Daphne
Daphne staggered over to the couch and fell on top of it. Her mind was a swirl of emotions and she could hardly hold a thought straight.
“What … what are you going to do to get him back?”
“I’m still working on a plan,” he said. “They told me that I needed to give myself up for taking out the Devil’s Spawn. The rest of those fuckers joined up with the other MC, and their first order of business is getting revenge.”
“Starting with my boy.”
“With our boy,” said Xander. “And they’re not gonna get away with it. I was ready to let them off the hook with an ass-kicking, but now that they’ve brought my son into it, they’ve started something that’s only going to end one way.”
Daphne looked up at Xander, seeing that rage was boiling behind his eyes. But his body was still and calm, as though he were taking all of the anger that roiled inside of him and was turning it into calm, focused wrath. Daphne could easily imagine him walking into the MC’s headquarters and taking each of them apart one by one, that same still, blank expression on his face.
“I know that you’re fucking pissed at me,” said Xander. “And I get it. I was stupid and reckless with our boy. But what’s going on right now is bigger than the both of us. And we’re going to need to stick together if we’re gonna pull this off. I … can’t lose both of you in the same day.”
A tinge of emotion crept into Xander’s otherwise calm exterior. To Daphne’s shock, a wet glistening formed on Xander’s eyes.
“I … I don’t know. Up until a couple of days ago, when I found out that I had a boy, I didn’t know what I was doing with my life. Just running with my MC, thinking that nothing else mattered besides myself. But when you told me that Jack was mine, that I had a little son … everything changed. Right then and there, I realized that my life was about something bigger than me. It was like some kind of switch flipped inside of me.”
Daphne couldn’t help but be moved by Xander’s words. In her years of knowing him, she’d never seen him even come close to showing this kind of emotion, and she could sense that he was using every bit of restraint he had to hold back the tears.
“And those … fuckers, think that they can use my son to get at me,” he said, anger returning to his voice. “They’ve got another fucking thing coming. I’ll kill them all if I have to.”
It was all so shocking to Daphne to see Xander act this way after only knowing Jack for such a short period of time. Seeing him put his emotions on the line like this caused her to instantly reconsider her decision to forbid Xander from seeing Jack again. Xander clearly was a man who cared about looking out for his own, and she knew it’d be foolish to turn away a man like him, especially when she needed his help the most.
“Fine,” said Daphne, still trying to keep some measure of calm distance, not wanting to let Xander think he was totally off the hook. “Caroline told me that he’d been playing at the park near her house when he was taken.”
“Did she call the cops?” asked Xander.
“Yes,” said Daphne. “Of course she did.”
“Damn it,” said Xander.
“What’s wrong with that?” asked Daphne. “Can’t the cops help us get Jack?”
Xander snorted.
“You kidding me?” he asked. “Cops are just gonna get in the way. And by the time they manage to find their asses with both hands, who the fuck knows where the Spawn will have taken Jack.”
“So what do we do?” asked Daphne.
“We go to the park where they took Jack and see what he can find out. Hopefully the cops aren’t swarming all over the place.”
“Then let’s do it.”
Minutes later they were both on the back of Xander’s bike and tearing down the road. Daphne knew that she normally wouldn’t want Xander to drive as fast as he did, but she didn’t want to waste a second. After a time, they arrived at the park. Sure enough, a small group of squad cars was parked nearby, and a handful of police officers were at the scene.
“What’re you going to do?” asked Daphne.
“Well, the cops aren’t exactly going to be offering up any info to a guy like me.”
“I’m the mom,” said Daphne. “They’ll have to tell me something.”
“They won’t,” said Xander. “They’ll give you some BS about how it’s an ongoing investigation and that they’ll let you know when they find anything out.”
Then a thoughtful expression crossed Xander’s face.
“But maybe we can use that to our advantage.”
“What do you mean?”
“Here’s what we’re gonna do: you go to the cops, tell them who you are, and demand that they tell you everything they know. Now, they’re gonna say exactly what I just said, and you’re not going to accept that. You’re gonna throw a fit, demand that they tell you everything, and that you’re not going anywhere until they let you know everything they know about where your boy is.”
“That sounds like a pretty flimsy plan,” Daphne said. “It all rests upon them just throwing their hands up and telling me about their ongoing investigation.”
“No,” said Xander. “What you’re going to be doing is making a distraction. While every detective on the scene is trying to calm you down and get you out of the way, I’m going to be scoping the place out and finding out what I can.”
“I see,” said Daphne, a little more convinced.
“Now,” said Xander, “get to it. I want to see a hell of a show.”
Taking a deep breath, Daphne climbed off of the bike and headed towards the officers.
Here goes nothing, she thought.