Page 20 of Savage Heart

From the white knuckled grip on the steering wheel, Trouble knew Odin was feeling the same rage. No one fucked with their women, and despite the shit between Liz and Trouble, she was still considered under club protection. She was one of theirs. Besides that, Savage Raiders MC didn’t take kindly to anyone hurtinganywoman—club protected or not.

“Okay, darlin’, you did good. Can you tell me where you are?” Odin inquired gently but urgently, knowing that getting to Liz could be life or death.

“Home.”

Odin, with screeching, burning tires, performed a 180-degree turn, and pointed the truck toward Spanish Hills, where Trouble knew the good doctor lived. Not that he’d ever been invited to set foot inside the lavish condo. Not that he ever would, even if he had been. The time he was welcome in her home was long gone. Their life together was long dead. Because he’d killed it.

“Alright, darlin’, we’re on our way. Hold tight, yeah?”

A soft, heart wrenching sob tore through the truck’s cabin and into Trouble’s body.

“Keep talkin’, darlin’,” Trouble coaxed. “So, Liz is your mama?”

“Y-yes.”

“How old are you?”

Fuck, please don’t let her be—

“Nine and a quarter.”

Deep in his belly, aknowingwas slowly unfurling.

“What’s your name, darlin’?” Trouble asked, suddenly desperate for all the details about this young girl. Liz’s daughter. One no one new she had. How and why she kept the little girl a secret was a question that could have a clear and devastating answer.

Simply, she didn’t wanthimto know.

“Erika,” the little girl answered, and Trouble’s life upended.

Struck, his breath slamming from his lungs, Trouble grabbed the door handle with trembling, white-knuckled hands, and tried to breathe through the unbearable weight on his chest.

Trouble could feel Odin’s eyes on his face, no doubt surprised as shit.

“That’s a beautiful name, sweetie,” Odin spoke, because Trouble couldn’t speak. Odin’s surprised and concerned gaze flicking between his VP and the road.

“Th-thank you,” Erika mewled, her tiny voice loud as a plane engine in Trouble’s ears. “My mama said I was named after my daddy.”

Erika…named after Erik. Him. She was named afterhim. Shuddering, he closed his eyes against the avalanche of realization cascading with disbelief and desperation.

“Your daddy?” Odin inquired, taking a sharp right turn onto Breckenridge, and gunning it.

“Yeah, but he isn’t here.”

But he was! He was there, he was right fucking there!

And he’s coming for you, darlin’!

Trouble finally forced a word through the thick, strangling hands of shock and terror around his throat. “No?”

“No. Mama said he wasn’t around because he was trouble. And we don’t need trouble.”

For the first time in over twenty years, a tear slipped from Erik Skaarsen’s eye. No, his woman and daughter didn’t need Trouble, but God…Trouble needed them.

“Darlin’, we’re coming, alright?”

“O-okay.” God, the sound of her terrified voice made his heart squeeze. Fuck…his little girl…his daughter. She could still be in danger.

“Erika, darlin’, I need you to do somethin’ for us. We’re on our way, we’ll be there soon, but I need you to hang up and call 9-1-1.”

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