Page 112 of Protector

I sighed. “Quit calling her Cap. Her name is Dakota, and what I’m still stuck trying to figure out is how she ended up at that house, in the middle of a drug bust, while you were supposed to be watching her. Jeremy watches Kate, and she stays safe—”

“Yeah, she stays safe with Jarvis, alright.” He waggled his eyebrows up and down before lighting up a joint.

“What does that mean?”

He inhaled and shook his head. “Nada, and just so you know, I didn’t even come up with that nickname. That was the cop. I think Cap is short for Caparina, which is like a butterfly or some shit—”

“Rick,” I interjected, knowing full well that the nickname had everything to do with Dakota’s penchant forCaptain Americat-shirts and nothing even remotely related to winged insects.

“I mean, what girl wants to be compared to an insect? Nah, if Dakota was my lady, I’d call hermi cielo,because why she give two shits about bein’ a bug when she could be the entire sky?”

Angel, who’d been sitting quietly in the shadows, stood up and slowly walked over to lean against the railing in front of the swing. “Goblin,” he said, using the road name that Rick hated so much. “She ain’t ever gonna be your lady, but I ain’t opposed to takin’ out some badges for what they did to her comics.”

The headache I’d been fighting most of the day intensified, leaving me restless and ready to snap. I’d tried doing the math in my head but had given up once the figures reached a hundred thousand. She’d kept the money for herself, and had Dakota not been arrested, I never would’ve known they were struggling.

Some kind of mother I was.

“Celia?” Angel waved a hand in front of my face.

I forced myself back to the present. “I’m sorry?”

“Asked how you knew she’d been arrested.”

“Oh, Kate called… like a last resort type of thing.” I clenched my hands into fists as my tears threatened to spill over again.

The sound of a bike cut through the dark and Rick jumped up. “Angel? Wasn’t there that thing in the kitchen you wanted to show me?”

“Yep. It’s a neat little gadget for bread.” He hurriedly followed him toward the door.

“That’s called a toaster,” I snapped as the screen door slammed shut behind them.

As if sensing the storm that was brewing, the cicadas fell silent. I was off the porch and waiting on the front lawn by the time he pulled up. The full moon acted as a spotlight, illuminating everything around us.

“Hey, darlin’.”

I stabbed a finger into his chest. “Don’t you ‘hey, darlin’’ me, Jamie Quinn. Do you know how our daughter ended up in that house? Jeremy and I looked into it. Two words—Jackson Blake. Her ex-fiancé. Care to explain to me why a family that’s partnered with your club set our daughter up?”

He ran his tongue over his teeth with a grin. “Jesus, you’re cute when you’re pissed.”

“Jamie,” I warned.

“Fuck, Celia. Yeah, the Blake family has been tryin’ to change the terms of our partnership for quite some time but thought they knew better than to involve my kids. I’ve got Mikey lookin’ into this and if—why you cryin’?”

I sucked in a ragged breath and angrily swiped at the tears before fanning my face with trembling hands. “I’m fine, it’s just—” A sob tore from my throat, releasing a river down my cheeks.

Jamie’s eyes widened, and he cupped my chin in his hands, brushing my tears away with his thumbs. “What’s goin’ on, princess?”

“I—I can’t do this anymore! I can’t sit back and watch as everything falls apart around us. We swore to keep them safe, and we’re failing!” My lungs heaved, and I pulled myself from his arms before stalking toward the orchard.

“Celia.” He caught my elbow and spun me around to face him. “Tell me what happened.”

He was going to kill them.

“My parents took the money. All of it. Girls never saw a dime. Don’t you see?” My voice raised. “Everything we did was for nothing! She took my babies from me and made them struggle while she lived like royalty!”

The muscles in his jaw popped out as he ground his teeth together. “She did what? Thought those girls were as stubborn as their mama, refusin’ to spend the money on themselves…”

He calmly walked over and drove his fist into one of the trees with a roar. “Goddammit! I don’t care if she has an entire army camped out in her front yard, I’m sendin’ her to the Reaper, Celia! Don’t you try to change my mind!”

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