by Tia Lewis
“What is it?” I asked.
“Let’s promise to never, ever let something so stupid get between us again. I mean that. Not ever.”
“Even when make-up sex is that good?” I asked, and I laughed at the way he groaned.
“Yeah, even then,” he said. “I don’t think I could go through another day without you.”
I grew serious. “I know what you mean. And I swear on my life that I’ll never let anything as stupid as what we fought over come between us again. We can talk our way through, as long as we stop letting our tempers get in the way.”
“Our tempers?” he cocked one eyebrow. “Last time I checked, you’re the one with the temper.”
“Don’t push me,” I warned with a smile.
22
Drake
The next day, I might as well have been walking on air. The whole mood inside the clubhouse had changed. Everything was happier with Nicole there. I could tell the whole club missed her—maybe not as much as me, but they’d missed her. And they liked seeing me in a better mood. I was the first person to admit that I’d been a real bastard for two weeks.
I was standing by the bar with her and Tamara, talking about wedding stuff—they were talking, I was trying to pay attention—when Diesel, Creed, and Ace came in. None of them looked happy. Ace had a folder in his hand.
“Gotta show you something, Prez.” He nodded to the meeting room. I got up, wondering what was going on. None of them would say a word. I shrugged at the girls, then followed the guys in and shut the door.
“We found out who’s been sending those love notes,” Diesel said as four of us sat down at the table. “It was definitely an inside job.”
“What do you mean?” I looked from Creed to Diesel to Ace, hoping one of them had an answer that wouldn’t make me kill somebody.
Creed cleared his throat. “I looked up the kid. I mean, come on. He’s the only one in the club who we don’t know much about right?”
“Right …”
Creed looked at the other guys, but he was clearly on his own. They didn’t want to say a word. I wanted for him to explain himself.
“I did a little digging into him. I figured, what the hell, right? The worst that happens, he’s just a nobody from nowhere, and we all go back to doing whatever we do. We find who’s been sending the letters. It turns out, he’s got a history.”
“His mom was a biker babe,” Ace said, putting it bluntly. “At least she was back in her day. It’s been a long time since she’s looked good on the back of a bike, I guess.”
“You’ve seen her?”
“I’ve seen her most recent mugshot.” Ace pulled a paper out of a folder and slid it to me. I could see Harris in her, for sure, the reddish blonde hair and dark eyes. She looked like somebody rode her hard and put her away wet.
“When’s this from?” I asked.
“Just about three months ago. Around the time Harris found us.”
“He needed somewhere to go,” I said with a shrug. It made sense to me.
“Yeah, well, he didn’t end up here by accident.” Creed tapped on the mother’s name. Rayna Jones.
“Yeah, so?”
“So, I looked up his birth certificate based on her name,” he said. “Rayna Willis gave birth to Harris Williamson sixteen years ago. The father’s name was Harris Dixon.”
“Harris Dixon?” Why did that sound familiar. Dixon …
When it hit me, it hit me like a freight train. “No … fucking way.”
“Yeah, brother. Hawk … Hawk’s real name is Harris Dixon.” When I closed my eyes after hearing Creed confirm what I finally figured out, I could see so much of Hawk in Harris. The same jaw, same nose. Just the coloring from the mom.
“Fuck me. So … is it him? The kid sent the letters?”
“If he didn’t, I don’t know who the hell would,” Ace said. “I did a lot more digging around, Prez, and I didn’t find anything else on them. Only fingerprints that look a fuck ton of a lot like his and the old magazines in the trash with the letters cut out of them.”
“Son of a bitch,” I muttered. “He’s not even smart enough to try to cover up with he did.”
“He’s a stupid kid,” Creed said. “I mean, what can you expect from a teenager?”
“Stupid kids do stupid things, like killing people,” I said. “What if he’s serious? What if he wants to kill Nicole? Wouldn’t it be a perfect revenge? I killed his father and now he’s out for blood.”
“I don’t know, Prez. I think we need to talk to him,” Diesel said in a tight, measured voice. I could tell what he really wanted to do to the kid—he wasn’t very good at controlling his anger or hiding what he was thinking.
“I don’t think we should scare him,” I said, trying to be level-headed. For once, I had to be the leader I needed to be instead of flying into a rage. I had Nicole back, and that helped. If she hadn’t shown up the night before, I might not have been in the right head space.
“You’re right. We have to talk to him man-to-man,” Creed said. “I think just having the four of us questioning him will be enough to get him to be serious with us.”
“All right. He’s working on his bike right now. I can’t believe I got him his own fucking bike, the little piece of shit.”
“Down, down,” Ace said, patting me on the shoulder. “Come on. Let’s find out what he wanted to get out of all this shit. He probably got too far into it before he realized what he did.”
“You’d better be right,” I said. “Or I’ll kill the fucker just like I put down his old man.”
“That’s the spirit,” Creed snorted, rolling his eyes. The four of us got up from around the table, walking out to the lounge.
Nicole turned when she heard us coming, and I saw from the look on her face, Tamara’s and Darcy’s that we looked pretty fierce. “Uh-oh. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing you need to worry about—and I mean that. I’ll tell you all about it when we get back.” I needed to be honest with her from then on out, but it wasn’t like I could tell her a fucking sixteen-year-old had been sending threatening letters until we got answers. We stepped outside, and I let the cool air brace me a little. I couldn’t lose my shit on the kid, much as I wanted to. But I soon realized I would fail miserably.
“There he is,” Creed muttered, looking across the parking lot to the shed where we kept our tools. Harris was crouched down beside his bike, covered in grease and sweat. I wanted to believe he was just a messed-up kid, just like I used to be and all the rest of us, too. But he had threatened to kill my woman, and I couldn’t let that go.
“How’s it going here?” Ace asked, circling behind Harris. The kid grinned up at him.
“Great. I think I’ll have her moving in no time.” He looked so proud of himself. I wondered if he was that proud when he saw how torn up his little love notes had made me. I balled my hands into fists and had to shove them into my pockets so he wouldn’t see how ready to murder him I was.
Creed went to the right, Diesel to the left. I stood in front of the bike. Harris looked up at me, still grinning. He only had to look at my face to see he had no reason to grin. He knew why we were there. He wasn’t that stupid, after all.
“So you know?”
I nodded. “I know.”
He stood, looking around from one of us to the other. “Where’s it gonna be?” he asked.
“Where’s what gonna be?” Ace replied.
“You know. Where are you gonna take care of me? I can take it.” He stood a little taller, sticking his chin out. I gave him credit for standing up and taking it like a man, but that was about it. I wanted to laugh at him, but I knew how much it took for him to pretend to be that brave.
“What the fuck did you think you were doing when you sent those letters? Huh?” I took another step toward him, then another. He looked at me with eyes that were friendly just moments before but had hardened. Just like mine had.
“I wanted to fuck with your head,” he said.
“Why?”
“Because you killed my father. What do you think?” I saw hate in his eyes, cold and cruel. He looked just like his father then. I had seen those eyes in Hawk’s face. How had I missed it?
“So you couldn’t come to me like a man and tell me I killed your pops, and you wanted to make me pay for it? You had to sneak around like a little bitch, trying to scare me? Is that it?”
“You told me already the only thing you cared about in the world was her—more than the club or your bike or anything. So I knew that was what I had to do.”
Ace shook his head, chuckling bitterly. “He has his old man in him,” he muttered.
“You’re damn right, I do!” I thought Harris was going to take a lunge at Ace, which would have been the last poor decision he would ever have made. Ace took a step back, still chuckling.
“Hey! Calm down, kid,” Creed growled. He snapped to attention like I fired a shot. “What was your end game? Were you actually going to kill her? Or one of us?”
He didn’t look too proud of himself anymore. I watched while he crumpled, his shoulders sagging. Fury boiled in me. This little piece of shit, thinking he could threaten my old lady. Thinking he could use her against me to fuck with my head.
“Answer him!” Diesel shouted.
“You’re right, kid,” I growled. “You do have your old man in you. But if I were you, I wouldn’t be so proud of that. Because he was a sick fuck, who needed a bullet in his head. I’m just glad I had the chance to do it.”
Harris lunged for me, but I made contact with his shoulders and shoved him to the ground. It felt good to watch him fall and remind him how was stronger, who was in control.
“How’s it feel?” I yelled in his face, leaning down until I was inches away. He flinched. “How does it feel when somebody talks shit about someone you care about? Huh? Or use them to get to you?”
“Hey, man. Take it easy!” Creed warned, touching my shoulder. I shook him off.
“Fuck off!” I roared, hauling the kid to his feet. He staggered a little. “Not when he fucked with me for all this time. Not when he used Nicole against me and threatened her!”
“Okay, okay! I’m sorry,” he whimpered.
I threw him against the shed. He bounced off it, then fell to the ground with a groan. I pulled him up by the collar of his shirt, throwing him again, then slamming him into the wall with my hands on his shoulders. This time, he crumpled against the wall with his arms crossed over his midsection.
I let go, curling my hands into fists at my side. I breathed heavy, teeth clenched, watching to see what he would do. I wanted the excuse to unload on him, to tear him to pieces. He didn’t give it to me. Instead, he cowered there, arms up, ready to protect his face.
Ace stood to my left. “Cool off, man.”
“Fuck off, Ace!”
“Drake!” Creed shouted.
“I’m the President of this fucking club! I run this shit!” Ace backed away, hands up. I turned back to Harris, who I was sure was about to piss himself. I was glad. I wanted him to. I wanted him to feel the kind of fear I’d felt when he threatened to kill Nicole. All the rage I’d felt for so long, not to mention the helplessness and paranoia burst out of me at once. I took him by the shoulders, leaning in until we were face to face. He turned his head to the side.
“Look at me, you little shit.” He wouldn’t, so I took his chin in my hand and turned his head before closing around his throat. His eyes went wide.
“Drake! He’s just a kid!” Creed shouted again. I ignored him, staring deep into Harris’s eyes.
When I spoke, it came out as a growl. “Nobody. I mean nobody threatens my old lady. You got that? Nobody.”
“I get it. I get it, man!”
“Let me hear you say it,” I hissed, before tightening my grip around his throat. He choked and gasped for air. I felt him shaking underneath my hands. Good, I thought. I wanted him to remember this moment for the rest of his life.
“Nobody … threatens … your old … lady,” he breathed.
“And gets away with it,” I added.
“And gets ... away … with it.”
It would have felt good to cave his face in with my fist. I wanted to see him bleed, cry and wish he had never been born. I pulled my fist back, ready to crush his nose and put an end to the fury racing through me. Lucky for him, Creed and Diesel got hold of me before I could. They pulled me off him while I screamed with rage. Harris stayed where he was, shaking, whimpering like a pathetic dog.
When they were sure I wouldn’t kill the kid, the guys let go of me. I looked up at the sky, roaring before I punched the side of the shed. The pain radiated through my arm, but it ended the urge to hurt somebody.
“Fuck!” I groaned, breathing heavy. I closed my eyes, straining to control myself as best I could. I couldn’t kill the kid, as much as I wanted to. I had gotten my point across, too. He looked like he wished his name wasn’t Harris like he’d never come up with the idea, to begin with.
“Now that we have that out of the way,” Creed said, stepping in, “I wanna know if you had a plan to move forward with this. I think we all deserve to know.”
Harris stuttered at first, then answered in a tiny whisper. “No. I didn’t have a plan. That’s the truth.
I looked from one of the guys to the other, and they all shrugged. None of us knew what to do with the kid.
He looked at me. “I feel like shit because of it. That’s the truth.”
“Yeah.” I chuckled. “I’m sure you did.”
“I swear.”
“And why is that? I folded my arms, glaring at him.
“Because you were all so nice to me. But you killed my father. I feel like a traitor. My whole life, all I ever heard was what a great man he was, how much people loved him and respected him. My mom used to go with him, whatever, I don’t know what they called it. But they broke up and then she found out she was pregnant.”
I would have bet anything that Hawk dropped her ass the minute he found out she was pregnant, but I let the kid believe what he wanted to believe.
“Your mom told you what a great man he was?” Creed asked. I heard the disbelief in his voice—disbelief I felt.
“Yeah. He was like a God in my house.”
“And when you hung out with him? How did he treat you?” I didn’t need him to answer my question. I could tell from the way he looked at the ground with red cheeks that Hawk never spent time with him.
“So you don’t really know anything about him, then?” Diesel asked. Even he had softened up a little. He didn’t look like he’d kill the kid at the first sign of a false move, anyway.
“Nah, just what my mom told me.” Harris shook his head. “I’m really sorry Drake.”
All three of them opened their mouths to set him straight, but I shook my head. “Listen kid. You gotta understand what happened,” I said. “It was a long bad-blood sorta thing, but your father … he took it a little too far.”
Creed cleared his throat. “He kidnapped and killed our prospect,” he said. “His name was Richie.”
“And he kidnapped Nicole and was going to kill her. He had her on her knees,” I said, my voice tight as I remembered how it all went down.
“He had the gun to her head and he almost ...”
“No,” Harris whispered, shaking his head. He looked at all of us, and we all nodded. “No, that can’t be true.”
“Look, kid … I think your mom loved your dad a lot, and she told you some stories she wanted you to know about him—but she didn’t know him anymore. A lot of shit happened with him, shit she wouldn’t have known about if they weren’t together anymore. She remembered the good times,” Ace said.
“So you didn’t know about the bad times,” Diesel finished. “And you didn’t know that Drake didn’t have a choice. If he didn’t shoot Hawk, Hawk would have killed Nicole. A woman. We don’t do that to women.”
“I know that,” Harris said.
“So
now you know. I didn’t just shoot him for the hell of it. I didn’t wanna to have to. But it was him or her, and I love her. I understand if you can’t get right with that—he was your dad. I get it. And if you wanna come at me, be my guest. But be a man about it. Don’t sneak around. Understand?”
He took a deep, shaky breath. I thought he might cry again. “I know,” he muttered. He knuckled away a tear and left a big swipe of grease on his face. “I didn’t know what to do. I felt like I had to get revenge for him.”
“I know, kid. I know. I would want the same thing if I didn’t know my dad and somebody had killed him before I got the chance to know him.” I put a hand on his shoulder, and he let me keep it there. “But now you know us, and you know me. I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t have to. He forced my hand.”
“I get it, okay?” He glared at me. “I feel like a piece of shit for doing what I did. That’s the whole reason I started up with you guys. You know that? Because I wanted to get close to you. I wanted to know why you would kill a good man like my dad. And the more I knew you … all of you … the more I liked you, and the worse I felt about liking you. I hate myself.”
He stared at the ground then, sniffling a little. I jerked my head toward the clubhouse, and after a minute the two of us were left alone. I didn’t think he’d want the other guys to see him losing it the way he was.
“Now we’re alone,” I said. “Now it’s just us. Is there anything else you wanna tell me?”
“I hate you for killing my dad,” he said.
“Okay. I get that. What else?”
“I like you. You treat me like I matter. You gave me this bike to work on. You give me respect. I never had respect before.”
“I get that, too. I was the same way when I was your age. That’s when I first joined the club,” I said. “And Jack—he was the president then—treated me with respect. I didn’t have a dad, and he was like a dad to me. He taught me a lot of things.”
