Faith’s Temptation (Dueling Dragons MC Book 1) (20 page)

“I know, Daddy. You’re my best friend. I have always been able to come to you with almost anything and have you not pass judgment on me. I have learned my compassion, loyalty, and faithfulness from you. I am very proud to say that I am your daughter.” A lone, cool tear runs down my cheek. I am holding back my outburst because I know that my father is looking at me to be strong right now, and that is what I am going to do.
Be strong. Buck up, Faith. You got this shit!

“I needed to tell you that, baby. And I also need to tell you that I am so goddamn proud of you. I heard what happened at the truck pull last night. You really are a Landon. And it makes me so proud to know that I taught you to be that strong in the face of what caused you so much hurt. Damn good, Squirt.” My father actually has tears trickling from his eyes. It isn’t just his eyes watering, it is true blue tears.

I let a few more tears slip, and I squeeze my father’s hand. “Daddy, I am going to let you rest now. Okay? I love you.”

He nods and gently pushes the oxygen into his nose and starts to inhale deeply.

It is in this moment that I realize my father is dying. He is going to die soon. He will no longer be a car ride or phone call away.
What the hell am I going to do without my father? What am I going to do?

I turn on my heels and hurry out of my father’s room. On my way out, I grab the door and close it because I can hear the guys in the kitchen getting a little loud.

As soon as I hit the stairs, I start taking them two at a time and I am out the door in no time. I vividly hear Ryder calling my name and I think I also hear my brothers say something like, “Ah, hell.”

***

Ryder

“So, Ryder, you love her?” I look over at Will, Faith’s older brother, who is giving me the evil eye. “What’s your intentions with our little sister?”

I follow Will’s eyes as he makes contact with his brother, giving a little nod.

“Yeah, so what are your plans?” Nate says with a cocky smile to the right of me.

I shake my head and let out a light laugh. “Well, since I love her....” I take a bite of my pancake and chew it a couple of times, trying to think of the right way to handle this conversation.

“And you?” Will says fanning his hand for me to continue.

Might as well drop the bomb.
“Well, I am deeply in love with your sister, and I plan on making her the happiest I can,” I say confidently to the other two men in Faith’s life—alpha men that I will have to win over. Talking with her father last night was the most stressful conversation I have ever had.

***

“Mr. Landon.” I lightly knocked on his bedroom door and saw the nurse in the corner reading her book.

“He should be awake.” She gestured toward the bed with her chin.

I nodded my head, walking farther into the room. I took a seat in a chair next to the bed.

“So, you’re Ryder?” he asked hoarsely from the bed.

“Yes, sir, that’s me. And I’ve come to talk to you about your daughter.” I moved my hand toward the bed and took the man’s fragile hand in mine.

He grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “Well, it’s nice to meet you. My boys have both said good things about you.” He cleared his throat and started to cough a little. “My daughter also seems to be fond of you.”

Smiling to myself, I start to tell the man everything I love about his daughter and why I wanted to someday marry her.

“As long as you don’t break my baby girl’s heart, you have my blessing.” He smiles up at me and then turns his head to the side, closing his eyes.

“Thank you, sir.” I looked down at the fragile man that brought my wonderful woman into this world. “Thank you for raising an amazing woman.”

***

“I’m sure you’ll do that someday, Ryder. Just make sure you never hurt her.”

I focus my attention back to Faith’s brothers.

“Yeah, yeah. I promise. Where I come from, we make our women priority.” I smile to the two. “Your sister will be in good hands. Nothing will happen to her.”
Being my ol’ lady, no one will ever hurt her.

They both smile and we start eating again. We’re just about done when we hear Faith coming down the stairs.

“Ah, hell,” I hear Will say to the left of me.

“Where’s she going?” Nate says from the other side of me.

“Faith?” I call after her, but she hits the door and disappears from my sight. “Faith!” I call out as I stand from the table. “You got this?” I point down to the table.

“Yeah, we got it,” Will says. “Go figure out what the hell is with her.”

I turn away from the table and start toward the door. “Faith.”

Faith

I AM JUST ABOUT TO REACH
the hay barn when I’m picked up and thrown over Ryder’s shoulder. He smacks my ass. “Don’t fight me. We need to go talk with your brothers, then I’m taking you to my bed.”

God, why is his dominating side so damn sexy?

“Why do we need to go talk to my brothers? I don’t wanna go back in there, Ryder. I can't be in the same house as Daddy when he goes. I don’t want that.” I squirm a little bit and he whacks my ass again.

“Stop fidgeting,” he growls out.

I instantly relax and just enjoy the ride back up to the house. Stopping at the stairs, I slide down his body, stopping to give him a quick kiss and we head inside. I walk over to the couch, tucking my feet under me as I sit down.

Will and Nate come into the living room at the same moment Ryder takes a seat next to me. They each sit in the two chairs across from the couch. Our house has only changed slightly since my momma passed away—the paint, some of the furniture, and the flooring.

“Faith, we need to have a talk. And a serious one,” Will says to me as he rubs his hands together nervously. He is usually the calm and levelheaded one, so why is he so nervous? I lean into Ryder’s side to listen to whatever these two have to say.

“Daddy is dying. He isn’t going to make it much longer.” He looks down at the floor and rubs his hand over his brow. “When Nate called you months ago, it wasn’t as bad as it is now. His lungs are starting to fill up with fluid. The sponge pop that you took up to him is his medication. He gets most of his nutrition and hydration through his IV, and it’s helping to keep him medicated. But he only gets morphine every three hours, so the doctors have given him pain pops. They are three times stronger than morphine. His body is fighting itself, and he’s in a lot of pain.”

I look at Will. The shock of how bad it really is rips at my insides. “I haven’t talked to either of you in a while. Nate called once, but he could’ve called again. Why didn’t you call when things got worse?” I look at each one of my brothers. “You should’ve called!” I’m so upset, hurt, pissed, and every other emotion possible right now, and all I can do is shake.

Ryder strokes my upper arm, trying to comfort me.

“Why didn’t you call? I asked Daddy the same question. You guys should have called.” My tears start to well over my lower eyelids.

“Really, Faith, you left a fucking note,” Will says, the anger seething from him. “You left in the middle of the fucking night and left only a note. A note that said some shit about ‘I’ll call soon, don’t worry.’ What did you expect us to do?” I can see the disappointment spread across his face.

You need to tell them. You need to be honest, no more secrets. Ah, fuck it—here goes nothing.

“Beau cheated on me. I walked in on him pretty well into Peggy Sue. I was also pregnant at the same time all this happened.” I drop my head into my hands. Taking a deep breath. “I caught them. They were all over each other....” I wring my fingers together and wobble my knees back and forth. Ryder drapes his calf over my calves to stop fidgeting. “I found out that afternoon.”

He leans closer to my ear and pushes my head toward his face. “Calm down, babe. You’re okay. I’m right here, and I love you. Look at me, Faith,” he demands, and I look up at him, seeing him eye to eye. “You can tell your brothers. They love you and want to protect you. So tell them, babe.”

Taking a deep breath, I slowly exhale, centering myself to give my brothers the biggest blow of my life. “I had an abortion the next month. Beau was being a cockhole and I really didn’t want to have his kid after he did what he did. He slept with my best friend, and worst of it all....” I look at each of my brothers to gauge their reactions, both seem either too pissed to talk or they’re still trying to process everything.

I let out a nervous laugh as I start to tell my brothers what happened last night. Then it dawned on me that my dad had brought up what happened and I hadn't told anyone. “Wait a minute! Ryder, have you been upstairs talking to my dad?” I turn and look at him, pushing away from him.

“Yeah, babe. I did go up and introduce myself because I needed to talk to him about a few things.” He looks at me as he rubs his thumb across my cheek and I smile. “We’ll talk about this later. Finish your story,” he says, pulling me close to his side again.

“Well, I took Ryder to the truck pull down by the bayou last night, and you would never guess who took his ass there as well. We were having a great time when Beau walked up to us and said hi. And you couldn’t mistake the basketball up Peggy Sue’s dress. She is pregnant, and by the looks of it, she’s seven to eight months along.” I stop to look over at Ryder. He rubs comforting circles on my back. “So they‘d been sleeping together for a while.”

I let out a sigh. “Are you two okay? You haven’t said much,” I say to my brothers as I lean forward nervously.

“You had a fucking abortion! Are you kidding? Why didn’t you tell any of us? We would have stood by you.” Nate looks at me like I kicked him in the chest.

This is exactly why I didn’t tell my brothers about this.

“Nate, please don’t be like this. Either of you. I’ve thought about the choice I made over and over again. I think about it every damn day. It doesn’t make a difference. I did what I had to do. I wasn’t in the place to become a mother. It would’ve been worse to have the baby adopted out.”

My eyes fill with tears. I look up at my brothers. “Knowing that I have a child out there in the world that I….” I point at my chest. “… that I gave up because I was stupid and fell in love with the wrong guy.” The tears fall down my cheeks. “I kick myself every damn day. So please, I beg you, don’t you guys start judging me,” I say to them as more tears burn my eyes.
God, I have cried so much lately. I hope I don’t cry anymore once this trip is over.

Looking at my brothers, I realize they’re going to be the only thing I have left sooner than later.

Nate stands and walks toward me. “Faith, I understand why you did what you did.” He sits next to me on the couch. “But, you should’ve told one of us. We could’ve been there for support for you. You’re our sister, and we’ll protect you no matter what.”

He grabs me and pulls me into his arms. This is the first time
ever
that Nate has done this. All the emotions are overwhelming and I break down again.

“Let it out, it’s okay, Squirt. I got you. Men that love you and care about you surround you.
Nothing
is ever going to happen to you again. I promise.” He kisses the top of my head and I slide into Ryder’s arms.

“Thank you, Nate. But what are we gonna do about Daddy?” I wipe my eyes and lean into Ryder’s chest.

“We can talk about that later.” He brushes a lock of hair out of my face and smiles down at me. “You guys are leaving tomorrow, so we’d like to do dinner tonight. Go do whatever you were gonna do and we’ll figure everything else out over dinner,” Will says to us as Ryder stands and reaches down for my hands.

“Okay, we didn’t have much planned. Just hanging out around here for the day. I’d like to spend some time with Daddy before we leave,” I say as I grab Ryder’s hands and stand.

“Let’s go for a walk and talk things through,” he whispers in my ear as I turn to head for the front door.

As we step outside, I look up and see the beautiful blue sky that I love. I can hear the field crickets and smell the sweetness of the wheat field. When I’m in Kentucky, I miss all of this, almost as much as I miss my family.

“You okay?” Ryder asks as we walk toward his truck, our bodies moving like we’ve been together for years. Every time his leg moves I move that same leg. We’re so in sync that it only helps build the union between us that holds our souls together.

“Yeah, just need time to process everything,” I answer as he opens the truck door for me and I climb in, intentionally moving my body in sexy little ways, knowing that he’s watching my ass. He flashes that sexy dimple of his when he smiles at me, then he closes the door behind me.

Ryder walks around to his side of the truck, gets in, and climbs over his seat. “Come on, let’s go lay back here on the bed.” I watch as he reaches up and pulls a curtain closed.

“So, that conversation went okay with your brothers? They seem to understand now why you left from here the way you did,” he says as he climbs over to the bed and kicks off his shoes. “Come here.”

Climbing on the bed, I crawl over him and lay against the wall. His bed is actually pretty comfortable. He grabs a blanket from the storage above and covers us up when he lays down next to me. “Yeah, I guess it went okay, but I’m just afraid of what my brothers might do if they see Beau,” I confess to Ryder. He rests his hand on my stomach and it gives me butterflies.

“Babe, you don’t have to worry about your brothers. They are fine, and just like Nate said, you have three men here to protect you. I am so glad that your family is so welcoming to me.” He leans down and kisses the tip of my nose. He’s so gentle and compassionate.

“How’d I get so lucky to have run into you when I did? I thought that I’d be alone for the rest of my life because of my past,” I confess to him, because it’s true. If it weren’t for me running into him when I did, I wouldn’t be who I am today. I would probably be a cold-hearted bitch.

“Faith, every time I look into your eyes, I see past just their beautiful color. I see deep into your soul. I feel like we’re one. I love your eyes, and I love the way you look at me. Don’t ever stop that, no matter what,” he says as he looks deep into my eyes and caresses the side of my face.