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“Considering that she could’ve been shot too!”
“Considering that she was nearly kidnapped!”
“Kidnapped?” I repeat quietly. My throat goes raw, and my aching chest refuses to expand. “Who…why? An enemy of yours?” I ask. When he doesn’t respond, I tell him, “Lyla thought someone was following her at the wedding reception. Now this shooting and someone trying to kidnap her. That shit isn’t a coincidence, is it?”
“No,” he answers before he paces away from me.
“What the fuck is going on, Isaac?” I ask when I grab his shoulder to spin him around to face me. “Who is coming after Lyla? A rival MC?”
He shakes his head. “I wished that was all it was. I don’t think the son of a bitch has a gang. He works alone.”
My heart gallops faster in my tight chest. “Why is he targeting you or Lyla? Who is he, and how do we kill him?”
“If I knew where he was, he would already be dead, wouldn’t he?” Isaac yells.
“Why is the fucker coming after Lyla instead of you?”
Isaac’s shoulders slump like they’re too heavy to hold up any longer. He turns away from me again, so I barely hear him when he says, “Because she’s his daughter.”
“What?” I’m certain I must have misheard him.
Turning to face me again, he says, “You want to be with Lyla? You want to keep the peace between your club and mine?”
“I… Yes,” I answer with the truth instead of a lie. The last few days, I missed her with my entire body, so much it aches. Even if she hasn’t forgiven me for shooting out Thane’s tires, being reckless and putting them both in danger, I still want to see her, to try and convince her to give me another chance.
And of course, I would do anything to prevent bloodshed between our clubs. I don’t want my brothers, Hugo, Jordan, or Greer to get hurt for some territorial bullshit. And I know Remy would never close the chapter, no matter what the Devil Hounds threaten to do to us. His pride wouldn’t let him.
“Okay,” Isaac says as he trudges over to the row of bikes. Reaching into his saddlebag, he pulls out a mangled folder, several edges bent, and offers it to me. “We’ll back off the Savage Kings, and I’ll give you my blessing to be with Lyla. All you have to do is help me keep her safe and kill this man if you see him.”
I open the folder and try to hold the pages toward the light from the bar to read them.
There’s a handwritten, cursive note at the top of a page showing a mug shot of a lean man, his prison behavior record where he was serving his time, nearly twenty years’ worth. On the next page is why – a list of all the charges he was convicted of.
I thought “kidnapped” was the most horrific word I would have to deal with today. Nothing prepared me for seeing the word “rape”over and over and over again. Three different charges of the combination of crimes, all for which the man was convicted.
“I don’t understand,” I mutter as I slam the folder shut, wishing I hadn’t ever opened it. “Why would this sick fucker come after Lyla?”
“I just told you!”
It takes longer than it should for me to remember.
“He really is her biological father?”
“Yes,” Isaac answers through gritted teeth.
“And you want to kill him? Lyla’s biological father?”
“Yes. And most of all, she canneverknow anything about him.”
I scoff. “You also want me to also lie to her? The killing of a rapist I could handle, but lying to her is a big hell no,” I tell him as I slap the folder against his chest. Lying would only come back to bite me in the ass, and I can’t fucking stand liars. For all I know, Isaac could just be setting me up to get Lyla to hate me.
“Jesus, Fulton. Don’t you get it?”
“Get what, Isaac?”
“Her mother and I were happily married. Laura was still recovering from giving birth to Laurel. We hadn’t even started having sex again, and Lyla wasn’t conceived from a goddamn affair either!”
At first, I can’t figure out why he’s telling me this shit about his family. But once I put all the pieces together and come up with only one explanation. “You mean…”
