Ruined. Jackie Ashenden
made the biggest fucking mistake of his life.
I must have got lucky or something, because as I pulled up to the kerb outside his house, the door opened and out the prick came—Annie in one arm, the handle of a giant suitcase bumping down the stairs in the other.
He didn’t see me at first, obviously in a hurry to get both the kid and the suitcase into the back of his fancy BMW. So I gave him five minutes to let him think he was going to get away. Then I got off my bike, walked up to the car as he was closing the door after him, and wrenched it open before he could get it shut.
‘What the hell?’
He looked up at me from his place in the driver’s seat, his face a mask of rage. That soon turned to fear as I leaned an elbow casually on the roof of the car, my other arm on the open door to stop him from getting out.
‘Hey, Justin,’ I said, smiling. ‘Going somewhere?’
His mouth twisted. ‘Get away from the car or I’ll call the police.’
I laughed. ‘Yeah... See, I don’t think you want to do that.’
‘Smoke!’ Annie was wriggling in her car seat. She was six and didn’t know her daddy was an asshole. ‘Why are you here? It’s really late and we’re going on a trip. Just Daddy and me!’
‘Hey, kiddo.’ I kept my voice low and friendly, at the same time giving her a quick scan. She looked fine, grinning at me in that way she always did, like she was having the time of her life. ‘How’s it hanging back there?’
She giggled. ‘Nothing’s hanging. Is Mom coming soon?’
‘Soon, honey.’
I glanced back at her father. The guy was furious, his mouth gone tight and mean. Cat had told me once that she thought he was good-looking, but I couldn’t see it.
‘Annie needs to come home now,’ I said flatly. ‘You unstrap her, give her to me, and nothing else’ll happen.’
‘Like hell.’ Justin reached for the keys. ‘She’s my goddamn kid, and I’ll do what I goddamn like with her!’
Fuck. The prick just didn’t listen, did he?
I leaned in and grabbed the keys before he could move, pulling them out of the ignition and throwing them as hard as I could over to the other side of the street. ‘Go fetch, motherfucker.’
Justin looked like he was going to explode. ‘Touch her and—’
‘You’ll what?’ I cut him off, sick of this bullshit. ‘Go running to Daddy? Hide behind your fucking laws? Or are you actually going to man up and take a swing at me?’
I wished he’d take the swing. I wanted an excuse to punch him so bad it was like a pain in my gut.
But it was like he knew—like he could see how much I wanted to do it—because he suddenly leaned back in his seat, all the tension bleeding out of him.
‘All right,’ he said. ‘Take her home, then. But you can tell Cat that I’ll be back.’ The asshole had the gall to grin at me. ‘With a court order.’
I wanted to choke him then and there, but of course I couldn’t. Keep would kill me if I fucked up the situation we had with the cops, and I wasn’t that stupid. Even one punch to his face was out of bounds.
A chill went down my spine.
Justin had never actually threatened to get custody of Annie before, and Cat had always said that was because he’d never wanted her in the first place. That the only reason he kept insisting on his parental rights was to hurt Cat. And I believed her. The guy had major control issues, and I knew because I had the same deal.
Except there was one difference between him and me. I’d never hurt a woman like he did and I’d never use a kid like he used Annie.
I gave him a grin back—the kind that promised his early death. ‘Do it. If you think you can.’
He seemed to think this was the ace up his sleeve, or something, because his smile turned smug.
‘Oh, I will—don’t worry. Any judge in the country will grant me sole custody...especially against a single mom and her dangerous biker boyfriend.’
Only long years of control kept the grin on my face and my gun in my pocket. Otherwise I’d have put a bullet through his fucking head.
So he was going to use me against Cat.
You always knew this would happen.
Yeah, I always did. I always knew that somehow, someday, the shit was going to hit the fan.
Cat always hated the club—hated that I was a Knight—and, given her background, I couldn’t blame her. But until now it hadn’t really come between us because she didn’t associate herself with club doings.
But now...
Jesus. How ironic that the most galling thing about this was the fact that I wasn’t even her boyfriend—though every part of me wanted to be.
The rage started way down low in my gut, working its way through my veins. It would have to come out soon, but I had ways and means of doing that. Right now all I did was keep on smiling at the piece of shit sitting smug in his car. Imagining the death that was coming to him.
‘You do that, Justin.’ I made sure he heard the threat in my voice. ‘And you’ll get what’s coming to you. No mistake. By the way, where were you going? You know it’s illegal to break the custody agreement, right?’
He just laughed. ‘It’ll be legal soon enough. Hey, Annie. Are you ready to go see Mommy, honey?’
Annie, who’d been silent in the back, nodded. She wouldn’t pick up the really adult vibes, but she’d know something was up. She was a perceptive kid.
‘We’re not going anywhere now?’
‘Nope,’ I said, before Justin could speak. ‘Wanna go for a ride on my bike?’
‘Yeah!’
I got Annie out myself, ignoring her father as he said his goodbyes. Then I grabbed her backpack and stowed it in the saddlebag on the bike, leaving Justin to go scrabbling around in the street for his keys.
Sitting her up in front of me, she grabbed onto my arms without me having to tell her. She’d been riding on the Harley almost since before she could talk, so she knew what to do.
I texted Cat to let her know I had Annie, then we roared out of there.
Fifteen minutes and we were at Cat’s run-down apartment building. Yeah, it wasn’t the greatest place to raise a kid, but she had good neighbours and the apartment itself was clean and tidy. She was a great mom and, really, that’s all that counts for a kid. Annie had clean clothes, food, a bed at night and people who loved her. People who didn’t beat the shit out of her. And that’s plenty more than a lot of kids had.
Cat was waiting out front, her hands in the pockets of her jeans, trying to look casual, but I knew she wasn’t. As I pulled up the bike she ran down the stairs, taking them two at a time to get to us.
‘Hey, honey,’ she said as she picked Annie up. ‘How was Daddy’s?’ She didn’t act panicked, but I could hear the sound of it in her voice anyway.
Annie didn’t seem to notice, chattering on about what she’d done that afternoon.
Cat didn’t say anything to me, but she didn’t need to. The look she gave me out of those big green eyes of hers said it all.
I followed them up the stairs after I’d got Annie’s stuff out from the saddlebag of the bike and into her apartment. Cat didn’t bother to ask me any questions, too busy murmuring to Annie about how she needed to get into her pyjamas and brush her teeth because it was late.
I let her do all the kid shit first, going into the tiny, scrupulously clean kitchen and