Hellbent Hero by Naomi Porter

25

Hero

TARA DIDN’T SO much as wince while getting her tattoo. My woman made me damn proud. Especially when she told the new tattoo artist, she wanted my name spelled out on the fingers of her left hand. I loved the idea and did the same.

My tattoo covered my hand in flames while Tara had dainty ones on her hand. We did without the typical “property of,” feeling it was evident with each other’s name on our hands.

I watched the chick working on my woman. Couldn’t get a good look at her the way her dark hair shielded her face like a curtain. Art had recently hired this woman named Karma to take over half his customer load at Human Canvas. Now that he was sitting at the council’s table, he needed to divide his time between the parlor and the club.

“Can I ask you something?” Tara lifted her gaze to the brunette finishing up the last flame on her tattoo.

“Sure. Just don’t get too personal.” Karma kept her head down, focused on her art while chewing a wad of gum.

“That’s a wicked cobra wrapped around your arm.”

I tilted my head, not having noticed it before. It was pretty wicked.

“Thanks,” Karma snipped.

Tara’s eyes flicked from me back to Karma. “Is it eating itself? Is there some meaning behind it?”

Karma stopped and sighed. She considered Tara a second. If she lost her shit on my woman, there’d be hell to pay.

“The cobra goes back to ancient Egypt. It’s a royal symbol. But an ouroboros tattoo like mine means eternity or circle of life. The dude who trained me did this piece.” She pointed to her arm. “He said it fitted my name, Karma, because what goes around comes around.” She shrugged her shoulders, running her finger over the cobra.

“That’s very cool.” Tara’s brown eyes widened as big as saucers. “I love it. And what does Nova mean?”

Karma went back to work. “Now that’s too personal.”

I leaned forward for a better look. I didn’t see Nova anywhere.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to pry.” Tara chewed on her bottom lip. “How do you like Bastion? Have you met many people? The Bullet is great. There’s karaoke every Friday night. If you’re looking for some drinking buddies, I can hook you up.”

Karma’s head flew up, her blue eyes narrowed at my woman. She clearly didn’t appreciate Roja’s questions. Without saying a word, she grabbed a remote, and music blasted through the speakers. Never heard it before, but it was an angry song. Matched Karma’s attitude to a T.

I placed my hand on Roja’s shoulder, a gentle gesture for her to shut it. She sometimes ran off at the mouth when nervous. It was usually adorable. Karma didn’t find it endearing and I wasn’t in the mood for trouble.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. I removed it, finding Storm’s name flashing on the screen.

“Baby, I’ll be right back.” I kissed her head, showing her my phone and stepped out of the room. “Yeah?”

“Grizz dug up some shit on Paul Walsh. Come by the club to discuss.”

“Fuck, is it bad?”

“I wouldn’t have called if it was good.” Storm sighed. “Also, I’m gonna call church.”

“What’s up?”

“Grizz confirmed Miller is at his cabin. The next couple of days, the overnight lows will be in the upper teens. I want that motherfucker gone.”

Storm wasn’t a vengeful person. He didn’t kill for sport. I didn’t know all the details about what Miller had done to Angel, but I assumed it was worthy of death the way Storm was bent out of shape over him.

“Sounds good. Tara and I should be there in an hour.”

“See ya then.” The call ended.

I inhaled a cleansing breath before going back into the room. I had a hunch that whatever Grizz found was bad. I didn’t want to hurt Tara but keeping this a secret could bite me in the ass later. I needed to keep my woman in the loop, just as I promised.

On the way back to the clubhouse, I held Roja’s hand, admiring Karma’s work. She did a fucking fantastic job.

“Do you like it, mi vida?”

She lifted our joined hands. “I love it. Do you like yours?”

“I do.”

“You have something on your mind. What is it?”

Well, shit. Guess that settled it. I’d tell her what I could.

“Storm had called. I’d asked him to have Grizz look into your dad.”

She twisted in her seat to face me. “Why did you do that? I don’t want anything to do with him. You should’ve asked me first, Hero.”

“He contacted you. We need to know what he’s been up to.”

She pulled her hand away and crossed her arms over her chest. “Jesus! Getting high, that’s what. I haven’t even heard a peep out of him in more than a week. He was probably tripping on acid or something.”

“You’re not stupid, Roja. He mentioned the cat and somehow got your number. We need to know what he’s up to.”

“So that’s why we’re going to the club instead of my place?”

“That and Storm called church.”

She tilted her head, huffing like she was annoyed. “This is a thing, right? When Storm calls church, everyone runs.”

“He doesn’t call it just for the helluvit. He has better things to do, like be with his wife. It’s important.”

She sighed, shifting in her chair. “What’s it about?” She was uneasy about all this, but this was part of my MC life she needed to adapt to. I had every confidence she would be okay. It was just new to her.

“You know I can’t tell you.” I reached for her hand and kissed her knuckles, avoiding her new tattoo. I was damn happy my name was permanently etched on her fingers for the whole world to see she was mine. “We shouldn’t be there long, then we’ll go home.”

“Fine. I’ll hang with Maddy and the others.”

“That’s my girl.”

“Motherfucker!” I roared, pacing in Storm’s office. This wasn’t the news I wanted to hear. “You’re sure?” I turned toward Grizzly.

“Positive. He was released from prison after serving his time, second-degree manslaughter.”

I dragged my hands over my face. “Christ Almighty God! And he’s been out for four months?”

Storm filled my shot glass with tequila.

I tossed it back and nodded for another. “Tara thinks he just abandoned her with her elderly grandma. Nobody ever told her he murdered her mom.”

Storm shook his head. “It’s fucked up, man.

“Fuck. There’s no telling how long he’s been watching Tara. What in hell could he want with her after all this time?”

Grizzly cleared his throat, something he did when nervous. “If you want my opinion, he wants to go back to the way things were before his arrest.”

I fucking wanted to throw up as an image of a little scarlet-haired girl being burned by a cigarette pummeled my mind. I’d searched Roja’s body for every single scar, kissing it better as my heart wept for her sweet innocence stolen from her by her motherfucking father.

I shot him a murderous look. “No.”

Grizzly raised his hands. “I’m just saying. He hurt his daughter when strung out on drugs. No telling what else he did to her other than burning her with a cigarette.” He shifted in his chair and the weight of the world crashed on me. I knew about the worst parts of Tara’s abuse, but it hadn’t occurred to me that her everyday life was probably just as bad. Fuckers like her father never did anything good. I could only imagine how bad things were for her growing up.

Grizzly’s repeated throat clearing got me back in the moment. “It’s possible he’s clean and will stay that way.”

“But you don’t think so?” I asked Grizzly, darting my eyes to Storm’s.

Grizzly collected his long hair and secured it in a hair tie. “When I bounced from one foster home to another, you see a lot of shit. Horrible stuff in group homes. It was why I left. I’d rather live on the streets.”

Ryder flashed in my head. His visitation day wasn’t until Tuesday. I wanted to make sure he was holding up okay and that nobody bothered him.

I missed him. Wanted him in the club where he’d be welcomed and treated like family.

Storm tapped his desk. “If you got what you needed, we need to get to church.”

I grunted, getting to my feet and capped Grizzly’s shoulder. “Thanks, man. I appreciate your help.”

“Any time, brother. Sorry, it wasn’t better news.”

“Not your fault.” I wished I could spare Tara any more pain. She needed to know about her dad. Keeping her informed would help protect her. I didn’t want my woman in the dark about the dangers lurking around her. Knowledge was power.

Before I took her home, I’d get her a can of mace and a knife. She wasn’t trained to handle a gun, but she needed something to defend herself.