Page 24 of Hurricane's House
“We’ll be there in no time,” Savage assured. Ryder loaded the rest of the bags into the trunk and hopped into a second SUV that was waiting for them. “We’re only about ten minutes from the club.” All Tina felt capable of doing was nodding her head. She was too tired and way too worried to give any of the guys much more. Once they found her niece, she’d find a way to thank every one of them.
They pulled into the parking lot at Savage Hell at about ten and Tina felt about ready to drop. The pregnancy drained her from being able to do her everyday routines usually. She was assured by the doctor that should end soon, but it hadn’t. She guessed that she and Hurricane’s baby was going to give them trouble from the start, and she didn’t expect things to be any different. The idea of them having a little boy who was the carbon copy of Hurricane, but she also knew that kid would give them a whole lot of trouble.
“I want you two to sit tight. If your niece sees you both walking into the bar, she might bolt,” Savage said. He was right. If Chasity saw them, she’d probably take off and they’d never be able to track her down again.
“When we spot her, we’ll text Hurricane to let him know that it’s safe to come in. We don’t want to give Chasity the chance to slip out of the bar,” Bowie insisted.
“Agreed,” Hurricane said. “We have no problem waiting here.” Tina wanted to speak up and tell them all that she had an issue with waiting in the car while they waited for her niece, but they were all right. Losing her now would suck.
She watched as everyone got out of the SUVs and walked into the back of the bar. “You okay?” Hurricane asked.
“No, but I will be,” Tina whispered. “Look.” She nodded to the edge of the parking lot that backed to the woods that surrounded the property. “It’s Chasity.” Her niece cautiously looked around and when she saw no one around, she started for the bar. Tina took that as her cue to get out of the SUV when Hurricane grabbed her arm, holding her back.
“No,” he whispered, “let her get in there. If she sees us out here, she’ll run, and we won’t be able to catch her. She probably knows the woods by now and has a place where she’s lying low. If she goes into the bar, we’ll have enough people in there to keep her from running.” She knew that he was right, but watching her underage niece walk into a biker bar, looking the way that she did, gutted her.
They sat in silence, watching as her niece cautiously walked across the parking lot and rounded the building to the front door. As they lost sight of her, Tina could feel her anxiety amp up. “Now?” she asked.
“Yeah, we can go in now,” Hurricane agreed. He helped her out of the SUV, and she practically ran for the back door of the bar, where the others had disappeared just minutes before. Hadit only been minutes? It felt like hours to Tina, and she wasn’t sure how she had managed to stay in the car to wait Chasity out when all she wanted to do was rush over to her niece and pull her into her arms.
Savage met them at the back door and nodded to the bar where Chasity stood, surrounded by some of the young club prospects. “The guys are keeping her occupied until you guys can get in here. Don’t worry, they all know the plan.”
“Then I won’t have to knock any heads together,” Hurricane growled.
“Not tonight,” Savage agreed, “at least, I hope that’s the case.” They followed Savage into the main barroom and Tina spotted Wren and Yonkers at about the same time that her niece seemed to. Chasity turned to run toward the front door and Hurricane stepped in her way. Tina wasn’t far behind him and when her niece looked at her, she wasn’t sure if she saw relief or disappointment.
“What are you doing here?” Chasity asked.
“I think that’s a question that you should be answering,” Hurricane insisted. “Why the hell are you in a bar, Chasity? You’re only thirteen and you look like you’re trying to pass for twenty.”
“Twenty-one, and I was doing just fine passing for that age until you showed up here and blew my cover,” she spat.
“Listen, kid, I don’t know what the laws are up in New York, but down here, you could get my whole place shut down for being here. And I don’t think that my wife or my husband would appreciate me having to go to jail for harboring a minor in a biker bar. So, how about you, Hurricane, and your aunt go on back to my office and hash this out?” Savage asked. Chasity seemed to back down a bit as the big guy lectured her and Tina wondered if he might be willing to handle this whole thing withher niece because she had no idea what to say to her once they got back to Savage’s office.
“You can’t tell me what to do,” she said, standing up a little taller and staring Savage down. “You’re not my dad.”
“No, I’m not, but I have a daughter about your age, and I can tell you that she wouldn’t talk to me or anyone else the way that you are. Now, how about you take my advice and go on back to my office before I pick you up and haul your ass back there myself?” Savage asked. Tina watched as Chasity seemed to go over her options mentally, and when she sighed and started for the back of the bar, she felt herself let out a breath that she didn’t know she had been holding.
“We’ve got this, honey,” Hurricane assured. She wasn’t sure if he was crazy or just practicing wishful thinking, but no part of her felt as though she had any of this under control. In fact, she felt just the opposite.
“You can’t be serious,” Tina whispered back to him. “You can see how angry she is with your own eyes.”
“Right, but at least she’s talking to us,” Hurricane said. Savage showed them back to his office and ushered the three of them in. He joined them, sitting behind a huge desk and Tina wondered if he planned on staying or giving them some privacy.
“I hope that you three don’t mind an impartial referee,” he said. Chasity made a disgruntled teenage noise as only a thirteen-year-old girl could do and flopped down into the closest chair.
“Do we have a choice?” she grumbled. Tina almost felt bad for Savage, but the big guy seemed to be holding his own with the teen.
“No, you don’t,” he growled, causing Chasity to jump. “After you snuck into my bar as a minor, you have no say in anything that goes on from here on out—got it?” He pointed his finger at her and Chasity looked as though she wanted to lop it right off.“Now, you three are going to work this out, leave my bar and then, you’re going to go back home, and I don’t want to see you back here until you are at least twenty-one.”
Chasity crossed her arms over her chest and sat back in the seat. “It doesn’t matter, really. Once we go back home, I’m just going to run away again,” she insisted. “She doesn’t really want me. I heard your conversation about telling my dad that you didn’t want custody of me if something happened to my parents.” Her voice caught at the mention of her parents and Tina’s heart broke a little bit more for her niece. She had already lost so much, the last thing she wanted Chasity to believe was that she didn’t want her.
Tina sat down on the sofa across the room from the teen, giving her the space that she seemed to need. “When your father came to me and asked me to be your guardian if something happened to him and your mom, I was only eighteen. I had just finished high school and wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life. I never imagined having kids or having to raise you because I never thought that anything would happen to your parents. James was my older brother and always there for me, so I thought he’d be around forever. When he asked me to take you, I told him that I’d probably screw up your life and that he should pick someone else who was more capable of handling the job.”
“Yeah, you don’t seem to know what you’re doing, do you Aunt Tina?” Chasity spat.
“Hey, kid,” Hurricane said, sitting down next to Tina. “You don’t get to talk to your aunt that way. Remember the whole respect rule?” he asked. He had drilled that into Chasity after she moved in with him. When Tina first started visiting them, he’d remind her niece that she had to be respectful or go to her room. At first, she usually chose to go to her room, but after a while, they were to the point that they could all eat a meal together.
“How about some respect for me and my feelings?” Chasity asked. “Don’t you think that it should work both ways?”