Chapter 16
STYXX
“Yeah,” I answer the phone without looking at the screen. I didn’t have to. There were only a few people who would call me this late at night.
“We got a problem,” Reaper’s voice fills the line.
“What kind of problem?” I’m already sitting up and doing my best not to wake a sleeping Hope.
I’d worn her out after we’d gotten Eabha to bed.
Promise had gone to the room at my house, where she was staying, to work on a project for school.
The year was almost over for her, and she was finishing up what all she had to get done before then.
Something else I learned about the girl, like her sister, she wasn’t one for failing at anything.
“Hope’s uncle showed up at Keeper’s Temptation tonight looking for her, and he wasn’t alone. Had some cop with him. They spoke to Harvester and told him that she’d best get in contact with him before she was reported for kidnapping.”
“That’s bullshit, and you know it. Hope has custody of her sister. How were they going to get her for something like that and make it stick?” I barely contain the rage building inside me. Ronald Hall was more than a pain in my ass, that’s for sure.
“I know that and so do you. Same as Harvester. But they don’t know we have all this information. Harvester thinks they were hoping to get her in trouble with the boss, maybe get her fired.”
“Seems logical,” I agree.
“Did Harvester get the cop’s name?”
“Claimed his name to be Officer Watkins of the Jacksonville PD. He called the captain over there, and he didn’t have an Officer Watkins on his roster.
” It’s a good thing we’re friendly with the local PD in the area.
Not all of them, there were a few that thought we were pieces of shit, but we’ve helped the captain over there a few times for him to know we were trusted.
It also gets him to look the other way when we need him to.
“So, the guy wasn’t a cop,” I grunt, moving around the room, getting dressed as quietly as possible.
“Correct,” Reaper mutters. “I don’t like any of this. Also, don’t like you and the girls at the house. Think you need to bring them back to the clubhouse. Lock them down until we can get this asshole dealt with.”
I agree, but I’d hate to wake them up. “I’ll bring Hope and Eabha in the morning after dropping Promise off at school.”
“I’ll make sure the prospect is at the school when you drop her off.”
“Think we should put a brother on her instead. Someone with more experience.” I wouldn’t put it past Ron to try again at the school. Especially now that he’s gone to Hope’s place of work.
Reaper’s silence tells me he’s thinking it over before he speaks. “I’ll tell Azrael. He knows how to stick to the shadows and not be seen.”
Azrael was a good choice, and Promise knew him. She’d know if there was trouble, she could find him, and he’d get her out of there without question.
“Styxx,” Hope calls, her sleep-filled voice tugs at my chest in a way nothing could ever have before. Everything about the woman draws me to her.
“Go back to sleep, mo chathú.” I keep my voice low while speaking to her. “I’ve got to do something,” I tell her, and then speak to Reaper again. “I’ve got my laptop, I’m gonna do some digging and see what else I can pull up.”
“Sounds good. Report in the morning when you get in.”
“Right,” I retort and disconnect.
“Everything okay?” Hope asks, sitting up in the middle of my bed, her long, thick hair drapes her shoulders, and the sheet barely covers her breasts. She’s a vision, I never want to forget.
“It will be.” I nod, not wanting to upset her right now. I’ll tell her in the morning after we drop Promise off and on the way to the clubhouse.
Hope watches me closely with assessing eyes and nods. “Okay.”
Crossing the room, I lean down, dipping my head until we’re nose to nose.
“You have no idea what your trust means to me.” Her not asking further questions, trusting that I would talk to her, knowing that I couldn’t do something right then and there, yeah, it meant something all right.
More than something. More like everything. I’m in love with Hope.
“I figure you’ll tell me if it’s something I need to know,” she says, her voice no more than a breath of air.
“I’ll tell you,” I agree. “First, I’ve got to do some digging.” I won’t lie to her. Not ever. To be mine, she needs to know the world she’s stepping into.
Hope reaches up and strokes her fingers against my cheek and whispers, “Tell me when you can.”
“Will do.” Kissing her, I pull away. “Rest, mo chathú.”
“Okay.” Lying back down, Hope curls into my side of the bed, arms wrapping around my pillow.
The motions are another hit to my chest, proving just how much she’s meant to be mine and why I’ve fallen for her.
It’s not easy, leaving the room, but I do on quiet feet.
I grab my laptop from the living room and head to the kitchen, start a pot of coffee, and get to work.
I need to find as much information as I can before the morning.
As much as I’ve dug in the past days, it seems never to be enough.
But after Ron’s latest stunt, I won’t let him keep it up.
It’s past time he learns a lesson in messing with what’s mine.
“Come again?” Hope asks, twisting in the passenger seat, facing me.
We’d just dropped Promise off at school under Azrael’s watch, and I had just finished telling her about the phone call with Reaper last night, well, early this morning.
“He really said that to Harvester?” she demands before I can repeat myself.
“He did.” I nod. I watched the security feed from my laptop this morning and ran facial software against the ‘Officer Watkins’. I found a match, and it wasn’t a good one. Officer Watkins real name is Sonny Atkins. A lowlife who works for a man named Rodney Pratt. Pratt deals in human trafficking.
I didn’t tell her this part as I don’t want her to freak out on me more than she is bound to with what I’ve shared.
“He claimed he could get me for kidnapping?” she snaps and continues.
“What a piece of work. I mean, seriously. Why can’t he get it through his head that the courts gave me custody of my sister?
I have the life insurance money that I put into a trust for my sister for when she’s eighteen and can use it.
I don’t live off it. I work to support Promise.
I work to give her the life she deserves. ”
I hadn’t known about her putting the money into a trust for her sister until this morning, when I was digging and couldn’t help but be filled with pride at just how much Hope works to provide for her sister.
She sacrifices all that she does to give her a good life.
It’s time my woman started getting to the things she loves most.
“We’ll deal with him,” I tell her, reaching over the console. “I can promise you that. He’s goin’ to get what’s coming his way.”
“I wish he’d just disappear from my life and never return.” She huffs and rights herself in the seat, crossing her arms over her chest. “Is it so hard for him to leave me and Promise alone?”
“I’ll make sure he leaves you two alone, even if it means making him disappear from your life myself.”
“I don’t want you to do anything that could land you in prison,” she whispers, breath hitching.
I stay silent until we’re at the clubhouse and I’m parked. Shutting my truck off, I climb out, stalk around the hood, and make it to Hope’s door before she can get out. I crowd her space, hands going around her waist.
“Love that you don’t want that for me,” I tell her briskly.
“Want everything with you, Hope, everything I can get. What you need to understand is that I’ll make sure this bastard learns a lesson and stays the fuck away from you.
I won’t let him touch you or Promise. I’ll gladly kill him and come to you with his blood on my hands.
If that meant prison time, I’d take it knowing I did it for you.
However, that’s something you don’t have to worry about.
It won’t come to that, I swear to you, with my brothers at my back, you’ve got nothing to be leery of. We’ve got this.”
Tears slip freely down Hope’s cheeks, and I reach up to wipe them away.
“You trust me?” I ask.
“Y-yes,” she utters, breath hitching.
“Good.” I grin and slide my fingers in her hair, pull her to me, only to take her mouth heatedly.
Eabha makes a loud squeal from her car seat, breaking the moment with her anger at being in her seat still, though we were parked. She didn’t like being in the thing longer than she had to be.
“We better get her out before she starts crying,” Hope murmurs against my lips.
“Yeah, my girl can be quite demanding.”
“She’s just like her daddy.” Giggling, Hope uses my body to slide out of the truck. “Best get her out.”
With another kiss, I let her go and move to the back door to get Eabha out, earning a bright smile from my little girl. Yeah, she’s a daddy’s girl for sure. I’m not afraid to say she’s got me wrapped around her tiny little fingers just as her onesie claims me to be.