Page 72 of Notorious

She rushes forward, wrapping her arms around me tightly. “So do you.”

My body shakes, my resolve waning, so I pull back from her and hold her at arm’s length. “I have to go back. If they realize you’re gone, which they might already, theywillsend people to find you. I won’t have them send birds here. The only way for me to protect you all is for me to go back and to hand myself in—”

“Haven, please! Talk to Dad. He can help you!” Poppy begs.

I take a step closer to the van. “He won’t want to help me when he finds out who I am. I got you back. That’s all that matters. Now I need to leave. Rip, take her.”

The concern crossing Rip’s face is clear, but he reaches out, grabbing Poppy and pulling her back from me. “Haven, no!” she calls out as I race for the van.

I see Rip struggling with Poppy. She may be only seven, but she’s had two years of assassin training and had to grow up fast. She’s strong. She’s capable. She’s devious. And hurting Rip, even though she loves him, means nothing to a bird. It will take some time for her to revert to being a child again.

Reversing the van from the gate, I drive down the access road and glance in the rearview to see Poppy has broken free of Rip. He’s on the ground, rolling in pain as she chases after my van. But even though she is fast, she won’t catch me. I won’t let her.

Her only option is to go into the clubhouse to her father.

My only wish is that I was there to see his reaction.

Because he has no idea of the storm that’s about to crash into his life.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Alpha

Most of last night was spent tossing and turning.

Haven’s words cut through me like a red hot poker, branding my soul with the depths of my depravity. The shit she said, what she called me—it was nothing but the truth. Iama mass murderer. I killed my team, and she has every right to think that way. Fuck knows I do, every second of every godforsaken day.

But somehow, hearing it from her was more gut-wrenching than I could have possibly imagined. I thought I found someone who saw past my bullshit, but after a shitty sleep, I see it for what it was—a deflection of something—and now the shit between us is strained more than ever. We’ve always had this tension between us. I damn well thought it was a sexual tension that made us explosive, but maybe it’s because we’re so alike that it causes us to bicker and banter so much. I don’t know what it is about Haven, but I feel like she knows me, like she truly gets me, and she doesn’t give a shit about who I am now or who I’ve been in the past.

A woman like that is hard to find.

When I see her today, I have got to make shit right between us because I don’t want this to fester, especially if she’s going to be staying here and working on the farm.

Sitting in my usual seat, I smile up at Navy when she steps up to me with a genuine smile, about to hand me my breakfast. “Morning, Pre—” Suddenly, Navy drops my breakfast to the floor. The bacon and eggs splatter over the concrete. Navy gasps, and her hand races to her mouth in shock.

I reach out for her arm. “Navy, you okay?” I ask while more audible gasps flood the clubhouse.

I look into Navy’s eyes. They are watering as she hesitantly points behind me to the entry of the clubhouse. I snap my head around to see what all the fuss is about, and when I do, I spot Rip standing with a young girl.

My heart slams into my chest before I stand abruptly, taking in her features—the blonde hair, that cute button nose, the dimple in her left cheek, the freckle under her right eye. She’s taller than I remember, her features a little older.What the fuck!I stumble on the spot. My head is trying to comprehend what it is that I am actually seeing.

Nausea rolls through me so violently that my stomach twists, sending a pain straight through my body, forcing me to grip my side from the intense feeling.

She slowly smiles, stepping toward me. “Daddy?” she whispers.

It’shervoice.

It’s Poppy.

I let out a gut-wrenching sob and drop to my knees that violently I know it’s going to hurt tomorrow. My head falls into my hands, shaking my head. I knew I was on the edge this morning, but I didn’t know I wasthisclose to cracking. I don’t know what has finally made me lose my mind, but here I am, in the middle of the clubhouse, seeing ghosts with all my brothers watching me lose my shit.

“You’renot real!”I scream at the top of my lungs when I take another look.

Her tiny feet race toward me.

It seems so real.

Which makes the pain feel so much worse.

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