Page 44 of Dagger

I dipped my chin, meeting John’s stare head-on. “I swear I won’t ever repeat what you tell me.”

He brought a hand up to rub his beard. “Wasn’t lyin’, he did die of an overdose, but we were behind it. We protect what’s ours, Leesy. Layla, Sophie, Cara. Ned.You. I know the club didn’t treat you well, but things around here have changed. We look after our ol’ ladies, and if any of my men hurt their woman in any way, they’d be out. Hell, I almost threw my own son outta the club after he fucked Cara over. If he hadn’t ended up in prison, I probably would have packed his bags for him.”

“I think Bandit was sorry for what he did to me,” I said, my tone low.

John’s lip curled. “Not as fuckin’ sorry as he should have been. You’d lost your dad, Ma, me. Nobody could’ve blamed you for seeking comfort elsewhere.” He let out a humorless laugh. “Hell, I did.”

“But I didn’t, John,” I corrected.

He stared at me wistfully. “My pride was dented. Couldn’t face anyone, so I jetted. Biggest regret of my life. Should’ve stayed around, baby. Should’ve known.”

Gold met green, and my heart fluttered.

John had changed a lot since we were together, but he was still a striking and extremely handsome man.

Over the years, I’d heard chatter about him from the women within my circle. Even the stuck-up, snobby women who I detested always talked amongst themselves and mostly said the same thing—John was entirely fuckable.

To me, he was still Stone. I noticed the physical changes; I wasn’t blind. But I’d always known there was more to him than the bearded, muscled biker who sat astride his motorcycle wearing a tight Henley and a sexy grin. Underneath, he was still much like the man I once knew, just older, wiser, and a lot less arrogant.

Getting to know John again had been interesting and, dare I say it, even enjoyable.

I knew he was much more sensitive than most people realized. If I was honest, he impressed me because, at some point during the time we’d been apart, he'd learned he had nothing to prove to anyone. The Stone I knew had been conditioned by his dad to put himself first and never admit to his mistakes.

The fact he’d apologized to me for his part in what happened proved he’d grown.

I jumped slightly as a loud rap sounded from the door.

John complained under his breath before calling out, “Come in.”

My neck craned to see the door crack open and Colt appear. “Found some info. It’s about the woman who adopted Sophie.”

My stomach jolted nervously as John motioned for the other man to enter.

Colt grabbed a chair and set it down next to mine before taking a seat. Then, opening the thick file in his hands, he set it on John’s desk.

I leaned forward to study it and immediately noticed a photograph of a woman in an old-style nurse’s uniform.

Something about her jogged my memory. Wracking my brain, I tried to place her.

“This is Lois Abbot,” Colt announced, tapping his index finger on the image. “She worked at Baines Memorial thirty-five-years ago. She’s Sophie’s adoptive mother.”

My eyebrows drew together as I studied the face of the woman who raised my daughter. The feeling of familiarity prickled through me again, and I murmured, “I’m sure I know her from somewhere.”

Colt turned the page over and pointed to a report. “Read that, Duchess. She treated you twice. You were taken into hospital on two separate occasions and treated for exposure.”

John’s brows went up slightly.

“Lois looked after you both times and wrote these reports,” Colt continued, pointing to a section of the paper. “She confirmed on both occasions that you were mentally unstable.”

My chest tightened as painful memories hit me from all sides.

Strangely, I didn’t remember much about that time except the ache of grief in my chest. Explaining my depressive state to John would be difficult because I hated even thinking of it. ButI had to try if we were going to get to the bottom of what had happened to Sophie.

“The first time I ended up in hospital was the day we were told you’d been killed in action. I was there when they told your mom and saw her collapse. I lost my shit and had some kind of breakdown. I’d recently lost my dad and found out I was pregnant, so losing you ended me. The second time was when Bandit almost shot me.”

John’s jaw clenched, and a muscle ticked in his jaw.

Colt tapped the report again. “It says here that Lois noted your pregnancy and voiced her concerns to you, but you avoided the subject.” His index finger slid down to a highlighted section. “She wrote that you didn’t want to know if the baby was healthy.”

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