Page 23 of Lash’s Love

That grinds me even more, “Get him in here.”

“Baby, only if you promise me you’ll stay calm. I don’t know what’s going on in your head, but I don’t like that look in your eyes.”

“I will stay as calm as I can Toby. But get my father now.” I say grinding my teeth. Then I take some deep breaths as Toby walks out of the room and hear whispers from the next room. Then the next thing I know my father and Toby walk in.

I look at my father and he flinches a little. “I need you to leave.”

He looks confused, “Baby girl, what’s going on? I’m not leaving. You just woke up after months. We were so afraid of something happening to you.”

“Oh were you, Bulldog? Were you so worried? This is your fault! All of this! You kept secrets and lies! Are you happy now?!? Happy that you kept those secrets and lies! Happy that instead of actually doing something about this problem when it came up you waited until what? Until they killed my mother! Until they stole my children! Now they’ve taken time from four of my children! Are you fucking happy now?!?” With each sentence my voice gets louder and louder. The machine starts beeping more frantically. I’m attempting to take breaths to keep myself calm. My father has tears in his eyes and he looks like I struck him with every word that comes out of my mouth.

“Sophie, calm down please. This isn’t his fault.”

I glare at my husband, “You’re only saying this because you’re protecting the club. Protecting him and all his fuck ups! I’ve lost so much already! Almost lost so much more because he thought that what he was facing wasn’t a threat! Look at us! Look at everything that has happened! My children almost lost their mother! I missed giving birth to my babies! I missed holding them for the first time! They were born early because of some psycho bitch that never got shut down! That the fucking club, that my fucking father let into our lives! Some fucking bitch who thought I stole something from her! That same bitch I warned you all about over and over again!”

Toby straightens up. “I am not protecting the club. I am not protecting him.” He says scarily quiet. “I am protecting you! I know what we’ve lost and what we’ve almost lost! I’ve lived it! I have been scared out of my fucking mind these last few months and before that I was scared for Dash and Dallas! All while being pushed away from my wife! My whole fucking world! I want you to calm down because I can’t fucking lose you Sophie! I can’t fucking see you struggling to breath, I thought I lost you again when I ran in here and found them sedating you! This has nothing to do with the damn club! Nothing to do with anything but you! I know you’re angry, I get it. I know the easiest person to blame is your father, that I get too. You want to blame the people that love you the most because they will never stop loving you no matter what they say, but baby, I know that what you are saying to your father will kill you eventually! You don’t mean it.”

“I do mean it.” I pretty much whisper. I look over at my father, “I need you to leave. I need you to go back to the compound and to my house and pack up your stuff in my guest house and go back to your own home. I can’t deal with you. You’ve destroyed everything. Your stupid fucking pride. The fact that you thought you could handle everything on your own. It’s taken so much from me, from my family. I want you to leave.”

My dad looks at me at this point, tears streaming down his face, which does not happen often. My dad doesn’t cry much especially in front of us, he tries to stay strong. He walks up to me and looks down at me. I can’t meet his eyes. He bends down and places his forehead on mine and rubs his hand through my hair. He moves away placing a kiss on my forehead. Leaving his lips lingering.

“I love you my Sophie girl, so much. No matter what you think, I’ll never stop loving you and being there when you need me. Be safe. I will be there if you need me.” With that he straightens up and heads out of the room without turning back. Toby looks at me and then looks towards the door.

“Go. I know you want to talk to him. When he’s gone, bring me my babies. I want to meet our boys.”

He nods and heads out the door.

Chapter Twenty-One

Lash

I head out of the room after Bulldog and he turns around and looks at me.

“She didn’t mean that. She’s just angry, give her some time she’ll be okay. She didn’t mean any of that. You’re her dad, one of her people. She’s going to be crushed when she comes out of this fog and realizes what she’s said.”

He puts his hand on my shoulder and squeezes. “It’s okay, you never really hold anything against your kids when they are angry. Every time they tell you they hate you, their attitudes when they are teenagers. I love all my kids and all the kids that we’ve brought into our home. They aren’t perfect, but they're mine. They’re ours, Missy’s and mine. Sophie has been through a lot and you’re right, if I am who she needs to be angry with then so be it. I can be that person for her even if it breaks my heart she wants me to leave and doesn’t want to talk to me for a while. She’s my girl, my baby girl. I’ll give her her space. I’ll always be there when she needs me. I did make a promise though, that after she had the babies I’d head out. I think I’m going to do that. Tills and Davis are going to be staying with Tanner. I’ve got some answers I need to get and honestly, I need to head out on the road too. Morn my ol’ lady on my own in my own way. Take care of my girl and my grandbabies. I love you, Tobs.”

With that he pulls me in for a hug. After he pats my back a couple of times and pulls back looking at me, he turns and walks away. You can see the heartbreak in his eyes and I hurt for him. The man has done so much for me and so much for us. I know Sophie is hurting right now and I know she has so much frustration and so much anger, but Bulldog doesn't need to be her punching bag. I’m not going to be bringing that up right now, but Sophie is stubborn so even when I bring it up I know that until she is ready to deal with everything she’s not going to apologize or let up on her anger for what has gone on with the club lately.

I go into the twins room and thankfully they are off oxygen and no longer in their incubators. I pick up Lucas and before I bring him to Sophie, I check his diaper and then swaddle him back up and head to the room Sophie is in.

“Here is our boy, Lucas.”

She looks up and smiles. Then I place him in her arms.

“He is beautiful, Toby. I missed two months with them.” She has tears in her eyes. “I missed being able to hold them after they were born. They probably don’t even know me.”

“Give me one minute. I’m going to get Leon. Then we will address all of this.”

I walk back to the other room and grab Leon. Walking back into her room I scoot on the bed next to her holding our boy close so she can see him.

“Baby, they know you. They spent months with you, and even though you were out we talked to them about you and we played videos so they could hear your voice. They know their mama.”

She looks up at me and I lean my forehead down to hers. I press my lips to hers. “We are going to be okay, Soph. We can get through anything. I promise you, everything is going to be okay.”

She nods her head and looks at me, “Did you get them?”

“We got who took you, baby and then some, but not the head of the snake yet.”