Shield My Heart (Heaven Hill Book 9) (20 page)

T
hey were still lying in each other’s arms, although semi-clothed, when a knock interrupted their quiet time.

“That’s gonna be the guys.” His soft voice was quiet in the room, interrupting the sleep Mandy had fallen into. “I need to go.” His tone was apologetic as he disentangled himself from her arms.

“Be safe, please,” she pleaded, reaching up to give him a goodbye kiss.

Dalton gifted her with a grin that almost stopped her heart. Reaching down, he put his hand over her stomach. “I’ve got more than one reason to come back now. No worries.”

But she did worry, was more worried than she wanted to admit to anyone. Her dad and the love of her life were putting themselves in danger, and she wanted to be right there with them, but she couldn’t. She had other things to think about. “I’ll be waiting on you to get back.”

He leaned down, giving her a soft kiss. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Dalton dressed in silence, not wanting her to realize just how nervous he was. There were a number of things that could happen or go wrong when this went down. For the first time he was scared. He’d never gone into a fight or anything he had to do for the club scared. Now, he had so much to live for, it made him cautious. However, he shoved all those thoughts in a box and put a lock on that fucker when he put on his cut, shrugging it over his shoulders.

This was his superhero cape, the one thing that would protect him. When the cut came on, he turned into the badass he liked to portray. He walked with swagger and dared anyone to cross his path wanting to start some shit.

Going to the closet, he loaded up on weapons he knew would be beneficial. He jammed a KA-BAR knife and a handgun in the waistband of his jeans after checking the safety on the gun.

Mandy’s voice was soft as he left the room. “We love you.”

Those words would bring him home.

*

Dalton, Liam, and Jagger met in the garage after they’d all gotten what they needed.

“I’m leaving everyone else here to keep things quiet,” Liam told them. “Normally I’d take Tyler, but I don’t like the way this has gone down,” he admitted to them.

“Do you know where Samuel is?” he asked Dalton as they stood in a circle, talking over the plan before they rode off.

He texted me to let me know he’s okay. “He’s with Layne. Layne has an Army buddy with a bunker. They’re keeping him underground until we can get this situated.”

Jagger nodded. “Good. That’s the best place for him to be. I checked before we came out here; everyone is accounted for except for Layne and Samuel…stands to reason they’re together.”

Liam hefted a duffel bag. “This is all the money. Let me do the talking when we get there. I know Calvert, not well, but I do know him. Maybe he’ll show us a little respect. It could go a long way.”

Something told Dalton Liam was giving the guy too much credit. Calvert didn’t want respect; he wanted Heaven Hill’s assets, if rumor was to be believed.

“Alright, are you ready?” Liam asked the two guys riding with him tonight.

They nodded, covering their faces with helmets as they each hopped on their bikes and followed Liam down the drive.

*

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Mandy looked up at the sound of her mom’s voice. Sitting in the main room of the clubhouse, she was trying to relax. She hadn’t wanted to be alone, but at the same time she didn’t want to answer a ton of questions either. Looked like her mom wasn’t going to let this go.

“I was embarrassed at first,” Mandy admitted, bringing her legs up underneath her on the couch. It was time to be real and honest.

“Embarrassed? Why?” Denise couldn’t begin to imagine where her daughter’s head had been.

“You’ve always preached to me. Be smart. Don’t put yourself in a bad situation. Be sure if you have a child, it’s the best situation for that child. Learn from your mistakes.”

Denise was quiet for long moments, and Mandy could tell she was grappling with her thoughts. “I never meant to make you feel embarrassed because this happened. I only wanted you to have a better situation than what I did,” she explained.

“At first it really wasn’t a good situation.” Mandy shook her head, admitting the truth for the first time to her mom. If things were going to move forward, maybe she had some things she had to admit to, too. “Up until a day ago, Dalton and I weren’t really even speaking to one another. Hell, when I got pregnant, we weren’t even really together. It was an ‘oops’ moment.”

“Life’s moments aren’t always planned, and maybe I should have been more flexible in my teaching of that than the whole not getting pregnant thing,” Denise admitted. “I’m proud of you. You’ve obviously been handling things by yourself for a while, and you haven’t broken down.”

“Oh, I’ve broken down plenty. There were many times when I almost called you and begged you to come make everything better.” Mandy smiled sadly. “It was a really hard time with Dalton, and I didn’t know what I’d done wrong. Recently I found out it wasn’t me. It was things he was going through, but I didn’t know that, and I didn’t understand it.”

Denise reached over, pushing Mandy’s long hair out of her face. “You have an open and forgiving heart. There’s no doubt in my mind that you and Dalton will make it through this. You’ll be stronger in the end for it.”

She blew out a deep breath. “God, Mom, I hope so. There’s only so much I can take, and I feel like for the last eight months he’s tested me.”

“And you’ve passed all of them with flying colors,” Denise praised. “Have you been very sick?”

Mandy nodded enthusiastically. “The first couple months, oh my God. But the past few weeks, I’ve been okay. Things seem to have leveled, or gotten a little better at least.”

“Same as me. If you can get through the first trimester, you should be good.”

“Only a couple more weeks to go.” Mandy showed crossed fingers. “Was it like that with Tatum too?”

She nodded towards her little sister, who sat on a couch with Remy. She was turned with her whole body facing him, while Remy sat stiff as a board, facing forward. He didn’t look at her face even though she made it almost impossible for him not to.

“Yes, especially her.” Denise chuckled. “That poor guy isn’t going to know what hit him when she turns eighteen.”

Mandy laughed along with her. “I kinda feel sorry for him.”

“There is no kinda too it. He’s in a no-win spot. At least with you, we all knew Dalton, and you weren’t the baby.”

Mandy had to agree. Remy was going to have to be a strong man, because she wasn’t sure anyone could resist Tornado Tatum when she put her mind to something, but no one wanted to cross her dad either.

‡
Chapter Twenty-Seven

D
alton parked his bike along with Liam and Jagger. He would be lying if he said it didn’t scare him to be where they were. In recent years, Heaven Hill had gone way more legitimate than it’d ever been, and he didn’t have a lot of the same experience the rest of them did, but it didn’t mean he wouldn’t throw down when needed.

“I see you brought your saviors.” Calvert nodded towards Liam and Jagger.

Liam hitched his chin up at the other man, his eyes flashing with irritation. “You wanna talk to somebody, you talk to me, motherfucker. I’m the one who’s giving you the money. We’ll deal together. You shouldn’t have ever brought Heaven Hill into this, and you know it.”

Calvert sized up Liam. He had cockiness in his eyes, they all could see it. He seemed to think he had the club right where he wanted them. “You need me to do you a favor, Walker, not the other way around.”

“There is no favor; I’m paying this debt in full. I’m here to give you the money owed to you. In turn, you slither back into whatever hole you crawled out of and leave the world alone. Simple as that.” Liam threw the dufflebag down at his feet.

“I have to admit, I like having the all-powerful Liam Walker at my disposal,” the other man said as he bent down and opened the duffel bag, doing a cursory check of what was inside.

Liam backed up so that he stood even with Dalton and Jagger. There was strength in numbers, and he knew if anything happened these two had his back, his front, and everything in between. “That’s where you’re wrong. I’m not at your beck and call. Neither is Samuel, Dalton, or anyone else you think you can get your hands on.”

Calvert looked up, a sadistic smile on his face. “Big words for a club pres whose club has lost their edge.”

Jagger took exception to that. Times were different now more than they ever had been. They were evolving as a club and trying to do what was best for their families at the same time. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me, pretty boy. You expect people to take you seriously when women throw panties at you?”

Dalton was sick of this. Sick of the whole situation, and he didn’t know what to say, because he didn’t want to make it any worse. He just wanted to go home and lie back down with his girl and his child, forget this situation had ever happened.

“You worry about your business, we’ll worry about ours,” Liam threatened. “Leave the Barnett boys alone, leave my daughter alone, and don’t let the name Heaven Hill come out of your mouth again. You’ve got what you want, what you said you were owed.”