Reclaimed (Angel's Halo MC 4)

“But I did, baby. If it hadn’t been me, you would have had any number of…unsavory characters hunting you down and wanting payment for taking out that bastard. I couldn’t let that happen, Flick. I couldn’t put you in that kind of danger.”

“Such concern.” She pursed her lips together. “Too bad I know you’re full of shit. You don’t care what happens to me, Jet. You never did. So don’t play that game with me now. Just tell me what you want and I’ll get it for you, but you leave Emmie out of this. Or I swear I’ll make your life pure hell.”

“Hell ain’t so bad, Flick. I’ve been there for so long that I’m used to it.” I let go of her hand and crossed my arms over my chest. “The only thing I want is you. You’re going to come home with me. Tonight. So go get your stuff and let’s go.”

Her eyes widened. “No.”

“Yes. Now.”

“No. I’m not going back with you. I can’t, Jet. I don’t belong there anymore. I’ve started over, I’m happy here. Emmie and her family have given me a second chance at a life I didn’t think I could continue to live through. This job, this family—they saved me. I’m not just going to walk out on them.” I saw the tears before the first one even spilled down her cheek. The pain I heard in her voice and the sight of that one fucking tear gutted me like nothing else could. “I can’t, Jet. I just can’t.”

“Why?” I demanded, hurting for her—with her. “Why can’t you come home? Just tell me that, Flick. I need to know why you can’t, because I don’t understand.”

Two more tears fell, making her lashes wet and her eyes shine brighter in the glow of the streetlight. “Because there are too many bad memories. Everywhere I turn I’ll be reminded of what happened. Of why it happened.” She wiped angrily at the tears as they fell faster. “Besides, no one needs me there. Not you, or Raven. Not even my own mother. But I’m needed here, Jet. Emmie and Mia and Jagger? They need me.”

If I could bring Westcliffe back from the dead I would, just so I could kill him all over again. The night he’d attacked Flick he’d taken more from me than just my kid that had been growing safely in Flick’s belly. He had robbed me of Flick too, knowing that she was my only weakness. Knowing that she was the one thing I would have gladly destroyed the world to protect.

“You’re wrong, Flick,” I got out in a choked voice. “You’re so wrong, sweetheart. Raven needs you. She’s been a mess ever since you left. She needs you. I. Need. You.” Another disbelieving lift of her brows had me rushing on. “Maybe you don’t believe that right now, but I’m going to prove it to you, baby. So come home with me and give me the chance to do that. Please.”

I’d never begged anyone in my life until right then. But this was fucking important. I was trying to get my world back. If Flick wanted me on my knees I’d do it, if she would just give me the chance to show her what I’d been too much of a pussy to do in the past.

That I loved her.

“I can’t,” she said again. Her gaze lingered on me as we both stood there in a tense silence—me trying to figure out how to get her back, and her seeming to find the will to walk away. “Bye, Jet.”

She turned to leave.

Fuck this shit.

“I wasn’t kidding, Felicity,” I bit out and she froze. I didn’t want to use threats, but she wasn’t leaving me much choice. I would be the ruthless bastard she knew me to be if that was what it took to get what I wanted. “If you take one more step I’ll be shouting what I did to the world. I don’t give a fuck if it causes me to have to go back to prison. It’s a risk I’m willing to take. But are you? Will your boss? How quick do you think those Feds investigating that kid’s attempted kidnapping will jump at the chance to arrest a celebrity like Emmie Armstrong on the charges of murder-for-hire?”

I watched as her shoulders slumped and then she bowed her head. She stood like that for nearly a full minute before lifting her head and turning to face me. There was pure hatred in her eyes now. “You win, Jet. I’ll go with you.”

Chapter Four

Felicity

If I thought Jet Hannigan couldn’t ever break my heart any more than he already had, I’d been wrong. Maybe more wrong than I’d ever been. My heart was shattered and I was sure that for the first time in my life I completely, irrevocably hated him.

It wasn’t like I didn’t know how ruthless Jet was. He’d do anything to get things to fall into place like he wanted them to. I’d seen it my whole life. He’d been president of the Angel’s Halo MC too long, since getting his way was a given in that kind of powerful position. Maybe I didn’t know the how, or the what, or even the who, but I did know that Jet had connections that he’d used without so much as a flicker of conscious to make sure that what he needed done was accomplished. He was an outlaw, for fuck’s sake.

At first I’d thought he wouldn’t use what I’d asked of him against me, that he might still care about me—a little. Maybe not as the woman who had warmed his bed for so many months, maybe not even as the woman who had nearly given him a son. But at least as a friend, as someone he still respected—a little.

I should have known better, though.

Now as I quietly moved around the bus, deciding on what I could take with me, I was mentally cursing myself for thinking otherwise. I was blinded by a haze of red anger and heart-broken tears. I didn’t want to leave Emmie and the little family I’d found for myself, the woman who had become just as much a sister to me as I’d always thought of Raven being. But I knew I couldn’t chance Jet running his mouth to anyone who would listen to him and Emmie getting into trouble for something I’d done.

A tiny sigh had me glancing down into the crib where Jagger was sleeping peacefully. A small smile lifted at the corners of the adorable little baby’s lips, as if he were having good dreams, and my heart broke a little more. This little boy had been my true saving grace. Getting to care for him had healed the gaping wound that had still lingered after Westcliffe’s beating. Getting to hold him, feed him, read to him, and even bathe him every night had finally given me the peace to let go of the pain of not getting to hold my own little guy.

I wiped away my tears before stroking a finger down Jagger’s baby-soft cheek. He let out another little sigh and his grin grew bigger. “Bye, sweet guy.”

A sob threatened to escape me and I quickly swallowed it before moving back into the living room. I wiped away the last of my tears, not wanting to go back outside, where I’d left Jet, with the evidence of my pain on my face. It wasn’t like he would care anyway, but I didn’t want to show him how much he could still break me.

I left a note for Emmie on the kitchenette table and grabbed the small bag I’d packed. It only held a few changes of clothes and the things my heart ached to leave behind. I couldn’t take everything with me, not on the back of Jet’s bike. Maybe Emmie would send me the rest. Or I could come back.

Yeah, maybe I could come back. When Jet got bored with having me around, when I became nothing more than a passing thought to him again. It was sure to happen. It always did.

Stepping down off the bus, I gave a nod to the two men still standing by the door. Their eyes had been on the huge biker standing several feet away. As I started toward Jet, one of the guards caught my wri