Page 74 of Trick or Treat

Once the house was cleaned out, he was able to lock the place up. The other guys all hitched a ride back to the clubhouse with Jed, allowing him to take his truck to his house to pack a bag with clothes for himself and the kids. Before he headed to Lindsey’s, he swung by the police station to have a word with Michelle. He just needed to know why and how things had come to this. After his brief visit with his ex, he headed to Lindsey’s. He knocked on her front door and patiently waited for her to answer. She greeted him at the door, holding it open and waited for him to come through before closing and locking up behind him.

He dropped the bag at his feet and immediately turned to wrap his arms around her, burying his face in her neck. He breathed deeply, taking in the honeysuckle scent of her shampoo, the tension in his shoulders miraculously easing. This is what coming home felt like. The feel of her arms slipping under his cut and wrapping around his waist had him closing his eyes, never wanting to let her go. He appreciated that she didn’t jump right in with tons of questions. He knew she had to have several; there was no way she wouldn’t.

“Where are the kids?” he asked into her neck, not wanting to let her go. God, it felt so damn good to hold her.

“They’re in one of the spare bedrooms. I offered to let them each have their own bed, but Keegan didn’t want to be away from Reagan. She was still upset when I put them to bed.”

Damn. Although he was proud of the way his son took care of his sister, Trick didn’t feel like it was Keegan’s job to have to be doing the parenting. He knew that was the way things had been going for some time at his mom’s, but now that they were with him, his son needed to remember to just be a kid.

“I guess I need to go check on them.” He pulled away and swiped a hand over his face.

Lindsey took him by the hand and lead him to the bedroom his kids ended up in. The light from the hall shined bright enough on the two of them that he could see their heads close together on their pillows. Keegan clutched Reagan’s hand tightly in his own. He slipped in and bent over the bed, placing a kiss on Reagan’s head, then Keegan’s. His son stirred enough to let him know his boy was still on duty.

“Proud of you, Keegan. Love you so much. Go back to sleep. I’ll be here in the morning.”

Keegan mumbled and slipped back to sleep, clearly exhausted from everything going on.

It was his turn to take Lindsey by the hand and lead her to the master bedroom. He closed and locked the door for now, planning to open it again after they got ready for bed. Right now, though, he needed to fill Lindsey in on what was going on and why he’d needed her to come get his kids.

“Have a seat, babe. Need to fill you in since you’re going to be a permanent part of my kids’ lives.” He settled her next to him at the end of the bed. “What you saw from the outside was nowhere near as bad as things looked on the inside.” Lindsey reached over and took his hand in hers, giving him a reassuring squeeze. He appreciated it more than she could know.

“You should have seen that mess. People everywhere. Some doing lines, others so drunk they were spilling beer all over the floor. Guys getting blown on the couch, women bent over and fucked on the kitchen table. Fuck, that’s where my kids eat breakfast for crying out loud. And one of them was Patty, Michelle’s sister, the aunt to my kids. What the hell was she thinking?” He didn’t expect Lindsey to have an answer. She knew he just needed to vent and her giving him that helped a lot.

“You know, being part of the Sons of Redemption, we’re all pretty open minded. Shit like that can be common at the clubhouse on the weekends, but not in the house my kids live in. That shit is never supposed to touch my kids. Ever. They have never been exposed to any of that at the clubhouse. We may like to party and have a good time, but we protect our kids from all that.”

“Oh, Trick.” She leaned into his side and he wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close. He needed to feel all her goodness tight against him. “I’m so sorry you and the kids had to go through that.”

He took a deep breath and let it out slow. “I thought I was going to have to kill a man tonight.” She pulled back so she could see if he really meant what he said or not. “Some motherfucker was standing outside my daughter’s room banging on the door trying to get them to let him inside.” Yeah, that slight look of concern for what he’d said changed to a fire of anger with that last bit of knowledge. He cupped his hand along her cheek and drew her full attention to what he was going to say. “Make no mistake, if I didn’t need an official report with the police to help me get legal custody of my kids, that man would have disappeared. Had he gotten in the room, he’d be dead and I wouldn’t feel the least bit of remorse about it. Understand?”

Lindsey swallowed hard and her jaw jumped under his hand. “Yes, I understand. If he’d gotten in the room I would expect you to kill him. No adult should ever hurt a child.” Trick knew his brows must be in his hairline because he hadn’t expected her to be so understanding and bloodthirsty herself. Fuck, she was amazing. She never ceased to surprise him.

She turned into him so that she was sitting in his lap, facing him, her legs on either side of his. He settled his hands at her waist and she placed hers on his shoulders. She didn’t say anything, sensing he wasn’t finished yet. His voice cracked when he said, “My kids were hiding in a fucking closet, scared to death, and that motherfucker was trying to get in.” He shook his head and dropped it to her shoulder. She ran her fingers through his hair and allowed him time to regain his composure. “I couldn’t stop thinking about what if he’d gotten inside the room? It was all I could do not to throw up.”

“Honey,” she pulled his head out of her neck so she could look him in the eye. “You can’t play the ‘what if’ game. If you do, you can drive yourself crazy. Just be grateful you made it to them in time and spared them any further trauma.” She touched her lips to his briefly. “What happened after you got the kids out?”

“The cops got there and arrested everybody. Her stupid bitch sister was ranting and raving, flashing her pussy for the world to see as they dragged her skanky ass to the police car.” His lip curled in disgust. That had been way more of his ex-sister-in-law than he wanted to see.

“What about their mom?” Lindsey’s hand slipped from his hair to rest on his chest.

He snorted. “She came out quietly, crying. Before they took her to a police car, she came over to tell me how sorry she was about what went down and asked if the kids were safe. Can you believe it?” He rolled in his bottom lip and shook his head. “The funny thing is, I think she finally got it. She finally saw how her decisions were endangering our kids.” He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear, one side of his mouth kicking up. Even with her hair a little wild and no makeup, the woman was hotter than hell.

He needed to get the rest out so he didn’t have it plaguing his mind while he was trying to have sex with Lindsey. They were together again and as far as he was concerned, they would never be apart again. He needed the connection with her so badly, he could taste it. First, he needed to tell her about his visit to the police station.

“You should probably know that one of the guys we’re friends with down at the police station let me in to talk to her before I came here. I needed to know why and how she went so far off the rails. Plus, I wanted to check on her because I honestly expected her to come out cussing up a storm and throwing a royal fit like her sister, but she didn’t. It was like she’d completely shut down and it worried me.”

“Did you think she might hurt herself?”

“I don’t know, but I didn’t want to take that chance. I paid the night guards to keep a close eye on her just in case. When they brought her in to see me, she broke down crying again. Kept telling me she was so sorry and she never should have listened to Patty about anything. She was worried that she could never make things right no matter how long she tried. She was worried the kids hated her. I told her that I was getting custody of the kids and she was never going to see them again unless she got herself dried out, kicked Patty out of her life for good and proved she could get her life together. I don’t think she believed me until I told her I never wanted to cut her out of the kids’ lives. I told her I always thought she was a great mom until Patty came along and that I thought she could be a great mom again, but first she’d have to prove herself. By the time they came to take her back to her cell, she actually looked a little hopeful.”

“That’s good. Being able to see the kids will give her motivation to get her life back in order.” She ran her thumb over his lips. “You did good, Trick. I’m glad you decided to give her a chance.”

“Oh, she’s not guaranteed a chance. She has to prove herself to me before she gets anywhere near my kids again.” He was done talking about all the shit that went down tonight. Now, he wanted to lose himself in this amazing, caring woman. He wanted to show her how much he cared in the best way he knew how. He held onto her, stood, turned and crawled on his knees toward the head of the bed. She giggled the whole way and he found it adorable.

He hooked her pajama bottoms with his thumbs and made quick work of getting them off and tossing them over his shoulder. Straddling her hips, he reached for the hem of her shirt and removed that as well.

“Hey! Why am I naked and you’re still fully dressed?” She started shoving his shirt up his ripped abs but couldn’t quite get it high enough to get over his head. Being the magnanimous man that he was, he helped her get it off and threw it off to the side, too. “Pants. Off.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He climbed off her and the bed, toed off his boots and ripped his jeans and boxer briefs down his legs. Quickly he was back in bed with the sexiest, most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. How had he gotten so lucky?

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