UNBROKEN: A Bad Boy MMA Romance (Midwest Alphas) (Book 2) (20 page)

“Hello, Claire,” she says. Her hands hang in front of her with her fingers clasped around a black leather clutch.

I hear the sudden scratch of a chair against the kitchen floor and I turn to see Tobias striding into the living room. “What are you doing here?” he asks quickly, his voice a fierce whisper above my shoulder.

“My apologies,” she says, glancing between the two of us. “But I’m not here to see either of you.”

We both turn around as Charlie’s boot taps into the entryway. He pauses with his teeth clenched against his inner cheek. “Lily,” he says.

“Charles,” Lillian replies. “May I have a moment of your time?”

He nods slowly. “Come on in.”

I look at Tobias.
“Lily?”
I mouth silently. He shrugs his shoulders in response, looking just as confused as I am.

“Will you two excuse us, please?” Charlie asks as Lillian crosses the threshold into the living room.

Tobias places his hand on my back and gives me a light push towards the door. “No problem,” he says, trying to act as casually as possible. I keep my mouth shut, still too stunned to form words. I step outside onto the porch and Tobias follows closely, closing the door behind him.

“Lily?” I ask again in the driveway. “
Charles?
Tobias, what’s going on?”

“I have no idea.”

“Did you know they knew each other?”

“No.”

“Why is she here?”

“Claire, I think it’s pretty safe to assume that we’re both on the exact same page here.”

I bite my lip, but I don’t want to stop talking. “If Charlie knows Lillian, then he probably knows about the Alphas.”

Tobias exhales and nudges me closer to the barn. “Keep your voice down…”

“It’s true, isn’t it?” I ask.

“Maybe.”

“Tobias—”

“Claire, stay calm.” He guides me into the barn and quickly slides the door closed behind us. “We don’t know anything yet. They could be talking about anything.”

“Let’s just say he knows about the Alphas,” I continue, unable to stop the spew of words from tumbling off my lips. “Now he knows that we know Lillian. He’s going to put it all together.”

“No, he’s not.”

“The late nights out. You coming home covered in bruises — getting
stabbed.
Charlie’s too smart not to figure it out, Tobias!”

He spins around and grabs my shoulders. “Claire… calm down.” His eyes — bright and green as summer leaves — hold my attentions with ease. “Everything is going to be fine.”

Every lie. They all force their way to the surface all at once. Every time I told Charlie I was going to movies with Amy when she was really teaching me how to be an Alpha Dame. Every time we blamed Tobias’ bruises on factory equipment or his motorbike.

Every single lie.

“I can’t lose this place, Tobias…” I whisper.

He smirks. “What are you talking about?”

“This is my home.” My lips tremble. “He’s going to kick me out—”

“Hey—” Tobias cups my face, his lips curling into a smile. “He’s not going to kick you out.”

“I have nowhere else to go.”

He wipes a tear off my cheek with his thumb. “You have nothing to be worried about,” he chuckles.

“This isn’t funny—”

“Yes, it is.” He shakes his head. “Claire, you are his
family
.”

Family. It’s a shaky concept for me. I have my mother, but even she hasn’t always there when I needed her. My real father abandoned us so early on in my life, I barely remember his face. My stepfather rejected me the moment he laid eyes on me. As far as I’m concerned, unconditional love is a myth told to children to give them false hope. There’s always something — an unspoken criteria — that will bring the entire concept of love crashing down.

“He’ll hate me…” I mutter.

“That’s impossible,” Tobias argues. “Claire, he loves you as much as I do.”

I blink, overwhelmed with aching doubt. “We might just have to leave this place after all…”

Tobias slides a finger beneath my chin. “Claire, if we leave,” he says, “it won’t be because of him.”

The sound of a car starting breaks the silence and Tobias moves to the barn door to check. “It’s Lillian,” he says, glancing through the small crack in the door.

“She’s leaving?” I ask, stepping forward to peak over his shoulder.

“Looks like.”

“That was fast…” I say as I slowly move away from the door. I tap my a fingernail between my teeth as they chatter nervously together. “What did she want?” I ask, but I don’t expect an answer from him.

Tobias turns towards me. “We should go back inside and find out.”

I stand there, paralyzed by the unknown, shaking my head back and forth. “I can’t…” I whisper.

Tobias strides back to me. “Claire, trust me.”

“No, I mean… I can’t lie to him anymore, Tobias.”

He pauses. “Let’s just find out what he knows first, okay?”

It’s not what I want, but it’s the best I’ll get right now. “Okay,” I answer.

“Come on,” he says again, this time interlocking his fingers with mine to keep me close to him. He leads me out of the barn, my cheeks burning more and more with each step we take into the house.

I hear Charlie in the kitchen, his feet pacing around the white linoleum floor.

“Tobias. Claire.”

My palms instantly turn sweaty and Tobias squeezes my hand a little tighter before pulling me into the kitchen with him. I can barely lift my eyes to look at Charlie. I already feel his piercing gaze, just as green as his son’s, staring at me with pained disappointment. It’s oddly familiar, bringing back memories of the first few days living beneath his tutelage.

“Tobias, I’d like to speak with Claire alone for a minute,” Charlie says. The crushing weight slides a little farther down on my shoulders, but Tobias refuses to drop my trembling hand.

“Actually, Dad, I’d rather stay here,” he replies. I look up at him and he gives me a quick, subtle nod before looking across the kitchen at his father again.

“Fine,” Charlie says. “Sit down then. Both of you.”

Tobias keeps his hold on my hand until he pulls out my chair for me and sits down in the one next to it. I lower myself slowly, feeling my knees buckle on the way down. It’s over; I can feel it already. I’m doomed, once again tossed out from a world I know into one I don’t belong in, forced to carve out a fresh life for myself with no means to do so. As optimistic as Tobias is about leaving, I’m not sure it will be as easy as he thinks it will be and I’m not the least bit excited to find out the answer to that.

Charlie takes the seat across from us and silently stares at the two of us for a long moment before speaking. “How do you know Lily Tombs?” he asks us both.

“How do
you
know Lillian Tombs?” Tobias asks.

“I’ve known her for twenty years,” Charlie answers. “There are plenty of legitimate reasons for that, but from what I can deduce, there’s only
one
reason why
you
would know her, but I’m having a hard time believing it’s possible because that would mean my son has been hiding it from me for Lord knows how long—”

“It’s true,” I mutter. I feel Tobias’ eyes dart in my direction, but I ignore their urge for my silence. “I know Lillian through the Midwest Alphas. Amy recruited me in.”

Charlie looks at me and sighs. “I was afraid of that.” He looks at Tobias. “How about you?”

I chose my words carefully, incriminating only myself. Tobias can still keep his secret and I’ll keep my word to not tell Charlie to the day I die, if that’s what he wants. At this point, Charlie holds mere speculation, unless Lillian told him otherwise. I glance at Tobias and I watch as he stares back at his father, unblinking.

“I joined the Alphas last year,” he finally says.

Charlie’s eyes jump back and forth between us with a mix of disappointment and fear that I can’t quite pin down. He rests against his hands, fingers interlocked in front of his chin. “Do you have any idea how much danger you’ve put yourselves in?” he asks.

“Yes,” Tobias answers.

“No.” Charlie shakes his head with amusement. “No, I highly doubt you’re aware of even
half
the danger you’re exposed to right now.”

“What did Lillian come here for?” I ask, my voice squeaking through my throat.

Charlie’s eyes fall on me. “Many years ago,” he begins, “I got Lily out of a bad situation. I told her to leave this place and not come back unless… unless
he
ever tried to find her again. In that case, I told her to come straight here to me.”

“If
who
ever tried to find her again?” I ask.

He reaches up and scratches his cheek. “My brother, Thomas.”

My stepfather.
I look at Tobias, but he seems just as confused as I am.

“Lillian formed her little fighting league about fifteen years ago,” Charlie continues. “You, Tobias — you were about seven years old. Mary was only two. And your mother,” he pauses, swallowing hard, “well, she and Lily were best friends, along with Marcie Jones.”

“Amy’s mother?” I ask.

“I don’t remember that,” Tobias says.

“You wouldn’t,” Charlie explains, his lips curling slightly. “She was
very
good at hiding things, especially from me.”

“They formed the Alphas?” I ask.

“When I found out, I was
furious
,” he says. “I was a cop. What would the department do if they found out my wife was involved in something like that right under my nose?”

“Mom was an Alpha Dame?”

I look at Tobias again. His jaw hangs open slightly, disbelief dripping off every syllable of his voice.

“One of the first,” Charlie nods and a chuckle strikes his lips. “Hell, it was her idea to hang that damn punching bag up in the barn — told you to practice every day, grow up big and strong.”

Tobias looks down, his eyes falling closed.

“She quit shortly after, because I asked her to. In exchange, I kept my mouth shut about the whole thing. Turned out to be pretty good timing, as she started to get pretty sick after that…” He pauses as he forces a lump back down his throat.

“What about Thomas?” I ask, shifting the focus away from what has to be a sore topic for both of them.

“Thomas…” Charlie shakes his head. “My brother was madly in love with Lily Tombs, even broke up his marriage for her. They dated for a long while, but she always had a pinkie out the door. Straying eyes and what have you. One night, she showed up on our porch with two black eyes and a broken arm, asking me for help.”

I flinch and Tobias shifts in his seat. His fingers reach for mine, slowly wrapping around my wrist beneath the table.

“I helped Lily relocate to St. Louis,” he continues. “Got a decent job lined up for her, too, but of course, she quit that in favor of expanding her enterprise.” A small chuckle flutters his chest. “It was after that young women started showing up here, broken or abused.
Lily sent me
, they’d say.
She told me you could help me.
It wasn’t long until word got around that this was the place to go and it stuck.”

“What did Thomas do?” I ask, fighting the rush of tears slowly building on my lashes.

“He tracked her down a few months later,” he says. “By then, Lily had amassed quite the loyal army of fighters for herself.”

“They drove him out,” I say, smiling at the idea of a happy ending.

Charlie nods. “He couldn’t get near her, so he packed up and fled south. Took young Rick along with him. They went everywhere: Texas, Mississippi, Alabama. Moved around every few months. It wasn’t until a few years later I found out why.”

“The Double Ex Kings,” Tobias mutters the realization aloud.

My jaw drops. “No…” I whisper.

“It was all his idea,” Charlie confirms. “Bigger, better fighters. Better than Lily’s
Alphas
.” His eyes fall on Tobias. “A league out of reach to women that needed to
learn their place.”

My eyes bounce between them. “What does this mean?” I ask.

“It means…” Tobias sighs. “That he’s been taking over Alpha territory to start a war with Lillian.”

“He wouldn’t — would he?” I stutter.

“Why else would she come here today?” Tobias asks Charlie.

I shake my head. “It doesn’t make sense. If Thomas is still in love with Lillian, so focused on destroying the Alphas,” I say, “then why bother marrying my mother? What does he want with her?”

“Lily asked herself that same question, Claire,” Charlie says. “And the only answer that makes sense is that he’s not that focused anymore.”