Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 34042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 170(@200wpm)___ 136(@250wpm)___ 113(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 170(@200wpm)___ 136(@250wpm)___ 113(@300wpm)
While I wanted with everything inside me to be out there looking for Pepper, I wasn’t the best man for the job. So I followed my president to Church, where I’d let everyone know I intended to claim Pepper and Cassandra once we had her back at the compound.
“So,” Sting began, looking straight at me. “Seems Rage here is now a daddy.” Snorts all around. Yeah. I wasn’t exactly the daddying type. “A woman named Pepper left her child on the club doorstep and in Rage’s tender care.”
“What the hell, Rage?” someone called from across the room. I thought it might be Smoke, the fucker, but I wasn’t sure. “Since when are you with a woman long enough to get her pregnant?”
“Since I started bangin’ your woman.” I popped off with the quip before I thought, but it still got guffaws from some of the brothers. “My brother’s woman is in some kind of trouble. For the record, I have no doubt in my mind it’s his fault. Pepper isn’t the trouble kind of woman.”
“You sure?” Sting leveled his gaze on me. “She left a child at the gate of the clubhouse. She might have changed.”
“We all change with time,” I answered. “But there’s no way Pepper willingly left that baby. No. She believes the kid’s be safer with me than with her. Though, I have no idea why she didn’t come with the child. She was always an independent little thing, but was never too proud to ask for help.”
Sting pointed at the letter I still had crumpled in my fist. “She seemed to think you didn’t like her much. If you were your usual charming self, that could be the reason she didn’t come to you instead of leaving you her baby and splittin’.”
I shrugged. “You have a point. She was always half afraid of me, and I liked it that way.”
“There a reason for that?” Brick glanced at Sting like he’d been anxious to ask this exact question. His expression said I better not have harmed that girl or I’d be answering to him.
“Yeah. ‘Cause I fuckin’ wanted her for my fuckin’ self, but she wanted my fuckin’ brother.”
“Awkward much?” Wylde didn’t even look up from his tablet, where he was probably reviewing the security footage hoping to give our hunters the best possible information he could. Like which direction she took off in.
“Which is why I was an asshole. My brother didn’t deserve her, but neither did I. Difference is, I’ll treat her like a fuckin’ princess. Even if I am a grumpy asshole.” Surprisingly, that didn’t get as much of a reaction as I’d thought. I wasn’t just grumpy. I came by my road name honest.
“OK,” Sting said. “Get your brother’s information to Wylde, and he’ll start looking. See if he can find what the fuck is goin’ on.”
“Already on it, Prez,” Wylde said absently. “I left my command center to come to Church, but I’ve got a feed on the information comin’ in.” He glanced at me. “Your brother is into some shady shit. Looks like a legit hot-shot banker, but he’s been a really bad boy.”
“Doesn’t surprise me. What does surprise me is that Pepper thinks Dustin might be a danger to her daughter. My brother is many things, but I never thought he’d be capable of hurting a woman or a child. I may have to kill him for hurting Pepper, but I want a thorough investigation before we for real kill him.”
“You sound pretty accepting of that,” Roman said softly. “Somethin’ we need to know?”
I scrubbed a hand over my face. “My brother has always been out for himself. He’d drop Pepper and Cassie in a heartbeat if he thought it benefited him. It’s why I didn’t want her with him. He’s a selfish bastard. Always has been. His priority would never be to protect anyone but himself. So if he’s brought danger to their door, he has no intention of sacrificing himself.”
“OK. Wylde, keep digging.” Sting looked like he was satisfied with the way the meeting had gone. “I want a report on what you found in an hour. In the meantime, everyone be aware we’ll be having a guest shortly. My woman has the baby and will take care of her until we bring Pepper home, and she and Rage work through this.” He nodded at me. “I want that very clear. I get she believes she’s up against something she can’t easily fight, but the fact remains she still abandoned a baby with a man she was clearly uncomfortable with.”
I nodded. “Understood.”
“Good. Everyone stay close and keep your cells on. Depending on what Wylde finds, we may need all hands on deck.”
We all filed out, going our separate ways. I was hot on Wylde’s heels, intending to stick to the man like glue until he found out what Dustin was into or Walker and Shooter came back with Pepper. It was time to tie her to me, because Pepper had made the mistake of proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that she trusted me with her life and the life of her child. It was time for her to learn she could trust me with her heart.