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“Whoa, Nova. You do not want to do that,” Tripp called out to me, and I could see that his patience was beginning to wear thin.
“Get rid of them and get my father out here,” I demanded again.
“Scout, Bagger, and Breakneck go inside. Bagger get Mr. Williamson ready.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Breakneck argued.
“Breakneck, she doesn’t trust us because of what you did to her, and you didn’t help that any when you stood there and took the back of another woman, who was hanging all over you, again. You’re making it worse. Get the fuck back in the clubhouse, go to my office, and stay there until I call for you. That’s a fucking order.”
Breakneck hadn’t taken his eyes off me, but he shook his head which sunk forward on his shoulders as he turned to follow the directions he’d been given. Scout put her arm around him to take him back inside again. Tripp turned to watch and shook his head, clearly disappointed.
“Scout!” He shouted. Both of them turned to see why their club president had done so. “You keep making things worse and we’ll reconsider your patch.” Breakneck shook off her hold as they disappeared into the clubhouse. I was even more shocked that Tripp threatened her position in the club than I had been by my own audacity to come here and bluff them into giving my father back to me.
My eyes slid to where Kip stood watching everything go down. He seemed just as shell-shocked by seeing Scout all touchy-feely with Breakneck. Apparently, whatever was going on between them was new to him, too.
Honestly, they should both be ashamed because Kip was the one they were going to hurt by carrying on with one another. Then again, it wasn’t my business and further proved that the Savage Vipers couldn’t be trusted. It looked like they weren’t even loyal to one another anymore, if they ever had been.
“Nova, I’m so fucking glad to see you,” Kip said as he started inching closer to me, after snapping out of his shock over how close his friend and ex-fiancé were.
“Stay where you are,” I warned, though my voice was already losing the edge of madness as the ache in my heart squeezed different emotions from me.
He stopped mid-step and stared at me. “Nova, it’s me, Kip.”
“She knows who you are, Son. The girl is pissed, she doesn’t have amnesia,” Tripp groused. “Thanks to Breakneck, and whatever’s going on with Jeremy Williamson, she no longer trusts any of us to get close to her.”
Kip looked like he might throw up. “Is that true?” He asked. When I said nothing, he took a step back and put his hand over his heart, as if he needed to hold some kind of pain in. I knew that gesture because I’d worn a similar one far too many times.
“I trusted you with my son. I put my boy’s life in your hands every single day. I moved you out of the house of fucking horrors and tried to take care of that problem for you. Nova, the last we heard Jeremy Williamson was the man who abandoned you, threw you out of your home, and left you to die.
“We picked him up because he was the last person seen with you on the surveillance video from the gas station where we found your car. We thought he was the reason you disappeared, and that you might not have gone willingly. Then he was seen months later, poking around in the Violent Order’s business and pointing a giant finger in your direction while he did it.” He swiped at his face. “We all thought you were dead, or soon to be, considering the sloppy way your father was going about things!” That last admission was yelled across the parking lot at me.
“The last man who abandoned me and threw me out to fend for myself was your club brother.”
“No,” Kip denied as he vehemently shook his head.
I pointed at him accusingly. “THAT! That right there is why I can’t trust you. He is your club brother and can do no wrong. I’m just some girl who brought trouble to your club’s doorstep. He threw me out the minute Tripp lifted the lockdown. He couldn’t wait to get me out of there. My safety wasn’t a priority to him, getting laid - by people who weren’t me - was. And all of you went along with it. Even your president allowed me to walk out of that clubhouse and drive away that day.”
“Did you meet our new prospect on the gate today?” Tripp asked. I nodded my response. “He’s there because I relieved the last one of duty after he let you through the gate that day. I expected them to hold you back and not allow you to leave by yourself. I gave strict orders that we were using the buddy system, and even stricter orders that someone was supposed to beyourshadow no matter where you went. I didn’t chase after you that day because I didn’t think you’d be able to get anywhere but the parking lot to cool down.
“Shit, girl, I stood there and tormented Breakneck with the fact that you were probably long gone, just to get his reaction and see him hurt the way he hurt you. The joke was on me though because our old prospect screwed up.”
I stood there staring at father and son as Tripp revealed his truth. Part of me demanded that I not believe him. The other part of me, the sane one, knew he was telling the truth.
“We’ve been searching for you ever since you went missing. When Jeremy Williamson came back to town, we snatched him up because we thought he made you disappear. He made us believe that he did once we got him here. He took great pleasure in telling us that we’d never see his daughter again. I’m not gonna lie, Nova, we beat on that man while thinking he did the worst with you. He never once gave you up.”
“You hurt him?” I cried and dropped to my knees. “He helped me. He hid me away so no one would be able to hurt me. That’s all he’s guilty of - taking care of me. His family threw me out and took everything while he was out of the country. This is so messed up. Why is everything so damn messed up?”
“We didn’t know. He never said one word in his own defense.”
“And why would he defend himself to the people who he thought hurt his daughter? The man cut his own family off, ruined them financially for what they did to me. Did you think he’d tell you where to find me after knowing I left here with my heart broken? I spent our time in the mountains trying to put myself back together and the only thing I managed to say about this club was that y’all taught me another lesson about not being able to trust anyone. Of course, he wasn’t going to tell you where I was or cooperate after that.”
“Shit,” I heard Kip hiss under his breath. “I wish you had come to me, Nova. I swear to God, I didn’t know Breakneck was with anyone else until I came back to the clubhouse that day. If I had known, I would have told you. I would have been there for you the same way you have been there for me and my son. You would have come before his dumbass decisions. You might not want to believe me, but you filled more of a hole than the nanny position I hired you for.
“My sister and I were estranged for so long, that you became a sister to me, too. Being a part of an MC and having brothers means someone always has your back, it doesn’t mean those people are always right or that we take their side above all. Sometimes, they’re wrong. Breakneck was wrong.”
I shook my head and stared at the dirt. Whether Kip said he would have had my back or not, it was easy to say something and another to prove it to be true. I was tired of letting people get away with walking all over me, treating me as though I was disposable, and thinking that I’d just roll over and take it. Maybe, for a while there, I was broken enough to allow it to happen, but my time away had taught me something about myself. I had worth and I was worth more than what Breakneck gave me, even if I couldn’t blame the whole club for his actions.
“They brought Jeremy around. He’s inside, but you’re going to have to come in to see him for yourself, sweetheart. We can’t have him outside right now in full view of the road. I promise you that I’ve already texted our doctor and he’s on the way to tend to your father before you take him out of here.”
