Her Valentine (2 page)

XXX

Nick felt like grit.  He hated begging for anything or admitting that he couldn’t handle this on his own, but some things were more important than his pride.

He pulled out a worn picture of a little girl with dark brown curls and his big blue eyes.  It was a couple of months old now.  His daughter had just turned four years old and he had only seen her once and in this picture.  It had come with a short letter to Granny’s house the day before.

Nick,

I’m in trouble.  They took Daisy.

                             Paula

Those words had turned Nick’s stomach.  He knew who this kid was, she was his daughter and he had thought she’d be better off if she never knew him, but as it turned out, he was better than the idiot of a mother who had given birth to her.

He had investigated, called in favors all over the state, but he was coming up empty.  There was no sign of Paula or her daughter.  He thought it might be worth a shot to ask his cousin if he remembered anything about the woman, like if she had any hiding places or family.  It sucked to have to ask.

Nick knew the conversation would be uncomfortable for both of them, since Nick had slept with the woman while Choo-Choo was still involved with her, but his cousin was too good to be with her sort.  Nick had seen it from the beginning, but Choo-Choo had been a fool for love.  He saw nothing wrong with the woman who held his heart hostage.  Nick hadn’t had another choice.

Paula was garbage and Nick had always like his women a little trashy.  He had always known exactly what he’d wanted from them too, but Choo-Choo was too soft for that kind of woman.  Paula was getting ready to take Choo-Choo to the cleaners and Nick had stepped in and put a halt to that.  Unfortunately it had also put a halt to the brotherly relationship he had shared with his cousin.

Sure it was a dick move, but that sort of thing needed to be seen and it needed to leave no questions.

Choo-Choo had walked in to find Paula bouncing on Nick in bed and that had been the perfect sort of clarity he’d needed to walk away, from both of them.

Nick had hated to hurt Choo-Choo.  He was the closest thing he had to a brother, to his knowledge, but he couldn’t watch a woman like Paula ruin a good man either.

Nick drove through the gates of the compound and parked near the door.  He recognized a few of the men that stood in the parking lot and none of them looked happy to see him.

Law waited for him at the door so he made his way over and followed when Law preceded him inside.  He followed Law down a dark hall and stepped into a simple room where another man sat behind a scarred desk.  His salt and pepper hair was cropped short and his giant arms were crossed over his chest, stretching his dark grey t-shirt to its limits.

“What the fuck are you doing here Valentine?”

“Nice to see you too Preacherman.”

“Cut the shit.  If you cause trouble in my house I will put you in the ground and since Choo-Choo ain’t here, he won’t have to know and that suits me just fine.”

Nick knew it was true.  These men could make him disappear and no one would look for him, but if there was even a small chance that they might be able to help him find his daughter then it was a risk worth taking.

“I’m not here to cause anything.  Just got a problem I had hoped Choo-Choo could help me with.”

“Well Choo-Choo ain’t here.”  He cut his eyes up to Lawless.

“Thought we could hear him out.  Might be something we could do…”  Law shrugged and plopped down on the sofa against the wall.

Preach sighed.  “What’s this about Valentine?  Make it quick, I got shit to do.”

Nick gritted his teeth for a moment.  These men might be able to help him, but could he really trust them with his daughter once they got her back?  He knew how they treated the women around the club.

The door banged open and a man Nick had never seen before walked in the room.  He laid a folder on Preach’s desk and stepped back to study Nick.  It was creepy as hell.

Preach opened the folder and Nick saw his daughter’s smiling face staring up from the page lying on the desk.

“What the fuck are you doing with that?”  He lunged for the picture and studied it.

“It’s what I do.”  The man spoke as if it should have been obvious.

“This is Spec.  He works Intel.  Asked him to look into you a while back and keep tabs.  When you pulled up I asked him to have another look.  This is what he found.”

Nick was shaking.  “Did you find her?”

Spec shook his head.  He took off his glasses and wiped them on the tail of his shirt.

“Your daughter has been taken by a Mexican cartel.  I lost track of their trail when they crossed the border into Mexico last night.”

“Oh God no.  She’s four years old man.  Can you find her?” Nick was desperate.

Spec tilted his head.  “Not interested in the mother?”

“No.  Just the kid, Daisy.”

Spec nodded.  “From what I’ve found, you’ve never been involved.  Why now?”

“She’s my fucking kid, that’s why.  You think I’d leave her to the cartel?”

“You only found out where she is.  Why did you come this far?”  Spec had narrowed his eyes and studied Nick as if he were a bug.

“I may not have been in her life, but I tried to support her all I could.  A little girl doesn’t need a man like me in her life.”  He shrugged feeling utterly exposed.

Spec nodded.  “The mother was butchered just this side of the border.  She had been selling on the streets and hooking.  She had also been a mule for the cartel.  She smuggled drugs and passed along messages to the right people, unfortunately she got greedy.  Last I could find, the child was fine, but you can bet they are looking for a buyer.  The woman had stolen from them and they will try to make up for that with that kid.  We have two days at the most before she is out of reach.”

“Please.  Is there anything you can do to help me get my daughter back?”  He ran both hands over his head.  “I’ll buy her if I have to.”

Preach’s face had hardened.  He only nodded, but that was the more than Nick had hoped for. 

There was hope.

He knew more than he had when he’d pulled up to the gates earlier and he had help.

Preach pulled a phone out of his pocket and dialed.  He only had to wait a few beats before someone answered.

“I’m calling you due.”

That was all he said and he disconnected.  He nodded to Spec who grinned and walked out of the room.

Preach leaned his arms on the desk and eyed Nick.

“Now this will make us square.  I know you helped Josie out when those bastards came for her and you may have saved her life.  She’s a brother’s old lady and a part of this club so her debt is mine.  This clears it.  That kid is Choo-Choo’s blood so that will take care of the rest of it.”  He sat back in his chair. 

“Square is square.  You cross us and we will kill you.  I know you have been working on turning over a new leaf since that shit went down and I know how hard it is to give up that fast money.  If you want a job here and there, give me a call and I’ll try to keep them as above board as possible.  If we get this kid back, be there or find somebody who will.”

Nick wanted to tell the man to fuck off and mind his own business, but he needed him too much and he could see in Preach’s eyes that he knew what he was talking about.  He nodded.

“I appreciate that Preacherman.”  He reached out and was a little shocked when Preach grasped his hand without hesitation.

“We all fuck up son.  Fix what you can and let the rest go.  Make this shit right.”

Nick felt a knot in his throat and cleared it.

“Fuck this is a beautiful Hallmark moment, but I got shit to do.  Let me know when we have a plan.”  Lawless stood and stretched like a cat before he made his way out of the room.

“Asshole.”  Preach said under his breath as he scratched his head.  “Spec will have something for us in a little while.  In the meantime head out to the kitchen and eat something.  If you need a place to crash we will find you a bed and a woman to warm it.”

Nick thanked the man who could have just as easily shot him in the head and tossed his body in a ditch somewhere instead of helping him.  It was more than he had expected.

He made his way to the kitchen to find several club girls hanging out and drinking coffee.  One smiled a smile that Nick was sure she thought was appealing, but looked like she was in pain.

“Ladies.”  He nodded and heard a snort from the woman standing at the sink.

“These shanks haven’t been ladies in… well, forever.”

The woman looked like she should be in a punk rock band with her dark hair dyed in different bright hues all over her head.

“I’m Candy.  Spec is my old man.  Who are you and are you hungry, because I’m about to finish up here and if I sit down you will be fixing your own, cause I’m not getting back up.”

She grinned like a kid expecting punishment for her sass, but Valentine liked the woman on sight.

“Guess I could just take yours…”  He said with a wink.

“Guess you could try, but since I would probably stab you in the back of the hand with my knife…”

“Damn, tough huh?”

“Gotta be around here.”  She raised a brow and looked around the room.

“Guess so.  I’ll just fix my own if you don’t mind.”

“Not one bit.  You just fix whatever you want and I’ll sit over here and tell you how you’re doing it wrong.”

Nick let out a bark of laughter that surprised him as much as it did her.

“Sounds like home to me.”

Candy slid up on the kitchen counter and bit into a sandwich as big as her head.  Nick made himself one to match it and laughed at her approving nod.  He felt lighter.  This woman was something else.  He wondered if there were any others around with as much spunk and he doubted it very much. 

He had finished half of his sandwich when Spec stepped through the door.  His eyes lit up behind his glasses when he saw the woman sitting on the counter.

“Hey there!”  She dumped her sandwich on the counter, forgotten when he smiled at her and ran to wrap her arms around him.

Nick felt a stab of jealousy.  He wanted that.  He wanted a woman who was happy to see him walk through the door.  He turned away.

“Hey Valentine.  I’ve got some info on your kid.”  He turned to the women loitering in the kitchen. “Out.”

That’s all it took and they scurried from the room like roaches when the light came on.

XXXX

Nick sat in the back of the black van as it rolled through the night.  They were running out of time and he could feel tension coiling in him like a spring.  He could feel eyes on him, but he didn’t look up.  He knew how to keep his cool, but the stakes had never been this high before.  No one had ever depended on him.

They had left right after Spec had given him a rundown of what was happening.

Daisy was being held in a warehouse not too far across the border.  The man in charge, Carlos Flores, was setting up a meet that would take place in just a few days.  Several men were due to arrive at the warehouse and Spec believed one of them would walk away with Daisy.

Nick gritted his teeth.  He would see the man dead even if it meant his own life.

Preach had reached out to a friend in the Kings MC and they were playing escort to the brothers who had volunteered to help Valentine.  All were hard men, but all would die to save a little girl they had never met. 

Nick looked up at the man who haunted so many dreams.  He was like a phantom.  His skin seemed pale even through the tan he wore.  His eyes were so black that there seemed to be no end to his pupil.  His hair fell over his forehead in a curtain of inky darkness.  Shadow was a frightening man, but he valued family above all else.

Preach drove the van that they had borrowed from the Kings and a man named Rider rode shotgun. 

Rider didn’t look like a biker, with his blonde pretty boy looks, but his eyes were as hard as stone and he carried a weight that Nick couldn’t see.

These men were going to go against the cartel and they didn’t even look nervous, just pissed off.

The van pulled into a dimly lit parking lot.  Nick read the faded sign above the door.

“White Man’s Cantina.”  He mumbled. 

“This is where we collect a debt and take care of a brother.”  Preach said as he turned off the engine and climbed out of the van.  The others followed him so Nick decided to do the same, even if he wanted nothing less than a pit stop right then.

The bar was seedy and smelled strongly of tequila and body odor.

Preach caught his eye and Nick walked to the bar.  Surprisingly the bar top was shiny and clean.

“This is Chester.  He has a Winchester behind the bar that gets enough use too so watch yourself.  Our cartel friends like to come in for the good booze and the whores.  He is the man who knows how to get your kid back, but there’s a catch.”

Nick looked at the man behind the bar.  He was as tall as Preach and just as muscled, but he looked unwell.  His skin was a sickly grey and he acted like it took a great effort for him to get his breath.

“You see, Ole Chester has a daughter too.  Flores has taken an interest in her and Chester fears that he can no longer keep her safe.  He wants his kid set up in the states, somewhere safe.  We think you could help with that.”

Nick cut his eyes to Preach.  “How am I supposed to do that?  How am I going to hide some kid from the Mexicans?”

“I want you to take her to Granny P. I’ve got some business in the works out in that area and I can offer the girl a job, but she needs a place to stay where she will be safe.  Flores hasn’t put a claim out on her so we hope he won’t go to that much trouble to find her.  When this shit goes down, she may need someone watching her ass, but we hope to give Flores enough to keep him busy for a while.”

“Then take her home with you.”  Nick was irritated.  He was nervous about raising one daughter, now he’d be stuck with two.

Nick couldn’t have some teenager running all over Granny and he didn’t need that shit in his life right at the moment.

“No deal.  She gets a clean life.”  Chester spoke up.  “Clean and out of this shit.”  He coughed a long rattling cough that seemed to make him pale even more than he was before.

“This is the deal Valentine.  Get his girl out and he will help us save yours.”

“Fine.  How is he gonna help us anyway?”  Nick felt his neck itch.  He wanted to be doing something, not sitting on an old barstool waiting for an old man to speak.  He wasn’t sure if the man would live until morning so he figured he needed to get the info now anyway.

“Flores is planning a meet tomorrow night.  He wants me to bring him a few cases of my best…  He asked that Storm come along.  I have a feeling he will insist she stay.”  His watery blue eyes met Nick’s.  “I may be able to get you inside to get your kid, but you have to protect mine as well.  I need your word on that.”

All of Nick’s apprehensions melted.  “My word ain’t worth much, but it’s yours if you can get my kid out.”

Chester shook his head.  “You help Storm even if you don’t get yours back.  That is the deal.  I give information for that.  The rest is in payment for an old debt of my own.”  He met Preach’s eyes and nodded.

“We are square after this brother, but that don’t mean we aren’t still family.  You need us, you call.  She needs us...”  Preach nodded.

“Understood.”

Nick listened as the man talked of the layout of the warehouse and how to best approach it.

Law chewed on a toothpick and studied the crude map that had been drawn.  He pointed out areas of interest and asked questions that Valentine wouldn’t have thought to ask.  He was letting his mind get cloudy.  That was dangerous.  Not just for him, but for everyone.

“I’ll go see what I can see.”  Shadow said as he nodded to Chester once.  He just turned and walked out of the bar without another word.

“That boy is still scary as shit Preach.”   Chester shook his head.

“Better than he was.”  Rider put in as he let his eyes scan the bar.

“And you?”

Rider turned his haunted blue eyes on the man behind the bar.  “Better than I was.”

“That’s good son, real good.”

Nick watched the muscle in Rider’s jaw harden. 

Every one of these men were fucked up.  He let his eyes slide closed.  These fucked up men were his only hope of finding his daughter.  He hoped he wasn’t screwed.

Law turned with a glint in his eye when a tall woman with an athlete’s body stepped behind the bar.  Her long black hair hung in a curtain down her back and her almond shaped eyes were as grey as a storm cloud.

“Looks stormy in here tonight, hope you boys brought protection.”  He drawled as he sent the dark haired woman a wink she didn’t return.

“Fuck off Law.”  She said with a roll of her eyes that said there was a history between the two.

“Leave her alone now Law.”  Preach put in.

“Oh Preach, don’t you wonder how hard it would be to tame a storm?”  Law refused to let it go, but there was something hard in his voice that set the hairs on Nick’s neck standing on end.

“You remember the last man who tried to tame that one?”  Preach added with a grimace that all the men around the bar shared.

“Yeah, a man makes some damned strange noises when his dick is laying on the floor at his feet.  I’m surprised you don’t have a dick collection Storm.  Wear it as a necklace or some shit.”  Law’s eyes were steady on her even as his words were playful.

The girl didn’t even bat an eye.  She just kept wiping out the glasses she had brought from the back room.

Law let out a low growl and Nick saw her flinch.  He would have missed the whole exchange if he hadn’t been watching so closely, but Law was pushing her.

“Why, may I ask, is that asshole in our bar papa?”  Storm asked without looking at Lawless.  The man terrified her and he knew it, but he had always tried to make her stronger or at least seem stronger.

“Wait…”  Nick sat up.  “Papa?  This is your daughter?  She’s a fucking adult.  She don’t need my help to get on her feet.  She’s what...”

For the first time the woman swung her eyes to where Nick sat.

“I’m twenty-two.  Who wants to know?”  Her voice was as hard as stone, but there was something in her eyes that betrayed her.  She was afraid.

“This man is going to get you out of here.”  Chester spoke as he slid an arm around her.

“You know I can’t leave you.  You need me.”

“I do, but I need to know you’re safe before this goes to shit.  You will leave tonight so you need to get ready to go.”

“Tonight?  I can’t just…”

“We both know it had to happen.  If Preach hadn’t reached out, I would have.  You know this needs to happen now.”

“Come with me Papa,” she pleaded as tears dampened her storm cloud eyes.

“You know I can’t and I may not be able to after tonight anyway.  You are all I have in this world Storm.  Let me leave it at peace, knowing you are safe.”

“What are you going to do?”  There was panic in her voice, but she couldn’t help it.  Papa was the only family she had, even if he wasn’t her real father.  It had never mattered to either of them.

“I have to help this man get his little girl back.”

Chester’s faded blue eyes met hers.  “Some things are worth dying for and doing it without regret.  Those men need to be stopped.  What they’re doing...”

Storm threw herself into his arms and held on.

“Thank you for all you have done for me.  I don’t know what would have happened to me.  You gave up everything…  Please don’t be foolish.  I need you to be ok.”

He pinched her chin and kissed her forehead.  “Some things are worth it.  It’s time to go back and make a life for yourself honey.  You can’t stay here any longer.”

She nodded.  She had known this day would come, but she hadn’t been prepared for it to be so soon.  Things were changing too quickly.  Damn Flores.  Damn them all.  Men all thought they could take what they wanted from her.  What about what she wanted?  What about what was right?

She looked to Preach.

“You can’t just leave him here all alone.  You can’t do that.” Her hand slammed down on the bar top as she glared at the man across from her.

Nick heard Lawless whisper, “good girl” under his breath.

“I’ll make sure he’s taken care of, but tonight needs to happen first and we need you to cooperate.”  Preach met her eyes with a hardness had seen most men buckle under, but Storm hardened her jaw and nodded once.

Storm cut her eyes back to Nick and frowned.  Her glare was unsettling to say the least, but what the hell choice did he have in any of this?

Storm disappeared into the back room and the men continued their planning.  Nick stood to follow her, but was stopped when Lawless slapped his blade against Nick’s chest.

“Careful what you do right now.  She is club property and we defend our own.”

“Yeah, I can see that by the way she’s being sent home with me.”  Nick spat.  He hated Lawless and this was more than he could take right now.

“We do what’s best for those who can’t do it for themselves.  She’d never make it in the club.  She’s barely making it here.”

“This place don’t seem too tame to me Law.  Maybe she should be let figure out her own shit.”

“No.  Its hell, but it’s the price that was paid for her freedom.  This place is killing her.  We are trying to get her out so she can figure out her own shit.”

“Yeah, well, I’m no fucking fairy godmother.”

“Aww, but you’re so pretty.”  Law said as he lifted his drink to his lips.

“Fuck you asshole.”  Nick caught Law’s wink before he stepped behind the bar and into the darkness of the backroom. 

“Prick.”  He muttered as he let his eyes adjust.

The cold edge of a blade pressed to his neck drew him up short.

“Law would you give me a fucking break?”  He said, but it felt wrong.  He reached up and grabbed the wrist holding the knife and it was too thin for a man.  He gave it a hard tug and there she stood.

Storm was strong.  Her arms were muscled, but not masculine.  He let his eyes drift lower to discover that her legs were the same hard muscles.  She was beautiful.  Her tan skin glowed in the dimness of the store room and the fury in her eyes sparked like lightening in her eyes.

“Why did you follow me?”  She demanded.

“I just wanted to talk to you.  If you are going home with me I figured that was the least I should do.”

Her eyes narrowed.  “I will not answer to you.  I am a grown woman.  I don’t need a babysitter.”

“I never said you would.  I agreed to help you get on your feet and keep you safe.  That’s all.”

“And when your obligation is fulfilled?”

Her jaw was as hard as a rock.  Nick had no idea what she was taking from this conversation that was making her look so betrayed.

“Whatever you want.  You are a free woman.”

“How long until I am on my own then?”

“I guess that will depend on you.”

Her face fell.  She looked utterly defeated and Nick felt like hell.

“You work hard and help me out and you can stay as long as you need to.  I’m not worried about that right now.”

His words seemed to sting her, she flinched, but nodded.  “Just go.  I will do my part.”  Her eyes closed as tears leaked down her face.

Nick stepped toward her, but what could he do?  She was a stranger.