“Kid…I’m sorry that he is bullying you, but violence is no way to answer him. Look what happened to you.”
“Don’t you fight people for a living?” he asked me.
“No,” I said, simply. He didn’t need to know what I did for a living, all he needed to know was I worked with cars and bikes. “Who said that?”
“Lani.”
Fuck. I was ruining my kids' lives and I was barely in them. I thought I was doing it right for them, and instead, I was fucking up more just by being in their lives a little bit. “Bane…I’m sorry I’m not around. I made a promise to keep you guys safe, and sometimes it’s safer if no one knows you’re my kids. I hope when you’re older, you’ll understand that more.”
“I want to be okay with this, Dad, but…Lani says that you don’t love us, and I guess I just want to know if…maybe we did something to make you go away.”
I sat on the edge of his bed, making sure he was looking up at me. “There is not a force in this world that could ever make me not love you. It’s because I love you that I stay away. You say my job is violence. It can be. It comes with dangers that I can’t explain. I know it’s a cop out to say you’ll understand when you’re older, but it’s the truth right now. I know I have a lot of explaining to do, and I can’t tell you things now. It’s not safe for you to know things about me. I just want you to know that I love you, both of you. More than anything, okay?”
He nodded, a single tear falling down his cheek.
“No more fighting?”
Bane nodded. “Yeah, sure.”
Fuck. No one told you what it would be like to break your kid’s heart. No one warned you that you would feel like absolute dogshit when you couldn’t bring them joy.
“Bane, I swear, I will explain it all. It’s just not safe right now.”
Sighing, he nodded, and laid his head down on the pillow behind him. “I’m tired, Dad.”
I got up from the bed, leaning over to kiss his forehead, before I let him sleep. My heart was crushed when I looked up once I was outside to see my daughter Lani, leaving Mari’s side, before I could get to her.
“She’ll come around,” she said with a smile. “Is everything okay? You seem a little more rattled than I expected.”
Nodding, “Yeah. Just got a lot on with the club.”
“Go, he’s gonna be fine.”
“I need to explain to them soon,” I said to her. She nodded, almost as if she had been expecting it. “I just…don’t know how.”
“Try the truth, Dane.”
She put her hand on my wrist, but I wasn’t looking at her anymore. I was looking at the woman being wheeled in behind her. Her head was bleeding and she looked like she’d been through a war.
But I knew just who it was.
I moved over to her, stopping the gurney and looking into those brown eyes I knew so well. “Tavi.”
A torrent of rage pitched over when I realised she’d gone back to her abuser after our chat, and now she was in hospital. I growled at the orderlies who were trying to get her past me.
“Maverick,” she said, her voice croaky. “He…my….Mav…he has Van.”
I was on my way to my bike before I could stop myself. One thing on my mind.
Blood. Carnage. Possibly a prison term.
Whoever the fuck this Hardy Bainbridge fucker was. He didn’t deserve to live, and I’d be damned if Van was going to be used against Tavi.
Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I called Trojan.
“Yeah.”
“Address of Tavi and Hardy Bainbridge. Now.”
