Ruined 22

Ruin

She was gone, and she hadn’t even put up a fight. Her room was exactly the same as when I had left it. Her dirty clothes strewn across the floor. The bedsheets in disarray. Lifting the pillow to my face I sucked in a breath. It still smelt like her. 

How was it possible that she could be everywhere, like a damn ghost haunting the home of her childhood? And yet be nowhere at all.

Avery was gone. 

The only thing that was out of place in the entire house was the bleeding old man I had left in a crumpled heap in the living room.

Cutter. 

I had trusted him to keep her safe. Because I had known… I HAD KNOWN SHE WAS IN DANGER. I hadn’t known where it would could from but I should have followed my gut and stayed with her. My instincts had told me to, and they were rarely wrong. I always followed my instincts which was why I was sergeant at arms. A position I had been given on my own merit and not because my father was President. Everyone knew I was the real brains behind the Black Aces and yet I had ignored the instinct that had served me so well.

I had left her alone with no one to protect her but a man who had never protected her in his long life.

Whatever happened to her now, whatever that son of a bitch was doing to her was on me. 

“Any sign?”

I didn’t even turn at the sound of Truths voice. He had ridden back with me, leaving Wicked with the truck and Parker. I was closer to Wicked, he was my oldest friend and there was no other man I would prefer to have my back but he was also the only one apart from me that Parker knew. And right now I needed Parker safe, so I could concentrate on getting his mum back to us.

“No.” I shook my head, letting the pillow drop back on to the bed. “Has the old man said anything?” 

“He’s cursed your name a few time but he will live. It’s not the first time Cutter has been sucker-punched and I doubt it will be the last.”

“I still shouldn’t have hit him, he’s an old man.” I couldn’t bring myself to feel too bad about it though. He would have expected it. He would have known it was coming. 

Truths dark eyebrow arched, his fingers scratching at the scruff on his chin. “Do you and Avery?”

“Yeah.”

“You really fucking love her don’t you?” There was a note of wonder in Truths voice. Like he couldn’t imagine it.

That was fine a few weeks ago I wouldn’t have believed it either.

I didn’t turn around. I was a man in his thirties but I still worried about my reputation. I worried about what my brothers thought of me. Whether they would think I was weak when it came to her. It was how I had lost her in the first place. 

Thirteen years of my life. Thirteen years where I could have had her and Parker in my life. 

“I’m going to marry her,” I said the words out loud the moment they popped into my head. It was true though. 

Truths eyebrows disappeared into his hairline.

“I am going to marry the crap out of her when all this is over…” I grinned at him. And he grinned right back. “If she will have me of course,” I added.

“We best get her back home then huh?” Stuffing his hands into his pockets Truth grinned. “And get you all settled down with a kid and an old lady.” Uneasiness flickered across his face. “About what happened between me and Avery…”

“It’s forgotten, brother. Not that I didn’t want to kill you because I did. But it’s ancient history now.” I let my eyes meet his. “Just don’t touch her again. I will kill you if you do.”

He didn’t look away like most men would have. I had threatened his life and he didn’t even blink. 

Everyone was always so afraid of Wicked, that they forgot Truth. 

Truth was scary in a whole different way.

“So what’s the plan?”

“Find Avery, bring her home,” I said it like that was indeed a plan. “I guess the first place we need to go is the clubhouse.”

“To your father?”

Nodding once, I frowned. “To my father, I can’t move against a civilian without his ok…”

Move against a civilian, I was talking about murdering a man like I was making plans to go to lunch. Easy like a Sunday morning.

And if he had hurt her in any way, it wouldn’t just be easy. I would enjoy it. 

***

“Well, you decided to grace us with your presence then huh?” The man I called father had a blonde on his lap. A blonde that wasn’t my mother but I was used to that by now. My mum was as well. Which was kind of sad. 

“Hey.” I threw myself into the nearest chair, my legs crossed at the ankle and I stared at him. I didn’t know how I was going to bring this up. He wasn’t exactly Averys biggest fan. Not that I gave a shit about that. 

“Truth .” A tilt of the chin.

“How’s it going, Fender?” 

“You haven’t been back to the clubhouse for days, so what can we do for you now?”

He said it like he was tired of doing me a favour. Like I didn’t give everything every day to the club. My whole damn life. 

“I’ve been busy.”

His laugh was condescending. “With the Waters girl? I heard yeah.”

“She isn’t a fucking girl, she’s the mother of my son.” Now that shut him up, his eyes narrowed as he pushed the half-naked woman from his lap. “And she’s missing.”

“Leave.” He slapped the blonde’s ass hard enough to make me wince. Not that she seemed to mind. “Let the men talk.” He watched with hooded eyes as she sauntered off. Shaking His head. “Damn that ass.”

He would never change, even pushing Sixty he was a horn dog. 

“Now tell me what’s going on?” Turning his attention back to me, he steepled his hands together. “I heard she left with her nice straight-laced law-abiding husband.”

“You heard fucking wrong.”

I filled him in on everything I had found out, every sordid little detail of what got Avery’s husbands rocks off. Growing angrier and angrier as the words left my mouth. Saying them out loud just made the threat to her more real. 

“And you sure the kid is yours?”

Mutely I nodded. “Wouldn’t matter if he wasn’t, I would still want to be with her.”

“And she feels the same? You fucking ruined that girl son. Destroyed her life with a few words. You think she’s going to forgive you for that and want to play happy families?”

“I don’t know.” That was the truth of it. I didn’t know what the future held. Avery wanted me on a physical level I knew that. But that didn’t mean she wanted a future with me. Or that she would even be willing to try. “I’ve got to at least try. If she will have me….” I froze. Why couldn’t I bring myself to say the words to him? “If she will have me I will look after her and if she won’t then I will look after her. I owe her and Parker that much.”

“Yeah I guess you do, I guess we all do. The boy? My grandson.” The word sounded strange coming from his lips. “Where is he now?”

“Wicked is driving him back.”

“I think the lad would be safer here until all of this is over.”

Catching Truth’s eye I grinned. “Yes and…”

“What do you need to find Avery?”

That was the question, wasn’t it? What did I need?

“I don’t know, resources? Men on the ground? A good solicitor.” I was only half-joking about the last part. 

If I got caught I would need more than a good solicitor, I would need a miracle.

“You sure she is worth doing time for, son?”

“I want her to be my old lady, so yeah. If he’s touched her .” I gave a shrug. 

If he had touched her, hurt her in any way. I wouldn’t just kill him, I would wipe him from the face of the planet and bathe in his blood.

“Do what you need to son, you have the club behind you. But any mess you make, you clean up.”

I nodded. I could do that. All I had to do now was find her.