Chapter Seven

Axel

I wasn’t sure if I had done the right thing by inviting Savannah and Bobby to live with me. Ever since I’d bought the house, I’d never had anyone live with me for longer than a few days. And they were always old friends who needed a place to crash. A girl had never stayed with me, certainly not one that I’d slept with. Savannah wasn’t just any girl. She wasn’t an ex-girlfriend, but she had more of a hold on me than anyone in my life. She had my son. I just hoped I wasn’t making the biggest mistake of my life. But how I could just ignore her? I thought of asking Pop to keep her, but I felt too bad. Pop would do it, too. He was just that sort of guy. But he’d already done so much for me over the years, and I didn’t want to be a burden to him.

I pulled up to Pop’s house where Savannah was waiting for me with a suitcase. Bobby was standing next to her holding her hand and chattering away. I couldn’t help but smile when I saw him. He was a charmer, that was for sure. I climbed out the car and smiled at them.

“How’s the toto monster today?” I said, and Bobby giggled.

“He’s full of blue crayons.”

I laughed. “Oh dear.” I looked at Savannah and smiled nervously at her. “Uh, is that all you have?” I asked.

She sighed. “No, my stuff is . . . uh . . . it’s where I used to stay. I sort of left without saying anything.”

I nodded. Clearly, there was a lot more to Savannah’s life than she had told me about.

“Well, how about I come with you to get it?”

“I’d like that.”

We hopped into the car, and she told me where to go. I frowned at the mention of XMC. I knew the club well. I hadn’t had any personal dealings with them, but plenty of members of my family and other members of the motorcycle club had experienced issues with them in the past. It wasn’t exactly a big secret that the two clubs were rivals. I’d never quite understood it myself, but I’d never really wanted to know more. I had no intention of getting involved with the outlaw club or creating more bad blood between them and us. I didn’t say much to Savannah as we drove to the club, but it made me wonder if this was the reason why she had waited so long to contact me. Had she always known that I was a part of their rival club? And why was she so involved in a club that was notorious for being bad news? I hoped she’d tell me one day, but for now, I didn’t see a reason to ask her. She’d tell me in her own time.

What was more worrying to me was how nervous she was on the drive there. She had left without saying anything, which meant things were not smooth sailing. Had she fled the club? Or someone in the club? When we arrived, she got out the car and told me that I didn’t have to come with.

“Are you kidding me? I’m coming in,” I said.

“Uh, are you sure? I don’t mind going in with Bobby.”

“I’m coming in.”

She nodded and didn’t argue anymore with me, and I was sure that I could detect relief on her face. She wanted me to come in with her. Something about the place frightened her, I was sure of it. As we entered the club, I was aware of just how different it was to the club I was used to. The whole set was different, and it was clear that their philosophy was not the same at all. They were outlaws for a reason, that was for sure. We made our way to one of the far rooms, and I helped Savannah gather all her things. I was surprised at how little she owned. Bobby had more things than her. She was happy to leave a lot of her things behind and said that it was more important to her that Bobby got everything he wanted.

I watched Bobby as he packed his things. I was surprised at how calm he was to be leaving a place he had once called home. I had a feeling that he didn’t care where he was as long as he was with his mother. There was something very sweet about that. We made several trips to the car and filled it to the brim. Then we did one more walk around and headed out. We’d obviously attracted a lot of attention while we had been there because of lot of men had shown up to watch us. I felt nervous, but I tried not to look any of them in the eye. One of the guys came up to Savannah and glared at her.

“What the hell is going on?” he boomed.

Savannah looked scared, but she held her ground. “I’m moving out.”

“With him?” the man said.

“Yes. He’s my friend.”

The man immediately put my hackles up. He made me uncomfortable in a way that I hadn’t felt before, but I wasn’t sure if it was just because of the way he was speaking to Savannah. He towered over her and talked to her in a vile and disgusting way. I was glad that Bobby was out by the car and hadn’t heard any of it. I walked up to Savannah and took her hand, and the two of us walked away. I half expected the man to run after us, but thankfully he just watched us go. When we were all safe inside the car, I turned to look at Savannah.

“He was nice,” I said.

She sighed. “Yeah. Duke’s a charming man.” I waited for her to say something else, but she went quiet again, so I didn’t ask her.

We drove in silence. Even Bobby didn’t say anything, so he must’ve picked up that something was wrong. But when I stopped the car, he looked out and gasped.

“Wow. Is this your house?”

I smiled. “Yeah. It’s nothing special, but it’s all mine.”

“It’s so cool.”

We stepped out the car, and I looked at my house as it might’ve looked to a six-year-old. It wasn’t a huge house, but it was a very interesting looking house. I’d chosen it just for that reason. He was right. It was a cool house. We took in all the boxes and then I took them all for a tour of the place. I had a room already planned for Bobby, small but nice. He was excited.

“Really? I get my own room?”

I looked at Savannah then and realized that I had never asked her if that was okay. I had forgotten that Bobby had never had his own room. He’d lived with his mother at the club his whole life. But thankfully she was smiling and looked incredibly grateful.

“Say thank you, Bobby.”

“Thank you!” he said and came up to give me a huge hug. “Where’s Mommy going to stay?”

“Uh, well, I don’t actually have another room up here for her, but the basement is all set up for someone to stay. If that’s okay?”

“I don’t mind where I stay,” she said, and I could see she meant it.

I took her down to the basement and showed her the space. It was a big room, which even had its own bathroom. The house had come like that, and I’d really liked the idea of the extra room in case anyone stayed over. It was much more private than staying in the house itself. I looked at Savannah and saw her looking at the room. I wondered if she was going to complain, but when she looked at me, I saw that her big eyes were wet and close to tears.

“Thank you, this is amazing. I really appreciate all that you’ve done for me.”

“Ah, it’s nothing,” I said and shuffled uncomfortably. I had to keep reminding myself that I was upset with her. She was such a hard person to be mad at. I gulped and told myself that she’d taken six years away from me. Do this for Bobby, not her, I told myself.

I helped move the boxes to the basement and to Bobby’s room, which took some time. Then I showed them all the kitchen and told them to help themselves to anything.

“I’ll make a list of all the things you like soon and make sure I get them. But for now, you’ll have to just have what I’ve got. Oh, but I do have a chocolate milkshake if you’d like, Bobby?” I said as I thought of the leftover milkshake I’d bought when Candice and Dominic were there.

His eyes lit up. “Yes please.”

“And how about you? Coffee? Tea? Uh . . .” I trailed off as I realized how very little I knew about her. She was the mother of my child, and I didn’t even know what she liked to drink.

“Coffee would be great, thank you.”

I made us both a cup and then handed the milkshake to Bobby, and the two of us went to sit in the living room. I was so grateful to have Bobby around. The boy was an endless bundle of energy and loved nothing more than launching into stories to tell us. I wasn’t sure how much he knew about the situation, and I reminded myself that I would have to ask Savannah when he wasn’t around. But then, just on cue he looked up at me and smiled.

“You’re my daddy,” he said.

I gasped. I looked at Savannah. Had he just figured it out? But she was smiling. She nodded.

“He knows?”

“Yeah. I’ve told him as much as I could. I thought it was always better to be honest with him.”

Well, you could’ve been honest with me too, I thought but didn’t say anything. I was glad that Bobby knew and glad that she had chosen this method with him. I was sure there was still a lot he didn’t know, just as there was still a lot that I didn’t know. But I was impressed at how level-headed Bobby was through it all. He knew the facts, and he had a lot of questions for me. Mostly, it seemed, about drag racing. I told him everything but left out the part about how I used to do it illegally and how that was where I had met his mother. When I noticed the time, I stood up.

“Uh, I actually have a race to go to now. I almost forgot about it.”

“Can we come?” Bobby said.

“Not this time,” I said. I was sure I wouldn’t be able to concentrate with them around. “But you and your mom can spend some time settling in here. And please, help yourself to anything. I’m sure you’re hungry. I probably won’t see you when I get home, but I’ll see you in the morning. Have a good first night here.”

“Thank you,” Savannah said and shot me a grateful look.

I went to change and then said my goodbyes, and as I walked out, I realized just how odd it was to be leaving with a woman and a child sitting in my living room. I pictured them rummaging through the kitchen as I left and felt strange about knowing they would be looking through my things. My mind was spinning, and I had to force myself to calm down as I made my way to the shop to meet the rest of the crew. When I got there, I took a deep breath and shoved all thoughts of Savannah and Bobby out of my head. I had a race to get to.