My stomach tightened in a knot. The plan was simple, I wasn't worried about that part. It was the part where Devil goes nuts and possibly hurts someone I love, that’s what has me stressed the fuck out. I glanced at the Blazer and saw Brenna sitting up in the seat. I walked over and unlocked the doors.
“Good sleep, darlin'?”
“The best,” she smiled up at me.
“Hungry?”
“I could eat.”
“Let's get you inside and I'll introduce you to the boys, guess they'll be your brothers now. However, that being said, I messed with them a little and let them think I picked up a young girl. So, they might be a little hostile. I owe them some payback for a little stunt they pulled on me a few months back.”
She smirked up at me, “You did pick up a girl, Pops. Maybe we should have a little more fun with it then.”
I barked out a laugh. Fuck, this girl was going to give us all a run for our money. She'd fucking fit in with our family perfectly. It startled me a second though to hear her call me what the boys do. It's like she's always been one of mine.
I looked down at her and she's got a slightly wicked smile on her face, it reminded me of one I had seen before. I shook my head. Brenna just laughed at me. Yeah, my women were gonna love her.
As we headed toward the dinner, Brenna put her arm around my waist, and I threw mine around her shoulder. I looked at the boys and both of their mouths had dropped open. Brenna and I both snickered. Teach them little fuckers, this old man’s got game.
As we made our way toward the boys, Brenna got quiet. I glanced down at her to see her twisting her shirt back and forth into knots. I stopped, turned her towards me and cupped her face in my hands.
“What's wrong, darlin'?”
“It just hit me that they will be like my brothers.”
I ran my thumbs back and forth across her face, soothing her.
“No, Brenna girl, they won't be like your brothers, they will be your brothers. So, help your old man out and let's finish this prank on them.”
She looked up into my eyes, the smirk came back out and she leaned up and kissed me near my mouth. To the boys it would look like she kissed me directly on the mouth. I pulled back and grinned wickedly down at her.
“Fuck, you just messed with their heads in all kinds of ways. I like your style, Brenna girl, indeed I do.”
She grabbed one of my hands and laced her fingers through mine.
“Let's go get’em, Pops.”
Once inside, we walked up to the booth and I motioned for her to slide in. After we're seated, I introduced her to the boys.
“Brenna girl, this ugly fucker with blonde hair is Rebel, and the ugly fucker with dark hair is Predator. Boys, I'd like you to meet Brenna, the newest member of our family.”
She smiled shyly at them and murmured, “Hi. I'm so happy to become a part of the family.” Then she leaned her head against my shoulder and put one hand around my arm. Fuck. She was good.
Both were still sitting with their mouths open.
“Fuck, you boys okay? Your jaws are about to hit the floor.”
They both snapped their mouths shut and continued to stare at Brenna.
“Holy fuck!” Pred said.
“She looks,” Reb continued.
“Just like Moms,” Pred finished.
“Pops fucking got himself a younger version of moms. Yeah, they are going to throw one major bitch fit. I can't see them sharing the bed with her, for sure.” Reb stated still staring at Brenna
I turned to look at Brenna and after it's voiced, it's as clear as a bell. She is Mia and Jennie put together. She has Mia's beautiful auburn hair and petite size with Jennie's ethereal features and sky-blue eyes. Fuck, now I know why it felt like she was mine. It's like my Old Ladies had a love child and Brenna was the result. Her smile of earlier reminded me of Cale's smile when he pulled one of his pranks.
“Fuck. I didn't see it before. I guess that's what attracted me to her.”
Both boys kept staring at her but nodded their heads.
“You're gonna give her a complex, you know.” I said dryly.
“Sorry,” Reb said, “but it's fucking eerie how much she looks like moms.”
“Fuck, Pops, do you know what you're doing taking another woman home? Isn't two enough?” Pred asked me without taking his eyes off Brenna.
I couldn't help it, I started laughing. They had taken the bait: hook, line and sinker. I grinned down at Brenna and she snickered up at me. She then sat up and moved away from me a few inches.
Both of the boys looked at us confused for a second.
“Got'cha.” I grinned evilly at them.
“Fuck, Pops, you mean she's not gonna be another Old Lady?” Reb demanded; relief could be seen crossing his face.
“No, she's not. But, I have invited Brenna to live with us. And you're right, I didn't see it before, but she does look like both your moms. Maybe that's why she felt like one of my kids the first time I saw her. We'll get into how she came to be with me later. But for now, just know you have another sister.”
Pred groaned. “Damn, another sister, are you serious Pops. Jemma is bad enough for ten girls.”
“Your moms said something about needing more girls around.”
Rebel shuddered, “Jesus, and she's already gotten us good with that little stunt. Just imagine her and Jemma together, Pred.”
Both of them shuddered then. I had to admit, part of me wanted to shudder as well. Fuck, I'm gonna have my hands full.
Brenna smiled at both of the boys.
Pred looked at Brenna and said, “Yeah it's like Pops said, you're like this perfect combination of both our moms. You're fucking beautiful.”
“Yeah she is,” Reb replied agreeing with Pred.
Brenna blushed and murmured, “Thank you.”
They nodded. Fuck, I think she has them mesmerized.
“So, Brenna girl, you said you were hungry?”
“God, yes. I could eat the ass end out of a cow.”
With that, the boys burst out laughing and said simultaneously, “Fuck yeah, that's our sister.”
And Brenna fluttered her eyelashes and said, “Where's the beef?”
Yeah, this was gonna be a fun ride. While standing in that little shitty ass store earlier, some voice inside me told me that she was mine, it had felt damn freaky. That same voice said we needed Brenna in our lives, maybe more than she needed us. We needed someone to remind us that there was more to life than always being in a war with Devil, especially after the long years this hell has gone on for.
~***~
Chapter 13
Real heroes are men who fall and fail and are flawed, but win out in the end because they've stayed true to their ideals and beliefs and commitments.
~Kevin Costner~
Viper
January 24th, 1998
After we got Pred off on his flight, we headed toward home. Brenna was sprawled out on the backseat sound asleep again. Fuck, she had to have been running on fucking fumes to be sleeping this much. Rebel had the passenger seat reclined and was out like a light as well. I was getting tired and knew before long, I was going to have to try to catch a few z's or I would fall asleep at the wheel.
We'd been on the road for about two hours when I saw a sign for a truck stop ahead. I decided it was time to pull off, top off gas, use the facilities, then catch a few winks myself. Once this was all over with, I might be like Brenna and simply crash and burn. But first, my happy ass was going to enjoy that shower before I slept for a week.
While I was washing my hands, a couple of truckers came in and I overheard them talking about cops patrolling the highway real hard through West Virginia headed to Kentucky. I took my time to see if they said anything else. One of them said he'd stopped about an hour and a half north of here and that he'd heard mentioned in a diner that they were looking for a girl who might have been kidnapped. That was all I needed to hear.
They were looking for Brenna. A
fter I caught about an hour nap, I was making a change of plans and taking a different route home. I wasn't letting that bastard get her back. I'd kill the motherfucker first, his uncle as well. It's a good thing that the store didn't have video surveillance, or they would know she had help getting away. I would do whatever I had to in order to keep her safe. She was my kid now, and I took care of my kids.
I grabbed a couple of Sprites and more sunflower seeds, then made my way back to the Blazer. I pulled under a tree, parked, cracked my window slightly, tilted my seat back, and settled in to catch an hour nap.
Two hours later, I woke up. I'd only meant to sleep for about an hour, but I guess everything was getting to me. As bad as I hated to admit it, I couldn't do everything I did when I was in my twenties, apparently running on fumes was one of them. The kids were still out, oh to be able to still sleep like that.
I grabbed my Sprite, took a good long drink, then opened my sunflower seeds. After smoking for so long, I had to be doing something with my hands and mouth now that I had quit. I couldn't keep my women in bed all day, so sunflower seeds it was. As I worked on my seeds, I went over in my head the things I needed to do when we got home. The main one was to call the Brothers that were leaving with me and let them know that game time was now upon us and to be extra vigilant when they were out and about. I thought back to that day last November and the ensuing conversation.
~*~
November 1997
I'm a paranoid motherfucker and a couple of years ago, I bought a detector to use to sweep my house, home garage, and work garage. I didn't really think any cops were listening in, but Devil was a crafty bastard and I didn't put it past him to do something like that. So far, he hadn't proven to be that smart, thank god, but I wasn't taking any chances. I swept the house and garage before the Brothers arrived to help me work on the bikes.
I was curious to see if everyone still felt the same way about leaving. After our visit back in April, I told them to give me a few months to work on things. I hadn't approached any of the Brothers since then, however a couple of months ago I had told Rogue to let the guys know not to give up yet, that I was working on something. I made the decision to wait until it was a little closer to the time of implementing my plan before letting them know what was up. I was of the mindset, the shorter the wait, the less likely someone would slip and accidentally say something to the wrong person. But it was time to let those that still wanted to leave know that we had somewhere to go.
Since we had already finished the work on the boy’s bikes, I had bought a couple of project bikes that I was working on for Cale and Jemma. That way if anyone stopped to see what was going on, I would just tell them that some of the Brothers were helping me out with my projects. About twenty minutes later, I heard bikes coming. I looked up to see Rogue and Screw pulling up the driveway. As they were taking off their helmets, Hatchet, BamBam and Cotton pulled in behind them.
I walked out to greet them, and Hatchet commented, “Slade said he was running about ten minutes late. But he would be here.”
I lifted my chin to him, bumped the guy's fists then we all walked into the garage.
“Beer and sodas in the cooler. Get what you want. Decided to build these bikes for Cale and Jemma, that way we have a legitimate excuse if someone stopped by to see why all y'all were here; and that's entirely possible since some of the Brothers are finishing up some work on cars and bikes down at the shop.”
Heads nodded in my direction.
I sat back down on my stool and motioned to the other stools for the guys to sit on. I got back to cleaning parts and soon the others were helping out as well. As I looked outside to make sure no one had walked up, Slade pulled into the driveway. I waited until he's in the garage before I started chatting with the boys.
“So, I wanted to meet today and make sure that you guys really still want to leave the MC?”
A chorus of yeses and yeps could be heard.
“Are you entirely sure? What's your thoughts on the matter?”
Slade spoke up first, “I'm all for it. I've wanted to get out of this shit hole for a long time now. The Spawns aren't a fucking club; under Devil it's become a fucking gang. That wasn't why I joined an MC.” He paused a moment as he looked at me. “I know you went and talked to Mom about this.”
I inclined my head at him as he continued, “I spoke to Mom and she was all for moving. You know she doesn't have much longer, the cancer has pretty much got her all eaten up inside. Not sure exactly what you said to her Viper, but she told me she could die somewhere else the same as she could die here.”
I wasn’t surprised. I’d spoken to his mom Audrey earlier this week about what I was planning. There was no way I was leaving Slade behind; he was like a son to me. From the time I first saw him, he’d pulled at something deep inside me, Mia’s mom had been babysitting him at the time. I’ll never forget that day either. I’d gone over to pick Mia up for a date when this little boy with his long dark hair flying out behind him came running up to me. He’d stopped right in front of me, tilted his head back and stared me in the face.
His eyes had locked onto mine and I had knelt down in front of him. He never said a word, but he’d reached out and put his little arms around my neck. I’d stood up, hugged him close to me, and I heard him let out a deep sigh. I was just barely nineteen at the time, yet this boy tugged hard on my emotions. Mia told me that through unfortunate circumstances his dad wasn’t in the picture. Every time I saw him after that, he’d run up to me, waiting for me to pick him up and give him a hug.
After Mia and I got married, her parents moved their family a few towns away and cut off all communication with us. They hadn’t approved of her marrying ‘a nasty, disgusting biker.’ I’d tried my best to explain to them that I’d always love and take care of Mia, but they didn’t want to hear it. They wanted their youngest daughter away from the SoSMC. They didn’t want to take the chance of losing her to the monsters that were the members of the MC.
Slade was six when Mia took over watching him after her parents had moved. Since I usually got off work earlier than Audrey did, I’d asked her permission if I could spend time with Slade until she came to pick him up. She’d agreed, and from that moment on, I became somewhat of a surrogate dad to Slade. I was the one who got him interested in motorcycles, and he and I had built his first bike when he got older. Other than the bike he bought to take Audrey on rides, he still rode the same one we built.
“To tell you the truth it kinda surprised the hell out of me, Viper. Whatever you said to her made a serious impression. I asked her to be sure because we would be leaving the only house we’d ever lived in, and she told me that a house was just wood and mortar. Mom said she would rather know I was somewhere safe and happy before she passed. That would give her more peace than anything.”
“As a parent, I can totally understand that.” I told him, all the while knowing that Audrey had cried tears of joy knowing that I would be getting Slade away from the hell that was SoSMC.
BamBam spoke up next, “Cotton, Hatchet and I have been wanting to leave for a couple years now, Viper. I'll be truthful with you, the only reason we have stayed is because you are a good VP. We kept hoping Devil would get killed and you'd then be our Prez. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have run SoS the way it's always been run.”
“Appreciate the sentiment, Bam.”
“So, as far as I'm concerned, when do we leave?”
Cotton followed Bam in speaking, “I'm with Bam, ready to leave whenever. I have no ties here, nor does Bam. We joined the MC for the Brotherhood. While the men in this garage and a couple of others have been good Brothers, the rest are nothing but criminals to my way of thinking.”
“Can understand that, Cotton.” I said to him while taking a sip of my beer.
“I spoke to Mom about it, Viper,” Hatchet said. “She was more than willing to relocate. Said if I was gonna be joining a different MC, she'd prefer it wasn't in this town or area for that matter. Sa
id she would actually like to get Kim away from here.”
I nodded at him as I continued cleaning the part I was holding.
“So, I'm with the Slade, BamBam and Cotton, ready to go whenever.”
“Screw and I talked to Lizzie and Emily about it. At first, they didn't want to even consider it. But after we expressed our concerns, they settled down and we started weighing all the pros and cons.”
“Yeah, I told Mom and Aunt Liz that I was going to be in an MC regardless, but that I was definitely leaving SoS. Told Mom I would hate to have to move away from her, but sometimes a man has to do what a man has to do. She wasn't real happy about that, but said she understood.”
“I then told Lizzie that I needed the brotherhood but wasn't staying here. That there was some shit starting that I wanted no part of. I told her I wanted to be able to keep her and the kids safe, and if we stayed here, I couldn't promise that. After talking for about an hour, they finally agreed to move.” Rogue said.
“I'll be honest with you fellas, I'm fucking glad to hear that.” I took another pull off my beer.
“Needless to say, this needs to be kept on the down low. We don't need anyone getting a hint of what we have going on. Understood?”
Simultaneously 'understood' echoed around the room. I nodded to them.
“I've been doing a lot of thinking and I'm going to ask you to trust me on the plan to get us out of here. The fewer who know, the less likelihood of it getting out. It's not that I don't trust you, it's more that I want to keep it close to my vest, so to speak.”
Chin lifts went around the room.
“I thought long and hard about starting another MC like some of you suggested. And I would do it, if there weren't any other options. However, there's another option. How would you feel about patching over to another MC?”
Viper (Angel’s Rebellion MC: #1) (Angel's Rebellion MC) Page 17
