Steel Heart: A Secret Baby Romance

Chapter One SASHA The young police detective took a patronizing tone with me. Was that inexperience, or was he simply an asshole? “What do you mean I’m getting emotional?” I asked, gripping the edges of the metal table until my fingers went white. “My four year old daughter has been kidnapped and is being held for ransom, and you’re telling me that I’m getting… emotional?” “Miss Huffman,” he said, a slight catch in his voice now. “Yes?” I asked, leaning forward. “Is there anything else you’d like to say? Or are you just going to return to asking me the same old questions over and over.” He sighed, and then pinched the bridge of his thin nose like he was the one who got to be frustrated. I wanted to punch his goddamn lights out. “What are you doing about my daughter?” “We’ve got everybody we can on it, I assure you,” he said. “I only said what I said about you being emotional,” he added, “Because I don’t want you to do anything rash. When people are emotional, they make bad decisions.” “Gee, thanks,” I said, not bothering to keep the bite out of my tone. “Where’d you learn that, the police academy movies?” “Let’s go over this one more time,” he said, tapping the sheets of paper spread out on the table before him. “So, your ex, Rooney Bosch. You dated for a couple of years.” I buried my head into my hands in frustration. “I have already answered all your questions. We dated, he said he worked for a software company. I don’t know anything else about his job. Do you know how boring software and computers are to me? Why would I ask?” “Well, what about just in day to day conversation? You know, hi honey, how was your day, that sort of thing?” “How was your day? Fine. Good. Moving on!” I shrugged at him, not knowing what else he wanted. “I didn’t ask, he didn’t tell.” “Yeah, but two years?” “We didn’t exactly have a great relationship, okay?” “How’d you feel when you found out he died?” I shook my head. “I dunno. Sad, I guess? Why the f**k are you asking me this? Who cares? My girl is missing, I don’t want to talk about Rooney anymore! He wasn’t involved with her. He didn’t want anything to do with her!” Detective Bradley waited a few moments, and then opened one of the folder son the table and retrieved a photograph. “And this man,” he said. “Do you recognize him?” Finally, something new! I frowned, looked at the photo, but I didn’t know who it was. The man in the photo was bald, had neck tattoos, and looked mean as s**t. Definitely not the kind of guy I associated with. “No. Who is he?” “Lester Martins, a known felon with quite a sheet.” My heart surged in my chest. “Is this who you think kidnapped Selah?” “We’ll get to that, Miss Huffman.” “Well you’d better get there fast, Detective Bradley, because I’m losing my patience with you.” “Did you know that Rooney Bosch had dealings with this man?” “No,” I said, my voice lowering. “Rooney was like wet cardboard. Boring and ineffectual. I don’t see why he’d have anything to do with somebody like Lester whoever.” “Well, he did. He was photographed numerous times meeting with Lester. Now we don’t know for sure, but it looked like they were going to go into business together. Specifically, drugs. We have some audio recordings that implicate, but they’re not slam dunks.” “Really? Rooney?” I shook my head. “I can’t believe it.” “Now, the ransom call,” he said, pulling out his notepad and flipping through it. “The exact words were, ‘If you don’t come up with the money, I’ll make sure you regret it’.” “Right.” “How well can you remember the voice of the speaker?” I bored holes into the detective’s eyes. “I’ll never forget it until the day I die.” He retrieved a tape recorder from his shirt pocket and played it. I immediately recognized Rooney’s voice. “That’s Rooney,” I said right away. “Yes. And what they’re saying doesn’t make sense because they’re using a code. Now, it’s coming, here—” I froze. That was the voice I heard on the phone when that son of a b***h who kidnapped my daughter called me to tell me. The same nasally whine to it, the same accent, the same odd cadence to the words. “That’s him,” I said, tapping the table hard with my fingers. “That’s the guy.” “Are you positive?” “I’m sure. One-hundred percent. That’s him. Who is that? Is that… is that the Lester guy you showed me?” “Lester Martins, yes,” the detective said. “Now he’s been under surveillance for a long time.” “What?” I asked. “Then why didn’t you see him kidnap my daughter? Why weren’t your men there?” The detective seemed to blush now, and he looked away from my eyes. “He knew he was being tailed and lost us.” I laughed bitterly. “Wow, what a bunch of jackasses you all are.” “We have a lead, though. We think he’s taken Selah down to Steelbarrow.” Panic pulsed through my body to the rhythm of my racing heart. “Steelbarrow? Are you f*****g kidding me? That hole?” I stood up from the table and beelined toward the door, but I felt his firm grip close around my arm. “Please, Miss Huffman, we’ve got people on it and we’re liaising with the department there. You, however, can’t do anything.” “The hell I can’t,” I said, shaking my arm free of his grip. “Please sit down,” he said, his voice growing sterner. But the man was younger than me. He didn’t intimidate me one iota. In my current state of mind, nobody could. I had only one goal and that was to save my daughter, Selah, and it seemed like these jokers didn’t know what the hell they were doing. “That guy,” I said, jabbing my finger at the table where the photograph of Lester Martins sat. “What’s his record like?” “I don’t think I can—” “You’re the one who brought it up when you said he had quite the rap sheet. So you opened that door and I deserve to know.” “Fine, fine. Armed robbery, attempted murder, possession with intent to distribute.” I laughed but it was mirthless. I shook my head in disbelief. “And he’s out, on the streets?” “It was some time ago.” “Well that monster has my f*****g daughter, Detective Bradley, and you sitting here asking me the same damn questions over and over won’t help. And judging by how you bungled your apparent surveillance of him, which directly resulted in my daughter being taken from my house!” I was struggling to fight back the tears at this point. I had kept my composure so damn well for the last two f*****g hours but it was crumbling now. “Now unless you are going to arrest me and keep me here, or unless you have any more useful information to tell me, I am leaving this damn police station, you got that?” “What will you do?” “What should I do, in your opinion?” “Go home and wait for us to call you.” “Right,” I said. “I’ll do that then.” “I don’t believe you, Miss Huffman.” “Regular Sherlock Holmes you are, Detective.” “Don’t do anything stupid,” he said. He pulled a card from his shirt pocket. “Put my number into your phone. Pick up if I call, and call me if you find yourself in any trouble at all. If anything looks suspicious or out of place. Anything. You call.” I took his card, nodding, wiping away my tears. “Okay,” I said. “We’re doing the best we can,” he said, his voice softening now. “Now you seem like a woman of action. I respect that. But you might make this worse if you try anything stupid. You’re probably thinking you’re going to go down to Steelbarrow. But then what? Who do you know there? You just going to walk the streets? Put up posters?” I stayed silent. He was half right. I was going to go to Steelbarrow. “Look, I don’t have kids—” “It shows.” “But I can imagine—” “You can’t.” He sighed. “Just pick up when I call, okay?” “I will,” I said, putting his card into my purse. “Now may I go please?” He stepped aside and extended an arm toward the door. “If you think of anything that can help.” “I’ll call,” I said. I left the police station, my steps fast even though my feet felt like lead. Each step felt like such a huge exertion of energy. It wasn’t until I was outside and in my car that I collapsed against the steering wheel, heaving and sobbing and barely able to catch my own breath. And when the cascade of emotion and tears and chaotic thoughts passed, I grimly put the key into the ignition. I was going to go down to Steelbarrow, and I was going to get my daughter back. But I couldn’t do it alone… I’d need help. Turns out, I knew someone from Steelbarrow, someone from my past. It just so happened that he was the only other person in the world who would be as determined to get Selah back as I was. TYSON It was a typical night at The Road House. We had club members and normal customers alike partying, drinking, and then there were the girls. Tons of them. Some were hardcore MC groupies who’d do nearly anything to be with a patched in biker. Others had just heard about the banging scene and wanted in on the fun. Either way, it was bedlam… and in a good way. “What do you like, Q?” I asked the prospect standing next to me. Quentin was young, didn’t look like an elephant’s asshole (looks matter everywhere, even in our line of work), was capable, and eager to learn. Kid had a future with us, The Steel Infidels MC, if he managed to get himself patched in. Trial wasn’t over yet. “I mean,” I said, “What really gets you going?” It was clear he didn’t completely understand what I was getting at. I’d noticed him scanning the crowds of girls. “Listen here, Quentin, some fellas, they like a great steak. You know, a juicy filet, perfectly seared on all sides, a gorgeous red in the middle. That s**t costs top dollar. Others like their whiskey. Top shelf s**t, the eighteen year Glenlivets and the like. Others, well, women’s their thing. They burn through them, one after the other. So what’s it for you? What’s your thing?” “I’m partial to the ladies myself,” he said with a somewhat self-conscious grin. “Ha!” I boomed, clapping him on the back. “A man after my own heart. You want some advice? Ah, f**k, doesn’t matter, I’m gonna give it to ya, anyway. Now, if you get your patch — and I’m not saying you will! You still gotta impress us — these broads will be falling over each other to suck your cock.” “Really?” he asked, his expression clearly skeptical. “Bet your ass,” I said. “It sounds crazy, I know, but being an Infidel is like just about the strongest aphrodisiac known to man.” “What’s an aphro—” “It gets their juices flowing, kid,” I said. “All of them?” I snorted. “No, of course not all of them. But a whole bunch of them. The wild ones. The f****d up ones. Those are the best kind of woman because they f**k like it’s the last f**k they’re ever gonna get. No, no, I haven’t finished yet. I haven’t gotten to the advice part. Now a lot of these girls are gonna seem mighty fine the first time. You’re gonna get to know them, you know, pillow talk after the deed has been done. They’re gonna try and reel you in.” I mimed a fishing line with my eyebrows raised at the kid. He seemed to understand but I couldn’t be quite sure. Kid followed instruction well, but he was a little on the slower side, that was for sure. “You mean try to become my old lady.” I clapped him on the back. “Right on, prospect. Right on. But you listen here, now, I’m serious now.” I pulled him close to me, my hand on the back of his neck. “You don’t fall for any of that bullshit. Now see here, in many ways, you’re only as good as your old lady. She’s the stitching that holds the fabric of your tattered ass together. You don’t just pick anyone for that. Now I don’t care who it might be you do pick. Could be the club momma if you’re down with that, hell, could be a random who hangs around, could be one of the strippers, could be a goddamn librarian. The point is, she has to mean something to you. Because you pick just anybody, some trainwreck of a lady, and she’s gonna bring you down with her.” “I think I get it,” he said. “I can have fun fooling around but when it’s time to get serious, I get serious.” “Right on, prospect,” I said. “Right on. Remember, you might marry this gal one day. Helps if you two are right for each other. Helps if she’s worth a s**t. You hear me? Somebody special. Somebody worth it.” He nodded. “I hear you. Thank you.” “Think nothing of it, kid. We help everybody we can, but some people still insist on learning the hard way, on ice skating uphill. I hope you’re not one of them.” “No, I’ll remember what you said.” “Then you’ll be just fine. The world is your oyster. Get as much of that p***y there as you please, but keep your guard up. Be discerning. Be selective. If you get patched in, if you become a bonafide Cobra, that means you gotta have some standards. It means you, and who you bring with you, represent us.” We stood in silence for a while. Hopefully the kid was letting that marinate in his brain, but really, I didn’t know him that well. Maybe all of this was just wasted effort. Maybe it just sailed in one of his ears and then right out the other. “It doesn’t matter, anyway,” he said. “I’m not really… good with the ladies.” I frowned. “Now, I know your vest says prospect on it, but most of these broads know that we don’t just let anybody prospect for us. That’s your foot in the door, amigo.” “I mean, I’ve never had much success before.” “Well, you don’t look like Brad Pitt, I’ll give you that, but you’re not hopeless, my man. Stand a little straighter, that’s right. Don’t slouch, Christ, didn’t your momma ever teach you about posture? Look, f**k it, which one catches your eye? I saw you looking at the blonde one with, right? Long hair?” He nodded shyly. “Wait here,” I said, walking over to the girl. She had been glancing at us for a while now, and as I drew close to her, she fluttered her eyes at me. “Thought you’d never say hello,” she said. She glanced at my patch. “Don’t worry, honey, it’s real.” “I hear there are lots of pretenders.” “It is a problem,” I said. “We got strict rules on Cobra territory and we enforce them. Pretenders get dealt with. So do troublemakers.” “I can be a good girl if you’d like,” she said, biting her lip. “No, baby, I need you to be a bad girl tonight.” She tried to mask it, but on the inside she was clearly jumping for joy at the thought of boning down with me. Hell, I was used to it. I was well over six feet of muscle, tattoos, leather, and grit. It came easy. The patch helped, but I’d never had trouble before it, either. “See my friend over there?” I said, looking his way. “The one who has been staring at me all night?” “Yeah,” I said, jerking my head toward him. It took her a moment, but it gradually dawned on her. “Oh,” she said. “But he’s just a prospect. I can read it on his vest.” “You think we let just anybody prospect for us?” “But I thought we might—” “Ain’t gonna happen,” I said with a smirk. “I got somebody else on my mind, anyway. No offense, you’d suit an Infidel nicely.” “Well, okay then,” she said, walking toward Quentin who now looked incredibly awkward and clearly didn’t know what to do with his hands. I went to the bar and leaned against him, watching Quentin’s fumbling interaction. “Gotta get that kid some reps,” Doc said, approaching me from behind me. “He’s nervous as a w***e in confession.” “He’ll be fine,” I said, giving him a thumbs up. “Speaking of confession,” Doc said. “We got church tomorrow.” “Yeah? What’s up?” “Dunno, Prez didn’t say. Seems serious, though.” “s**t,” I said. “f**k it, tomorrow is tomorrow, ain’t gonna let it ruin tonight.” I glanced over at Quentin with a grin. He was now deep into a kiss with the blonde. “Ah, the look of a proud matchmaker,” Doc said. “Damn right, Doc. Ain’t nothing gonna spoil this night for me.”