She smiled, but it was sad, distant.
“I take it Faye is that asshole’s baby? Spike?”
She nodded again. “She’s the only good thing that came out of being with Spike.”
“Did you go to a hospital to have her? Did he help you during it, afterward?”
She shook her head. “Aside from…” She paused a moment before speaking again. “Let’s just say he only wanted me for one thing. I ended up having her in the back of their shitty little clubhouse, alone aside from a club whore helping me. I need to help her, too, Brendan. She’s being abused, but wouldn’t come with me. She’s too scared.”
He thought about all of this, knowing he couldn’t do it alone. “We’ll work everything out.” He looked at the hallway, and even though he couldn’t see the baby she was on his mind. “How old is she, Lila?”
Lila took a drink from the glass before she spoke. “Only three days.”
“Shit.” He scrubbed a hand over his hair again. He knew the baby was new, but three days old? “And you traveled all the way here alone, with a newborn, after just giving birth?”
She was silent for a moment, and the fear in her eyes was so damn real. “I was afraid things would escalate, that he’d hurt Faye, if I didn’t leave. Spike didn’t want the baby, and when he found out I was pregnant he was furious. I told him I’d give her up, afraid he’d hurt me and make me lose her.” She wiped the tear that tracked down her cheeks. “I couldn’t lose her, so I lied, made him think she’d be gone after she was born.”
Everything in him tensed even more, his blood coursed through his veins, his pulse increased, and he felt his rage grow. He wanted to kill this bastard, make him suffer for putting Lila through this.
“He put his hands on you? Hurt you?”
She was silent for a second, but then she nodded. “Yes,” she whispered. “He was gone on a run when I had her, so I had a few days to recover before I left. The club whore, Dotty, was the only one that knew I had Faye, but…” She tensed. “I know he’s probably back at the club, and knows I’m gone. I know he’ll come for me.”
“He can come, but he’s not fucking touching you or that baby.”
“I’m so scared, Brendan.”
“Damn, Lila. You should have come to me sooner. You know I’m always here for you.”
She was crying hard now, wiping the tears away as fast as they came.
“I know. I told you I was stupid.”
“You should have come to me when he first found out you were pregnant and he threatened you.”
She nodded. “I should have, but he said if I left, ran, he’d make sure I’d lose the baby. I was afraid, Brendan, and that’s why I stayed away. I knew you’d be able to tell something was wrong.”
Damn right he would have.
She shook her head, this disgusted sound leaving her. “Let’s just say I was a fool, so damn dumb.”
“We’ll get through this. I’m glad you came to me.” She was here now, and that was all that mattered.
Tank searched her body, what he could see anyway, trying to see if there were any marks on her arms, on her neck, anywhere he could see, but they were either hidden or healed. She’d admitted that fucker had put his hands on her, and he was going to rip Spike’s balls off and shove them down his throat.
He wanted to find out if she’d been hit while pregnant, because even if that fucker had laid his hands on Lila when she wasn’t, beating on a pregnant woman was so far over the line it was going over the damn cliff.
“I know he’ll come after me, and I can’t let him hurt Faye.”
He shook his head. “Fucker ain’t going to come near you or the baby, Lila.”
She leaned forward on the table. “Spike and the men he hangs out with are dangerous. I’m afraid if they can’t get to me they’ll go after people I know until I am accessible to them.”
He shook his head again. “You know we don’t even know where Mom and Dad ran off to. They left us like we were nothing. Why worry about them?” Maybe he should have given two fucks about their parents, but the truth was they wanted nothing to do with their kids, so why should Tank care?
“I’m not worried about them being found, because they didn’t give a shit about us while growing up, Brendan.”
He bunched his brows. “Then who do you think they might go after?”
She licked her lips and stared down at the plate of food for a moment. “I’m afraid they’ll go after Bunny.”
His heart stopped in his chest at the sound of that name. Tank hadn’t heard Bunny’s name in years. Hell, he hadn’t heard her name since he was in his twenties, not since the night they’d fucked and she’d left him while he slept. That was a sore fucking subject, and one he didn’t want to even think about, let alone talk about. But he couldn’t let this go if Lila thought Bunny was in trouble.