If the man was loyal to his club, loyal to his brotherhood, enough to get that tattoo, then she had no doubt he could be loyal to her.
That would be a requirement for her to be his.
Her life would need to remain steady to raise her daughter. She had the next nine years to make up for the last nine before Maya would be old enough to travel her own path.
Husky laughter escaped her as he twisted and trapped her beneath him. He dragged his rough, wiry beard across her cheek before taking her mouth. When he was done with it, he drilled his elbows into the mattress and went nose to nose with her.
“These past two days have shown me you got a little freak inside you, baby. You just need to ask her to come out to play.”
She shook her head. “You need to ask her.”
Dodge fisted her hair in both hands and pulled her head back far enough to arch her throat. He dragged his lips along her pounding pulse and then dipped his tongue in the hollow. “Ain’t gonna ask, baby, gonna demand it. You ready for that?”
Was she?
He shifted enough to nip one breast before moving to do the same to the other. He knew how to give her just enough pain to enhance the pleasure.
He was opening up a whole new world for her. One that was completely unexpected. One she looked forward to expanding.
Everything wrong in her world was slowly being righted.
Now, they just needed to get Maya.
Then life would be one step closer to perfect.
They brought Deacon along to drive the rented cage they’d use to haul Syn and Maya back to Pennsylvania. They removed the rear license plate from the new crematorium van and slapped on an old, expired plate from the junkyard behind Dutch’s Garage.
They left their cuts at home. They also left their guns there, too, since crossing two state lines with them wasn’t smart. Instead, they all strapped on knives in case they needed them.
During the long drive south, Dodge ordered Syn to stay in the cage no matter fucking what. Unless she was told otherwise. He told Deacon to make sure she listened. She was there only to comfort Maya after everything went down. To assure her daughter she was safe.
And, of course, to reunite with her.
Syn was not to get involved. She was not to witness anything else that happened. His brothers all agreed with him on those points. Thank fuck.
Deacon parked the rented cage in the parking lot of a strip mall a mile away and was to wait there until they got word that Dodge, Sig and Shade had dealt with Sam Danzig and were en route to Syn’s adoptive parents’ home.
The bounty hunter was to enter the neighborhood from a different direction and park the cage down the block from the target house. They didn’t want the two vehicles connected in any way by any witnesses.
It would make for a cleaner getaway.
Shade insisted he should enter the first location by himself so he could do what he did best and leave behind no evidence but a body.
It would be quick and quiet.
However, that wasn’t what Sig or Dodge wanted.
It took some convincing but eventually Shade relented. Even though, reluctantly.
Deacon also reminded them that they needed to grab DNA of Danzig before they turned him to ash. For insurance purposes, like Reese had said.
Hopefully they would never need it. But better to have it than not even if it never saw the light of day.
On the ride from the parking lot to Sam Danzig’s house, they went back and forth over killing the bastard right there and hauling his ass home to Manning Grove to dispose of it or keeping him alive and making him pay before putting him out of his misery.
The second was a lot riskier than the first.
But, for fuck’s sake, it would also be a hell of a lot more satisfying.
Dodge recognized the look on Sig’s face, and in his eyes, as he advocated for the second. Syn’s brother ignored Shade when he kept pushing for the first.
Dodge was torn. He just wanted to take care of business and get them all the fuck out of there without getting caught. He also wanted Maya safe.
That was his main goal. But vengeance pulled at him, too.
Making Sam, and even Syn’s adoptive parents, suffer the very deserved consequences for their actions. Sam for what he did to Syn. Her “parents” for letting it happen, then taking a bad situation and making it worse.
Fuck them all. They all needed to pay.
No matter what, he needed to keep his shit together. And both Shade and Dodge needed to keep a handle on Sig.
Out of the four of them, he was the loose thread that could totally unravel and fuck up the whole mission.