by K. J. Dahlen
When her dad, Mountain came up behind Izzy and peeked over her shoulder at his grandson, he smiled. “Now why would you go and name the kid Talon?”
“Because my mother loved a man with that name,” Melora told him proudly.
Sam lifted his hands. “I had nothing to do with it at all. She wouldn’t even tell me what my son’s name was until now.”
“I’ve wanted that name since I was a little girl,” Melora told him. “I gave him your name too.”
“Yeah you did, even though we didn’t get married today.” Sam shook his head. “Things just didn’t work out the way they should’ve but we’re still going to get married.”
“I know.” Melora glanced over at Adriana. “But now we have the whole family together and that’s more important.”
Adriana stared at her for a moment then glanced at the baby in her arms. “So this baby is my brother?”
“One of them.” Melora nodded at Deke. “He’s the other one, and Quinn is your sister too.”
“Yeah, I kind of got that part.” The girl shrugged her thin shoulders and commented, “Sorry, I screwed things up for you.”
Melora smiled. “You didn’t screw things up for anyone. I’m glad you’re here.”
“Why? You don’t even know me.” Adriana just stared at her with no expression in her eyes at all.
“I may not know you yet, but you’re part of Sam’s family and that makes you important to me,” Melora replied simply.
Adriana shook her head. “Yeah, well don’t get too hyped, this situation is only temporary. I will be going back to my Mom.”
Deke came up behind her and placed his hand on her shoulder.
Adriana stiffened then shrugged his hand away. She moved over to the corner and slid down the wall.
Melora watched her from the corner of her eye and shook her head. Then she turned her attention to her son as Deke took the baby from her.
Holding him close, Deke murmured to the baby sleeping so content in his arms. He glanced up at Melora and smiled. “You did good, little mama.”
“Thanks,” she whispered.
“T-Bone huh?” Deke whispered. “I like it.”
“Yeah, me too.” Melora smiled. “Not sure Sam is thrilled but he didn’t really have a choice.”
“He’ll get over it,” Deke smirked.
Melora glanced over at Sam and noted the slightly panicked look on his face. “He won’t even hold his son,” she whispered. “He looks scared to death.”
Deke studied his dad and then glanced down at the baby in his arms. “Maybe he’s never held a baby before. I remember he wouldn’t hold his grandkids until they were a little older.” Before he could think about it, Deke went over to where his dad was standing and pushed the baby into his arms. Sam tried to protest but Deke wasn’t taking no for an answer.
The baby opened his eyes but didn’t make a sound when he gazed up at his father.
Sam just seemed stunned. He looked down at the baby in his arms and couldn’t believe he was holding him. His arms were frozen and shaky as if he were afraid of dropping this tiny human being.
When Izzy came over, he gladly gave up the baby. The baby fussed at being taken away from his dad but settled down quickly. Izzy took him over to his grandfather and grand uncles and he was passed around quickly.
It wasn’t long before the nurse stepped back in and suggested it was time to go. She looked a little afraid of all the large men in the room in their motorcycle vests, but she firmly nodded her head at them all.
Mountain finally passed the baby back to Melora. Leaning over her bed, he kissed her forehead. “You did good, baby girl,” he whispered. “But who is Boone?”
Melora gazed at her father with tears in her eyes. “Maybe you should ask Izzy. He’s very important to her and she is very important to me. I told you we had a history.”
Mountain glanced over his shoulder at the woman that was becoming very important to him. “I’ll ask her.” He gazed down at the baby. “We’ll be back in a few hours to see you.”
Melora smiled. “Can you have Izzy grab the bag I packed for the baby? I didn’t have time to grab it before we got here last night.”
“Sure thing.” Mountain straightened up and glanced over at Sam. He held out his hand and when Sam grabbed it, they shook briefly. “Take care of your family, old man.”
Sam nodded. “I will.”
~* * * *~
Slowly, the room emptied until there were only Sam, Melora, the baby and Adriana.
Deke had asked the girl to come home with him for the rest of the night but she didn’t want to go and rather than start something, he’d just left her there.
Now, it was just them left and Melora knew she had to deal with the situation.
Before she could say anything, Adriana got up and came over to sit on the side of the bed. “So did Sam tell you what the deal is?”
“No we hadn’t got that far,” Melora replied. “Why don’t you tell me about it?”
Sam started to say something but Melora gave him a look and he snapped his mouth shut.
“The MC in Saratoga Springs is about to go to war with an MC in Glens Falls. My mom didn’t want me caught in the middle, so she called Sam to get me out of the way.”
“Why were they going to war?” Melora asked.
“The MC in Saratoga Springs is called the Blue Devils. My Mom is involved with Radar, he’s the President of the club. Anyway, the Enforcer of the Red Cajuns, that’s the MC from Glens Falls, he thought he could just come in to our town and start some shit. Radar taught him a harsh lesson and the Red Cajuns didn’t take it well.” Adriana shrugged. “They sent three men after my mom and me, thinking they could use us against the club.”
Sam spoke up now, “They almost got their hands on Adriana, and Stacy shot one of them before the guys got to them. They sent the other packing but figured they’d be back. Stacy wanted Adriana protected and away from the coming firefight.”
“I don’t blame her.” Melora shuddered. Tightening her hold on her son, she couldn’t help herself. “I would do whatever I could to protect my kid from that kind of violence too.” Holding out her hand, she grasped Adriana’s hand. “I’m glad you’re here and you’re safe.”
“Are you?” Adriana asked.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Melora asked with a frown.
“Oh, I don’t know, probably because I stopped the wedding.”
Melora smiled. “I don’t think you’re to blame for that.” She lifted her son. “I think he might have had something to do with that as well.”
Adriana sat down in the chair next to the bed. “So now what’s going to happen to me? I mean I can’t stay here.”
“I think you should go home with your dad and get settled in,” Melora advised. Sam started to protest but she put her hand up. “The two of you need some time one on one. The baby and I will be just fine and you can come back tomorrow.”
“Are you sure?” Sam whispered as he leaned close to her and the baby.
“Yeah, I am,” Melora assured him. “I’m tired and she needs you tonight. She can’t help but be worried about the mess her mother is in. I know I would be. She needs you.”
“Sam can always just take me home, you know.” Ariana shrugged.
“No baby girl, I can’t,” Sam told her. “I promised your mom I’d keep you safe and I plan to do just that.”
“But who’s going to protect my mom?” she asked softly. “The Cajuns will kill her to find me.”
“Why would they do that?” Melora asked.
Adriana turned away and didn’t say anything for a moment or two. Then she turned to Melora with tears in her eyes. “I heard Benny and Radar making a deal. Radar has hated me since him and my mom got together four years ago. Radar told Benny he would sell me to the Cajuns when I turned fifteen for a price. Mom doesn’t know I heard it but I did. That’s why she called Sam tonight. My birthday is the day after tomorrow. Benny came by the club and Mom saw him. I h
ave a feeling if Radar can’t produce me, Benny might start a war.”
Sam growled as her story unfolded. “What the fuck kind of man is this Radar piece of shit?”
Adriana shrugged. “I’m really worried about my mom. She tried to get away from him once and he beat the hell out of her. I don’t know what he’ll do when he finds out I’m gone.”
“Do you think he’ll come here looking for you?” Melora asked.
Adriana shook her head. “He has no idea who my father is. Mom refused to tell him. All she would ever say was that my father was no longer in the picture. She talked as if he were dead.”
“Why would your mom get involved with this loser anyway?” Sam asked. “I thought she had more sense than that.”
“It wasn’t her fault!” Adriana cried out. “She didn’t have a choice. Radar chose her and made it difficult for her to say no. He threatened my life.”
Sam sat down hard on the bed next to Melora. “Why didn’t Stacy ever say anything to me before? I would have come for you, hell I would have taken you both to safety.”
Adriana shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Melora looked over at Sam. “You need to take her somewhere safe. You can’t go home someone might be watching the house.”
Sam nodded. “I know. I’ll take her to the club. I can use one of the cabins for tonight at least until we can get some security set up tomorrow.” He paused, then added, “I hate to leave you and the baby alone though.”
“I can call my dad.” Melora assured him. “He’ll come back and watch over us. You just take care of your daughter tonight.”
“We can wait until Mountain gets here,” Sam suggested.
“Ok, you’d better call him then.”
Twenty minutes later, Mountain and Izzy returned and Sam took Adriana back to the compound.
CHAPTER THREE
A few hours later, Izzy sat on the floor beside Melora’s bed with the baby asleep in her arms. Melora was sleeping as well but she and Mountain were watching over them.
Mountain looked down at her with the baby in her arms. “So, I noticed you had a reaction when Melora said the baby’s name. What is up with that?”
Izzy glanced down at the baby and smiled. “I know she named him Talon after you but the Boone part of his name is for my brother.”
“Your brother? I didn’t know you had a brother.”
She nodded but wouldn’t look at him. “You know Melora and I met when we were both sixteen right?”
Mountain nodded.
“But you don’t know what happened just before we met.”
“What happened?” he asked.
Izzy sighed deeply. “My home life was shit. My dad liked to drink and he loved to gamble and there were times when we paid the price for both. By the time I was fifteen, my mother had enough. She walked out on us. They had a big drag out knock down fight and he told her she could go but Boone and I would have to stay.” She shrugged. “Mom left the next day. She didn’t even try to take us with her.”
“How old was Boone?”
“He was almost ten. After Mom left, things went downhill fast. There were nights Dad never bothered coming home and even when he did, he was too drunk or hung over to give a shit whether Boone and I had food or money for groceries. Then one night about a week before the night the shooting happened, he came home and he was drunk again but this time he was unusually happy about something. He came in and woke us up. It was so different than when he usually came home. Usually, he didn’t even care about checking on us. We were the last thing he worried about.”
“What was wrong?” Mountain asked.
“He won that night. I don’t know what but he laid there on the couch and was laughing. I tried to ignore him because I was mad at him. But something changed when he woke up the next morning. I’m not sure what but he went back to being the same old man he’d been for so long. For the next week, he tore the house apart it was almost as if he were looking for something. He never said what but at least he was there. Then things went from shit to worse.”
“What happened? Did he ever say?” Mountain asked.
“Yeah he said, all right.” She growled. “He lost a card game before he came home. I don’t know what he used for money because he’d already lost his paycheck a couple of days before. Then he dropped his bomb. He traded me for a hand of cards and he lost.”
“He did what?” Mountain demanded.
Izzy nodded. “He lost his fifteen year old daughter in a fucking card game. And he expected me to go to the man who won.”
“Are you kidding?”
“No.” Izzy shook her head.
“What happened then?”
“I told him I wouldn’t go. I told him I’d run away first.” She shrugged. “He told me not to be stupid. I was collateral and I didn’t have any choice. I told him I had every choice and I chose not to go. That’s when he hit me. He screamed at me that I didn’t have a choice, if he didn’t turn me over, the men would come after him and they would take me anyway. He told me it would only be for three days, like that would make a difference.”
“Did he say who the man was?”
Izzy hung her head and for a moment didn’t say anything.
Mountain pressed her by asking again, “Who was the guy Izzy?”
“What does it matter?” she whispered.
“It matters to you, so it matters to me.” His violet eyes blazed at her.
Izzy hugged the baby closer to her for a moment. She thought about telling him who the guy was but it wouldn’t really matter at this point. There was nothing anyone could do about it anyway. All this went down almost eight years ago. “I couldn’t stay there anymore. I told Boone to pack a few things and we would get the hell out of there. I couldn’t go without him. Anyway, we were almost free of him when he caught us. He began beating on me and Boone grabbed the gun in my dad’s drawer. He got off a shot but it hit my dad in the shoulder. It didn’t really hurt him too bad. He wrestled the gun away from Boone and in the struggle, the gun went off. The bullet struck Boone and somehow lodged in his spine. When I saw the blood and heard his scream, I lost it. I grabbed Boone’s baseball bat sitting next to the door and hit my dad in the head. I prayed I’d kill the bastard but when he dropped like a stone, I never even looked at him. I picked up Boone and got him the hell out of there.”
“Then what?”
“I got him out of the house and found a place to call an ambulance and by the time we got to the hospital, Boone was in bad shape. I called my uncle and he went to the house and saw to my dad. When he got to the hospital, we found out Boone was paralyzed. My uncle offered to take care of him but he wouldn’t take me. He blamed me for everything that happened. My dad was also in the hospital but he was under police custody.”
“How could your uncle turn you away?” Mountain asked.
Izzy shrugged. “He felt it was my fault that my dad was going to jail. I refused to lie for the bastard and say that the shooting was an accident.”
“That was your dad’s fault, not yours.”
“It didn’t matter as long as Boone was going to be ok. I didn’t care about me.”
“Did your uncle keep his promise?”
“Yeah, he did. Boone was taken care of. Uncle Mike took him in and got him what he needed. He contacted me after my dad went to jail. He promised me as long as I stayed away from Boone he would take care of him, but if I contacted him in any way, shape or form, he would throw him out in the street.”
“Why would he do that?”
“He told me it was my fault because I testified against my dad when he went to court.” Tears rolled down her face as she continued her story, “The first few weeks I lived on the streets really opened my eyes. I never knew how hard it would be. Then I met Melora. She’d been out there a lot longer than me and for some reason, she invited me to stay with her. Together, we did ok. She found us places to stay and food enough, so we didn’t starve and then she taught me what she knew. We go
t very close. When she heard about my brother, she urged me to visit him. He had the right to know what my uncle had said and done.” Izzy paused and swiped at her tears.
Mountain sat with hard eyes and his face looked red.
“At first Boone was mad. He wanted to leave my uncle’s house and come with us but she talked him out of it. Melora told him we were living on the streets and she didn’t think we could take care of him. She told him to take advantage of what my uncle had to offer and that someday, we would be together again. She promised both of us it would happen.”
“And did it? Did you and your brother finally get back together?”
“Not yet but Boone is going to turn eighteen in another couple of months. She said we had to wait until he was of legal age. That until then we both had to wait.” She looked up at him. “God, it’s been so hard. I miss him every single day we’ve been apart. I’ve seen him a handful of times but he hasn’t seen me. He never knew I was there watching him. I haven’t seen him now in a while and its killing me. It’s like I abandoned him.”
“Don’t you believe that for a minute,” Mountain told her as he leaned closer to her. “He knew you were there. He might not have seen you but he felt you in his heart. He knew you were close by. Just like he’s waiting for you now. He knows you’ll be back for him and I’ll bet he’s counting down the days until the two of you can be together again.”
“Do you think?” she whispered.
Mountain wrapped his arms around her and held her. “Yeah, I know so. I will just bet that he loves you and he’s been waiting all this time for you to come back for him.”
“I don’t know if I can do that. As much as I want him in my life I don’t know if I can share the nothing I have with him.”
“What do you mean? The nothing you have?”
“I have nothing right now. I don’t even have a job at the moment, let alone a place of my own. I have so much to get set up before I can ask him to join me here.”
“What would you say if I offered to buy Melora’s house? There’s enough room there for us and your brother. I could even offer him a job at the shop if he wanted. She’ll be moving in with Sam when they get married anyway.”
