Total pages in book: 40
Estimated words: 36646 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 183(@200wpm)___ 147(@250wpm)___ 122(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36646 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 183(@200wpm)___ 147(@250wpm)___ 122(@300wpm)
“I’d expect nothing less. Bring Liam back here. Don’t tell anyone I’m here. Again, for everyone’s safety.”
“This is horseshit, Taz.” Finally, Mama pushed past me. If I thought she was angry, I’d have been dead wrong. Mama was fucking furious. “You know it as well as I do.”
“I do. Doesn’t change my decision.”
Without another word, Mama spun on her heel and went back to her bike. I backed away from Taz, not wanting to turn my back on the other man until Mama was safely away.
I took a tentative step toward Taz, looking at him hard and holding his gaze. I needed to know if we were being observed. If the conversation was private.
Taz nodded his head slowly before muttering softly. “Ask. Keep it down and don’t move your mouth much.”
So, observed, but not with a listening device. “They want Mama?”
“Yep.”
“They know where she is?”
“No.”
Fuck. I needed more, but how to ask without giving anything away…
Taz shook his head. “They don’t know what she looks like since she left the service. Glad she had her hair up when you guys came here or they might have figured she was here. I have them looking for her in Nam. They think she’s with an MC called Iron Tzars. Not a club that’s off-limits to them, but one they leave alone.”
“Tzars reached out to me when I first got out of the service, but I declined.”
Taz nodded. “You’d be the kind of person they’d want.”
“Were Mama and I on the plane together intentionally?”
He shrugged. “Might have thrown you together to see what happened, but I didn’t set up the airport thing. That was a happy coincidence.”
“Don’t believe in them.” The hair in the back of my neck was standing up now. “Don’t like being manipulated either.”
“You weren’t. At least, not wholly. I wanted you with her, but I never dreamed she wouldn’t kill you.”
“You didn’t know where I was going.”
“Knew you were headed in the same general direction as Mama. Knew enough to know you were the only person who could pull off this job.”
“What fuckin’ job?” I was growing angrier by the second. In the years I’d been with Jo, I’d grown to love the woman, prickly personality and all. I wasn’t sure I could take it if this was all some kind of setup. I thought she loved me too, but she wasn’t a very demonstrative person.
“The job of keepin’ Jo safe and away from… them.”
“Why me?”
“Because I knew you’d be protective without reining her in. You can’t force her to your will, and you’d never try. Knew you’d let her make the decision, then deal with the fallout.”
“Why does she need protecting?”
“They want her, Pops.” Taz dropped his voice even lower, almost to a whisper. “She’ll never be their puppet and they’d kill her. She’s one of the very few people they believe can achieve their goal, whatever it is. Not only is she smart and cunning, she can get into places others can’t. You’ve seen the connections she has. The people she knows. By themselves, those people might not be much, but each of them has skills and credentials that make them dangerous to someone willing to put them all together. They want those connections.”
Again, we stared each other down. I got that he couldn’t elaborate. Had probably said more than he should as it was.
I gave him a slow nod. “What do I need to do?” Because there was no way I was not going to protect Mama, no matter what.
“Disappear. Stay with the club if you want but stay under the radar. Disappear Jo and Mike and become Mama and Pops.”
I thought about that until I heard the rumble of Mama’s bike in the distance. She was back with the boy. “OK.” I’d figure it out. It would be tricky, but I had an idea. Now, if only the man I needed would meet up with me.
The boy rode behind Mama. He had a backpack on his shoulders, his arms wound tightly around her middle, and a big smile on his face. The second Mama stopped the bike, the kid was off and running to his father. “Dad!”
“Hey, sport.” Taz smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. Liam, already the most observant and intelligent kid I’d ever met, noticed.
He slowed just before he was close enough for Taz to reach out and grab him, actually taking a couple steps backward. “Dad?”
“It’s OK, Liam. Remember I told you I’d be back and what would happen?”
“Yeah?” The kid looked wary.
“It’s time.”
Father and son seemed to communicate silently before Liam finally nodded, putting his shoulders back proudly. “All right. I’m ready.”
“You don’t have to go if you really don’t want to,” Mama said before Taz could reach for the boy. “You can stay with me and Pops.”
Liam gave her a look so adult it gave me a pang in my chest. No kid his age should have that look. Like he was preparing for battle and had no doubt in his mind he was up for the task. And he knew it was to the death. “Yes I do, Mama. I have to go.”