Chapter 1
CHANCE
Three Weeks Later
Groaning when the banging on my bedroom door gets louder instead of stopping, I sit up and rub my eyes.
My throbbing head is a reminder of the clubhouse party last night, as are the two naked women still in my bed.
I usually kick them out before I fall asleep, but I guess that’s just how fucking drunk I was.
My eyes narrow on the blonde, who is lying on her stomach, my white sheets sitting just below the curve of her ass.
The redhead is on the other side of me, curled up on her side.
A flashback hits me of the blonde riding me while the redhead sits on my hand. My cock twitches, but then Lust’s words pull me back to reality.
“Prez! Cash is trying to get hold of you! He’s gotten into some shit at school,” my VP calls out.
Motherfucker.
It’s Monday morning. Just how much trouble has Cash gotten himself into already?
“I’m up!” I call back, then gently shake the women. “Ladies, time for you to get out of here.”
I don’t wait around to watch them leave.
Instead, I get my ass in the shower, and when I come back out, they’re gone.
Throwing on some light denim jeans and a white T-shirt, my leather boots are next.
I grab my cut on the way out, sliding it over my arms. The soft leather proclaiming me as President of the Royal Bastards MC, Western Australia chapter, is my pride and joy, right after Cash, of course, who is about to get his ass kicked for making me get out of bed so fucking early and head over to his high school.
“What did he do this time?” Gunner calls out from the kitchen. He’s my sergeant-at-arms and is one big bastard. Standing at six foot six, he’s got two inches on me, and according to him, those two inches count.
“About to find out,” I call back on my way out.
My phone shows five missed calls from the school, and although it’s not unusual for them to call me, it’s been a few weeks since he’s been in any trouble.
I thought we’d turned over a new leaf, but I guess the fuck not.
But I remember what I was like at seventeen.
I thought I knew everything, and no one could tell me anything, and Cash is a chip off the old block.
Getting on my Harley, I wave for the prospect at the gate to let me out. The school is only a ten-minute ride, and when I get there, I storm straight into the principal’s office.
Cash is sitting there with his head down and his elbows braced on his knees.
“You okay?” I ask, and he lifts his thick, dark head of hair and pins me with his ocean-blue eyes, the same I see when I look in the mirror. My gaze lands on his cut lip and swollen cheek, and my hands clench into fists. “Who the fuck did that to you?”
“Mr. Remington, Mr. Rogers will now see you in his office,” a soft, sweet voice says. I glance toward the door, fists still clenched, to find a woman with long dark hair, dressed in a pink pencil skirt and a white cardigan. The air leaves my lungs, and I freeze when I realize who she is.
Siren.
She does the same, her face paling as she gets a look at my face.
“You’re a teacher?” I growl, my brow furrowing. I fucked my son’s much younger, new teacher in my office. Fucking wonderful.
She clears her throat. “Yes, I am.”
“What happened?” I ask Cash, remembering we have an audience. I’m not about to air our dirty laundry for the whole school to hear.
“I got into a fight with Everett,” Cash admits, a muscle working in his jaw. “He was running his mouth, talking about Mum.”
Everett has been Cash’s nemesis for as long as I can remember.
“Get up, you’re coming home with me,” I order, ignoring the weight of the soft hazel eyes pinned on me.
“Mr. Remington, as Cash started the fight, he’s going to be suspended for three days. Everett’s nose was broken, and he had to be taken to the hospital.”
“Good,” I snap, crossing my arms over my chest. Everett Ryan is a piece of shit, just like his father. The apple never falls far from the tree.
Her gaze drops to the side of my neck, and her eyes flicker with distaste before she can mask it. That makes me even fucking angrier. “Good? Your son is suspended, sir. I don’t think you should leave without seeing the principal.”
“I don’t give a fuck what you or your principal thinks. Cash, let’s go,” I growl, and my son stands and follows behind me.
“Mr. Remington…”
“It’s Chance,” I call out to her. I still don’t even know her fucking name, and it pisses me off. At least she knows mine now.
“You know her?” Cash asks as he stands in front of my Harley. He rode to school on his scooter. He wants a motorcycle, but I told him he has to wait another year before he can do that. It’s the same time he has to wait before he can become a prospect.
“Met her once,” I reply vaguely, not wanting him to run his mouth around the school that I fucked his teacher. “She going to be an issue?”
He shrugs. “She’s only been here a few weeks. She seems nice, she’s just very—”
“Very what?” I ask, grabbing my helmet and putting it on.
“In everyone’s business,” he replies, scowling. “The other teachers don’t give a fuck, but she’s always trying to help.”
“She cares,” I mutter.
We ride out of there, and I start to feel a little hint of guilt for the way I spoke to her. It wasn’t her fault. I was already pissed, and I never expected to see her at the school, looking so fucking proper, after she didn’t stay where I left her.
I told her I was coming back, and she bailed.
She didn’t even give me her name, so I couldn’t look for her. No woman has ever walked away from me before, and I know that sounds cocky as hell, but it’s the truth. Women don’t leave me until I’m done with them, and I wasn’t done with her.
I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about her since then, because I have, and Cash’s school is the last place I ever thought I’d find her.
When we get home, Cash and I speak about what happened. “Are you okay?” I ask him, sitting down next to him on his bed.
I know his mother is a trigger for him, and Everett knows it.
“I’m fine, I shouldn’t have let him get to me,” he replies, rubbing the back of my neck. “He said my own mother must hate me. That I wasn’t worthy enough for her to stick around. I’ve heard that shit from him over the years, but I don’t know. I don’t want it to get to me, but it does.”
Laura walked away from Cash when he was a baby and hasn’t been seen since. I carry that guilt with me, knowing my bad choices left him without a mother. However, I don’t have any regrets because Cash is the best part of me.
“Laura leaving has nothing to do with you, Cash. She wasn’t ready to be a mother. She wanted the club life without any responsibilities…” I trail off, reaching out and pulling him in for a hug. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me. Laura has no idea what she’s missed out on.”
“I know,” he nods, because we’ve had this conversation before. “He just makes me so fucking angry. I should have been stronger and walked away.”
I hate that he’s grown up without his mother, but we can’t control her actions, we can only do our best with what we have.
He’s been raised by the club, the old ladies, the club girls, and the brothers.
And I’ve done the best I can to raise him into a good man.
“I’m proud of you and I love you, Cash. Don’t listen to anything that little shit says.”
“I love you too, Dad.”
After our talk, when he wants to step into the ring with Lust to go a few rounds to work off some of his anger, I let him do that.
And when I head back to work in the mechanics shop the club owns, my mind roams back to those angry, hazel eyes.