Chapter 16
Dirty
I frown as I check my phone for the fifth time since leaving the meeting point with the Devil’s MC to find no message or missed call from Holly, and my gut tightens while my concern builds.
Something isn’t right, I can fucking feel it.
I’ve been gone three days, and we should be back tomorrow mid-morning, but radio silence for the whole of this morning is not right.
Especially when I’ve messaged five times since we met up with the Untamed, sending her pictures of Axel’s new hairdo thanks to his old lady who he pissed off yet again, the man of course not fucking learning.
Several times I’ve spoken to her since we’ve been gone because talking to her is like breathing for me, so why in the fuck has she gone radio silent now?
Normally I’d have several pictures of the kids…
“I’ll go pay, then we’ll roll out,” I hear Stone call, and I put my hand up without looking his way while finding Holly’s number on my phone.
We’ve just filled up on our way to meet up with the Huntsmen MC, where we’ll stay the night before heading home in the morning, and while the others are shooting the shit, I’m still sitting on my bike with worry.
I put the phone on loudspeaker just as it rings, while Ace comes and stands beside me with a frown.
“Brother?” he questions just as Holly’s automated voicemail hits, and my jaw tenses as I cancel the call.
“Something isn’t right, I can fucking feel it,” I admit and press on her number again, but this time she hangs up.
What the fuck?
“Did she just hang up on you?” he asks with shock, and Trigger asks, “Did who hang up on who?”
“Holly just hung up on him,” Ace informs him, but I don’t look up to see his reaction as my phone pings.
Darling:
I need some space for tonight, please understand x
“What the fuck?” I growl just as Stone walks over and asks, “What’s going on?”
“Holly just hung up on him,” Trigger informs him, and I add, “And she wants fucking space!”
“Wait, what? Why?” Ace asks with confusion, and I shake my head because I really don’t fucking understand why.
“We’ve been fine, no, fuck that, we’ve been amazing, and when we spoke this morning, fair enough, she was pissed at Matty, but she and I, we were good. Yet, she just said that I should understand, but understand fucking what?” I explain with complete confusion
“What did Matty do?” Stone asks, and I snort despite my confusion.
“Poured shitloads of chocolate sauce and whipped cream into the washing machine,” I say, and Stone chuckles, “What an idiot,” and I nod because yeah.
“Wouldn’t a simple wash clean it out?” my blood brother questions with a chuckle, and I shake my head and mention, “Filled it to the brim.”
“Oh shit,” Trigger laughs and I grin, because yeah, when I Facetimed my girl this morning, and she showed me what he did, I couldn’t hold in the laugh. I found it funny, well, until she mentioned doing it to me, and I instantly stopped and cursed Matty out just to make her happy.
I shake my head as I hover my thumb on her name.
She says she needs space and that I should understand, but I need more than that because I don’t fucking even know what I’ve done wrong to even understand.
I go to press on her name again, but my phone rings, and Dad's name pops up, and I frown.
“It’s Dad,” I mutter, and I answer, putting the phone on speaker just as Caleb’s sobs echo, and I sit up straighter while the brothers all tense, their laughter gone.
“Dad!” I demand, and he sighs, “Honey, take Caleb into the kitchen,” before he says, “Fuck, son…”
My whole body tenses as Caleb's sobs get quieter, and I demand, “What the fuck happened?”
Holly is ignoring my calls, her message and now this?
What the fuck has happened since this morning?
“Dad?” Ace questions when he doesn’t answer me quickly enough for both our likings, Caleb’s, “I want Holly,” just hitting the speakers, and I tense even tighter.
“Fucking hell, wasn’t he supposed to be with Holly?” Stone questions while Ace growls, “I swear to fuck, if she’s hurt that boy…” and I glare his way at his accusation, but he doesn’t back down.
Mama’s shit really fucked him up.
“Cheryl called the police on Holly,” Dad cuts in before Ace can make anymore accusations, which could destroy his friendship with my girl, and we all look at my phone in fucking shock.
“Explain, Ice,” Stone demands, taking over, while I just fucking freeze.
“She claimed Holly kidnapped Caleb and the fucking feds, Mads and Chairs, actually tried to arrest her. Hol used her head and called me just as Caleb screamed because Cheryl tried grabbing him, trespassing into Holly's home, who has decided to press charges,” Dad explains, and I swear to fuck, I’m three hours away, on a fucking run.
My whole fucking body trembles, and even my hand shakes with how much anger I feel right now.
Cheryl knew I’d be out of town, she planned this down to a fucking tee.
Dad sighs, “Holly called it as it was, Chairs was fucking Cheryl and basically did her a favor with the bullshit. I ensured I had Doc with me, but fuck son, as the bitch stormed out of Holly's house when she threatened bodily harm, she shoved into Lyra who was wrapped around her mama, hurting her.”
Mother fucker!
“Stone,” I growl.
“Go,” he says, and I nod as I state, “I’ll be home soon,” to my dad, who clears his throat and admits, “She’s shut down, son, she watched Caleb get dragged around, her daughter got hurt, and she shut down, telling Caleb she’ll see him at school, I could physically see her putting the wall up.”
My jaw ticks, and I hang up on my dad as I breathe heavily.
“Alex, I don’t think you should be riding alone right now,” Ace says lowly, but I shake my head at the idiot who needs to not fucking speak to me right now with his accusation, and turn on my bike, grab the laptop, and hand it to my VP.
“Everything is already done, all you’ve got to do is put the amount the Huntsmen gives you into the bottom right section and that will update on everyone’s servers including the Cartel,” I state and he nods as he takes the laptop and I start my bike, revving it before pulling away from the gas station, going the complete opposite way to where the brothers will be heading, ignoring my blood brother who is now on my shit list, but he’s going to have to wait.
I have a fucking girl to fight for.
***
I pull up outside of Holly’s soon-to-be old home four hours later, my body wound up tight, before looking at Caleb, who sniffles, wiping away his fallen tears.
As soon as I pulled up outside of Mama’s and Dad's place, Caleb ran out in tears with a big ass fucking bruise on his wrist where Cheryl had grabbed him and it took everything inside me not to fucking smash something.
The woman is dead, I fucking mean it, she is dead the next time I see her.
I’ve seen this song and dance plenty of fucking times when patch chasers realize they’re not going to get their own way, that the brother isn’t playing the fucking long game before they claim them.
They turn nasty and volatile before someone, mainly the fucking love of the brother’s life gets hurt and I won’t allow Cheryl to get away with this.
I won’t let her push Hol away from me or Caleb, I won’t let her take my chance at being Lyra’s daddy away.
“Come on, bud,” I say softly to my boy, who nods as he wipes away his tears, and I climb out of the truck that I picked up before grabbing Caleb, and I meet him by the hood and wrap my arm around his shoulders.
I haven’t called Hol or messaged her. I don’t want to give her the excuse to have this so-called space she asked for.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand why she needs it, I really do.
She was nearly arrested because of my ex for kidnapping which could have affected her job.
She saw our son go through some traumatic fucking shit, and most likely thought that him going with Dad was better all-around and then watched our daughter get hurt.
I understand, but it doesn’t mean I’m going to let her pull in on herself.
We’re building a life together, we’re falling madly in love, her daughter is mine, and my son is hers. I won’t let her push me away, not now and I won’t let Cheryl get in between us.
I walk Caleb over to the door before knocking loudly, and we don’t have to wait for long before the outside light comes on and Holly opens the door with caution, her eyes widening when she sees me, and I smile at her.
Caleb cries, “Holly,” gaining her attention instantly, and she gasps at his red eyes before opening the door fully and then her arms. Caleb runs into them and she holds him tightly as she kisses his head in a motherly way that makes my heart skip a beat and fall for her even deeper if that was possible before she looks at me.
“I’m not going to let you push me away,” I say softly as Caleb sniffles, squeezing Hol tightly, making my chest tighten.
He sees her as his mama, and I need her to see that, to see what happened today won’t ever happen again.
Chairs has already called my dad several times apologizing after his sergeant had a go at him and suspended him and explained what had really happened.
Apparently Cheryl blackmailed him with video footage of him allowing a man to fuck his ass while he sucked some other guy off and she sucked him off to get him to do her bidding.
Definitely not a visual I fucking wanted when Dad explained that to me, though him telling me Cheryl has been charged with assault on Lyra, forced entry and trespassing and wasting police time made me laugh.
Until he said she’s in police custody until her court date because she couldn’t meet her bond then I was pissed.
Can’t fucking kill her if she’s being held.
“I thought I was doing the right thing,” Hol whispers, and I shake my head as I step forward and cup her soft cheeks, our eyes connecting, hers shining with unshed tears.
“You are the right thing for him, darling, not that woman,” I whisper, and she nods as Caleb mumbles, “Can I go see Lyra?”
“Of course, sweetheart,” Holly whispers to him, and he squeezes her one more time before going around her and into the townhouse and I take a step forward and wrap my arm around her waist, pulling her into me and pressing my forehead against hers as she melts into me.
That’s fucking better.
“I thought you weren’t back until tomorrow?” she chokes as she grips my cut, something I shouldn’t have worn in a cage, but I wasn’t thinking straight. I just wanted to get to my girls.
“You come before the club, you and our kids,” I murmur, and she melts into me even further as she pushes up on her tiptoes and places her lips against mine, and I groan.
Fuck, three days without her lips is too fucking long.
I lift her slightly and walk us inside, kicking the door shut behind us just as our tongues touch and giggles echo, and I smile against Holly’s lips, who smiles back.
“I’m all for you needing space, darling,” I rasp as I caress her lips, “But I can’t let you get into your head, I can’t lose you.”
She grips the back of my neck, and I know it is taking everything for her not to pull my hair tie out.
My girl loves to run her fingers through my hair.
“I just needed to breathe through what had happened, that and I was told my great aunt passed, who I named Lyra after, right before I opened the door to the police, who didn’t even care that two kids were crying and were trying to arrest me.
” She whispers, and I nod as I squeeze her tighter and murmur, “I’m sorry you lost her, darling,” and she squeezes her eyes tight.
“You won’t lose me, Alex,” she whispers instead of speaking about her great aunt, which makes me swallow my sigh.
Family is always off limits, and I just don’t understand why. I don’t think we can be fully committed to each other until she opens up, until she shows me she trusts me.
“I won’t?” I ask instead of calling her out, vaguely remembering our kids are here.
“No, because I’m in love with you,” she admits, and I look at her instantly, my heart racing.
Okay never mind my other thought.
“You love me?” I confirm with a croak, and she nods as a few tears fall, and I kiss her hard and fast before replying, “I love you too, so fucking much,” before kissing her again while our kids laugh, watching us, and my body relaxes for the first time since getting that call from my dad.
This woman, she’s fucking amazing, always trying to put people before her, just like she tried with Caleb, thinking he was better off with my dad, but I’ll ensure she sees that she always comes first, her and our little family, fucking always.
I just need to get her to fight back when things get really fucking hard, and people get in the way, wanting what isn’t theirs to have, trying to break us apart.