Dylan, page 5
A gasp echoes through the room, and then someone opens their big mouth.
“Holy fuck, Boss. It’s like looking at you the day we met.”
I look past him at Harley on the steps, and venom fills my heart. I’m going to kill him for sure.
“You put your filthy hands on her, and I’m going to kill your ass like you deserve, you sick fuck,” I roar at my lookalike, charging forward. I go for a swing at him. My men and his do as well.
“Dylan, no,” Harley cries out. Her voice is the only thing that stops me from losing complete control. “He rescued me.”
“Rescued you or not—he’s the monster that gave me life.”
Everyone around the room looks on in pure, stunned awe, but I don’t care. I lunge at the fucking pig again, and he’s too shocked to move, so I deck him in the jaw. He falls back, and then I’m quickly pinned by an asshole with a blade at my throat. My men and his have everyone separated.
“Enough.” Everyone relaxes slightly.
“Who the fuck do you think you are?” another biker roars. “I’ll kill you easily. I want answers, and that’s the only reason you’re still breathing. You walked into the wrong place, assaulting one of the best men I’ve ever known.”
“Best men? Ha. He raped my birth mother. He’s a pig,” I spit out with a busted lip. I don’t give a fuck if I bleed all over his floor.
“He would do no such thing,” the asshole who’s pinning me says, followed by several calls of agreement. Of course they would stick up for this asshole.
Taking a seat and wiping the blood from his lip, the sick fuck says, “My boys are right. I wouldn’t do something like that, and I sure as fuck didn’t do anything so fucking twisted.”
“Your boys? You have other sons?” I ask, looking at some of them, wondering if they’re my brothers.
“Not quite.” He looks at the other bikers. He makes quick introductions by pointing to them and saying their names: Boomer, Blade, Cyber.
“Blade. Fitting,” I scoff to myself. I catch a smirk from him, and I still want to punch him in the balls.
“But they’re the closest damn things to sons I’ve ever had.”
“Sam, Get us some drinks. Where the fuck is Doc?” the one who threatened me says.
“I’ll call him,” another one says.
“Now, I’m not sure where the fuck you got the idea that I raped anyone or that I’m your father. As far as I’ve ever known, I never had any living children. You’re not my son, but I have a feeling…” He takes a deep breath several times before continuing. “You are my nephew.”
“What do you mean?” I ask. I can’t shake the emotion from my voice. All of a sudden, I’m a teenage boy again with the pain of my true parentage coming to light.
“I don’t know if you’re my nephew or not, but the resemblance is uncanny.” Our family genes are strong as fuck if it’s true.
“That’s for sure, but there are a fucking ton of people who have doppelgängers. That’s no reason to attack him,” Harley insists. I show a slight bit of remorse, but I can’t say I care that much. He still had my girl.
“When is your birthday?” he asks me.
“June twenty-fifth,” I answer.
“What year?” I pull out my ID and hand it over to him.
Now it’s his turn to get pissed off because he looks just as angry as I was earlier. “Since my brother and I were nearly identical, it’s possible that you took after us. He was two years older than me and married his high school sweetheart. They were always having problems from day one. Frankly, I’m surprised they bothered to marry at all, but they did.”
“Shotgun wedding?” Boomer tosses out.
“No. That’s why it was surprising. There was no need for a rushed wedding.”
“He was working for our father’s company when I’d gone into the military right out of high school, and his wife was pregnant. Seven months into the pregnancy, I got a call from my mother that my brother had been killed in a car accident after leaving his lover’s house. When I came home on an emergency leave for the funeral, she was no longer pregnant and claimed that the affair and his death caused the miscarriage.”
Sam brings us some drinks and we both take a shot of whiskey and ask for another. Everyone else sits around waiting with rapt attention for the rest of the story.
“There was a little coffin buried with him that had you in it. Now, I’m not saying she’s lying, because he was cheating, which means if you are his son, that means you could have been a son of his girlfriend. He wasn’t a rapist. A cheating rat bastard, but a rapist? No. Where was this hospital that you were born in?”
“St. Vincent’s.”
“I’m sorry that I missed out on watching you grow up.”
“You’ve been like a father to each one of us,” Boomer adds, clasping a hand on his shoulder.
“Thanks.”
The sound of the front door swinging open can be heard, and someone says, “The doc is in.”
He reaches us, and everyone parts to let him get to the table where we’re sitting. “What the hell is going on now?” he asks, scowling and quickly surveying the room.
“Doc, nothing major. I need a DNA test done, please.” His head jerks between the two of us as we sit across the table from each other. “To see if he’s my uncle,” I add to make sure he understands.
“Wow, holy shit. Really? Because he fucking looks like you back in Kabul.” So they all served with him in the military, it would seem. No wonder they all have his back, and I’m starting to feel like a big prick.
“I know.”
“Wow, that looks like a good one.” He reaches out and touches Boss’s jaw. Then, he turns his attention to Harley. “What are you doing out of bed, young lady?”
“He came looking for me.” Doc whips his head around toward me and snarls. I can feel the tension rippling off the doctor.
“Relative or not, if he’s the one who…” Even this fucker wants a piece of me.
“I’d never hurt a hair on her head,” I say, promising not just to them, but directly to Harley. I brush my hand over her back.
“Just my heart,” she whispers. Fuck. I wince like she just slapped me across the face.
“Harley,” I sigh. “It’s hard to explain.” My eye flit toward my supposed uncle and then back to her.
“Tell me about you. Where did you grow up?” He takes some sympathy on me.
“I lived with the woman who I thought was my mother. She told me when I was about ten that my real mother had given me up. Later on, when I was thirteen, she developed an aggressive form of cancer.” I pause, feeling the pain of the memory. She meant a great deal to me as the one person who gave me love when I was abandoned.
Harley rubs my hand gently, coaxing me to continue. “However, before she died, she explained my parentage to me so that I knew the truth. She said my mother came in, claiming that I was the product of rape and that even though she tried to love the idea of me, she couldn’t, so when I was born a preemie, she wanted nothing to do with me and gave me up. The woman who adopted me was the nurse who took care of me at the hospital. After she died, I went into foster care until I aged out.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You don’t believe he was a rapist?” I ask him again, wanting to believe it more than anything.
“No. A dog? Hell, yes. He knew he was good looking and took advantage of it, but that’s his own personality, and I don’t have that trait in me even though we look identical.”
“That’s for sure. The day I met you, all her friends were hitting on you,” the woman beside him huffs.
“Were you hitting on him?” I growl at Harley, getting jealous.
“No. Not that it’s any of your business.” Harley crosses her arms and scowls at me, but I don’t give a shit because she’s mine.
“The hell it’s not.”
“You’ve got a good girl. It’s how you treat her, and that’s how you’ll keep her. As for your mother—if I’m right, you were born in wedlock and not from a rape. I can’t know for sure just yet, but I promise I’ll get to the bottom of it for you.”
Although I’m rarely wrong, I can admit when I am wrong. “Thanks. I’m sorry that I decked you.”
“No. I understand how thinking about another man putting his hands on your woman can piss you off.” He shares a look with the asshole with the blade. “Anyway, I’ll look into the matter as soon as I can. It’s the least I can do if I am your uncle.”
“Let me run out and grab some things from my truck, and I’ll be back in a minute to do the labs. I was expecting to be doing some patchwork here.” He winks at me and then heads back out the front door. While he’s gone, everyone’s quiet, but I press my head to Harley’s chest, wanting to hear her heart. I thought I lost her.
“I’m back; please hold your round of applause. This may hurt a bit, but I’ll be gentle,” Doc says with a chuckle and a little swagger in his step.
“Don’t be a prick,” I snip.
“Only a little.”
“That’s what she said,” Blade coughs out.
“That’s not what she told me,” a woman who I just noticed says.
Boomer wraps his arms around her, pulling her tightly to his chest. “Don’t be talking about his dick, babe, or I’ll be bending you over really good tonight.”
“You need to work on your threats,” she says, rubbing her ass on his front. I have to say it doesn’t look like she’s threatened.
“No pizza. Only salads with light dressing.” She freezes, and a big gasp goes around the room. Shit, I know it took a while before Harley built up an appetite.
“That’s cruel. Fine. Well, commence with the blood draw, damn it. I want my pizza,” she huffs, crossing her arms over her pregnant belly.
“Look, the test is going to take twenty-four hours. I can run it to the lab in Dallas right now since I’m about to head in. Get some ice for both of you and your handsome mugs. I can’t believe you actually clocked your nephew, though.”
“I didn’t.”
“I did,” Blade says with a grin. “Boss has been a father to me and my sister for a long damn time, even though he stole my girl here and failed to introduce me to this pretty little thing.” He winks at Harley. I snarl at the motherfucker.
“You’re itching for a fight. Are you ever going to go speak to Penny’s cousin? He’s only doing this because he has a crush on someone who’s too young for him,” Boomer says, teasing Blade who turns completely red.
“Fuck off. I’m out of here. I have some blades to make. Stay out of trouble for a night, will you, Boss?”
“I’ll try.”
“Bye, beautiful.” He winks at Esperanza before running out the door. Damn, he’s a fucking pain in the ass.
“He’s asking for it.”
I stare around the place and wonder if he works here. “So, you work at a bar?”
“I own it. Please sit down. Here are some drinks.”
“How did you find me?” Harley asks. I ignore the question because I can’t stop looking at all the markings on her precious body. The body I held so tightly and then pushed away. I pull her onto my lap and examine her wounds more closely. Cupping her chin, I tilt her head, caressing her gently as if she’s as fragile as glass.
“I’m going to find who did this and destroy them. That, I can guarantee.” I caress my hand down her back.
“I have some ideas. We have been looking into it since she arrived two days ago. He came in looking for her about an hour after she’d been treated.”
“He did?” Harley asks.
“And you let him get away?” I roar.
“Yes. You were out cold then, but I wasn’t going to let him anywhere near you. He had no idea you were here, but he was creeping around the town, most of which wouldn’t give him the time of day.” At least they kept my woman safe. Something I couldn’t do, so I have to give them credit for that.
“Good. I want everything you have on him because I’m going to take my time ending him and everyone involved in hurting her.”
“You’ve got it.”
“I’m hungry.”
“I’m sorry, Tigress. Let me get you fed.” He kisses her softly.
“I’m sure we’re all hungry. It’s almost dinnertime.”
“We should head back to Dallas,” I say, looking down at Harley. “You need to be looked after properly.”
“We were doing just fine until you showed up,” the pregnant woman huffs.
“They were doing a great job.”
“Yes, but there’s no room for me here, and you belong with me.”
“Are you sure about that?” Harley huffs, crossing her arms. “I’m staying here. You can head back to Dallas or wherever it is you actually live.” I’m not sure what that means, but I’ll get to that question when we’re alone.
“Damn it.”
“Look, I’m not going to let her leave if she doesn’t want to go. She’s been through a lot, and regardless of who you are, she’s under my care. She deserves to have that peace of mind.”
“If she stays, I stay. There’s no way I’m leaving her side again. I fucked up once, and that’s how she ended up unprotected and in this position in the first place.” I duck my head and shake it. This is all my fucking fault, and I’ll never forgive myself for sending her away in the first place.
“It’s okay. There is a second room upstairs if that’s okay with you, Boss?” Harley mentions, trying to release the tension in the room.
“Are you sure?” She nods. “My home is only down the road, as well as all the other guys here. Cyber lives two doors down in the apartment building.”
“Is there a hotel for my men?” I ask, pointing to them. After today, I don’t know what to expect, and I sure as fuck want as much backup as possible.
“Sure.”
“Why don’t we order some pizza? I’m hungry,” the woman says, rubbing her belly.
“Yes, dear.”
“I could go for some pizza,” Harley says with a blush as her stomach rumbles.
“When’s the last time you ate?” I ask Harley, looking her over and feeling frustration that this is all my fault. She would have been safe in bed if it wasn’t for me.
“I didn’t eat much. It’s been a little hard to eat. The girls bring me food but, well, I haven’t been in the mood to eat.”
“Well, you sure as fuck are eating now,” I growl.
“Damn, he sounds just like you,” Esperanza says, chuckling.
“You missed out on me twenty years ago, my beauty,” Boss tells his woman.
“Same here.”
Boss and his woman look close, but it doesn’t seem like they’ve been together for a long time. “We’ve only just met recently. I’ve been alone a long time, and no, I don’t have any children.”
“We met because my son is married to his former bartender and sister of the man that just left,” Esperanza says.
“The one he said you were like a father to?”
“Yes. I didn’t have any kids, so I looked after those around me. I hope you had a good life.” I scoff and shake my head. I’ve made my life better, and yes, became a multimillionaire overnight with lots of hard work and pure dedication, but I’ve suffered from loneliness that has only now been abated with the help of Harley.
Chapter Ten
Harley
I lead Dylan up to the apartment above the bar, and I’m a bit nervous. We haven’t spoken, but I already understand a lot more about his behavior than I did before. He’s afraid of commitment because of the way he was born, or was supposedly born. We’ll learn more tomorrow. “So, this is it. The other bedroom is over here.” I start moving over there, but he grabs my bicep.
“Harley, can we talk?”
“What’s there to say? You literally took my virginity, treated me like a whore, and tossed me out on my ass while you went about your life.”
“I didn’t. I…”
“Don’t… look, I’m grateful that you came here to find me because you’re one of the only people I honestly believe doesn’t want me dead or off in a trafficking ring, but that doesn’t mean I forgive you. You broke my heart, Dylan. You took something sacred, and you treated it like it was nothing. What’s worse is you made me feel special. It’s one thing if I knew you were just looking to get lucky, but you hurt me, and I’m having a hard time dealing with that.”
“I understand. I respect that. I’ve disappointed you, hurt you, and plain abandoned you when you needed me the most. I thought if I pushed you away, I could keep you safe from the monster in me.”
“What monster?”
“The monster I could possibly be.”
“The only monster you are is the one you became when you told me it was over.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry. There are no words for what I did to you that will make it better, but I can’t give you up again. I thought I was doing it for the best, but it was foolish of me. When I got home, I stood in front of your door for so long that I lost track of time and then I laid in your bed just so I could breathe you in. I wanted you to come back the moment I sent you away. You mean the world to me and if I wasn’t such a fool, I would have understood that a long time ago. I wouldn’t have gone to see a stupid therapist over the past couple of days.”
“You went to therapy?”
“Yes. I wanted to know how to figure out how to be a better man for you.”
“Do you think it helped?”
“She taught me that it’s not my fault for my past and it’s not who I am now, and that she’d like me to join a BDSM club with her.”
“What?”
“I told her to go fuck off and I quit my sessions that second.”
“Seriously, you even get hit on in therapy?” This man is too good looking for his own good. Hell, for my own good.
“I suppose so.” He shrugs his shoulders, and I guess it’s not his fault. After all, I was kidnapped because I was going to be used for the same fucking thing. At least he was strong enough that they couldn’t just snatch him up.
