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She squeezed her eyes closed for a moment, tightening her hold on Lolly before she returned her gaze to me.
“At least put the safety back on. Trust me, this is going to come as a shock, and you don’t want to do anything crazy before your brain processes things.”
What the fuck was she on about? Anger shot through me that she had so little faith in me. “How about you fucking show me some damn trust and get your ass over here behind me. I’m done fucking around, Flick. You kept shit from me, shit I should’ve been told about. Instead of trusting me, you went behind my back, and it nearly cost me both of you, my fucking heart and soul.”
Even I could hear the ice in my tone, but I didn’t give a fuck. I was on edge and in no mood to negotiate a damn thing.
A pained expression passed over her face before she nodded and took a step toward me. She was tense and looked worried I was gonna shoot first and ask questions later. If she didn’t hurry the fuck up, she might have reason to be worried. Because so help me, if whoever else was in that house had a weapon trained on either of my girls, I intended to shoot them the second I saw them.
As Flick came closer, I kept my gun aimed on the doorway, steady and ready to fire as I waited for a muzzle flash or any other sign that a target remained in the house.
“Get behind me.”
Thank fuck that for once in her life, she didn’t argue before she moved to stand directly behind me.
She pressed her palm against my shoulder, her warmth cracking a little of the ice I’d let settle over me. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Gordon. You’re right, I should have told you, trusted you. Now it’s time for you to make a better choice than I did and trust me. You will never forgive yourself if you fire that weapon right now.”
Why the fuck did she think I was going to shoot before I saw the threat? Like I didn’t have any control over my fucking trigger finger. It’d been a long damn time since I’d lost my temper and gone crazy. The Marines helped me hone that shit into the ice-cold calm I was currently sporting. Clearly, Flick’s brother had told her stories about my younger self and somehow, she thought that shit was still how I rolled. Like we hadn’t been together for two fucking years, and she didn’t know me any better.
Unable to find words, I grunted in response. Lolly’s whimper about shattered my heart. When she wrapped her little hand in the sleeve of my shirt, I wanted nothing more than to turn to her. I was scaring my daughter, but I couldn’t leave them open to danger. Couldn’t put down my weapon until I saw who’d been in the fucking house with them.
“She saved us, Taz. Her actions saved both our lives. Please lower your weapon so she can come out.”
For some reason, Flick was clearly set on saving whoever was in that house from me. Wanting to end this shit so we could all get out of here, I yelled, “Come out with your hands where I can see them!”
My world stopped when a woman stepped into the doorway with her arms out, hands facing me. She had to be a hallucination.
“Uh, hey, Donny. I’m with Flick on this one. I’d really appreciate not having a gun pointed my way.”
There was no way she could really be here. It couldn’t be…
Then Eagle was at my side. “Let me have it, brother.”
My whole body felt numb, and I didn’t even try to resist Eagle as he slipped the gun from my grip. That woman couldn’t be my baby sister all grown up. It simply wasn’t possible.
“How? I don’t understand.”
She reached up and rubbed her palm over the back of her neck. “That’s a conversation I’d prefer to have somewhere a little more private than this, if you don’t mind.”
I knew several of my brothers were behind me since their bikes had cut off before Flick had come out, so I wasn’t surprised when Scout came up to stand beside me on the opposite side of Eagle.
“Take your family back to the clubhouse, brother. Some of the others will stay and clean this mess up.”
I nodded at his words, but it was another few minutes before I could tear my gaze off Grace long enough to act on it.
* * *
JACIE
Donny hadn’t taken his gaze off me for more than a few seconds since I’d stepped out of that piece of shit house. While one of his buddies drove the car with us back to their clubhouse, he’d sat in the rear seat next to me, his daughter wrapped in his arms as he watched me. Now we were in what looked like a bar that was apparently part of their clubhouse, and he was still staring at me.
“I’m not going to vanish if you look away, Donny.”
He just grunted and kept staring at me. His daughter was now fast asleep, secure in her daddy’s arms. Seeing my big brother with that little girl was enough to melt my insides. I didn’t have many memories from my early years, before I lost everything, but the ones I did have included how great Donny had been to me.
“It’s annoying as hell, aint it?”
I turned to Flick, who was coming down the stairs to the rear of the space. There must be bedrooms up there as Flick was freshly showered and in clean clothes now. “What’s annoying?”
