I watched as Cameron’s mouth dropped, tears forming in her eyes.
“Please don’t cry, Angel,” I whispered, wiping away a stray drop.
“I’m okay,” she reassured me. “Please continue.”
“Solonik never explained why he wanted one of us twins killed, and although I don’t know for sure, my best guess was he wanted to hurt The Royal Bastards in the best way he could at the time.”
“What a dick,” Cam mumbled and I couldn’t help but agree with her.
“He’s dead now. My brother got him.”
“Well, that’s good. So, what happened next,” Cam asked, intrigue written all over her face.
“Arthur told me that he agreed to the deal, but as soon as he delivered my brother and me, his hippocratic oath kicked in and he just couldn’t kill one of us. When Ian was born, he had started crying immediately, but I had come out silent as could be, and that’s how he made his decision. Since Barb had delivered the pair of us at home, it was easy for him to jump into the car and tell the parents he had to take me to the hospital. When Boone met him there a half an hour later, he told the young father that I had died.”
Cam looked contemplative, but I pressed on.
“Being as this was almost thirty years ago, they didn’t have all the security measures in place we have nowadays, and no one questioned the good doctor. The parents asked to have their dead twin cremated, and Arthur gave them a box of random ashes.”
“So, what happened with Solonik?” Cam finally chimed in.
“Arthur told him that I was dead, and of course the Russian made sure my parents were adequately grieving. They cancelled his debt, and Arthur packed up his belongings and moved to Michigan.”
“This doctor told you all this when you were nine?”
I nodded at her.
“And when he died, what did you do? You were so young?”
“I spent a few years on the streets. I stole food when I was hungry. I found shelter when I was cold, and I slept wherever I could when I was tired.”
“That’s heartbreaking,” Cam sniffled.
“I hitchhiked my way back to Tonopah, even though Arthur was quite clear that if Solonik found out I was alive, he would kill me on the spot, but I didn’t care. I had just turned ten and I desperately wanted to find my real family.”
“That makes sense. Did you not find them?” She asked.
I sighed. Here was the part of the story that I hated thinking about.
“Oh, I found them, alright.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” Cam whispered.
“It wasn’t. It took some doing, and when I got into town, I knew I needed to lay low. I spent quite a few weeks tracking down any information I could about the Royal Bastards, which, as you can probably assume, wasn’t easy for a ten year old boy.
“Finally, after about a month, I discovered where my family lived and I risked everything to knock on their door. A man answered.”
“Your dad?” Cam asked, excitement radiating behind her eyes.
“I thought it was,” I told her. “I found out years later that the guy who had answered the door was named Bill and he was actually part of a rival gang called The Scorpions. Him and my mom were dating, I guess. Anyway, when he answered the door, I started blurting out everything that Arthur had told me. I explained who I was, why I was there, and the journey it had taken me to be at his front door. I expected--” Cam cut me off.
“You expected to be welcomed with open arms,” she nodded.
“Yes.”
“I’m guessing that wasn’t the case?”
“Not at all. Bill slammed the door behind me and dragged me by the arm and threw me in his truck. He drove for several hours without saying a single word to me. At the state line, he threw me out of the truck, along with two hundred dollars and told me if he ever saw my face again, he would put a fucking bullet in my chest. He then added on to that and said if I ever came back to Tonopah, he would put a bullet between the eyes of Ian and Willow.”
“What the fuck?” Cam shot out.
“My thoughts exactly. Here I was, a lost ten year old, searching for my family, only to have the man I believed to be my father throw me away like yesterday’s trash.”
“I’m so sorry, Chrome,” Cam whispered, running her fingers up and down my forearm.
“It was the first time I had ever experienced rage. I wanted to kill him, right there on the spot, but I was ten, and he was, well--he was an adult.”
“That still doesn’t explain how you ended up back in Michigan,” Cam said.
“I took the two hundred dollars, and hitch hiked back across the country. I had just spent several months on my own, and I knew the terrain and the people. One day, I was sleeping outside of a local mom and pop diner, behind the dumpster, when the owner came out and saw me. She was a sweet old woman named Suzie. She brought me inside and fed me. When she asked me where my parents were, I told her the only truth I could. My parents were dead. At least they were to me.
“Suzie took pity on me and offered me a job. I bussed tables, cleaned the diner after hours and slept in a little cot she had in her office during the day. She couldn’t afford to pay me, but I got to keep any tips that the waitresses gave me, and I had a roof over my head and food in my stomach. I saved every single penny I made, and by the time I turned sixteen, I bought a second hand bike. I spent all of my free time fixing it up.”
“That’s really sweet, Chrome,” Cam choked out.
“Shortly before I turned seventeen, Suzie died and the diner shut down. I had spent nearly half of my life there, and I really didn’t know where I was going to go. A few days later, I heard a couple of guys talking about the Royal Bastards and my ears pricked up. That was the name of the club that Boone was in. I spent the next several weeks trying to discover everything I could about the Detroit Chapter.”
“It didn’t take too long. Everyone in Detroit knows of the club. What I hadn’t banked on was the attention I was drawing asking so many questions. A few weeks later, Silver and his father, Stallion, our old Prez, tracked me down and dragged me back to the clubhouse. I was a scrawny and lanky kid, and I was scared to death. They wanted to know who I was, why I was asking so many questions, and what I wanted. I remember looking directly into Stallion’s eyes and just saying I wanted a home.”
“Oh, Chrome.”
I raised my hand to stop her empathy in its tracks. I needed to finish the rest of the story.
“Silver took pity on me and convinced his dad to let him take me under his wing. They helped get me off the streets, get a better bike, and get a job. When I turned eighteen they made me a prospect, and a few years later, I became the Sergeant At Arms.”
“What about Ian, and Willow, and your mom?” Cam asked.
“For the first few years, I didn’t think about them very much. I was getting used to life in the RBMC and working on trying to get patched in. I was making friends within the brothers, and for the first time in my entire life, I had a family, a group of people I could trust.”
“That makes sense, and I’m guessing the threat on your family’s life played a part in that?”
“You’re a smart cookie, Angel,” I said, tapping her nose and smiling when she blushed.
“Yes. At some point between my journey back to Michigan and getting patched in with the club, I had convinced myself that The Braxtons were better off without me interfering. The last thing I wanted to do was show up on their doorstep and risk getting any of them killed.”
“What changed?”
“The Russians,” I told her. “Shortly after I came into my own body, shooting up a foot and a half and putting on a hundred pounds of muscle, Stallion made me the SAA. With my new found connections, I took the time to research my family. I learned that the man who had discarded me all those years ago was named Bill and he was not my father. My actual father, Boone had died several years prior to that. Barb had been so broken by the passing of her husband that she had started dating Bill,
not really realizing who he was. She was a shell of her former self, and no one could put her back together again. I also learned that within a week of me being in Tonopah, Bill had killed my mother, but Ian had exacted revenge and beaten the fuck out of Bill, killing him with a baseball bat.”
“So, why didn’t you go back then, knowing Bill was dead?”
“A few reasons, “ I explained. “First and foremost, the Royal Bastards have been trying to stop human trafficking for as long as I can remember. The Russians, who had paid Arthur to have me killed, were alive and well in Nevada, including that prick Solonik. How could I, in good consciousness, make my presence known at the risk of my brother and sister?”
“That makes sense,” Cam nodded. “What’s the other reasons?”
I took a deep, humbling breath and looked Cam in the eyes. “Because I’m a coward.” I held up my hand to cut off the inevitable argument on her lips. “What if Azrael didn’t accept me? What if Willow wanted nothing to do with me? I spent so many years wondering if they even knew I existed. I was scared, and I hated that emotion more than anything else in the world. I vowed I would never let fear into my heart again, and instead allowed my rage to rise to the surface.”
“I get it,” she mumbled.
“I kept tabs on them throughout the years, checking every couple of months to make sure they were okay. Not very long ago though, I learned that Willow had been kidnapped by Rancid and had ultimately died. I knew in that moment I was going to take my secret to the grave. I never had the chance to meet my sister and now I never would. I should have been there for her, Cam.”
I put my head in my hands, and for the first time since I was ten, I let the tears fall from my eyes. I had been raised on the belief that tears were a weakness, and that exactly how I felt; weak. Cam ran her fingers up and down my arms and across my back. There was still much to say, but I was so tired.
“If Rancid and Solonik are dead,” Cam said, breaking the silence, “Why can’t you go out there now?”
I lifted my head and looked at the pitiful way she looked back at me. She wasn’t wrong, I was a pitiful excuse for a human. “I can’t face Azrael, Cameron. I cannot look him in the face and tell him that I have known about him and Willow for almost twenty years and never came forward. I failed my siblings. I should have been there for Willow, and I wasn’t. I cannot ever show my face there.”
“You didn’t fail anyone, Chrome. You were a stolen baby and a homeless child. You had to make some tough calls and decisions that no one, regardless of their age, should have to make. You did the best you could given the circumstances. Not going back was your way of protecting them. Maybe now that Rancid and Solonik are dead, you can try reaching out. I mean, hell, you’re both part of the same motorcycle club.”
“I was?” I sighed.
“Was?” Cam asked.
“When Silver went down for the killing of Rancid in NOLA, he saw Azrael. When he came back and confronted me about it, he told me I had betrayed him. I threw my cut at him and stormed out.
“Oh no,” Cam gasped, her hand going up to cover her open mouth.
“Yeah.” Shame flooded my body. Silver was right. I had betrayed our friendship, betrayed my brothers, and betrayed my colors. I couldn’t stand to be awake anymore. For the first time in as long as I could remember, I laid my head on the motel pillow, and I cried myself to sleep.
My heart broke as I listened to Chrome sob into his pillow for several moments before sleep finally claimed him. Between the alcohol, the revelations he had disclosed, and the tears, he was going to be in for one hell of a headache when he woke up. It was five in the morning, and although I needed to get some sleep, my brain just wouldn’t shut off.
I silently crept out of bed and found my purse. I needed nicotine, bad. It was still dark outside, but I could see the sun trying to peek out over the horizon. I had so much information to process. Chrome had word vomited all over me and my brain wanted to make sense of it all. I wanted nothing more than to prove to him what I had said before he told me his secrets. I was his, and I wasn’t going anywhere.
I checked my watch. I estimated I had at least a few more hours before Chrome woke up. I wanted to get home and change out of my dress and take a quick shower before he did. The last thing he needed right now was to wake up and for me not to be there. I peeked into the room to check he was still out before I closed the door and made my way back across the parking lot to my truck.
It was Monday morning, and I should have been focusing on the abundance of orders I had to get done, but this was far more important. On the drive back to my house, a plan formulated inside my mind. It was risky, but if I played my cards right, I could help Chrome with one of his many shames.
I pulled into my apartment a little before six and raced upstairs for a shower and to change. I had an office phone upstairs in my room and I pressed the answering machine to see if I had any messages. The first two were telemarketers. Gross. Delete. But the next five were from TBone.
He was frantic, each one getting progressively worse. The entire club was looking for Chrome. My indecision about my next steps were solidified with the last message on my machine.
“Cameron. It’s Silver. Are you with Chrome? I need to speak with him, and it’s urgent. If you’ve seen him or heard from him, please tell him I called and that he needs to call me. Now.”
He didn’t say goodbye, but the anger lacing every single word of his message was enough for me. I understood that Silver felt deceived and betrayed, but he didn’t know the whole story. I wasn’t going to tell him. That wasn’t my place and it wasn’t my tale to tell, but I damn sure wasn’t going to let Silver rake Chrome over the coals. And how had Silver even known that Chrome was with me? I assumed some of the brothers at the club had told him of my presence at the club Friday night and him and I leaving together. It was either that or Silver was calling every contact he knew that associated with Chrome.
After my shower, I got dressed, my resolve firm, and I made my way over to the RBMC clubhouse. It was a little after seven and everyone was probably still asleep, but I would do what I needed to do to get to Silver. As soon as I pulled up though, Dumpster was waiting outside for me.
“Is he alright, Cam?” Dumpster asked.
I smiled at the older biker. I was sure Silver had informed him of Chrome’s betrayal, but his first reaction when he saw me hadn’t been to read me the riot act. He just wanted to know how his brother was doing.
“He’s sleeping. Going to have a bit of a hangover when he wakes up though.”
Dumpster chuckled. “Sounds about right. Will you tell me where he is?”
I shook my head. “It’s not my place, Dumpster.”
“I get that. Why are you here?”
“I’m here to see, Silver, “ I told him.
“He’s not going to like that you don’t have Chrome with you. He’s mighty fucking pissed.”
My own anger spiked, and although I wanted to scream at Dumpster, I was going to save my ire for the Prez himself.
“Can you take me to him?” I asked after a few calming breaths.
“Not a problem.”
Dumpster led me through the clubhouse and into the office spaces. When we made it down the hallway, Dumpster opened a door to his left and ushered me in. Silver sat on the other side of his desk, anger rolling off of him. The room was dark minus a small glowing lamp on the side table. A coat rack stood next to Silver’s chair with a cut on it. Chrome’s cut. I couldn’t see much more of Silver but his silhouette, but it was clear. Silver was pissed.
“Leave us,” Silver barked. Dumpster shut the door and left the two of us to talk.
“Where is he?” Silver bellowed out his question.
“He’s safe, and that’s all I’m going to say about that.”
A growl sound erupted from Silver’s throat and the hairs on the back of my arms stood up. I had never seen the clubs Prez rilled up, but it was indeed a sight to behold.
�
�Tell me, now, Cameron,” he barked his command.
“Listen here, Bud,” I found my voice. “I’m not one of your little club bitches. You have no power over me and I don’t have to answer shit.”
Silver slammed his fists on the desk and stood up abruptly. He was trying to intimidate me, and it was working, but I wasn’t going to let him know that. I stood up to face him.
“I came here as a courtesy to you to let you know that your brother was safe and not dead in a ditch somewhere.”
“Tell me where he fucking is.”
“No.”
Silver and I stared each other down, neither one of us willing to stand down. Sure, Silver could pull his business from me, and while it might sting a little bit, I had enough other customers to keep me going. I didn’t need his business, but Chrome needed this club.
“Listen,” I sat back down. “Chrome needs you. He needs the RBMC. Yes, he has secrets, but we all do, and I need you to trust me when I tell you, Chrome had good reasons to keep his skeletons locked away.”
“So, he told you?” Silver snarled.
Whoops
“He did, and I know he wants to tell you,” I tried back pedalling.
“Just leave,” Silver said, his voice not much more than a whisper.
“Silver please,” I tried reasoning with him, but he cut me off.
“That man has been my brother for twenty years, and he’s known you for five minutes,” he growled. “When you see him again, tell him he’s no longer welcome here.”
There was no use arguing. I had come to help Chrome, and instead I feared I had made it worse. I stood up and left the office shutting the door behind me. Dumpster stood there waiting and offered me a small smile. We didn’t say anything as he walked me back down the hall and out through the clubhouse door. I pushed open the door and let the sunlight hit my face. After the last twelve hours, I needed all the Vitamin D I could get.
“Silver will calm down and come to his senses. He loves Chrome.”
“I really hope you’re right, Dumpster. I really do.”
I hopped into my truck and revved the engine to life. I wanted to get back to the motel before Chrome got up and noticed me gone. I wasn’t sure what I was going to say to him seeing as I may have just got him officially kicked from the club. Thankfully, I had a fifteen minute drive back to work it out. At least, I thought I did.
Leather and Chrome (Royal Bastards MC: Detroit, MI Book 2) Page 9
