Page 69 of Out for Blood

“You can just talk over here, Shauna,” I replied. “I haven’t seen you in weeks, come and give me a rundown.”

She sighed and moved away from Chains, who looked at me with relief in his eyes. He had been so good with her advances, always moving away when she got too friendly, but there was a protectiveness there that I couldn’t look past. He would do right by her, by the club, I knew this, but the mama bear in me wanted to go down there and embarrass the fuck out of my kid so he knew not to even get any ideas about what he could be doing with her.

His bike hummed to life and he took off, out of the compound with Kirby and Razor.

“There’s nothing to rundown,” Shauna said. “How about you tell me what happened to your face this time?”

Her arms were crossed over her chest, and I could see she was annoyed. They were old enough to know why their father was such a prick. I’d wanted to protect them for so long that I forgot how it felt to have a parent lie to you constantly.

Ryleigh had gravitated toward us, and her innocent eyes looked from her sister to me, concerned.

“Your father tried to hurt me.”

“Because we were gone?” Ryleigh asked, surprisingly on point for once.

“That doesn’t matter, girls. The point is he is behind bars, and you can feel safe now. We all can.”

Shauna’s expression softened. “I don’t want to call him my father anymore.”

The admission pulled at my heartstrings, hating that she felt that way, but hating him even more for being that asshole who hurt his daughters.

“That’s okay,” I said. “I think everyone would understand that.”

“Can we call Cooper Dad?” Ryleigh asked me.

“I think that’s something you can ask him,” I said, my chest exploding with emotion I didn’t know how to handle. “We’ll have family dinner tonight and you can ask him then.”

My heart hammered in my chest at the feeling that they wanted Cooper as their dad. It should have always been him.

“What if he says no?” Ryleigh asked me. I looked over at her sweet face that looked so much like mine when I was younger.

“He wouldn’t,” I heard the strong voice behind us and we all froze. Cooper had approached without us realising. Shauna and Ryleigh’s heads both bowed down, embarrassed. “I’d be really fucking proud to have kids like you girls, and if you want to call me Dad, I’d be more than honoured to take that on.”

Their heads lifted, and I saw the pure joy in their eyes as they both ran into his arms, almost bowling him over. He caught them and hugged them back and I watched on as the man of my dreams accepted my daughters as his own.

Tears sprung into my eyes as I watched them squeeze the life out of him, his beautiful smile lighting up his face as he hugged them back.

A lifetime of pain was almost erased with this one moment and I ran to them as Cooper motioned for me to join in.

Chapter Eleven

SHERIDAN

It had been a long ass week in the clubhouse with Butch and Maree back, and things starting to settle. Cooper had been introducing me to a lot more of what the charter was about and how they made their money. I didn’t exactly love the idea of having the girls around the criminal aspects, but I knew they’d never be in trouble here. Everyone would look out for them. We were all a family.

Maree was one of my favourite people in the world. She’d come along well after I had stopped coming by, but she was a firecracker and I absolutely adored her. She was currently sipping on a very traditional Irish coffee and regaling us with astory about her cousin down in Wales, which had been where she and Butch had been holidaying while everything had been going on.

My eyes moved up to the movement of the doors opening to the clubhouse and immediately my smile fell as I looked over at the newcomer. Orla spun around and I saw the anger pour into her features. Maree turned next, and then looked back over at me. She downed the rest of her coffee, heavy on the whiskey, and stood up.

“That’s the bitch?” Maree asked, looking over at the skinny woman who just walked in. I nodded, keeping my eyes down on the ground. I could barely look at the woman. Knowing why she’d done it only hurt me more.

Cooper had promised me that it meant nothing, she was a thing to play with while he’d been away, but he never actually cared about her. For some reason, that had made me feel worse.

Maree moved around the side of the bar and grabbed something from under the counter. I looked over as the girl, Mana, cowered in the doorway. Ever since they’d found out what she had done, they’d set about finding her. Now, Savage stood with her at the doorway, blocking her exit. I almost felt for the girl, or would have if my cheek didn’t hurt every time I tried to move it. The bruise was nasty, even Cooper had lost his shit when he saw me black and blue again. If it weren’t for Mana divulging our secrets and my location to my fucking ex-husband who had targeted the club, the very club she was part of, then this wouldn’t have happened.

I should be as mad as Cooper. He wasn’t here purely because we knew she would be coming here. He had never hit a woman before, but he told me he was going to look past that rule for her. I told him it was best he went back to the house and left it to me.

Mana looked at me, her lip quivering when she saw my face. “I’m so sorry.”

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