AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Another silent few moments passed between us as we settled into this new phase of our relationship. I wasn’t sure where to go with it next. I felt like a fucking parenting manual would be good right about now. In the end, she broke the silence. “You’re gonna have to get used to me wearing earphones, though. When you want me and I can’t hear you, just message me.”
Fuck. This was a whole new world to me. “I’ve got a lot to learn, haven’t I?”
She raised her brows and nodded. “Yeah, and one other thing? Don’t call me baby. I’m not your baby anymore, Aiden.”
She’d always be my baby. One day she’d grasp that. I’d make fucking sure of it.
Chapter 12
r />
Hyde
“You’re late,” King said when I showed up ten minutes late at the address he’d sent me.
“Had some kid trouble, brother.”
His forehead wrinkled in a frown. “What happened?”
“My kid showed up on my doorstep this morning. She wants to stay with me for a few days or so after having a fight with her mother, which is good, but we got into it just before I was about to leave.”
“You got it sorted?”
I blew out a breath. “Fuck knows. I’m drowning here, man. Got no fucking clue what I’m doing, but I managed to calm her down enough to know she’d be at my place when I get home later. Now I’ve just gotta figure out how to get through to her that I want to be in her life.”
“Talk to her mother and find out what shit she likes to do and then spend time doing that with her. It’ll be a start. Time’s what you’ve gotta give.”
King never failed to surprise me with the shit he knew. He’d never had kids, but he’d spent a lot of time around them, so I figured he was probably onto something here.
Changing the subject, I said, “How’d you evade the feds?”
“Devil and Nitro caused a scene outside the clubhouse. Distracted Ryland enough for me to leave.” He nodded before casting his gaze towards a house down the street. Jerking his chin at it, he said, “That’s Dean’s house.” The asshole we’d been told could help us find Jacko’s murder. “I did some digging on him and he deals in stolen cars. Recently took up a heavy coke addiction and gets it from Marx. We’re not leaving here today until we get something out of him.”
“Agreed.”
We made the short walk to the house, and King took the front while I took the back. The place looked abandoned and filthy. The person who lived there didn’t appear to care about their surroundings. Overgrown grass and weeds filled the yard, peeling paint and dirt made up the outside of the house, and the backyard was a mess of old tyres and rusted car parts.
Finding a back door open, I easily entered the house and headed towards the bedroom where I could hear someone talking. Dean was on his phone. As I came into view, his eyes widened and he muttered, “Fuck, I gotta go, babe,” before dropping the phone and demanding, “What the fuck?” Yanking his gun out, he pointed it at me and pulled the trigger.
I ducked and narrowly avoided getting a fucking bullet in my chest. King was right behind me. Without hesitation, he entered the bedroom, taking purposeful strides towards the asshole. Dean shifted the aim of his gun and shot at King who took a bullet in his arm. That didn’t slow him down, though.
He grunted through the pain and bellowed, “Welcome to your worst fucking nightmare, Dean,” right before he punched him so hard in the face that it almost knocked him out.
By the time I joined them, King had the guy down, flat out on his back. He’d straddled him and pinned his hands to the floor above his head. No amount of fighting King helped the asshole; he was stuck beneath him, caged in by King’s legs that refused to budge. King had strength and grit that not many men I knew possessed. When he set his mind to something, nothing stood in his way.
“You good?” I asked King as I took a look at his arm where the bullet hit.
“Yeah, it just grazed me. Nothing I haven’t dealt with before.”
I bent to get a better look at Dean. Eyes full of hatred stared up at me, and I wondered how long and what efforts we’d have to go to in order to change that hatred to fear. And whether we’d have to introduce some horror to make that happen. After being shot at, I was itching for some of that, and I figured King would be too.
“Next time you wanna shoot a man, make sure you know who the fuck you’re shooting first,” I barked. “King here doesn’t appreciate bullets in his body.”
Dean spat up at King. “Go fuck yourself.”
His spit landed on King’s face, and I felt the energy change in the room as King reared backwards, a look of absolute rage settling over his face. After he had wiped the spit away, he spoke, his tone low and murderous. “You’ll regret that.”
Without pause, he swiftly stood, bringing Dean up with him. Grabbing him by the shirt, he pulled him out of the room, down the hallway and into the small, dirty kitchen. Yanking out a chair at the kitchen table, he shoved him down onto it. He then took both of Dean’s hands and bound them together tightly with a large tea towel he found next to the kitchen sink.
