“Good I guess.”
“Good you guess?” he repeats, reminding me of Madison repeating shit back to me. “You told a woman that the man running against her is an asshole with no limits and call that good?”
“She’s tough and said she could take care of herself,” I tell him.
“Nuh-uh,” Conrad says with a shake of his head. Dropping his knife beside the plates, he turns to face me. “She can’t handle Bailey by herself.”
“Well, what can I do? She didn’t want anything to do with me.”
My brother’s brow furrows. “Why does it sound like you tried to ask her out instead of warn her she could have trouble coming for her?”
“I guess I tried to do both.”
“Jesus, Cannon!” he exclaims. “For once can you think with your head and not your dick?”
“I always think with my dick, so what does it matter? He hasn’t fucked me over yet.”
“Think about this for a second, please,” Conrad starts.
“Okay, what?”
“If you don’t do what the asshole wants, what do you think he’s going to do?”
“Have you arrested,” I answer.
“Yes, and what else?”
“Keep being a dick?”
“Of course. Which means what for Madison Monroe…”
“I don’t know. Just tell me where you’re going with all of this,” I say in annoyance, my hands on my hips because I honestly don’t know what he’s getting at.
“If you don’t do what Bailey wants, then he’ll find someone else who will!”
“Oh,” I mutter. “But if Reece can’t find any dirt on her, then no one else will be able to either.”
“Probably not; but for the right price, I’m sure the fucker can find someone else to threaten her.”
“Shit,” I mutter in understanding, rubbing at my head. If Bailey finds out I won’t do his dirty work, I have no doubt that he’ll just find someone else to do it either by paying them or manipulating them. “What should I do?” I ask Conrad.
“You need to keep an eye on her, watch her back,” he says.
“I don’t think she wants me anywhere near her back,” I admit.
“Then she doesn’t have to see you. The point is, someone needs to watch out for her.”
“Why does it have to be me?”
“It’s not like you’ve got a job anymore, right?”
I wince at the reminder. “The dealership is mostly cleared out. Now we just have to wait for Winston and the guys to fix up some bikes to sell at a discount.”
“So, what the hell are you still doing here?”
“You think I need to watch her all day and night? When will I ever get to fucking sleep?” I grumble.
“You could bring in the prospects if Roman doesn’t have any other jobs for them. But if I had to bet, Bailey will move on the woman soon and come at her hard to try and get it over with. The prospects are still too green. I’m not sure if both of them together could handle that.”
“Okay. You’ve made your point,” I grumble before I reach over and snag one of his sandwiches. I don’t even know what it is until I take a bite. Ham, yum.
“That was for me and Hannah,” Conrad mutters.
“Make another. I’ve got to go.”
“Do you want me to come with you?” he asks while getting out two more pieces of bread. I know he’s only offering out of decency and doesn’t really want to come. He would hate leaving Hannah.
“No.” I answer between bites. “I told you I would handle this mess since you and Hannah have enough to deal with. It’s why I tried to talk to you alone earlier instead of talking about shit that might stress her out.”
“She can handle it. And I appreciate you doing this for us,” he says. “You will take care of her and the baby if I’m not here, won’t you?”
I stop eating long enough to stab my fingers through my hair and then around to that itchy, burning feeling on my neck. Now I’ve lost my appetite. Tossing the remaining bites of the sandwich away, I blow out a breath and tell him, “You know I will.”
“Good. I get that you aren’t ready to be a father and this is all my fault for attacking Bailey, but believe me, I had a good reason.”
“I know you did,” I reply since my brother is always calm and cool. It must have been something really fucking bad to set him off.
Wiping the breadcrumbs off on a dish towel, he turns to me and says, “Hannah was pregnant before, years ago.”
“What happened?” I ask.
“She was only sixteen. But she confessed everything to her parents as soon as she found out. She had decided to have the baby, and they knew that. Then, that asshole took her to the doctor and gave her pills to terminate it without telling her what the pills were going to do.”
“Fuck,” I mutter. That’s the lowest of the low for anyone to go, much less a father. “He’s a sick bastard.”
“What he did on its own is fucked up,” Conrad adds. “But you didn’t see Hannah three months ago, Cannon. She was…he broke her. It’s a miracle she didn’t end up dead or worse…”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“Maybe you never needed to know either,” Conrad tells me. “But if I get arrested and locked up, I want you to understand why, that it wasn’t just a temporary lapse in judgment. Every punch was intended to hurt him even if it was only a millionth of the pain he caused her.”
“I understand,” I assure him. “And I’ll take care of her like she was mine.”
“Don’t go that fucking far,” Conrad says with a grin.
“Fine, I’ll treat her like…a sister. That better?”
“Yeah, it is. Thank you,” he says, and then he gives me a hug for the first time in…shit, I don’t even know if we’ve ever hugged each other before.
Chapter Six
Cannon
There are only five cars in the parking lot at the Savage Kings’ bar and clubhouse, and not a single bike because of the freezing cold. Usually
