“I didn’t know you had a son.”
“Not many people do.” He put his empty cup down on the desk, turning to face her. “My problems are not halved.”
“No, you’ve still got the choice of running away. Your son hates you now, but what about next week?” She smiled at him. “Children are not a good indication for people, Alex, especially your own kids. Growing up I went from loving my parents to hating them when they wouldn’t let me do what I want. Don’t give up because of one bad day.”
The doorbell ringing interrupted their moment.
“That’s my dad.”
Alex followed her out as she went to answer the door. Her father, Hank, stood on the other side.
“Hey, Daddy.” She wrapped her arms around him.
“Go and wait in the car.”
“Will do.”
Facing Hank, Alex raised a brow.
“I heard you were staying back here.”
“It’s my house.” Alex stepped forward, grabbing the brown envelope he stashed in his pocket. “Here.”
“This isn’t right. She’s my daughter.”
He’d been paying Hank and his wife regularly to keep their bakery open. Hank had a little gambling problem. When Alex had seen Sunshine, he’d wanted her, and he’d struck up this bargain. He would pay Hank every month, and in return he’d encourage Sunshine to stay in Fort Wills, working as Alex’s housekeeper. When he first bought the place he discovered the bakery wasn’t doing well in business, and Hank’s gambling problem made it all worse. He offered Hank money to keep him afloat. Hank took the money and asked what he could do to repay him. Alex had seen a picture of Sunshine. He told Hank to make sure his daughter applied for a position as housekeeper and that she’d be part of the bargain. At the time he didn’t intend for anything more to happen. When he’d met Sunshine in the flesh, he knew he couldn’t let her go. Sunshine was his, and he made sure to keep her by dealing with Hank’s problems.
“How’s business?”
“It’s fine.”
“And your other problem?” Alex asked, staring the man in the face. He was a businessman, but what people forgot about Alex was that he’d survived in Vegas without any help from Tiny. He wasn’t a man to be messed with. Over the years Alex had fucked up his fair share of people.
“I’ve not put on a bet in some time, Alex. I don’t want Sunshine working here.”
“We have an agreement. You let Sunshine work for me and I pay you to stay the fuck out of our business. Do you want people to know about your debts? I’m paying them off for you, Hank.”
“You’re older than her, Alex. This is wrong.”
“Business is booming and you want to back out of our deal? Sunshine’s mine. You just never expected me to collect. Where was your conscience when you allowed her to be part of our bargain?”
“I made a mistake.”
“No, you made a business deal. You just thought you could outsmart me, Hank. No one outsmarts me.”
“What could a Skull want with my daughter?” Hank asked.
“You don’t want to know the answer.” Alex closed the door, leaving himself in peace and quiet.
Yes, he’d paid a parent for access to their daughter. Sunshine didn’t have a clue that her parents had as good as sold her to the highest bidder to get out of debt, and to hide Hank’s debts. Alex didn’t know if her mother even knew about his debts. He didn’t care. He just hoped Sunshine never found out the truth.
Chapter Nine
Whizz watched Lacey sleep. He’d fucked her multiple times throughout the night not giving her a chance to rest or to catch up on her beauty sleep. She looked so peaceful in sleep. He eased a strand of her hair off her face so it didn’t block the view of her beautiful face.
“It can’t be morning yet,” she said, opening her eyes to smile at him.
“How long have you been awake?” he asked.
“Long enough to know that you’re watching me.” She smiled up at him. “It’s a little creepy you staring at me.”
“Get used to it. I’m not going to change.”
“You made sure that I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.” She changed the subject quickly.
“When it comes to your body, I can’t resist. You tempt me with your ways.”
In the background they heard some banging and shouting. She let out a groan, pulling the blanket over her head. “Why are they moaning?”
“Eva’s dad, Ned Walker, is due to come to Fort Wills today. He’s not the biggest fan of Tiny. Things could get a little crazy seeing as he’s bringing a couple of fighters with him.” Whizz rested his head on his hand, watching her.
“Do I even want to know how bad that’s going to be?”
“Tiny’s seen Ned several times and is still breathing. It’s probably down to the fact Tiny’s fucking his daughter.”
She shook her head at him. “You can be crude when you want to be.”
He stared at her wondering what she was thinking, and asked her.
Lacey let out a breath. “Nothing, not really.”
“I know you well enough to know you’re thinking about something.”
“I’m just thinking about children. Nothing important. It must be nice for, erm, Ned to visit his kids.” She smiled, but he saw the pain in her eyes. Lacey wouldn’t get that chance.
“So, I was thinking instead of us being here when Ned arrived, we could take a trip to the beach.”
“The beach? We’re miles away from a beach.”
“I’ve got my bike. We’ve got no responsibilities. You, me, the beach, perhaps a condo where it’s just us?” He tried to tempt her with his offer. “What do you say?” he asked. Whizz wanted to get away from the clubhouse, and he wanted Lacey with him by his side.
“Just get up and go.”
He nodded. “No one else is invited, just us.”
His heart raced with excitement at the prospect of having her all to himself.
She smiled. “I’d really like that.”
Whizz got to his feet, tugging the blanket off her. “Get dressed. We’ll go right now.” He didn’t give her a chance to protest as he led her into the bathroom. They got changed together even though it killed him to put his aching cock away in the tight pants he wore. He took the lead, grabbing her hand and leading her down toward the kitchen. Whizz wasn’t prepared to hear any protests. Ned Walker coming to the clubhouse with no threat in sight was not something Whizz wanted to witness. The older man had a bad reputation for hurting men that caused any pain to his daughter. Tiny hadn’t caused Eva any pain, but he was her husband and took the full blame in Ned’s eyes.