Leather and Sand (Riding the Line Series) (24 page)

The stalled car came out of nowhere. It was a miracle that he avoided wrecking his bike. He managed to maintain his upright position even as he skidded off the road. His heart pounded madly at the thought of what he had nearly lost. His life—his opportunity to be part of a family. Rage at the thought mobilized Dax to stalk angrily to the driver’s window. A small, dark-haired woman sat inside.

As he peered inside, Dax had the sinking feeling that something was terribly wrong. He recognized the girl in the car. It was the same girl he had rescued from Vidal. She looked terrified. Dax reached into the window and unlocked the door from the inside.

“Are you okay? What are you doing here?” he asked, confused.

“I’m so sorry. He made me do it. They found me—threatened my mother,” she said, her voice thick with unshed tears.

“Made you do what?” Dax asked, holding out his hand to the frightened young girl. She pulled back, as though he was about to burn her with a cigarette.

“I’m so sorry!” she yelped, covering her face with her hands.

“What—-”

Blinding pain exploded just behind Dax’s ear. Then, everything went black.

***

“I thought you said that Dax was on his way.”

Alanna’s voice was becoming irritating. Wince thought about kicking her out, but he was curious to see if she could deliver any information. Now, concern was setting in. Where the fuck
was
Dax? Wince had sent a 9-1-1 level alarm over an hour ago. Dax had responded 10-4. That had been their only communication. Wince had called and texted four times since, with no response.

Sure, maybe Dax was still, er, dealing with Rhiannon.

Wince sighed. Dax wasn’t the only man who had fallen hard for Rhee back in the day.
Some people were just meant to be in a guy’s life,
he mused.
Like Rhiannon.

The moment he had discovered the girl in the back of the van that night so long ago, Wince experienced an immediate, deep connection that defied any rational explanation. Over time, he realized that he had misconstrued his attraction to the stowaway. At first, Wince thought it was sexual attraction that drew him to her. Rhiannon was sexy, but she didn’t flaunt herself like the other groupies did. She was innocent, smart and funny on top of her naiveté. After the embarrassment from his attempted kiss debacle, Wince began to re-classify his feelings for Rhiannon as more akin to brotherly love. In an odd way, Wince also felt the same familial bond with Dax.

Perhaps it was that bond that was causing the warning bells to sound in Wince’s head. Dax was acting pretty off-kilter these days, but it wasn’t like the man to say one thing and then fail to follow through. At the very least, he would have communicated that his plans were detoured. Slade and Smalls were probably sleeping off the night before. Wince considered calling Hawk, but what could the man do? Other than contact their affiliates…and Wince could do that himself. As he scrolled to Turtle’s contact information, he regarded the groupie. It was either take her or leave her. Wince knew that if anyone could handle her, Turtle could. With any luck, Alanna would set her sights on some beefy islander guy and back off of Dax.

“Maybe Dax is with that other brunette, visiting his kid. Do you know where she lives?”

Wince froze. “What did you say?”

Alanna smiled, like a cat that had just taken a lion’s share of the cream. “Oh, you didn’t know?” she purred. “Makes sense. Dax probably doesn’t even know, himself.”

“Kid?” Wince echoed, stunned.

“She’s really cute. Spitting image of Dax. It’s fine, really. I don’t mind having a kid around. Mostly.” Alanna smoothed her hair.

Wince grabbed her arm, more roughly than he intended.

“Ouch!”

Plans could change so quickly. He sent a follow-up text to Turtle. The man responded that he would meet them at Rhee’s place, with a couple of guys for back-up, just in case. It was a good idea. Things were starting to go sideways. Wince remembered where Rhiannon’s little beach cottage was. It was time to track the stowaway down and get some answers. With any luck, Dax was there too.

He turned to the girl, who shot him a dirty look and rubbed her arm. “Whatever evidence you think you have, I hope you have it on you, sweetheart. Dax will be pissed as hell if you’re lying.”

Wince fully assumed that she was. Lying that is. Alanna was obviously a hang-around who had developed a thing for Dax. It had happened before. However, her assertion that someone had turned—that wasn’t something that could be ignored. If Alanna couldn’t back up her story with hard evidence, she would be cast out, and branded a club traitor. The last groupie who brought false evidence against a club member bore a permanent reminder of her transgressions: her left tit was inked with a glaring testament to her shame. The rat tattoo would effectively ban the girl from hooking up with any other crews as well.

From her reaction, Alanna wasn’t totally aware of these customs. She paled, but squared her shoulders.

“I’m not a liar. You’ve got a rat at your table, and it sure as hell isn’t me. Dax will thank me. You’ll see.”

Wince was usually a good judge of character. Either she told the truth, or she believed her own lies. Whatever the case, Alanna was going to get what she wanted: a private audience with Dax Jamison. And Wince was going to get the same with Rhiannon Blake.

***

Everything had been set in motion. It had been so easy. The whole thing came together like it was meant to be when the girl he had sent with Jamison came crawling back, begging for her parents’ pathetic lives. It seemed the car he took from her family to pay of some debtors was the mother’s only way to get to her doctor’s appointments. Vidal was shocked to see the bitch, and enraged when he realized that Jamison duped him yet again. The girl was a perfect pawn. He had Kestler set her up in the road, while his other guy tailed Jamison. It all went off without a hitch.

I’m a fucking genius.

One more bump and Vidal was feeling like a God. A one-man crime wave. He swallowed, feeling the acrid burn of the chemicals in the back of his throat as he cued up the video sent to his phone. Vidal wanted to jump up and down. Jamison was down for the count—he was bound, blindfolded, and gagged, and locked up in the office of the cannery. Even if the man got free, which he wouldn’t, he’d have to figure out a way to smash through three layers of heavy-paned glass and squeeze himself out of a very small window. He was right where Vidal wanted him. Now, to bring in the man’s weaknesses and use them against him.

Vidal glanced around for Marino, and then congratulated himself on his good luck. The man was nowhere to be found. Maybe he had taken the fucking hint and disappeared. Marino had a noble streak—one that would only fuck up the plan. Get Jamison and threaten the kid. Or the woman. Or both. Jamison would cave and give Vidal everything he wanted and more. Simple. He’d get the supplier and some pussy too. Plus, he’d have the pleasure of getting rid of Jamison.

He hated the man with a passion. Jamison thought his shit didn’t stink, the way he swaggered around, making demands.
Just like my fucking father!
Well, it was time to show Jamison who was boss.
Guess what, pretty boy, you’ll go down just like my old man did.
No one fucks with me.

The elder Vidal had tried to cut him off, but now who was sitting in the driver’s seat, about to triple his income?
Me, old man!
That’s who.

Vidal grabbed his phone. “Kestler. Got the video. Great work, man. Now, take Boyle and get the bitch and the kid. I’ll be waiting at the cannery.”

Time to catch some fish.

Chapter Twenty-Five

It was always a good idea to rest when Sirena was sleeping, but after twenty minutes, Rhee gave up on taking a nap. The burning ache between her legs had subsided to a dull throb, but it was ever-present. All she could think of right now was sex. With Dax. And lots of it.

A gentle knock at the door signaled Manali’s arrival. “
Keiki
?”

“I’m here, Manali. Sirena’s still asleep.”

“Ah. The lost boy…was he here?”

Lost boy?

“Yes, he was.” There was a dreamy, wistful quality to her voice that seemed to make Manali smile.

“And you—talked?”

Those shrewd eyes swept Rhee from her head to her toes. She flushed. “Um, yes. Just talked, though.”

Manali seemed satisfied. “Where is he now?”

“Business, I guess.” To Dax, the club was everything. Business would always come first. And that, Rhiannon had realized as she leaned against the door, shattered from his kiss alone, would never work. Sirena deserved a father who would put her first. Rhiannon wanted a man who would be a good model of what a partner should be for her daughter.

Rhee had been surprised and grateful when Dax laid his cards on the table. He stated that he wasn’t leaving, but in a sense, Dax was always leaving to deal with club issues. He was the vice president, after all. Rhee refused to compete with that. She wouldn’t ask him to choose. He would come to resent her if she did that. Rhee sighed heavily in response to Manali’s raised eyebrows.

“The club always comes first,” she explained, swiping her palm across her eyes.

Rhee’s landlady-parent was silent for a few moments as she stroked the large, black stone that was a permanent fixture hanging around her neck. “You are lost—as he is. Hold your vision,
keiki
. He will find his way to you.”

“I thought—I think he already has. In a way. But, it’s not enough, Manali. Maybe it could be enough for me, but it’s not enough—for her.” Rhee looked meaningfully at Sirena’s door.

As if on cue, Sirena began to stir.

“Go outside, take a walk,” Manali suggested. “Breathe. Ask for what you want.”

Rhee nodded. Manali was a big believer in that new age, law of attraction stuff. Or maybe, it was ancient islander stuff. Whatever the case, a short walk would calm her brittle nerves. “Okay. I’ll head out in a few minutes. She was asking for your grilled cheese earlier.”

Rhee and Manali exchanged a smile as a sleep-tousled toddler emerged, clutching her favorite, pink blankie.

“Mama, gotta pee.” Sirena announced.

This was a new thing. Rhee was constantly amazed by Sirena’s ability to simply decide one day to do things, after all the cajoling and promises in the world had made no difference. She tossed her bottle in the trash at eighteen months and ditched her pacifier soon after, on her own. Now, with no formal attempts to potty train her, it looked like Sirena was going to achieve another big milestone.

“I want my
Dora
panties.”

Rhee shook her head as she followed Sirena into the bathroom. Why were some things so easy, and others so very hard?

***

Dax groaned as he slowly returned to the world of the living. He figured it must be night because he couldn’t see a damn thing. Fuck, his head ached something awful. Dax tried to reach up to explore the lump on his temple and discovered that he couldn’t move. His arms and legs were roped to the posts of a very uncomfortable chair. Being tied up was not something that Dax Jamison was into. This was bad. Real bad. Slowly, he realized that the darkness was due to the scratchy blindfold covering his eyes. After some maneuvering, the cloth slipped. Light rushed in and it took a moment to adjust. Dax squinted, but he didn’t recognize his surroundings. Then, he became aware of the stench.

It smelled like a thousand rotting corpses. Dax swallowed the wave of bile that rose in his throat as the dank, fishy odor overwhelmed his senses. His fingers were numb from his bonds but whoever tied him up had neglected to rope his feet securely. Dax flexed his right foot and allowed himself a small, grim feeling of hope. The knife in his boot had gone undetected. Now, all he had to do was retrieve it.

He sucked in as deep a breath as he could manage. The darkness, the fear, and the inability to move started to fuck with his head. Without warning, Dax was launched backwards in time. He was just a kid. A kid whose mother wanted to party without him underfoot. Dax shuddered, hearing the echo of his mother laughing as her boyfriend tied his wrists and ankles and shoved his small, bound body in a closet.

He could hear the music that bumped in the living room of the cramped apartment they lived in. The delicious aroma of pizza wafted in as he huddled in the cold, dark space. He was five years old. And he took a stand. He decided to fight for his freedom. His victory then was short-lived. When his mother’s flavor of the week discovered him sneaking pizza into his closet domain, things got ugly. Dax shuddered, almost feeing the crackle of lit cigarettes pressing into his back.

Then, just as he might have allowed himself to succumb to his feelings of helplessness, another memory inserted itself into his mind, like someone had changed the channel from a horror show to a very different kind of story. Rhiannon. Long flowing hair, green eyes that sparkled like emeralds. A girl-child with a stubborn jaw and a laugh that made something inside of him twist with yearning. Family. No one would take Dax from his family.

Dax wouldn’t allow it.

He straightened, feeling the rope tugging at him as he filled with new resolve. As a child, he couldn’t fight back against his mother or the other abusive assholes she dated. No one protected him then. Dax wasn’t about to let his own child grow up without a man to fight for her when she needed it.

A half-smile tugged at Dax’s mouth beneath the heavy tape. Then, he went to work, loosening the rope that held him hostage. He exhaled with relief as his hand slipped free from his inexpertly tied bonds. Whoever had done this—they had another thing coming.

***

Ask for what you want.

If only Manali’s advice were that easy. At first, she wasn’t sure what she wanted from Dax. Then, he put his mouth on her again and it became apparent that she wanted it all. All of him. And that was something Rhee knew Dax wasn’t prepared to give her—-or Sirena. The club would always come first for Dax.

A sharp stab of envy made her gasp at her own behavior. It was ridiculous to be jealous of a motorcycle crew. But….what that crew meant to Dax—that’s what Rhee wanted. To be held dearest to his heart. To secure a place for herself and Sirena in the man’s life. What would that life look like? It was hard to picture a life with Dax and Sirena together. There would be no white picket fence, to be sure. That scenario didn’t feel right anyway. If Dax wanted something long-term, would they return to Darling? The very idea made her anxious. Rhee sighed. It was difficult to imagine her perfect, happy ending to this drama.