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Which was why I’d felt a burning need to go back to Lake Worth and the Black Reign compound for the Thanksgiving break. Mom and Dad had stayed. Dad because the men of the club would protect the community as best as they could from looting, Mom because she refused to leave Dad. I understood how she felt. I didn’t want to leave my home and family to fend for themselves. Going away to college had been hard enough. But staying away during a disaster? I couldn’t do it.
Only now I was stuck a half hour outside of Palm Beach. Forty minutes from Lake Worth. The roads were closed to incoming traffic and I’d just run out of gas. As I stood outside my car, watching the darkening sky as the wind picked up, I tried like shit to prevent myself from calling my dad. I didn’t want to explain my stupidity, but he had to know where I was. He’d worry. And I couldn’t ride out a hurricane in my fucking car.
I jumped when my phone buzzed in my hand. Glancing down at the screen, I winced.
“Daddy?”
“Dawn, sweetheart. What are you doing?” As always when talking to me, my dad’s voice was gentle even as he demanded to know what was going on.
“I’m sorry, Daddy.” I nearly sobbed my response. “I’m so sorry. I just wanted to come home to you and Mom.”
“Sweet girl, we miss you, but it’s dangerous for you to be here right now. You’re nearly an hour away and the storm’s picking up. You need to turn around and go back.” I could hear the urgency in his voice even as he spoke gently. I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard my dad scared, but I might have pushed him too far this time. I knew little about his life before he came to Black Reign, but I knew my dad was one of the most feared men in the world. To think I was the one to make him show fear nearly did me in.
“Daddy, I can’t.” I pressed my wrist to my mouth to keep in a sob of fear. The sky was darkening, the wind picking up. I could smell rain coming from the sea. It wouldn’t be long before I’d need more shelter than my car. And there was literally nowhere to go.
“Yes, you can. Turn around and leave. You might get caught in the edge of the storm, but you’ll be driving away from it.
“I’ve been stuck in traffic for hours, Dad. I just… My car…” I took in a shuddering breath. “I’m out of gas.”
There was silence and I could imagine my dad giving me a blank look like the whole thing didn’t compute. Or trying to take deep, calming breaths so he didn’t yell at me. When he spoke, it was with calm authority. He was gentle but firm. “Keep your phone on and charged, sweet girl. I’m sending help.”
I did let out a sob then. “I’m so sorry, Daddy.”
“Hush, now. You be brave and do what I tell you. Stay in your car until I tell you otherwise, or you feel like it’s no longer safe. I’ll get someone to you. If not before it starts raining, then before there’s a need for you to leave your car. Can you do that for me?”
“Yes. I can do that.”
“If you have to leave, you call or text me first. Your phone’s GPS is how Shotgun is going to track you. Keep it on the charger as long as you can.”
“I will.”
“I love you, sweet girl. Your mother does too. Everything will be OK.”
“You promise?” I sounded like a child. Felt like one. I was an adult in my second year of college. I should buck up and take care of myself, but here I was. Calling my daddy to get me out of trouble.
“I won’t allow anything else, sweet girl.”
I believed him. Until the rain started.
* * *
Ice
“What the fuck is she doing there?” Thorn’s normally calm control just snapped. “Are you fuckin’ kiddin’ me?” He had his phone laying on the flat surface of the table while he braced himself with his hands on the table.
“She was supposed to go to Somerset with everyone else but decided to come here to ride the storm out with me and Jezebel.”
“Rain’s startin’,” Ripper said from the doorway to his office. He leaned on the doorframe. “Wind’s gettin’ stronger. If you’re sendin’ someone after her, you better do it now.”
“We’ve got eight men here, including Ice from Bones,” Thorn told El Diablo. “I’ll figure something out.”
“I’m having Shotgun hook up with Ripper so you can track her. She knows to keep her cell on and charging as long as possible.” This wasn’t the El Diablo I was used to dealing with. Or rather, the El Diablo my dad usually dealt with. Cain would be just as shocked as I was.
