More Than Miles (A Lost Kings MC Novel) (62 page)

Honestly, that she left it to
me
was a surprise.

“Can’t you get that money for emergencies or school or something? Seems like being a widow with a kid, you might need it. Where are you living?”

Oh, she’ll love this. “You remember Uncle Rock, right? He’s President of Marcel’s MC now and I’m staying with—”

“Christ, Heidi, wasn’t he close to my age?” I know exactly what she’s implying, and it pisses me off.

“Uh, no. And he’s like a dad to me, so
ew
.” She has the nerve to roll her eyes at that. When Rock’s done more for me in a week than this woman ever did in my entire life. “I’m staying with him and his wife.”

“What about your brother?”

“He lives at the clubhouse.”

“What’s he doing?”

“I don’t know. Maybe you should ask him yourself.” Besides his role as Treasurer of the Lost Kings MC, I don’t know exactly what my brother does, nor do I ask questions. Just like I don’t ask Murphy what he does for the club beyond his Road Captain duties.

“So, Rock and his ol’ lady have their own kids?”

“Not yet. They just got married, like last year.”

“So, why don’t you leave your daughter with them? They’d probably be thrilled.”

Rage bubbles up inside me, but I keep my voice as even as possible. “Is that your answer to everything? Dump your kid somewhere?”

“How are you ever going to find another husband? No man wants to take on some dead guy’s kid—”

A band of blind fury tightens around my head. I reach up and rub my temples before speaking. “Then that’s not the kind of man I want in my life or my daughter’s life.” What was I thinking? This woman doesn’t give a shit about me. Never has. Never will. “Let me guess, you need money. Is that why you’re suddenly interested in my life?”

I try sipping my coffee to calm myself, but my hands continue to shake with anger.

“Well, Nick owes these people—”

“Nope.” I slam my mug on the table. “I’m out. Have a nice life, Helga. Lose my number.”

I push out of my chair, grab my purse, and power-walk the fuck away from that crazy bitch.

Ugh, how could I let that woman fool me? Again. But as I shut myself inside my car, my rage subsides, giving way to the familiar ache of abandonment. Vividly, I picture myself as a broken little girl running to look out the window every time she heard a car, hoping it was her mom.

All the ugly memories and feelings threaten to drown me.

I’m better than this. I’m over it.

I’m a mother now. Not a broken, abandoned little girl. Not anymore. I love Alexa, and I’d do anything for her.
Die
before I abandoned her.

Drying my tears, I’m overwhelmed with the need to see Blake. I’m torn between not wanting to bother him at work and needing to see him.

“We’re in this together. I’m always here for you.”

Choosing to trust his words, I point my car in the direction of Furious Fitness.

“Heidi, what are you doing here?”

Right away, I know something’s off. My girl’s eyes are red and puffy.

“Jake, can you take over for me?”

“Yeah, man.”

Since Wrath isn’t here, I usher Heidi into his office and close the door behind us. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m sorry. I know you’re working. I needed to see you, though.”

“It’s okay. Tell me what happened? Is Alexa okay?”

She gives me half a smile. “Yes. She’s with Marcel. But I did something really stupid.”

I lean against Wrath’s desk and pull her into my arms, kissing her cheek. “I doubt that, beautiful. You’re the smartest girl I know,” I murmur against her ear.

“My mother called.” My jaw tightens. This won’t be good. Heidi gives me the rundown of lunch with her mother and I’m ready to find the woman and choke the life out of her selfish ass.

“I don’t know why I thought she’d be different. All she wanted to do was find out if I had any money to give her.”

“Fuck that.”

“That’s pretty much what I said.”

“Good.”

“I made it out of there without crying, but I lost it once I got to my car.”

“And you came here to see me?” I ask, so damn happy that she finally understands she can come to me when she’s hurting instead of bottling it up.

She sniffles and nods. My arms wrap tighter around her, and I press more kisses to her cheek. “I love you, Heidi.”

“I love you, too.”

After Heidi calms down, I talk her into sticking around. I need to have her close and I don’t want her driving home alone when she’s upset. She calls her brother to let him know where she is, and he’s more than happy to have extra time with the baby.

“I have to tell him about seeing Mom. Warn him. Don’t you think?”

“We’ll do it tomorrow.” Teller will probably hunt the woman down and kill her for upsetting his sister.

“We?”

“Yes, we.”

She grins and kisses my cheek before grabbing a bottle of Windex and a rag and cleaning the mirrors that line the gym walls.

“You don’t have to do that,” I say, placing my hand on her arm.

“If I’m hanging out here, I might as well be useful.”

How can I not kiss her again? “Thank you.”

“She okay?” Jake asks when I return to the front counter. I know he’s got a reputation as the
panty-whisperer
or some shit, but he seems to be genuinely worried about Heidi.

“Yeah, just family stuff.”

“She’s a sweet girl. If someone needs an ass kicking, let me know.”

My mouth quirks up. “Will do. Thanks, bro.”

He finishes up his work and leaves, locking the door behind him.

Heidi’s cleaning the last mirror when I walk up behind her and grab her by the hips. “Hey, pretty girl. All done?”

She leans back against me. “Mmhmm.”

Gently taking the cleaning supplies out of her hands, I set them on the weight bench next to us. “You know what I spend a lot of time thinking about in here?” I whisper against her ear, pulling her against my body.

She shivers and stares at my reflection. “No, what?”

I keep one arm wrapped around her waist and slip the other one under her breasts. “Bending you over something.”

Her breath hitches. “And?”

“Fucking you.” I take her earlobe between my teeth, grazing it enough to make her shiver.

“What?”

“Anything. Desk, front counter, this weight bench we’re standing next to. Actually, I can lie on it and you can straddle me—” My hand skims down her body, stopping to rub right between her legs. Even through the soft, thin sweatpants she’s wearing, her heat sears my fingers.

“Ah. Oh…Blake, every light in the place is on.” As she says it, though, she reaches back, curling her fingers around my dick, softly stroking me through my shorts.

“Good point.” My other hand slides up her ribcage, gently kneading her breasts until her head falls back. “You’re all mine.”

She makes a soft humming noise in the back of her throat.

“We should shut the lights off,” she says, with a soft, husky laugh that fires me up even more.

“I don’t want to take my hands off you.”

“Do it,” she whispers.

I can’t believe I let Blake talk me into this.

Who am I kidding? I didn’t need a lot of convincing. The minute he put his hands on me, I was ready to rip my clothes off.

I turn as he flicks the light switch. The overhead safety lights come on, throwing off enough illumination to see him clearly. “Maybe we should—”

My blood freezes as a red dot bounces up and down on the wall, next to Blake’s head.

“Down!” I scream, as I dive toward him. He drops to the ground, as I crash into him. A second later, a bullet slams into the plaster above us.

“Holy fuck! Baby, are you hurt?” he asks, placing his hands on either side of my face.

I whisper, “No.” As another bullet punches through the wall.

Lower than the first one.

My heart’s pounding so hard, I hardly hear him urging me, “Move. Stay low. Wrath’s office.” He points down the hall, and I crouch-run my way there, stopping once to make sure he’s behind me. We close the door behind us as quietly as we can. “Wrath has a Glock Forty-Three and a Sig in the bottom left drawer. Both 9mm. There should be ammo in there, too. There’s a vest in the closet, put it on.”

“What about you?”

He lifts his head and glares at me.

“Okay, okay.”

I have to shuffle through a few books and papers before I find the small metal box at the bottom of the drawer that I assume holds the guns.

Wrath’s trained me on the Glock before, so I load that one and hold on to it. Murphy will have to handle the Sig.

I scurry over to the closet and find not one, but two Kevlar vests. Jackpot. I throw the larger one at Blake and slip into the other one.

“Wrath’s on his way,” Blake says, when I crouch down next to him.

“Do you see anyone?”

“No, they could have been shooting from the other side of the road.” He glances down at the gun in my hand. “You okay?”

“Yeah, Wrath’s had me shoot this one before.”

“Thank fuck.” He glances at me again. “You did good, babe. If you hadn’t warned me—” I let out a sob and he squeezes my hand.

“Do you think the cops are coming?”

“Don’t know. Notice we didn’t hear much? Had to be using a silencer. A rifle with a silencer isn’t easy to come by.”

I don’t for a second think this is anything other than club business, and I’m scared about what Wrath might be driving into.

Murphy gives me a tired smile when I voice my fears. “He knows what he’s doing.”

It feels like hours before we hear someone at the back door. “Stay down,” Murphy orders as he runs over and peeks out the side window. “It’s Wrath and Rock.”

They push into the office and the four of us huddle behind Wrath’s desk. Murphy explains what happened and the guys all tell me what a good job I did. I don’t even realize I’m still gripping the Glock, until Wrath pries it out of my hands.

He pushes his keys at Murphy. “We’re parked down behind the bakery. Get her home.”

“No,” I whisper in a frantic hush. “Don’t stay, please. Come with us.”

“Heidi-girl, someone shot at my gym.” His gaze darts between Blake and me. “They could’ve hurt you. I want to find the fuckers.”

“Please. I don’t want anything to happen to you,” I plead, close to tears.

Murphy shakes his head. “I’m pretty sure the shot came from across the road. They could be long gone.”

Wrath grits his teeth. His gaze strays to the front window and back to us. “Your truck’s in back, Murphy?”

“Yeah.”

“Take Heidi out that way.” He points to the side. “Just in case, I want you to drive through the parking lots until you get to route fifty-five. None of them have dividers more than a couple inches. Your truck can handle them.”

“Okay.”

“We’ll be right behind you.”

I finally let out a breath.

“In the morning, we need to check that spot out,” Wrath says to Rock.

“Yeah, you might want to call Whisper in on this, too.”

Murphy leads me out the way Wrath told him to, and we drive home in silence.