Page 8 of Claimed By the Biker Brothers

“Kyra doesn’t know, nor will she. We have a valid restraining order against Calvin. He has no place in his daughter’s life, and he knows it.”

“Hasn’t she asked about him?”

“She’s five years old. She asks about a lot of things. I do my duty as her mother and tell her what she needs to know and shield her from people who might hurt her—even if one of those people is her father,” I reply bluntly, then smile brightly. “What color would you like for your nails?”

I hand her the color palette and wait for her decision while I prepare the base and the gel bottles for the next stage. My gaze wanders around the salon, and I briefly remember my first days here. I’d just met Calvin. Wide-eyed and eager to build a relationship, I was head over heels for that man. I thought he was a demigod, that he could do no wrong.

The first time he raised his voice at me, I blamed it on the stress. He was a Rider prospect, anxious to get into the MC and make his own mark.

“Let’s go with this color pink,” Marlo says, picking out a frosted shade. “It’ll go great with the tiny zirconia.”

“I agree,” I reply with a pleasant smile and get the color off the shelf behind me.

As I apply the adhesive and the base to each of her nails, making sure she keeps each hand under the UV lamp while I move on to the other, Marlo never takes her eyes off me—not my hands or my craftsmanship, but my face. She’s watching me. It’s getting annoying.

I steal a glance outside, content to see Paulie still on his bike, casually soaking up some of the early August sunshine while sipping on an iced latte.

“We grew up together, you know,” Marlo says at one point.

“Who?”

“Me, Calvin, and Paulie.”

“Oh?”

I don’t think I knew that. Then again, they’re around the same age in a town big enough to pass for a small city but small enough for everyone to know one another. That’s Redwood in a nutshell, and its drug-running links to the surrounding districts have kept it on the police’s radar for decades. It used to be a lot worse when Marlo’s grandfather was the kingpin of the operation.

“Yeah, we were thick as thieves,” Marlo says, half-smiling. “Calvin always had a crush on me. I think, in a way, I liked him too, but I knew we could never be together, not while my daddy was still alive.”

“Hmm…” I try to think of something else to say. An image of Knox kissing me last night and sweeping me off my feet comes to mind. But I almost mess up Marlo’s pinkie nail, so I push the thought away and resign myself to listen to whatever trip down memory lane this is supposed to be. “Mr. Hughes didn’t approve?”

“He called Calvin a gutter rat,” Marlo replies. “I never agreed, of course. And I always wanted the best for him, though even then, I could see that dark side of his, the shadow hanging over him. I’m just sorry I didn’t realize where it would lead.”

We’re both waiting for the final drying seconds under the lamp.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“With you. When I saw the two of you together, I figured he’d grown up,” Marlo says. “And when I heard you were pregnant, I thought to myself… ‘Hey, there he goes. A family man. The worst part is over.’ Little did I know that the worst part was just beginning. I was in court, Robyn. I watched you during your testimony. You showed true backbone.”

“Thank you. All I did was tell the truth.”

“And you shook Redwood to its core. We’ve never been the same since.”

“Calvin brought it on himself.”

A grin slits across Marlo’s face as I add the color over the base. “You did ask those Rider fellas for help, didn’t you?”

I give Marlo a short but expressive glare. “They helped me. I had no one else to ask. You might not remember, Marlo, but I did try to tell folks around town. His own parents wouldn’t believe me. And I took quite the beating for that attempt.”

“Yes, well, Calvin does have a tendency to pay people back in kind for perceived betrayals.”

“Betrayals?”

“I’m not saying you betrayed him, Robyn. I’m saying that’s how he saw it.”

I nod slowly. “Yeah, well, I have no regrets for what came afterward. I brought the issue up with Knox, Jagger, and Diesel because I knew they were the only ones whose authority Calvin actually respected.”

“Until they almost knocked his teeth out.” Marlo says and chuckles dryly. “Did you ever regret telling them?”

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