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“I want Raven,” Lexa sobbed, clinging harder to my leg. “I don’t want her to go.”
“Baby, I won’t be gone long,” I promised her as I crouched down to her eye level. “Please don’t cry,” I begged. I couldn’t handle her tears. They twisted something in my chest and made me want to cry too.
Lexa threw her arms around my neck and buried her wet face in my chest. “I want to be with you. Please, momma.”
My entire being melted and I held her closer. It wasn’t the first time that Lexa had referred to me as her momma before. She’d said “my momma” several times, but it was the first time she had actually called me that. I glanced at Willa, a little worried about what I might see there. For the first three years of Lexa’s life, she had been the closest thing that Lexa had to a mother. Now, after only a few months Lexa was calling me “momma”. Would she hate me for it?
When I met the other woman’s eyes she was smiling and I relaxed, thankful that she wasn’t going to take this moment away from me by getting upset.
Kissing Lexa’s cheek, I cupped her face. “I love you so much, Lexa,” I murmured. “You know that right?” She nodded her head as tears poured down her cheeks. “How much do I love you?”
“To the moon and back,” she whispered, repeating the words I told her every night as I tucked her into bed.
“I promise I’m only going to be gone a little while.” Her chin started to tremble again and I rushed on, hoping to keep her from breaking down again. “And at six, your Aunt Willa is going to bring you to me. Then, you and me, we’re going to welcome Uncle Jet home with the biggest hug the world has ever seen.” I kissed her cheek then pulled her tightly against me. “And then we’re going to get tummy aches from eating too much pizza and ice cream.”
She was still sniffling when I stood, but thankfully her tears had stopped. “Maybe you can make Uncle Jet a friendship bracelet as a surprise. He will like that. His favorite colors are blue and red.”
Blue eyes brightened ever so slightly. “O-okay.”
I kissed her again then rushed out the door, terrified that she would start crying again if I lingered. By the time I got to the bar, Willa had already texted me twice to let me know that Lexa was settling down and they were already making the bracelets. I blew out a relieved sigh and got to work.
Decorating wasn’t such a hard job, if you had help. Of course, I didn’t. All the guys had ridden down to meet Jet, and Gracie was working. I hadn’t wanted Lexa running around the bar while Willa helped me and there was no way in hell I was asking one of the sheep to help me. I knew they had their own plans for later that night, and I didn’t want them tainting what was a special day for me.
It took me several hours to get the place decorated the way I wanted it, and by the time I was done there was still an hour to go before Jet and the guys arrived. Tired, I cleaned up in the bathroom and then headed back into the bar. Maybe I should go home and cuddle with Lexa for a little while…
The thought had barely crossed my mind when I jerked to a stop in the middle of the bar. There was a man I didn’t recognize standing behind the bar, a bottle of Jameson in one hand and what looked like a camping lighter in the other. What the hell did he need something like that for? “Who the fuck are you?” I demanded.
The man gave me a cocky grin, showing me his even white teeth. He wasn’t hard on the eyes; he was actually pretty good looking—in a preppy athletic way that screamed ‘I’m a rich boy’. It was obvious to me simply from the way the guy held himself that he was the type that was used to having everything handed to him. The way his eyes raked over me made me want to scratch his face up with my nails, but I just stood there. There was something about him, something almost sinister that creeped me out in a way I’d never experienced before.
For the first time in my life I was scared of a man, and that pissed me off, but I wasn’t stupid enough to start raging at this guy.
This had to be Kevin Samson. There wasn’t any other explanation.
“Hello to you too, beautiful Raven.” His voice was low, kind of husky and full of something vile.
I wanted to run—that was my first thought. To run as fast and as far as I possibly could. My second thought was to kick this guy’s ass when he opened the bottle of Jameson and poured the contents across the bar top. No way. No fucking way. I wasn’t going to let this guy destroy my family’s bar.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I screamed when he lit the camp lighter and sat the whiskey on fire.
“I’m here to get redemption. Your MC took my frat house, the first real place I had ever called home. It’s only fair that I take something just as special away from them.” His smile was full of amusement and a vileness that made me want to bathe in holy water. Shit, this guy was a lunatic. Crazy to a whole new degree of insane.
Still smiling at me, he reached behind him for another bottle of whisky. Instead of opening it, he let it drop to the floor. When he began knocking more and more bottles off the shelves, I started walking backwards toward the door. I had to get out, call the cops and the fire department. If I didn’t, then he was going to burn the place down.
My heart twisted at the thought of him destroying Hannigans’. This place belonged to my family, to my MC. It was my dad’s legacy. If I lost it then it would be like losing him all over again. I backed up faster and faster, while Samson just grinned like the maniac he was and played with the lighter in his hands.
The smell of my family’s bar burning was so distracting that I didn’t hear anything or anyone else until cool hands touched my shoulders. I let out a small yelp of surprise as I turned to face the newcomer. When I came face to face with Bubbles, I didn’t know whether to be relieved or worried. She wasn’t smiling and I was pretty sure she was higher than a kite from the manic look in her eyes.
I thought she was trying to kick her habit, but when one of the MC’s jobs was to run protection for certain drug cartel members then that shit was always easy to get. Angel’s Halo had a strict rule against using, but it didn’t necessarily roll over to the club’s sheep.
“Bubbles?” What the fuck is she doing here?
“I was hoping you would still be here.” Her voice was full of venom, her smile a twisted kind of evil that I’d only seen in raging junkies. “Makes all of this worth it, actually.”
Clarity hit fast and with the force of a speeding bullet between my eyes. She was with Samson. Fuck, I was going to kick her skinny little ass as soon as I had this baby. She was so dead.
If you’d asked me which of the sheep were the most loyal to the club I would have told you Bubbles was in the top five, but I’d been seeing a difference in her in the last few weeks. Especially since Spider and Willa had announced they were getting married. Bubbles might fuck anything with an Angel’s Halo cut on, but I’d always suspected that she was a little in love with Spider.
Had she sold out to fucking Kevin Samson because the enforcer was going to get married to the chick that owned his heart?
