A memory I can place.
Stryker.
Once upon a time, I thought he was the man who would rescue me. For a brief pause in tragedy, I foolishly believed I could be worthy of a happily ever after. He was different. He wasn’t heartless like the rest of the Satan’s Knights of Albany. Stryker was the last man, no, the only man who ever gave a damn about me. Like Deuce, he would look at me with pity in his eyes. At the time I didn’t know it was pity and thought it was more. I thought maybe he could care for me and see past the mess I had become and find the woman I should’ve been.
That was then.
Now, I know the difference.
Maybe that’s why I hate the way Deuce looks at me.
Maybe that’s why it hurts so much.
Wolf stays close to me as the other two men walk into the apartment. Their voices start to raise and the name Cobra is spoken repeatedly until I hear the leader of the pack’s voice again. I rack my brain, trying to remember his name but all that comes to me are the words he uttered after he ordered them not to kill me.
Property of Parrish.
“You won’t find anything wrong with her. There was someone taking care of her the whole time,” he says.
“What do you mean, someone took care of her? Who?” the familiar female voice questions.
Another man steps toward me and my eyes automatically zoom in on his patch.
Riggs.
Wolf releases my hand and Riggs gently takes a hold of my bicep as Jack appears in the doorway.
“You’re okay, darlin’,” Wolf reminds me as Jack takes my other hand and urges me through the door.
“Her,” Jack says, presenting me to a room full of strangers as he releases my hand. Nerves take over and the need to flee beckons me. I struggle to pull out of Riggs’ grip as he tightens his hold on me, forcing me to remain still. Anxiety builds and I wish to forget, to disappear into the oblivion that saves me from my truth. I run my nails over the track marks on my arm and lift my head. Immediately my eyes find Stryker and I watch as he wraps his arms around a beautiful woman with the brightest green eyes I’ve ever seen.
“Hello?” a voice calls.
Tearing my eyes away from another heartbreak, I turn to face the familiar voice and find the biggest one of all. There are indelible imprints on our hearts that no matter what villain, whether it's our mind or drugs, nothing ever lets those imprints fade. It’s what forces our hearts to beat through the chaos.
It’s the people who touch us.
The people you don’t forget even if they forgot you.
It’s the people you love.
Shock invades her perfect features as she stares at me. For a moment I wonder if I left an indelible imprint on her heart.
One that wasn’t forgotten.
One that was never lost.
Skylar rushes to her, forcing me to pull my eyes away and look at the sweet girl who in such a short time left another indelible imprint.
“Ally, baby,” Skylar says.
“Oh my God,” her mother whispers.
Bending down, I take the doll from Skylar’s hand and look back at the girl who knew me before the world swallowed me whole.
“It can’t be,” she cries. “Is it you?”
I dreamt of this moment.
I’d block out the torture and let myself drift away to a place where I was reunited with the people who kept my heart beating through the chaos.
The woman staring at me is one of those people.
She’s one of those imprints.
She was my best friend.
The sister I chose, the one God forgot to give me.
“Alexandria?” she whispers.
My eyes fill with tears as I grind my teeth and nervously drop the doll. She takes a step closer, then another until she’s standing in front of me. Her fingers touch my chin and I let out a whimper.
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
Dreams don’t come true for a girl like me.
“We might not be sisters by blood…” Celeste whispers.
Celeste…the girl I once wished would marry my brother one day and become my real sister.
A wish I made before I was lost.
Before the world forgot me.
Before she forgot me.
Blinking, the tears fall down my cheeks as I stare back into the eyes of a miracle.
“But we’re sisters of the heart,” I rasp.
-Eleven-
DEUCE
My upbringing may not have been perfect, but it’s all I know, and I’ve always been proud to ride. I’ve seen my share of broken halos but there has never been a time in my life where I wished I was cut from a different cloth. Even after everything that happened in Arlington, I didn’t want to be anything more than what I was. I’ve never wished for more than leather.
Until today.
Until Ally lumped me into the same category as the men who ruined her. She doesn’t know she’s free or that the last twelve years of her life are over. In her tortured mind, she believes the torment will continue. She doesn’t know the Satan’s Knights of Brooklyn aren’t about that life. Ally sees the reaper on our backs and thinks we’re all like Rush. She doesn’t know that heart is the foundation of this charter or that every man with Brooklyn embroidered to their leathers has now vowed to serve and protect her.
She’s not just property of Parrish.
She’s more.
She’s the face of every lost child who never found their way back home.
The door next to me opens, pulling me away from my thoughts and I turn my head a fraction to watch Wolf slide in beside me.
“Fuck me,” he grunts.
“I’ll pass,” I mutter as he pulls a cigarette out of his pack with his teeth and flips me the bird. “Should you be smoking? You just had a fucking heart attack.”
“Remind me why we didn’t leave you in Albany?”
“I think our plates are full, man. Not sure if we can add a funeral to the fucking mix.”
“Then it’s a damn good thing I ain’t dying, yeah?”
Realizing I’m not going to win, that Wolf is his own judge and jury, I grab the pack of cigarettes and take one for myself.
“How you feeling? I thought you would’ve gone up there yourself to deliver Cobra’s little girl to her mama,” he says.
Blowing out a ring of smoke, I consider his words. I’ve become tight with Cobra since we started staying at the motel. I got to know his girl, Celeste, real well too. Well enough that they both trusted me to take care of their little girl. Cobra gave me his most prized possession and in ten minutes I got her kidnapped.
“As long as she’s where she belongs that’s enough,” I tell him finally.
A scream sounds causing both of us to turn our attention to the three-story house.
“What the fuck happened now?”
“That was Celeste,” I growl, throwing the cigarette out the window as I reach for the handle of the door.
“Jesus, fuck,” Wolf grunts. “Don’t worry about the fucking cigarettes killing me, at this rate it’s going to be Cobra and his whole fucking clan,” he says as he climbs out of the truck.
Before either of us can get out of the car, the front door opens and our brothers race down the stairs with Celeste and Ally in tow.
“What the fuck, Parrish?” Wolf calls.
“Cobra’s at the pier making a play on Yankovich,” Jack shouts as he throws his leg over his bike.
“Shit,” I hiss. “He’s going to get himself fucking killed because he thinks Yankovich has Skylar.”
“Don’t let those two out of the car,” Blackie orders, pointing to Celeste and Ally as he revs his engine. I turn around and watch as Celeste pushes a disgruntled Ally into the back seat.
“Wolf, get in the car,” Celeste shrieks.
“Blondie,” I start, trying to calm her but she keeps her eyes pinned on Wolf.
“Do I have to remind you I changed your fucking catheter?” she shrieks
, digging her finger into his chest. “Drive the fucking car, Wolf.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he replies, sliding into the car.
I barely make it into the passenger seat before he starts to peel away from the curb. Pain shoots through me as he swerves in and out of traffic and I fall forward against the dashboard.
“Shit, sorry, man,” he mutters.
“Just fucking drive,” I grind out.
“He’s going to be okay, right? Deuce, I need you to tell me Jagger is going to be okay,” Celeste pleads with me from the back seat.
Bracing one hand on the dash, I lean back and glance over my shoulder.
“There ain’t no way in hell that man is going to dip out on you and that little girl,” I promise.
“He doesn’t know Skylar’s safe,” she cries, turning to Ally. “God, he needs to see his sister.”
Turning my gaze to Ally, I watch as she closes her eyes. Her nails dig into her skin as she relentlessly scratches until she draws blood. The girl is a mess and has officially disconnected from life. Not that I blame her, in the last twenty-four hours she’s witnessed a murder and started withdrawing. While the world she’s been a part of for the last twelve years may have been full of shit, it’s all she knows. Now, she’s sitting next to a woman she used to call her best friend and is about to see her twin brother for the first time in twelve years.
I only pray we’re not too late and he’s still breathing when we get there.
“Open the glove box,” Wolf orders. “Grab the gun and stay in the car with girls.”
“I’m not staying in the car,” I argue. “If that motherfucker is waging a war then I’m all in.”
“You can barely fucking walk,” he reminds me. “Now, boy, don’t fuck with me. I’m dead on my ass and hungry as fuck. You stay with the girls and let the rest of us do our jobs,” he barks, pulling into the shipping yard.
“Holy shit,” he hisses as he pulls the truck to an abrupt stop and we stare straight ahead.
If you ask any of us with a patch, we’ll tell you there isn’t a thing in this world that surprises us anymore. We’ve seen the shit you fear and have committed some pretty heinous crimes. We’ve all sacrificed our morals and pissed on our beliefs, but I’m certain none of us have crucified ourselves to the cross quite like Cobra is about to.
I suppose that’s what happens when you’ve spent your life looking for answers, desperate for a way to make things right. I suppose it’s what happens to a man when he’s lost everyone he’s ever cared about and thinks he’s the only survivor. I guess you hold nothing back and surrender when you’ve truly found yourself at the end of the line.
That’s my final thought before Wolf jumps out of the truck and starts running behind Jack, Blackie, Riggs and Stryker. Their boots pound the wooden dock in pursuit of Cobra who strips his cut and throws it on the ground.
Locked and loaded, he strides down the pier, shooting at Yankovich’s men with no regard.
No regard for their lives.
No regard for his.
No regard for anything.
Suddenly, Celeste gets out of the car and runs toward them. By the time I grab the gun and get my ass out of the truck, Ally is following her.
Celeste screams as Yankovich’s men fire back at Cobra and she starts running toward the chaos. No one stops and thinks of themselves as we all, including Ally, charge toward Cobra and the stand-off he’s having.
Then the wind changes.
“Riggs, press the fucking button,” Blackie bellows.
Apparently, Jack was anticipating the second shipment on the docks and had ordered Riggs to wire the containers and blow Yankovich’s shit to smithereens. The only way out of this war is to detonate the explosion, but fucking Cobra thinks his daughter is in that goddamn container.
“Cobra, get down,” Riggs shouts.
“Do it now,” Blackie commands.
“No,” Cobra screams, dropping his guns to the floor. Spreading his arms wide, he closes his eyes and drops to his knees, offering himself to Satan. Bullets swirl through the thick fog, piercing his flesh.
The shouting stops.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
As Cobra’s scream vibrates through our souls, Riggs presses the button. A blast sounds at the end of the dock, lighting up the sky in hues of orange and red.
“No!” Celeste shouts.
“Jagger,” Ally cries.
I try to chase them, but in my condition, I’m no match for the two women running toward him and they reach his body before I can stop them. Celeste reaches him first. Falling to her knees, she cries and begs him not to leave her.
“I’m sorry…” he rasps. “I…couldn’t…save—”
“She’s okay,” Celeste interrupts. “She’s safe, baby. She’s home. Jack brought her home. Did you hear me? Skylar’s safe, it’s over, Jagger. There’s nothing left to fight except for your life so you can watch her grow up, so you can be there for her and this baby. Please. Please don’t leave me.”
Stopping in her tracks, Ally stands a few feet away from her brother, trembling as she watches him die a slow death. Debating whether or not to comfort her, I hesitantly reach for her but she takes a step forward out of my reach.
She stands over her brother’s body and the world stops.
In that one instant, everything changes. She pushes her hair away from her eyes and he sees her. He looks up into her eyes and the two lost souls who suffered at the hands of tragedy find peace.
They came into the world together.
Innocent and unsuspecting.
Tragedy stole their youth.
Violence stole her future.
Revenge stole his.
Alexandria and Jagger Richardson.
Reunited to face yet another tragedy.
Death.
-Twelve-
ALLY
I’ve dreamt thousands of times about what it might be like to be rescued and reunited with those I lost. In my dreams, I always tried to picture how my family members aged. Did my father’s thick mane of hair thin as the years went by? Did my mother still have the same flawless skin as she did when I was little? I never forgot her scent and I wondered if she still wore Shalimar perfume.
Then there was my brother. I thought about him the most. I wondered what kind of man he became. As a teenager, he loved to play football and was good at it too. The night I was abducted he was on the field, chasing his dreams under the big bright lights. Anytime I thought of him, I figured he became a professional football player and I prayed he and Celeste found their way into one another’s hearts.
After all, that was always the plan.
It’s the very reason I offered to work her shift at the pizzeria that dreadful night. So she could go to Jagger’s football game and cheer him on. It was one of many crazy schemes we concocted as young girls with dreams of becoming sisters.
Yet, all the dreaming and thinking I’ve done couldn’t have prepared me for what happened when I finally saw my brother for the first time in twelve years. There was no running into his arms or tears of joy.
There was only terror.
I may not have recognized him as a man, but still, something inside of me knew and I gravitated toward him. His bullet ridden body fell to the ground as I stared into his familiar eyes. Eyes we shared, the same ones his little girl inherited. There was no preparing for that moment or how it felt when I realized I had reunited with my other half only to watch him die.
At first, I thought it was another nightmare and dug my nails into my arms as I often did, begging my subconscious to wake me, but it never happened. Helplessly aware, desperate to escape, I sat surrounded by strangers in a waiting room as my brother was taken into surgery.
Slowly, it began to hit me as I stared at Celeste and the men in leather who swore not to leave her side.
I was free.
I was free from the Russians, free from Rush, free from the pain and suffering.
Twelve long years of abuse and
torture were over.
That realization terrified me. When Celeste asked me for the hundredth time if I was okay, I jumped out of the chair and ran. I didn’t get far though, as soon as the automatic doors slid open I froze like a deer in headlights.
I had nowhere to go, no life to get back to. Rush was gone and so were the drugs that helped me forget.
I had nothing.
Realizing I was better off dead, I stood motionless in front of the automatic doors staring at the street outside until Jack Parrish came up alongside me. He didn’t try to console me or offer me the promise of a better life. He silently held out his hand and gave me a choice. I could trust him, take his hand and let him help me or not, but the choice was mine to make.
Something I never had before.
Resolving that he had plenty of chances to kill me in the last twenty-four hours and hadn’t yet, I placed my hand in his. He gave me a tight nod and led me toward Wolf’s truck where he helped me climb inside and drove me to his home. Not the clubhouse where women like me belonged, but his home where his wife and newborn son lived. Reina Parrish didn’t ask any questions, she didn’t look down on me or judge me. She kindly opened her home to me allowing me to shower in the privacy of their lavish bathroom. When I was done, after the filth swirled down the drain, she gave me a pair of clean pajamas and conditioned the knots from my hair.
I wish I could say a shower and a change of clothes made me feel like a new woman, but the truth was, the minute I crawled into Jack’s daughter’s old bed my withdrawals hit me hard and I spent the night fighting my demons.
Freezing one minute and sweating the next, my body defied me. Every hour that passed became worse than the last as I curled into the fetal position and begged anyone who’d listen to take away my pain. Between the bursts of sweat and debilitating pain throughout my body, I started vomiting profusely. Reina and Jack took turns helping me to the bathroom; by the fourth trip I was too exhausted to move and asked them to leave me on the tile floor.
The Nomad Series-Collectors Edition Page 72
