“If they see us doing this…” Jedd added, leaning closer, his hands tightening around Owen’s arm in obvious frustration.
I looked up at both of them, feeling like a thirsty fucking vampire, too close to blood to turn away, but too human to be able to ignore what they were saying. Then I turned to my father, seeing no sign of panic on his face, just the same calm statue of quiet strength that always seemed to be there.
“Any ideas?” I asked Eric.
“None that you’ll like.”
Owen groaned roughly, his lips parting and his head swaying from side to side. “They’ll kill you,” he pushed out desperately, a slow smile tugging on the corner of his mouth. “Big bad Drew Tucker, taken out by—”
I swung hard, smashing his cheek with my fist to shut him the fuck up. There would be no last-minute words of arrogance falling from his mouth. He didn’t own the right to say a parting line that would wound me, or any of my brothers. His days were done. The only sound I wanted to hear from him now was his cries of pain.
Owen fell silent, and in just a few moments of staring down at him, I knew what we had to do. If the cops showed up here, Sutton would be forced to tie me the fuck down, arrest me, and throw me behind bars because of the people who’d followed him here. ATF would take Owen and practicallymasturbate over all the information and secrets he’d spill to keep me down. Ayda would be alone again, left to work shifts at Rusty’s, raising Tate and maybe even our own kid, while I was locked up, back behind bars.
We had to get out of there.
“Fuck!” I cried out again, quickly jumping off Owen and stepping away from him. “We need to leave here, and we need to do it fast.”
“Where do you want us to go?” Slater asked, pushing himself up to stand over Owen, Jedd following him, too.
I turned to look at Ayda again, knowing wherever I went, she had to come with me. I couldn’t leave her alone anymore. I’d done too much of that, rode off into the night and told her to wait for me until morning, too lost in my own head to think about how she felt or what went through her mind as she worried about and for me.
My eyes drifted down to her stomach.
The place where my baby could be. Maybe it was growing there already. Maybe she’d got it all wrong, but I knew it would be there one day, and for now, I was going to treat her like she was already carrying the child we’d created together… just in case.
“You’re not going anywhere, Slate,” I said quietly, rolling my head back to him. He frowned hard, folding his arms over his chest. Jedd stayed frozen in place, ever the calm VP.
“What’s going on, Tucker?” Slater asked, and I could tell from the look on his face that he had already decided he wasn’t going to like what I was about to say.
“You, Jedd, and Rubin are staying here.”
“Why?”
“Because if we all leave together, they’ll know we’refucking running. If my VP and my Sarge are at the club, two of my most important men, they’ll slow down the chase.”
“What about the other men? The ones out on the road?”
“Put a call out. A subtle one. Tell each and every one of them to get back here right the fuck now without actually saying the words. Have them ride in quietly, calmly, not like they’ve got hell on their heels or they’re scared. They roll in like they’ve got nothing to fear or hide.”
“And when ATF or the cops ask where you are?”
Rubbing my lips together, I turned to look back at Ayda once again. “You tell them me and my girl have gone for a ride. You tell them we’ve just had some pretty special fucking news that I’ll be more than happy to share with them when we get back, and you tell them to mind their own motherfucking business when it comes to what I do in my own time with my fiancée.”
Ayda gave me a smile, but it didn’t last long. Glancing down at Owen, her eyes narrowed. “How are we getting that pile of shit out without being caught?”
Jedd stepped forward. “There’s a repo truck I pulled in yesterday with Kenny and Deeks. We haven’t had a chance to file the paperwork properly yet. It’s not on our records as collected which means it won’t be missing from the yard if they do an inventory. Put your bike in the back of it, Drew. Throw Owen in, tie him the fuck up. You and Ayda ride up front. If anyone tries to stop you, floor it and abandon it somewhere, get your bike off the back and you two get the hell out of there.”
“No,” Eric interrupted.
All of us turned to him, our curiosity showing in our expressions as we waited for him to expand.
“I’ll ride Drew’s bike out of here. Let Drew and Ayda take the truck. They won’t ask where I am.”
“They won’t?” Slater croaked.
Eric just shook his head and closed his eyes before he looked back up at me. “I’m the only one around here not officially bound to the club anymore. If they’ve been following us, investigating each and every one, they’ll know I’m the guy who is never accounted for.”
I hated that he was right—but he was right. In all the time I thought he’d been back here as my father, paying his dues, trying to right all his wrongs, he was still the flighty Eric Tucker of the last decade to all who knew him. Maybe he always would be.