~ ~ ~
I knew I had to stop running away from Winter. But it seemed each time she dropped something on me, I was pissed enough that I had to leave. I had to get away from her for a second to catch my breath. To convince myself none of this shit was her fault.
Christ, I had been told to come and protect her.
Yet there was a picture of her on Endo’s lap?
It seemed that Aldo was getting more and more tied into this fucking mess. And I was smack dab in the middle of it and had no clue what was happening, what had happened, or what was going to happen.
I walked to the wall I had punched already.
Fight. Do it. Fucking fight, man. That’s what you’re meant to do. Not to fall for some woman. Not to care about how you fuck her. Not to feel a little guilty for fucking her in the bathroom… because you want to take her to her bed and taste her fucking body. No. You punch the wall. You leave this house. You find someone to fight. A real fight.
I cocked my fist back. It was my only sense of relief. The pain I’d feel in my knuckles, hand, wrist, and arm would mask the pain in my heart. And that’s what it all was right now. Pain in my damn heart.
“That won’t fix anything.”
My fist shook. Then I lowered it. “You think I don’t know that?”
“Tripp, why are you so angry?”
“Endo. He was the one shot at the fight.” I looked over my shoulder. “The fight I lost. He’s in a coma right now.”
Winter touched her mouth. “Holy shit.”
I turned and walked toward Winter. She looked terrified. But I couldn’t let her win this battle. No fucking way her emotions were going to overpower mine.
“Endo is Aldo’s son,” I said. “Aldo and his family control everything. Aldo sent me here to protect you. Skull X kills Rocky. Stoney tries to set you up, wanting Aldo to send more people down here to help. What the hell does it all mean, Winter? What else do you fucking know?”
She shook her head and backed up until she bumped into the doorway to the bedroom. She stumbled and I grabbed for her arm to keep her from hitting the floor. I pulled her toward me. Her hair fell in front of her face. I could see her blue eyes burning at me.
Slowly, I ran my fingers into her hair and pushed it out of her face. I cupped her cheek and started to pull her closer. My mouth ached for her. My body demanded I have her.
“You have to tell me everything,” I whispered. “Now or never. I’m sorry if you’ve never been able to trust anyone in your life. You can trust me. You have to trust me, darling. I don’t think we’re safe. I don’t think I was sent here to actually protect you. Something else is going on.”
“Okay,” Winter said. “Okay. Just…”
“Tell me how you know Endo.”
She just stared at me for a few seconds. Usually when life was going to fuck me over or knock me down I didn’t see it coming. Like the first time one of my mother’s boyfriends used me as a punching bag. Or the first time I had to really fight and defend myself. Even the fight I lost that put me in this position. My head was turned and I got rocked.
Hell, meeting Winter was taking its toll on me.
But looking at her now, I knew it wasn’t going to be anything good.
“Winter,” I said. “We’re wasting time. Tell me everything you know about Endo. If you don’t, I’m gone. I’m going to get in my car and just go. For good.”
“You said you wouldn’t leave,” Winter whispered.
“How can I stay if I don’t know why I’m here?”
Winter slipped away from me. She backed up to the bed and sat down.
And the truth poured from her mouth.
18.
(Winter)
I’d never forget the look on his face when he found the picture of Endo. The anger that washed over him. How badly he wanted to punch the wall, but I saved him from it. If anything, he should have punched me. But he wouldn’t do that. Tripp was too good of a man. A real man. No matter what he said and no matter how he tried to play his life off, deep down, Tripp was a good person.
I felt it when he looked at me. When he touched me. When he kissed me. I felt it when he thrust his perfect cock inside me. Most of all, I felt it when he held my hand.
I sucked in a breath and knew it was no time to cry.
“He used to come in where I worked,” I said. “I met him before I met the Red Aces.”
“Were they friends?” Tripp asked.
“Close enough. I mean, Stoney called your boss for help, right?”
“True.”
“So they’ve had ties,” I said. “At first, it was kind of neat. I don’t know. I mean, there were guys in really nice suits with a lot of money. Five dollar bills were suddenly fifties. You know?”
Tripp nodded. He folded his arms and leaned against the doorway. Like he was keeping himself guarded, halfway out of the room. I hated it. It hurt to see.
“There was a group of them. I don’t remember all their names. Mostly like Bobby, Richie, Petey, little Jack.”
“Aldo?” Tripp asked.
“No. I’m not sure I remember that name. Well, Stoney had said it before. But he never came into the club.”
“Just Endo then,” Tripp whispered.
“Yeah. One night after closing, I went outside and Endo was waiting for me. He had a car. He had money. He had a nice smile. It wasn’t uncommon for any of us to do it, okay? I mean, if the guy was rich and wanted a night, it was easy money. Sometimes we fantasized about someone showing up and saving us from the life. Like in the movies and stuff. But it never happened.”
“You didn’t fall in love and marry Endo?”
“No. Not that Endo was a bad person. He was just busy and violent. But he never raised a hand though, no. He had other people do it. I mean if someone touched me, they were taken out back and beat up. But with the Red Aces, it was all good. They were all friends. They sat together, laughed together, but any conversations were handled elsewhere. To me, I didn’t get involved. Maybe I should have, Tripp. Maybe I should have poked around.”
“No,” Tripp said. “You would have been killed. Easily.”
“I know. Endo warned me of that a few times. That’s part of the reason I… well, I was with him, I guess. I wasn’t supposed to be anywhere else. It got scary, Tripp. It really did.”
“Scary how?”
“Endo would get really drunk and have people hurt and killed. For fun. He would force me to watch one of his guys shoot someone. I’d never seen that stuff before.”
“Christ. You shouldn’t have seen it then.”
“Well, that’s why Rocky seemed so… inviting.”
“You left Endo for Rocky.”
“Something like that.”
“Meaning?” Tripp asked.
This was it. It was brewing inside me. Something I hadn’t talked about in a long time. Something that would open gates inside me that I swore would be shut forever. Part of me would rather die than talk about it.
“Endo and I had to end,” I whispered. “There was a problem. A situation. Rocky was able to swing in and save me. Endo kind of left me for dead at the end of it all. Not that I could blame him, Tripp.”
“I hate that guy,” Tripp said. “He always lived off his father’s presence and cash. He never did anything himself. It was always handed to him. It didn’t surprise me he was shot. I just wanted to find out who and help Aldo.” Tripp shook his head. “Sorry. Keep talking, darling.”
My body tingled. The way his voice said darling turned me on. I needed that feeling, because I was getting cold on the inside. It hurt. I hated this shit.
“Rocky took me away from Endo,” I said. “And he took me away from the life. From everything that happened to me. From the notion that I had to take my clothes off to pay my bills. Plus, when I was with Endo or Rocky, I didn’t have bills. Survival seemed so easy. I wasn't happy. I was actually really depressed. After everything that had happened.”
“Which was wh
at? You were with Endo at one point. How does it all make sense now?”
I looked at Tripp and instead of talking, I pointed to box of pictures. “There’s a picture on the bottom that will make more sense to you.”
“Do I want to see it?”
“It’s not me naked. It’s the truth. Of what happened. Of what I did.”
Tripp stepped into the room and I shot up from the bed. I couldn’t believe I was trying to block him now. But I was scared. Scared he’d get mad at me and then abandon me.
“You have to know what it was like for me…”
“It’s okay,” Tripp said. “Trust me.”
“I care about you. I like you. I’m…”
I’m falling for you. You’re supposed to protect me. Now you’ll know my darkest secret.
Tripp crouched down and dumped the rest of the pictures out. My plan had been to have him find the picture and figure it out himself. He was going to do that anyway now, but there was more tension behind it.
Tripp grabbed the last picture and flipped it around.
Slowly, he stood up.
I saw the look in his eyes. The shock on his face.
Tripp then looked at me. “Winter…”
I nodded.
“You’re pregnant in this picture.”
19.
(Tripp)
I couldn’t process it.
The picture was of Winter pregnant. Her hand over her shirt, touching her round belly. Her face was bright, radiant, a little pudgy in her cheeks. She looked beautiful. Even thinking something like that jarred me a little.
I dropped the picture.
“What happened?” I whispered.
“Endo.”
“No.”
Winter nodded. “Yeah.”
“You had a baby with Endo. That’s what you’ve been hiding from me?”
“Not hiding,” Winter said. “I’m telling you now. You have no idea how bad it hurts me.”
“Why?”
Winter’s eyes filled with tears. “Does it look like I have a kid with me now?”
I swallowed hard. “Endo…”
“No.”
“Oh, shit,” I said. “You…”
“No,” Winter said again. “I gave her up.”
“You gave her up?” I asked.
“Yes. Endo told me he couldn’t have a baby like that. With someone like me. I wasn’t part of his family and I wasn’t the right blood.”
“Christ,” I said. “They have beliefs about marriage, family, keeping their bloodline pure.”
“Yeah. I’m not pure. I don’t even know where the hell my ancestors came from. Never thought it would matter so much.”
“So you let him tell you what to do?”
“What fucking choice did I have?” Winter yelled. “Look at my life. I couldn’t fucking have a baby and take care of it. And Endo gave me no choice. Either I did it or he had me killed.”
“No way.”
“Yes. And if he killed me, he would have taken the baby anyway.”
I touched my forehead, ran a hand through my hair. It was getting worse by the second. More confusing. It was too much to take in at once. I thought I was coming here to keep some woman alive. Yeah, maybe I’d get into a fight or two. Maybe take a bullet or something.
But all this?
“Tripp,” Winter said. “Please don’t leave me.”
I moved at Winter. My hands touched her waist. I felt her hips. Those beautiful and natural curves of her hips. My thumbs pressed against her stomach, over her shirt. Whatever she had done after having a baby had worked wonders. I had no idea that she had ever been pregnant.
“I was terrified,” she said. “I didn’t know what to do. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. To give up my baby like that. I was able to pick who got her and I even picked her name.”
“Your daughter.”
“Autumn.”
“That’s what you named her?”
“Yes. I had her on the first day of fall. I went into labor in the middle of the night. But it wasn’t anything pleasant. I didn’t go to a hospital. I was taken in a car to a place. Like a building. It was all set up by Endo. It all had to be secret. The doctor there was paid a lot of money to keep it all silent.”
“Jesus Christ,” I said. “You gave birth in a building?”
“Yeah. I was fine. The baby was healthy. The woman who took her was there. She was a cleaned up woman. She had a real job, a real life. Endo worked with her to set it all up and make it legit. Whatever power he had, it was meant to work. I held Autumn for a minute and then she was gone. Just… like… that…”
Winter put her head to my chest and started to cry.
Yeah, I had about million more questions for her, but I couldn’t pressure her right now. What a thing to carry in life. To have a child and have it taken away. Especially by someone like Endo. Endo and Aldo were connected to the Red Aces MC. Endo slept with Winter, got her pregnant, and then stole all that from her. Because she wasn’t the right bloodline. I had heard stories before of people having children outside the bloodline and it wasn’t pretty. People were killed. People disappeared.
It was a life I didn’t understand. It was about a family that I never knew and would never know. My family was of Irish descent anyway. I couldn’t track them down and didn’t really give a shit to do so. For all I knew, my family were a bunch of drunk Irishmen fighting anyone who wanted to throw a punch. That was fine by me.
I held Winter tight as she wept. Her hands slid up to my neck, her nails digging hard into my skin.
“I never meant it,” she said. “I screwed up with my pills and it happened. Endo hated me for it. Hated me. He thought I did everything on purpose, to trick him into getting me pregnant. That’s what he said to me over and over. He drank a lot. He got more violent. I think that’s when and why Rocky stepped in. He became a friend to Endo.”
“And now Rocky’s dead,” I said. “And Endo was supposed to die. He’s in a hospital bed in a coma.”
Winter looked up at me. I hated to think it but her eyes looked even prettier when she cried. The wetness of her tears made the blue color brighter.
I was falling for her, and hard.
I kissed her forehead. “Thank you for telling me this.”
“It’s the darkest secret I’ve got. All I can hope for is that Autumn is okay. Living a good life. A happy life somewhere.”
“You don’t know where she is?”
“No idea,” Winter said. “That was how it was meant to go. After it all happened, Endo disappeared. He was done with me. Rocky kind of picked up the pieces. He took me in and took me away from that life. He brought me here and let me stay. I worked at the cafe when I wanted and slowly came back to life. I don’t know, Tripp. It was hard to do. I ran. I exercised. I did anything to try and erase it all. It’s impossible to do that. Because Rocky didn’t wait long to show his true colors. The whole picture thing… it was his way of being jealous. He was always angry that other men had seen my boobs. So he wanted pictures like it would erase my past. I don’t know.”
“Did he ever hurt you?” I asked.
Why would you ask that, Tripp? What good can come of the answer?
“Of course he did,” Winter said. “But all I knew was that when I came to the Red Aces MC, I felt protected. Safe. Up until the last few months. Everyone seemed on edge. Rocky and Stoney argued a lot. They got into a couple fist fights even. I think Rocky wanted to push at Skull X for some reason. Stoney tried to stop him. And, well, look how it turned out.”
I couldn't stop putting the pieces together. I knew nothing of this shit. Trying to figure out murder, betrayal, all that stuff. I was a fighter. When I wasn’t fighting, I was fucking. When I wasn’t fighting or fucking, I was having a few drinks and waiting to fall asleep.
But Aldo had sent me here for a reason and it wasn’t protection.
“Is there anything else?” I asked.
“That’s everythin
g,” Winter said. “I had no idea who your boss was. Or that it was all connected.”
“I know, darling. I know. There’s something going on. There’s…”
And then it hit me. Oh, man, it fucking hit me.
I stepped back, putting Winter at arms length. Her blue eyes tore through the last few shreds of my heart. There was no turning away. There was no turning back either.
“Tripp, what is it?”
“I know what this is now,” I said. “I know what’s happening.”
“What?” Winter asked.
“This has nothing to do with you,” I said. “I wasn’t sent here to protect you. It’s about her… shit, darling, they want your kid.”