Pausing, I swipe a hand over my face.
So much for leaving this shit in the past and starting over.
I don’t know why I ever thought I’d escape this.
I have no idea why I thought I’d ever break free from the chains that bind me to a nightmare that took so much from me.
That’s a fucking lie.
I know why.
Because unlike Pipe, I never cut the cancer out of my life.
“It took five years to find a common thread amongst the kidnappings. That common thread is Yankovich. After we found out he may have had something to do with Alexandria’s disappearance my old man went after him. Two days later they found my parents’ bodies in the bottom of the river.”
“You think Yankovich took your sister?” Jack asks. “And what? Is there a possibility she’s alive?”
My sister’s kidnapping was the cancer.
This break from revenge, giving up on getting Yankovich—that was the remission.
But cancer comes back and usually when it does you’re fucked because it’s an aggressive fucker.
“I know Yankovich took my sister,” I seethe. “I’ve spent every day since I turned nineteen years old trying to find her. It’s why I went nomad with the club. That motherfucker don’t stay in one place. But he’s rarely in the states.”
“Answer the other part of the question, boy. Do you think your sister is alive?”
“No, I don’t. Yankovich doesn’t keep his girls long. The ones that survive his torture are sold to the highest bidder.”
Been fighting that truth for a long time, unwilling to think of my sister like that.
Not willing to accept her fate.
Stryker slams his fist against the table and turns his gaze to me, demanding my attention.
“I found Yankovich’s business card in the Corrupt Bastards' clubhouse,” he confesses, turning to Jack. “What if Rocco is right? What if Yankovich is the one who blew up the Dog Pound?”
“Why us?” Blackie says, turning to me. “Does he know who you are?”
“No, I’ve never gotten close.” The lie escapes me before I can even think about it. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that Yankovich knows who I am.
He’s been playing cat and mouse with me for years.
He all but delivered those men who killed my parents on a silver platter before he disappeared again.
Still, I don’t correct myself because some things are better left unsaid.
I could never get Yankovich on my own, but maybe with the strength of my club behind me I stand a chance.
“Yo, guys…” Riggs says, pulling the skull cap from his head. “Remember when Ronan came to the clubhouse trying to warn us about the Bastards? He mentioned girls. We thought he was fucking talking out of his ass, looking for a handout. What if the motherfucker was right? If Yankovich was working with Charlie Teardrops, then they were making a play for the harbor.”
“Rocco controls the harbor,” Jack mutters.
“Jack, if this is true I can’t sit back and ignore it,” I tell him. “If Yankovich is playing on innocent girls like my fucking sister, this may be my chance to avenge her death.”
“Simmer down, boy,” Jack orders. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves.”
Those are the last words I hear as Skylar’s face flashes before my eyes.
Innocence.
Once the wanderer, I am now a father.
A father whose only purpose is making the world his daughter lives in a safe haven.
I couldn’t protect my sister from the ugly.
But I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure my girl grows up in a better world.
A world where innocence is never lost.
-Twenty-nine-
Cobra
Jack slams the mallet onto the table adjourning our meeting. Keeping my eyes glued on Jack, I remain seated as everyone rises and files out of the garage.
“Prez, I need a word,” I say gruffly, clearing my throat.
He glances over his shoulder at me. Curiously, he narrows his eyes and stares back at me silently before pulling out his chair and taking a seat again.
“What’s on your mind?”
Sighing, I twist the silver rings on my fingers.
“What I said before, about Yankovich not knowing me…I lied,” I confess, watching as he leans back against the folding chair. “He fed me the men he hired to kill my parents and then disappeared.”
“You’re going to have to give me more than that, kid,” he demands.
“Yankovich didn’t take my sister because my family meant anything to him. My father was a car salesman and my mother a banker. They were no threat to a man like Yankovich. He took Alex because she fit his type. He didn’t care that she came from a good home or that she had a bright future. All she was to him was a body. An unsuspecting girl he could use and abuse like all the others. Another face on the back of a milk carton that everyone would forget sooner or later.”
“He got away with taking all those girls, and after a couple of years the heat died down. That’s when Rick, the bounty hunter, was able to get a hit on him. A real location. I don’t know what my father tried to do to that man but Yankovich got wind of it and killed him and my mother. He left a trail of crumbs behind for Rick to uncover, knowing I’d kill them. His hands didn’t have to get dirty if I was the one eliminating his soldiers. I didn’t know at first, neither did Rick, but the more he kept digging the more he was able to connect the dots. The man doesn’t get his hands dirty that often. He sits back and plays people like pawns.”
“So let me see if I follow. You’re saying this bastard sends down an order and some fuck working for him does the crime. Then he eliminates his soldiers by some vigilante justice system he’s working.”
“Sounds about right.”
“This bounty hunter, you still keep in contact with him?”
“Yeah,” I say with a nod. “He had as much invested in nailing Yankovich to the cross as I did.”
“So what changed?” he asks as his eyebrows knit in confusion. “Why’d you give up?”
I’m about to recite the same answer I gave to anyone who asked, the words I’ve drummed into my head, but today the answer has changed.
“I didn’t give up, Jack. I fight that bastard every day I wake. I might not be chasing him anymore but that don’t mean shit. Rick and I couldn’t catch him on our own but maybe with the strength of the club and the help of Spinelli there’s a shot.”
At the mention of Rocco, he swipes a hand over his face and curls his lip in disgust.
“Talk to your bounty hunter, tell him I’d like to meet with him.”
“Will do,” I say, pausing for a beat. “There’s more.”
“Jesus, fuck,” he growls.
“I had a girlfriend,” I start.
“You want a medal?”
Ignoring him, I roll my eyes and continue to speak.
“She was my sister’s best friend…Celeste is her name.”
Her face flashes before my eyes as I glance down at my hands. Then a moment later it’s Skylar’s pretty little face I see. Lifting my head, Jack raises an eyebrow and taps his fingers against the table.
“You going somewhere with this?”
“Her last name is Spinelli.”
“You fucking guys all love that mobbed up pussy,” he hisses, shaking his head in disbelief.
Raking his fingers through his hair he blows out a ragged breath and pops a piece of Nicorette gum into his mouth.
“Fucking going to make me take up smoking again with this shit,” he adds.
“She’s not mobbed up. Rocco’s her cousin. They don’t have much to do with one another. I’m willing to bet he doesn’t know about my sister or that his cousin was affected by Yankovich when she went missing.”
“Well let’s keep it that way until after we meet with Rocco and he gives us everything he’s got on this Russian prick.”
He pauses and bites the inside of his c
heek as he stares at me long and hard.
“Went by the hospital the other day. Wolf was swooning over some blonde nurse, said her name was Celeste. She yours?”
Mine.
Always mine.
I nod.
“Yeah, she’s mine. We’ve been in and out of one another’s lives for years. Timing’s never been our thing and we’ve lost our way a couple of times but now we’re back. It ain’t just me and her anymore. I have a daughter. Her name is Skylar and I’ve missed a year and a half of her life. I ain’t looking to miss another second. I don’t know what Yankovich knows about me, if I’m even on his radar anymore, but I need your help. I’ll give you and this club everything I am, all I got, but I need your word you’ll help me keep them safe. Yankovich has stolen too much from me. From them. Tell me you’ll help me Jack.”
“What’s that patch on your back say?”
“Brooklyn,” I rasp.
“Then what you’re asking of me comes without question. It comes with that patch. You and yours are property of Parrish, kid. If you need to hear the words…here they are. The Satan’s Knights will keep your girls safe.”
Breathing out a sigh, I nod and lean back against the chair.
“Thank you.”
“No thanks required, brother,” he assures, pushing back his chair. “You tell the boys about your daughter?”
“Just Deuce.”
“Well you might want to clue them in. It’s hard to protect something you don’t know exists.”
“I’ll do that,” I reply as he stands and pushes his chair under the table. Tipping his chin toward me he turns for the door. Turning back before he steps out, he stares at me.
“Cobra.”
“Yeah, boss?”
“The men who killed your parents…should I even ask what happened to them?”
Standing myself, I reach into my leather cut and stride toward him. I slip the piece of paper out of my pocket before handing it to him. He momentarily stares at the names crossed in dried blood, smirking at me as he lifts his eyes to mine.
“Think you can guess, right?” I say, taking back the paper and shoving it in my pocket.
Silently we assess one another. An understanding passes from his dark eyes to mine and for the first time I don’t feel like I’m the lone man fighting the impossible.
Call me a fool.
Call me whatever.
But I think we got a shot this time.
Jack pats me on the back before he heads into the lot of Pipe’s garage where the rest of the club is. I stay back, send Celeste a text and then call Rick. He agrees to meet me at a bar in Staten Island. Quick to salute my brothers, I straddle my bike and ignore their questions as to where I’m going. Before I rev my engine, I hear Jack tell them to lay off me.
Cruising over the Verrazano Bridge, I make my way into the forgotten borough and head for Joe Broadway’s on Forest Avenue. Spotting Rick’s beat up mustang, I park my bike right in front of the window and head in.
He’s at the end of the bar, nursing the good stuff. The stuff we’ve been shooting since we first met in Maryland.
Whiskey.
I slide into the stool beside him, the same way he slid next to me at the Satan’s Knight’s clubhouse the day he told me my parents were found. Like I did then, he keeps his head straight and stares at the shelves of liquor.
To anyone watching we’re strangers.
Two lost souls in a bar, drowning their sorrows in a bottle of suicide.
I signal the bartender, point to Rick’s glass and tell him I’ll have the same but to make it a double.
“It goes down smooth,” he comments beside me.
“It burns when it settles,” I add.
“That it does,” he agrees as the bartender places my drink in front of me. I stare at it for a moment before bringing the crystal to my lips and wetting my tongue.
“Been a while,” he finally says as he looks at me from the corner of his eye.
“Thanks for getting me that address,” I offer, taking another long sip before placing the half empty glass on the bar.
“Did you finally use it this time?”
“Sure did,” I reply, biting the inside of my cheek as I pull my phone from my vest and place it in front of him. He lifts the phone and stares at the wallpaper on my screen. A picture I took this morning of Skylar cuddled next to Celeste, both of them fast asleep.
“Remember the girl that switched shifts with Alex that night?”
He angles his head and looks at me.
“That’s her?”
“Yeah, and that little peanut is my daughter.”
“Jesus, Jagger,” he says, dropping his gaze to the phone again. “She’s beautiful, man.”
Handing me back my phone, he tips his glass to me.
“Glad to see something good happen for a change.”
“Thanks, Rick. I appreciate it.”
“But you didn’t call me here to brag about your little girl.”
“No, I didn’t. I brought you here to help me keep her safe.”
His eyes flicker and he leans closer.
“You in some kind of trouble I don’t know about.”
Finishing off my drink, I order another and turn my eyes back to him. I used to wonder what it was about this man that made my father impart all his trust to him. Staring at him now, I know my answer. It’s that flicker in his otherwise dull eyes. It’s the burning need to right all the wrongs no one else can. Maybe it’s his ego. Maybe he’s got a past like mine. Whatever.
He’s no quitter.
Earlier Jack mentioned vigilante justice, and I know without a doubt Rick Grayson wrote the constitution on that judicial system.
“What if I told you I got intel on Yankovich,” I say finally.
“I’d say you’re fifty shades of fucked,” he says with a laugh.
“I’m not kidding, Rick,” I press. My eyes sweep the bar before I inch closer to him and level him with a look. “He’s edging in on Victor Pastore’s territory. I don’t know all the details, his successor and the club are still trying to gather what they can. After years of radio silence the motherfucker is back. I will get him, Rick. This time when I dig his hole, his fucking body will be dropped.”
I expect to see fire in his eyes like every other time we got a hit on Yankovich. I expect him to ball his fists and ask me when and where. I expect him to smile that cocky grin and agree with me.
I got none of that.
Instead he stares at me like I’ve lost my motherfucking mind.
“Did you hear me, Rick?”
“Unfortunately,” he mutters, sighing as he pushes his empty glass aside. “Thought you were done, boy. Thought you put this bastard to rest.” He tips his chin toward me. “Thought you came here to tell me you found there’s more to life than avenging a cocksucker who ain’t worth your piss. Jagger, we fought hard, man, we gave it all we had, and we got further than most.”
“I did come here to tell you there is more to life than Yankovich. I came here because there is a little girl that deserves a bright future. Even though I just found out about my daughter, I know now why my father lost himself to revenge. Losing my twin sister gutted me and left me hollow. I even resented my parents because I thought my grief trumped theirs. Now that I have my own kid, I can’t even comprehend what they felt.”
“So we’re not doing this for Alexandria, is that what you’re saying? We’re not doing this because that motherfucker took out your whole fucking family? We’re doing this for the sake of your daughter.”
“Let’s call a spade a spade, brother. You’ve just said it yourself, that man has taken everyone from me. I won’t let him take them too. I won’t even give him the chance to know their fucking names. Come on, Rick, let’s take this motherfucker out once and for all. Me and you.”
“You, me, your club and some amateur gangster,” he corrects.
“That’s right,” I tell him, watching as he mulls it over.
“One last time, Jagger. After this, if we don’t get him…I’m done.”
“You’ll never hear from me again.”
“Well now, what kind of shit is that? I’d like to think that little girl of yours deserves a chance to know her Uncle Rick.”
My lips quirk.
“She will know you, man, because this time we will win.”
This time I feel it in my gut.
-Thirty-
Celeste
When I was a girl, I never thought much about having a family of my own. Sure, I wanted it but unlike Alexandria, I didn’t plan for it. Alex should have been born with a copy of ‘Modern Bride’ in her hand. At the age of eight she knew the kind of wedding dress she wanted, the song her and her future husband would have their first dance to and the names of all her children.
Me, I was lucky I knew how to tie my shoelaces.
Had I taken the time to dream, I would have dreamt for this.
I would have dreamt of Jagger. I would have dreamt of this moment. Watching as he stands alongside our daughter, holding her as she rides the carousel for the first time.
I would have dreamt of her.
My beautiful Skylar.
Holding onto her daddy for dear life. She laughs and Cobra smiles at her, soaking it all in. My heart feels as though it might burst.
So maybe I didn’t have my life planned from a very young age, but in the end I wouldn’t change the one God planned for me.
Through the good and the bad, through all the heartache, I wondered what my purpose was. I wondered what God had planned for me.
This.
He planned this.
I’m going to church on Sunday, and providing it doesn’t burst into flames when I walk inside, I’m going to say a prayer and thank him.
The ride comes to an end and I watch as Cobra lifts Skylar off the horse with ease. He spins her around enticing a fit of giggles from her. The park is full of kids but in that moment she’s the only one who exists.
The Nomad Series-Collectors Edition Page 51
