I’ve been the one to deliver their cash for the last ten years, when Cas took the gavel I remained the man to make the deliveries and there hasn’t been a single delivery I’ve missed.
“When do you need me to leave?”
“Now. Linc was blowing up my phone all last night and I told him you’d be leaving this morning.”
I won’t jerk my club responsibilities but this will be the first time I’ve left Kyla since she came off that fucking drug. It has been easier than I thought it was getting her getting clean. Once it was all out of her system, she kept herself busy and my constant presence keeps her sane. Without me around, how long will it take for her to backtrack?
“You don’t need to worry about Kyla, Pope. You’ve looked out for this club and my family too many times to count. I give you my word I will look out for her while you’re gone. There was always going to be a time when you would have to leave on business, think of this as a test for her.”
I’m listening to him speak and I know it sounds plausible, but at the end of the day I have a new factor in my life and the challenges of trying to mix them together to flow as one is more trying than I ever thought it would be.
“No one here is gonna let her fall down, Pope. You have our support,” he urges, assuming my silence is me disagreeing with his decision.
“I’ll get Lana to invite her around for dinner at the house,” he adds, filling more silence with what he hopes is comforting words.
I nod and know he is right. I have to fall back at some point.
“I’ll have Ricky step in while I’m gone, she’s closer to him than anyone else here.”
“Good, she’ll be okay, Pope.”
He stands and crosses the office to a holdall behind his desk. I take it from him and sling it over shoulder.
“You have my word that I’ll take care of anything she may need.”
I nod again and hear the sincerity in his voice. I trust my president and I trust my club. I just wish I had the same amount of trust in my daughter.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Ricky
My eyes feel like they’re on fire. It’s feels like I’ve only been asleep for five minutes and now I’ve got someone who doesn’t value their life trying to bang down my door.
I wouldn’t change it though, last night I ended up talking with Kyla down in the bar until late into the night. After we all left Slade’s house the other day, the bar got crowded pretty quickly and I used the opportunity to make sure Kyla didn’t run back up to her room. It didn’t take long for her to stop avoiding me and before we knew it the night was disappearing from us and Pope was giving me a warning look before going up to his room. The more she spoke the more I learned about her, she’s so intelligent and all I kept asking myself was why she let herself become an addict. How can someone so smart become so stupid? But I know the answer, it’s the draw and addiction of the drug. I listened to every word she said and it made me adamant to make sure she doesn’t slip back into bad habits. For the last few nights we have been staying up and talking to the early hours of the morning.
The banging continues and gets my blood boiling. Swinging my legs out of bed and stomping barefoot to the door, I flex my fist ready to knock whoever is on the other side clean out for waking me up.
Only, I find Pope on the other side and because I value my life and he’s Kyla’s father, the anger fades away.
“What’s the emergency?” I grunt, my voice thick with sleep.
“Cas needs me to do a job and it means I’m going to be gone for a couple of days. You’re the closest to Ky, I’m asking if you’ll watch her and pick her up from the shop and let me know immediately if she needs me.”
I wasn’t expecting that.
“Sure.”
He goes to walk away but stops, he turns back to me and seriously asks, “I don’t need to remind you what I’ll do to you if anything happens to her, do I?”
Fucking Christ, no he doesn’t. If I do one thing in my life, it will be to never get on Pope’s wrong side. Falling for his daughter is fucking dangerous enough.
“Of course not.”
Cas must have something he only needs Pope to do because I can’t imagine Pope wanting to leave Kyla without a very good reason. He is loyal and he wouldn’t want to go against Cas unless he felt like someone else could do the job.
It feels good he trusts me with her, I won’t let him or her down and it gives me the chance to spend more time with her with good reason. Not bothering to go back to bed on account I’m fully awake now and on alert, I jump in the shower and get dressed.
By the time I make it down the stairs, Pope has long gone and everyone else is slowing drifting in.
When she kissed my cheek at Slade’s house three days ago, I knew then that I have to feel her lips on every inch of my body. If she was anyone else I would have taken her by now, especially last night when we were the only two awake and alone. I saw past the junkie and saw the girl striving to be different, to be better. She’s in there and every day she remains clean, she succeeds in reaching her goal and I strive to be the hero she asked for and make sure she does succeed.
I’m under no illusion that she is still finding it difficult and I don’t want to take advantage of her vulnerability and besides, she’s Pope’s fucking daughter and she deserves her hero.
I don’t know if I’m the right guy to be her hero but I’m damn well going to try.
Kyla doesn’t finish work until five but thinking about her makes me want to see her before then. It’s not long till lunch so I head to the kitchen area and see what food we’ve got in.
I set about putting shit together and get interrupted by deep, full on laughter standing in the doorway.
Slade and Sparky are both watching me in fascination.
“We only need one guess who all that’s for, unless you’re making us food out of the kindness of your heart,” Slade laughs some more.
“Fuck off,” I say, packing everything in a bag.
“Does Pope know you’re makin’ moves on his daughter?” Sparky teases.
“I’m taking her lunch, Pope asked me to watch out for her,” I say on the defensive.
“I don’t know, man. I don’t think that’s what he meant,” Slade inputs.
“I’m pretty fuckin’ certain that’s not what he meant,” Sparky adds.
“If it were up to you two, she would go hungry and I’m pretty fucking certain Pope would shoot you for it.”
They both look at each other before bursting out into more fits of laughter. The more they laugh the more it pisses me off.
“Pope has been making her lunch before he takes her to work, shithead. She eats in the shop with Kristen,” Slade informs me when he stops laughing enough to speak.
Sparky controls his laughter and slumps onto a chair and hauls his boots up onto the table.
“Are you sure you want to be chasing a girl with problems? She’s only been clean for little over a month,” he says, seriously.
I don’t say anything to that, I know she has problems, I’ve seen them face on and helped her deal with them. I’ve also seen how much those problems bring her down because she doesn’t want to be that person anymore and I know for a fact when she’s with me she doesn’t think about heroin.
I turn the tables on him and say, “You had faith in Bonnie when she first came here and look at you now.”
He whips his boots off the table and leans forward towards me.
“Hang on, are you sayin’ you wanna marry this girl and have babies and shit with her? Oh fuck man, please, please, please make it a shotgun wedding. I’ll want a front row seat watching Pope hold the shotgun aiming straight for your balls,” Sparky says.
“I didn’t mention marriage or babies, Sparks, so shut the fuck up.”
I grab the lunch and push past the table and go to shove past Slade still leaning in the doorway. At the last minute he blocks the exit and grips my arm.
“Be careful, brother. Heroin has
been in your life for too long, with your sister overdosing and being set up and doing time for the shit was hard enough, don’t make Kyla your problem unless you see something worthwhile in her. Being Pope’s daughter and having an addiction, you want to be sure you see something in her worth more than your life,” he warns.
I nod once and he releases his grip on my arm. It’s hard to reply to him because he has a point. However, I do see something in her and I’m prepared to take the time she needs and I need to figure out what I see, other than her smoking hot looks.
During the ride into town I know I’m doing the right thing because it doesn’t feel wrong. Parking my bike outside Kristen’s shop, I make my way in and can’t help grinning back when Kyla sees me and smiles from ear to ear. That smile doesn’t belong to anyone who isn’t fighting away from an addiction.
“You took your time,” Kristen beams coming out from the back of the shop.
“How did you know I was coming?” I ask, already suspecting the answer.
“Slade called ahead to say you were on your way and not to eat lunch yet,” she explains.
“Why is that, Ricky?” she smirks, wickedly.
She’s such a damn bitch, why is everyone finding me amusing today?
I look at Kyla watching us amused herself and roll my eyes making her smile widen.
“I brought you lunch, I didn’t know Pope already had it sorted,” I shrug.
“I already prefer yours.”
Thank God.
I look back at Kristen and ask, “How long is her lunch?”
“She can have an hour today.”
“Grab your bag and let’s get out of here.”
I lead her across the street to the park and spot an empty bench in the shade under a tree.
“Hero’s bring pretty girls lunch, right?” I tease, when we’re sat down.
“They do,” she giggles, “I’m surprised you’re awake yet, it was hard getting up this morning for work.”
“You should’ve said you had to be up early.”
“I was enjoying myself,” she shrugs, picking at her sandwich.
I hear what she’s saying, the time passed quickly for the both of us. We eat for a while in silence but it isn’t awkward or uncomfortable.
“How are you handling yourself at the moment?” I ask.
“I’m feeling better than I ever thought I would, it’s easier when I keep myself busy,” she shrugs.
Her hair blows softly in the breeze and I itch to tuck it behind her ear, it doesn’t seem to be bothering her so I leave her be.
She suddenly looks at me as if she can hear what I’m thinking and asks, “I heard something about you today,” she says.
“Oh yeah, what did you hear?”
This makes me cautious, I can guess it was either Pope or Kristen who said something because I don’t think she would’ve seen anyone else yet.
“That you’ve been in prison recently.”
She doesn’t elaborate any further, throwing the rest of sandwich back into the bag, I breathe deeply. I don’t care if she knows, it isn’t like I did anything wrong, but the thought of people talking about me behind my back pisses me off.
“You heard right. I done just over two years for possession of heroin with intent to supply.”
Her eyes widen and her mouth opens and closes a few times trying to spit out what she wants to ask.
I help her out and explain.
“The club was being attacked around the time I was arrested, none of us knew who it was or why it was happening. I got caught up in it all and was set up. Basically, it was an old lady with revenge as her only focus and she planted fifty wraps of the shit on me and made sure I was pulled over by the cops.”
“Oh my God, why didn’t you tell the cops that?”
I raise my eyebrows at her and it clicks for her.
“The club handled her and I done the time keeping my mouth shut ‘cause I couldn’t bring the club into it.”
She shakes her head in disbelief and returns to picking at her sandwich.
“Does that happen a lot around here?”
“Believe it or not, I was the first brother to end up in prison because of the club. Usually we keep everything away from prying eyes and that’s where I met Dean.”
Instead of being surprised I know who he is, she shrinks back into herself and looks away.
“I’m not surprised you all know who he is. The more I’ve learn about my father, I suspected it was only a matter of time before he hunted him down.”
Now I’m the one who is surprised.
“Pope never hunted him down, Ky. He turned up at the clubhouse a few days after you got here.”
“He, he turned up?” she stutters.
I thought Pope would have told her by now, I didn’t purely because I hate thinking let alone talking about the two of them together.
“Yeah, he wanted to see you but no one would let him. When I saw him standing in my club I lost it.”
“How did you know who he was?”
“Like I said, I met him in prison. We had run-ins, a long story short. He tried to use me and I showed him he couldn’t get away with it.”
She looks me in the eye and her eyebrows knit together.
“Oh my God, you’re the one who stabbed him, aren’t you?” she gasps, jumping up to her feet.
“Now, just calm down, Kyla,” I urge, getting to my feet too.
“I can’t deal with this right now.”
The lunch long forgotten, she storms off back in the direction of the shop. Leaving the lunch and my bag on the bench, I quickly catch up to her before she reaches the road.
“You don’t get to run off from me because I protected myself from a piece of fucking shit like Dean,” I yell at her.
I don’t want to shout at her but this shit has got to sink in.
“I don’t want to know,” she says, fighting to hold the tears in.
“You already seem to know yet you don’t want to hear my side, you still want to be with Dean? You still want the villain and not the hero, Kyla? Because from where I’m standing it fucking looks like it.”
“Fuck you for asking me that,” she spits and rips her arm from my hand.
This time I don’t chase her and watch her until she walks through the shop door. If she thinks this is over she is very fucking wrong. I’ll allow her the time to process what I’ve told her but only till her shifts ends, then she’s going to listen whether she wants to or not.
I told her once I was an open book. I don’t care what she knows about me, so her hearing what would have happened to me inside doesn’t bother me. Her thinking I’m worse than Dean does bother me.
I arrive back at the shop just in time for her to walk out the door as her shift ends. Her hair is falling out of her ponytail and she looks so cute.
“Why are you here?” she asks, barely looking at me.
It shouldn’t do but it kind of hurts that she is taking his side after everything he got her into. Why should she care if he got hurt by my hands?
“Pope is gone for a couple of days, he asked me to pick you up. I would have told you earlier but you weren’t sticking around to listen.”
“He’s gone? Gone where?” she frowns, looking confused.
“Don’t know,” I shrug, “He’s on business for Cas.”
I don’t give her time to think it over, I hand over the spare helmet I picked up for her and wait for her take it.
“I’m not getting on that death machine, my dad picks me up in the truck,” she hisses.
“Only other way you’re getting home is walking, babe and it’s a fucking long walk.”
I should have kept my mouth shut, giving her the idea of walking, she starts off in direction of the club and doesn’t look back. Is she for fucking real?
Restarting my bike, I creep up beside her. She doesn’t look at me or answer me when I ask, “How was your afternoon?”
It may have been a stupid question but I want to kno
w. I want to know everything she does.
This goes on for ten minutes before her step starts to slow down and I lose my patience. Stopping my bike and swinging my leg over with enough force to spin around, I grab hold of her and pick her up. She’s put weight on and her hips fit perfectly in my hands as I hold her in place. She immediately begins fighting me but I’m stronger and she doesn’t stand a chance.
Setting her down on the back of my bike, I keep one hand on her keeping her in place and use my free hand to grab the spare helmet.
I get up close in her face and wait for her to listen.
“Not that I should have to explain shit to you about it, but the reason I stabbed him was because he had two of his little minions rush me in my cell to take their sick pleasure with me. I fought like a mad man possessed and went after Dean to show I wasn’t weak. Weakness in a place like that will get killed or worse.”
So now she knows, her eyes briefly close and when she opens them instead of saying anything or arguing further, she kisses me. She’s giving me everything she has and it has me hard in seconds.
Her lips are soft and tender and she tastes of peppermint. Her tongue grazes mine and it sends us both into a frenzy, but before I can take control she pulls away.
“Everything I’m learning about you, about my father, it should scare me but I’m only scared because it doesn’t and I’m struggling to deal with that. None of this seems real. My father talks about shooting people like he has been to the store and brought groceries. Earlier you spoke so easily and openly about Dean. None of this is normal and at the same time, I don’t want normal.”
Finally, we’re getting somewhere but I need another taste of her. Holding her face between my hands, I pull her back to me and slam my mouth onto hers. She parts her lips willingly, giving herself over to me and holding nothing back.
I break the kiss this time, needing to tell her what’s on my mind.
“You feel so fucking good on me,” I tell her, adding, “Don’t ever push me away again, lean on me when you need to. This is real, I feel it…I promise you that.”