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Tiger surrendered in session because he liked to take care of a woman. Craved it. Was satisfied by being allowed to serve her desires. Out in the world, Tiger didn’t consider it anyone else’s job to do what he was supposed to do. Care for those in his family, blood related or otherwise. Be someone others could look to for leadership, character. Someone who didn’t hesitate when a stand had to be taken.
Her hand was still on him, her fingers caressing his biceps under the sleeve, following the slash of the scar across the elephant’s ear. He glanced her way again. She made a gesture, a thumb following her sternum up toward her throat, then pointed to him.
I’m proud of you.
He didn’t know what it meant, but he read her expression as approval and care. “I’m glad you’re here,” he said.
She felt the unspoken words between them. The question. Did she want to always be here? At his side?
She put that in the same box as other things she wasn’t prepared to handle tonight. Plus there was no time to do so. As they pulled into the rest area, Neil and Lawrence right behindthem, she saw Colt was already there. Along with five Fallen Angels.
They had enough to handle.
“Stay here with her,” Tiger said in a low voice, glancing at the sleeping Aubrey. He pointed to the keys he’d left in the ignition. “If things go bad, get her the hell out of here, and call 911 if anyone tries to chase you down.”
He pulled out his phone and called up his address book. Her phone chimed. “I just sent you Rose and Bill’s contact info.”
He pocketed the phone and removed his sizeable nine-millimeter from beneath his seat. As he tucked it into his back waist band, pulling his shirt down over it, he gave her a long look.
Then he eased Aubrey’s feet to the seat and slid out of the truck.
A light drizzle was falling again. Tiger met Neil’s gaze as the SEAL emerged from his vehicle, Lawrence coming out of the passenger side. They’d talked about the plan back at the cottage, the possible ways this could go. They’d be ready.
Two of the Fallen Angels were on their bikes. Colt had come in an Escalade, one club member driving, two in the back.
If their father had still been alive, Tiger knew he wouldn’t have come with Colt. He’d have been strategizing their response toward those who’d taken her. Dad had never had much use for a girl. He loved Aubrey, but in a distant, Sunday picnic, hold her on his lap for a few minutes and then send her off kind of way. She was simply a possession no one was allowed to fuck with.
His father’s open casket funeral had been the first time Tiger had seen him in five years. He hadn’t felt much. The cauldronof poison feelings had been dumped out some time ago, drained with the expectations and hopes of the kid he no longer was. Though he’d had her in his life a far shorter time, it was his mother he still missed the most.
The Colt he’d grown up with was a different matter. He still saw that kid in his adult brother. Not just the few times he and Tiger had crossed paths, like at the funeral and memorial. When Nicole or Aubrey had talked about him, those memories were kept alive. He and his brother had stayed connected through that female bridge.
Their father was gone, but his influence on Colt was strong, even beyond the grave. Tiger needed to find the brother he’d once known inside the man he was now.
Tiger waited in front of his truck as Colt came toward them. The grim urgency and strain in his face told Tiger that Colt’s feelings toward his daughter, while not enough of what Tiger thought they should be, far exceeded what her grandfather’s had been.
He bypassed Tiger for now, making a beeline for that passenger side. At Tiger’s slight nod, Skye had the window down by the time he got there, though she didn’t get out. Colt’s face tightened further, but then he noted his daughter was sleeping. It at least gave the impression they weren’t denying him his daughter’s embrace.
When his brother leaned in and gazed at Aubrey, the way Skye’s face became softer and less guarded confirmed the depth of the emotions Colt revealed.
Colt reached in carefully to touch Aubrey’s hair. His shoulders eased down as he expelled a rough sigh. He gazed at her another moment, then adjusted the blanket over her shoulder before he backed off and turned toward Tiger.
When he closed the few steps between them, the club president hardass expression was back in place. The FallenAngels on bikes had moved under one of the picnic shelters to their left. Neil and Lawrence had responded in kind, positioning themselves to the right, where they had an equal vantage response point. Everyone seemingly casual, but most definitely not.
Colt’s gaze slid toward the SEALs, who were studying the Fallen Angels backup as impassively as they were being measured. The way two opposing forces had done it, ever since the first two armies faced one another across a field.
Colt’s dark blue eyes came back to Tiger’s. “So your hearing’s back.”
“Mostly.” Tiger tapped the hearing aids.
Colt’s shoulders were stiff. “You’re going to try and keep me from taking her home.”
“My hope is you’re not going to try to stop me from doing it. Her home’s with her grandparents.”
Colt’s jaw went hard. “That’s not happening.”
“You willing to kill me to keep me from it?”
“What kind of bullshit question is that?”
