Empower (Pinewood Lake #2)

Prologue

Storm

Why I put up with this shit, I couldn’t fucking tell you.

That was my only thought as the clock ticked over to eleven twenty-six.

And she wasn’t home yet.

With my luck, she wouldn’t even bother coming home and I wouldn’t have to deal with her ass.

But I didn’t get that lucky.

The only luck I’ve ever had was meeting my brothers, starting my club, and having my daughter.

But that’s for later if she comes in here with shopping bags that have certain logos, then she’s going to be getting sent out the door with all her shit.

Because I was tired of it.

So, fucking tired of it.

But this was the last and final straw, and this was also the third one she hadn’t remembered.

Who the fuck doesn’t remember their own child’s birthday?

Shaking my head, it was just in time for me to hear a door shut.

And then I waited there on the couch, I had parked my bike around back, wanting to have visual proof of this shit.

And I also had a camera at the ready, in case she tried to pull some shit later in life.

The front door opened, and she was talking, “I know. I’m sorry. I found this adorable bag, and then I had to find shoes to match it, and then I had to find the right outfit. And then jewelry. But don’t worry. Let me get ready and then I’ll be there. Tell Rich I bought a special lingerie set he can tear off me later if he’s a good boy.”

I shook my head.

And didn’t even want to bother to listen to more of her shit, that was all the proof I needed that she hadn’t been faithful to me, which was why I never went ungloved in her.

And that she had plans already made on a special day when she should have already had plans made for Raine.

“Where have you been?” I asked her.

She jumped, then said, “I’ll call you when I’m on my way. Bye.”

She lowered her phone, and then sweetly, she set her bags down, acting like I hadn’t heard her.

“I was shopping. I got a few things for you to see later,” she winked.

I grabbed my beer, took a pull, then looked at her, “Funny, ‘cause in all the times we have been together, I ain’t never seen another man in my bed. Want to tell me who you plan to bring Rich into that?”

The fake sweet shit she was sporting went away, she planted her hands on her hips and snapped, “Maybe if you would get off your fucking high horse, I wouldn’t feel the need to get it from other people.”

I chuckled darkly, “That’s not being on my high horse. That’s because you’re a fucking whore.”

She gasped, “How dare you call me a whore?”

“How many men have you been with in the past year? Fuck, how many men have you been with in the past week?”

She didn’t utter a sound, and that was when I shook my head, “You want to know why I won’t make you my ol’ lady? Because you're unfaithful. Hell, if Raine hadn’t looked just like me when she was born, I would have done a paternity test.”

“I can’t believe you would say that to me. Everything I’ve given you?”

I didn’t even bother to explain that shit. It would take at least a year for me to lay all the shit she hadn’t given me, and I didn’t have that kind of time. I had somewhere to be.

And unlike her, I wouldn’t miss it, nor would I be fucking late for it.

“What’s today’s date?” I asked her.

“It’s the fourteenth. See, I’m not some dumb blonde.”

“And?” I asked.

I waited a beat for her to go on. But the dumb bitch didn’t take the hand I had given her to help her out of the hole she had been digging herself in for years.

“Right. You don’t even remember. Fuck this shit. I’m fucking done. You have an hour to pack all your shit and get the fuck out of my house, Raine’s, and gone from my life.”

Her face paled for a split second then she got this nasty look on her face, and I knew what was coming, which she proved with her next words, “If you do this Storm, I’m going to tell the world all about your club,” she taunted, thinking she had the upper hand.

I threw my head back and laughed.

Once I got it under control, I asked, “Yeah, and what are you going to tell them? That we’re a bunch of motorcycle enthusiasts?”

“Noone brings in the kind of money y’all do without some shady shit.” She snapped.

I rubbed my beard-covered chin, “Well if you go that route, everything you’ve ever bought with my money could be confiscated as evidence.”

I didn’t let her say anything to that and continued, “And seeing as you had nothing when you met me, everything you supposedly own is technically mine. Hmm, I wonder, since I never put your name on my accounts, but gave you a card to use for necessities, if I could file charges on you. I gotta look that one up.”

“You wouldn’t do that to me. I’m the mother of your child.” The bitch said with a smirk.

“That’s funny, ever since you walked in the door, not once have you cared to ask about your so-called child.”

“How could I? You jumped down my throat the minute I walked in the door.”

“Asking where you’ve been since I thought on this particular date, a parent should be with their child is me jumping down your throat?”

She didn’t say anything just lifted a brow, and that caused me to shake my head, wondering what in the fucking hell I saw in her all those years ago.

“You haven’t even asked where Raine is,” I said with a sorrowful tone for my daughter.

“She’s with Bridget. Like she always is. And where she’ll be for the remainder of the day since something in your club always comes first.”

“Nothing comes before my daughter. And you, nor anyone else can say otherwise.” I knew what she meant by that shit. She just didn’t have the balls to say it.

That Raine and the club came before her, just like they always would, because she hasn’t done anything to deserve being put in that place.

“Pretty fucking bad she thought Bridget was her mother. And no one can fucking blame her. If you’re not on your back, your knees for other men, then you’re out with your so-called friends spending money left and fucking right.”

“Well, what else do I have, Storm? I can’t work. I can’t deal with the looks from the town’s folk knowing that I’m the woman to a biker.”

“Funny, you don’t mind that tie when you need something.”

I shook my head with this shit, I was done, which was why I pulled my phone from my pocket, and called my VP, all the while ignoring the bitch who was yapping about shit that should be hers and shouldn’t have thrown in her face.

The moment Red answered, I said, “Bring a couple of the brothers to my place, with trash bags.”

He was silent for a beat, then asked, “Is the cum dumpster heading out?”

“Fucking right.”

“Hallelujah,” Red shouted.

That was when I heard a few of the brothers asking what was up.

“Pres is finally kicking that piece of shit out of his bed and his house.”

Whoops and hollers could be heard.

And within two hours, all that bitch’s shit was out of my house.

See, I can be an asshole. But I’m only an asshole when I’m pushed past the point of no return. That was why when Bridget dropped Raine off right as we were getting the last of her mother’s things out of the house, I walked over to her and knelt.

I took in her features that were so much like my own, “Hey sweetheart, did you have a good time with Bridget?

She smiled, wide, her two dimples popping out, “Yes, she got me some cute stuff and we had ice cream.”

“I’m glad you had a good time,” I told her.

She nodded, “Where’s she going?”

“She’s leaving, baby. Now, I gotta ask, do you want to go with her?”

Raine glared, “That’s not even funny, Daddy.”

I nodded, “Okay then. Head into the house, put your things in your room and then we gotta go.”

Raine giggled and then raced into the house, her words not going to her mother, not even her eyes.

And wasn’t that the kicker that anyone needed to see?

Bridget looked at Sara and then looked at me and winked.

I watched as Sara put all her stuff in the back of the SUV she just had to have and thought about calling the cops and reporting it stolen.

And if it was at another man’s house, I was going to do it.

Let her be his problem.

Which was why I sent a text to a prospect.

Once the bitch was gone, I put Raine on the back of my bike, and with my brothers, we headed to the park where the club had already set everything up.

I was the only thing Raine wanted for her tenth birthday this year.

And then, hours later I was laughing my ass off at men in leather kuttes, jeans, and boots, playing soccer with my girl.

And then again, a few hours later, after I’d had a prospect trail her, I did call the cops and reported the SUV stolen.

I was back in my driveway the very next morning.

Seven Years Later

I sat in my chair at the clubhouse and snickered at the image on my phone.

Over the past seven years, Sara realized a few things.

But unfortunately for her and fortunate for me, it was all too late.

She tried to come after the club.

She was charged with filing false police reports.

She tried to extort money for Raine.

The club’s lawyer had the video from that day I kicked her ass out, and he had another video of Sara snorting cocaine off some guy’s dick that a woman had given to me. Sara had fucked her fiancé. And he had another video another woman had given me of her flirting with a teenage boy.

Sara had signed her rights over in a courtroom.

But the picture I was snickering at, was her mugshot.

Six months ago, she was so in love with the man she was fucking that she had been in a world of bliss.

Which was her defense on why she had left white powder on her coffee table.

And the man’s four-year-old daughter had seen it and scooped it up and put it in her mouth.

I felt sorry for the man and the child.

The child who luckily survived. Had she swallowed more of the cocaine she wouldn’t be here today.

Since the man wasn’t a dumbass, he had cameras all over his house.

She got eight years without the possibility of parole.

I had shown it to Raine right after the news had covered the story and she laughed.

But we had sent flowers to the little girl and a stuffed teddy bear.

Just as I put my phone back in my pocket, the club phone rang. And it never did unless something bad had happened.

Mitzie, one of the club girls answered.

I could see her lips moving but since I wasn’t near, I couldn’t hear what she was saying.

And when I saw her back tense up, I stood up and started my way over there.

Once I made it to the bar, I asked, “Who is that?”

She shrugged her shoulders, “Some girl. She’s looking for Red.”

I was protective of Red. He was my oldest friend and had taken a knife slash for me after I had taken a bullet from him.

Red had a heart of fucking gold, and I would be damned if I let anyone take advantage of him.

I nodded, then held out my hand for the phone, then growled, “You’re looking for Red. Why?”

And color me fucking surprised when after a few moments of silence a woman’s voice snapped, “Look, my mom handed me this number on her deathbed seven years ago. I won't be telling you anything about it. I will tell Red, though. So, please. I need to talk to Red.”

It took me a minute to get the sensations I was feeling after hearing this girl’s voice. Holy fuck.

I’ve always had a thing for women who had a rasp in their tone. And this one had it in spades.

She was looking for Red, you dumb fuck. Get the thoughts about her voice out of your head.

I sighed then, and muttered, “Fuck.”

I whistled for Red, who came over, and once I relayed what the girl had said, he took the phone.

I stood there at his side listening to the one-sided conversation.

His face paled a few times, but then I watched as red crept over his features. He was getting pissed.

And I mean fucking pissed.

I debated about taking the phone from him and handling it, however, he said, “We’ll be there in four and a half hours,” " I rallied the brothers.

We were on the road in ten minutes.

And there was no way I could have known that my entire world was going to change with that single phone call to Red.