“Thank you,” I nod, clapping him on the back before he heads to his bike followed by Dragon and Gadget.
As soon as they're gone, I turn to Shadow and hand him Luca. “I can’t go back until I have Corinne. Take Luca home and I’ll call Rachel as soon as I can,” I instruct.
“Prez, come on, you need to be the one to do this, not me,” Shadow argues.
Shaking my head, I let my defenses down for a moment. “I already fucked up where Rachel’s concerned. I can’t fail her again. I promised I’d bring both our kids home. This is me keeping that promise,” I explain.
I’ll never allow anything to come between Rachel and I again. She’s more than property, or an ol’ lady, and I realized this when I heard her tears through the phone. She’s my fuckin’ world, and I’ll die before I let anything or anyone else harm her.
I just need to find our daughter first.
Chapter Thirty-One
Rachel
“I wish I were out there helping you,” I murmur into the phone, talking to Stoney. I’ve done the same thing every day for the past week since Shadow handed Luca over to me and explained what was going on.
I usually only get to speak to him once a day, and that’s after I leave him a voicemail. I’d made sure to threaten a certain part of his body if he did not call me. A couple hours later, he’d called and I’d laid into him, telling him he was not leaving me out of this, that she was my daughter and I needed to protect her. I also demanded he tell me everything he knew so far.
When he told me what Torben said about Jackal being the kids’ uncle, I’d told him everything the evil man said to me. Neither of us understood how he was my brother. I don’t even want to think the possibility of his connection to me is true.
“Doll, as much as I wish you were here with me right now, I need you at the clubhouse where I know you're safe with Luca,” Stoney says, drawing my attention back to the conversation at hand.
“But—”
“No buts, Rachel,” he interrupts me. “For my sanity, please. Besides, your injuries would limit what all you’re able to do,” he says calmly.
“Fine,” I huff in frustration, falling back on the pillows in bed but mindful of Luca lying next to me asleep.
Since Shadow handed him to me, he’s been more demanding than normal, between refusing to sleep in his pack-and-play and not wanting to take his bottle unless he’s held a certain way. And at night, he won’t fall asleep easily unless he hears Stoney’s voice.
“How are you feeling?” he asks, breaking the silence. Although neither of us have mentioned the elephant in the room, I know we need to discuss what happened. Then again, I’m not sure I want to because that night those two women not only got their asses handed to them, they were raped, along with Summer, Beanie, and Candy.
All of them are in rough shape, but not as bad as Tiny. She might be lucky to not have been in the same predicament as the others, but she was beaten to within an inch of her life. They ended up having to take her in for surgery due to internal bleeding. Right now, she’s hooked up to ventilators and monitors while she’s being kept in a medically induced coma.
Clearing my throat, I glance down at my leg. “I’m hurting still but it gets better each day,” I say. I should be grateful I wasn’t as bad off as some. “I feel responsible for all of this happening to your club.”
This is the first time since everything happened that I’ve admitted this aloud.
“Doll,” Stoney rasps. “None of this was your fault. You were protecting yourself, Luca, and Corinne by getting them out of that situation. If it’s anyone’s fault, it was mine. I should have left more of my brothers at the clubhouse, but my head was up my ass. I was pissed over what happened earlier in the day and the fact we didn’t get a chance to resolve the issues between the two of us. Telling you now, baby, I don’t like having shit between us, same as I don’t like having a phone to my ear instead of you in my arms.”
My breath seems to get lodged in my throat at his statement. “I don’t like it any more than you do. But that doesn’t mean I’m over what I walked in on,” I say, letting the dice fall where they may. I didn’t want to have this conversation over the phone, but I guess that’s how it’s going to happen.
“I know you’re not and I don’t expect you to be. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t be either. I’ve had a lot of time to think about the situation and the things I know you don’t know about it.”
“What don’t I know about it?” I interrupt, my head starting to fill with all different scenarios, of what could’ve happened if I hadn’t opened the door when I did. Would he have joined them on the couch or come to me after they got him all worked up?
“Rachel, I don’t know what you’re thinking right now, but whatever negative shit you're thinking, you need to let it go. I’m gonna tell you something right here and now, so listen closely, baby,” he stresses.
“I’m listening,” I murmur.
“When Cherry Pie and Peaches knocked on the door, they had tears in their eyes and asked to talk to me. So, I allowed them in. As they sat down on the couch, I knew something was up with them and I know I should have told them to leave then, but then they started fuckin’ with each other. Yeah, I fuckin’ watched. And I’ll tell you this too, it was hot. I’ve always liked watching women fuckin’ with each other. There’s just something about the way women work each other that is erotic, I guess you can say.
“Did watching them turn me on? Yeah, I got hard. Did I intend to join them? Fuck no. Should I have stopped them as soon as they started? Probably, but I didn’t and that’s on me.”
“If they turned you on, what were you planning to do?” I ask, my stomach churning at what he might say.
“Honestly, I thought about finding you and fuckin’ you. Watching them, all I could think about was you. I know you don’t want to hear that, but it’s the truth. All I could think about was seeing your face as pleasure consumed you. But the more I think about it and have thought about it, I could never stand the thought of another man or woman touching you,” Stoney says.
“Now for the part you don’t know and will probably be livid over. They’d come to me no more than five minutes before you opened the door. Shadow can confirm this next part, but I hope you believe me ‘cause, Rachel, I’d never lie to you. They overheard you asking Tiny to watch the twins so you could spend a little time with me. Those two decided to set me up,” he states.
I take a moment to process his words, thinking back to right before I opened his office door. Those two conniving bitches had been sitting near the bar when I’d asked Tiny. “Oh my god, when I get my hands on them, I’m going to kick their asses,” I snap.
“Take it from that little announcement you realize what Shadow told me,” Stoney asks inquisitively.
“Yeah, I have. I’m still hurt, but the fact is you sat there and watched them. If the roles had been reversed, you would have committed murder by now. And though I’ve thought about it multiple times, I’ve held back only because of what they went through. But now, I’m telling you this, Stoney, they are gone from this clubhouse. I don’t care how good they suck dick or fuck each other. I don’t want to see them. Send them to Dolly’s Playhouse if that makes everyone happy, but if I find out they give you any more private shows, I’ll kill them and castrate you,” I state, meaning every word of it.