Priest: A Motorcycle Club Romance (The Viking’s Rampage MC: Tucson Chapter Book 2)

I stepped into the apartment and frowned. Jenny had called hours ago and asked to bring the girls to the house. I would have thought they’d have been back before me. We had still been hiking back to the truck when she called.

Heading back downstairs, I caught Lockout’s attention. “Did you talk to Taz and the girls before they headed over to the Oro Valley house?”

“She popped her head in my office real quick and let me know they were going.” Realization lit his eyes. “They aren’t back yet?”

“I’m sure it’s fine. One or more of the girls probably just fell asleep after dinner.” Worry coiled in my gut. I hoped that was all it was.

Pulling my phone out, I was about to call her when the phone rang. Irritated, I connected the call. “Yeah?”

“Umm, is this Grant Mitchell?”

“Yeah, who’s this?”

“This is Abe Holland.”

The lawyer I’d hired to help with gaining custody of Caitlyn. I’d been too distracted to recognize his voice. “Yeah, sorry. What’s up?”

“I just wanted to let you know I finished filing all the paperwork with the court this afternoon. You should be getting a call about an official court date soon. I also spoke with CPS and other than some home visits to make sure everything is working out satisfactorily you shouldn’t have any trouble officially adopting Caitlyn.”

“Thanks man. I appreciate that.” I listened as he rambled on about a few other things.

What he said next had the blood icing inside my veins. “If you happen to have a change of address or any contact information, you’ll want to file some paperwork with the court and the CPS office. It’s really simple to do-”

“Wait.” He paused as I interrupted him. “The paperwork you filed today. What was the address on it?” He listed off my Oro Valley house and my eyes closed. We’d covered our bases with CPS, but it never occurred to any of us that the documents that get filed with the court would be online for everyone to see. “Okay, thanks. I’ll have to call you back tomorrow to finish going over all this.”

My hoarse voice must have notified the others standing nearby because they crowded closer as I hung up on the lawyer. Before I had a chance to open my mouth, Lockout’s cell phone rang.

Relief washed over his features as he answered and switched it to speaker phone. The expression vanished and every muscle in my body tensed as I heard my little girls screaming.

“Taz!” I shouted. There was nothing. No answer, but something thumped loudly.

That was all I needed. I was out the door before I’d even realized I’d started moving. Time passed in a series of flashes as we raced over toward my house. I didn’t ask my brothers to come, didn’t need to. I knew they would be following me. The bike vibrated below me. I saw Lockout pull up beside me as we pushed the limits on our bikes.

Nothing was going to stop me. Not red lights, stop signs, or the flash of red and blue lights that pulled in behind us. Gritting my teeth, I tried to push for more speed but my bike was maxed out. We were flying down the road and I didn’t give a single fuck that the Oro Valley Police were hot on our heels.

The house came into view and we all rolled to a stop. I was off my bike before I had a chance to put the kickstand down. Letting it fall to the concrete, I ran across the driveway.

I was only steps away from the front door when someone tackled me from behind. Fury exploded within me and I fought back. “My fucking kids are in trouble, you piece of shit!” I bellowed right in the cop’s face.

We were rolling around on the ground. I knew better than to punch him—though it took every ounce of willpower not to—but I wasn’t about to let him prone me out beneath him and cuff me.

“Let me go! Now!”

I glanced over and saw my brothers being detained by the cops before they could even get off their bikes. Lockout met my gaze and nodded. That was all I needed. The cop on top of me had rolled me onto my stomach, so I jerked my head backward. The feel of his nose breaking against my skull was a small consolation. Lockout would settle the situation outside.

Darting to my feet, I rushed into the house. I didn’t yell for them. If Chet was still here—because who else would have come after them—I didn’t want him to know I was inside. Pulling my gun out, I ran back and found them in Wendy’s room.

Jenny was standing between Chet and my girls, a shovel gripped in her hands. There was blood on the end of it. Her eyes widened when she saw me and there was a small amount of relief mixed in with the fear. Her face was pale and there was a stream of blood running down her face from the split skin between her eyebrows. Seeing her hurt and bleeding made my own blood boil.

“Get away from my family,” I growled at Chet. I had my gun trained on him, but there was no way I could shoot. Not in front of my girls. Not in front of Caitlyn. I would try to spare them seeing that. Not to mention, at this distance, if I missed or if the round went through him, I’d hit one of my girls.

Chet had turned to face me and an evil grin split his face. There was blood trickling across his right eye from where Jenny must have hit him with the shovel. He was a maniac. “I don’t think you’re going to take the chance of shooting and missing,” he taunted. The man wasn’t completely stupid and it meant I was going to have to disarm him another way.

“Let them go.”

“Fuck you! That’s my daughter. I’ll do whatever the fuck I want with her.” Spit flew from his mouth as he hissed at me.

“You’re a fucking idiot if you think I’m going to let you hurt her,” I told him, my rage settling down and allowing the calm demeanor I adopted whenever I had to kill to take over.

“You can take the woman and the other kids,” Chet said. “I won’t stop you, but Caitlyn is mine.”

My gaze met wide brown eyes. Tears were flowing down Caitlyn’s face. She started to stand and Gabby grabbed a hold of her, forcing her down next to her. None of us were going to give that little girl up to this asshole.

I tilted my head as I holstered my gun. I stepped forward as I spoke. “I can take the woman and other kids?” I repeated back to him. “As in, you’ll allow me? Motherfucker, you don’t understand. They’re mine. Including Caitlyn. You won’t do to her what you did to Sherry.”

The color leached out of Chet’s face as he stepped back. This wasn’t playing out the way he thought it would. Despite putting my gun away, he was even more terrified now, as he should be. “How do you know about-” He shook his head as though to clear it. “Sherry’s dead?”

“You killed her,” I insisted. I brought my hand up, pointing right at him as emphasis.

“I thought I had,” he muttered. He was trying to back his way to the door. I started to sidestep, trying to put myself between him and the girls. We were halfway there when he started blubbering. “She wasn’t there.” His eyes narrowed and I saw a spark of madness there. “Caitlyn’s all that’s left of her.”

I knew then that he wasn’t going to let his daughter go. Every day that he lived, her life would be in danger. Chet’s gun hand had dropped as he realized his wife was dead. I couldn’t be sure whether he was sorry about that or happy.

Everything happened quickly. I ran forward intent on getting my hands on Chet. He turned and raised the gun. I didn’t care if he ended up shooting me, as long as he wasn’t going after my family. My hands were outstretched, ready to grab the weapon from him. We both watched with wide eyes as the head of the shovel smacked directly into his skull.

The wet thud preceded Chet dropping to the floor like a sack of potatoes. Jenny raised the shovel over her head and was about to bring it down on Chet’s head again.

“Freeze!”

I slammed into her, preventing her from braining the dickhead on the ground a second time. She let out a groan of pain when I did, but there wasn’t time to check where she was injured. Wrapping her in my arms, I covered her body in case the cops behind us got trigger-happy. They weren’t going to shoot a group of little girls, but Jenny and I both had weapons on us.

My body stilled, and I kept Jenny pinned against my chest. “Just hold still,” I whispered to her. “Everything will be okay.”

“Drop your weapons!”

I took the shovel from her and, slowly and rather dramatically, squatted down, setting the shovel and my gun on the ground before I stood up again.

“Move away from them.”

Pushing her backward a few steps, I turned and faced them, arms up, with her safely behind my body.

“Step to the side,” the cop ordered. There were three of them inside the crowded room. “Keep your hands up.” Two of their guns were pointed at us as one of them checked Chet’s pulse.

“He broke in here and tried to hurt us,” Jenny told them. Her voice shook and her voice was tight with unshed tears. “Grant came here to protect us.”

Uncertainty filled their eyes as they listened to her. They glanced over at the girls. “We have to take you in to figure all this out,” the lead cop told her. “Both of you turn around, slowly.”

“Listen to them,” I told her and did as he asked. “We’re not in danger anymore. Just listen to the cops and we’ll get this fucking mess all sorted out.”

“Down on your knees.”

We both knelt on the ground. I glanced over and it broke my heart to see my girls crying. “Stay there,” I told them. “We’ll be just fine, okay? Just listen to the policemen alright? I’m going to talk to them and then we’ll be heading home together. They won’t hurt you.” What I wanted to do was drop kick the asshole who was about to put cuffs on me, but even I had to concede to my own advice. Tonight was just another in a long list of traumatic nights for my girls. Watching their father get shot by the police was the last thing they needed.

Gabby nodded and held onto Caitlyn tighter as the little girl struggled in her hold. Caitlyn looked frantic.

I met her gaze. “We’re okay. I promise. Everything will be okay.”

“Lay down on your stomachs. Put your arms out like an airplane,” the cop instructed.

“That might be hard,” Jenny told them. “That guy over there kicked me in my ribs and they hurt pretty bad.”

“Get the EMT’s” the cop directing us told another. “Fine,” Put one arm out like an airplane and keep the other by your side. You’d better not go for a weapon,” he warned her.

Anger and worry flooded me as I listened to him speaking to her, barking at her was more like it. I wanted to run my hands over her, check that she was okay for myself.

As soon as we assumed the positions the officers came in and I grunted when one knelt his weight onto my back as he jerked my hands behind me. The cuffs clicked tightly over my wrists. I turned my head and found Jenny watching me. I schooled my features into a cold mask. She didn’t need to see me pissed off that they were arresting us when fucking Chet had tried to kill my family.

The cops helped us stand up and walked us toward the door. “Wait,” I called out. “Those are my kids.”

“CPS will be called.”

“No,” Jenny said, shaking her head as the second cop finished searching her. Satisfied that she didn’t pose a threat, he helped her up, being careful of her ribs.

“Both of you are being detained until we figure out what happened here,” the officer told her, helping her to her feet. He was being kind to her so I kept my mouth shut. I wasn’t happy to see his hands on her, but they weren’t about to uncuff me so I could help her.

“Their Aunt Kit can pick them up from the police station,” she told them. “She’ll meet us there if you let me call her.”

EMS pushed their way into the room and loaded up Chet’s body onto a gurney. We all watched as they wheeled him out.

“Is he…dead?” Jenny asked.

“Yeah, he is,” the cop answered. He looked down at her and saw the fear on her face. “If what he says is true,” he says, motioning to me, “then it will be self-defense. But we have to look into it.”

“What’s the number?” the second cop asked Jenny, holding up a phone.

She rattled off the clubhouse phone number. We listened as the cop talked to Kit and relief made my knees almost buckle as I heard him tell her that we’d meet her at the station.

Another EMT came in and poked and prodded at Jenny. I was worried about her. Each time he put pressure on her ribs she winced. “They’re just bruised,” he told her. “I’ll wrap a bandage around them and it’ll make things more comfortable for you. I’ll clean that up, too,” he said, pointing at the cut between her brows.

“Let’s go,” the officer said to me.

“Go with the police,” I told the girls. “You’ll be safe with them.” The cop holding onto my arm shoved me out of the house and into a cop car. None of my brothers were around so I assumed they’d already taken them in.

Laying my head back against the seat, I shut my eyes. I was holding onto my control by a thread. It wouldn’t help any of us if I lost my shit in the back of a police cruiser. Seeing my girls and my old lady’s scared expressions as they’d walked me out had made me want to fight back. Instead, I’d had to swallow down my anger and go peacefully.

It didn’t take long for the uniformed cops to take me to the police station and book me. They shoved me into a holding cell near my MC brothers.

“Are they okay?” Lockout asked, worry coating the words.

“Mostly. Chet went after Taz before I got there. Bruised her ribs. She got him back though. Bashed his skull in with a shovel. He’s dead.”

Butcher chuckled from where he sat on the other side of the cage. “I knew I liked your old lady.”

“What happened to you?” I asked Lockout, who was sporting a split lip and a black eye.

“Had to give you a chance to get your ass in the house,” he said with a shrug.

“Lucky you didn’t get fuckin’ shot fightin’ back like that,” Hush muttered. “Especially with the rest of us already sportin’ handcuffs.”

“Where’s Riptide?” I asked, looking around.

“Hospital. He wasn’t cuffed up yet either so he helped Lock.”

Dread swirled around inside me as I heard that. “Is he-”

“He got tased,” Toxic told me. “He’s fine, but he hit his head on the ground pretty fucking badly, so they took him in to get checked out.”

I leaned my head back against the wall. “Fuck. I shouldn’t have told her she could take the girls to the house.”

“This isn’t your fault, Priest,” Lockout snapped. “None of us knew he’d end up looking through the fucking court files to find Caitlyn. We thought if anything he’d start with CPS. Not go around them entirely.”

“Who knew the asshole was smart enough to think of that?” Toxic asked.

Guilt still pricked at me as we settled in to wait. If this caused me to lose custody of Caitlyn—or my other daughters—it was going to fucking destroy me.