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  “Do I need to kick someone’s ass?” he growled. Nobody messed with either one of his sisters, and Tatum had a special place in his heart. He’d been wrapped around her finger since the day she was born.

  “No.” She shook her head. “I handled it the way you and dad taught me too. It just pisses me off.”

  She said “pisses” on a hiss, like she was afraid she’d get in trouble.

  He laughed. She was a princess if there ever was one. “Don’t worry; your bad language is safe with me.”

  Tatum looked over, grinning at her older brother. “I know.” She reached over, hitting him on the shoulder. “Love you, bub.”

  He put his arm around the back of the truck and cuffed her around the neck. “Love you too, Princess.”

  They pulled up to the clubhouse, and the two of them got out. Walking inside, Drew saw his dad talking to a couple of other members. Catching his eye, Liam motioned that he wanted a minute with him. Drew went immediately to his dorm and waited for his dad to follow. A word with Liam could either be good or bad, and at twenty-eight years old, it still made him nervous.

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  Chapter Three

  Liam walked inside, shutting the door behind him as Drew had a seat on his bed. Taking a minute to look at his dad, Drew realized that the years had been good to him. He didn’t have a lick of gray on his head, and the only wrinkles he spotted were crow’s feet and smile lines. Drew hoped that was him when he was in his forties. Even though he didn’t have one ounce of Liam’s blood in his body, he hoped like hell he took after the man who had given him his last name.

  “I heard from a little birdie that you saw Charity today.” Liam had a seat in the chair across from the bed, putting his elbows on his knees.

  Damn his sister. “That little birdie’s got a big fuckin’ mouth.”

  Liam couldn’t help the grin that came to his face. “The two of you always fight dirty¸ even as grown-ass adults. I just want to make sure you’re okay after seeing her today. The months after she left were hard on you, son. Hell, the years following ain’t been a cakewalk.”

  There was no denying that, so he didn’t even try. He accepted the words Liam said and blew out a deep breath. “I know, and you were there for me every step of the way.”

  Drew looked out the passenger’s side window, his jaw set in a hard line, ignoring Liam, who sat in the driver’s seat of the truck.

  “Are you even listening to me right now? You’ve been a jackass to everybody who’s crossed your path the last three months. You’re mean to your mom, your sisters, I think Tyler’s about to take you over his knee, and I’m about to knock your ass out. It’s time that you talk, Drew. It’s time you let it out. You can’t hold all this shit in forever, it’s not good.” Liam beat his hand against the steering wheel. “I don’t know how to fuckin’ help you, and I will not sit back and watch you drink yourself into a stupor every night and fuck some hanger-on just because she’s available pussy. You’re allowed to grieve. She left, Drew. She left.”

  It was as if his dad saying the words lit a match to his anger, and the slow burn became a raging inferno. “I know!” he screamed. “I know. She left me, she left me standing there, holding my heart in my hand.” His lower lip quivered, and he tried valiantly to hold it still, but the emotions were too much. He’d gone through too much alone.

  “Every girl I’m with, I have to fuck her from behind, ’cause I can’t see their faces. The only face I see is Charity’s.” He breathed heavily, opening the door and hopping out of the truck.

  Liam followed, making sure Drew didn’t run away. He watched as Drew’s chest heaved and he leaned over against the quarter panel, holding himself up. Liam walked over and put his hand on Drew’s shoulder, squeezing tightly as he leaned into the younger man’s ear. “Let it out, Drew; let it out.”

  A scream that could only be described as the howl of a wounded animal came from deep within his chest. He beat the metal of the truck with his fists until they were red with blood, and only then did Liam pull him back and put his arms around him.

  “Goddamn, son, I didn’t know. I knew you were hurting, but I didn’t know how much.”

  Drew wiped his bloody knuckles along his nose, leaving a streak as he did so, sniffing softly. “I try to hide it. I don’t want anyone to know she affects me this much. I don’t want her to hear and try to come back. There’s nothing for her here, and I wouldn’t do that to her, but I feel like a part of me has died. I don’t know if I’m ever going to be whole again.”

  “You will,” Liam promised. “You will.”

  “I’m straight, Dad, I would tell you if I wasn’t. It’s been a lot of years since I sat on the side of the road, beating the shit out of a truck because my teenage heart was broken.”

  *

  Liam glanced at his son, taking in the strong jawline. He had slimmed down from the football player he’d been in high school, but he was still one of the strongest men they had in the MC. He and Tyler still worked out every day, and most days now, Drew kicked Tyler’s ass. He knew without a doubt that Drew was physically strong, but like any good father, he worried about the emotional side. Losing Charity before had sent his son into a downward spiral, one he didn’t want to see happen again. Many parts of Heaven Hill were now resting on Drew’s broad shoulders. There was too much at stake.

  “If you feel like you’re having a hard time, I want you to come to me.”

  “I will, old man.” Drew laughed when Liam scowled. “But is this really what you wanted to talk to me about?”

  Liam reached into the pocket of his favorite pair of worn jeans and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. Many people had gone to the vapes, but he always loved the feel of the nicotine rushing through his body, the way the butt of a cigarette felt against his lips. Drew was the same way, so he offered the pack to his son before he lit the end, inhaling deeply. In many ways the whole group were all throwbacks to an era that was quickly going away.

  “What I really want to talk to you about is the fact that Charity’s here on club business. We purposely kept you out of the loop, for your own good.” Liam waited for the explosion he thought would be coming.

  “What the fuck?” Drew ran his hand over his skull cut. Why hadn’t anyone thought to tell him this?

  “She wanted to come back to Bowling Green, no matter what. That was always in her plans, but there’s been an issue that’s come up at CRISIS, and Meredith reached out. Charity agreed to help, and now she’s here. She’s under Heaven Hill’s protection while she’s working on the CRISIS situation,” Liam explained, trying to keep the explanation as brief as possible. There would be questions he knew he wouldn’t be able to answer.

  Drew blinked. “That’s a lot of info to lay down on me in the matter of a few minutes. You wanna explain what she’s doing?”

  “I’d rather you not get involved.” Liam knew that Drew was too close to the situation.

  This was non-negotiable. “Too fuckin’ bad, Dad. If anybody is protecting her, it’s me.”

  Liam smiled slowly, enjoying seeing the life back in his son’s eyes. It had been a long time coming. “We’ll have a meeting in ten minutes. It can’t be only you protecting her; she could need round-the-clock supervision, depending on how this goes.”

  Before Drew could ask any more questions, Liam was up and out the door.

  “Fuck,” Drew cursed. If there was one thing he hated, it was to be left in the dark, and in this instance, he’d been blacked out.

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  Chapter Four

  Drew hated to be the last person to know something, so he intentionally waited until the very last minute to make his way into the meeting. Having a seat at the table, he sat between his best friend, Dalton, and his other friend Cash. Cash wasn’t a member of Heaven Hill, but he was a trusted acquaintance, and they liked to keep him in the loop.

  Purposely, he sat back against his chair and acted uninterested, even when Liam called the meeting to order. Immature as it w
as, it was his own rebellion.

  “As some of you know,” his old man said, “Charity has been retained by the club to help with the situation at CRISIS.”

  “What situation is that?” he asked as obnoxiously as he could. They’d left him out, and he wanted them to suffer for it. He wanted them to have to explain it in front of everyone. This pissed him the fuck off.

  Tyler cleared his throat from where he sat beside Liam and leveled Drew with a glare. “Don’t be a little shit. There’s a woman and her daughter who showed up two weeks ago. Both were badly beaten. It took a while, but Mer convinced them to confide in her. Turns out they are the wife and daughter of Dixon McCall.”

  Any fidgeting, any talking, any half-ass paying attention at the table stopped. They all knew this man, they all knew this name.

  “Did you say Dixon McCall?” Rooster asked the question everyone was thinking.

  “I did.” Tyler nodded. “Now you all see why we need someone we can trust. This woman wants out of her marriage, and she’s going to have to pretty much go into witness protection when this is all said and done. She has enough on that asshole to put him away for the rest of his life. Charity is doin’ this shit pro bono as a favor to us; the least we can do is give her protection and the respect she deserves.”

  Drew saw red. Dixon McCall was the leader of a white separatist group called The League of Rogue Nations. Most of them were low-level meth addicts who begged, borrowed, and stole to get high. Dixon, however, was different. He liked pain, and he liked to inflict that pain on women who stood in his way. If there was one thing Dixon hated more than a person of color, it was a woman who had a station in life above him. Charity was in deep shit.

  “How could y’all do this to her?” he asked, his temper getting the better of him. “How could you ask her to do this?” He saw red, and he wanted to beat some ass.

  “You better watch your mouth,” Tyler told him. “My wife is the one that called her, my wife is the one who stands beside her. Meredith wouldn’t do something she didn’t believe in.”

  It was on the tip of his tongue to ask Tyler if his wife was looking to get raped again, but Drew wisely kept that question to himself. He didn’t want to die tonight. “I’m pissed, and as long as you all understand that, then I guess we’re good to go.” He slammed his hand down on the table and stood up. “And I’m tellin’ you now. If one hair on her head gets hurt on anyone’s watch, I will take it out of your ass.”

  Dalton put his hand on Drew’s back and tried to get him to calm down.

  “I think we’re all going for the same outcome here,” Jagger interjected. “We want the League gone, we want this poor woman in witness protection, and we want our women alive and well. Nobody is against you, Drew.”

  Drew cracked a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “I didn’t say you were, but it’s a little fishy to me that nobody told me Charity was coming back to town.”

  Liam had had enough. “Because we knew you’d act exactly how you’re acting right now. This is not a pissing contest, my man; this is about keeping someone alive, so if you’re not interested in that, don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out. We’ve got to work together, something we have always done, to make sure this is successful, Drew. Nobody wants to see anyone get hurt, least of all me. So if you need to show what a big man you are, come and take a shot. If not, sit your ass down and let’s work out a plan on how we’re going to make this happen.”

  The room was tense as they waited to see what would go on between father and son. Slowly, Drew had a seat. “Okay.” He released a sigh. “Let’s get to work.”

  *

  “I take it you saw Drew?”

  Charity cut her eyes to Mandy and laughed. “Saw him would be an understatement. I can’t believe y’all kept it from him that I was back in town. It was like he’d seen a ghost.”

  “Don’t lie to me though.” Mandy had a seat on the couch in Charity’s new apartment, taking a break from helping the other woman move in. “How did it feel to see him?”

  That was the million dollar question. How had it felt?

  “It was different,” Charity admitted, sweeping her dark hair into a top knot on her head. “It was a shock. I made it a point not to let you send pictures, not to friend him on Facebook or any other social media. I didn’t want to see how he was living his life for the past ten years, but the instant I saw him today, I wanted to know exactly what he’d done and what he’d seen.”

  “He’s done a lot.” Mandy’s reply was dry, and she kept it as gentle as possible. “He’s seen a lot too, but he still has a picture of you in his wallet. Every once in a while, I’ll catch him looking at it.”

  “Does he look at it because he misses me, though, or does he look at it because he misses what we had together?”

  “I don’t know,” Mandy answered honestly. “I can tell you that he’s never kept a woman around since you’ve been gone. So many of them try to get their hooks in him, but he never lets them. One and done, that’s Drew now.”

  Charity giggled, throwing a piece of bubble wrap at Mandy. “You’re bad.”

  “Totally the truth. You’re the last one I remember seeing more than once.”

  “Drew must see something in them,” Charity argued.

  “Yeah, they’re good in the sack, and they offer him a distraction from the memory of you. That’s all they have been, and that’s all they will be. Most of them, when they nod, rocks rattle, for real. They are not the brightest crayons in the box.”

  The two of them cracked up, laughing like they used to when they were teenagers. In the blink of an eye, ten years were gone and they were those same eighteen-year-old girls, giggling and rolling their eyes at girls who only did one thing. A part of Charity hoped like hell that she and Drew could revert back the same way she and Mandy had.

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  Chapter Five

  “Are you sure you don’t want to take my spot?”

  Drew looked at Dalton and nodded. “I’m sure. Dad gave us a rotation for a reason. I need to respect that. The last thing I need is for there to be friction between the two of us, because then I hear it from mom too. I only ask one thing—let me know how she looks, make sure she’s doing okay.”

  The “she” they were talking about was Charity. Today would be the first day she’d be speaking to the wife and child. Heaven Hill had made it a point to arrange protection for all involved. Tyler and Dalton were taking the first shift, and both of them had expected Drew to fight them for it.

  “I promise.” Dalton put his hand over his heart. “If anything looks out of the ordinary, you’ll be the first to know. We won’t fuck around; we’ll call that shit in.”

  Drew knew his friend spoke the truth. “How’s Mandy?” he asked, changing the subject.

  “She’s Mandy. We fight like cats and dogs half the time just to make up.” Dalton leveled his best friend with a smart-ass grin.

  “Dude, that’s my sister. My twin even.”

  “They say that twins can feel things about the other.” Dalton grinned wider. “Can you feel it when I’m…” His hips made thrusting motions.

  “Stop!” Drew covered his ears with his hands. “You’re lucky I don’t knock your teeth down your throat. I know where you were going with that.”

  “But it took your mind off of it for a minute, didn’t it?”

  Drew had to admit that it had. It still didn’t make him feel better that he wasn’t included in the first round of protection, but he knew Charity was in good hands. He also knew he couldn’t wait to see her again. One of the things he was now privy too, which he hadn’t been before, included her cell phone number.

  “I’ll talk to you in a bit.” Dalton waved as he walked over to his bike, swung his leg over the seat, started it, and roared away.

  For the first time in ten years, Drew swiped his thumb across his cell phone and searched for the contact that read Charity. Way back then, he’d deleted her contact information because he hadn’
t wanted to sabotage himself or her. The reason he’d pushed her out of his life was so she could make a better one for herself. His heart sped up as he typed out the message, and he pressed send before he thought better of it.

  Be careful today. Can’t wait to see you again. Maybe we can make that happen tonight? Come get you for a ride? Old times sake?

  He waited what felt like an eternity but was really only a few minutes. The little message bubble showed him she’d seen it and read it. When he was sure that she was going to dismiss it, an answer to his question popped up.

  I would love to! Should I meet you at the Clubhouse or do you know where my apartment is?

  He figured she knew without asking that he did in fact know where her apartment was, but he liked that she played coy. She was always trying to make him work for it. Nothing with Charity had ever been easy. She’d hardly ever given anything of herself that he hadn’t had to work for. It was one of the things he’d always loved most about her. With a huge smile on his face, he answered.

  I know where your apartment is. I’ll pick you up around seven.

  He didn’t phrase it as a question, because it wasn’t. He wanted to spend time with her, and he knew she wanted to spend time with him; otherwise, she wouldn’t have answered his text in the first place.

  Checking the time on his phone, he realized it was almost time for his shift at Walker’s Wheels. Ironic that in this moment, he was doing what he had done ten years previous. Texting Charity and making a date before getting on his bike and speeding to his job. When people had told him things would come back around, especially after she’d left, he hadn’t believed them, but now, for the first time in a long time, he felt as if there was something for him out there. He’d been floating along for a while, not really giving a shit day to day, doing things because he was supposed to, not because he wanted to.

  Aimless was a good way to describe his life up to now. He took direction well and helped where it was needed, but there was no passion in anything he was doing. Not even the women who kept him satisfied for moments at a time. It wasn’t ever enough to keep his interest. He felt almost like he had when he’d started using steroids as a teenager—directionless and hopeless. As adult, he could do a lot of damage with those feelings.