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“Colton Harrow isn’t making it easy,” I say.
The guys and I originally agreed not to tell Quicksilver about him, but I’d rather he hear it from us than see it on the news. We’re in charge of his daughter’s safety, and his trust is one I would hate to shatter. Michael’s frown tells me he’s been thinking about the Black Devils, too.
“What’s his latest move?” he asks.
“Nothing last week, but we’ve seen a few unknown bikes ride past the clubhouse over the past few days,” I tell him. “Rest assured that Nadia is perfectly safe. The clubhouse itself is impenetrable.”
“I hope so. You didn’t spend all those years in the Navy for nothing,” he scoffs. “How is she, by the way? Nadia.”
“You two don’t talk?”
He chuckles dryly. “Nadia is Cassandra 2.0, Drake. Hard-headed and proud. We argued a couple of weeks back, and she is still avoiding me.”
“Don’t get mad, Quick, but she sounds more like you than Cassandra. Hard-headed. Proud. That’s a Kessler thing,” I shoot back. It makes him laugh. “She’s good, though. Nadia’s good. Hard-working girl. Sticks to her job. Stays out of trouble. I couldn’t ask more from a bartender.”
“Glad to hear it,” he says, exhaling sharply.
The years have been good to Michael Kessler despite his troubles. Losing Cassandra to illness took its toll, as evidenced by the abundance of white hair overtaking his once blonde mane, but his blue eyes remain as bright and sharp as ever.
“Does she seem happy to you?” Michael asks.
“What are you trying to find out, exactly?” I reply.
“I don’t think she wants to work for me. I don’t think she wants anything to do with me,” he lets another long sigh out of his chest, then pushes a piece of meat around his plate with a fork before he bites into it. “She keeps saying she’ll only spend a summer at the clubhouse, but it’s already August, and she has shown no intention of leaving that place.”
“Quick, what’s the rush, if you don’t mind me asking?” I reply. “If she likes it there, if it makes her feel like she’s doing something with her life, why not just let her?”
“Because Nadia isn’t supposed to rot behind a fucking bar,” he says, his tone clipped. “She’s destined for bigger and better things. I don’t want her involved with the MC, Drake, and I’m merely entertaining her whim. If her mother were still here, she’d know how to talk some sense into Nadia’s head. I’m not good at that.”
“You need to calm the hell down,” I say. “As long Orion, Kai, and I are there, Nadia is safe and well taken care of.” Besides, I don’t want him to take away our lover, our woman. Not when we’ve only just found her. “I’m sure she’s still finding her own way through life, Quick. And the more you push her, the harder she will push back. This is one of those moments where you really do need to let your baby go. Besides, she’s not a baby anymore. She’s a grown woman. And she’s carving her own path.”
“What about the other guys? The members. The prospects. You three aren’t always around,” Michael mutters.
I laugh again. “Dude. We’re not fucking animals. You were an Iron Horse once. You should know better. We have rules and hard lines. The boys have nothing but respect and admiration for Nadia. Even the prospects. They know not to even think about trying something.”
“Good, I’m glad to hear that.”
I can’t help myself. I’m indebted to Michael to the point where I am compelled to tell him every other truth except the biggest and most shameful one. “We had a prospect who overstepped his bounds, but he was swiftly kicked out of the club and banned from the premises altogether.”
“Okay,” Michael replies, his gaze darkening for a split second.
“Orion beat the shit out of him,” I say, reading the old man’s mind. “I told you, she’s safe with us. She will always be safe with us. And should the shit ever hit the fan, she’s been made aware of the possibilities. She knows when to hightail it out of there.”
Michael takes a moment to consider this whole situation, and I can tell he’s frustrated that he can’t reach out to his daughter more. Ironically, they still live in the same house, yet they actively avoid each other.
They do have a healthier relationship than what I had with my dad. My father was a fucking monster. A worshipped man among the Blackthorn Riders, but a fucking monster at home. Nadia had it better. I want to make sure she’ll always have it better.
“How close is Colton Harrow to the clubhouse?” Michael asks after a while. “What is his next move, Drake? I tried to talk to Paddy about it, but he keeps telling me not to worry.”
“Listen, we don’t know enough about the guy at this point,” I tell him. “We’re still digging, trying to figure out who he was before he came to Orange County as Colton Harrow. Our contacts in the federal government are actively searching for him. His fingerprints haven’t popped up anywhere, which is interesting.”
“It means he didn’t have a criminal record prior to coming here.”
“Yeah, or at least he was never caught. It begs the question, why did he assume a new identity? And how do we prove it? From what I understand, he’s already provided the local authorities with the appropriate documentation, but I’m certain it’s fake. Without reason or proof, however, we can’t push it legally.”
“Who do you have working on him now?”
“Garcia, from Social Security, and Clarkson, in the DEA. They’re higher up the food chain than our other former teammates,” I say. I could use a contact in the NSA if you’ve got one.”
