Lucien's War (15 page)

“She
isn’t yours, Lucien. She’ll never be yours.” Blood marred her father’s lip from
when he was pushed away and slammed into the wall.

She
looked at Lucien’s face, well, as much as she could see, and saw his busted
lip, and the bruising and swelling under his left eye.

“Out
of all of the women in the world, in this damn town, why in the hell did you
have to go after my daughter?”

The
two of them stared at each other, the silence thick and intense.

“We
didn’t plan any of this, Kink. Fuck, I tried to stay away, but I love her, and
we honest to God meant to tell you before this. We didn’t want you finding out
this way.”

“What,
you mean you wanted to tell me after you betrayed me by being with my little
girl?” Kink growled out.

Lucien
growled out. “I won’t fight you, but watch your damn mouth regarding Callie,
Kink.” Lucien sounded intense, dangerous, and squeezed her hip gently. “This is
Callie we are talking about. I might not fight you over this, because I have
been in the wrong, but I will beat your ass if you say anything else about
her.” He turned his head and spit out a mouthful of blood. Lucien ran the back
of his arm across his lips, looked down and saw the red covering his forearm
and sighed in defeat. “I meant no disrespect, brother, really I didn’t. I also
didn’t plan this shit. It just happened.” He growled out the words, and she
felt the anger come from Lucien.

Kink
looked at Lucien with narrowed eyes. His chest was rising and falling fast, and
her father clenched and unclenched his hands at his sides. “
Don’t
fucking preach to me about what to say and what not to say concerning my
daughter.” He rolled his head around on his neck, and made this low sound in
his throat. “You may have meant no disrespect, but you sure as hell didn’t care
about any of that while you were with Callie and knowing that she is my
daughter, Lucien.” Kink exhaled, turned his back to them, and ran a hand over
his short dark hair.

She
moved away from Lucien, and when he tried to stop her, gently pulling her back
toward him, she placed a hand on his and shook her head.

“Dad,”
she said softly and moved closer to him. “Pease don’t be upset. We honestly
didn’t plan for this to happen, and didn’t mean for this to be done behind your
back.” He turned around, and the anger left his expression as pain took its
place. “But I’m an adult and know what I want, and who I want to be with.”

“If
you would have come to me, told me how you felt about Lucien, I would have been
pissed, yeah, but you’re my baby girl, Callie. I would have supported you if
you were truly happy.” He looked at Lucien, and that pain that had been on his
face morphed again to anger.
“But you fucked with my
daughter, Lucien, and no amount of excuses is going to change the fact that you
messed with what is mine.
You betrayed me.” Kink looked at Callie again.
“I thought we were close enough that you could talk to me about anything
without fear.”

He
shook his head, and without saying anything else he left the room. He shoved
the prospects out of his way, saying curses under his breath, and then the
sound of the front door of the clubhouse slamming shut rang through.

The
silence was deafening. She wanted to chase after her dad, explain that this
wasn’t how she wanted things to be. But she knew this was how it would end up,
and thus why she hadn’t told him. Kink would have freaked out even if they
hadn’t seen each other, even if she had waited to be with Lucien in any
capacity.

“I
need to go to him, to make this right, Lucien,” she said, sobbing now because
she was angry with herself for letting it get like this. “We should have stayed
away from each other until we told him.’ She wiped away her tears angrily,
hating herself so much right now. She had hurt her dad.

“Baby,”
Lucien said softly, pushed her hair over one shoulder, and kissed her nape.
Closing her eyes tight, more tears fell down her cheeks. She was upset, angry,
sad, and hated herself with a passion that probably rivaled her father’s
emotions right now.

“He
hates me, Lucien.” She was turned around, and they stared at each other.

“Kink
doesn’t hate you. He loves you, Callie baby. He’s your father, and not even
being with a fucked up biker like me, one that went behind his back and is in
love with his daughter, will make him ever stop loving you.” He cupped both of
her cheeks, leaned down, and kissed her softly. “Now, he really fucking hates
me, but I’ll make it right. I
have
to
make it right because I can’t lose him, and I sure as hell am not going to let
you go.”

Closing
her eyes and rested her forehead on his chest, she breathed out, not even
knowing where to start with making this right with her dad.

“I
love you, Callie.” He pulled her closer and cupped the back of her head,
holding her to his chest.

“I
love you, too, Lucien,” she said and gripped the sleeves of his shirt.

“Oh.
Shit,” one of the prospects said.

Lucien
didn’t move away from holding her, and said, “Shut the fuck up, and get the hell
out of here.”

One
of the most important rules of the brothers, a code of sorts that the members
lived by, was not to mess with family, but to treat them as their own. And
Lucien had done the opposite, had been with her in a way that was forbidden.
Hell, she had done it, too, was just as much to “blame” in this as he was, and
she needed to make it right.

Chapter Twelve

Callie
pulled her car into the driveway of her dad’s house hours after she had left
the clubhouse. She had needed to think, needed to try to figure out how in the
hell to make this right. She was actually surprised to see Kink’s Harley parked
in front of the house. She had assumed he would have left, driven around to
clear his head, drink away his anger, or just get away from everything. She
knew she would have done any of those if she had been in his situation. God,
her dad was such a good man, and so didn’t deserve this feeling of betrayal,
and although they hadn’t meant to hurt him, he was devastatingly hurt. She had
seen it in his face. But Lucien was a good man also, and she hated that he was
hurting too, because he thought he betrayed his friend. Scrubbing her hand over
her face, she breathed out, rested her head on the back of the seat, and prayed
everything worked out.

“It
has to work out,” she whispered.

Getting
out of the car she moved up the front steps and into the house. Everything was
pretty quiet, but then she heard the sound of a bottle clanking against a
glass. She went into the kitchen, and saw her dad leaning against the counter
with a bottle of liquor in one hand and a square cut glass in the other. He
stared at the ground and then looked at her. He didn’t say anything, and
neither did she. He brought the cup to his mouth, and took a long sip from it.
Keeping his eyes locked on her from over the rim of his glass, she felt herself
want to move closer, but was afraid to. Of course she wasn’t afraid of her dad,
but she was frightened of this situation, and of making things worse.

He
turned away from her, set the bottle on the counter, but refilled his glass
before he faced her again.

“Let
me explain,” she said softly. “I love him, Dad.”

He
shook his head, looking defeated. “I don’t think there is much to explain,
Callie. It’s pretty obvious what was going on,” he said low and deep, and
without any emotion. She could handle him angry, could handle the shouting,
disappointment even, but what she couldn’t handle was her dad shutting her out
because he was so upset he couldn’t show emotion.

“I
just wish things had not gone down the way they had, because I swear to God we
didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”

Kink
exhaled, looked at the ground, and didn’t speak for several seconds. “Did he
force you into anything, pressure you?” He glanced at her.

She
knitted her brows. “What?” She shook her head, so confused as to what he was
getting at. “Why would you think he pressured me into anything?”

He
shook his head, took a swig of his liquor, and stared at her. “Callie, I’m
trying to think of a good reason why I am not going back to that clubhouse and
killing Lucien for putting his hands on you. Right now I am hanging on by a
thread.” He turned from her, braced his hands on the counter, and she swore he
started grinding his teeth. “Did he fucking force you to do anything?” Kink
asked, and she curled her hands into fists at the thought.

“I
can’t believe you would think that after I told you I loved him.” She said it
so softly she didn’t think he had heard, but when her dad lifted his head, this
pained expression on his face, she knew he had heard her just fine.

Before
he could respond the sound of the front doors opening told her that Cookie was
home. She came into the kitchen a few minutes later, the bags she carried
moving against her legs with every step she took.

“Kink,
honey, can you get the rest of the bags from the car?”

Callie
looked over at Cookie as she entered the kitchen, her focus on the shopping
bags in her hands. She stopped, glanced up, and when she looked between
Kink
and then Callie, the realization of what was happening
moved across her face.

“I
take it because of the angry atmosphere and this weird, awkward intensity in
here, that you know?” she said to Kink.

“You
knew about this, Cookie?” Kink said loudly, looking between her and Cookie. She
could tell he was growing angrier by the second by the fact his face was red,
his body was strung tight, and he looked ready to destroy something.

“Dad,
don’t
yell at her, and don’t get pissed at Cookie. I
just told her yesterday, kind of inadvertently.” Callie grabbed her hair,
tugged gently on the strands, and wished that this weirdness were gone.

“How
long?” he asked in a low, deadly voice.

“What
do you mean?” Oh, Callie knew what he was talking about, but she was nervous by
this situation.

“You
know what I’m talking about, Callie.”

When
she didn’t respond right away he exhaled roughly.

“How
long have you and Lucien been…
”
He didn’t finish his
sentence.

“Two
weeks.”

He
bared his teeth and cursed out.

“But
he picked me up from a party three months ago.” She looked at Cookie, saw the
uncomfortable expression on the other woman’s face, and knew she needed to just
spit it out. “I was at a party, pretty drunk, not knowing how to get home, and
I accidently called Lucien.”

Kink
said slowly, “You accidently called Lucien? Can you explain to me how in the
fuck that happens.”

“Kink,
please watch your damn language.”

Callie
could have laughed at the fact Cookie told her dad to watch his language while
cursing, but right now laughing would probably be taken the wrong way, and make
this situation so much worse.

“Yes,
I
accidently
called him. I was drunk,
didn’t want to call you, or Mom.” She swallowed past the lump of emotion in her
throat at the mention of her mother. “I meant to call a friend, but I ended up
calling Lucien instead.” She ran her hands over her thighs feeling her fingers
shake, and her palms start to sweat. “He came and got me and took me to his
place.”

“He
what?”
Kink said so low, so menacingly, that Callie felt chills race up her spine.
“And I guess you knew about this, too?” He directed the question at Cookie.

Cookie
glanced at Callie, but before Cookie could speak Kink was talking again.

“What
were you thinking?”

Callie
curled her hands into fists. “I was thinking that he was a member of The
Brothers, that
I trusted him, and that he would not let
anything hurt me.” She swallowed, saw Cookie do the same as her throat worked,
and then looked at her dad. “I slept in the spare bedroom,
alone
, and he was a gentleman. He wanted to call you right away, to
tell you all of it, but I asked him not to. I wanted to tell you myself, and
then I just never did it. Mom died, and then things got hectic.” She ran her
hand on her thighs. “I know that’s not an excuse, but it’s the truth. Nothing
happened until two weeks ago when he came up to campus to make sure I was okay
after you told him I was going to a party.” She shrugged. “I guess he pictured
me in the same situation as before.” Kink didn’t say anything at first, but
then he grabbed the bottle of liquor and threw it against the wall. The amber
colored alcohol slid to the ground, and pieces of glass littered the floor and
wall. Cookie took a step back, and so did Callie. She had never seen this kind
of anger in her father, not personally.

“I’m
sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you guys,” he said softly, but his voice was
still hard. He looked a Callie. “You slept with him,” he stated.

“Kink,
not appropriate—”

“No,
Cookie, it is really fucking appropriate. I have the right to know if the President
of my club is sleeping with my daughter.
My very young
eighteen-year-old daughter.”