I left her to do that while I called in an order for food. After it was placed, I texted Bull. I told him I needed to meet in the morning with everyone. I hated to call them in after they’d just had church this morning, but I wasn’t going to wait until next week. Ilara had promised me a week. I planned to make sure she stayed at the end of it. He texted back and said he’d get the guys together at ten. I did let him know we needed to talk about Ilara. He didn’t ask for more specifics.
We finished out the evening like I planned with a movie and relaxing. When it was time for bed, she shared my bed again. I made sure not to do anything she might not like, but we did kiss and do some innocent touching. I was suffering with one helluva hard-on when she fell asleep. It was worth it. I finally willed it away and went to sleep myself.
?????
I was at the clubhouse by a quarter ‘til ten. I’d had breakfast with Ilara and Hope then told her I had to come to a meeting. She said she’d stay at the house, even though I told her she could come. It was likely at least one of the women would be there. She’d said no. I knew she was thinking of Tate and what he said. I was going to put that to rest and get her over here. She needed to know her way around the compound, including the clubhouse. As we went into church, I heard Slash grumble, “Why’re we up and meeting again on a Sunday? I was up late last night.”
“Yeah, with Farrah and Kayla. I saw the three of you,” Joker said as he elbowed him. Slash just laughed. We all took our seats.
“Shut the hell up. You can go back to bed when we’re done. Our brother needed to meet with us. Bear, it’s your show. Tell us what’s going on. You told me it has something to do with Ilara.”
All of them sobered up when they heard Bull say that. They turned to look at me expectantly.
“Thanks, Bull. I won’t keep you guys long. I had an incident yesterday. One that had Ilara packing to leave right after I’d gotten her to unpack her shit to stay.”
“What the hell happened? You guys were gone for a long time yesterday. I saw those bags in your truck when you came back. It looked like you bought out the store. I don’t mean to step into anything that’s not our business, but what’s up with her and her kid? Why’re they staying with you? And why all the purchases?” Tank asked. He was our VP.
I looked at Bull, Ajax, Rebel, and Demon. Their women had been there the other night. They knew most of it. “We didn’t say anything. Figured you would when you were ready,” Demon told me.
“Okay, let me back this up. Ilara and her daughter, Hope, I met the other day when I was leaving the bakery. Madisen and Jessica and the other old ladies had met her a few days before when she had a run-in with a couple of women. Anyway, I’ll just say she got my attention.” I saw several of them smile.
“I wanted a chance to get to know her. I was trying to figure out how, when Friday night, Rebel got a call to come to the bakery. Jess and Mad had gone back to do something and Ajax went with them. Thank God they did. While they were there and putting out some trash, they heard a woman screaming. It was Ilara. Two men attacked her in the alley down from the bakery. They were going to rape her.” All the guys swore. “Jess and Mad scared off the guys. When Rebel and I got there, Ajax told me what happened and showed us her car. She was living in her car with her little girl.”
“What the fuck? Oh, hell no. That’s bullshit, but why aren’t we putting her up at Haven? It’s ready,” Outlaw asked.
“Because I don’t want her there. I want her at my house. I’m about to tell you something. If you breathe a word of it, even to your old ladies, I’ll kill you. It’s up to Ilara to share, but it’s important and relates to this incident and something I’m going to be doing. Ilara is homeless after losing her job and not being able to find work. She moved around a lot and was trying to find work here.” They were nodding along like they understood.
“The reason she moved to begin with is two and half years ago, she was attacked at her work and raped. The rapist was one of her bosses.”
Outlaw came up out of his chair. He hated anything to do with abuse and the rape of women or kids. “You have to be kidding me! Tell me that fucker is in jail. Which one? I can find friends that can take care of him.” He sat back down and opened his laptop.
“He’s not in jail. He had a prominent businessman friend who swore he was with him when the rapes occurred. The cops did nothing to him. That’s why she left and moved around.”
“Wait a minute, rapes? He did it more than once?” Player asked in disbelief.
I nodded. “Yes, he did it twice that same night. The thing is, Ilara isn’t like a lot of people. She has some core beliefs. So, when she found out a month or so later that she was pregnant, she didn’t have an abortion or give up her baby. She had Hope and kept her.”
The room was deathly quiet. The shock and horror on the guys’ faces was evident. I didn’t tell them, so they’d feel sorry for her. I needed them to know how fragile she was in some ways, like having Tate talk his shit yesterday about her.
“Bear, we know this is private stuff. We’ll never say a word, but was this what you wanted to tell us or is there more?” Payne asked quietly.
“There’s more. She’s not sure if she can ever be in a relationship with a man after what happened, but she does feel something for me too. I convinced her to stay and work with me on it.”
“Wonderful,” Joker said with a smile at me.
“Yeah, it was. I had to almost tie her up to be able to buy shit that she and Hope have been going without. Those were the bags in my truck yesterday. It was going okay, and we were unpacking when Tate asked me why I was helping her and moving her into my house. He suggested the Haven too. I didn’t tell him about what happened to her. Then he went on to suggest she might be using me to get stuff and to have someone take care of her and her daughter. That she could be conning men. Ilara overheard him.”
“Motherfucker, what in the hell is wrong with him? I barely know Ilara, but you can be around her ten minutes and know she’s not like that. What did she do?” Rebel asked.
“What do you think she did? She went into the house and started to pack her stuff. Said she needed until today to get everything together. Asked me if it was okay for her to stay one more night.” They cringed and swore under their breaths.
I heard at least two of them mumble, “Tate, what a dumbass.”
“Did you kill Tate?” Joker asked.
“No, but I told him to get lost and if she leaves, he’s dead. I convinced her to stay for a week. She’s fucking convinced now that all of you will think she’s using me. She doesn’t want to be around people who think that. Said you’d never accept her and she wouldn’t have Hope exposed to the backlash of your feelings. She told me she didn’t need a man to take care of her or Hope. She was doing it when she met me and she’d continue to do it to the best of her ability.”
“Man, what the hell got into Tate?” Tank groaned.