Born Sinner

by Glenna Maynard

  “Trig, I already have a daddy. I don’t need another,” she sasses, and it takes everything in me not to turn her over my knee and show her who’s in charge here—me.

  Crank chuckles. “I like her. You get tired of this poser and want a real man...you come see me.”

  “Fuck you, fat bastard.” I shove his beer back in his hands. My girl is looking around taking it all in. The front living room is now a bar, with a kitchen connected on the other side that would make Gordon Ramsay's dick hard with lust. Our crew loves to eat and Wilcox’s old lady loves to feed us. Linda does what she can to keep the clubhouse clean, but we don’t make it easy on her or the prospects.

  An office and a few bathrooms make up the rest of the downstairs. Upstairs are some bedrooms and an attic. The basement is home to a few pool tables and spare rooms for guests.

  Behind the farmhouse sits the garage and cabins.

  No one bothers us out here, they know better.

  With Opal’s fingers threaded through mine, I give her a brief tour. Now that she's mine, she needs to know her way around. She needs to know the names of my brothers. The ones she isn't familiar with. Not all our men attend her daddy’s church. Not that I plan on her spending a helluva lotta time ‘round here.

  There isn’t much to show her really. She seems more fascinated by the photos of old club members that cover the walls. The opposite side of the room has more current pictures of our members. One photo in particular captures her attention.

  Her mouth opens and shuts.

  I squeeze her hand knowing what has her speechless. Her old man the Rev, before he went and found his faith used to ride with Wilcox, our president.

  He was young then, not sure how old, maybe still in high school.

  “He…” she starts then stops tracing her finger over his face.

  “Yeah,” I reply, not having any other words for her.

  “Hypocrite,” she whispers turning away from the photograph.

  “Figured you knew with your mom shacking up with Porter,” I divulge with a shrug.

  “My mom?” She questions.

  Fuck.

  Cupping the back of my neck, I look up to the ceiling. I hate to be getting into such deep shit right now.

  Before I can explain further, Wilcox’s loud mouth bellows across the room. “Trigger. Office. Now,” he grits. I can see the spit flying from his mouth.

  This won’t be pretty.

  I knew it’d come but was hoping for more time.

  Opal’s eyes are wide as saucers with fear.

  “Always safe with me,” I remind her, as I pull her along with me.

  Her hand is soft but clammy.

  Wilcox would make even the toughest of men nervous. He’s intimidating, all six feet five and three hundred pounds of him.

  Down the hall beyond the bathrooms, the brute is waiting to hand me my ass.

  Taking a seat, I pull Opal into my lap, not giving her a chance to run, and not giving a flying fuck what Wilcox has to say about it.

  If she really wants this—a life with me, as my old lady, she needs to get used to Wilcox, and the rest of my brothers too.

  It seems sudden, but I don’t take chances. When I want something, I grab onto it, and I don’t let go.

  I knew I wanted Opal long ago, I knew she’d come to me, just as we'd always planned.

  Although, I wasn't prepared for how she’d handle my life being thrust in her face all at once.

  Maybe this is too much too soon for her. She’s used to her sheltered life with her daddy.

  That life is over though, it ended when she climbed on my bike and slipped my cut on her shoulders.

  Opal

  Sitting in Trig’s lap with this beast of a man shooting daggers at me with his dark eyes, I’m trying to appear cool. However, I am about ready to pee my pants. He’s one scary looking asshole. His salt ‘n pepper gray hair hangs over his shoulders, and I can’t tell where his hair ends and his beard begins. He’s like a damn bear. A bear that wants to rip my head off and feed it to his cubs.

  “Whatta ya doin’ Trigger? I gave you an order and you go behind my back, behind the club’s back and stick your nose where it don’t belong. I warned you boy.”

  “I’m no boy and as you can see…Opal is mine. The Rev can’t say shit all about it.”

  “You dumb motherfucker. The only reason Rev hasn’t run us off was because I promised him…” The man beats his fist down on the desk.

  “Promised him what?” Trigger is shouting, and I nearly topple out of his lap.

  I can feel the anger pouring out of him in waves.

  “I swore to him that I’d never allow Opal to be part of the club, that it’d never touch her. After the shit storm her mother caused when she shacked up with Porter…” He tugs on his beard.

  Finding my voice, I ask about my mother. “You saying my mom is part of the club?”

  He ignores me and focuses on Trigger. “What I’m saying is, that you need to get her ass back to the Rev before he rains the law down on us. Not a good time for this shit Trigger,” he growls, shaking his head at the pair of us.

  Trigger caps his hands over my ears like I’m a child and says, “We holding?”

  I don’t know what he means by that, but I’m sure it's nothing good.

  I see the man Trigger calls Wilcox, nod.

  Trigger’s hands leave my ears and tighten around me.

  “Not if Opal presses charges for the hell he’s put her through.”

  “Told you that wasn’t your business.”

  Trig’s hands go back over my ears as they discuss things I don’t understand. Ignoring their conversation, I do some plotting of my own.

  Five minutes later, I’m still sitting here in Trigger’s lap with his arms around me, while they argue about me like I’m not even here. They continue their pissing match until I can’t take it any longer.

  Without asking, I grab the phone off the desk and call my daddy.

  I set the phone to speaker and both men shut their mouths as the line rings.

  After four rings the line clicks. “Told you never to call here,” my daddy says with venom in his voice.

  “Sully,” I call him by his first name. I can picture him now sitting in his recliner poring over his bible getting ready for his Sunday sermon.

  “Robyn,” he croaks, mistaking me for my mother.

  “No, daddy, it’s me–Opal.”

  The line goes quiet and Wilcox is shaking his head muttering fuck, shit, damn. Right now, the dirty bastard’s probably wiping his glasses on his shirt attempting to collect his thoughts.

  “You where I think you are?”

  With Trig holding my hand, I find the courage to say the things I’ve waited a long time to say. “You lied to me. All these years, you told me what a sinner Trigger was and to stay away from him. But I saw your picture daddy. You’re no different. No…you’re…you’re worse. All these years you’ve made me feel like mom left because I was a bad kid. She never left me, she left you.”

  “Opal, there are things you don’t understand. Things I never wanted for you. I nearly lost my life to the club, and I turned my life around. Then when you were born, I knew I never wanted my old life to touch you. Your mom wanted different things. She fell into old habits. Come home, and we can talk about it more then.”

  Twisting the phone cord around my fingers I pause, I want to know about my mom, but Trigger knows where she is. He can take me to her if and when I am ready to face her.

  I shake my head forgetting he can’t see me. I stand getting louder as I speak. “No, I don’t think so. I’m done listening to your lies. I’m gonna stay here with Trigger, and if you come after him or the club, I’ll tell everyone what you did to me. I’m not talking about the beatings you made me suffer either.”

  Trigger punches the wall behind me, losing his shit. For a moment, I forgot he was in the room, I didn't mean for him to hear that.

  I hang up the phone just in time to see Tr
igger pulling a gun from the waistband of his jeans and storming out the office door with Wilcox charging after him like a bull.

  Running down the hall after them, I hear total chaos. Wilcox is ordering Angus and River to subdue Trigger, but he’s pointing his gun at them, daring anyone to step to him. He’s inching closer to the door and closer to doing something that will make all of this have been for nothing.

  “Trig,” I plead, approaching him with caution.

  “Don’t Opal.” He shakes his head. “That motherfucker is gonna pay.”

  “He will. He’ll burn in hell for what he’s done. But you go off shooting him, and you’ll be no better than he is. That's what he’d love to happen. For you to give him an easy way out and for you to be taken away from me. I just got you. I’m not ready to give this, whatever it is we’re doing up. Are you?”

  His eyes burn into mine, he swallows hard. While his attention is on me, Angus and River come at him from both sides knocking him out cold. River hands the gun to the guy behind the bar and he locks it in the wall safe.

  “Put him in a room,” Wilcox orders them. The rest of the club goes back to drinking and minding their own. “You, back in my office, now!” He barks at me.

  I follow him back down the hall, hating that I brought trouble on the club’s doorstep.

  “What you said about Rev, that true?” He asks, taking a bottle of liquor from a drawer.

  I nod unable to look him in the eyes. I know from the expression on his face that he must have been friends with my daddy a long time ago. From the looks of that picture I saw earlier, they were once brothers.

  He tosses back a shot and quickly pours another, only this time instead of downing it, he passes this one to me. I don’t think twice before knocking it back. The bitter liquid shoots down my throat, and I nearly spit it back out. It warms me down to my toes.

  “Trigger is a hothead. He’s a good man, but…” he takes another shot and smiles at me. “You sure you want this life. It isn’t pretty.”

  “Ugly is all I have ever known other than Trigger, he’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” He grunts taking another shot, then handing me another. “I love him, always have, always will,” I declare with a shrug of my shoulder, wanting this man to know I love Trigger, and I’m not backing down, before taking another drink.

  “That's all I can hope for, for my best enforcer. We got rules and you’re gonna have to follow them. There will be times he’ll be gone and you won’t know when he’ll drag his ass home. Think you can handle that?”

  “I survived Rev, didn’t I? I can handle a few bikers,” I tease.

  He comes around the desk and gives me a hug. It's awkward but sweet.

  When he steps back I ask him about my mom.

  “You know my mom, and this Porter guy she’s with?”

  “I do. I know your mom well. Good woman.”

  “The kind who leaves her daughter with an abuser,” I say, not angry with him, but still hating her for not taking me with her.

  “I don’t know why your mom made the choices she did, but that's something only she can answer for.”

  I nod, knowing that what he says is true.

  A low knock sounds at the door.

  River sticks his head in, informing us that Trig is awake and he’s asking for me.

  Trigger

  Coming to, my head hurts like a motherfucker. Angus is standing by the door attempting not to laugh. “I’ll give you yours for this asshole,” I grumble. “You didn't have to go all WWE on my ass.”

  “Yeah, and risk you going off like some sort of vigilante and going to prison. Don’t think so Trig. I get you love the bitch, but you gotta think with your head, not your dick. What good will you do her in jail man? What will shooting the Rev change?”

  “Not a damn thing, but it woulda made me feel a helluva lot better.”

  To think, I coulda put a stop to him years ago makes me feel like a lousy shit. I wish Opal woulda said something, fuck, I shoulda known.

  The door opens and in she walks, my Opal, my world.

  “Get out Angus,” I yell.

  Opal flinches at the harshness of my voice.

  Angus flips me off and makes a jerking off motion with his other hand. Prick.

  “We need to talk,” I snap.

  “So talk,” she says flippantly, taking a seat on the edge of the bed.

  “Not with you down there. C’mere.” Hoisting her under the shoulders, I pull her up to the headboard with me. “You shoulda told me what was going on a long fuckin’ time ago. Shouldn’t be hearing that shit today.”

  “I get that you’re angry, but the shit Rev put me through...it didn’t happen like you’re assuming. Had you let me explain after my call, I would’ve told you that after that summer at the pool, when you ripped Bobby Wiggins a new asshole, Rev stopped touching me. After that, he only ever hit on me, or took his belt to me. When you started showing up to church every Sunday, he left me alone, and somehow I knew it was because of you.”

  I take a deep breath, knowing the last thing she needs right now is my flipping out on her.

  “It was a long time ago, and I’ve come to terms with it. I don’t want to think about Rev anymore. I don’t want to talk about Rev anymore,” she says getting closer to my face.

  “What do you want Opal?” I hedge, raising a brow at her as she bites her bottom lip.

  “I want you to shut up and kiss me. For someone so full of himself you sure are slow on the uptake aren’t you,” she teases.

  “Oh yeah?” I ask, leaning in.

  “Oh ye–,” she starts to say, but I cut her off, crashing my mouth into hers.

  With my hands wrapped in her hair, I kiss her slowly, the way a girl like Opal is meant to be kissed.

  Her arms go around my neck as her tongue sweeps against mine; soft, warm, full of passion, and tasting of whiskey.

  Pulling back, I hold her gaze. “You been drinkin’?”

  “A little.” She smirks, trying to be all cute. “Wilcox thought I could use a shot of something.”

  I make a mental note to talk to Wilcox later about feeding my girl liquor.

  “So, you have me here now, what are you gonna do with me?”

  “Gonna take you home,” I say. “Soon as my head quits pounding.”

  Opal isn’t a quick fuck that you bring to a room, she’s a girl you bring home, and take your time appreciating every single inch of her.

  She looks at me with an angry scowl. Then she punches me and calls me a mother truckin’ dipshit.

  I bust out laughing. “Mother truckin’,” I mock. “You mean a mother fuckin’ dipshit babe.”

  She punches me again.

  I grab her by her left wrist, then her right one, pinning her hands above her head. “Stop punching me. I meant my home, our home.” Sucking her bottom lip between my teeth, I nip at her playfully and she opens her mouth to me.

  My tongue slides against hers. Perfection.

  “Mmm,” I groan.

  “What are you Mmming about?”

  “Thinking my head feels a helluva lot better. Time to get you home and under me.”

  Fuck, I can’t wait to strip her bare. Her laying here in my arms, teasing my cock with them silky legs wrapped around me—Goddamn she’s near perfect. I don’t want to wait a minute longer, but not going there until I get her home.

  Opal

  After the intensity at the clubhouse, when Trig said he was taking me home, I thought for a moment he meant he was dropping me back with the Rev. I may have called him a few choice names and punched him. We’re pulling up to the driveway of his house…our house. It may seem strange to move in with a guy before you’ve even had a first date, but I know what I want, and I want it with Trig.

  Rhonda Jean will be going to college this fall not only to be with the one that she wants, but to get an education.

  College has never been something I’ve wanted. I’ve never been able to see beyond Trig and being his. Some
may call me foolish, thinking he’ll only use me and toss me to the side. I know better than that. They don’t feel what I feel when he smiles at me—I feel that he is my forever.

  I know what I want—to be Trig’s old lady and have his babies.

  He asked me once what I wanted out of life, and I told to him, “To be happy. To be a with a man that loves me without a doubt. To be a good mom and wife, that’s all I want. That's all I'll ever need.”

  Trig stared at me long and hard, holding me captive with his heated gaze. “You’ll have that and more Opal,” he promised.

  I believed his words then, and I still do now. Trigger is gonna make good on his promise.

  Parking his bike outside the front door, Trig tells me, “Welcome home babe.”

  I smile wide and bright, soaking this night in. I’m finally home. I’ll never have to live with my daddy again and suffer his wrath.

  Trig’s—our home, isn’t what I was expecting for a biker. The house is brick and has a gorgeous yard. No detail has been spared on the landscaping from what I can tell, it’s dark out, but the pole light near his garage provides some light.

  I want to cry seeing my favorite flowers on display, especially forget me nots.

  Trig lifts me from the motorcycle. My legs are pure jelly. From riding, from being with him.

  “You like it?”

  “It’s perfect,” I say, my voice coming out as a mere whisper.

  “Knew how much you loved to plant shit. Got a head start when I bought the place.”

  “You did all this for me?” I’m speechless.

  Who knew a hell raiser like Trig could be so damn sweet?

  I did.

  I knew.

  I’ve always known.

  Solar lanterns light up the walkway and the front porch light comes on when we hit the first step. A swing takes up the far end of the porch, and I can already picture the two of us enjoying a quiet summer’s night out here in each other’s arms.

  Trigger unlocks the door then scoops me into his arms, we resemble newlyweds.

  “We didn’t get married silly,” I tell him.

  “In my world we did,” he whispers with a soft smile.