Page 34 of A Love So Hard

“Of course sweetheart,” she cooed to me as she pulled the phone down and explained how to do it. “Take your time,” she offered as she moved to leave the room.

The phone rang twice before my mother picked it up. “Lucy? Is that you?”

I really didn’t want to speak to her, but it looked like I had no choice. “I need to speak to dad,” I told her in a strained voice.

“Did you get a new number? I don’t recognize the one that popped up on caller ID.”

“Put my father on the phone!” I growled, losing my patience with the woman.

I heard her huff and then my dad’s voice boomed across the line. “Lucy?”

“Daddy,” I whimpered out, because just hearing his voice made me ache.

“Lucy, baby, what’s going on?”

“I’m in the hospital, and I need you. Someone has to be here for Toby until I’m released.”

“What are you doing in the hospital?”

“I, um,” the tears were coming hot and heavy now and I wasn’t sure I could get through the story without breaking down again completely. “Please, just hurry. I’ll tell you everything when you get here.”

“Lucy, I’m going to need to know now.”

“Jordan, he attacked me. He took Toby, but they found him. Toby. They found Toby. Jordan wasn’t with him. I don’t know where he is and I’m scared. I still haven’t seen Toby. The police went to get him.” The words tumbled out of my mouth in a jumble.

“Jordan? He hit you?”

“No dad, he beat me until he ran out of energy and couldn’t hurt me anymore,” I admitted. In return I heard a horrible animalistic noise come over the line.

“This is my fault,” he whispered.

“Dad?”

“No, listen, I’m going to set everything right, the way it should have been, baby. You hang in there. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” The line went dead and I was left to stare off into space until my son was brought to the room. Thankfully, he didn’t appear to have been hurt at all. He was just scared, and very sad when he saw what I looked like. The staff allowed him to curl his little body up next to mine where he fell asleep while I worried over what the hell I was going to do. Jordan knew where my family lived. It was obvious I couldn’t stay in Florida, but I wasn’t sure I would be able to go home to South Carolina either. What would the man do now that I’d pointed the finger at him?

Chapter 16

(Lucy – age 24, Double-D – age 27)

We were about to head out on a run up to South Dakota to assist the club up there when a truck came careening into the parking lot. I recognized it immediately, even before the driver jumped out and started running toward me as if to attack. That didn’t seem right though. I hadn’t done anything to piss him off. Hell, I hadn’t even been near him since he closed his business down. I ignored the man and fastened my chin strap on my helmet instead. This was going to be our president’s last run while he was in charge. Once we got back he would be stepping down and Merc would be taking over. The men had decided that fresh blood was needed to bring our club into the future. Surprisingly, all the older members agreed. Either that or none of them wanted the responsibility they’d seen their friend shoulder.

Merc tapped my arm and I glanced up to see him pointing to my left. When I turned around it was to see Jack Carter standing there with his ball cap clenched in his hand, twisting the damn thing like it needed to be rung out. The nervous gesture didn’t sit well with me, because that – more than the fact that he was here at the clubhouse – meant that something was wrong. “What the hell are you doing here?” The gruff question shot from my lips before I could pull the words back. I wasn’t supposed to care anymore. I promised myself it was time to move on. I lied to myself often over the past few years.

“I messed up,” the man admitted forcing me to do a double take.

“Okay, well, go tell someone who gives a shit old man,” I growled as I started backing my bike out of the spot I’d put it in the night before.

“No, you don’t understand!” He shouted and the hysteria in his voice is the only thing that stayed my feet and had me dropping the kickstand.

“I guess you better get to explaining then, because right now you’re holding up a fuckin run.”

“It’s Lucy!” He quickly shouted out. Just hearing her name was a punch to the gut, but I promised myself I wouldn’t let it affect me anymore.

“Then go tell whatever man she moved on to. She stopped being my problem when she ran and never looked back. Remember, all the times I came to you begging to know where she was and you gleefully told me about how she was happy now, with someone else, how I needed to let it go? Well, I fuckin’ let it go.”

The man hung his head, and if I didn’t know any better I would swear the look he wore was one of shame and guilt. “She’s in the hospital.” His voice was so quiet when he spoke I almost missed the words.

“What did you say?”

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