Page 19 of Devil’s Torture

“If you want to take a legal route, we can help,” Lucifer makes the offer, but he looks almost uncomfortable as he does.

The bark of laughter that comes out of me is almost cruel. “Legal route? I want Bexley to talk to me again. If I go to her with demands for legal shit, she’ll run and never look back.”

Lucifer grimaces and nods slowly. “Fair. Whatever you need, we’re here for you.”

I nod once and then I turn back toward the clubhouse door.

Hacker calls out, “I’ll dig through everything to make sure I didn’t miss something. I should have cast a wider net, brother. I’m sorry.”

I don’t look back at him, but I do stop and force my shoulders to relax slightly.

This wasn’t how I pictured coming home. I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting, but this, all of it, never once crossed my mind as being a possibility.

I was so fucking stupid.

“Where are you going?” Lucifer asks the question as if he doesn’t already know the answer.

“I’m going to go and keep an eye on my girls,” I throw the words over my shoulder and stride out of the clubhouse.

I still don’t have a plan. But I know I have to keep showing up.

Even that means I’ll be doing what some might consider stalking. I’m going with protective.

And frightened.

Because the thought of losing both of them, permanently, terrifies me. It’s been ten years, but I left my heart in New Orleans even though I wasn’t here. Now I’m back and the only future worth having includes Bexley and Dawn.

I just need to get them to see it too.

CHAPTER 5

BEXLEY

I’m curled up on the couch while reading something on my phone, but I’m not really looking at the words. It’s impossible to concentrate considering I watched the moment Rune found out about his daughter, and it’s replaying in my mind on a loop.

The devastation on his face gutted me. Even thinking about it now, it makes me feel a little sick. That was a look I never imagined seeing on him.

I’ve been on autopilot ever since. All through dinner. All through pretending like a huge fucking biker shaped elephant hasn’t been in the house with us just roaming around without a care in the world.

Dawn sits down next to me, and I look at her immediately, losing all pretense that I’m actually reading. Hell, my phone has gone dark in my hand and I didn’t even notice.

“Are you reading?” She asks it like she already knows the answer; she probably does.

“No, I was pretending to read.”

“It was a very convincing performance,” there’s amusement in her voice, but I can hear the heaviness underneath it.

I make a humming sound before saying the thing that needs to be said. “So,” I hold the word out and grimace when she looks at me, “you met your dad today.”

“Yeah,” Dawn breathes out.

“How are you feeling?”

She burrows deeper into the couch and peeks up at me while shrugging. “I’m not sure. I think the strangest part is that I feel like I know him, but he just found out about me today.” Her eyebrows pull together. “I feel bad about him not knowing.”

“I feel bad about it too,” I murmur. Guilt sits heavy in my gut. “I could have made more of an effort.” The sigh that comes out of me is belabored. “I should have.”

“No,” Dawn whispers, her hand reaches for mine and finds it easily, “you don’t need to do that whole regret thing. I don’t think you did it to hurt anyone and you’ve always been honest with me about what happened. You never talked about him with hate.”