Pursuit: Blood Bandits MC (21 page)

Dom

“I don’t know what to tell you,” I said, feeling like the world’s biggest ass. “I don’t. I want you to take care of yourself, but I wanna see you in front of the club for a long time, too. You brought the club more success than it ever knew before.”

“You sound like Spike or Ralph,” he said, snickering.

“It’s true. And they say it because it’s true. You’ve done everything you could for the club, and we all love you for it. Nobody wants to see you go.”

“Even if it’s gonna save my life in the end?”

I sighed. “Nothing I say is right. Everything I say right now makes me look like the world’s biggest prick.”

Chase laughed a little at me. “It’s not so bad. You don’t sound like a prick either. I’m glad you’re not standing at the head of the group, wanting to stab me in the back so you can take power.”

“Don’t even joke about shit like that,” I said. I wasn’t kidding. I didn’t want to hear it. The last thing I needed was for people to get the idea that I would kill Chase to take the seat at the head of the table. I didn’t want it that badly—I didn’t want it yet, at all. I had too much to learn before I could do that.

“Sorry. I’m just trying to keep things light,” he said with a shrug. “I don’t want you walking around here with a frown on your face, expecting me to kick the bucket at any minute. I have time left. I just have to be careful with it, or else that little spitfire upstairs is gonna be what kills me.”

I grinned. “Yeah, Trish would kill you for not listening to the doc,” I said.

“That’s how women think, you know? Who knows, maybe she wants to do it herself. She doesn’t want any old heart problem taking me out.”

“Shh.” I looked up the stairs. It didn’t look like anybody was standing there, and I didn’t see any shadows on the wall. “Do you really want the whole club knowing about this right now?’

“See? You’re a smart kid. That’s why I know you’re gonna do such a great job with the club.” He grinned.

“Yeah, thanks.” The damp cellar was cold, sending shivers down my spine. I told myself it was just that, and not the idea of taking over the club so soon.

Chase stood up, having to duck when his enormous height left his head almost scraping the ceiling. “Do me a favor and keep this between you and me, huh? And I mean in every way possible. I don’t want your shitty attitude ruining things either.”

“Got it.”

“There’s plenty of time, okay? We’ll work it out. I just thought you should know.” He patted me on the back and might as well have added, “It’s your funeral.” Because that was how I felt. I’d always seen myself being happy to take over the reins when Chase retired. I didn’t want it to be for such a shitty reason. I didn’t want to look like I was taking advantage of him being sick.

Rule number one
, I thought,
stop caring so much what other people think of you, or what they might see in you. It doesn’t matter when you wanna be an effective leader.
It was something Chase had told me years before, and I remembered it then. I had to stop caring so damn much how things might have looked. It wasn’t my problem what the rest of the club thought. Chase was our leader, and if he decided to step down, they had to respect that.

I had it on my mind when I went upstairs, and I called in the liquor order only half paying attention to the names and quantities I ordered. I had the girl read it back to me twice to be sure I got it all right. The last thing I needed was a bunch of bitching when I didn’t order somebody’s favorite liquor.

I sat at Chase’s desk after I hung up the phone. It would be my desk soon. How soon? I didn’t know. I still hoped it wouldn’t be for a long time, but I had the feeling the clock was ticking—no matter how much better Chase tried to make me feel about it.

Don’t be a pussy
. Another pearl of wisdom from Chase. He had never said it to me, but he said it to the other guys in the club sometimes when they didn’t want to do something that was in the club’s best interests. He would tell them to man up and stop being a pussy. I needed to do that myself.

I would be president. It wouldn’t be long. I had to step into the role and take it over and not look back. I was ready. More than ready—Chase had groomed me for it for years. Once it was mine, nobody could take it from me unless they wanted to run the risk of banishment, or worse. I would have the power.

And I would need an old lady. Trisha was right about that, and so was Chase. I would need somebody at my side to be there when I had the tough choices to make. I would ask Jax to be my VP, but that wasn’t the same as having a steady old lady at home, someone to talk with when the day was rough or the club was going through tense shit. A woman who would help a man see his way through things. It was what Trisha had been for Chase ever since they got married, even before then. It was what I needed.

And Kara was that kind of woman. The only problem was I didn’t know if being an old lady was something she wanted. She might have seen it as being beneath her. She went to college. She could still have a bright future. And there I was, thinking about asking her to help me run an MC. What the hell was I thinking? She was too good for the sort of life I led. I needed a woman who was used to things being the way they were, who wouldn’t question the late nights, the dangerous situations, the activity we got into. If we went into lockdown and I needed to bring her and the kid to the clubhouse, would she put up a fight? That kind of old lady didn’t help anything. She would only get in my head and make me a bad president.

I went out to the bar, pouring myself another drink without looking around to see if anybody noticed. I had too much on my mind to give a shit, anyway.

“What’s the matter?” Trisha asked, still sitting at the bar. She only drank water, and was more than halfway through the crossword puzzle she had started before I went downstairs.

“Nothing,” I said, taking a deep breath.

“Really? That’s your second drink this afternoon, and I happen to know you were in the cellar with my old man.” Her voice had dropped to nearly a whisper. “So you talked to him, huh?”

“He doesn’t want me to tell anybody,” I said.

“Of course he doesn’t. But I knew he was gonna have to tell you sometime, honey. You need to know. But you’re the only person who does, so we’ll leave it here.”

“We will,” I agreed.

“Now you know why I want you to settle down.”

“Yeah, I thought about that already. You’re pretty obvious.”

“Only now that you know the full story,” she pointed out. “Before that, you had no idea.”

“You’re not just pushing me into something with Kara because you want me to settle down, though, are you?”

“No. It’s because she’s the right woman for you, if you think you can handle it.” She pushed her reading glasses up on top of her head, looking at me. “Listen, she’s got a lot of issues with her past. She’s got a kid. She’s not going into it without baggage, and neither are you. That’s a big responsibility for the both of you. If you can both handle it, I say why not. She’s a smart girl with a good head on her shoulders, and you obviously care about her. Go for it, then. I think she would fill my shoes just fine.”

I wasn’t so sure, and the look on my face must have said so.

“Listen, none of the girls around here would know their ass from a hole in the ground if they had to help their old man run this club. I remember Lauren fondly. She was a great girl, and she was good for you, but she didn’t have that…that grit, you know? She was a great doctor, but she was still too much in the other world. Kara, though? She’s got what it takes. She knows how shitty life can be, but she knows how good it can be, too. She’s a fierce mama, too, which means a lot. She’ll be a mama to this pack of idiots whether she likes it or not. I think she has a heart big enough to handle that.”

“But can she handle me? That’s my question.”

“Oh, get over yourself. You’re not that hard to handle.” Trisha laughed, lighting up a cigarette and ending the conversation. Jax strolled up. We switched topics.

“I was just telling Chase we’d better buy a Jack Daniels distillery if some people don’t stop drinking it all the time,” I said, clearing my throat.

“Like you didn’t just have two drinks today. I don’t wanna hear your bullshit.” Jax rolled his eyes. Trisha laughed.

“Just blame it on the new guy and his party. It’s always good to have a new patch around so that you can blame everything on him.” Jax and I looked at each other, nodding. That made a lot of sense.

My phone rang. Kara. I smiled, figuring she would tell me she was back home and wanted me to come over. I stirred at the thought of her. Would I ever get tired of having her in my arms? I didn’t think so. I hoped not, anyway.

When I answered the phone, all thoughts of sex with Kara were wiped out by the sound of her screaming.

“Hurry! Please! Please, come!”

Everything went fuzzy and gray around me. The only thing I could hear was her voice, and the blood suddenly rushing in my ears. Trisha stood, her face showing she could hear Kara’s screams.

I couldn’t understand anything she was saying, though. “Stop screaming. What is it? Where are you?”

“He took Emma! He hurt my mother, oh my God, I think she’s dead!”

My body went cold, numb. I should have known. Fuck him. I should have known. I should have thought it out. I was too cocky. I put them in danger. He took Emma. That fucker took her away.

“Where are you?”

Jax looked at me, obviously shaken by my tone of voice. I couldn’t pay attention to him, or to Trisha. I needed to know where to find Kara.

“Her house!” She screamed out an address, then just shrieked for a while before I told her I would be there, and hung up. I saw red. I didn’t know what to do first. I needed to find him. No, I needed to make sure Kara was safe. Then I needed to find him. But what if he was getting away?

I needed to get to Kara first.

“Dom?”

I didn’t answer Jax. I didn’t have the time. I ran out the door, on my bike in the blink of an eye. The address Kara gave me wasn’t far from the clubhouse, probably in the middle of the route I took to get to the apartment. I hoped traffic would be light because I didn’t have any time to waste.

The whole way there, I looked for Eric’s Lexus—it didn’t seem likely, but I hoped, anyway. Who knew when he had taken her? It could have been right after Kara went to work. Why the hell hadn’t I posted somebody in front of her mom’s house? I knew she was taking Emma there, she’d told me so. Damn it! I wanted to scream, curse, howl. I never felt so helpless in my life…except that night.

No. This wasn’t Lauren all over again. I would fix things this time. I would get Emma back. Kara would be happy. She would be happy with me. That was the way it would go because that was the way it had to go. I had to win this one. I couldn’t lose twice in one lifetime.

I couldn’t think straight.
Emma. Kara. Emma
. It was all I could think, do, breathe. They were every beat of my heart.
Emma. Kara. Emma
. Emma was gone. I had to find her. First, I had to get to Kara. I should have asked her if she was sure she was alone, damn it. What if somebody was hiding out in the house?

When I got there, I saw the door standing open. My heart in my throat, I ran up the stairs, gun still in my kutte pocket but my hand around the butt in case I needed to draw.

“Kara?” I heard her rather than saw her, lying on the floor next to her mother. No Emma. My heart sank. What could I do?

Kara

That was how Dom found me, in a heap on the living room floor, my mother’s body at my side. He checked her first, holding his fingers to her neck.

“She’s alive,” he said. “Here, let me put her on the couch.”

“What if she has a neck injury?” I asked.

“I think they hit her on the head. See? There’s a cut here. It’s probably no more serious than that.”

“No more serious? How can you say that?” I was frantic, unable to think straight or reason. Everything was a mess in my head. I didn’t know what to think or what to do. Blind panic overtook me.

“Kara!” Dom took me by the forearms and shook me until I cleared up a little. He didn’t hurt me. I didn’t think he would ever hurt me. He only wanted me to get my act together.

“This was how you found her?” he asked. I nodded, gulping for air, trying to keep my head straight. “And there was no one around? No cars out front, nobody sneaking out the back door? Nobody at all?”

“Nobody I knew of,” I whimpered. I tried to think back. “I didn’t see or hear anybody, and I was paying attention. Oh, why did I leave her? Why?” I started spiraling out of control again.

“Calm down!” He barked it, and it was enough to snap me out again. “Listen to me. We’re going to get her back, okay? No matter what, he couldn’t have gotten far with a kid. We just have to find him. I’ll have my guys look his financials. His credit cards and stuff. They’ll track him.”

“How can they do that?”

“Don’t worry about it.” I thought it would be best not to know, anyway. He pulled me to my feet, then lifted Mom onto the couch. Her head dropped back, and Dom lifted it carefully, gently, as he lowered her.

“Okay. I’m gonna hit the streets, find out if anybody saw his car.” I followed him to the door, shaking. “You should call the police.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. Since when did I not trust the police?

He turned, looking at me, trying to decide. “Yeah. An Amber Alert is gonna get all the cops looking for his plates, at least. And when you call 9-1-1, tell them you need an ambulance for your mother. Tell them she was watching Emma. Get it? Make sure they know he took her by force.”

“Okay. I understand.” I could hardly speak in clear sentences, but I nodded. Dom kissed me briefly, then turned toward the street.

“Oh shit.” He froze rather than going for his bike. “Maybe I don’t have to look after all.” He turned to me. “Get back in the house,” he said, his voice hard and tense. “Now. Inside.”

“What is it?” I didn’t understand at first. Then I saw two cars pull up. One of them was Eric’s. The other was a black van, fairly nondescript. Two men climbed out, while another two climbed out of Eric’s car. Eric followed them…after pulling Emma from the back seat. One of the random men picked her up, and all of them walked up the steps and came inside.

“Oh my God!” I screamed, hands over my mouth. There she was, in a stranger’s arms. I jumped forward, wanting to take her and hold her and never let her go. Dom stopped me, and I saw why—a gun in the hand of one of the other men. He put himself in front of me, just enough to hold me back. I let out a whimper, which turned to a sob. How had things turned so terrible, so quickly? Meanwhile, my mother was on the sofa, still bleeding, still unconscious. The whole world crumbled around me and there was nothing I could do about it.

“Hey, wifey.” Eric grinned, his eyes blackened, a bandage over his nose. When he spoke, he sounded like a man with a bad cold. I was glad Dom had broken his nose. I wished he had broken more in that moment. Much more.

“What are you doing, Eric? What the hell is wrong with you?”

“What am I doing? What are you doing? I’m only making sure I protect our little girl.” He smiled at Emma, who shrank away from him. My poor baby.

“Please, let me have her,” I blubbered, holding my arms out. Dom still restrained me, and with good reason—though I was sobbing, I would have clawed any one of them to pieces for so much as touching my daughter.

“No, no, no. You had her, remember? And look what you did. You got yourself hooked up with a scumbag like this loser.” He gestured to Dom. “I can’t trust you with her. And there you were, acting like the better parent. What a hypocrite you are.”

I took a deep, shaky breath. Fine. If that was the game he wanted to play, so be it. “You’re right, Eric. I’m a terrible parent. I did the best I could, though. Please, please, let me have her. I’ll do better now.” I felt like the woman I used to be, the one he used to push into a corner. The one who would apologize for things she hadn’t even done, all to get him to stop yelling and hitting and cursing. All to get him to back off, go away, leave the house even. I would have said anything back then to make the hurting stop, and I was willing to do it again. It was as though he’d flipped a switch inside me.

He nodded. “At least you’re willing to admit what you’ve done wrong.”

“This is bullshit,” Dom snarled.

Eric tsked, shaking his head from side to side. “Language, and in front of a kid. You’re worse than I thought you were. Don’t talk that way in front of my little girl.”

“I’ll talk any way I want to,” he said.

It was my turn to get him to stop. I looked up at him, shaking my head ever so slightly. All Eric wanted to do was draw him into a fight so he’d have an excuse to kill him or at least do serious damage. I couldn’t let that happen, though I wanted more than anything to watch Dom murder him. I would have paid good money to see something like that.

“Eric.” I turned back to him. “Look what you’ve already done. My mother. I need to call an ambulance for her.” I moved toward the phone, but he made a sharp noise that stopped me in my tracks. No, he wouldn’t let me pick up the phone, would he? I could easily have called the cops instead.

“Yes, I’m sorry that had to happen. She never did me any harm—if anything, she listened to the stories you told her and believed them. Why else would she have gotten in my way when all I wanted to do was collect my own daughter and take her with me?”

“She fought you?” I asked, glancing at Emma. The poor thing shivered.

“Oh, yes. She fought hard. I didn’t think a woman her age would have that much fight in her—then again, they say adrenaline makes a person do crazy things.” He laughed, a shrill laugh I wasn’t used to hearing. Yes, adrenaline made people crazy. And he was the case in point.

“If I leave her like this, she might die,” I said. “She’s bleeding from her head.”

“Oh, stop. I didn’t hurt her that badly. I only knocked her out. It’s probably nothing more than a cut—head wounds bleed the worst. It’s not like I broke her nose or anything.” He glared at Dom, his eyes burning.

Something inside me roared in triumph, even as I shook with something beyond fear. Fear was too weak, too easy a word for it.

“Still, Eric. Please. Call the ambulance yourself if you don’t trust me to do it. But please. I need you to help her now. You have what you want. You have Emma. What do you have to lose?”

He seemed to consider it, and hope leaped to life inside me. If he called the ambulance, there was a chance Mom would wake up and tell the EMTs what happened to her. They might at least be able to call the cops and tell them about Eric’s restraining order, how he’d attacked her. Something. Anything. All he had to do was listen to me and call for an ambulance. It was a struggle to keep my face in calm, neutral lines.

Then he shook his head, and I sobbed again, this time with frustration.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked, tears streaming down my face. Dom was ominously quiet, his body shielding mine ever so slightly. If any of them so much as raised a hand, he would have jumped in front of me. Somehow I knew it without having to be told. I felt the raw energy coming from him, and it scared me a little. He would have taken them all on, were it not for Emma. They looked like pretty fearsome men, too. I had faith in him, but even that faith didn’t lead me to believe he would make it out all right.

“If you would’ve been the wife you tricked me into thinking you would be, none of this would be happening. This is all you, honey. We could have had a good life together. We could have been happy, the way we were before we got married. But then you ran off. And I find out today that you filed a fucking restraining order?”

Language
, I thought. I didn’t dare call him on it.

“I only filed it because you threatened me,” I said, feeling pitiful. Nothing I could say would change his mind, but I had to say something. I felt like I needed to keep him talking. Otherwise, he would take Emma away from me. Would I see her again? I didn’t think he would let me. I was pretty sure he would do anything in his power to keep my child from me once he got a hold of her.

“I didn’t threaten you,” he said. “You felt threatened. That’s your problem, not mine. Your boyfriend here,” he gestured to Dom, but looked at me, “couldn’t keep his hands to himself. If he had, this might have ended a lot differently.”

“Listen, Eric. I know you can be reasonable. I know it. You just have to control yourself right now, okay? Emma has nothing to do with any of this. Please let her go. Don’t punish her for this.” I tried to go to her again, but Dom planted himself more firmly in front of me. His entire body trembled, but I didn’t think it was from fear. More like the strain of holding himself back.

“This doesn’t have to involve either of them,” Dom snarled. “It only has to be you and me. Let’s be men about this and fight it out the way we both want to.”

Eric laughed that strange, high-pitched laugh he seemed to have adopted since he went crazy. “You think I’m stupid, don’t you? Only a world-class fool would fight somebody like you. Come on. When you were out there making your bones, or whatever it is you biker trash do, I was studying and working. It’s no contest.”

“So that’s why you had to bring four of your friends with you. You probably hired them, though, right? A guy like you doesn’t have friends.”

“Dom, stop,” I whispered. “Please.” All I needed was for him to fly off the handle and kill Emma.

He ignored me. “Come on. Be a real man for once in your life. Or can you only hit women? Are men too much for you to handle?”

“Stop this,” I begged. I could see Eric’s face twitch, the muscles jumping. He wanted to kill Dom. I could feel it.

“Stop,” I said, raising my voice. “Both of you, stop. It doesn’t have to be this way.” I glanced over my shoulder, to where my mother had started to stir. She was regaining consciousness, which was a relief, but all I needed was for her to wake up in the middle of a fight. Just another person to be caught in the crossfire. My mind worked fast, looking at the situation from every angle. I couldn’t believe how sharp I was with everything going on.

“You don’t get to talk right now,” Eric sneered. He looked at Dom. “Fine. You want a fight? You’ll have your fight.” He raised his hand, gesturing toward Dom. Suddenly, all four of his pals jumped Dom. Emma was dropped to the floor, forgotten.

“Baby!” I reached for her, scooping her up, moving away from the fight. Dom did the best he could, but he was quickly outmatched. They hit him with their guns, their fists. They knocked him to the floor. I held Emma in a vice grip, pressing her face to my shoulder. I didn’t want her to see what was happening. I glanced toward the back door, wondering if I could make a run for it. Would I have time to escape? But I couldn’t leave Dom. But I couldn’t risk my baby’s life.

Dom fell to the floor, beaten and bloodied. I squeezed my eyes shut, unable to look at what they’d done to his beautiful face. Eric snickered, going to him. I heard Dom grunt, and opened my eyes in time to see Eric pull him to his knees. He pulled a gun from his coat pocket, and I let out a whimper. He looked at me.

“It’s up to you,” Eric spat, pressing the gun to Dom’s temple. “Either you come with me, or I kill him.” He cocked the gun, the click making me jump and shriek before I could hold back. “And I’ll kill her, too, for good measure.”