Chapter Seven
Hammer watched Camila as she stood in front of Bulldog and answered the president’s questions. She stood straight and kept her gaze lowered but he could see the fine tremble to her hands, the way she clenched her fingers until the knuckles turned white.
She was terrified but doing her best not to let it show.
“Are you lying to me?” Bulldog snarled. Hammer wanted to stop this.
He wanted to tell Bulldog not to talk to her like that, but he knew better.
This was a test. Hammer had seen it before.
Not that Bulldog wasn’t an ass. He was an ass and more, but he wasn’t deliberately mean, especially to women, not unless he thought it was important.
Though, his instincts had him wanting to shelter the tiny woman. He knew he needed to let this play out.
They were in the common room, so he knew Bulldog would be careful how far he took things, but Hammer had to remind himself to keep his mouth shut.
“No, sir. I know nothing about what my father does. He doesn’t believe it’s a woman’s place to do business, not unless she is the business. Those were his words. He said the only reason I needed to know what was going on was if he asked me to find out something for him.”
“Does he do that often?” Bulldog leaned back in his chair and lifted one brow.
“N-No sir.”
Hammer watched as she pulled her hands behind her back and knotted her fingers together.
“How often?”
“Only once.” Her head dropped until her chin rested against her chest. “Papá said I learned nothing worthwhile. I only remembered use—,” she frowned then turned slightly toward Hammer and spoke again without actually looking at him, “fruslerías femeninas inútiles?”
“Useless female shit,” Hammer translated. It wasn’t an exact translation, but it captured the spirit, and it was mostly accurate.
“What do you mean? What did you tell him that he said was useless?”
“I don’t remember the details, the names and things, but I told him everything that I’d been told.
Everything I’d heard discussed around me, but it was all who was marrying who, who was engaged to whom.
” She shrugged. “I do not know if what I had to tell him was actually useless or if he needed another way to tear me down. He used every opportunity to tell me how I am a disappointment and how he wished I had been born male.”
“From what I know of your father, that does not surprise me.” Bulldog steepled his fingers on his belly. “Tell me, if you could go anywhere, do anything, what would you do?”
“I would stay in the US. I’d like to find a job,” Camila said, her gaze still lowered, though she no longer pressed her chin into her chest. “I would need to find a place to live to have a normal life,” she let out a mirthless laugh.
“As if I have any idea what normal looks like, but I would love to find out.”
“You wouldn’t go back to your father? Is there anyone left there you care about?”
“No, I wouldn’t go back to Papá. I’ve been wishing to get away for years, but he held Maria over my head.
With me being gone and Papá not coming back for a week or more, if I can get a message back to Maria, then she can leave.
She can be far enough away that it won’t matter by the time he figures out we’re both gone. ”
“Do you know her number? Is there a way you can get her a message that she will know it’s you?”
“I can call the house. Whether she knows I’m gone or not, she’ll be there and will answer the phone. If I can speak to her, I can convince her to get out of there. To leave and never go back.”
“You have a burner she can use?” Bulldog’s gaze flicked to Hammer where he did his best to look like he wasn’t about to rip his president’s head off for the way he’d been talking to the poor girl.
“I do. I can let her use it when you’re done here.”
“Sir?” Camila’s soft question drew their attention back to her. “Can I ask what’s going to happen to me?”
Bulldog watched her without expression for more than a minute.
Hammer had seen him do it before. It was a test to see if she would break—if she did, then she may not be a good fit around here.
But if she could stand up to that scrutiny to her face, then she might actually fit in with this rowdy group of misfits.
It wouldn’t be easy for her, but something told him she had the grit, it just needed to be something she wanted.
And the more Hammer watched the tiny woman, the more he learned about her life.
What she’d been through and survived, the more he ached to step between her and any threat.
Where the urge came from, Hammer had no idea.
“You can stay here. At least until we have a better plan or if you betray the Sons. Though you won’t have to worry about what you’re going to do next if you betray me or any of my men.
” Bulldog’s glare had cowed many men all bigger and more cocksure than the woman standing between him and his president.
While she stood with her shoulders rounded and her head down, her spine was stiff and straight.
He got the feeling the demure, submissive pose was just that, a pose.
Something she’d learned was required. How she learned to act with her father.
“And what do I have to do?” she asked, glancing up at the president then away again.
Hammer followed her gaze and when he spotted Velvet astride Goliath’s lap, riding him like a wild bronc, her naked tits bouncing in the lights flashing on the Christmas tree a few feet away, he knew what Camila was thinking, and he didn’t like it.
“No.” Hammer said, speaking up other than just answering questions for the first time since they’d come downstairs to find Bulldog waiting on them.
Bulldog had pulled out seats for them both, but when Bulldog had turned his attention to Camila, she’d stood and had been standing since.
He wondered if her father had made her stand like this for questions and lessons, and even from what little she’d said, he suspected she’d suffered through more than a few lessons this way.
“We don’t force women to whore for us. Yes, we have women who are club ass, who fuck any and all of our men on demand.
But they’re here by choice. Those women are here, doing what they do, because they want to be.
So no, you won’t be forced to do that to stay. ”
“That’s not to say you won’t get hit on, asked out, or propositioned.
You’re a good-looking woman, even in borrowed clothes and on half a night’s sleep.
We’re a bunch of wild ass idiots. But if someone won’t take no for an answer, you come see me.
I’ll take care of it,” Bulldog put in with a deep crease between his brows.
Hammer made himself a silent vow that Camila would never have to go to the president.
He would make sure of that, and Bulldog wouldn’t be able to say much about it because as an enforcer, making sure all the Sons follow the house rules, he could protect Camila and it would be just doing his job. He liked that idea.
“If not that, then what?”
Bulldog tilted his head. “Why don’t we give it a day or two. Let you settle in. Let you get to know us and see where you fit. Then we’ll see about finding you something to do. How does that sound?”
“Acceptable,” Camila said.
“Why don’t you go with Hammer? He’ll give you a phone to reach the housekeeper.
We’ll figure a few things out from there.
” Bulldog’s glance past Hammer had him turning to see what had caught the president’s attention.
Winter had just come into the room. She carried her laptop and seemed to be headed for one of the tables along one wall.
Hammer turned back to find Camila still standing in front of Bulldog, as if waiting to be dismissed.
“Come on, chica, let’s go find that phone,” Hammer said. He stood and headed for his office. There were a million things he needed to do, not the least of which was figuring out why he’d never found anything on the woman in all his research on her father.
Camila didn’t say anything, just turned and followed him.
An hour later, he’d given her a phone, and she’d made the call to her housekeeper.
She’d never tried to leave the room and hadn’t seemed to care that he listened in on the whole conversation.
After she’d finished and given him back the phone, he’d taken her out to the common room and introduced her to Winter, who had been joined by Miranda.
Now, he was busy at the computer handling shit for the club and looking for more on Camila’s father. Clearly, he’d missed something, and he was determined to figure out what and how.