Dakota Kane slept for fourteen hours and when she awoke she felt wonderfully rested. She felt strange when she first awoke in her childhood bedroom. For just a moment she wasn’t sure how old she was, she felt, for just a second that she was a child again, getting up for school. But she was no longer a child. She was a grown woman with responsibilities, and so she forced herself out of bed and into the shower.
It’s nice having a housekeeper again, Dakota thought as she walked back downstairs. There were fresh flowers throughout the house and it had been dusted and cleaned. It felt open and awake. For so long after her father’s attack the house had been cold, dark, and empty, but not any longer. In the kitchen, bagels and eggs had been set out and fresh coffee was brewing. She could hear two members of Scarred Angels eating in the security room and she smiled listening to them. It felt good to have voices in the house again; it made the mansion feel alive.
Coffee in hand Dakota walked to her father’s room and entered just as the nurse was leaving. “How is he?” she asked.
“Very good, Ms. Kane. His blood pressure and heart rate are both where we want them. I think we can begin physical therapy tomorrow,” the chipper nurse said taking a handful of linens with her has she left.
“Dakota, just who I wanted to talk to,” John said as Dakota entered. He looked good, really good; his eyes were bright, his face had color, he looked strong, and for a moment Dakota could pretend nothing bad had ever happened to him. “Come and sit with your father,” he said, patting the bed.
Dakota smiled at sat down next to him, “How are you feeling?” she asked.
“Fine, fine,” he said with an impatient wave of his hand. “But I don’t want to talk about me. I want to talk about you. Specifically you and this Adam Mendel fellow.”
Dakota sighed and looked out the window. “Don’t you think I’m a little old for the boyfriend conversation with my dad?”
“You’re never too old. No matter how old you get, I will always be your father. I will always look out for you,” John said. There was a pleading look in his eye that made Dakota nervous. Her father would only have this conversation with her if he didn’t approve of Adam.
“He’s nice, Daddy.” Dakota pleaded. She needed to make him understand that Adam was more than the biker he had met. “He works really hard, he owns a nightclub, and started a security business, all of which he started from nothing. I think you would like him if you got to know him.”
“I never said I didn’t like him. He saved your life and for that he will always find himself in my favor. But, Dakota, you need to realize that his club and his security company both started as a biker gang. That’s a dangerous element, Dakota. A very dangerous one. James and I have spoken about him and I just want to be sure that you have all the information,” John said.
“What information?” Dakota asked.
“Scarred Angels has been involved in some illegal activities. Several members of their gang are in jail for drug possession with intent to sell, and four are serving life sentences for murder.”
“But not Adam,” Dakota said.
“No, not Adam. But he is in charge of the gang. He’s their leader, Dakota. They only would have done what Adam said. Scarred Angels was responsible for helping to transport thousands of dollars’ worth of cocaine into the city. Plus other things: intimidation, kidnapping, prostitution, the list goes on.”
“You hired them, not me,” Dakota said. She didn’t know what else to say. She had always known Scarred Angels was a biker gang at its core. But there was no desire to learn the details of it. She hadn’t wanted to know; she still didn’t want to know. But she had seen something the night Adam had questioned Tommy. There was something savage in his motions, something unbridled and dangerous. Dakota had stopped him before he had caused any real harm, but what if she hadn’t been there to stop him? How far would he have gone? “They aren’t like that anymore. Adam demands everything be legal and above board,” she argued. “Besides, you and I both know how hard it is out there for people who aren’t us. People can work hard, get up every day to earn an honest living and still not have enough to get by. They may not have always been perfect, but they’re trying now. Doesn’t that count for something?”
“It counts for everything,” John answered. “It’s why James hired them in the first place. He liked their entrepreneurial ways and the fact that they were not the typical bodyguards you see every day and there is no denying they’ve been effective. But hiring an employee is one thing; entering into a relationship with someone you barely know is quite another.”
Dakota wanted to cry. She couldn’t look at her father; she didn’t know what to do with this information. It shouldn’t matter that Adam had once been involved with criminals. The past was in the past and she wanted to leave it there. She wanted to move forward with a blank slate with Adam. She liked him for who he was now, not who he might have been in the past. But Dakota knew life could never be that simple. And she couldn’t just overlook the things he’d done.
Dakota spent her time working with the poor and disenfranchised. Single mothers, orphans, the homeless, she knew better than anyone how the drug trade tied into and around all of that. It hurt so many people. Not only the addicts it created, but also the violence those addicts would perpetrate to get what they needed. Even worse was the violence those who sold the drugs created. They had power and needed to keep it, needed to consolidate it. Had Adam helped them? Had he created the people that Dakota worked so hard to save?
“In most ways our lives are easier, Dakota. You will never have to work a job you hate or live in a dangerous neighborhood. You will never want for food or entertainment or any material goods. But we pay a price for all of that. We must be so careful with whom we allow into our inner circle. Adam comes from a poor family and you have a lot of money, Dakota. When you look at your life with Adam, what does it look like? You two are so different. You have different histories, different frames of reference.”
“I don’t know...” Dakota said. But that wasn’t true. She had imagined a life with Adam, a life in his row house in Philly, a life where she got up and went to work every day and they were just a normal couple. But that had just been a fantasy. Dakota didn’t live in a small row house; she lived in a mansion and an apartment in the best part of the city. She didn’t get up and go to a job in the morning and neither did Adam. They weren’t normal, no matter how much she pretended they could be.
“I’m just asking you to be thoughtful, Dakota. These last few weeks have been beyond difficult. They’ve been terrifying. You’ve watched your father almost die; you were attacked in your own home. Everything changed very quickly and I worry that your relationship with Adam might be you looking for something solid to hold on to. It’s a normal reaction, Dakota. I just don’t want you making any life-changing decisions while all of this is going on. Take things slow with Adam. Make sure you know his history before you get further involved; will you do that for me?”
Dakota nodded silently. But she didn’t agree. She knew her father was right. She hadn’t known Adam very long, but their connection was so strong. Could it all have just been fear and adrenaline that pushed them together? Was she clinging to Adam the way a drowning man would cling to a life vest? How was she to know what the right thing to do was? She had never faced anything like this before. Her life had never been like this before; maybe her father was right and she should wait until life settled back down, not that it showed any signs of doing so.