Chapter 11

Ryder

I woke the next morning with the taste of Danielle still on my tongue. I rolled over and ran my hand down my stomach to stroke my cock. I'd stayed naked after she left and laid in the bed for what felt like forever. For the first time in a long time, I'd thought about someone other than myself or my problems.

She needed to run hard and fast from me. I'd get addicted to her soft body, her innocent moans, her goodness. It pulsed all over her like a light in a dark night.

My body tensed as I pulled on the head of my cock roughly. I should have gotten out of the bed and muscled her underneath me the night before. She needed a fuck as bad as I did, and not just any fuck - the kind of fuck I could give her.

She'd been hurt by someone. That much was obvious. But who?

And did any of her past have to do with Tanner King? Obviously so. Why was he after her? What the fuck did the prick want?

Anger burned through my stomach as I rolled over and pressed my face to the bed. I cupped my hands around my shaft and rolled my hips, diving deep into the scent and sounds of the night before. I worked myself over the edge twice before finally getting up for a shower.

Dani was in trouble, which meant I needed to stick close to her. The guys wouldn't approve and it was probably more dangerous for me to be anywhere around her as much as Tanner loved to throw daggers my way, but it was what it was.

I wasn't going anywhere.

After drying off, I gathered my sheets and tossed them in the washing machine. A long day at the shop would do me some good. I'd dive into working on a beat up old car and forget about everything for a little while. The guys would help me with Tanner. They always had. It's what we did for each other.

"Uncle J?"

I glanced over my shoulder to see Jason looking like beat up shit. "Did you hit that cop in the face last night?"

He glanced down at his hands. "I didn't mean to. Something inside of me broke open. I was scared, like someone was going to kill me or something. I just reacted."

I turned and grabbed the front of his shirt like I always did. "You hit a cop in the face, and not just any cop, a fucking woman. Who raised you boy? You don't hit women. I don't give a flying fuck who was after you or what you were up against. Unless she has a gun to your head or a knife in your chest, you don't strike her."

"I'm sorry." He glanced up, his deep blue eyes a mirror to mine. The sorrow in them stilled me from my rant.

"What were you doing with Cade King, Jason? You know those mother fuckers are evil pieces of shit. Is that what you want to be? You want to grow up to sell little girls into their worst nightmares? You have no clue of the shit those people do to women. What the fuck is wrong with you?" I tightened my grip on his shirt as anger birthed deep inside of me again.

"What? No. I was interested in pledging to their MC. Nothing else." He held his hands up.

Some part of me understood why he would pledge to their gang. It was the only one that would take him. Mine sure as fuck wouldn't. He was too young and inexperienced.

"You don't pledge to the Black Hearts and hang around getting high and drinking beers, son. You step into a role of kidnapping women, breaking them and putting them out on the streets to make a dollar for your President." I patted the side of his face and turned away from him to work on my laundry again. "You're going to end up dead."

"Like my dad, right?" His voice broke a little.

I glanced over my shoulder. "Don't push me away, Jason. I'm all that you got."

"Weren't you and Tanner like brothers at one time, Uncle J? Weren't you his right-hand man?"

"That was before he turned into a monster. At one time, Tanner King was just a pothead with a bike. Fuck, we all were." I closed the lid and walked past Jason back toward the living room.

"Ryder." The tone of his voice stopped me. He sounded so much like Roberto that I had to turn around. He'd never called me anything but Uncle before.

"Do you love me?" He glanced back down at his hands as his shoulders rolled in and he started to cry.

"Fuck," I whispered under my breath and marched back down the hall, pulling him into my arms. I cradled him against my chest and pressed my chin to the top of his head while he cried.

"Yeah. I love you. I'm scared as fuck for you too. You're doing everything Robby did. You're following his path and I don't know how to stop you, Jason. I've tried helping, yelling, beating the shit out of you, ignoring you." I moved back and cupped his face. His pained expression drove nails into my heart. "I'm not a father. I don't know how to be one, but I'm trying here. I need you to stay away from Tanner King, boy. He's going to be the end of you."

He nodded and moved back in to hug me again. "I'll try. I promise. I'll try."

"That's better than nothing." I hugged him until he calmed down, then turned and grabbed my keys. I had to get the fuck outta there before I broke down too.

Nothing was going the way I had planned, but then again, life never asked my opinion.