“Who?” Decker asks.
Atlas rubs the back of his neck, his blue eyes uncertain. “Yeah, see, this is where shit is going to get messy. It’s my stepbrother, CJ. No, we aren’t close, but I figure I could try to find some shit out from him.”
Decker and I share a look. “Your stepbrother? So their reach is bigger than we thought. They aren’t going to move here, they already are here.”
Atlas nods slowly. He’s a handsome man, his blond hair short on the sides and longer on top. “Yeah, and I told Temper the second I heard. They call themselves the FC, or the Forgotten Children. Temper thinks it’s good—we could have an in.”
The Forgotten Children.
It’s nice to put a name to the madness.
“Are you okay with that?” I ask him boldly.
He winces. “Yeah, look. I have no love for the FC, but I wouldn’t want anything to happen to my stepbrother. We might not be close but...it’s complicated.”
“Family, right,” I reply with a small smile.
“Exactly.” He looks to Decker. “She’s a beautiful woman, you know that? I can see why you are willing to protect her with everything that you have.”
He heads outside, leaving Decker and me alone with those last words.
“He’s right,” he says, reaching for my hand. “On both accounts.”
I smile and duck my head. There’s so much going on right now, but his words are always comforting. He’s been my rock through this whole thing, and I don’t know what I would do without him.
“Well, lucky for me that my long-lost half sister contacted you to track me down then, isn’t it?” I reply, and lick my suddenly dry lips.
I want to tell him how I’m feeling, but I don’t know if now is the right time, and things are just so new. However, being in this situation has shown his true colors, and I can’t ignore that.
He’s loyal.
He’s brave.
He’s sweet.
And he’s damn good in bed.
There’s no point ignoring the fact that he’s standing by me through a kidnapping and now a shooting, and yeah, he’s not going anywhere. He’s here knowing that people are trying to kill us.
I don’t know how I got so lucky, but the thing about me? I go after what I want.
And I want Seth Decker.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Decker
Felix organizes some men to come in and fix the windows, while Clover spends her time researching bulletproof glass, calling them an investment that she needs in her life.
Faye and Sin return to pick up baby Fire and take her somewhere safe. Even with Cara coming to stay at my place, Clover decided it was still safer for Fire somewhere else.
Clover clings to her daughter, kissing her head over and over again. “Mama is going to miss you.”
I know Cara feels terrible that this has to happen, so I make sure to stand next to her and offer her my support. I’ve never been really good at comforting people—I’m more of a suffer-in-silence kind of guy—but with her I want to at least try.
I watch as she says goodbye to her goddaughter, and note the sadness in those beautiful brown eyes. As soon as Fire leaves her arms, Cara turns and hugs me, burying her face in my chest. I hold her tightly. Glancing over her, I notice Faye and Sin observing me closely.
“Look after her,” Faye says, and I nod.
Clover cries after they leave, and Felix takes her to their room. I sit out in the living area with Cara, watching the new windows being installed. Atlas watches from the outside, checking the perimeter. I appreciate him being here, because it allows me to relax a little bit more.
“It won’t be for too long; she will be back,” I whisper to Cara, stroking her hair. She has her head in my lap, her feet up on the couch, her green socks poking out. “And she will be safe.”
“I know,” she replies, sighing deeply. “I know it’s what’s best for her, but do you know how hard it was to see my best friend crying because her kid had to go? Clover hardly ever cries. And to know this is all because of my bullshit—”
“It’s to do with MC bullshit, which is all of your bullshit,” I remind her. “Clover included. No one would blame this on you, Cara. Like you said, this is how you grew up, this is a part of the lifestyle that you are all in, not just you. Clover was sad to say bye to her child, like any mother would be, but she knows it is the right thing to do right now. This isn’t on just you. It’s an issue that touches everyone. You just happened to be dating the wrong guy at the wrong time and now you are a main target.”
She makes a sound of disgruntlement. “And I haven’t even spoken to Rhett. I know they haven’t told him about what’s happening over here.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because then he would be here,” she says, shrugging. “He’s not a coward. He wouldn’t be able to hide if he knew they tried to kidnap me, or that they shot up Clover’s house. He would be here.”
I know that she didn’t say anything that’s not true, but the way that she speaks about him makes me feel... I don’t know. Jealous? Whatever it is, I don’t fucking like it. Not that I’d ever let her know that. Like I said before, suffer in silence.
“Okay, well, I guess that’s why no one is telling him,” I reply, and clear my throat a little. “And maybe that’s what the FC want. For him to come out and face what has happened, and that’s why they are going after you.”
“Yeah, I’m the bait,” she replies, sounding like she has accepted her fate. “I just don’t know how we are going to solve this. We can’t fight a whole gang, I mean, the MC could, but we’d all end up in prison, and no one wants that. We can’t kill them. They aren’t going to go anywhere either—people hold grudges for a long time. I don’t want my future kids to have to watch out for the FC because of what is going on right now.”
I wince at the picture she is painting. “Yeah, that doesn’t sound like much fun, does it?”
“Nope. They aren’t going to forgive a kid being hurt, though—this shit runs deep. They’d be angry and they want their pound of flesh as revenge.”
It should be Rhett giving them that pound of flesh, not Cara.
“We will find a way that ends the feud but keeps us all out of prison,” I promise her. “We can ask Atlas’s stepbrother what they would need to end this shit. Otherwise, the Wind Dragons are going to have to step up and handle it from their end. There’s only so much we can do.”