Page 4 of Tanner (Dirty Misfits MC 5)
Hell, it made me second-guess coming back to Santa Cruz in the first place.
After everything with Josie and those fucking owners of the strip club, though, I quit. After I got all of those girls squared away at the police station, I went to clear out my locker and I never went back. I didn’t want to be affiliated with anything that was going on there, and I even went so far as to go back to the police station to tell them what I had experienced, what I thought was going on, and what I thought they needed to do about it.
Because the last thing my ten-year-old daughter needed was to be exposed to that kind of a life.
However, stripping did afford me one thing, and that was a great deal of money. Over the years, I had saved up exponentially more than I spent. I didn’t buy lavish studio apartments like my co-workers and I didn’t go out and take myself on shopping sprees. I filled up a college account for my daughter, I paid our rent in advance, and I put back enough money to enroll myself into basic technology courses.
“You excited about work tomorrow, Mom?”
My daughter’s voice ripped me from my trance, and I smiled as I turned around. “Actually, I am.”
Cheyenne rushed over to me and wrapped her arms around my waist. “I’m proud of you, you know.”
My eyes watered as I hugged her back. “That means a lot.”
She peeked up at me. “Are you proud of you?”
I kissed her forehead. “I’m very proud of me, thank you for asking.”
Every time I gazed into her eyes, it was like looking straight into Tanner’s. Not only did she have his stubbornness and independence, but she had his eyes. His thinner lips. Hell, she even had his disheveled hair that couldn't seem to be tamed no matter what I did with it.
She was her father’s child.
And it killed me that Tanner didn’t even know about her.
“Enough about me, though,” I said as I led Cheyenne into the kitchen, “we need to figure out what snacks you want for your birthday sleepover at Shana’s tonight.”
“Oh, I totally got it covered.”
I crooked an eyebrow. “Really now? Did you go shopping for the snacks?”
She shook her head. “Nope. I did something better.”
“What did you do, Cheyenne?”
She fell apart in giggles. “I told them it was a ‘bring their own snacks’ kind of situation.”
I barked with laughter. “You don’t make people bring their own food if you're the hostess.”
“But we aren’t even having it here, Mom!”
I kissed the top of her nose. “Doesn’t matter; they’re at least expecting to eat cake. Do you want them to bring their own cake, too?”
She shrugged. “Cake’s a snack.”
I rolled my eyes. “Come on, you wackadoodle. Let’s go get you a cake from your favorite bakery. And make sure to grab your bag! I’ll take you to Shana’s once we’re done.”
She thrusted her fist into the air. “Yesssss!”
I shook my head as she rushed back down our small hallway and dipped into her room. Some days, I felt guilty that I was raising my beautiful little girl in a two-bedroom apartment. Some days, I wanted more than anything else to buy a home on three or four acres and give her a room she could decorate. A wall she could hang her pictures on.
One day soon. You’re so close.
“All right, Mom!” Cheyenne said as she rushed back down the hallway. “Ready when you are.”
I tossed my keys into the air and caught them. “Then, let’s head on out, princess!”
“Yeah!”
The run to the bakery didn’t take long, but the traffic getting to Shana’s was almost unbearable. It seemed as if we hit every red light and accident from here to Vegas trying to get to that damned house. But once we pulled up and I delivered the cake to Shana’s mother, all felt right with the world.
And my day only got better when my little sister—Sloane—called me while I drove home.
“Hey, hey, hey! What’s crackin’?” I asked.
Sloane giggled. “Just wanted to see how you were feeling about tomorrow, Kraken.”
I rolled my eyes and smiled. “I’m nervous, but it’s a good nervous.”
“I’m just glad you’re out of that strip club. The entire place is practically festering with illegal activity right now.”
“And you know that all the way out in Santa Barbara?”
“D.C. even knows, Summer. That’s how bad it is.”
I drew in a sobering breath. “Then, it’s a good thing I got the fuck out of there.”
“So, are you gonna ask me how my detective work is going?”
I grinned. “That means you have something juicy.”
“Ask, please. I’ve been dying for someone to ask.”
I giggled as I turned into my apartment complex. “All right, how’s the detective work coming along?”
“I’m so glad you asked, sister mine. As you know, I’ve started taking outside clients and bartering my skills for other necessities.”
