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I’d never felt this way before like I was fighting my own feelings.
What I’d felt for Calli’s mom hadn’t exactly been instant, but it had slowly climbed, built, and developed into something.
This attraction with Shay had been like a rollercoaster—off like a rocket from the moment we met. The ups and downs were constantly doing my fucking head in, and yet, every time I saw an opportunity to get the hell off, I just held on instead.
“I’m gonna head home.” Shay grabbed a small backpack from the desk and delicately slipped it over her shoulder.
“Hawk will give you a ride.”
“While I appreciate that,” she countered, smiling politely at my VP and strategically shuffling around us, moving toward the exit, “… I’ll probably call Calli on the way home and have a complete breakdown, which I’d rather no one witness. Then when I walk through the door at home, I can just fall into my bed and sleep this bullshit off.”
Everything in my bones told me not to let her leave, but as she backed away, I was distracted by the frantic father I’d called on our way here, bursting through the double doors behind her and rushing toward me. “Alice? Where is she?”
I glanced past him just as a blur of blue scrubs slipped out the emergency room doors, my hands curling into tight fists as I battled the need to run after her.
“Bishop? Bishop, what’s going on? Is Alice okay? Is she here?”
Sucking in a deep breath, the tension in my shoulders fell away, and I finally allowed my attention to turn to Alice’s dad, Evan Hersh. “She’s over here,” I said, nodding toward the cubical across the room.
The second his eyes fell on her, his knees weakened, and he grabbed hold of the nursing station desk to steady himself. “She okay?”
The doc cleared his throat. “She’s alive, but she’s going to need a lot of help and support to get through the trauma she’s experienced. Not just her body but also her mind. I need to check on a few patients, but I’ll be around soon to discuss with you the next steps toward her recovery.”
Evan patted him on the back. “Thanks, doc.”
Shay’s friend nodded and gathered some files off the desk before disappearing down the hall.
“I’ll come by and pay you guys once I get Alice out of here. I don’t have it on me, but I’m good for it, I swear.”
He was good for it. I’d done my research.
Evan Hersh was an investor and one of the lucky people who’d put money into Bitcoin when it was new and upcoming. He owned property, companies, and had shares in fucking everything.
He was good for the fifty thousand, and I didn’t feel bad fucking taking it from him, except the club hadn’t been the one to find Alice.
“You should really be paying Shay. I showed her a photo of Alice last week, and she was the one who recognized her and stopped him from leaving with her.”
Evan shook his head. “I understand that, but if I hadn’t come to the club and given you those photos, this would have never happened,” he argued, his eyes continuously flicking back to where his daughter lay as if he was scared she would vanish again. “I promised to pay for your help, and I’m a man of my word.”
I shrugged. As I said, the man wasn’t hurting for cash, and if he wanted to give it to the club, I’d happily fucking take it. “A deal’s a deal.”
Though, when he delivered that money, I’d be calling a very serious point of order in church to decide exactly what to do with it.
Shay deserved it.
And while it would benefit the club, we also weren’t exactly hurting for cash. Both points that I’d be making very clear to my brothers.
“The cops in the lobby taking statements said the guy they arrested was absolutely feral,” Evan said, lowering his voice. “They said maybe I should leave the state with Alice for a little while and hope he loses interest.”
“They give you a name?” Hawk enquired, his eyes shifting to meet mine.
There weren’t many bastards in Detroit we didn’t know in one way or another, the club having spilled blood more times than I could count—ours and theirs—in order to come to what we called understandings about our city.
The only reason I took on this little side project in the first place was because, as far as I knew, none of those people we had deals with ran girls, at least not ones they just pimped out on the streets or that they had to drug to keep in line.
“Vince… Vince something…” The businessman’s brow pinched tight between his eyes as he searched deep within the chaos of his mind. “Martelli!”
I swear to God, I felt the room’s temperature go cold.
