Page 49 of Hyde

“I didn’t fuck up, baby girl. I calmly and deliberately beat the shit out of him for touching you. I won’t ever apologize for that,” Dad says with a dismissive shrug. “He’s alive because I know that you’re in love with him and I won’t be a jackass over your age difference when it’s not much more than your mom and me.”

“Well, thank goodness for small favors,” I snap back and notice his eyes softening for a split second.

“You can be as pissed off as you want to be with me, but don’t ever think I don’t love you,” he says in the same growly tone of voice.

“What hurts the most, isknowinghow much you love me and seeing what you did to Joe. Dad, I…”

“You marry into this life, you’re gonna have to deal with worse, Leslee,” Dad growls out the words. “Fuck, you were maybe a year old when Riley had to see them drag my bullet riddled body into the clubhouse.

“If I hadn’t beaten the shit out of Hyde, if all the punks who patched in after him, hadn’t witnessed that, humph. They’re also gonna see that he’ll be under a microscope over the next year or so… they need to know there’s a standard of how we treat our women and kids.”

“All the punks,” I slowly repeat his words, knowing they sound familiar. “You’re quoting Garth Brooks now?”

“He’s right. ‘Everyone who comes before us is a God. Everyone after us is a punk.’”

“I’m pretty certain that the almighty Garth was referring to other industry leaders,” I mutter, replaying our conversation in my mind. “I love you, but if you ever try anything like that again…”

“I very well may, so let’s not go tossing threats around. Nothing’s ever gonna change how I feel about you or the lengths I’ll go to, to protect you.”

Letting out a heavy sigh, I shake my head at him. “What happened with the exchange?”

“Let’s go back inside, so I don’t have to repeat it to Hyde,” he replies, dropping his arms back down to his sides. “Can I get a hug now?”

“Not until Joe’s healed,” I respond, but I soften a little, squeezing Dad’s arm when I pass him to rejoin the others.

Opening the sliding door, I immediately notice the worried look on Mom’s face and give her a little nod before crossing to sitnext to Joe. As I’m lowering myself, he pulls me over onto his lap, getting a loud gasp of surprise from me. I know how much pain he’s in, even if he refuses to acknowledge it in front of our families.

“Is that necessary?” Dad asks, glaring at us from the doorway.

“Come on, you said you’d tell us about the trade,” I remind him, ignoring his question. Flint just chuckles before refilling their glasses.

Sighing in frustration, Mom reaches her hand out for Dad to join her, nearly pushing him onto the chair he had vacated before sitting on his lap. Joe snorts, while I bite the inside of my cheek to keep the smile off of my face.

“Throttle’s contact set up the meeting,” Dad starts, and I don’t miss how he’s more than halfway into the actual story of what happened since I got shipped off, as he mentions the current vice president down at the Flagstaff chapter. “It was at a library of all places. Son of a bitch that I was meeting with wasn’t much bigger than Leslee and thought it was hysterical when the first chair I sat on cracked.”

While I manage not to laugh at the image, Dad narrows his eyes in my direction when I snort.

“Hush,” I say, lightly smacking Joe on the shoulder while keeping a straight face in an attempt to cast the blame for the noise on my Ol’ Man.

Turning back from his surprised expression, I notice Mom and Flint trying not to laugh at us.

“Don’t tell me you carted the drugs into the library?” Joe asks for clarification.

“Hell, no,” Dad grunts. “We just had a chat to clear up any misunderstandings and he slid me an envelope for Parks’ family.Seems the Navaja subcontracted the work out in North Carolina and the men who met the plane were more aggressive than their instructions called for.”

“But they have their drugs back and we don’t have to worry about them anymore?” I ask Dad and catch his eyes shifting over to Joe’s. They obviously have an understanding that I’m not privy to. “What? What does that look mean?”

“We made the exchange in the parking lot of the library,” Dad replies with a sigh.

“Exchange?”

“They had Trinity and thought we wanted her back.”

“But wedon’t,” I immediately snap out, sitting up straighter.

“We don’t,” Flint interjects. “But she’s still Molly’s family, so she came back with the men.”

“She’s here?” I growl, leaning forward to stand up until Joe’s arms tighten around me and I turn to glare at him. “You knew about this?”

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