Blade

 

As Lucy and I stepped outside the diner, I was overcome with the need to be close to her. I held the door as she stepped through, and then I gently took her arm and pulled her to me. I embraced her. My arms wrapped around her, swallowing her as I pulled her to my chest. She tilted her head up and we kissed. It was a long, slow kiss. There was no tongue, just our lips lingering together, just the touch, the connection.

 

Her hands were at my sides, spreading open as far as they could to hold onto me. She pulled me to her. Our bodies pressed firmly together in the sunlight outside the old quiet diner on the secluded road in the middle of nowhere.

 

I wanted to hear her story. I wanted to know what had happened that set her off like that and sent her running from me, from the life we had talked about building together. I knew it had to be something serious.

 

She pulled back, breaking the kiss.

 

“I feel like I should run away more often,” she joked, touching a dainty finger to her lips.

 

“I’d come get you no matter where you go. But please don’t do that ever again.” I allowed myself to laugh. I was glad to have her back. I walked her to the car and opened her door for her. We walked hand in hand until she slid into the passenger seat and I went to close the door.

 

As we pulled out of the parking lot, it was finally time to start talking. I looked over to her and took her hand in mine again. I wanted her to know that it was okay for her to tell me anything and everything she needed to.

 

“I guess you want to talk about what happened,” she murmured.

 

“I think it’s time. And we should get it all out in the open before we get back to the house,” I said. I gave her hand an encouraging squeeze.

 

“Where do I begin?” she asked, and I could tell she was talking to herself more than to me at that point.

 

“At the hospital. What happened to make you want to leave when you got out?”

 

“It’s like you know,” she said.

 

“Know what? Remember, I was in jail, and no one told me you were gone until I got out, so you had a pretty good head start.”

 

She sighed. “Okay. Dylan came to visit me in the hospital,” she said.

 

“Dylan,” I repeated. “Who’s Dylan?”

 

“Dylan is the father of my son,” she told me, dropping a bomb on me.

 

“It’s a boy?” I asked, nearly shouting in surprise.

 

“It is a boy,” she said, smiling. Her smiled warmed up the whole car, completely changing the atmosphere from cold and serious to bright and joyful.

 

“Does the father know?” I asked.

 

“I don’t think so. He would have said something if he had. He would have been more adamant, I think, if he’d known.”

 

“More adamant? Okay, hold up.” I was getting lost. I felt like I wasn’t getting the full picture. “What happened when Dylan came to the hospital?”

 

“He told me he wanted to take custody of the baby when he’s born,” she said. The fear of the situation was returning to her voice.

 

I squeezed her hand again. “That’s not going to happen. You’re not giving him custody of the child, right? I mean, this is supposed to be our kid. That’s going to be my son, not his.” There was a sudden surge in my possessive instinct. I wasn’t going to allow someone to come in and hijack our plans, not like that.

 

“It wouldn’t take much for him to be able to take our son away, Blade,” she argued. “You’re in an MC. You’ve got a criminal record, and I don’t mean this mess that my father has obviously put you in. I may be a little naïve, but I’m not stupid. I know there’s more to your past than hanging out with your brothers in bars. With his job and my father’s support, no one will stand in his way.”

 

“You’re forgetting one thing.: your father doesn’t own me,” I said sternly.

 

“He owns enough people, as you know, to make your life hell.”

 

I barked out a coarse laugh. “What he doesn’t realize is I’ve still got you. Together, you and I are going to work to take him down,” I told her, confident in our ability to work together against any common threat.

 

“I’ll be happy to, because he poses a threat to both of us right now,” she said.

 

“So, what else happened? Did you just panic and leave?” I still wasn’t piecing together everything in my head.

 

“Yeah, I panicked. Dylan and my father are both rich, powerful men, and I know my father put him up to visiting me. The only thing that made any sense at the time was to run. I had to get away from anything that would help him if he decided to really pursue custody. At the time, his threat sounded very real and very plausible,” she explained.

 

“I hope you realize he’s going to have to fight if he wants the boy. There are lawyers out there who are not in your father’s pocket. I’ve got one now, and she was able to get one of your dad’s judges to set bail and let me out. I’m sure she can help with any custody battle, or she can find someone who can,” I assured her.

 

“Thank you, Blade. You’ve really been a tremendous help through all of this,” she said sweetly.

 

“So, how the hell did you get by Robby?” I said with a laugh.

 

“Oh yeah, that.” She sounded embarrassed. “Well, while he was at the front door waiting for me, I just dipped out the back.”

 

It sounded simple enough, but the way my house was set up, I never would have expected someone who wasn’t shady, wasn’t sneaky, to figure out there was an exit in the back. I wondered just how good Lucy really was.

 

“Are you sure you haven’t lived this kind of life before?” I asked her, joking.

 

“I watch a lot of TV,” she said. She winked.

 

“I see that. Where were you going?”

 

“Wherever the road took me. That was why I stayed at the bus station. I didn’t know where to go next. My original ticket was for Albuquerque, so I could have actually stayed on the bus to stop at any of the stops on the way, or I could have gone all the way, but if I followed the ride all the way to its destination, I figured it would have been easier to track me,” she explained.

 

“But you used cash, so you probably didn’t have to give anyone your name. It wouldn’t have been easy to track you. You could have gone,” I argued. “I mean, I’m glad you didn’t, but you could have,” I added quickly.

 

“True, but my father has nearly unlimited funding and power to match. He would have found me. I’m surprised no one showed up at the terminal before you did.” She was looking out the window as she talked, watching the world roll past us.

 

“I guess you’re right. Well, we’ve got to figure something out to stop him. If we don’t, I’m going to prison on drug charges. Because of who I am and what I do, they’ll want to go as severe as they can on the punishment and the charges.”

 

She sat and stared quietly for a few moments before saying anything. She was beautiful. That anyone could have looked at her and even imagined doing her wrong boggled my mind. I couldn’t imagine doing anything to hurt her, but there were people out there who couldn’t seem to do anything but that.

 

“I could talk to him again,” she said finally, turning to face me.

 

“But what would you say?” I asked.

 

“I don’t know. I’d have to talk him down or get him to admit what he’s doing. But if anyone can do either of those things, it’s me.”

 

I nodded. She was right. She was the best person for the task of talking to her father. “Do it. But I want to hear everything. I want to hear your whole conversation with him,” I told her, insisting.

 

“We can arrange that,” she said thoughtfully. I could see the plan formulating in her head.

 

“What do you propose?” I asked.

 

“I’ll meet him at his house, and I’ll take my phone. I’ll either record him or let you listen in on speaker. I’ll need you to mute your end, though, so he can’t hear anything.”

 

Her intuitive understanding of how to do things never ceased to amaze me. Here was this young girl who grew up in the best neighborhood and went to the best schools, who had never been in any trouble before, who understood the world better than most. She was a natural. She was going to make a great old lady and a great addition to the Vicious Thrills.

 

“Are you sure you want to do this?” I asked her. “I don’t want to put you in harm’s way to make this work.”

 

“I’m fine with it. Besides, if anything goes wrong, you’ll be listening in, and you can send someone to get me,” she said. She talked like it was some big military operation.

 

“You don’t expect a conversation with your father to get that bad, do you?” I asked.

 

“I don’t know, Blade. He seems pretty desperate right now, and I’m not really sure why.”

 

“Me neither,” I agreed. “Although, if he was upset enough to kick you out of the house because he didn’t want any shame from his daughter having an illegitimate child, he might just be upset enough to do whatever it takes to make sure the world never knows about that child. I saw the neighborhood. People in places like that really care about what their neighbors think of them.”

 

“And you don’t?” she asked.

 

“To an extent I do. I want people to be a little unsettled by me. I want them to be afraid to fuck with me or with my brothers. I don’t care what they know as long as they can’t prove it in court,” I said, giving a little cough at the end for emphasis.

 

Lucy laughed. “Of course, as long as it can’t be proven in court.”

 

“Right. If the court thinks it didn’t happen, or can’t prove that it did, it didn’t happen. That’s an important lesson in this life, Lucy. Remember it.”

 

Our drive passed quickly while we talked and held hands in the car. Before I knew it, we were home, pulling up to the clubhouse, where we were both going to be staying until everything blew over. I felt safer surrounded by my brothers in the MC. No one would have argued any differently.

 

“We’re not going back to the house?” Lucy asked cautiously.

 

“No way. Not while your father is trying to have me locked up. I don’t know what else he will do, so we’re staying here in the meantime, until we get this sorted. Is that okay?” I asked. I wasn’t really looking for an answer. We were going to stay there whether it was okay or not. It just made more sense.

 

“I guess it’ll have to be okay,” Lucy said as she got out of the car.

 

“Hey,” I called after her. I cut the engine and got out, following her as she walked toward the clubhouse. I grabbed her arm again and turned her around.

 

I had expected to see anger in her face when she spun around, but I saw a kind of resolve. “It’s fine,” she said. “Besides, if I’m going after my father for you, we’re going to need to work with the rest of the guys so they can be ready in case anything goes wrong.”

 

I could have kissed her again, but she turned and walked inside. I stood back and watched as the old ladies inside welcomed her home. The guys also accepted her into the group. She was one of us. There was no doubt about it.