Page 19 of Rider

I tried to control the anger in my voice but it was radiating off my body. “Who the fuck are you?” I questioned him.

His nostrils flared and his eyes widened but he must have heard enough about the MC to know not to mouth off to me. He stood before me and I could see the wheels turning in his head, trying to figure out how to respond in a manner that wouldn’t upset me.

“I’m just passing through town, man. This woman,” he gestured towards Rayleighn, “is the mother of my child and I’m arranging a visitation.”

My face remained hard and I flexed my hand with the brass knuckles, catching the light overheard. He looked down and saw the motion and quickly averted his eyes. I chose to look over to Rayleighn instead of answering him. I wanted to make him stand there and sweat it out. I wanted him to know that he had walked into something he wasn’t aware of. That he should be afraid of coming here. “Ray baby, you ok?”

She nodded but remained frozen at her station. “Go get your stuff so we can go home.” My voice sparked her to move and she took off into the back room, presumably to get her things.

I looked back to Grayson and his beady eyes were bouncing back and forth between Rayleighn and me, putting two and two together. Before he could speak, I stepped forward, closing the small gap between us. My boots were about two inches from his and I looked down at him with our height difference. I looked him straight in the eye and told him how I expected him to go. “There’s nothing for you here or in this town.” I pointed to where Rayleighn had just been standing. “She’s mine and protected under the Venom Mystic MC. If I ever see or hear you around her again or if I ever hear of you contacting her from this moment forward causing any trouble, I will end you. Do you understand me?”

The silence lingered between us for another few seconds but I wasn’t backing down. I would never back down. If he was looking for a fight he was going to get it because I wasn’t walking away from this guy. “I asked you a question. Do you understand me?”

He slowly nodded and I could see that he was seething. Good. I wanted him angry, I wanted his true emotions to shine through so I could see firsthand what a miserable scumbag this guy really was. Over the last few weeks, Rayleighn had opened up more and shared more about how he treated her when they were together. From everything she had told me I knew he wouldn’t think twice about hitting her or another woman. He was verbally and physically abusive, drank too much, snorted too much coke, and couldn’t hold a steady job. Once she told him she was pregnant he asked her what flight of steps she’d like him to push her down.

Once she told me that I had to ask her to stop. No one, and especially my Ladybug, didn’t deserve to ever be treated that way. Standing this close to him made me rage and I squeezed the brass knuckles in my fist harder, squeezing my fingers around them. Just as I was about to reach up and land a punch on him I heard Harley’s coming down the street. No doubt more than one and if I had to guess my fellow brethren.

I spied Rayleighn standing at the doorway to their break room and when she saw me looking at her she waved her cell phone and then looked out towards the windows. She called them. I took a few steps back away from Grayson and motioned towards the door. “I’ll give you till sun up tomorrow morning to be out of town. If I ever see you again or if any of my brothers ever see you, we’ll meet again, and it won’t be pleasant. Now leave.”

Grayson slowly moved past me towards the front door. “I’ll go but this isn’t over. You can’t bully me into never seeing my kid.”

I ate up the space between us in one step, reaching out and grabbing his jacket. I pulled him off the floor and held him up against the window. “Let’s get this straight right now. That kid is more mine than he’s ever been yours.” I was so angry I could see the spit on his face from how much conviction I had said it. Before Grayson could respond, the door to the shop opened and Griz stepped in, taking up the entire door frame. He took in the scene in front of him and then put his hands on his hips and sighed.

“Looks like I missed all the fun.”

I dropped Grayson from the wall and the moment his feet hit the ground he scurried out the front door. Griz started to follow him but I reached out and grabbed his arm. I shook my head. “Let him go. Have one of the guys follow him but let’s see what he does now that I’ve warned him.”

Griz looked down at the brass knuckles I still had on and popped one of his eyebrows up. “Those got rust on ’em?” His quiet laughter broke the tension. When he saw my face he stopped laughing. “Yeah, prospect is on him. Don’t get worked up again.”

I turned away from the door and walked back to Rayleighn who had inched closer to the front. Her arms were wrapped around herself and she looked so resigned it made me grind my molars in anger. He had done this to her and now she didn’t feel safe. It was my job to make her feel safe and protected, and I was going to do just that.

I went to her and wrapped her up in my arms. Trying to convey everything I was feeling. She was safe and I’d see to it that she stayed that way. Now that we knew he was in town it would be easier to keep track of him and make sure he left, and if he didn’t leave in the morning, well that was another bridge I’d have to cross. I could feel and hear her soft cries against my chest. I stroked her hair and leaned down and kissed the top of her head. “Hey, hey, you’re ok. I’m here. I got here. The guys got here. I got you. We got you, Ladybug.”

She pulled her body away from mine and looked up frantically at me. “Oh my God, Rider. What about Colton? We need to get to the house.”

I stroked her cheek with my hand and tried to soothe her. “He’s ok. I just came from the house. Mrs. Lopez is with him and when Grayson left here, one of the guys stayed on him. He’s not going to get anywhere near Colton.”

She nodded her head slowly, taking everything in. A tear rolled down her cheek and I brushed it off with my thumb. Her jade eyes were a lighter shade of green when she cried and while she took my breath away at how beautiful she was, I never wanted to see her cry again. We stood there for a few more minutes while she got herself together. I rubbed her back and just held her. When I felt like she was okay, I softly spoke. “Let’s go home, baby.”

As we walked towards the front doors she stopped. “Wait. What about your haircut?”

After everything she’d had to endure, having to come face to face with the man who’d caused her the most pain in her life, she was thinking of someone else. If I wasn’t convinced already, this solidified it, she was the most selfless woman I had ever met and it solidified a lot of other feelings in my heart.

I shook my head and held her hand. “No, let’s go home, Ladybug. You’ll be the only person to ever cut my hair again so today wouldn’t have been the last time, anyways.”

Rayleighn

My body shook the entire car ride home. I couldn’t stop. It was my body’s involuntary reaction to being in the same room as Grayson. I sat silently in Rider’s truck and he didn’t push me to talk. He just let me be and I appreciated that. My cheery disposition earlier had faded and I felt myself getting depressed. I had painstakingly hidden us away in this small town thinking that he would never find us here. Somehow, someway, he had tracked us down. While I knew that Rider would keep us safe, I still had apprehension. I also saw a different side of Rider today.

While Rider had always treated me with care and all of the interactions I had seen him have with people, he became a completely different person when he approached Grayson. If I hadn’t known him, I would have been scared. He was a true Mystic Venom Viper and I understood that better now after seeing it firsthand. I should have been scared—but I wasn’t. If anything I was more turned on at how he had come to my aid. His MC brothers, too. They got there faster than I could have imagined, and when we pulled up to my house, two men on their motorcycles wearing their black and green leather vests sat on the curb.

I held onto Colton for the first hour we were home and Rider never once questioned me or complained. He knew that I was shaken up and he talked to Mrs. Lopez and entertained her when I didn’t have the energy to do anything. Colton asked over and over to decorate the tree, and while I wasn’t feeling festive I pushed through it because I knew it would make him happy. Rider continued to be great with Colton, he interacted with him and talked to him like an adult, which delighted Colton. In turn, Colton and I showed him every ornament we owned and explained the story behind them. I had been collecting ornaments since I was a kid, and when I moved out west my mom had given them all to me for my own home.

As the evening drew on, I started to relax, and Rider and I curled up on the couch in front of the Christmas tree after putting Colton to bed. Slowly I started to feel safe again and the anxiety of the day began to seep away. It also helped that he was rubbing my feet in his lap.

“If you need to take some time off to get back into the groove, I’m sure Hammer would understand.”

I shook my head. “No, I’m not going to do that. We’ve got the weekend and I’ll be ok. I’ve got you.”

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