He looked too good to be bad, but I wasn't a fool. He had the patch, just like the older man riding ahead of us. The winged skull with two guns to the side that told me daddy had buried himself very deep, before he'd taken his life.
I'd teased him about being my bodyguard before I heard the fateful bullet, yes. But to be honest, I knew exactly what he was.
My jailer.
And it wasn't like I had any choice. Something had been eating at daddy for months.
I could never get it out of him. I should've seen the signs when he'd taken up the bottle, hard stuff he hadn't touched since mom left us years ago.
I closed my eyes and grasped the devil tighter, trying not to enjoy his warmth. I'd never ridden a bike before today. Cool spring winds tore at my face, and they were the only thing that reminded me I was alive, except his heat.
My hands smoothed on his rock hard abs – too hard for a man who probably spent his free time chasing skirt and drinking beer. What he did with the rest of his time, I didn't even want to know.
These men were criminals. I'd heard daddy mention the Deadly Pistols MC every so often growing up.
Once, when we were fishing, he'd told me one of them was his friend, before he'd joined the force. Just a neighbor kid he'd stayed in touch with all through his career. He'd grown into a man my father drank with a couple times a year, even after he left the Knoxville PD last winter.
I had a sneaking suspicion the President, Dust, was that friend. Some buddy, letting daddy murder himself in our own kitchen...
Hell, had he really killed himself? Or had the biker done him in?
I tried not to cry. Numbness iced my veins, froze my synapses, made it hard to think about anything except how royally screwed I was since I came home to an absolute whirlwind.
My hands instinctively clung tighter to the biker's cut as we approached his clubhouse. Their club logo loomed large, painted on the wall, taunting me with its sick bony smile and vacant eyes.
As soon as Firefly stopped the bike, I jumped off and heard him run after me. I started vomiting underneath a spindly tree before he could grab me.
The bastard held me while I let out all the pain, crying again, splattering my shoes. I couldn't stand to look at him, but God help me, I did it anyway.
I had to see the face of the man who held the key to my whole future, even if it would set my ruined stomach off a second time.
“What?!” I demanded. “You enjoying this, or something?”
“Fuck you, if that's what you think.” His stark blue eyes softened. “I'm figuring out how the hell I'm gonna get your guts back in order so you don't join your old man on the other side. It's been a rough fucking day, darlin'. Been forever since I took care of anybody else.”#p#分页标题#e#
“I don't need you to take care of me!” I coughed, spat at the ground, and shoved my hands against his chest as hard as I could.
The whole world started to spin. God, I was sick. Dying, maybe. I felt like I'd pass out, and maybe that would be a mercy.
A weak smile pulled at his lips, the last thing I saw before I blacked out. He held me softly, lowered his lips to my ear, and spoke one word.
“Bullshit.”
Two days in this dirty, cramped room. Two days I should've been studying for my state license, scoring tests, and helping Mister Fisher prep the Geometry lesson next week.
Goddamn it. He'd know by next week I'd dropped off the face of the earth.
These bikers weren't letting me go anytime soon, and I'd be lucky if I wasn't blacklisted across the county for jobs before I got out of here.
Mister Tall, Dark, and Crude wasn't having any protests.
He brought me food, water, and asked me if I needed anything else a couple times a day. Mostly salads and deli wraps from the grocery store across town, about the healthiest stuff I could get him to fetch me without starting a scene.
Eating cost me half the day's energy. When I wasn't thinking about daddy getting himself into trouble and ending his life one wall away from me, I buried my face in the pillow, weeping for the life I'd just had ripped open by a tactical nuke.
Nothing made sense.
The fact that whatever was weighing on him was so bad he'd had me snatched away before he'd put the gun to his head should've scared the hell out of me.
Honestly, it didn't. Nothing hurt worse than losing everything in a single afternoon.
Too sudden. Too savage. Too shocking.
I couldn't get over it. I seriously wondered if I ever would.
No, no, a hundred times no. I wouldn't even roll to face him when I heard the door pop open.
“Chicken ranch with lots of lettuce and kale, babe. Just like you asked.” Firefly stood next to me on the bed, holding the bag, until I spun around and snatched it from his hands.
He gave me a death glare as I ripped into the bag, plucked out the wrap, and tore through the deli wrapping paper like a starving raccoon. I took a big bite before I looked into his ice cold eyes.