Taking a seat in front of his desk, I place the ankle of one leg on the knee of the other and lean back with my arms folded over my chest. That’s when I give him a thorough looking at. Will my idea work? Will he be up for it? We’ll soon find out.

  “Okay, spit it out. What’s eatin’ at you?” Jax asks as he throws his pen on the desk, and gives me the eyebrow raised questioning look.

  “Well, you know Alice is in no way going to take Sacks back. Melody, we will get rid of, I’m sure, whether it be out of town, or in the ground. Sacks, I’m going to move to another fuckin’ chapter. He’s not stayin’ here.”

  “Okay, that is smart. I’m not his biggest fan, as you know, so getting rid of him is good with me.” Jax is pretty laid back with that idea, not sure about my next one.

  “Well, Black is on his way here to see his daughter, and I’m sure Alice is his daughter now. I’ve spoken with Yvonne. But, I don’t think Alice will enjoy being moved to the mother chapter, so how about we get her claimed by a brother?” I know I’m pushing his buttons because I’ve seen him watching Alice many times, and I’ve noticed he wasn’t happy about her being with Sacks, but Jax and I kept our secrets to ourselves.

  “You want a brother to claim Alice?” Jax asks with a shocked look on his face.

  "Yeah, and I'm sure Black will be okay with it if the right brother claims her, that is. If she is to stay here, he’ll want her locked down with the club. It’s the way to keep her safe and stop anyone thinking they can play games with her.”

  Jax rubs his chin. “You got a brother in mind?”

  “Nope, but I’d rather it not be Noddy. He’s as old as me, and he’s had more women under him than we’ve had hot dinners. I don’t want that for her, and neither will Black, but if nobody steps forward, you can bet Noddy will.”

  Sitting up straight at the mention of Noddy, Jax scowls. He’s falling right into my trap. I’ve just got to play him a bit more and he’ll bite!

  Wolf, Gunner, and Blue step into the office, and it seems they’ve been hearing what’s been discussed. “I’ll claim her,” Wolf quickly offers.

  “Nah, I’ll claim her.” Blue gives me a side-eyed look, and I’m sure he knows what I’m up to. In fact, looking at these three, I’m sure they all do.

  “Hey, no, I’ll claim her. I’ve always liked her, but never had a chance ‘cause Sacks got his filthy hands on her first,” Gunner snaps, which I notice has Jax scowling even deeper.

  “Nobody’s fuckin’ claiming her. Now shut the fuck up and get out of the office. Not a word of this to anyone, or I’ll meet you outside.” Jax is more than a little irate and as the three turn and walk out of the office, I get two winks and a nod.

  “Aw, fuck it, I’ll claim her,” I state, before making to stand.

  “You’re not claiming her, I will. Fuck me, you old shit. You can’t be claiming someone that young.” Jax is irate at this point.

  Shrugging, I give Jax a grin. “Okay, you got yourself an old lady. Now you just got to tell her, and Black.”

  “Oh fuckin’ hell…” I hear as I scamper out of the office, smirking for all I’m worth. Wolf, Blue, and Gunner high-five me as I pass, because you guessed they were standing around waiting to hear the result of my scheming.

  Chapter 11

  Black

  Parking my hog outside the clubhouse's main doors, I turn to the two brothers who rode with me, Rash and Yam. We place our helmets on handlebars or seats, then walk into the common room looking around for Beast or Jax.

  A club whore saunters up to us, nothing more than a crop top and panties on. Curling my lip because do I want a piece of that? Not on your life, not after every brother here has been in her.

  “Fuck off, and leave the brothers alone,” I snarl, because I haven’t got the time or patience for her. Not when I’m about to find out if Beast has really found my kid.

  Stomping through the common room, our biker boots make a hell of a racket, but we don’t give a fuck. Brothers give a tip of the head when they notice who has arrived, and being Beast’s VP gets me a huge amount of respect.

  As I knock and enter the office, Rash and Yam take a stand on either side of the door. Making sure after I close it, nobody will listen in on the conversation. They are both more than reliable to have my back, and the three of us spend a lot of time around each other. We need to have ultimate trust, and thankfully we do.

  Jax is behind his desk, and Beast is lounging near the window. “Good ride?” Beast asks with a smirk, because he knows it’s a great ride to this chapter.

  “Yeah, now tell me what’s going on?” I’m not messing around with either of these buffoons, and that’s what they’ll act like if I let them.

  “We found Yvonne, and it turns out her daughter Alice is more than likely your daughter. I spoke to Yvonne, and she admitted she was pregnant, and ran because she didn’t want her kid being brought up in a biker club. Now, Alice has your eyes, and she has your birthmark on her neck.” Beast takes out his phone and hands it to me after scrolling through it for a moment.

  I swallow loudly when I see the image of my mother when she was young and carefree. She died after going on holiday with three other old ladies. The bus they were on was in an accident and the club tragically lost all four.

  Looking up slowly at Beast, I give him what has to be a feral grin. “She looks just like Momma.”

  “She does, and she’s beautiful, Black, inside and out. Even though Yvonne took your kid, it looks like she did a good job of rearing her.”

  “I missed it all, Beast, firsts, all of them, I missed them all.”

  Turning to look at Jax when he speaks. “Black, you may not miss all your grandkids’ firsts. Beast and I have spoken about Alice, and we don’t want her leaving the club. She will, unless we remove Sacks from the equation, and her so-called friend Melody, who…by the way, we have locked in a room with Chalky watching over her.”

  Now my grin goes from feral to pure evil. Chalky is over seventy. He’s one of the old brigade of brothers. He has no trouble taking out a woman if it’s needed. He hates cheats, liars, and traitors. Seems this woman is all three, from what Beast has informed me.

  “One other thing about Melody, she is Sting’s old lady.” Jax looks at me, and I can see he’s waiting for me to explode. It doesn’t take long.

  I open the door so hard that it breaks the hinges and falls to the floor. Rash and Yam grab their weapons from their back waist holsters. “Who we gonna kill, Black?” Yam asks and I storm past him, but I know they’ll both stay right behind me.

  “CHALKY! WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?” I shout.

  A prospect behind the bar points at the stairs and I rush over as I keep bellowing for Chalky. When I hear, “HERE!” I run to the room ahead and stop in front of a woman sitting with her back to the headboard and a wrist cuffed to the ring on the wall. I’m not even going to ask why there are rings on either side of the bed. It’s nothing to do with me.

  “So, you are the bitch that lied to her friend, cheated on her friend, and is the motherfucking old lady of Sting. You are not long for this world and it’s going to be a pleasure taking you out,” I snarl, but turn when I hear Beast step into the room and speak.

  “She’s coming with us when we leave. She’ll not live easy. I’ll make sure of it. I think Pink Pleasures may have a vacancy,” Beast smirks, and I turn my head to look at this bitch. I know she’s not understanding what Beast is referring to, but she will. Pink Pleasures is our brothel and she’ll pay every day for what she’s done to my daughter, who’s a club kid after all is said and done.

  Chalky grins. “I’ll travel with you when you go back. I’m gonna look forward to seeing this play out.”

  “You are more than welcome, brother. Stay a while, chill out with us,” Beast grins, and I give this bitch a nasty look. Thankfully, she’s said nothing and as I step closer and spit on her, I notice she has clear tape on her mouth, so hey, she couldn’t say anything. Suits me. I don’t want to hear anything she has to say, anyway.

  Yam and Rash are standing outside the door when we all step back into the corridor. Beast slams the bedroom door closed, leaving Chalky with the bitch.

  “Yam, Rash, go get something to eat, rest up a while. I have more to talk to Black about before I take him to see his baby momma,” Beast chuckles at the last part of his speech.

  Back in the office, Jax is leaning back in his seat, arms folded over his chest, looking more than a little laid back, chilled out, or whatever you want to call it.

  Taking a seat myself, I look from one to the other. “Okay, spit it out.” I know they have something else to say as they keep giving each other odd looks.

  “To keep Alice in the club, we think someone should claim her. Now, before you go off threatening and carrying on, listen up.” Jax is eyeing me carefully and I have a feeling I know where this is going. Turning my head to look at Beast, he has a smirk on his face. Yeah, I think I know.

  “Okay.” That’s all I give them in response, for now at least.

  “I’ve always liked Alice, and I’ve watched her with Sacks. She was not committed to him, and she has walked away from him more than a little easily. In fact, she’s just closed the door on him and moved on. She also had a problem with her mother regarding Melody’s involvement. At this moment, they are not on good speaking terms.

  “I know that Yvonne has not always been the most reliable mother. She’s had a lot of male admirers, and some of them tried to get to Alice, but she was smart and made sure she stayed clear.

  “Now, I think we, meaning Alice and I, could have a great relationship. I’ve wanted to snatch her up a few times, especially when I knew Sacks was cheating on her. But Beast told me to leave it alone, I was not the President at that time. Bolt used that for the club's advantage, and I can’t blame him, as he knew that the Alice and Sacks thing wasn’t going to last.”

  “Okay, stop waffling. You want my blessing for you and Alice. That’s what you’re after?” I question.

  “Yes.”

  “Okay, I’m good with that, but only if Alice is. I won’t have anyone claiming her if she doesn’t want it.”

  “No problem…daddy…” Jax laughs.

  “I’ll give you fuckin’ daddy…” I snarl, but I can’t hold the laugh that wants out.

  “Come on, let’s go speak to Yvonne,” Beast stands and walks out of the office, with me right behind him. Seeing us leaving Rash and Yam rush over and follow, too.

  Parking outside Yvonne’s house, the old lady is outside again. “Oh, hello boys.” She giggles to herself, and I side-eye Beast who chuckles at the boys comment, but gives the woman a wink.

  I’m not waiting for this bitch. I try the front door, and as it opens I storm inside, with Beast right behind me. Yvonne is in the kitchen at the sink and is looking at me like she’s seen a ghost.

  “Not nice to see you, Yvonne. But I’m here to tell you that you’ve had our daughter to yourself all these years, but now it’s my turn. You can forget being in control ‘cause she’s all grown up. I loved you and would have given you a good life. Yet, I’m hearing you’ve been with a ton of men yet still single. What’s that say about you? Now I’ve only come to warn you to keep your mouth shut. If I find out you try to influence Alice away from me, I’ll bury you somewhere your body will never be found. I don’t know what happened to you, but I hope you end up a miserable old crow, lonely and pitiful.” All this said in one breath, without giving her time to respond. Turning, I storm out of her house, give the old lady a smile and a wink, before straddling my hog, slam my helmet on, and head back to the clubhouse.

  Jax informs me that Alice is not at work, as she doesn’t work over the weekend. But she has a few private clients, such as Teckie. Seems my daughter has brains as well as beauty, and I couldn’t be prouder, although I’ve had no input apart from my gene pool.

  “Okay, we’ll have a ride over in a while. Let’s have a drink first.” Turning, I signal the prospect behind the bar and point to the bottled water in the fridge.

  “Here you go,” the prospect says as he passes me a bottle of cold water. He then quickly turns and continues drying glasses that he’s placing on a shelf behind the bar.

  “How do you think she’ll react?” I ask Beast, who’s leaning on the bar behind us.

  Jax is on my other side, not drinking but watching the room in general. He responds before Beast can. “She’ll be good. She once told me she wanted to find her father. But her mother wouldn’t tell her anything about him, so she did not know where to start looking. I reckon she’ll be fine. She fit in here with no problem, but she may be a tough cookie with the old ladies once I claim her.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, it seems she won’t speak to any of them, as they knew what Sacks was doing and said nothing. So, Alice is anti-old ladies, and anti-brothers at this point. She said they are not family if they allow this to happen behind someone’s back.”

  “Sucks to be you then,” chuckling, “I can take her back with me if she wants to come. She doesn’t need claiming at all then.”

  “She’ll not leave her job, Black. She loves where she works, and the men who own it are more family to her than anything else. They are married to each other, yet they see her as the sister they never had.” Jax grins, obviously remembering something.

  “What?” I can’t help but ask.

  “One Christmas, the two of them had all these festive decorations up at their office. Alice was dressed as some character or other as part of it all. But she nearly fainted when the two of them walked into her office wearing only elf shoes, hats, and a pair of green and red boxers. They then began a make-out session until she started to laugh. They both squealed like schoolgirls and ran out of her office. She laughed about it for weeks. Seemed they thought she’d gone home, and they were going to christen all the offices as their Christmas treat.” Jax struggles to recite the tale and has to wipe his eyes as they are full of tears of laughter.

  An hour later we are at Alice’s house, standing on her doorstep. With a hand in the air to knock, it opens, and the prettiest thing I ever saw has opened it. She gives Jax and Beast a huge smile, then turns to me and stares.

  Stepping forward, Alice stands in front of me, and I dare not say a word as her eyes are roaming my face and hair. She walks around me, taking me in, and I stand waiting for what she’s going to say or do. Stopping in front of me once more, Alice looks at my neck, lifts her hand and just before she moves my cut out of the way to see my neck fully, she looks at me for permission. I give her a small nod and she looks, finding my birthmark.

  Rubbing her own neck, I see a birthmark that is identical to mine and all of my family members in the past. I’m the only one now, apart from Alice, now I’ve found her.

  She looks at me again, tears filling her eyes. Swallowing with a loud noise, she then whispers. “Are you my father?”

  “I sure am, and if I’d been able to find you earlier, you would have been in my life since you were born.” I don’t wait for an invitation. I grab my girl and wrap my arms around her tightly. With her face buried in my neck and my cheek resting on the top of her head, I close my eyes and cherish the moment.

  Two hours later, we had a meal with Alice in her small kitchen, laughing and learning everything we could about each other. It’s more than obvious to me there is a rift between herself and Yvonne. Mostly due to Yvonne being selfish and always wanting Alice to give some form of financial help.

  “Why do you think your mother believed her friend so easily? It makes no sense to me,” I ask Alice.

  “She’s always been close to Aunt Mais, and often they would take each other's word over mine or Melody’s. But Melody was spoiled and always got her way. I just let it run off me because, to be honest, I didn’t really care if I had the same as her or not. Anyway, she’s no longer a friend, neither is her mother, my surrogate aunt.

  “As for my mother, well, I don’t know. But a break isn’t going to be the only thing she’ll be worried about. I stopped the money that I’ve been sending her every month, which I’ve been doing since I started working. She’ll have to get a job or lose the house because I’m also not going to pay her mortgage.” Alice isn’t looking smug, but she looks determined.

  “You telling me you’ve been subsidizing your mother since you were old enough to work?” I ask, feeling the anger rolling up.

  “Yes.”

  Jax opens his mouth without putting his brain in gear. “Well, that would stop anyway when I claim you. You’re gonna be my old lady, Alice, and your mother can kiss my ass.”

  The kitchen is deathly silent, and Jax realizes what he’s said when Alice points at him. “What the fuck are you talking about, Jax?”

  Chapter 12

  Alice

  “What the fuck are you talking about, Jax?” I screech, and believe me, it is one that is likely to burst eardrums.

  "Fuck!" I hear from all three of them. Beast and Black are giving Jax a deathly glare. Jax is holding his hands out in a ‘calm down’ type of motion.

  Black grabs my hand and pulls me to sit next to him, where I’d jumped to my feet when I’d screeched at Jax. “Calm. We need to explain why Jax said that.”

  “Okay, but it better be good, or all three of you are dead men walking.”

  Black, who I’ve not called Papa as yet, takes a deep breath, looks at Beast who is his President to get a small nod of agreement about what he’s going to tell me. “Melody and one of the brothers have been helping a dealer get into town, selling bad drugs to the college kids. Three kids have died as a result so far. We have taken care of the brother, and we will take care of Melody, who has been buying, selling, and using the drugs…not those drugs, of course, because she knows they are dirty.

 

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