Chapter 32
CHAPTER
THIRTY-TWO
Logan
One week later
My brothers and I kick the frame down that opens the bar up into the restaurant. Plasterboard and dust settle on the other side of the floor. When I told the two of them it was demolition day, they couldn’t help themselves.
“Isn’t Daddy so clever?” Erica coos at the baby in her arms.
Erica had little Iris the day after we got back. The woman is a machine, already out of hospital and walking around and shit. The baby has a set of lungs on her not dissimilar to her father’s.
Brew turns, wiping his brow as he makes his way over to Erica. “Did she make a noise?”
“Nope,” Erica says, smiling up at him from her perch on the stool. “The only noise going on here is the three of you acting like little kids.”
“It’s demo day.” Brew shrugs, taking the tiny bundle into his arms. She’s wrapped in a violet-colored blanket. It’s unbelievable that my brother produced such a beautiful little thing, then again, she must take after Erica. “How is my little princess?”
Erica looks on adoringly. “She’s perfect, honey. Sleeping like a little angel.”
Brew kisses the top of her head, and I smile watching him be so gentle with her.
I have to say, seeing him for the first time with his daughter brought a tear to my eye. He’s big, gruff, and intimidating to most, but somehow I think Iris is gonna have him wrapped around her little finger. She’s tiny in his arms, only adding to the swoony look on Erica’s face.
“Awww,” Payden says, carrying a tray of drinks from upstairs.
The plumbing down here is off, and it looks like the clubhouse after a night of partying with all the crap laying around, but it’ll be sweet when it’s all done.
I just have to keep reminding myself of that.
“Will you look at that? Iris and her daddy.”
I glance at her and she smirks at me. Hilarious. Dozer trots below her feet—he’s taken to following her everywhere.
“I could’ve helped you with that,” Erica says, always a sweetheart.
“I think you have enough on your plate right now,” Payden replies, setting the tray on a nearby table. “She’s just the sweetest little thing.”
“Tell me that when she’s screamin’ the house down at three ,” Brew mutters. “Keepin’ us all awake.”
“Funny, I heard you’re the one who gets up with her,” Haze chimes in, taking a break. “Daddy’s girl, huh?”
“I just feel bad for Olive because she has to get up for school,” Erica admits. “Though, she’s been a great sport and utterly adores her new baby sister.”
“You sure she doesn’t start cryin’ at three am because she’s lookin’ at your ugly mug?” Haze laughs.
Brew glances up, giving him a murderous look. “She stops when I pick her up, wise ass.”
“Ah, ah, not in front of the little one,” I reprimand.
I know she’s just a baby, but Brew did remind us earlier to correct him if he accidentally swore.
Ass isn’t exactly a swear word, but any excuse to show him up is a good one.
Plus, my brother swears a lot, just like the rest of us, so it’ll do us all good to curb the cursing for a while.
Payden pulls Erica into a side hug. “She’s adorable, Erica. I’m so glad we were back in time.”
“Me, too. I know Brew likes to act as if he’s king of the universe, but he needs all of his family around,” she says, her voice low so Brew—who’s now arguing with Haze, but using a voice I’ve never heard before so he doesn’t wake the baby—doesn’t hear.
“He’s going to be a wonderful father. He adores her. ”
“It’s great Olive’s doing so well with the baby.”
“She’s been fantastic. She wanted to take the rest of the week off school, but I know she doesn’t like to get behind, so we let her have three days off to be home when we got back from the hospital.”
“That’s great, honey, and Brew’s a natural,” I say, not even daring to believe it. “But another girl? You know she’s never gonna be allowed to leave the house, right?”
Erica smiles softly, nodding like it’s no surprise to her. “He’s like that with Olive now, and she’s right at that age where boys are becoming more and more interesting to her.”
“God help her,” Payden mutters.
Olive may not be my brother’s biological daughter, but she calls him Dad, and he adores her. Being a teenager, however, with a new baby in the house is sure to have its challenges.
Payden’s phone rings and she pulls it out of her back pocket to see who the caller is. She’s been okay since we got home, but quieter than usual. I know the grieving process is different for everyone, and with her workplace still being a crime scene, that shit hit home heavy.
Whatever she wants to do is fine by me. She doesn’t have to go back to work or do anything until she’s ready, if at all.
I’ll look after her. I know that’ll annoy the shit out of her because she’s an independent woman, but everyone has a breaking point, and living through what she’s been through?
I think that is enough cause for a well-earned vacation.
I’d love to take her away, but with Brew and Erica just having the baby and the renovations in full swing, I’m going to put it off for a few weeks. I hope she likes surprises.
I glance up as she says, “Willow?” Then moves away to take the call.
Yeah, we should probably catch up properly with my sister-in-law. We saw her briefly at the hospital, but we haven’t exactly been banging down her door to find anything new out. I get all I need to know from my brothers, Hustler and Sawyer. The rest doesn’t interest me.
A chat is probably long overdue, but if it stresses Payden out, even Willow can wait. They can all wait. All that matters is Payden is doing things at her pace, nobody else’s, even mine.
She’s the anchor keeping me coming back for more, the very thing I didn’t know I needed. My only job now is keeping her safe. Just like I promised.
Payden
Twenty-four hours later
I glance around the dive bar, wrinkling my nose at the putrid smell. I don’t want to be here, but the last piece of the puzzle is in place. And frankly? Closure feels good. It’s needed.
I feel a hand at my shoulder and I turn to look up. “Ryan,” I say, half standing as he engulfs me in a hug. My eyes widen. Okay, well, I wasn’t expecting that.
He reached out to meet after everything that happened and I agreed.
“Payden,” he says, finally releasing me as he slides into the booth seat. “It’s so good to see you.”
“You too, but why the cloak and dagger?” I ask. “This place isn’t exactly screaming wine bar.”
“My bad,” he says loftily. “I haven’t been here before, I thought it was upmarket. We can go somewhere else if you’d like?”
I shake my head. “It’s fine. How the hell are you doing?”
He’s still bruised from the beating the boys gave him over a week ago.
They must have roughed him up good because he looks like shit.
While I know Logan was disappointed the boys let him go, it was the right thing to do at the time.
I just never expected him to reach out or that I’d see him again so soon.
“Well, I’ve been better. Those motorcycle thugs almost fucking killed me.” He also has no idea about my involvement with Logan, and because we were sneaking around nobody actually knew. He does understand my involvement with the club, though.
“Hey, don’t look at me, I was technically faking my own death,” I say, feigning innocence. “You know how the MC are in this town, and if they thought you had anything to do with the shooting and the evidence being tampered with, they were always gonna act.”
“Trust you to stick up for them.”
“Did you come here to argue with me or catch up?” I raise my brows expectantly.
“Listen, I’m sorry, okay, about how everything went down.”
“I know. It wasn’t your fault. I understand they were threatening people in your family. I get it.”
“Do you?” he asks. “Do you really? Because those assholes could’ve killed me.”
“Again, Ryan, I had no clue. I wasn’t even here. I was running for my life, no thanks to you.”
He raises his hands in surrender. “I didn’t come here to fight, I came here for closure. And I never meant for you to get into trouble.”
“So many people died—our boss!”
“What happened was out of my control. You were never a part of the game, I swear, not in the beginning, anyway.”
A cold feeling washes over me and I frown. “What the hell are you talking about?” I take a sip of my wine and he watches the movement closely, a small smile on his lips.
“I’m talking about severance, Payden, for what I’ve suffered through. These difficult times have had me rethinking things.”
“Well, we’ve all suffered,” I say. “Our colleagues died, remember? I had to step over their bodies when I was rescued.”
“Rescued,” he scoffs. “The MC are always poking their nose in.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“When I was offered the deal, it was too good to refuse. I didn’t want to do it, but having to sit through another one of fucking Jeremy’s speeches on the company’s core values made me want to gag.”
“What the hell are you talking about? I get it, you were being bribed?—”
“Not that.” His eyes sparkle wildly as I wrap my hand around my glass and take another sip. “You see, when I knew you were still alive, it changed the game. I could still get everything I wanted. The bargaining chip was easy; all I had to do was get you here, and they’d do the rest.”
“They?” I stammer. I place a hand over my heart. “Who the hell is they?” I shake my head in disbelief, trying to get a grasp on what he’s saying. Has he gone completely crazy?
He leans in, a smirk on his lips that I don’t like. “Trust me, the Mancinis just wanted you dead, and you were, so it suited my agenda. Then Donnie and his crew were arrested and now you’re here, back from the dead—lucky me.”
“I didn’t tell you because I couldn’t. I was running for my life, remember?”
The energy around us shifts, and he sits back in his seat. “Poor, trusting, dependable Payden Benedict. How does it feel to be behind the eight ball, yet again?”
“Cut to the crap,” I say. “What do you mean, ‘you got me here and they’d do the rest?’ You’re starting to scare me.”
“Scare you? I don’t think so. Nothing scares you, does it, beautiful?”
I put my glass on the table but I’m unsteady. “Did you… did you lace my drink?”
He grins. “I needed that bonus, Payden, and now I’m going to get it, after I have my way with you that is. Don’t worry, you won’t feel a thing, then this will all be over.”
My eyes widen. “You bastard!”
I attempt to throw my drink in his face but it crashes back down to the table.
“All you had to do was stay dead, but you couldn’t do that, could you?”
“W-why?” I stammer. “Why are you d-doing this?”
“Because we all look the other way from time to time, even do-gooders like you. Don’t tell me you haven’t.”
“You’re sick and twisted. Just because I rejected you?”
“Jeremy was going to make you partner—I couldn’t let that happen. And in a few seconds you’ll be out cold and then none of it will matter anyway. I’ll get what I’ve always wanted, plus a nice pay dirt at the end.”
“To who?”
He leans forward. “You didn’t even see it coming, did you? The idiot that put the tracker in your purse and in your clothes? I paid him to do that, to follow your every move. It wasn’t the Mancinis.”
“That guy is dead,” I stammer. “The MC took care of it.”
“He has friends. Friends that will pay because they’re sick and twisted, as you say. And they feel a little annoyed that he disappeared last week, last seen being questioned by the NOLA Rebels.”
“Fuck you.”
“Oh, no, sweetheart, it’ll be me fucking you.”
My eyes begin to close and I slump forward. “D-don’t do this…”
“See you on the other side, beautiful.” His tone is dripping with enjoyment. It makes me sick.
I hear him shift off his seat, then feel an arm wrapping around me as my head hits the table.
But if Ryan thinks he’s won this round, he doesn’t know a thing about me.
I pull the switchblade from under my sleeve and slam it into his thigh. He screams. Then I grab another and do it to his other leg as he stumbles.
There are so many bodies in here and the music cranking louder that nobody notices.
Plus, I chose a dark corner. He stumbles as I push him back into his booth.
“Do you really think I came here by myself?” I laugh.
“That you ‘drugged’ me?” I use quotation marks to emphasise my point. “Are you out of your fucking mind?”
“You fucking bitch!” he screams, pulling one of the knives out.
“Put your hands up where I can see them!” Willow says from behind me, pointing a gun at Ryan. “You’re under arrest!”
Ryan’s eyes widen as he tries to make sense of where he went wrong. Dipshit.
“Willow here knows all about your sick little fantasy,” I tell him. “Oh, and say hi to Amber over by the bar. She stood in tonight and was the bartender who was supposed to slip the drugs into my drink. She’s Rebels MC, asshole.”
“Fuck you!” he spits. He looks crazy, a knife sticking out of his thigh as he bleeds and holds his hands up in the air.
Several other cops surround us and Willow moves in to arrest him.
I smile, shaking my head. “Poor Ryan, with all the depraved things you had lined up for me, I’m gonna say you’re going in for life, there’s a lot to unpack on your hard drive.”
“How did you?—”
“I have friends in very high and very low places.” I shrug. “I guess if you wanna play with the big guns you should’ve brought a pistol instead of a q-tip.”
“Shut up and get moving,” Willow barks, yanking him out of the way.
“Payden!” Logan grabs my shoulders from behind. “Are you okay?”
I turn, folding into his arms. “It’s over.”
Willow escorts Ryan out of sight, not even bothering to pull the knife out of him.
God I love her.
“I didn’t want you to do this,” Logan says into my hair. Ever since Willow called me with what she found out… Ryan’s obsession with me, and his new deal to get paid, I was in. “Tell me you’re okay.”
There was no way that motherfucker was gonna be walking these streets ever again. So we put a plan in place.
“I’m okay. And I know you didn’t want me to do it, but now he can rot in fucking prison for the rest of his life.”
Logan was against the idea, of course, and didn’t want me to go ahead with it, but until Ryan actually did something, the cops couldn’t charge him with anything that would stick.
“I fuckin’ hate this.”
“I know, but I love you.”
He pulls back, cupping my face. “Never again, do you hear me?”
I nod. “I know you worry, but I loved stabbing that asshole.”
“That wasn’t part of the deal.”
“I know, but Stella taught me a few tricks.” I shrug.
His lips twitch. “I love you so fuckin’ much, and I love how bad ass you are, but I think your days of undercover are over.”
“Hey, I think I could make a career out of it?—”
He shuts me up with a kiss and I throw my arms around his neck. When I pull back, we’re both breathless. “Take me home, Logey-bear.”