Dalton took another shot. “I bet you don’t, but it doesn’t matter. I have no intention of sticking my nose in your business or your clubs’. Neither does Dax or Oceane, who by the way, regrets her harsh words. She wanted to come tonight to apologize, but I told her I would.”

Ice shook his head. “She doesn’t regret one word she said to me.”

Dalton laughed. “No, she doesn’t, but she will behave courteously from now on. I should have come for the visit with her, but I was afraid I would scare you off. Oceane, I knew you could handle.”

“You checked me out?”

“Of course. I know everything about you; don’t doubt that for a second. I didn’t sit back and watch your relationship with Grace progress without knowing who I was giving her to. I love my daughter.”

The action hero who had killed hundreds of men on the screen, who men all over the world admired, showed the love he had for his daughter on his face with a room full of hard-ass bikers.

“Why are you here?” Ice asked.

“Because Grace misses you, and I’m tired of waiting for you to get your head out of your ass and go see her.”

“She’s not angry at me because of Church?” Ice questioned cautiously, wondering if the man was wearing a wire. What normal man would want him involved with his daughter?

“No. My daughter happens to love you.”

“She told you that?” Ice ignored the spike in his heart rate.

“No, she doesn’t have to. I know. I Skype with my daughter twice a week and I saw the changes in her when she started seeing you. It was the first time I’ve seen her really happy in years.

“When she walked out of that house Leon Winston had her locked in, I knew my daughter Adrienne was gone. That monster killed her. Grace survived, but she was only a living shell.

“The last few months, I saw her change. I saw the happiness on her face when she told me you had taken her riding on that motorcycle of yours or when she would be excited that you were riding down to see her. I was overjoyed at the change in her.

“Then, when I come rushing down because two men tried to kill Grace and my wife, you were nowhere around. You lost a few points with me there until her mother told us all she had threatened you.

“Grace thinks you don’t care for her enough to see her because you’re worried over the club. She wants to be more important to you than this.” Dalton shrugged, looking around the room. “I’m to blame for that. I’ve spoiled my women into believing they should always come first.

“Like I said, none of my family will give you any trouble over Grace. If you’ve decided to end it with her, however, you need to talk to her so she can move on. I can’t handle another day of watching her stay in that house, setting that fucking alarm, and seeing another part of her die. I can’t lose her twice.” Dalton’s voice broke as he took another shot. He missed it then laid the pool stick down on the table.

“I was going to see her when you and Oceane left. I know Dax left this morning. I haven’t been to see her, because I didn’t want to upset Oceane.” Ice let Dalton know he was aware of exactly what was happening with Grace. He hadn’t left her; he had taken a step back until her family left.

“In that case, we’ll be gone by tomorrow evening,” Dalton said. “I’ll see you for the holidays. Oceane will have calmed down by then… maybe.” He reached out to shake Ice’s hand, but Ice didn’t take it.

“I’m going to be truthful. I’m not a good man. I never will be. If I was, I would stay the fuck away from your daughter and never see her again. I would give her a chance to find a husband to give her all those kids she wants, and she’d have a normal life. But I won’t. She’s mine. She’s been mine since the minute I saw her.”

Ice was aware of his men listening, probably thinking he was a pussy. However, if he was going to take Dalton’s daughter, the man had the right to know exactly what she was getting.

“I wasn’t always a good man, either.”

Ice studied Dalton’s face, seeing the hard angles and a nose which had been broken several times. Ice then looked at the man’s callused, scarred hands. Those weren’t the hands of an idly wealthy man. His eyes narrowed on Dalton’s arms. He had unbuttoned his cuffs, and Ice caught sight of the bottom half of a tattoo he recognized instantly. It was one of a biker club he always made fun of for being filled with pussies now, but at one time, when Dalton would have belonged to them, they had been some of the meanest fuckers to ride. He didn’t think Grace realized her father wasn’t quite so perfect.

Ice’s hand went out, shaking hands with Grace’s father.

Afterward, Dalton buttoned his cuffs back together before picking up his expensive leather jacket from a barstool. “I better get back before Oceane comes looking for me.”

“Does she know...?”

“Fuck, yeah. She hated it. Can you imagine Oceane on the back of a bike? But she hung in there until I crashed and burned. Then she came to see me in the hospital and told me she was pregnant with Dax. I straightened my shit up fast. A movie producer had seen news footage of my crash and hired me for stunt work. I still got to ride my bike and got paid good money for it. After that, another producer thought I looked better on the camera than the six-figure actor he’d hired and used me. Then we had Adrienne, and when she was born, I left that other life behind. You’re not the only one who fell for her on sight.”

Dalton looked around the clubhouse briefly, his expression not one of a man who regretted what he had walked away from, but a man remembering his past. He nodded toward the bikers standing in a crowd at the bar before turning to leave.

“Ride easy, brothers.”

Chapter 28

Grace stirred the bubbling barbeque sauce then turned the burner down. It would have to simmer for a few hours before it was ready.

When she was upset, she cooked. Right now, she was trying to take her mind off her parents’ abrupt departure. She had thought they would stay for another week.

The silence of the house after they had left had grated on her nerves. She couldn’t mow her already mown yard yet again, so she had decided to keep busy by cooking. When it was done, she would divide it between CeCe and Jones.

The doorbell rang as she put the ribs into the oven, turning down the temperature to low before she went to answer the door.

Looking out her peephole, she leaned her head against the door, not opening it.

“Go away.”

“Open the door, Grace.”

“Go away, Ice. I don’t want to see you.”

Daisy came to her side, leaning against her and whining softly, feeling her heightened emotions.

“Grace—”

“I’m not going to open the door. Ice, please go away.”

As silence came from the other side of the door, she stood there, listening for the sound of his motorcycle to start. When she didn’t hear it, she looked out her peephole to see Ice still standing there, looking back with a determined expression.

Sighing, she keyed in the alarm code and opened her door a small crack.

“There’s nothing you have to say that I want to hear—” Grace broke off as she looked at him, seeing a small, brown nose peeking out of his vest.