UNDYING: A Bad Boy MMA Romance (Midwest Alphas) (Book 3) (15 page)

“Just do it, Claire.” He puts a bit of pressure against me to get me moving.

My instincts tell me to stand my ground beside him, but his eyes beg me to go. I turn around and rush back onto the main floor, leaving him and Rick alone. My heart screams, urging me to return to him, but I scan the crowd for Amy instead like he asked me to. I spot Ryan lingering by the entrance and bolt in his direction. “Where’s Amy?” I ask him with wide eyes.

He sighs. “I was hoping she was with you.”

The entrance flies open again and I jolt with fear as a line of at least a dozen men walk inside, some of them more familiar than I’d like. Several former Alphas stand with the Kings,
Trevor the Terror
himself among them, along with Owen, Ryan’s cousin.

Ryan shifts in front of me. “What the hell is this?” he asks Owen as he passes.

Owen pauses next to him, his posture stiff and perfect. “Boss has some business here.”

“Not today,” Ryan snaps. “Do you have any idea what’s happening right now? These people are mourning.”

“Not our problem.”

Ryan shakes his head. “What’s gotten into you, Owen? This isn’t what we signed up for—”

“There is no
we
anymore.”

I see the extreme disappointment in Ryan’s stunned eyes. “The Kings I knew would have never crashed a wake. Enemies or not, the Alphas deserve a day of peace.”

Owen looks forward like a soldier standing at attention. “Traitors deserve nothing from us,” he growls.

Ryan pushes in, refusing to back down. “You know I’m right. Turn around and go home.”

“You lost your chance at being our leader, Ryan,” Owen says, glancing at him out of the corner of his eye. “These men would have followed you anywhere, but you made your choice.”

“Yes, I did,” Ryan nods, “and you just proved that it was the
right
one. I would
never
have been a part of something like this and
you
shouldn’t be either.” Owen’s expression shakes, his eyes falling to the floor as the other Kings pass around him and station themselves about the room. Ryan watches them go with worried eyes. “At least let the women leave, Owen. This isn’t their fight.”

“Look, we’re not here to hurt anyone,” Owen whispers out of earshot of the others.

“Then why are you here?” I ask. He flicks his eyes down at me, but he doesn’t answer.

Ryan scoffs with annoyance. “It’s intimidation. Plain and simple.” Owen walks away from us to join the other Kings. “Claire, do you have your phone?”

“Yes.”

“Call Amy — she may not answer me right now, but she’ll answer you.”

I reach into my purse and my fingers brush lightly against the handle of Rick’s switchblade as I grab my phone. My fingers slip on the screen as I struggle to find her in my contact book. “Tobias wants you to get us out of here.”

“He and I actually agree on something then,” he says. “You two are the last Dames for them to target.”

I hold the phone to my ear and listen to the dim ringing on the other side. “Come on, Amy…”

A second ringing calls out, this one close by. Ryan instantly recognizes the tone and rushes to the center of the room, following the repetitive sound. I trail behind him, until he finally bends over and grabs Amy’s phone off the floor. His face turns red with rage as he straightens up again. “Where’s Tobias?” he asks me.

“In the back with Rick,” I answer slowly. I scan the room for Amy, fantasizing about her rolling her eyes and laughing at us for worrying about her, but she’s nowhere to be found.

The crowd stares at the Kings, who have now blocked every exit available. Most of them seem confused, as they should be, while the others — the many generations of Alphas — look ready for a fight with their hands rolled into fists.

I lock eyes with Charlie near the bar and he stares back at me with a solemn, regretful expression. Thomas follows his sight and peeks over his shoulder at me. My chest shakes with fury, drawing me towards them. I ignore Charlie’s eyes, the ones telling me to stay away.

He holds out his hand to stop me. “Claire, no—”

I shove Thomas forward and he slams face-first into the bar. “Where is she?!”

Thomas stands up tall and chuckles back at me. “It’s a little ironic, isn’t it?” he asks me with a calm voice. “You demand to know where someone is and I refuse to tell you…”

“Where?!”

Charlie lays a hand on my arm. “Claire — it ain’t worth it.”

“It’s
Amy
,” I cry.

“And Tara is
my wife
,” Thomas seethes. “Seems like a fair trade.”

I shake my head. “You choose
now
to do this? You do this at your ex-girlfriend’s funeral?”

He chuckles. “You say that as if I cared about her.”

“You did once.”

“Maybe,” he says. “But now, she’s served her purpose and she’s dust.”

“You’re using an awful lot of energy to find a woman
your own son
already knows the location of—”

“Claire—” Charlie interrupts me, his fingers digging a little more into my skin.

Thomas glares over my shoulder for a moment and I turn to see Rick lingering back a few feet away from us. “That may have been true until this morning…” Thomas says, “but now, she seems to have been
misplaced
again.”

I spin around to face Rick. “So that’s what this is? You fucked up so you’re throwing a temper tantrum? Grow up, you pathetic piece of—”

Charlie reels me in closer.
“Stop—”
he urges.

I jerk my arm from his grasp and take wide strides towards Rick. “You tell me where Amy is right now or I
promise you
, I’ll—”

“She’s in the trunk of her car,” Rick interrupts. He reaches into his pocket and drops her car keys into my shaking palm.

Thomas steps forward. “What are you doing, Rick?”

“We’re done here,” Rick answers, barely look at his father. He keeps eye contact with me and smiles. “Tobias has taken care of it.” I furrow my brow in confusion. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Claire.”

He steps around me with a quick nod and the other Kings follow him towards the exit.

“Rick!” Thomas calls, his face red and angry.

“You heard him, Thomas,” Charlie says. “You’re done here.”

Thomas stands his ground. “You know, brother…” he pauses to swallow his spit, “you should
really
rethink who you spend your time with. Especially considering what they did to your baby girl.”

My breath catches in my throat. Charlie keeps still, but I notice his eyes twitch.

Thomas smiles. “That’s what I figured… You didn’t know. I’d stick around and tell you myself, but I’m sure your son will be more than happy to fill you in on what really happened to poor, little
Mary
.” He turns around and walks away from Charlie, his boots tapping against the floor as he goes.

My toes shake, trembling my balance, as I study Charlie’s face for any reaction, but he stays as stoic as ever — the most recognizable Eastwood trait if there ever was one.

“Claire…” Ryan reaches out to me and I pass Amy’s car keys to him. He rushes away to the exit, but I find myself frozen in my position, unable to follow him.

“Charlie?”

He looks at me slowly and clears his throat. “We saw an opportunity to move your mother and we took it,” he says. “She’s fine.”

I look towards the front doors, anxiously waiting for Ryan to reappear, hopefully with Amy at his side. “Good,” I say, expecting no further explanation from him about my mother. I’d rather not know where she is now, honestly. The less I know, the better.

I look upward, feeling a pair of eyes on me, to find Pike standing on the second floor balcony. He must have been there the whole time, watching from the side-lines. He holds my gaze for a moment more before turning around and moving out of sight.

“Tobias—” Charlie begins. I turn around to find Tobias standing behind me with downcast eyes. “I need to have a word with you.”

Tobias takes a deep, slow breath. “Okay,” he says. Charlie walks away, moving towards the back offices.

“Tobias, what did Rick mean?” I ask him.

His eyes shift back to me. “It’s not important,” he mutters. “Rick agreed to leave your mother alone.”

I pause, confusion gripping my gut. “Tobias… what did you do?”

“You should get Amy back to the hotel,” he says, ignoring my question.

I turn and breathe a sigh of relief as Amy walks inside in front of Ryan. She appears okay, with the obvious exception being the anger melting her wild, blue eyes. I turn back to Tobias, but he’s already wandered off to follow Charlie. I want to follow him and help him explain to Charlie what Thomas meant about Mary, but the clacking of Amy’s heels pulls my attentions away.

“Oh, my god…!”
Amy seethes through her teeth. “Fucking pricks.”

“You okay?”

“No, I’m not
okay.
I’m pissed off.” She brushes her fingers down her arms as if to wipe away dirt or grime from her dress’ black sleeves. Ryan rests a hand on her shoulder and she twitches, but quickly calms when she realizes it’s just him.

“What happened?” I ask her.

“Trevor grabbed me outside the bathroom,” she explains. “Chucked me into my car and stole my phone.”

“He must have ditched in it here before we kicked him out,” Ryan guesses.

“We should get her back to the hotel,” I say, following Tobias’ advice.

“We
should
hunt those bastards down and—”

“Amy…”
Ryan soothes. “Deep breath…”

She fills her lungs with air and exhales it slowly. “Fuckers…” she mutters.

Ryan takes her hand. “Let’s go back to the room,” he says to her. “There’s something I want to talk to you about.”

“All right,” she says, nodding softly.
“Fine.”

“You coming?” he asks me.

I look around again, my heart tugging me towards Tobias — towards my family — but fear holds me back. “Yeah,” I say. “Let’s go.”

Chapter 12

Everything

I lie on the edge of sleep, hanging on the outer rim of bad dreams, when a knock strikes my door. It’s enough to jump start my pulse and jerk me out of it. My eyes roll around to check the clock by the bed. It’s two in the morning.

Another pair of knocks hit. I sit up fast and I instantly regret the dizzy spell that rattles my brain.

“Claire, it’s me.”

Tobias’ voice, low and muffled, bleeds through to my ears. I throw my feet to the floor and walk across the room, enjoying the light, sleepy feeling as my toes sink into the carpet. I flick on the lights and take a moment to let my eyes readjust before sliding the deadbolt free and twisting the door knob.

He stands in the hall with his hands in his pockets. His face is pale and dark cloud rests above his expression. Honestly, I’ve never seen him so beaten down before. “Hey,” I whisper.

“Did I wake you?” he asks, studying my puffy eyes.

“No. Well, maybe,” I say. “You actually probably just saved me from a horrible nightmare, to be honest.”

“Sorry, I just…” He points behind him. “Ryan and Amy are…”

“Making up?” I grin.

“Yeah,” he chuckles softly.

“Nothing like getting kidnapped at a funeral to remind you how short life is.”

He pauses, his eyes flicking into the room. “Do you mind if I…?”

I step to the side to let him in. He walks passed me and paces along the carpet with a furrowed brow. His tie still hangs about his neck, slightly loose, and his jacket has a few wrinkles on it. Considering the day we’ve had, I would have expected him to be in worse shape, but Tobias usually manages to keep all that bottled up. I lean back against the closed door to watch him move, hoping for him to look up but he never does.

“Is Charlie okay?” I finally ask him.

“I’m not sure,” he answers slowly, pausing to lower himself onto the edge of my bed. “Won’t know until he starts speaking to me again.”

“What did you tell him?”

His eyes close. “Everything,” he whispers.

Everything.
I don’t need a summary of what that means. It means Charlie knows that Pike was with Mary the night she died. It means he knows Lillian helped cover-up the details of what happened. It means he knows what Tobias and I have known all along.

“It’s a lot to process,” I say.

“I know.”