And even though I had memories I wanted to run from in my hometown, it seemed as if it had all the amenities to make my journey home worthwhile.
So long as I didn’t run into Gavin’s father.
Chapter 3
Rock
“Look, we already know we can’t send Brewer in now that he’s been shot,” Grave said. “So, what’s the point of church, Diesel?”
“The point is that the plan is still in motion. But we need someone to replace Brewer,” he said.
“Are you sure?” Mick asked.
We all turned to him as Diesel’s face set itself into stone.
“I mean, I’m not one to question you. You know that. But hell, Diesel Those men busted up Brewer’s home good. Who’s to say they didn’t know what we were planning in the first place? They’re going to be on high alert now.”
“He’s got a fucking point,” I said. “It’s too dangerous to send someone in now.”
Because there was a fucking rat in our group.
“Someone has to take care of Rex,” Knox said. “I’m not lettin’ that fucker get away with what he did.”
“Then you go into jail and kill him yourself,” Mick said.
“Monroe’s due in a month,” Knox said.
“Then shut the fuck up,” Mick said.
“Whoa. Mick. What the fuck’s gotten into you?” I asked.
“This is bullshit, is what’s gotten into me. And I’m pissed off that I wasn’t here to help you guys do anything about it. But the second we set this damn plan into motion, Brewer almost got killed.”
“Again, he’s got a fucking point,” Grave said.
“If we send someone into that jail to pick off Rex, they’re going to get hurt. Possibly killed themselves. For all we know, The Black Saddles have sent some of their people into jail like we were about to just to protect the bastard. We send one guy in there and he’s jumped by four? Five? What the fuck will we do then?” I asked.
“Okay, everybody calm the hell down,” Diesel said.
“We have to do something,” Knox said. “We can’t sit around with our thumbs up our asses.”
“Then throw out a suggestion that doesn’t get one of us killed,” Grave said.
“Shut the fuck up!”
Diesel’s voice echoed across the chambers of the lodge. Everyone was on edge, myself fucking included. Diesel raked his hands down his face and groaned. I knew how he felt. All of this was frustrating as fuck, and with each passing moment that got foiled only confirmed the thing none of us wanted to talk about on a fucking regular basis.
“Okay,” Diesel said. “You guys are right. The plan’s a botched one. But I think we all need to walk away and cool down from this Brewer incident before we figure out our next move.”
“But Diesel…”
“Can it, Knox.”
The look in Diesel’s eyes automatically disarmed the man, and I didn’t blame him. I was finally beginning to see our President with his ‘no bullshit’ attitude. Diesel had patience. More than any one person needed in their lives. But even he had his limits.
And he was approaching them quickly.
“Do we have any other options at our disposal other than sitting like ducks with fucking targets on our back?” Grave asked.
“Until I can figure out what the fuck is going on and how the hell those assholes keep thwarting us at every turn? No,” Diesel said.
“Thwarting? The hell are we in? Some sort of old fantasy book?” Knox asked.
“You really need to shut up,” Mick said.
“You wanna say that again one more time?” Knox asked as he turned to the man with his fists clamped.
“Enough!” I exclaimed.
Everyone turned their heads and looked at me. Diesel included.
“It’s obvious this church session isn’t gonna accomplish shit. So why don’t we all go our separate ways and cool the fuck down,” I said. “We can come back in a few days with clearer heads and tackle the actual issue at hand.”
My eyes glanced over at Diesel as I tried to mentally communicate to him the fact that we needed to address this bullshit now.
“Church dismissed,” Diesel said. “We’ll come back together in a few days and figure out what we are going to do from here.”
The guys all grumbled as they made their way out of the lodge. Damn it. This was a shitstorm and it was only getting warmer and bigger by the second. And all the while, Brewer’s words ran through my mind. I needed to get him to talk to me. I needed to get him alone and away from that woman of his long enough to have a decent fucking conversation with the man.
I stalked out of the lodge and headed to my bike.
Going to check on Brewer seemed like a good idea. He wasn’t at church anyway. Still in too much pain and way too fucking drugged up to be riding. At this time of day, there was a chance Makenna was at work and Ana at school, which meant Brewer and I could have a decent chance to talk this shit out.
I hopped onto my bike and sped away as fast as I could. I was getting tired of seeing that damn lodge without it providing any answers. Church was becoming a hassle and watching my family stand so close to the edge they were about to fall off kept me from sleeping at night. It pissed me off that none of us knew what the fuck was going on. And it pissed me off even more that no one was willing to talk about it. Yes, Rex fucking framed Knox and threw his ass in jail. But we resolved it and he got some pussy out of the whole deal. Yes, Rex’s sister ratted on him and got him thrown in jail. So, we protected her. And Grave got some pussy out of that.
Yes, Rex tried to have his sister killed on numerous occasions. So, we plot killing Rex because the woman’s family and carrying Grave’s child. Got it. I’d do the same fucking thing.
But none of that shit was going to help us if a rat was constantly tattling on us.
I rode through the dead streets of Redding, kicking up dust as the sun beat down onto my back. Every time I fucking took these roads, she popped into my head. And every fucking time I thought about her too much, I’d hit up a bar and drink until I fell in bed with another woman. Some woman who looked like her and briefly smelled like her until she made a sound. Said my name. Did something to prove to me she wasn’t who I thought she was.
Then I’d get mine, I’d make sure she got hers, and that was that.
I had no idea a summer could fuck me up so badly. I was in the middle of being a prospect with the Dead Souls when she came along. Piper. The woman I had to pay. She strolled into one of the bars in town with a pair of jeans painted on tight and a shirt that left nothing to the imagination. Ruby red lips. Wild blonde hair curled and with dyed ends of every color.
And the tattoo she had underneath those tits of hers was fantastic.
She had five of them when I met her, and to this day I could still remember them. A beautifully-designed tattoo that cupped tits I put in my mouth as much as I could that summer. A tattoo that traced around her belly button and pointed to a pussy I licked more than I fucked. Then three tattoos underneath each of her luscious ass cheeks that cradled them in their intricate design.
Tattoos I marveled at while I slapped my hand against her jiggling cheeks.
She was the kind of woman that gave me a run for my money. And some of the shit we got up to had a lot to do with the road between Redding and the woods. Sex on the benches overlooking the forest mountains. Hand-jobs while I drove my bike down deserted roads. Her sliding up and down my thickened cock as I raced us through the desert, kicking up clouds of dust to shield our lust for one another.
Her adrenaline addiction rivaled mine.
And I couldn't get enough of her that summer.
But, shit always happens in my life, and that summer was no different. The guys got into some trouble and I had to come bailing them out. Which meant I took the fall for some shit that landed me in jail for almost seven months. Our lawyers got the sentence reduced a great fucking deal. From three years down to only a few months. But it was enough time
for me to get out and realize Piper had up and left.
Gone back to whatever life she led before she met me.
I careened off the deserted road and took some back roads. I didn’t have the strength to cruise down fucking memory lane. I needed to get to Brewer and talk with him. The last thing on my mind needed to be that woman. Too much shit had come down onto the club’s shoulders to be thinking about anything else.
But every once in a while, I caught myself wondering what the fuck that woman had done with her life.
I knew she was a native of Redding, but that was all I knew about her. She was in school, but didn’t know what the hell she wanted to do. She had come into town because of things she needed to settle with her family, but she never went into detail. But we didn’t have that kind of relationship. I was a distraction to her and she was a fine piece of ass for myself.
That didn’t stop me from thinking about her every fucking day I was in jail, though.
When I got out, the guys were waiting for me with my leather cut. Stitched and emblemed, waiting for me once the jail finally released me. I went in alone and came back to a family that embraced the whole of me. And it felt nice. I didn’t have anyone other than them. I didn’t plan on having anyone else other than them.
But it sure as hell would be nice to take a dip in that woman’s pool again.
If only for a moment.
If she ever came home.
Chapter 4
Piper
“Beau!”
Gavin ran after our pit-bull mix that came bounding to the door. He jumped up and licked my son’s face as Gavin threw his arms around our dog’s neck. He was thumping his back leg like he always did when he had to go to the bathroom and I furrowed my brow. I had a doggy door to our fenced-in backyard put in for a reason. But it didn’t matter. If he wanted me to take him outside, then he wouldn't stop thumping and baying until I took him.
“Wanna go on a walk, boy? Hmm?” I asked.
“Can I come?” Gavin asked.
“Of course, you can, crazy. You’re not going to stay here by yourself. Let me go find his leash,” I said.
My first week at the hospital had been grueling. Long. Filled with more accidents in a small town than I could’ve ever imagined. Why on earth people did the fucking things they did were beyond me. I understood some accidents. A broken leg because someone didn’t release a parachute on time. Checking for a concussion because someone took a nosedive into a kitchen counter after stepping into a puddle of water.
But having to pick glass out of someone’s asshole because they shoved a lightbulb up there on a drunken dare?
Seriously?
“Come on, Beau,” I said as I attached his leash to his collar. “Let’s take you for a walk.”
“Can I do it!? Can I do it, Mommy!?”
“Sure, you can. But be really careful, okay? Beau’s very strong,” I said.
“But I’m stronger,” he said.
“That you are,” I said as I ruffled his hair. “That you are, sweet boy.”
Watching his determined face as he tried to control Beau only served to make him look more like Rock. Did he have anything about me in him at all? He had my wild side. But then again, Rock had been wild, too. There were times where I thought he had my legs, until he shot up another two inches. Gavin’s shoulders were broad like his fathers, and they bled into a slim waist, like his father’s. And every time his legs got longer, I couldn't help but remember all of the kisses I peppered along Rock’s thighs.
Particularly, his legs.
The older Gavin got, the less like me he became. Sometimes, I saw myself in his smile. Or in the way he crinkled his nose whenever a bad smell hit his nostrils. But that was it. Everything else was him.
Of course, the universe would be that cruel.
“Ew! Beau! No,” Gavin said.
He yanked on the leash as I reached down and grabbed his hand.
“No, no, no, sweet boy. We don’t do that to animals. That hurts them. Do you want to be hurt like that?” I asked.
“No,” he said.
“Then don’t do it to Beau, okay? Now, what’s he-?”
I looked over and saw Beau licking up another dog’s damn poop and I grabbed the leash from Gavin.
“No, Beau,” I said as I tugged him away. “Bad boy.”
Gavin placed his hand over his mouth and giggled, and the sweet sound reminded me of something of mine he did possess.
I was a giggler, and so was my son.
“That was funny,” he said.
“Yeah, I’m sure you thought so,” I said as I eyed him playfully. “When you see him eating poop, just tug him away. Don’t pull repeatedly, just keep walking. He’ll follow.”
“Unless I eat my poop.”
“What?” I asked. “No. You don’t eat poop, and neither does Beau.”
Gavin giggled again and the sound tugged a smile over my aching cheeks.
My body was exhausted. I could barely keep my eyes open. Thankfully, the sun was setting. Which meant after a quick dinner all of us could pile into bed. I had a feeling Gavin would want to sleep with Beau for a while. He always did that whenever we moved to a new place. I hated that he had moved so much in his lifetime. Twice while I was still in medical school and again once I took this job in Redding.
Part of me didn’t want to raise him in the hometown I grew up in, but another part of me knew he needed a stable life.
Which meant me sticking around for a long time.
We walked Beau down to a dog park and let him off his leash. I sat on a bench and watched Gavin run around with him, rolling around in the grass as I cringed. For all I knew, he’d roll right over a patch of poop and keep on trucking. Which meant laundry and baths before bedtime. I drew in a deep breath and closed my eyes, taking in all of the familiar smells around us.
And the memories that flooded my mind brought tears to my eyes.
My father used to take me to this dog park all the time. Especially after Mom died. She got sick with the flu one year when I was fourteen, and then pneumonia set in quickly after. From the time she was admitted to the hospital until the time she died had only been a week, and I never got to say goodbye.
My father picked me up early from school that day with tears running down his face.
It was part of the reason why I wanted to become a doctor at one point. I knew my mother had died in the hands of negligent doctors. They wanted to medicate her and drug her, then leave her alone for hours on end without anyone checking in on her. And I wanted to do something about that. About the broken system that had killed my mother.
But it wasn’t until I started going through my residency program that I understood the true reason behind why my mother died.
There was a man who came in with almost the exact same symptoms. A positive diagnosis for the flu as well as fluid buildup around his lungs. And the doctors administered the same thing: drugs for the flu symptoms and antibiotics for the fluid buildup. But this man had a rough pair of kidneys. He had issues filtering the drugs, which meant they had to back off on the dosage. Just like they had to do for my mother. They gave him space to rest and recuperate, just like they had to do for my mother.
But they couldn't up the dosage of his drugs to get him the help he needed, and the rest he required didn’t work.
I watched him die that night during my residency, and I said to him what I wished I could’ve said to my mother.
I learned that night that not everything was as it seemed. That sometimes, all doctors can do is make someone comfortable and hope their body does what they can’t. My mother had lived a hard life. Battled addictions with pills and alcohol until she met my father. That takes a toll on someone’s organs. On someone’s kidneys. And while all of the memories I had of my mother were positive and good, she wasn’t without her faults.
The doctors hadn’t killed her that day.
Her lifestyle had.
“Mommy! Look!”
I s
hook my head and looked across the dog park and watched as Gavin played on the doggie toys. He held his arms out and walked along the beam, trying to keep his balance as he went from one end to the other. The smile on his face brought a warmth to my heart, but I knew we would have to be getting home soon. It was getting dark, and soon the only thing that would be lighting our path were the lightning bugs of the town.
And I didn’t have my taser on me in case something happened while we were out.
“Come on, kiddo! Come here, Beau! Time to go back!”
“Awww, but Mom-”
“No ‘but’s. You need a shower and we all need dinner,” I said.
I clapped my hands and Beau came running. Gavin stalked up with the leash and we hooked Beau up before we all started back. I held my son’s hand as I looked down at him, watching how defeated he looked. I hated it when he pouted. It killed me inside. But the darkness was growing thick and we still had four blocks to walk back home.
Then, an all-too-familiar sound revved in the distance, perking up my ears and stopping me in my tracks.
“What’s that sound, Mommy?” Gavin asked.
The dull roar thundered throughout the small town as visions of Rock on his motorcycle came racing back.
“It’s a motorcycle,” I said.
“Those big kid bikes?” Gavin asked.
“Yes, sweet boy. Those big kid bikes.”
“Could I get one someday?”
I snickered and shook my head as I breathed in deeply through my nose. Of course, he would ask that question.
He was turning into his father more and more each day.
“When you’re older, we can talk about it. How does that sound?” I asked.
“Yeah! Mine’s gonna be black with green and yellow and red on it.”
“Green and yellow and red?” I asked. “That’s a lot of color.”
“Those are my favorite colors. It’s what I’m painting my room.”
“Oh, you’re painting your room now. When were you going to fill me in on this?”
“I just did,” he said with a smile.
The sentiment stopped me in my tracks. As the sounds of the motorcycles grew and the ground rumbled beneath our feet, my jaw hit the floor. And that sweet little memory came rushing back to my mind.
Rock (Dead Souls MC Book 4) Page 2
