Page 7 of Lore
Ora melts, her hands going to her chest. “I love those names.” Her blue eyes widen when she looks closely at Rider. “Oh wow, Lore.”
“Yeah,” I mutter, standing up. “Can you watch the kids for a minute, darlin’? I need to speak to Atiana.”
“Of course.” She nods, looking to my ex, who is watching us both very closely. “If that’s okay with you?”
When Atiana hesitates, I quickly reassure her. “You can trust her.”
She bites her bottom lip in thought, nods, and then stands to join me. Ora sits down between the kids before I lead Atiana into the kitchen. I pull out a chair for her, and once she’s comfortable, I take the one next to her.
“I don’t even know where to start,” I admit, swallowing hard. I’m hurt, I’m angry, but most of all, I’m fucking shocked. “Rider is mine?”
I already know the answer, but I ask it anyway. I want to hear the admission from those betraying heart-shaped lips.
“Yes,” she quickly acknowledges, looking down at her hands.
“Were you ever going to tell me about him?” I ask, keeping my tone even.
But I already know the answer.
She wasn’t going to.
She’d prefer the man who gave her those bruises raising my son over me.
Does she think so badly of me?
“Would you have wanted me to?” she fires back, frowning as she lifts those honey-brown eyes to meet mine.
I don’t know the answer to that question, and she knows it.
I decide to change the subject, my gaze landing on her lip. “Who hurt you, Atiana?”
When I find them, I’m going to fucking kill them with my bare hands.
“My husband,” she says, and my hands curl to fists. The thought of her being married to someone else somehow feels wrong. I don’t like the idea of any man having her in that way, but the thought of a man hurting her makes my stomach twist.
I was the only man she had been with, and if I didn’t fuck it up, that might have still been the case.
And yeah, that fucking burns.
“It was good until it wasn’t. This is the first time Trent has physically hit me, but he has become more and more controlling. I just need to be away from him. He won’t allow it. I’m scared, Hunter.” Her bottom lip trembles, and I know that her husband is going to pay for that. “They saw. Rider saw…”
Fuck.
My son saw this bastard lay hands on his mother.
“No one will ever hurt you again,” I promise her, leaning forward and taking her hand. The pad of my thumb absently runs over her knuckles. “You’re safe here. I trust all my brothers, and Ora and Lu, the old ladies here, will be good to you.”
“Old ladies?”
My lip twitches. “Ora is with War, my vice president, and Lu is with Haze, our treasurer. We call them old ladies. They’re claimed.”
Her eyes narrow slightly. “Your biker friends don’t mind us being here?”
“No,” I say, even though I haven’t spoken to Rome, our president, yet. I know he’ll be fine with it, though. “And this is where you’ll stay until the threat is taken care of. You won’t go anywhere alone. We have a stocked kitchen and a pool for the kids. Make yourself at home.” I pause, and then feel the need to add, “We do have parties that can get a little wild, so I wouldn’t let the kids venture around alone.”
But I’ll be warning the men, and they can keep their sexual escapades behind closed doors for now.
“And Rider?” she asks, looking down at our hands.
