by Nikki Wild
I can’t thank you enough, Grizz.
“You were mentioning a book,” Jack said.
My thoughts pulled back to my story.
“I studied his dream, learning it in and out. I inherited it. But there was a keen difference here. Where Eduardo saw power, I saw potential. He wanted to pull together every thug he could get his hands on, convince them of the value to strength in numbers, and build his own army…
“But I saw a better way.”
“You saw how to protect people,” Jack looked at me with something that faintly resembled awe. “You saw how you could adjust those plans, take all those misguided dreams, and make something good from them.”
“It wasn’t easy,” I replied. “But yes. I tweaked them. I spearheaded them, taking them in a much different direction.”
Jack nodded quietly to himself.
“This is my contribution,” I told him. “This is the way that I give back. This crime syndicate, as you put it, is the necessary fallback that I have spent years cultivating and carefully putting into place. I’ve put a lot of hard work into it.
My tone changed as I lowered my beer.
“You see then, Jack, that I can’t risk anything happening to that. If it’s true that people are asking questions, then I can never let myself fall back into the system. If they suspect that I’ll rat on any of them – and some would think so – then it will bring a new wave of anarchy. Mutiny. Utter chaos. And the last thing any of us out here wants is for dozens of veteran bikers, felons, thugs, and worse to erupt into a power vacuum or, God forbid, a bloodbath of a civil war…
“The system is built to withstand certain things, including my absence. But me suddenly disappearing into custody is not one of them. It’ll bring a panic. There can be nothing to throw the balance into complete jeopardy, or else the lawless world you know from ten years ago comes screaming back with a vengeance…”
“This sounds delicate. What happens if you drop dead? Or if you just up and leave?”
“It can be fragile at times,” I told him. “But it grows stronger every day. So long as Johnny Law isn’t suspected as having a hand anywhere, then the entire thing is designed to be a self-fixing machine.” I smiled warmly. “Part of the brilliance in Eduardo’s schemes. He thought all of this shit out for years. I swear the man had a psychology degree under his belt somewhere…”
My tone lowered again.
“But back to the risk factor, because I want to be crystal clear here. I know you ponied up bail, and I’m grateful. But I am telling you right now that, by the time that court date comes, Sarah and I are going to be long gone…”
“Oh, I’m aware of that,” Jack smiled.
“Good,” I nodded.
He laughed. “What, do you think I’m a fool? I knew the second that I told them I’d pay your bail that it was money pissed into the wind. But I felt that it still went to a good cause.”
“I figured so. You’re a smart man.”
“The longer I listen to you, the longer I think that we’re both smart men, Hunter Hargreaves. If only I had listened sooner…”
“The past is the past now,” I told him. “As far as I see it, it all worked out in the end – and that’s what really matters.”
Jack looked touched.
“You know,” he studied his beer for a second, “Sarah said that exact same thing to me earlier today. My God… after all this time, the two of you really are made for each other, aren’t you?”
“We always were, Jack.”
“I’m damn glad we got you back out, then.”
“That reminds me… how much did you have to give up?” I asked coyly. My face suddenly fell when he didn’t answer immediately. “Oh God. Jack, don’t tell me you put the house up. Sarah will never fucking forgive me!”
“Heavens no!” He laughed again. “They were asking for fifty-thousand dollars.”
I whistled.
“Bah,” he scoffed, waving it off. “So I give up a year’s pension. I’ve got savings. If that’s the cost it takes to show the two of you that I’ve truly come around, and that I just want my daughter, hell, the two of you to be happy…”
He winked at me.
“It’s a price gladly paid.”
Twenty-Three
Sarah
There has never been a conversation I’ve wanted to eavesdrop on as badly as that one in my life.
Worse still was how our gracious hosts went to bed early, leaving me to watch television alone. Elaine had slipped back a moment later, telling me to insist that my father spend the night if he was tired, and I’d thanked her for the kindness.
The way the two of them had respectfully fawned over Dad all night long, it was as if the couple considered him a local celebrity.
In a way, I guess he was.
The two men were outside for over an hour. Once or twice, Hunter had wandered back inside to grab another beer or two. I’d tried to not hover, but he’d deflected every subtle, offhanded little question I’d made with tactical precision and a sly, knowing smile.
With my phone still dead, I couldn’t even look at anything interesting on the internet!
Trapped in what felt like the eighties, I kept myself occupied with watching the eleven o’clock news. Familiar faces in local anchor stardom took over my attention, smiling with manufactured soul in their nearly flawless television makeup and their immaculate suits.
“Tonight’s top stories: the hottest updates on the sawmill arson case – you’ll never believe who, or what, is the prime suspect! Latest in education: marauding gypsies? In our Phoenix – it’s more likely than you think! And finally, area police diligently continue the manhunt for their latest dastardly foe: an elusive bank robber, dressed in a fuzzy bear costume!”
“Wow,” I laughed to myself. “Jesus Christ. You guys really have gone to hell in a hand-basket since I’ve been out of town! What happens when we leave for New Orleans?”
The announcer ignored me. How rude!
“And heeeere’s your hosts for the evening – Pat Backatum and Suzie Eubetcha!”
“Hi guys,” I chuckled.
The camera panned in, focusing on the turning, smiling faces of the aging, friendly news anchors. Word on the street was that they utterly hated each other’s guts, but they had such great camera chemistry that they were just stuck in their career together.
“Greetings, and welcome back to WPLN – your up-to-date news station!” Pat grinned widely, his eyes the ones of someone who had just tolerated a strong volley of passive-aggressive insults. “Our top story tonight… gypsies!”
“Gypsies?” Suzie chuckled. “What will it be next week, Pat? Ninjas? Pirates? People in animal costumes?”
Pat offered her a quick smile that only barely counted as sincere. “Turns out, we’ve already got that last one! And he’s banking on a story with quite a bit of interest!”
Suzie lightly slapped his shoulder. “Oh, you’re unbearable, Pat!”
“You know folks…” Pat faced the camera with an amused look on his face. “On the list of topics I never thought I’d present in my thirty years of primetime coverage, I’d probably put ‘gypsies’ right at the top.” He chuckled heartily. “Believe me, I love a good intrepid, caravanning band of fortune tellers as much as the next guy, but I am in just as much disbelief as you…”
I was just starting to get into that one when I finally heard movement inside. Right when it was starting to get good! I pulled myself up and made my way towards the kitchen, where Hunter and my father were parting ways.
“Well, sweetie, I think it’s about time I headed back… Are you two coming or staying?”
I looked quizzically at Hunter.
“We can leave a note for them,” he told me. “After the last few days, I think it’s about time we were all staying under the same roof again…”
I gave his arm a grateful squeeze.
My father warmed up. “Well, in that case, let’s get a move on. You handle the note, and
I’ll get the truck started up.”
I searched for a small notepad on the counter, and Hunter quickly checked to make sure all the doors were locked. I scribbled a quick thank-you with a warm promise to visit again before we left, and he escorted me outside, pulling the locked front door shut behind us.
“You should keep Jack company this time,” he murmured into my ear. “We can have the rest of the night to ourselves.”
He was right.
Hunter helped me into the truck cabin before hopping into the bed. As I got settled in, my father looked over at me with faint surprise.
“Would have thought you wanted back there, with him. After all the fuss today, anyway.”
“Nah, Better this way, Dad.” I leaned over and pressed a kiss into his cheek. “Plus, now I get to spend the trip back bothering you over what you two were talking about.”
“Oh joy,” he replied in a flat voice.
But his smile said it all.
Dad wanted an early night, so he bid us goodnight and started waltzing back up the stairs towards his bedroom. I watched him make it halfway up when Hunter stepped into the hallway.
“Wait… one last thing, Jack.”
My father paused on his cane.
Hunter leaned casually against the doorway at the foot of the stairs, his thick arms crossed.
“If this is something you don’t want to talk about, then I understand. But I never heard the story of these photographs…” He briefly jutted his thumb over his shoulder towards the wall behind us. “There was another boy, wasn’t there?”
Dad hesitated.
After a moment, he took a few lumbering steps back down, passing us in the hall. He came to a quiet pause in front of the framed photos, holding his hands clasped over the head of his cane.
“I suppose,” he spoke softly in that guttural voice of his, “that I could make time for one last, quick story.” His eyes flicked to mine. “Since the two of you are both here, after all…”
I followed his gaze as he glanced upon those photographs again. I’d almost forgotten all about the newer pictures, especially in the ongoing chaos of the last few days.
Hunter was right, I remembered. There was another boy, and I had never heard of him.
“My parents were poor but very lively folks,” Dad began. “They lived modestly. They made the most of what the Lord sent them, never expecting more, and the two of them were plumb happy with their lot in life…”
His eyes turned sorrowful.
“They weren’t expecting me. You can see here how their faces changed when I was born.”
Hunter and I peered upon the portraits.
It was true – they looked almost crestfallen.
“From the earliest years I understood them – hell, probably sooner than that – they told me all the time how I was a curse upon them. How they had been good to the Lord, and in a moment of weakness he had punished them with me. I was made to help around the house as soon as I could follow directions, constantly punished for failing to meet their strict expectations…”
He tapped one of the newer photos, showing their next child – the one I’d never known.
“By the time Gabe was born, they were in a much better financial position. This was the child they had wanted, the one who came during their times of prosperity.”
“Gabriel?” Hunter asked. “Like my–”
“Yes,” my father cut him off. “That name has brought me a lot of personal tragedy in my life…”
He continued, taking the story onward.
“You can see here how I disappear from the photos. The truth is that they gave me away. My own parents sent me to a goddamn boys’ home.”
“What?” Sarah gasped. “Why?!”
“My folks never gave me a firm answer, but I suspect that it was out of spite. They called me tainted my entire life, up until then. There wasn’t a day that they ever told me they loved me, or that I was anything more than a useless parasite…
“Whether it was because they thought I was born in sin, or simply the fact that my birth taxed their already limited finances, I don’t know. Whatever the reason, they gave me away to a place that didn’t ask questions, and I spent the next several years trying to survive the wayward children, their idle, fickle tempers, and their lack of supervision…”
“Then life went on without you,” I reflected, tears welling in my eyes. I pointed at the photos of my young uncle, growing up without his brother.
“For a while, yes. Until the accident.”
“Accident?”
“They had taken a road trip to California, as I remember it,” my father thought back. His voice grew haunted. “They went to San Francisco. He’d just gotten a big promotion, and they wanted to celebrate with a family trip to a booming city and its historic beaches.
“I wasn’t there. I don’t know what happened. He didn’t know the ocean; none of them had ever visited. He didn’t know how riptides worked. All he would ever tell me afterwards is that there was Gabe, playing at the edge of the water. He bolted in to chase a low-flying bird over the waves, and then he vanished under the tide.”
I held a hand over my trembling lips.
What if that happened to Connor?
“There was never a trace of him again. The trauma destroyed my folks. I don’t know if it was my mother or father who had the idea, but they decided to see if their older child was still around. Thanks to being shunted through a few foster homes and then returned, it just so happened that I was.
“So, we were reunited.”
I looked at the photos again.
“You didn’t look so happy with it.”
“It was better afterwards, in some ways,” Dad sadly reflected. “They valued me more, although they would never say it. They treated me a little better than before. But in this reunion, I had lost my younger brother forever.
“They wouldn’t tell me anything about him. I never knew his favorite foods, his hobbies, his dreams or ambitions…”
I threw my arms around my father.
He held strong, standing tall on his cane as a sigh shuddered through his body. “You know the rest, but Hunter doesn’t.”
Dad turned to my fiancé.
“I got out of there as soon as I could. Decided to go into the military. After eight years serving in the army at earliest opportunity, I came home a civilian and chose to follow a similar path. Wasn’t long before I found myself applying for a spot in the Phoenix police academy. And the rest, as they say, was history…”
My eyes were welling with tears.
“Dad… I’m so sorry. I had no idea…”
“Of course you didn’t, Sarah,” he replied with a quiet, sad air. “It’s not something I like to think about that much, and I’ve tried to shield you from that kind of life. I know that I’ve been too hard on you, too protective… it’s not easy, but I’ve had to slowly learn to let go.”
He smiled faintly, caressing my shoulder.
“But I have been made aware that trying to learn from the mistakes of my parents caused me to make different mistakes. All that we can do in this life is try to learn from those who come before, embody those teachings, and ensure they pass down to our successors. Just as I struggled with my experiences growing up, and you have clashed with yours, the next generation is on its way…”
Dad looked meaningfully at my womb.
“That’s quite the bedtime story, I think,” he chuckled lightly. “If you’d like, there can be others another night. It’s up to you. Either way,” he started back towards the stairs, “this old badger has had a long enough night as it is…
“Goodnight, you two.”
Hunter held my shoulder, smiling warmly. “Sleep well, Jack.”
“Goodnight, Daddy.”
As he disappeared up the stairs, my rugged, handsome biker turned to me with a grin. I pulled him close and enveloped his lips with my kiss, and his muscular arms slowly embraced me.
As we separated, I slapped him �
�� hard.
“What was that for?”
“Don’t you ever leave me like that again!”
“What are you talking about?”
“You disappeared in the middle of the night! No note, no message, no nothing!” I fiercely told him off. “We’re a team, you and I. I had no idea where you had gone, or what you were up to…”
Hunter massaged his cheek.
“I texted you! And I left you a voicemail!”
“My phone was dead!”
“How is that my problem?”
Disgruntled, I put my hands on my hips. “Write a goddamn note next time, you idiot! You know what doesn’t need battery power? A piece of freaking paper!”
“You’re right, you’re right. I wasn’t thinking,” he muttered with a sheepish look on his face. “The next time I rush off to try and fix problems with your Dad, then I’ll–“
He paused.
“Wait…”
Hunter dashed a few quick strides over to the kitchen. He looked utterly bewildered as he stared into the room, his hands in his hair.
“But I… how did…?”
“Words, Hunter,” I shook my head as I slunk up behind him and looked into the kitchen. “Babe, I know you’ve had a pretty rough few days, but remember your words…”
“This room was a mess!”
I glanced around and shrugged.
“Looks fine to me.”
“But Jack…” Hunter groaned in disbelief. “It was like a goddamn tornado flew threw the place. He got drunk and trashed it to smithereens!”
“What? That doesn’t sound like my father at all,” I looked at him curiously. “He’s always kept this house immaculate, remember?”
Hunter shook his head.
“I don’t… you know what? Doesn’t matter.”
“Did you hit your head in jail or something?”
“No, let’s just drop it.”
He turned to me, pulling me into another loving kiss. “After all that trouble, I’m just glad to be back here with you. I had no idea how long we would be separated again…”
“Well, I’ve got you here now,” I smiled.
