Raw: The Ultimate Mc Collection (62 page)

“Yay!”  Rosie was still jumping up and down excitedly.  “I get to see Ms. Daisy’s apartment!  And, Daddy, did you know that Ms. Daisy said math can be fun?”

We both laughed at that.

“Oh, did she now?”  As I handed the slip of paper to Mike, his fingertips brushed mine and I felt a jolt of electricity shoot through me.  “I think you’d better believe her then!”

He slipped the paper into the inside pocket of his cut and winked at me.  I melted inside, even though I stood there like a stuttering statue in front of him.

“So…um…we’ll see you tomorrow then.”  

He leaned in close again as Rosie collected her things behind him and he whispered, “Thanks for being so nice to Rosie, Daisy.  I can’t wait to see you tomorrow.”

His lips brushed my ear seductively as he pulled away from me.

I nodded silently, trying to smile through the crushing feeling in my chest as they walked out of my classroom door.

CHAPTER SEVEN

MIKE

“Rosie, your breakfast is ready!  Hurry up, or you’ll be late for school!”

The sound of her footsteps bounding down the hall made me smile. When she rounded the corner of the kitchen, she flew into my arms and gave me a huge hug.

“Good morning, daddy!” 

“Good morning, baby! You give the best hugs!”  I said to her as I sat her back down on the kitchen floor.

“Because I learned from the best!”  she replied.

“Who? Sandman?”  I asked, teasingly.

“No!” she erupted in a fit of giggles.

“Reaper?” I asked again.

She laughed louder, and just like every time before, the sound of her laughter was like medicine to my soul.  

“No, silly!”

“Oh, okay, I got it!  lil’ Mike!”  I said.

She rolled her eyes at me as she shook her head.  

“No, you!  YOU taught me to give the best hugs!  You are my daddy, after all!” Her pretend exasperation charmed me even more.

“Oh! Me? Huh. Well, how about that?”  I asked, as I sat her breakfast down on the kitchen table, in front of where she was now sitting.

I leaned down and kissed her on the cheek as she began devouring her eggs and bacon, while lil’ Mike sat at her feet, intently watching for anything she might drop for him.

Sometimes, it caught me off guard how much she looked like Rose.  I gazed down at her, her face full of joy and innocence, and felt my heart swell with pride.  I’d done a lot of bad things in my lifetime, but Rosie was turning out alright.  I was proud of her, and I was proud to be her father.

“Daddy, don’t forget I’m going for math tutoring at Ms. Daisy’s house this afternoon!”

“I didn’t forget, sweetie.  I’ll pick you up there at four o’clock.  Make sure you are on your best behavior at her house, okay?”

“Of course I will be, Daddy.  I love Ms. Daisy.  She’s the best teacher I’ve ever had!”

I laughed.

“She’s only the third teacher you’ve ever had, Rosie.”

“Well, I know, but she’s a lot funnier and smarter than Ms. Star and Mr. Forester.  And prettier.”

“Oh, well, okay then, Rosie, whatever you say.”

“She is pretty, don’t you think, Daddy?”

“Ms. Daisy?” I asked, my heartbeat quickening as I said her name out loud. “Sure she’s okay, I guess.”

Rosie laughed at my comment.

“I know you think she’s pretty, Daddy.”

“Oh, you do, huh?  And how do you know that?” I asked.  My daughter was way too observant.

“I saw the way you smiled at her, that’s all.  Don’t worry I won’t tell her.”

I burst out laughing, and hustled her out the door to the bus stop before she could go on.

“Get to school, missy! C’mon, I’ll walk you to the stop.”

We walked hand in hand down the block to where the school bus was just pulling up to the corner.  I kneeled down and looked into her pretty eyes.  Rose’s eyes.

“I love you, sweetheart.  Have a great day and I’ll see you at four o’clock on the dot!”

“Okay, Daddy.  I love you, too!” She kissed me on the cheek. “Bye!”

I watched her run away, her black curls bouncing around her head as she turned to wave one last time before climbing onto the bus.

I sighed as I walked back to the house, turning my thoughts to the day’s events ahead of me. Or, rather I tried to think about the things I was supposed to think about.  The club.  The job coming up next week.  The risk involved.  What our plan would be should something go wrong.  And what I was going to cook for dinner for Rosie later.

But I couldn’t concentrate on any of those things, because my mind was completely preoccupied with thoughts of Daisy.  She had been on my mind since the first moment I met her, and that was not a good thing.  In fact, it was a terrible thing.

She was Rosie’s teacher, dammit. I kept reminding myself of this fact, as if it was going to have some magic effect of turning off all thoughts of her.  But that didn’t seem to matter one bit to my hardening cock.  I kept thinking about the last time I saw her, the strap of her sundress threatening to fall off her sexy shoulder, the shy but determined way she insisted on meeting my gaze, the little blue flecks in her eyes when she did, the curled locks of her long wispy blonde hair falling around her shoulders like delicate feathers — and that smile.  Those brief moments she stopped being shy, and flashed her smile at me, it was like a punch to the gut.  Or, to the groin.  Maybe both.

I wasn’t quite ready to admit it was my heart she was punching.

As far as I was concerned, that weathered thing was locked away tightly in a cage that had slammed shut when Rose died.  

I tried to banish the image of her from my mind as I drove to the clubhouse, but even the deafening roar of my bike couldn’t drive her away.

After reaching the clubhouse, I spent my day helping Reaper work on his bike.  Unfortunately, he wouldn’t quit commenting about meeting Daisy and how wholesomely hot she was.  

“A woman like that?  I bet she’s a tiger in the sack!  She’s all buttoned up and proper, and girls like that need a release, you know?”

“Fuck, Reaper, would you just shut the fuck up?” I asked him finally.  It was killing me hearing him talk about her like that.

I should have just endured it, though, because the knowing look he gave me indicated that I had just stoked the fire.

“Oh, look at that!”  he teased.  “Someone is a little defensive about Ms. Daisy, huh?”

“Fuck you, dude.  She’s Rosie’s teacher, I just think we should have a little respect.”

He snorted and slapped his thigh.

“What!” he roared.  “Since when do you have respect for strange women? Especially if they aren’t in the room?  You’d talk dirty about a nun if she was hot!”

“Just shut up.”  He was right.  I was always the first one to exchange jeers and enjoy a little ‘boy talk’ about the ladies.  But something about Daisy was different.  When I thought about Reaper imagining what she was like in the sack, I cringed inside.

Of course, that didn’t stop me from imagining what she would be like in my bed.

“Alright, buddy, alright…”  Reaper replied, thankfully relenting, but looking at me suspiciously as we finished up for the day.

We were just washing up when my cell phone rang.  

“Fuck.”  I said under my breath, when I saw who it was.

“Everything okay, boss?”  Reaper asked.

“Yeah.  I gotta take this.  See you later, Reap.”  I walked away from him and into my office, closing the door behind me before I answered the call.

“Yeah?”  I said as gruffly as I could.

“Hey, big boy.  Got a minute?”  Detective Kelly Jones cooed on the end of the line.

“Barely.  What’s up?”  

Regret washed over me at the sound of her voice.  I don’t think I had ever hated anyone more in my life.  And yet I couldn’t shake her.  

Six months ago, one of our brothers had fucked up.  Sandman had been pulled over with a gram of coke in his pocket, and taken to jail.  When I showed up to bail him out, I was confronted by Kelly Jones.  She took one look at me, and led me to a private room to ‘discuss the case’.  

When she first propositioned me, I laughed.  But then I realized she was serious.  If I fucked her, then Sandman walked, no charges.  Easy, I thought.  No problem.  I bent her over the desk right there, and half an hour later, I walked out of the jail with a bewildered Sandman by my side.  I never told him, or anyone for that matter, what I had done.  

I’d have taken a bullet for any one of my brothers, and at the time, it seemed like a much more pleasant experience than being shot.  And Kelly was hot, so that first time didn’t seem so bad.

But then she started digging into the club.  She found out I was raising Rosie all on my own.  She dug up as much petty shit she could on the club, prodded into the archives at the Sheriff’s office and drummed up as many rumors as she could find.  

The Gypsy Riders were excellent at not getting into too much trouble, despite the business we were in.  We kept everything under wraps, did our best to take the least risks possible, and we were successful at not getting caught doing anything illegal.  We kept our heads about us, stayed calm in stressful situations, and so far, our noses were fairly clean.

Until Sandman got busted.  But even that was minor.  What I should have done was let him go through the system, and just deal with the minor repercussions of the charges.  He probably wouldn’t have even done any time.

But I didn’t.  I was stupid.  I bent Kelly over that desk and fucked her till she was shuddering in orgasm under me, and I don’t know why, but it made her hungry for more.

She wasn’t digging into the club so she could bust us.  She was digging into the club so she could blackmail me to keep fucking her.  But once she figured out my weakness - Rosie - she didn’t really need to dig much more.

The thing is, we did illegal shit, that was our life.  That was our business, and what kept food on the table for our families.  If we got busted, it would cause a lot of suffering for our families, and so we couldn’t risk it, and we couldn’t risk having some bitchy detective snooping around, either.  

But Kelly was relentless.  Over and over, she threatened me.

And every time, it started just like this.  A phone call.  I knew what she wanted, and it killed me that she knew I would give it to her, just to shut her up again.

“Come to my office this afternoon at three.”  That’s all she ever said.  A time and a place.  

Each time, I tried to resist.

“No.”

“For fuck’s sake, Mike.  Do we have to play this game again?”

“I’m busy, Kelly.  Why don’t you go find yourself a regular guy to fuck?  You’re a decent looking woman, I’m sure you can find some guy who’s down on his luck that would fuck you.”

“Thanks for the compliment…I think,” she said.  “But I don’t want a regular guy, I want you.  I like your cock.  It fills me up nicely.”

“So would a dildo.”  I said, dryly.

“Ha!”  she replied sarcastically.  “Aren’t you funny?”

I groaned into the phone.  God, I fucking hated this woman.

“Just bring that sweet dick to my office at three.  Or else.  Don’t make me do something I don’t want to do, Mike.”

The precinct wasn’t far from Rosie’s school, and I knew from previous meetings with her that it wouldn’t take long.  As long as I left quickly, I would still be able to pick up Rosie from Daisy’s in time.

I hung up the phone without saying another word to Kelly, feeling like I was cheating on Daisy.  Which was ridiculous, because I hadn’t even had a chance to kiss her yet.

I shook my head in confusion.

What the fuck was I thinking?  There would be no kissing Daisy.  And for reasons exactly like this.  I had no business getting involved with any woman, especially considering the mess my life was.

I needed to find a way out of this situation with Kelly, but in the meantime, I found myself on the back of my bike, trying once again to drown out the shame of what I was about to do.