Page 14 of Trick

“Does she know about Mara?”

“Of course. I talked a lot about you both when you were gone.”

“Why?”

His question confuses me. “Because you’re her parents. I don’t know how much she understands, but I tell her what I can remember. Obviously, the good stuff, nothing bad, but she deserves to know where she came from.”

He scrubs a hand over his beard, stepping back from the cot as if he can’t bear to look at her. I watch as he interlaces his fingers at his nape and tries to keep a handle on his emotions, though I know how hard that is from experience.

“I fucked up,” he rasps.

My heart breaks for him. He’s never going to move on and rebuild his life if he can’t forgive himself. And he can’t do that until everyone around him gives him that permission.

“You’re here now.”

“It’s not enough,” he mutters, pacing the floor, his eyes locked on the ceiling. “I want to make amends, but I can’t fix this. It’s too much of a mess.”

My heart squeezes. He’s not someone who shows vulnerability often, so this rare display hits me in the chest. “That’s not true. Everything can be fixed with time.”

He stops pacing, glancing towards me. “Even what I did to Skye?”

I didn’t like Skye much either when she first turned up. All I saw was potential threats to Sophia and the other women under the clubhouse roof, but as I’ve gotten to know her, I understand she’s as much a victim in her father’s war as the rest of us.

“It might take a long time to rebuild that bridge between you, Rage, and Skye, but you can. There’s nothing that can’t be repaired.”

His expression tells me he thinks I’m a liar. Maybe I am, but I want to give him hope.

“I wouldn’t forgive him.”

“Howler could’ve kicked you out the club, but he didn’t. There’s a reason for that, Trick. Your brothers remember who you were before this shit happened, and they want you back. You just have to prove to them they’re right to take a chance.”

I touch his bicep softly, and the depth of pain in his eyes hurts me.

“How is Sophia ever going to forgive me when she learns what I did?”

“You can’t change the past. No one can. All you can do is move forward.”

I should take that advice myself.

Sophia cries, clearly annoyed at the lack of attention she’s getting. Usually, I would move to the cot and handle it, but I don’t. I hold back until Trick moves.

As if she’s fragile glass, he reaches over the side of the rail and picks her up. The reverent way he pulls his daughter against him and presses a kiss to her head tells me everything I need to know.

They’ll both be fine.

He kisses his daughter again, as if he’s scared the dream may shatter at any moment. “I don’t deserve her.”

“None of us deserve children, Trick.”

“I loved Mara with everything I had. I didn’t think I could love anyone else that deeply until I met my daughter. I’m terrified of something happening to her because of what I did.”

“Nothing is going to happen to her,” I assure him. It won’t, because I won’t allow it.

He rocks back and forth, trying to settle Sophia. “It won’t. She has the club. We take care of our own, and that includes you. You’re one of us.” His expression is pained as he says, “Please, don’t disappear on us again.”

The tightness in my chest and throat feels suffocating. He’s standing in front of me, giving me a place to belong again, and I want that. Because as much as Trick says he needs me, I need him and Sophia even more, and that scares the shit out of me.

CHAPTER 5

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