Duke (The Black Hornets MC Book 3), page 4
“I can just go back you know,” she murmured.
I slammed on the brakes in the middle of the deserted highway, lunging the two of us forward.
“Mom, what the—”
“Now you listen to me and you listen right now,” I said as I turned back and looked at my daughter. “You are never allowed to leave like that again. You’re already in a deep amount of trouble. Your iPod is gone for two weeks, and if you keep pushing it, your video games will be as well.”
“Do you realize how insane you sound!? You’re punishing me for—”
“For disobeying my orders!” I roared.
I hated yelling at my daughter. I hated watching her eyes widen at the sound of my voice. I hated watching her on the verge of tears because I was upset. But this? None of this shit was happening again. Not on my watch. She was rebellious, sure. She had a mean, sassy mouth about her because she was her father’s daughter, after all.
But this stopped today.
“You’ve got no iPod for two weeks. And if you want to push it, I’ll make it no technology. And the next time you pull a little stunt like this? I’m stripping your room bare and you’ll start from scratch, do you hear me?” I asked.
“I just want to know who my father is,” Sierra whimpered.
I sighed as I sat back down into my seat. I knew this day would come eventually, but I didn’t think it would slap me across the face like this. I pressed my foot down onto the gas and continued down the highway, listening as Sierra sniffled in the backseat. Both of us needed to calm down before we talked about this. Because we wouldn’t get anywhere angry with one another. I kept looking in my rearview mirror, watching until my daughter’s frown disappeared and she was done crying. Done having her moment. Done releasing her emotions.
“What I’m trying to do is save you from the disappointment I know he’s going to be,” I said.
Sierra’s eyes moved and connected with mine in the mirror.
“That doesn’t mean I don’t want to know things about him,” she said.
“I know you want to get to know your father. I know you want to know things about him. But it’s hard for me to speak about him because I can’t be unbiased about it. Your father and I spent our entire days of high school together. We were linked for a very long time.”
“Why did the two of you split up? Why doesn’t he know about me?”
I drew in a deep breath. “We split because he kept something very important from me, and he doesn’t know about you because what he kept from me is very dangerous.”
“The people he’s with or whatever. Right?”
“Right.”
“Was that so hard to talk about?” she asked.
“Yes, Sierra. It is. Because I loved your father a great deal. As much as any eighteen-year-old could.”
“You were in love with Duke?”
I nodded as my eyes flickered from the road to the mirror and back again.
“I was. Very much so. I made the best decision I thought there was for all parties involved. And when I found out I was pregnant with you, I knew I’d made the best decision.”
“For me or for yourself?” she asked.
“For both of us. For all of us involved. Duke was a great kid, but he was an immature one. An angry one. And by the looks of it, he’s still immature. Still angry.”
“He didn’t seem that way to me,” she said.
I shrugged. “If you want to get to know your father, then let me think about it. Let me discuss it with him. Just because you want to get to know him doesn’t mean he wants to get to know you.”
“I know he does. He wouldn’t have let me into his home if he hadn’t, Mom.”
“Duke is immature. He isn’t cold-hearted. He wouldn't have left a kid stranded on his porch,” I said.
“He wants to get to know me, even if he doesn’t want you. Get over it, Mom.”
I gritted my teeth and fisted the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles turned white.
“No technology for two weeks,” I said.
“What!? You’re going to get angry at me because I talk about the truth when you don’t want to!?” Sierra exclaimed.
“No. I’m getting angry because this little attitude of yours has gone on long enough. No technology for two weeks.”
“What if I need it for school?”
“Then you’ll be doing it the old-school way. And if you need it for school, I’ll be sitting right next to you at the computer. Watching over your shoulder,” I said.
Sierra crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back into the seat. She huffed, like I had just stepped on her newest puppy or something like that. Her face grew red with anger. Anger that I recognized. I saw that anger so many times in Duke’s eyes when we were younger, and I questioned if I had done the right thing at all. I mean, Duke grew up without his father. But I figured the anger he held inside of him came from the fact that his mother wasn’t there a lot, either.
Had I done wrong by my daughter in keeping her away from him?
Had I done wrong by Duke in not introducing him to his daughter sooner?
“I’m sorry I left,” Sierra mumbled.
I grinned as we slowly made our way into Chico. “That’s all fine and well, but you’re still grounded for two weeks.”
“What!?”
I shook my head and drew in a deep breath. “Apologies only work if you mean them, Sierra. If you do something to try and get a better outcome for yourself, then the action is selfish. If there’s anything in this world that shouldn't be selfish, it’s an apology.”
“Whatever,” she whispered.
And the car ride was silent for the rest of the way home.
Chapter 7
Duke
When they pulled out of the driveway, I stormed inside. I slammed the door behind me, charged into the kitchen, and promptly got myself another beer from the fridge. I put the cap between my teeth and pulled, removing the metal straight from the glass effortlessly. I spat it out, then leaned against the fucking counter and chugged the damn thing.
I was pissed.
How the fuck could Eden keep a secret like this from me? How the hell could she leave this damn house without any explanation on her part? I knew the moment I had laid eyes on Sierra that something was off. That she looked familiar. But the second her mouth opened and she told me she was my daughter, I knew it was true. The eyes. The forehead. That damn scowl and attitude of hers. She was my fucking kid all right. A kid Eden had hid from me.
Holy hell, I thought I knew her better than that.
I tossed the glass bottle into the sink and heard it shatter. I reached into the fridge for another beer, ripping it open with my teeth. Sierra was strong-willed, all right. Had I known where my fucking father had galavanted off to when I was a kid, I would have pulled the same shit as an eleven-year-old. Except it wouldn’t have been to meet him. It would have been to kill him.
Maybe Eden was right.
Maybe I was too dangerous.
I made my way into the living room with the beer tipped up at my lips. I collapsed back down onto the couch, my third beer for that day filling my empty stomach. I had a kid. A spunky, cute little eleven-year-old daughter. With the girl who fucking turned her back on me and got away.
I needed to get Eden to talk with me.
The alcohol flooded my veins and took me under. Right there while lying on my couch. The afternoon sun beat down onto my face as I fell asleep, not a care in the damn world. No cares; just worries. Questions. Anger I couldn't control any longer. My eyes fluttered closed and my body relaxed, then it happened.
That night came rushing back.
“Duke! What are you—oh. Doing?” Eden asked, giggling.
“We’re about to graduate. Tomorrow, we’ll be deemed adults. I want one more night with my little princess. One more night to be reckless children. Can you give me that?” I asked.
I kissed up and down her neck. Nibbled on her jawline as her legs spread for me. I slipped her onto her back underneath the stars. Underneath the dark shadows of the tree I had marked as ours with her body time and time again. The scent of the grass had nothing on her pussy. Both of us, eighteen. Both of us, about to graduate. Both of us, sticking around the city. Me with my own plans, and her with community college.
“Oh, Duke,” she whispered.
“You’ll be swallowing your sounds to not be so loud by the time I’m done with you,” I growled.
“Promise?” she asked.
I loved it when she challenged me. When the hairs on the back of my neck prickled with her dominance. I dipped my face between her legs and lapped at her pussy. I felt her curl her hands into my hair, drawing me in. Pulling me closer to her pulsing, aching clit. Oh, her arousal was a mouth full. Pouring into me as she bucked into my face. I lapped at her. Sucked her clit between my teeth. Pressed her hips into the cool, damp ground as her legs wrapped around my face.
“Duke. Duke. Duke. Duke! Yes! I’m com—!”
I bent her knees up to her chest and opened her up for me. Her juices sprayed everywhere. My chin. My cheeks. Onto my fucking forehead. I loved making her come. I loved it when she marked me. It didn’t make me feel so bad for filling her to the brim and having it shoot out along her juicy pussy lips. It didn’t make me feel so bad for holding her head down onto my cock and filling her stomach with me. Face-fucking her until I couldn't stand it. Until her lips were swollen with effort and tears of wanting to please me dripped down her face.
But tonight was for her.
She was valedictorian, and I couldn't have been more proud of her.
My neck dripped with her scent. I slowly lowered her legs, nuzzling her clit before I started up again. I licked her. Sucked her. Cleaned her pussy lips before sliding my fingers deep into her tight walls. Her lips said no, but her hands said yes. Pulling me deeper as I flicked across the tip of her clit. I’d tasted her for four years. The only girl I’d ever been with during my teenage years. I knew how to play her like a fucking fiddle. How to make her scream my name before collapsing into my arms and begging my ass for more.
I made her come again. And again. Until she shook in my arms and wheezed my name because she didn’t have a voice any longer.
“I’m not going to have a voice for tomorrow,” she begged.
“I’ll be your voice, Eden. I’ll be anything you need of me,” I groaned.
I jerked myself awake at the sound of my words echoing off the corners of my mind. I looked over at the window, watching the sun setting over the houses across the damn street from me. Shit. How long had I slept? How long had I dreamt of pitching a tent between Eden’s legs? I slowly rose, my head pounding. Three beers down on an empty stomach. Not good. Never been good for me. I put my elbows on my knees and shoved my head into my hands, groaning as the memory of that night came rushing back.
Our last real night together.
It was the only night we ever spent together, actually. I carried her back to her beat-up car she borrowed from her mother and we snuck back into my place. Up through the window as I hoisted her onto my shoulder. I slept with her in my arms that night. Her delicate, naked curves pressed into me as I held her from behind. I woke her up graduation morning kissing her shoulder. I fucked her against the wall of my bathroom shower while my mother was passed out on the damn couch in some drug-doped stupor.
I watched the girl I love give the best valedictorian speech ever. Complete with a hoarse voice she kept having to clear.
Then, there was nothing.
I went to go find her after graduation. After I barely scraped by for a high school diploma. But the only thing I saw were her parents driving off with her. I waved at her and she looked at me, but she didn’t say anything. It didn’t bother me, though. Not like her parents were my best friends in the entire world. They didn’t hate me, but they didn’t really approve of me, either. I went home after my mother “remembered” to come pick me up from graduation, then I headed straight for her house.
I drove my first bullshit bike I ever had over to her place, but they hadn’t been home.
I didn’t think anything of it until I tried calling Eden and she wouldn't answer. At first, she wouldn't come to the house phone. Then, she wouldn't answer her cell phone. I kept going by the house, hoping to catch a glimpse of her. To celebrate the success of her speech and talk with her about what the hell she was going to do about community college. But the more I tried to find her, the harder she tried to stay hidden.
And then, I called her cell phone one day and got that dumbass recorded voice.
“The number you have reached is not in service. This is a recording.”
I threw my mother’s house phone against the wall that day. I roared so loudly I actually woke her up from the couch. It shattered into a thousand little pieces against the wall as I stormed out the front door. She tried to call after me in her drugged state, but it was no use. I took the longest ride of my life that night. I rode all throughout Redding, trying to find her and figure out why the fuck she had just dropped off the face of the damn planet. I rode by her house. I walked around the damn thing before throwing rocks at her window.
I tossed them into the glass until I heard the front door of the house open.
“Duke!? That you!?”
The second I heard Eden’s father’s voice, I hopped onto my bike and sped away. There was no use in confronting him. If she was going to use her father as a last-ditch effort to keep me away, then maybe she wanted me gone. Or maybe this was her parents’ way of controlling her. I didn’t fucking know.
All I knew was how hurt I was as I rode around Redding on my beat-up, piece of shit bike.
I drove myself into an abandoned parking lot and started destroying things. I punched the brick walls of an abandoned building and broke the glass with my cloth-covered fist. I tipped over trash cans and busted up the plastic ones. I destroyed that damn building until the cops raced for me, then I hopped on my bike and rode through the back roads of town. I wreaked havoc and mayhem on the city that night. I was angry. I was hurt.
I was betrayed by the first person I had ever truly loved.
The young girl who broke my heart.
I pulled myself up off the couch and went to grab a bottle of water. Now, I knew. I didn’t know the specifics, but I knew why she had been avoiding me. Why she cut me off. Why her father had been so filled with anger that night when I had been trying to get her attention at her window. Maybe her parents had disconnected her cell phone to get her away from me. Maybe they found out she was pregnant and kept her from me for reasons beyond what I could find.
But the way Eden walked away from me earlier today told me a different story. Maybe she was the one who pulled away willingly. Maybe she had been the one actively avoiding me. Maybe she had requested to her parents that her cell phone be disconnected. Or her number be changed.
And that thought made me grab yet another beer instead of water at the very last second.
Chapter 8
Eden
Sierra slammed out of the car before I could get it parked in the driveway of our town home. It wasn’t much of a home, honestly. I had dreamt of one day being able to give Sierra a yard and a driveway of her own. But for now, it was all I could afford with my budget. I didn’t make nearly enough to own any sort of property in Chico, and Sierra was already too deep into school and her friends for me to uproot and go somewhere else to live our lives.
Or maybe I silently stayed for a different reason.
I shook the thought from my head and turned the car off. I slipped out of the seat and pulled out my cell phone, texting my regular babysitter. I needed her to come stay with Sierra so I could think. So I could have some time to myself. I shot off the text message and slipped my phone into my purse, then started the arduous process of cleaning Sierra of her technology. I went upstairs and found her already on her laptop, pounding out messages to all of her friends before I opened my hand to her.
“Whatever,” she grumbled as she slapped her laptop into my hand.
In retrospect, the girl had too much technology for an eleven-year-old anyway. A laptop. A television. An iPod. A prepaid phone I was able to monitor and manage. I took all of it from her, including her chargers. Just in case she thought she could get her friends to come over so she could use their stuff. I hauled it all into my bedroom and put it in my closet. At the bottom, in the corner, where I knew she’d make way too much noise getting too it. I even hoisted the television and carried it into my room. I set it on my dresser and hid the cable, just in case she thought about coming in here and hooking it up to watch a little bit of television while I was in the shower or something.
She grumbled in her room as she slammed the door, locking it so I couldn't get it.
A few minutes later, a knock came at the door. Thank fuck. Because I needed to take a drive and clear my head. I made my way downstairs and past my small little kitchen. I opened the front door and saw my regular babysitter standing there and felt more relieved than ever. Lauren. She was a damn lifesaver sometimes. There were several college kids that split the rent for the townhomes in my neighborhood, and one of them was working toward a Childhood Development degree at the university on the other side of town. I was able to pay her a discounted rate in exchange for written letters every semester documenting the hours she worked for me and how it was a great progression toward her degree.
I saved money, she got college credit, and everybody won in the process.
“Thank you so much for coming over on such short notice,” I said.
“It’s not a problem, Ms. Eden. Is everything okay?”
“Well, I did just ground Sierra from her electronics for two weeks. So, be aware of that,” I said.
