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Timber walked out the back of the diner, wrestling with her purse. Romeo smacked Bull on the arm, letting him know he was leaving and took off in a jog across the lot. He'd meant to get to Timber sooner, but the club meeting went longer than planned.
Getting her strap situated around her neck and the bulk of her purse behind her hip, she turned to where she'd parked her loaner bike earlier and stopped, planting her hands on her waist.
"Hey." He slowed to a walk. "Change of plans."
"For me?"
He stopped and hitched his chin. "I'm taking you to my house."
"Um. I've rented an apartment, remember?" She glanced behind her. "I don't understand. Where did the bike Vega let me borrow go? I put it right here so I'd have it after work."
He could tell her that he rolled it over to Vega's motel room and gave it back, but then the subject would be open to conversation, and he had more important things to do.
"Damn, truckers. You can't leave anything outside anymore." He hooked her neck, bringing her against his side so he could loop his arm across her shoulders, keeping her with him. "I'll give you a ride."
All he had to do was get her on the Harley. She couldn't get off if the wheels were turning. If he told her Dice was at his house waiting to talk with her, she'd never go with him.
He kept walking, bringing her with him. "Did you have a good day?"
"I guess." She glanced behind her. "Until someone stole the bike. I'm going to have to pay Vega back. She only loaned it to me."
"I'd wait to see if it shows back up. You never know. One of them might've taken it for a ride and planned on bringing it back."
"That's weird."
"Yeah." He gazed around. "Stranger things have happened."
"I guess."
"Do you work this weekend?" he asked, getting on a safer topic. "Things will get crazy by Friday. The motel is booked solid. More people will be at the diner."
"I only work on Friday but have the weekend off." She hurried to keep up with him.
He could let go of her since she was willingly moving along with him, but he liked the feel of her against his side. "Lucky you."
"Are you working security this weekend at the diner?" She stopped at his Harley.
"Nah, I'll probably stick around the clubhouse and party with the rest of them." He got on the motorcycle.
"Oh." She climbed on behind him and wrapped her arms around him as if she'd done it her whole life.
He started the bike to cover the chuckle of satisfaction that came out of him. Dice had never taken her riding. He liked that he was her first. At least in that area of her life.
Before he and Dice could get the situation with Swallows under control, he suspected there would be more firsts Timber would go through.
When he pulled onto his street and cut the speed down to thirty-five, Timber shouted, "I thought you were taking me to the apartment."
"Got something to do first," he said loud enough for her to hear.
Her cheek went back to his shoulder. He had the uncomfortable urge to delay their return to the house to enjoy the feel of her body wrapped around him a little longer.
When he'd left Dice at the house, he was halfway to storming out. It'd taken a half-filled whiskey bottle to make him stay while Romeo attended the meeting at the clubhouse. Hell, he wasn't sure if Dice would even be there when they arrived.
Dice used a heavy hand with Timber. Not physically, that he knew, but verbally. And he didn't like it.
He'd witnessed Timber opening her mouth to Dice and answering him as if she hadn't a choice in the matter. While he'd done everything to make her talk to him and join in the conversations at the house with his brothers—and finally succeeded where she enjoyed her time with them—it irritated him that Dice took that choice away from her. Whatever he'd done had her scared enough that she answered him under pressure.
It would be one thing if Timber knew what they were dealing with, but from what he understood, she'd gone her whole life thinking she was unloved, neglected, and unimportant.
While Dice had a hell of a way of taking care of her as an absentee father, he'd kept her safe. But Timber would've been better off if someone had shown her some love.
He pulled up in front of the house. Patting Timber's calf, he signaled for her to slide off.
"Let's go inside." He strolled toward the house and stopped halfway to the door, looking over his shoulder. "Aren't you coming?"
She stood beside the Harley and shook her head. He exhaled, knowing he'd gotten lucky to get her home without telling her about her dad waiting to talk to her. He couldn't take her in, unaware. Too many people had already fucked up her life enough. She needed a choice in the matter, even if he had to pack her over his shoulder to get her to see her dad.
He approached her. She looked up into his eyes, searching for the truth.
"I've learned a few things about your dad today, and I think you need to go talk to him." He hitched his thumb. "He's inside waiting for you."
"No."
"Timber." He reached for her neck to bring her closer, but she dodged his hand. "Just listen to him for a few minutes, and then you and I will talk, okay?"
She walked back down the driveway. He moved toward her when the front door opened.
"Get in here, Timber," said Dice. "Now."
Ramrod straight, Timber changed directions and walked past Romeo, glaring in his direction as if her dad being here and her obeying him was somehow his fault. Maybe it was, but damnit, they were trying to keep her safe.
Yet, it still pissed him off that she, once again, listened to her dad and not him. That needed to change.
Inside the house, he grabbed a glass of water and gave it to Timber. She stood in the living room, not moving to sit or ask what was going on. He led her to the couch and took her down, sitting beside her.
"Dice needs to talk to you." He glared at his MC brother.
They'd talked everything through before he was due at the meeting, and the plan was for Dice to lead the conversation. It would be better for Timber if she learned the truth from her dad.
Dice's gaze narrowed, and the whiskers around his mouth shifted. Romeo shook his head in disbelief. The fucker wasn't going to tell her.
"You can't stay at the apartment, so you're staying here." Romeo paused, waiting for Dice to fill in the holes. "Same rules, and I can take you back and forth to the diner."
Timber's head continued to shake throughout his announcement.
"I gave the bicycle back to Vega," he said, adding one more piece of information she wasn't going to like.
"You can't do that. Vega gave the bike to me," she argued.
Romeo pointed at Dice. "Open your God damn mouth and tell her, or I will."
Timber looked at Romeo, completely ignoring her dad. "What's going on?"
Dice walked away, going into the kitchen. Romeo got to his feet and took Dice's spot on the other side of the living room. This was bullshit.
The way Timber grew up.
The way Dice handled the situation.
The way he was involved in something that had nothing to do with him.
All fucking bullshit.
He wasn't going to blurt out that her grandfather was the head of Swallows and strip her of everything she'd had her whole life. Sure, it might've been a shit life for her growing up, but it belonged to her. Telling her a different world waited for her would only send her off in the wrong direction.
He stared across the room at Dice holding the whiskey bottle to his lips, daring him to say anything. There was nothing he could do unless he wanted to make the problem worse and destroy Timber in the process.
"You need to stay with Romeo." Dice emptied the bottle and lowered his arm. "Trouble is out there."
Timber crossed her arms. "For how long?"
"Don't know."
"Where's mom?" she asked.
"Don't know that either." Dice turned around to go back into the kitchen.
"Are you going to look for her this time?" said Timber.
"Damnit, girl." Dice whirled around, pointing a finger at her. "Just do what I say. I'll take care of your mother."
Timber shut down as if slapped. Always quiet and solemn, she acted differently around Dice. It was as if her dad had stolen her dreams, told her secrets to the world, and turned his back on her at the same time.
The craziest thing was that Timber seemed to accept everything Dice told her. That forcing her to change her plans and accept an unknown danger in her life was...normal.
Romeo hooked her arm, stopping her from leaving.
"That's it?" he whispered. "You'll stay?"
Most women he knew would put up a fight. They'd push their independence. There was nothing legally Dice could do to make Timber stay. That wouldn't stop him from paying someone to keep her here.
"If he wants me to stay here, I'll stay here." She leaned in until her breasts brushed his chest. "But the moment he leaves town, I'm gone."
"Where will you go?"
"Anywhere? Nowhere? Somewhere?" She backed away from him without dropping her gaze. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she turned around.
He was glad his brothers were gone at that moment because it was a sight to see Timber take her dreams and toss them in the air, out of her reach, in front of him.
"She'll run." Dice stepped closer. "You'll have to watch her."
At the end of his patience, he ignored Dice and walked up the stairs. He wasn't done talking to Timber.