This time they had to stand and fight.For all of their sakes.
He’d go talk to Quinn, his boss, and Gavyn—Quinn’s boss.Hell, to all the Hot Rides and Hot Rods, since they’d be subjected to Angus’s ire if he, Dane, Joy, and Arden stayed.It was only fair.And if they asked him to leave, he would.
Angus had connections, especially in the biker world.He could make life difficult for the people who’d taken Walker and Dane in and made them feel at home.Physically, he wouldn’t flinch at threatening them.Economically, he had some shady businessmen who could interfere with the shop and their livelihood wrapped around his dick.Angus would stop at nothing.
So Walker would accept it if Quinn told them to get out.
Somehow, though, he didn’t think it would come to that.
The rest of the gang came from equally rough spots in the world.And yet they’d pulled themselves out of the shit they’d been dealt by sticking together.His gut said that meant they would stand with him.
No, he was sure of it.That certainty did something to him.It gave him an advantage he’d never had when dealing with Angus before.“It’s going to be okay, Joy.I’m telling you, things are different now.None of us are kids anymore and Angus isn’t the all-powerful puppet master he seemed while we were growing up.Dane and I are making this work on our own, and so can you.”
“You have skills at least.You’ve been working on bikes since you were old enough to hold a wrench.”Joy bit her lip then, casting her eyes toward the floor.
“It was really the only thing I liked about my father’s club.That and riding, of course.”He hadn’t meant for that to sound so dirty, but looking at Joy and admitting it made his love for mounting both motorcycles and the women who hung around them apparent.
Thankfully, Joy didn’t give him shit for speaking the truth.
“What am I going to do?”She slumped against the kitchen counter then.“I have nothing to offer.No money.No experience.How can I change the future for Arden and me?”
“You don’t need to worry about that.”Walker could at least give her this.“We’ll take care of you.Bothof you.”
He expected her to be relieved, maybe even a little happy about the turn of events.
Nope, not Joy.She surprised him as always, making him wonder if he’d ever have a clue when it came to her and what she really needed.
“No.Hell no.”Joy shook her head.“I’m not my mother.I won’t be that kind of example for Arden.I can’t be bought or kept.I’m my own woman and I’ll make my own way.Somehow.I owe it tomydaughter.”
She probably didn’t mean to trample Walker’s own insecurities, but something about her refusal to admit what they all knew triggered him.
“Say it, Joy.Be honest.Whose baby is she?”Walker asked, unable to stand the elephant in the room another moment.
He should have known better than to challenge her when she was pissed.She practically spat, “Maybe she’s Clive’s.”
Walker didn’t want to believe that was possible.Joy had been backed into a corner and was using whatever teeth she had to launch some sort of attack against him.And yet, the very idea stung him so badly he thought he might crash to the floor.He stumbled backward.The distance between them allowed him to see Dane’s face and the shock and dread written in the creases there as he peered at the delicate new life in his arms.
They would love Arden because she was Joy’s.But in that moment, Walker realized that both he and Dane had already also fallen in love with the idea that the baby could be theirs.
If Joy bolted and took Arden with her, they would lose everything.
He had to do everything in his power to keep the pair of them close.
And that made him just like his father.
Fuck my life.