Shades (Evil Dead MC 3)
“I think now’s the perfect time for you to laugh.”
She tried to hold back a grin.
“What did he say?”
“Said he was in prison and didn’t know my mom had died. They never told him. He told me he figured she didn’t want anything more to do with him after he was sent up for so long. He said he tried to find her when he got out.”
“Do you believe him?”
She shrugged. “Maybe. I just wished he’d tried harder, you know?”
Ghost wrapped his arm around her and pulled her up against him. “It’s too late for him to have a relationship with that little girl that you were, but it doesn’t mean you can’t have some kind of relationship with him now.”
She nodded. “I suppose. It’s just…”
“What?”
“It’s hard to let go of that little girl…for so long she wanted her dad. Waited for him to come for her.”
“That little girl is gone, sweetheart. She grew up into a strong, beautiful woman. A woman who finally found the father she wanted for so long.”
She nodded.
“Give him a chance. He might surprise you.”
“He’s already trying to control me.”
Ghost huffed out a breath. “Come on, darlin’, now that’s gotta come as no surprise.”
****
Undertaker stared at the door that Shades had just left through. Then he leaned back in his chair. “He doesn’t back down. I’ll give him that.”
Mooch looked over at Undertaker and grinned. “He’s every bit the stubborn hard-headed brother you ever were.”
Undertaker let out a grunt. “Yeah, and where’d that get me? Doin’ ten to fifteen with no parole. That’s not the life I want for my daughter.”
“What that got you was Chapter President,” Mooch corrected.
Undertaker looked down at his desk, his eyes taking on that vacant quality of a man lost in his past. “And look at all I lost along the way.”
“Past is done and buried. Future’s what counts.”
>
Undertaker looked up at his VP and nodded. “That’s what I’m worried about. Her future.”
Mooch straightened. “That’s a worry for another night. Come on, old man. You’ve got a daughter to introduce to the club.”
A smile pulled at Undertaker’s mouth. “I do, don’t I?”
****
Shades came down the stairs and moved straight to Skylar’s side. He stood behind her barstool, one hand coming down on her hip, the other resting on the bar, caging her in. He signaled the prospect behind the bar for a beer and kissed the side of her neck, whispering in her ear, “You all right, baby?”
She nodded. “You?”
“Will be when we get out of here.”