by C. M. Marin
“Okay, that was… It was.”
Ben and his useful comments.
“Call her if you want to talk to her. Tell her to come here, but don’t say anything about Rod, Connor or the club on the phone. We never know,” I caution, and she nods.
I trust Cody’s judgment just as I trusted Isaac’s, Connor’s and Billy’s. Doesn’t mean I won’t keep an eye open, though.
“I’ll send her a text,” she says as she takes her phone out of her pocket.
She fumbles with the envelope and the note to have a look at that woman’s number, and her fingers then start to wildly type something.
She flashes me a small smile when she’s done with it. “I guess our exciting cleaning up day will have to wait.”
“We can still go out later,” I lift a hand to graze her cheek. “Want me to make you a tea?”
Suspicion sharp on her face, she arches a brow. “You? Or are you going to delegate that excruciating task to Melvin?”
My smirk spreads easily at seeing that some of her sassy edge has survived the new bombshell that just crashed on her. But she must take my grin as an admission to her suspicion because she rolls her eyes while pushing up to her feet.
“I wouldn’t want to disturb your lazy rotten boy’s ways, so I’m going to make my tea myself,” she bends down to drop a sweet kiss on my lips despite her scolding tone.
She shoots a shy smile to Jayce and sashays away like my brothers weren’t all still dumbstruck, unable to move.
Turning to Jayce, I ask him, “You good?”
He snorts.
Yeah, stupid question, I suppose.
“How’s this for a coincidence? The first girl you give an unlimited free pass to your bed happens to be wanted by the Spiders because they think she’s theirs but could very well have always belonged to our club,” he sums up the situation in a few words.
“Not gonna bullshit you, I’m fucking glad I met her the day she got back in town.”
“Considering she was alone, she’d have been stuck with them for a while by now if you didn’t,” Liam barges in.
The image of her surrounded by those lunatics… Hell, there’s no way I can even begin to contemplate what she’d be going through if our paths didn’t cross that day. All the more so that I know she wouldn’t have put up with CJ’s shit. She wouldn’t have let him touch her. And she sure wouldn’t have accepted the way they treat people. Hell, she throws a damn motherly fit every time one of us shouts at Melvin to do whatever needs to be done or to bring us whatever we want him to bring us.
“And I don’t even start with the fact my dad was fucking Rod’s old lady,” Jayce says as I force myself to give some slack to my jaw.
“And that Cody was fucking her best friend,” Ben chimes in.
I frown. “That Lilly Jenkins?”
Well, that could explain his abnormal reaction.
Ben’s eyebrows lift like he’s trying to decide whether I really pronounced the words I pronounced.
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph―no pun intended. You’re such oblivious fuckers sometimes. So damn cliché. All brutes with not one drop of sensitivity.” He sighs as though he’s sincerely hurt. “Our brother Cody was sweetly banging the best friend.”
“Isn’t that something a girl could have guessed?” Liam asks, a grin dancing on his face.
Ben flips him off as Jayce leaves the coffee table, but only to collapse on the couch across from me, huffing loudly as his head goes to rest on the back of the couch.
The guys split apart, some settling at the bar with a drink, others going out, as we all deal silently with the things we’ve been kept from all these years. Sure, we don’t have any proof yet, but my guts tell me to trust Cody’s opinion. If he believes what that Lilly Jenkins says, I believe it, too. Or do I want to because I know Cam would rather not have Rod as a father?
I’m fucking exhausted.
When Cam comes back from the kitchen, she walks straight to me and takes back her spot beside me, leaning into my side and getting comfortable with her cup of tea in her hands. My arm falls over her shoulders and we just sit here in more silence until Liam idles back inside, eyes on me. I hold his gaze just briefly, mine quickly veering off him to a woman with long brown hair walking behind him.
Her own eyes scan the room quietly, only pausing when they find Camryn.
I won’t lie, my wary nature has had an anxiousness anchoring deep into my stomach since I gave my go-ahead to have a woman I don’t know anything about coming into the club. Coming near Camryn. I meant it when I said I trust Cody just like I trust all my brothers, but anyone can misjudge someone. And if Ben nailed it about him and Lilly, Cody’s opinion about the whole situation might not be the most objective. People can change in twenty-five years.
But when the woman’s eyes turn to pure fondness the instant they find Cam, I know in my guts that my girl is safe. That’s why I don’t move when she stands up, her attention never steering off Mary’s best friend.
She stretches out her hand as Lilly smiles at her. “It’s very nice to meet you, Camryn. It’s incredible how much you look like Mary.”
She smiles shyly. “Nice to meet you too.”
“Have you read her letter already?”
“I have,” she nods as she sits back down, gesturing to Lilly to take a seat on the opposite couch. “I’ll be honest, I want a test to be done.”
“Of course. Connor’s son will help you with that, I suppose?”
“I will,” Jayce agrees.
Lilly’s face brightens with a genuine smile. “So, you are Jayce. I’m glad I can finally meet you. Mary never met you, but Connor used to tell her everything about you.” Sadness suddenly darkens her expression. “I’m sorry about your family. I heard.”
He nods once then asks her, “How long did they see each other?”
“Only about nine months before Mary found out about the pregnancy, but they knew what they wanted long before that. They were in love. For a long while, Mary had an unwavering faith that they’ll find a way to live their love out in the open.”
“She was thinking about leaving Rod?” he asks.
“There was no thinking about leaving him but thinking about how to leave him rather safely. But everything changed when Mary found out she was pregnant. From there, her desires weren’t the priority anymore. The baby was. But even after we left town, she didn’t let go of the hope to live with Connor someday. She couldn’t help herself. She often dreamed aloud about how perfect her life with Connor, Camryn and you would be if she could go back to your dad. Then Camryn was born, and soon after that, she found out about the cancer. And she made the decision she believed was the best for everyone’s safety. I understand you might think of her gesture as one of selfishness, but she only did what she did to protect everyone.”
“I’ve lived the club life my whole life, and there’s not a single day I’m not guarded,” Jayce says. “I understand her choice,” he assures her.
“Do you want a coffee or something?” Cam offers when everyone seems to be at a loss as to what to say.
“A coffee would be nice, thanks.”
“I’ll take care of that,” I tell Cam when she’s about to stand.
“Oh, are you a prospect? I’m confused. Dona told me she thought you were seeing the president,” she frowns.
“Dona?” I repeat, my eyes widening. “And yeah, I’m the president. Nate,” I confirm.
“Dona is an old friend of mine. And Mary’s. From the day Camryn moved back around here with her parents, I reached out to her,” she says, her eyes then moving back to Cam. “Before that, I used to check on you myself once a month. At the park where you used to go with your mom, usually, since I lived nearby. But when you all moved here, I couldn’t follow you. Rod would have noticed me eventually, and he would have known the only reason that could have made me come back was you. Anyway, Dona used to give me news about you until you left town to go to college. She just kept an eye open for me so I’d
be able to warn your parents if Rod happened to find out about you. But she never told me anything club related, I swear. She doesn’t know anything anyway,” she rushes, her attention immediately darting back to me.
“Hey, I know Dona. She’s always steered clear of MCs. It’s obvious she just helped you looking out for Cam. I’m glad she did.”
She nods, relieved. “When she told me she was pretty sure you were dating the president of the Chaos Chasers, the news made me smile as much as it freaked me out,” she chuckles.
“God, the number of coincidences in all this is just ridiculous,” Cam confesses with a shake of her head.
“I agree. And there I was, a few hundred miles away and trying to decide what Mary would have done about it.”
“What do you mean?” Cam probes.
“Like I told you in my note, when Mary gave me the letter, she asked me to only give it to you if I believed you were in any kind of danger because of the Spiders. That way, you could have gone to the Chasers. But when Dona told me about the fire at your house and the fact the Spiders had been hanging out outside her diner, she also told me that you were already protected by the Chasers. I wasn’t sure what to do then, because you already being involved with the Chasers wasn’t an eventuality I ever envisioned. I hesitated for days, but in the end, I felt like you should know about your origins. Your brother. It didn’t seem fair to keep the truth about your past hidden from you, especially if your involvement with the Chasers was more than temporary. So I made arrangements at work and climbed in my car.”
“Do you still live in Colorado?” Cam asks her.
“I do.”
Cam swats my arm abruptly. “The coffee,” she hisses in a whisper like I’m being rude.
“Yeah,” I stand up, and I’m pretty sure I hear Ben mumbling under his breath something about me having shifted into a puppy.
I ignore the funny dickhead and address Cam, grinning proudly. “Oh, and see? I offered to make the coffee myself and she thought I was a prospect. Obvious.”
She rolls her eyes.
“I feel like I’m missing something,” Lilly smiles.
“Camryn is just as much as a mother hen as you were.”
Cody’s deep voice has Lilly’s head spinning and my own motions pausing.
She stares at him, not moving, not blinking. Maybe not even breathing, if I’m right. Looks like Ben nailed this one.
“Cody,” she finally cuts through the awkward silence with emotion heavy in her voice.
His gaze planted on her, Cody is leaning against the wall at the bottom of the steps. It doesn’t look like he’s planning on coming closer.
Just as I remember I’m supposed to go to the kitchen, Liam is here with a cup of coffee he sets on the table.
“Thank you very much,” Lilly tears her eyes off Cody.
“You’re welcome, but just so all is clear, I’m not a prospect either,” Liam flashes her a smile.
Camryn rolls her eyes again.
“Did you stay away all these years because of the Spiders?” Cam asks her.
“If I had stayed and Rod had put his hands on me, I knew he would have tortured me until I told him where Mary and you were. I was terrified. He would have killed me then, maybe would have killed the people I was close to as well. But regardless, I couldn’t possibly abandon Mary. We met when we were eight, in the same foster family. They weren’t abusive people, but they weren’t loving parents either. Basically, we had food on the table and clean clothes every day, but besides that, we were mostly ignored. Mary and I always stuck together and loved each other, making the most of the hand we had been dealt with. The decision to leave here wasn’t easy to make, but I did what I had to do to help her. I also want you to know that I would have taken care of you myself if it had been possible. But it was too dangerous. Mary wanted you to live your life far away from the Spiders. She couldn’t imagine dying without being certain you were safe. As for me, I stuck around to keep an eye on you. I changed my name and settled about a hundred miles away from you.”
“We could have protected you.” Guilt saddens Lilly’s expression at Cody’s statement. As she’s about to say something, he goes on. “We would have kept you safe. You, Mary and Camryn. Though I understand why Mary didn’t want to take that kind of risk. But why didn’t you tell me she was seeing Connor? I also have a fucking hard time dealing with the fact Connor kept this all a secret.”
I loved Connor, but I can understand Cody’s messed-up feelings right now.
“Mary begged me and Connor to keep their secret. She trusted him with her life, but you have to understand that she was absolutely terrified of Rod. If she had gone to the Chasers and let Rod know Connor was her baby’s father, Rod would have lost his mind. I can’t even imagine the massacre he would have started. Rod didn’t know about Connor just as he didn’t know about you and me, so there was nothing to link me and Mary to the Chasers. Leaving was the easiest way to keep us all safe. Mary, me, Connor, you, Camryn and Jayce. And every other Chaser who would have been a target just the same.”
He nods slowly, still staring straight into her eyes.
“I thought you stayed with her and the baby. All these years, that’s what I thought.”
A weary smile spreads faintly on her lips. “I always thought I’d come back someday, maybe when Camryn was a little older. But I was so afraid. When they moved here, I almost came back despite the danger, but several years had passed and I realized that I didn’t even know if there was still a reason for me to come back,” she admits quietly. “Then more weeks, months and years passed, and I just went on with my life.”
Silence stretches on before Cody speaks again. “We’re planning on taking Rod down. When it’s done, you’ll be safe.”
“And you could stay here in the meantime?” Cam barges in hopefully, but her gaze is on me.
“If Cody trusts her, I do, too,” I repeat.
“We can protect you until he’s gone,” Cody promises her, but something quickly switches on his face. “But you probably have a life you need to get back to.”
His features are blank, giving nothing away, but however slightly, his hurt sneaks its way out of him through his voice.
“I have my job,” she answers. “I work at a gym club as a yoga teacher.”
For the first time, Cody cracks a smile. “You got to do what you love, then. You did it.”
“I don’t have my own gym club, though.”
“Do you have a family? A husband? Children?” Camryn asks, and I squint at Cody to see his body rigid and his jaw closed tight. Lilly shakes her head, and sorrow is thick in her gaze when it flicks to Cody before going back to Cam as she carries on. “You think you could stay a while longer, then?”
“I suppose I can call my boss and ask for some more days off,” she smiles. “Besides, I brought a lot of photos of Mary if you’d like to see them?”
“I’d love that,” she says then turns to me, wincing in apology. “Rain check on cleaning up?”
“I should survive that,” I grin, and she smiles back at me.
Whatever she wants to do today is fine with me as long as the smile that’s back on her face stays right where it is.
Chapter 25
Camryn
“That’s some very sexy braces we’ve got here.”
Looking up, I see Nate grinning at me over his shoulder as he waves a picture in the air. Though I can only have a distant glimpse at it from the other side of the room, especially as it wildly moves, it’s obviously one that comes from my teenage years.
Very elegantly, I show him my middle finger without leaving the dirty floor I’m sitting on in front of my closet, and he laughs.
We already emptied all the kitchen cupboards―those that the fire spared, at least―as well as the living room buffet. I’m happy I brought most of my mom’s kitchen appliances to LA. It would have broken my heart if her favorite baking things had been destroyed just like so many other things.
“E
verything smells awful.” I wrinkle my nose, discarding beside me the grayish shirt I just breathed in. “I should just throw it all away, what do you think?”
Most of those clothes are those I didn’t bring with me when I left for college anyway. As for the rest of them, I’ll just replace them. Unlike my parents’ bedroom, mine was mostly spared by the fire. Just like the bathroom, situated on the same side of the second floor. But the smoke, on the other hand, has sneaked everywhere.
Nate drops the picture back into the memory box he found intact under my bed, and he lazily walks toward me, his arm already stretched out. When he’s close enough, I reach for his hand. Then he doesn’t only help me stand but pulls me so forcefully to him that I slam into his body with a harsh puff of breath.
“I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but I’m just finding out that sexy, hard abs also have a downside.”
“Let me help you forget it right away,” he drawls and takes my mouth in that way of his that has my legs wobbling and my heart melting.
I love it when his kisses take a quasi-immediate animalistic turn. But his mouth assaulting me roughly usually entails a complete loss of all control that leads him to tear my clothes off me, and when I gladly let that happen, we’re not in a room blanketed with filthy black remnants of smoke and ashes.
He groans when my teeth gently dig into his lower lip, but I draw away before I’m the one losing all control.
“You and your sexy, hard abs should rather help me stuff those clothes into the trash bags and get them in the car,” I whisper.
“Sounds less fun, but let’s get to it before I fuck you.”
A whimper is very close to slipping through my lips, and I almost tell him to go ahead. But more reasonably, I say, “Let’s just take care of the clothes and go back to the club. I’ll thank you properly there.”
“Anything my girl wants,” he smirks, acting like it’s a favor he’s doing me.
His lips steal one more kiss from mine, and we get back to work.
The job is way simpler now that I decided to get rid of my entire wardrobe. Everything gets a spot into one of the large trash bags we brought along, and both the closet and the chest of drawers are empty within minutes.
