
So as quietly as possible, I shut off the truck and opened the door, pressing it closed with a muted click.
Then I crossed the lawn, the frozen grass crunching beneath my boots.
When I made it to the house, I inched along the side toward the farthest corner.
Then I pulled out my phone and texted the number I’d memorized months ago but never dialed.
I’m outside.
Once it was sent, I rapped my knuckles on her window.
The light flipped on a moment later, then the curtains rustled as she pulled them back. Despite her heavy eyelids, there was a scowl on Cass’s face. Her hair was pulled into a ponytail and she was wearing a pair of pale gray pajamas, the sleeves so long they draped to her fingertips.
From my angle below her, all I could see was belly. That was my kid in there. It’s a girl.
Why was I here?
Cass unlocked the window and slid it open. “It’s midnight.”
“Sorry.”
Cass sighed. “What do you want, Leo?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. I really, truly didn’t know why I couldn’t leave her alone.
“Front door.” She pointed that direction. “Please be quiet.”
I nodded as she relatched the window, then made my way to the front. She had the door open by the time I made it to the stoop. I took off my boots, leaving them outside. They’d be cold but no way I was risking waking her parents.
We walked silently, slowly, down the hallway to her bedroom. When I stepped inside, she closed the door behind me and went to the edge of the bed.
I went to her desk, taking the chair and leaning forward on my elbows.
“How’s your face?” she asked.
“Hurts.”
“Good.”
“You probably don’t even realize how lucky you are to have a dad who’d do that for you.”
“Yes, I do. I know exactly how lucky I am.”
I met those caramel eyes and drowned. Would she hold out a hand to haul me to the surface? “I feel lost.”
What had she done to earn my confessions? But here I was, throwing them at her like candy at a parade.
Cass shifted on the bed, tucking her feet beneath the fluffy comforter. Then she took a pillow, cuddling it to her chest as she lay down. But her eyes never wavered from mine. She was just getting comfortable to listen.
“The club . . . that was my center for a long time. We broke it apart and I hated every second. That’s not something I’ve ever told anyone. I voted for it because it was best for my brothers. But I didn’t want it.”
“What was it like? The club?”
“A family. A bond. We worked together. We fought together.” We’d killed together.
“What were you fighting? The Warriors?”
I nodded. “Sometimes. Not always.”
The club had been involved in a number of illegal activities.
The most lucrative and dangerous had been providing protection for drug runners.
We’d handled some private security for a few local businesses, basically acting as local thugs.
And there’d been the underground fighting ring, which was now nothing more than a boxing club at one of the local gyms. Much too tame for my taste.
“Why were you fighting?”
“Simple answer? Our livelihood and way of life. Money. Power.”
Her forehead furrowed and curiosity filled her expression.