Josephine walked up the steps to her mother’s house, making sure to give one last glare at the two young assholes Lucas left at the house. It wasn’t enough that she didn’t have her own car and had to drive the big ass truck of his instead or she didn’t have most of her things with her at his house because he’d made her pack so fast, but now she had babysitters that were at least five years younger than her.

 

Putting them out of her mind, she entered her mother’s house, immediately taking in the smell of baking cookies.

 

“Mom?” She dropped her purse on the entry table and went to the kitchen.

 

A middle-aged woman stood over the stove, transferring cookies from a baking sheet to a cooling rack.

 

“Oh!” The woman jumped a bit and clutched her chest. “I’m sorry, dear. I didn’t hear you.” She put the spatula down and turned to her, wiping her hands on the apron she wore over her nurse’s uniform.

 

“You’re the nurse?”

 

“Yes. I’m sorry, you must be Josephine. Your mother mentioned you might stop by today.” She untied the apron as she spoke and draped it over the kitchen chair. “She’s napping right now, but she had quite the appetite this morning. Said she wanted a chocolate chip cookie, so while she slept, I thought I’d throw a batch together.”

 

“Mom was hungry?” Josephine smiled. She couldn’t help herself. Her mom had lost so much weight over the past months, she worried the weight loss would be more harmful to her than the cancer she was fighting.

 

“Yes.” The nurse nodded and pointed to her mother’s closed bedroom door. “She should be getting up soon if you want to sit with her.”

 

“I think I will.” Josephine nodded. “The hospital called me this morning. They are all set for the procedure. They’re going to have a medical van come the morning of to take her to the hospital.”

 

“That will be easier for her, then. While you sit with her, I’m going to do some of the laundry. The night nurse had to change the sheets a few times, so I’ll get those going.”

 

“Mom had a bad night?”

 

“No worse than usual.” The nurse patted Josephine’s arm. “Don’t worry too much. It’s part of the medicine. She’s a strong woman.”

 

“Yeah. She is.” Josephine agreed. Her mom hadn’t had a choice in the matter. Being a single mom didn’t exactly give her a lot of free time to sloth around. She didn’t have many friends, and she worked harder than she should have, all so Josephine wouldn’t feel the effects of not having a father in the house.

 

Josephine sat beside her sleeping mother and placed a hand on her growing belly. The baby was starting to show a little bit, and she was beginning to feel little kicks or movements now and then. The worry over Lucas being too dangerous hadn’t gone away just because he put his foot down and took control of the situation. As much as her mom tried, Josephine still felt the longing for her father. She wanted him to be there like so many of her friends’ fathers were. Did she want that for her own child?

 

Lucas told her he loved her, and she knew him well enough to know the man didn’t say things he didn’t mean. And she could tell by the surprise in his own features when he made the proclamation that he’d never said those words before, either. Hell, he was probably as surprised by the feeling as he was by expressing it out loud.

 

She hadn’t returned the sentiment, at least not verbally. Waking up beside him, sleeping in his arms, having him sit across from her at the dinner table—all these things felt right, like he’d always been there. But he hadn’t been, and if whatever this deal he was working on with Clay got violent, he might not be in the future.

 

The same excuses played through her mind, all things to consider before getting involved with him, but they were already involved, and so was her heart. She did love him, otherwise she wouldn’t be so afraid for him. He was arrogant and bossy, but he held her when she was moody. His touch alone could soothe almost all her worries.

 

“Josephine?” Her mother’s soft voice filled the room. Josephine sat up straighter in her chair, leaning over to take her mom’s hand, so frail and chilled. “I thought you’d be at work.”

 

“I wasn’t feeling great, so I took the day off.” Rather, Lucas decided she needed to rest and had called her boss, an act she still wasn’t sure she liked or not. “How are you feeling?”

 

“Oh, you know.” A slight squeeze of her hand let her know her mom was still fighting. The tiny smile she gave Josephine reminded her of how much her mother used to laugh. Even after her father walked out, after the bills became too much to pay on just her salary, even after they’d almost lost the house, her mother smiled and laughed, never giving into the pile of crap being dished out to them.

 

“There’s cookies. The nurse said you wanted cookies?”

 

“Oh, yeah. I did have a taste for chocolate chip. One of these medicines keeps giving me a sweet tooth. But if I eat it, I’ll probably toss it up. You take them home with you, to that big guy of yours. He looks like he could eat a dozen or two.”

 

“Lucas. Yeah, he probably could.” Josephine laughed and tucked Mom’s her hair back behind her ears.

 

“I know you’re worried, but I’m not sure about what—me or him or you?” Her mom struggled to sit up, and Josephine was quick to move the pillows and push the button on the hospital bed they’d rented to help her.

 

“We haven’t exactly had the best luck with men, you know.” Josephine tried to joke. After her dad bailed, she didn’t remember her mom dating anyone else.

 

“Better to have loved and lost,” her mom whispered with a whimsical look in her eyes.

 

“Really? Even Dad?” They didn’t talk much about her father. Josephine didn’t need to know much about him to know he was a deadbeat. He walked out, never looking back and leaving them dangling in the wind. He never even bothered to divorce her mother; he just left.

 

“Your father was decent enough before he changed. He took good care of me and you.” A frail finger pointed at Josephine.

 

“Yeah, by deserting us.” Josephine started straightening the sheets and blankets.

 

“Listen, Josephine, I didn’t tell you everything about your father. I didn’t want—” Her voice broke off, and Josephine looked over at her. A tear ran down her cheek.

 

“Mom, I’m sorry. Don’t. It’s okay. We don’t need to talk about him.”

 

“No, you need to know.” She grabbed Josephine’s hand and held on tight. “Because you look like you might make the same mistake.”

 

Josephine sank back into her chair and listened.

 

“Your father did walk out on us. That was true.” Watery eyes looked away from Josephine as she continued. “A few years later he tried to come home. But in the time he’d been gone, he’d changed. Maybe for the better, I don’t know. I never gave him the chance.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“He’d joined some biker club, not the one your guy’s in. The patch, it was different, red with horns or something.” Josephine swallowed. She’d seen that patch before. “But I was scared. Too scared he’d run away again or that he’d get in trouble because of that club. So I told him to go and never come back.”

 

Josephine blinked a few times, letting what her mother told her settle in her mind. “He’s in the Iron Rebels?”

 

“I’m sorry, but you can’t do the same thing I did. Don’t try pushing Lucas away because you’re too scared.”

 

“He’s still there? Is he still in that club?”

 

“What?” Meredith closed her eyes for a brief moment, then let out a slow breath. “What did you ask?”

 

“Mom. Is he still in that club? Do you know?”

 

“What’s all the ruckus?” The nurse showed up in the doorway with her pristine uniform and genuine smile.

 

“I don’t know.” Meredith patted Josephine’s hand. “I’m sorry I never told you.”

 

“If you’re up for it, let’s get you cleaned up and your nightgown changed.” The nurse gave Josephine a nod of her head, a sign to get going so she could do her job.

 

Josephine looked down at her mom. Her father hadn’t completely abandoned them? “Yeah. Uh, Mom, I have to meet Lucas back home anyway.”

 

“Okay.” Her mom nodded and leaned back against her pillow. Their conversation had taken a lot of out of her.

 

“Her speech has gotten a lot better,” Josephine commented to the nurse.

 

“The new medication is helping that, but it takes so much out of her when she talks.”

 

“I’ll be back tomorrow.” Josephine kissed her mother and scooted around the bed and past the nurse. Lucas had taken care of everything for her mom—around the clock care and the best medical treatment, and so far, all she’d done was doubt him.

 

Now there was her father to deal with. Could he still be in the Iron Rebels? Would he make trouble for Lucas, and really, did she care?

 

When she walked out of the house, she noticed her babysitters parked behind the truck. She sighed. He was trying to protect her, she knew that and did appreciate it, but it was the fact that she needed protecting that was concerning.

 

As she walked to the truck, her phone started ringing, and she grabbed it just before it went to voicemail.

 

“Hey, sweet cheeks.” She could almost envision Lucas grinning, thinking he was clever with the nickname.

 

“Hi, Lucas. You know… don’t you think it’s weird that your name is Lucas, not Lukey or some other nickname like Cutter has?” She leaned against the truck door, giving the prospects on their bikes a little wink. They just looked at each other, just like a little boy would when be dealing with a woman.

 

“It’s not weird at all.”

 

“I think I’ll call you Lukey from now on.” She smiled, enjoying the small banter between them. All of their conversations were so tense recently. She just wanted to hear a little laughter, feel a little lighter before everything got more serious. Because once she told him that her dad could possibly be alive and a member of Iron Rebels, things could get a hell of a lot tenser.

 

“I think you’ll have a hard time sitting on that apple bottom of yours if you do.”

 

“Promises, promises,” she teased. Where the hell had this girl been? It was fun to play with him.

 

“Oh, yeah?” He laughed. A good sound to her tired ears. “We’ll see. You call me Lukey one time, and I’ll show you. How’s that?”

 

“I’ll have to think about it.” She opened the door to the truck and tossed her purse in. “I’m not at home.”

 

“Yeah. I know.” Of course he did. Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum must have ratted on her the second she stepped foot outside the house.

 

“I’m just seeing Mom.”

 

“I know that, too.”

 

“Of course, my armed guard is here with me, keeping everything safe.” She tried to keep her voice light, but the arrogant smiles on the two boneheads might have caused some sarcasm to drip into her tone.

 

“You’re not a prisoner, you know. Just make sure those guys are with you if you go anywhere else, but, you were supposed to stay in bed until I got home.”

 

“I wanted to see Mom.”

 

“I know. You also snuck out of here like some teenager after curfew.”

 

“I didn’t know you’d had the security detail outside, otherwise I would have slipped out the window.”

 

“If you do that, I really will tan your ass.” His voice hardened. Of course, she’d joked about something that could possibly put her safety at risk.

 

“Relax, I was just kidding. As long as you aren’t going to try keeping me tied up in the house, no need to take extreme measures. Are you home now?” She stepped up into the truck.

 

“No. That’s why I was calling. I have to do a few things. I’m going to be gone all afternoon and probably tonight, too. Once you get home, let me know. Croc and Zack will stick around until I get back tonight. You can call Cherry if you want someone to hang out with.”

 

“What if I wanted some other friend?” Not that she had any but just in case.

 

“Okay, who?”

 

Dammit. “Never mind. Just a joke. I’ll call her if you want me to.”

 

“I’ll leave it to you. She and Cutter had a fight this afternoon, so not sure if she’s in the mood for company, but it might do her good and you too. You can’t just have work and me. You need other people.”

 

“Pawning me off already?” She half-smiled at the joke, but a small part of her held onto that worry hard.

 

“Never.” A single word given with more conviction than any other declaration she’d ever heard. The phone nearly shook with his resolve. She smiled into the receiver and pressed her forehead to the steering wheel.

 

She believed him—truly believed that he would never let her go, and that idea didn’t scare her anymore. Whatever came their way, he’d protect her and their baby.

 

“Okay, then, I’ll call Cherry,” she whispered into the phone, trying to hide the overwhelming urge to blurt out how much she loved him. “When you get home, we should talk, though. Mom told me something, something that might involve you; I’m not sure.”

 

“Me?”

 

“I don’t know, maybe. Your club maybe, I’m not sure. It could be nothing.”

 

“Okay, when I get home, you tell me everything. Stay with those two. If you shake them loose, I’m gonna—”

 

She started laughing before he could finish his threat and didn’t hear the last of it. “Okay. I got it. Do what you need to do, then come home. I need you, and not just for talking.”

 

A low growl was his only response, and she bit her lower lip. Now she was flirting, too. She clicked off the call and looked in her rearview mirror to find the two lug-heads still waiting.

 

She waved her hand out the window, beckoning one of them to her. “I’m just heading back to the house. Do you think one of you could swing off at the store and get some ice cream?”

 

“Uh, sure. Croc will make the trip.” He nodded and went back to his bike. She watched them have a short argument before revving up their engines.