Chapter Fifteen

Delany

The smell of coffee woke me, and I turned to find Jason sitting in a chair, watching me while he held a cup in his hand. I did not know why he was in here, or what he wanted. Since everything started, the man barely talked to me. When he did, it was cordial and respectful. The only time I saw any kind of emotion from him was when he was with Harlow. It didn't take me long to see he adored her.

Everyone who knew her saw the exact same thing.

"We need to talk," his gruff voice spoke, causing the hairs on the back of my neck to prickle. Every time someone told me they needed to talk to me, it was generally bad news.

"Harlow?" I asked, sitting up straighter.

"She's fine. She's with Marco, having breakfast."

"She's eating?" I asked in wide-eyed surprise.

"On her second pancake now. Baby girl loves to eat."

I smiled. "Breakfast is her favorite meal of the day."

"Good to know," he said, leaning forward, his face all serious. "Look, Delany, I'm just going to lay everything on the line. I want you to know I'm not happy about this situation either, but to ensure that you and Harlow are safe, you and I are going to have to form a united front."

"Okay?"

"There is a lot you don't know about me. My life is complicated, but what you need to know is that I will do everything within my power to protect you and Harlow. That being said, to do that we need to get married."

I couldn't have heard him correctly.

Married?

Was there alcohol in that coffee? Because there was no way I was marrying a complete stranger. I knew nothing about him, other than that he was the CEO of Calloway Investments. Okay, that wasn't entirely true. I knew of his mother and was best friends with his sister, but that was it. The man barely spoke to me. The only interaction we had was the night we conceived Harlow and the few times we'd talked since.

When I stayed silent, waiting for him to say more, he frowned, then got to his feet and started pacing the room.

He looked agitated, but I couldn't be sure.

The man was hard to read.

"Look," he started, running his hand through his hair. "I'm not used to explaining myself to anyone. I'm used to giving orders and people doing them, no questions asked. There is a lot going on and I don't have the time to explain. I need you to keep trusting me for a little while longer. At least until I can ensure that you and Harlow are safe."

"Does this have anything to do with why we are here and not in an actual hospital?"

"Yes."

"Is your club involved?"

"Yes."

"And this has to do with my father?"

He stopped pacing, looked me dead in the eyes and nodded.

"Jason," I sighed, looking at my hands. "I'm a simple woman. I just want to live my life, raise Harlow, and maybe find someone who will love me back. I didn't ask for any of this to happen, and I'm sorry if my father's past is causing you problems with your friends, but I don't see how us getting married will fix everything. If my father's past is as bad as you say, then maybe Harlow and I should just leave. I've got friends back in Arizona I can stay with. We can make arrangements for you to visit Harlow anytime you want."

"That won't work, Delany. It's gone way past that now. Information has come forward that has changed everything. Marriage is the only way to ensure your safety."

I looked up at him and frowned. "But not Harlow's."

"Our daughter is safe because of me. She has my blood in her veins, which automatically protects her, but you are different. Harlow needs her mother, and I am man enough to admit that I need you too. I know nothing about raising a child. Hell, I'm still coming to grips with fathering a daughter."

"Jason, can't you just tell me what's going on? I'm good with the truth. Just tell me."

"I promise you I will, after we are married."

"You are asking me to trust you with my life, Jason. That's a big ask, considering I barely know you."

"You've trusted me this far. All I'm asking is that you trust me a little longer."

"And when this mess is over, what happens then? We divorce? Go our separate ways?"

Jason slowly shook his head. "No. Once we are married, that's it. There is no divorce."

My head whirled with the implications. I wanted to know what he was hiding. I knew whatever he learned was bad. Just how bad was anyone's guess. Everything I thought of didn't constitute danger on a scale that I needed to marry the man. Yet, whatever it was, he believed marriage was the only way. And since I didn't know what was going on, I would either have to trust him or do nothing.

It was the ‘do nothing' option that worried me the most.

If he was right and I was truly in danger, then whatever happened when I left this place was on me. More importantly, would I be putting Harlow in danger as well? After everything she'd just been through, could I conscientiously endanger her more?

There were too many variables.

The numbers weren't adding up.

No matter how I looked at it, the solution was not simple.

I needed more information.

"You are a businessman. You deal with numbers. The math never lies. I'm the same. I attended NYU and received my degree in business. I can make any figure work, only if I have all the numbers. So, help me out here, Jason. You have to give me something. Anything. Because the longer I look at the problem, the more it becomes unsolvable, and I've never found a problem I couldn't fix."

"You want the numbers?" He smirked. "Alright. Here is the breakdown. We have a daughter. She needs us both. There are people out there who will come for the both of you when they learn you both exist, and trust me, they will find out. In the interim, we have to contend with the investigation into your father and the subsequent aftermath. To do that, you are going to need me, my connections, and my club. But my club has rules, and the only way they will help is if you are legally my wife. It's a clusterfuck, and the only way we walk away alive is if we do it together."

Taking a deep breath, I looked out the window into the bright sun shining down on the city.

I had an idyllic childhood. I had two loving parents that doted on me and loved me until the night they died. I should have been there that night but was asked at the last minute by some friends to go to the movies. While I was having fun, my parents were dying in a house fire. It was something I still hadn't reconciled with. Because of my age, I had no choice but to return to New York City and stay with friends of my parents until I turned eighteen. Life was different in the city, and while I was born in the Big Apple, I never considered it my home. After graduation, I attended NYU and studied hard, forgoing friendships and having fun, determined to make my parents proud.

I wasn't like my friends. I took life seriously, knowing that it could change on a dime. After my parents' deaths, I lived my life cautiously, never taking risks. Then one drunken night, I threw caution to the wind. The result: my beautiful daughter and now my subsequent affiliation to a man I barely knew. Now that man was asking me to trust him with my life, and God help me, I wanted to.

What the hell did that say about me?

I didn't know what the hell was going on, but so far, Jason Calloway hadn't given me a reason not to trust him. In fact, he'd kept his word. Everything he'd said or promised, he'd followed through on.

Turning back to the man, who stood watching me intently, waiting patiently for me to decide my own fate, I took a deep breath and went with my gut. "I'm trusting you to protect me and our daughter."

"I will." He sighed, his body instantly relaxing. "I give you my word."

Nodding, I added, "Then I will marry you."

The second I said the words he needed to hear, everything happened fast. One minute I was sitting in bed, barely awake, making a life altering decision not only for me but for my daughter. The next I was standing in the living room of the penthouse, as men I'd never seen before milled around talking.

"Here, Delany. Drink this." A woman named Largo smiled when she handed me a tumbler half full of amber liquid. I watched Malice stand near the fireplace as he stuck a metal poker into the fire.

The second I agreed to marry Jason, he started making calls.

The first to arrive was a man who introduced himself as Christian Moreno—Jason called him Fury—who wasted no time shoving document after document at me to sign. I knew of Mr. Moreno. I'd seen him in the papers all the time. He was a major player in the city and the father of the heir to Duchene International.

I also learned that he was Jason's attorney.

I tried to take the time to read what I was signing, but Jason told me that the documents were inconsequential, just the legal documents to add me to banking information, medical and life insurance, and shit like that. But when Mr. Moreno asked me to sign an NDA, stating that I was prohibited from ever talking publicly about the Soulless Sinners Motorcycle Club or any of its members, my hand shook when the reality of who I was marrying sank in.

I wasn't just marrying the CEO of Calloway Investments.

I was marrying a member of the Soulless Sinners Motorcycle Club.

The most notorious motorcycle club in the world.

Neither man moved as my hand shook while the pen hovered above the document. Neither said a word, giving me the time to accept my future. And when I looked at Jason, he schooled his features, giving nothing away. Closing my eyes, I prayed I was making the right decision before I signed my name.

The second Mr. Moreno had my signature, he made a call and simply said, "She signed."

Moments later, the elevator doors opened and in walked Caleb Davenport, architect and owner of Davenport Tower, along with his wife Largo Davenport, Christopher Hart, owner and CEO of Hart Tactical Services, Gregory Van Otto, owner and CEO of Van Otto Lapidary and his wife Linsey Duchene Van Otto, the current regent of Duchene International, followed closely by Dr. August Lansing and Malice.

Looking at Jason, I couldn't believe my eyes. Some of the city's heaviest hitters, big names in business, the crème de la crème of the city was standing not five feet from me.

"Delany, you've already met Fury. This is Mercy, his wife Largo, Payne, Vicious, his wife Linsey, and Bane. My brothers... my family."

"Where is Harlow?" Dr. Lansing asked.

Unable to speak, Jason slid next to me, wrapping his arm around my waist, and said, "Third door on the right. Marco is with her."

Dr. Lansing said nothing else when he headed off down the hallway.

"Delany?"

I blinked as my eyes focused on Mr. Davenport—or Mercy, as Jason introduced him.

My head was spinning with the revelation of who I was standing before. Never in my life had I ever imagined being in the same room with such men and women.

"Gonna need you to speak, sweetheart."

"What?"

"There you are." Mercy smiled. "We don't bite."

"Speak for yourself," Malice grumbled, walking away.

Largo, Mercy's wife, rolled her eyes. "Ignore Malice. His bark is much worse than his bite."

For the next hour or so, everyone milled around talking as if it was nothing new to be hanging around, doing nothing. I still couldn't believe what was happening. Never in my life did I ever think I'd be in a room with such heavy hitters. From a business perspective, this was every businessman's dream. But for someone like me, it was clearly too much.

I had nothing in common with these people. I was just the daughter of a decorated firefighter. A single mother who worked part-time as a waitress to put food on the table.

Taking the tumbler Largo gave me, I downed the whole glass before handing it back to her.

"Damn, girl." The woman grinned. "I'm impressed."

"I'm a nobody. I shouldn't be here."

"Come with me," Largo whispered, motioning for Linsey to follow.

Back in my bedroom, Linsey closed the door. Largo sat me on my bed, taking a seat next to me as she reached for my hands. "Delany, I know this is a lot. We know all this is overwhelming. Linsey and I have both been there, but I need you to listen to me. You are right where you belong. You are the bravest woman I've ever met. Few women would blindly marry a man she barely knows. What you are doing for your daughter and Storm, says so much about you."

"Largo's right, Delany." Linsey smiled, kneeling before me. "It takes tremendous courage to do what you are about to do. Not many women would do it. Just keep trusting Storm. He won't let anything happen to you or Harlow."

"That's just it," I muttered. "I don't know what it ... is. Jason's been vague about everything. I know part of it has to do with my father, but as for the specifics, I know nothing."

"The second you are married to Storm, he will tell you everything you need to know. Until then, you just need to be strong for a little while longer."

"Why can't he tell me now?" I asked, looking at Largo.

Largo frowned, looking at Linsey, who sighed. "Delany, you know me, right? I mean, who I am and my story?"

I nodded. "Yes."

"Okay. What the papers didn't say, what they left out, was that I was like you. My sister was the head of Duchene International. I was the spare. I was never supposed to run the company. I never wanted to. Like you, I just wanted to live my life, find someone to love, and maybe raise a family. Overnight, my whole life changed. My sister was dead. I had three little girls that needed me, and I became the interim regent for Duchene International. Trust me. My head was swimming. But I wasn't alone. Vicious helped me through it all. He promised me that everything would be okay, and I believed him. Just like Storm promised you. Believe in him, Delany. These men never make a promise they can't keep."

"And we will be with you every step of the way," Largo added.