Cursed (6 page)

The kid’s grin widened. “Oh yeah.”

Tank laughed. He really was his kid.

Chapter Four

After signing the papers for closing a sale,
Josslyn
had another client call her and ask to see a house. They made an offer and the seller accepted so she did another round of closing, which only increased her profit. Not bad for a day’s work. She stopped by the café for a quick snack and a latte. Once she was through she went back home.

It surprised her how well Tank did with Jeremy. He made him breakfast and played with him without even batting an eye. He didn’t mention the MC once which was weird. She pulled in her driveway and smiled at the two of them playing catch. Jeremy loved baseball and it didn’t surprise her that he’d want Tank to play with him.

“How’d it go? Tank asked.

“Great. I closed on two houses.”

She sipped her coffee as she walked toward them. “What have you two been up to?”

“Playing.” Tank tossed the ball to Jeremy. “I need to leave in a little bit. Club business.”

She nodded. “Yeah. Okay.” She looked at Jeremy. “J, why don’t you put some clothes
on.
You’re still wearing your pajamas.”

He glanced down and shrugged. Tank caught the ball. “If he’s anything like me, you’re lucky he’s not naked.”

Josslyn
laughed. “He’s exactly like you.”

He glanced over at her. Whatever was between them still
lingered.
She felt her heart melting every time she saw him with Jeremy. Tank must have felt it too. He walked over to her and pulled her in for a kiss. The man had the ability to make her feel his kiss all the way down to her toes. She looped her arms around him and held him close. Protecting herself from him was a moot point. She knew he’d hurt her again, but it didn’t seem to matter anymore.

“I should probably go before this gets intense.” Tank kissed her lips again. “We’re going to finish what we started. I can guarantee that.”

“I know.” She moved away. “Come on, Jeremy. Tell Tank bye so we can go change your clothes.”

Jeremy ran toward him. Tank lifted him into his arms and kissed him. “You be good. I’ll see you later, okay?”

The little boy nodded and hugged him. He sat him down and walked over to the van.
Josslyn
knew she was in over her head with him. She probably always had been.

She took care of Jeremy and set up his crayons and coloring books on the coffee table while she grabbed her phone. She dialed her father’s number. When he didn’t answer she decided to go see him. If Eddy took Jeremy she wanted to know why. Why would her brother do something like that to hurt Tank?

“You want to go for a ride?” She grabbed his bag and put some of his favorite toys inside. Jeremy brought her his coloring books and she put those in there as well. After everything was in order, they left.

Her father’s club was on the other side of the city. It was one of the shadiest parts that was full of crime. She grew up in the neighborhood and had seen a lot of things she wished she hadn’t.

“Where are we going?” Jeremy asked her.

“I’m going to drop you off at Grandma’s while I do some work.” Her mother’s house wasn’t too far away and thankfully, she offered to keep Jeremy anytime
Josslyn
needed her to. She didn’t feel comfortable leaving him at daycare again.

“Can I go with you?”

“Not this time, bud. Maybe next time.” She pulled in her mother’s driveway and grabbed Jeremy’s bag. She undid his car seat and tears flowed down his cheeks. She wasn’t too happy about leaving him either. She picked him up and held him close. “It’s okay. I won’t be gone long. When I get back, I’m going to spend the rest of the day with you. We can go to the park and feed the ducks.” She kissed his head. “We can do whatever you want.”

He sniffled, winding his fingers in her hair. “I want to stay with Tank.”

“Honey, he’s working too.” She shut the door and walked with him up the sidewalk leading to her mother’s front door. “I won’t be gone long. I promise.”

Her mother greeted her with a smile. “There’s my boy.”

Jeremy went to her without much fuss. She handed her the bag. “I’m going to the club. I shouldn’t be gone long, but you just never know.”

Her mother stared at her. “I don’t like that idea. Why are you going over there?”

“Because he won’t answer his phone.”
Josslyn
ran her fingers through Jeremy’s hair. “I think Eddy took him and I want to know why.”

“Joss, you don’t need to get involved in that mess again. You know what happens.”

“I’ll be fine.” She kissed Jeremy’s head. “Be good, baby. I’ll call you when I leave.”

She walked away from them and went back to her car. Once inside, she took a deep breath and glanced over at her glove box. Opening it, she grabbed the little handgun she kept there and checked to see that it was loaded. She could never be sure that her father would have her back. It was bad enough just walking in with the slime that he recruited loitering in the parking lot.

She drove to the Reaper Boys MC and parked up front. She put the gun in the small of her back and tugged her shirt over it. Her father’s bike was in its place so he deliberately didn’t answer her call. She got out and went inside.

The smell was a kick in the gut. All her childhood memories flooded into her mind. The sex and drugs being the most prominent. Matthias Grier didn’t care to do obscene things in front of his children. He’d always said it taught them an important lesson. Of course, his daughter using and being sexually active at an early age probably didn’t matter much to him. He applauded her.

“What do you want?” One of the club bitches asked.

“I want to see my dad.”

“He’s busy.”

“Snorting a row of coke off some chick’s ass is hardly what I call busy.”

The woman narrowed her eyes. “He’s busy. If he wanted to talk to you, he’d call you.”

“Right.” She moved past the bitch and the woman grabbed her arm.
Josslyn
jerked her arm away from her. “Get off me before I break every single one of your fingers. You don’t grab me, bitch.”

She must have believed her since she folded her arms over her chest.
Josslyn
moved on, heading toward her father’s room. Unlike the Charming Bastards MC, the Reaper Boys didn’t have apartments. They had areas to fuck.
Josslyn
took a deep breath when she stopped outside the door. There were many times when she’d seen her father screwing around with some whore. Each time was worse than the last. She rapped her knuckles on the door before opening it.

Three women entertained him.
Josslyn
blinked a few times. He thrust into one with hard, fast strokes that looked almost painful. The woman’s loud moans filled the silence in the room.
Josslyn
pursed her lips.

“I hate to interrupt your fun, but I need to talk to you now.”

He didn’t even notice her.
Josslyn
grabbed the gun at the small of her back and shot toward the roof. Her father turned, ducking down as he met her eyes. Several men came running down the hall and he glanced over at them.

“Touch me and see what happens.” She turned back to her father. “I need to talk to you.”

The women scrambled for their clothes and ran out of the room. Her father pulled his pants up and waved off his goons.

“You brought a gun in my club?”

“Got to protect myself, right? Isn’t that what you always told me?”

“What do you want,
Josslyn
?”

“I want to know why Eddy took Jeremy.”

He rubbed a hand over his face. “What gives you that idea?”

“Quit the bullshit. Why did he kidnap and scare the shit out of my son?”

He leaned back against the table his bitches had been laying on before. “He didn’t hurt him.”

“That is not the point and you goddamn know it.”

He scratched his chin. “Your brother has a beef with the Charming Bastards. He did it to piss off Tank.”

“You don’t kidnap
my
kid to piss off a father that never knew him. What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Matthias met her eyes. “I didn’t do anything.”

“You knew about it. You protected him. You let him get away with all this bullshit and at what cost? You were going to let him send me to jail. You’ve done nothing but hurt me all my life but you will
not
hurt my kid. I will shoot you myself before I let that happen.”

He pushed away from the table. She watched him as he walked toward her. “You have no power here. This is my club and you don’t disrespect me in my club.”

One of his goons grabbed her and
Josslyn
dropped her gun. She struggled even though the man was bigger than her. Her father looked mildly amused.

“She always did have fight in her.” He turned to the three men standing in the hallway. “Have fun with it.”

Josslyn
clawed at the man’s arm. “Don’t you fucking touch
me.
”

Her father didn’t even look at her. “Where’d my bitches go?”

The burly man said something crude to her as he dragged her into the next room. The three men looked like a shark stalking its prey. She stared at them while one started pulling his shirt off.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Lady’s choice.”

****

Tank’s phone rang the second he stepped out of chapel. He didn’t recognize the number but he answered it anyway. “Yeah?”

“Tank? This is
Josslyn’s
mother. I’m not supposed to call you but I’m worried about her. She just dropped Jeremy off at my house to go to her father’s club.”

“What?” Tank glanced up at Deuce and Silver. “Why did she go there?”

“I don’t know. I’m worried about her. She doesn’t need to be there.”

“Yeah, I know. I’ll take care of it.” Tank hung up. “
Josslyn
went to The Reaper Boys MC. Her mom thinks she’s in trouble.”

“I’m with
ya
,” Deuce commented.

“Me too,” Silver added.

Joker joined in as they headed out of the club house, all of them rushing to their bikes. Joss knew better than to go to her father’s club alone. Tank tried to push out all the bad stuff that could happen to her. He wouldn’t put it past Matthias to shoot her in cold blood if he didn’t like the way she looked at him. He was bad news and he had been for a very long time.

They rolled up to the parking lot and were greeted with some resistance. Tank didn’t give a fuck. He shoved the guy out of the way and entered the club daring anyone to say anything to him. He knew all about Matthias’s fuck rooms. A quick scan of the room revealed that she wasn’t anywhere. He moved down the hall and opened the first door.

Matthias was fucking three women without a care in the world. Tank shut the door and went to the next one. He watched one of the men rip at
Josslyn’s
clothes and he saw red. The next few moments were a complete blur. His knuckles connected with a jaw and it crackled. Blood spurted as the body went flying back. Another man jumped at him and Tank tossed him into the wall. The big burly guy from last night wanted to throw punches and Tank welcomed them. He needed to get some of the aggression out and if it was with one of the Reaper Boys, he couldn’t have picked a better opponent.