Page 26 of Roman

Much to Pria’sprotests I make her stay at the clubhouse while Rock along with Reek and a couple other brothers go to the tattoo shop in town. Rock keeps his phone out to make sure the little location dot coming from Kataya’s phone doesn’t move. “You going in first, or can I?” Rock asks as he checks his weapon before tucking it into his cut.

“Are we going to go in and kill all the people in the joint?” I ask absently feeling for my piece tucked in the back of my jeans.

“We don’t have a great repour with these guys since one of ours got in a bar fight with the owner,” Rock divulges.

“That’s great to know now. Fuck.” I take out my eagle and put one in the chamber and keep it low. “Open the door.” I nod to Rock and walk through when he pulls it open. We all file inside to an empty shop. There are a couple tables set up but no one is in sight the further we walk into the building.

“Over there.” Rock nods to the hallway holding up his phone, it’s when we hear a girl yell that we all hightail it down the hallway. Another scream comes from a closed door that isn’t closed for long. My boot comes up and plows through the cheap wood. It goes flying open and smacks the wall hard enough to come flying back at me. Just enough time to find some fucker hovering over my daughter.

“You got two seconds to step away from her asshole,” I warn pointing my gun right at the guy’s head.

“Dad?” Rhylee yells and jumps off the table. “What are you doing?”

“What the hell areyoudoing?” I yell back at my daughter actually looking at her this time. Her eyes are wide with shock and her hair is pulled back enough for me to notice the shiny metal balls in her ears. “You snuck out to get your ears pierced?” I growl at her. Her hands go up to her ears and she sheepishly nods her head. “Are you fucking kidding me? I was going to shoot this…” I look over to the asshole I have my gun pointed at. He is probably sixteen at the most. “Who the fuck are you?”

“I’m Tony, Kataya’s…bo…ah…friend.” He glances over to Rock then back at me. “My brother owns the shop,” he explains getting Rock’s attention now.

“A friend huh?” Rock asks leveling his gun at the kid’s head.

“Daddy stop it. We go to school together. We are just friends I swear.” Rock’s daughter comes to the kid’s defense.

“You are too young to have friends who aren’t girls. Go and get your ass in the truck.” He looks at his other daughter. “You too you little shit.” He nods towards the door.

They both listen without anymore protest then it’s my turn. “Rhylee, go with them. We will talk about this when we get back to the clubhouse.”

“But-”

“Little girl you are not about to talk back to me, are you?” Her mouth snaps shut again and she shakes her head. “Good. Git.” When she leaves the room, I decide to put my gun away and look the kid over. “You don’t look like someone who knew who her father was.” He shakes his head still looking at the barrel Rock has aimed right between his eyes.

“I had no idea and nothing happened with any of them I swear. I was just asked if I could pierce some ears, that’s all.” I have to hand it to the kid, he isn’t crying or pissing himself. I’ve seen grown men do as much when facing the business end of a gun.

“Let’s keep it that way. You see my daughter again kid, you walk the other way. You got me?” Rock asks still not lowering his weapon until he gets a resounding yes from the kid. “Good.” His arm drops and uncocks the pistol. “Let’s get the fuck home. I need to paddle some ass. Damn kids.”

26

Pria

I’m unsure what to think when Rhylee goes storming past me into the clubhouse. I try to grab her and hug her but she only shoves me away. “What happened?”

“She went and got her ears pierced,” Roman tells me on a growl. The other girls are not too far behind her only they have Rock hot on their heels.

“She what?”

“I don’t know about you Pria but I’m not against spanking. And she deserves a good hiding for this stunt she pulled. It seems like sneaking out is becoming a trend. You want to fill me in on why you can’t keep a handle on our daughter?” His words send a spark of anger rolling through me that seems to spread outward and before I know it my palm comes up and slaps him across the face as hard as it possibly can. The sharp sting is nothing compared to the rage pumping through my veins.

“You do not speak to me like that,” I yell at him, my finger jabbing into his chest. “She is a teenager and teenagers do stupid things. You do not get to criticize me on my parenting skills, I have been doing this for the past thirteen years, you haven’t.” I start to walk away from the man but stop to say one last thing. “And if she doesn’t listen it’s because she gets it from you!” Storming back into the clubhouse I go upstairs to find Rhylee in the bed, face down and crying.

“Go away,” she says before I can even speak.

“I will not.” I sit next to her on the bed.

“That was so embarrassing,” she tells me, muffled into the pillow.

“As embarrassing as it may have been, there is no reason for you to be sneaking out like that. I would think you knew better by now.”

“By now?” she asks rolling over to face me. “By now meaning that the last time I snuck out I got drugged and kidnaped and almost got sold into sex slavery. No mom I guess I didn’t learn anything from that experience.” She flops back down onto the pillow and cries again. “I’m so stupid.” She cries even harder and I can’t help it I need to comfort her even though I’m mad she took off like that.

“You aren’t stupid, you are a kid. There are going to be many times in life you make a poor decision but you have to learn from them. I know I have made my fair share. I’m still learning,” I admit.

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