We’d both had dinner with Darnell and supposedly smoothed things over, but as far as I knew, the two hadn’t talked since, and they’d postponed their trip to Mexico to hike to the Mayan ruins.
“My mom’s been notified she goes in front of the parole board next month.”
I sat up and stared at him. “Really? Why didn’t you tell me! Are you going to the hearing? What does she think her chances are?”
“Her eligibility date is still three months away, so it doesn’t matter when the hearing is, or the decision, she can’t get out until then. If being there will help her, I will. Otherwise…”
“Yeah, your wolf hates going into the prison. Bubbles was in jail, right? How did he manage?”
“Seven years. Yeah. We can’t let him work in the gun store because he’s a felon. The Concilio kills or permanently detains most supernaturals who go to prison, but Bud worked something out so they were assured Bubbles could maintain his humanity without giving away the secret.”
“How did he manage?”
“He’s a strong mother-fucker. He went months without changing until he got into the prison’s mechanic program and gained some privileges. The wolf was still stuck in a small room and couldn’t run, but at least he could let the other half of him out a few hours.” I shook my head, hoping I was never put in that position. “He’s working in the new classic car division of the bike shop. He was having trouble integrating back into the Atlanta chapter, but he seems to be doing okay with us.”
I felt the problem before I heard it, and without checking in with Dare I was out of the tent, racing toward the sounds of conflict and saw our people fighting my dad, uncle, and others from dad’s side of my family.
Our people. My people. I wasn’t sure when the MC had become my people, but they had. My dad’s family had never been my people, and now they were trying to hurt people I loved.
I’ve since learned that when three supernaturals form a bond, their powers are multiplied exponentially. I didn’t know it yet, but Viper, Dare, and I had formed such a bond. I pulled on the two of them and went into a frenzy of anger and rage, and I attacked my uncle first. He changed to snake to try to heal from the damage, and I broke the snake into pieces before I turned to my dad.
“Hailey. Honey, it’s me. It’s dad.”
I’m told I suggested he go fuck himself before I hit him so hard I knocked him fifteen yards through the air. I leapt the distance and landed on top of him, and hit him until his face was a bloody mess. I broke his neck, turned and jumped someone else.
Meanwhile, the MC was in full fight mode as well, and within moments the thirty people they’d brought were injured enough they could no longer fight. Many of them shifted to snake and had to be taken out again.
I didn’t know it at the time, but we killed them.
I killed my uncle and my father.
Everyone kept their distance from me except Dare and Viper.
“Hailey?” Dare asked as they approached me. “Talk to me, Shortstuff.”
“I think Uncle’s dead. Can someone help my dad change before he dies?”
“They’re both gone.” Viper told me. “They attacked us and it was self-defense. Do you need to change? Are you injured? Were you bitten?”
I shook my head. “Are you sure they’re both dead?” I walked to my dad and saw they were right.
The weight of what I’d done hit me, and I sank to the soaked ground beside him. “Fuck.”
Thunder rolled around us, lightning struck a mile or so away, and the rain drenched us, but I barely noticed. It was just nature’s background music to the dead bodies scattered around us.
Viper made it to me first and lifted me into his arms. “You’re good, Hailey. You did what you had to in order to stay alive.”
Everyone stilled and it seemed no one breathed, and I looked to my right to see the biggest rattler I’ve ever seen. It stopped and looked at us, its head a foot off the ground as it scanned the area. It was bigger around than my bicep, and probably six or eight feet long.
My instincts were to press closer to Viper, but I didn’t sense hostility. I slid out of Viper’s arms and stepped away to stand on my own as I faced the rattler and ordered, “Show yourself.”
The snake complied, and shimmered before morphing into Grandfather.
“I can save them,” the elderly man told us. “Enough of their life force remains for me to force a change, but I believe we’re all better off without them sharing the Earth with us.”
He looked at Duke as he spoke, and Duke looked to Brain before answering, “Thank you for your kind offer, Grandfather, but I believe you’re correct.”
“Suli,” Grandfather said as he approached me.
I nodded as he put his hands on my cheeks, then my shoulders. The rain came down in sheets, the thunder and lightning danced all around us, but I didn’t notice.
“I could’ve brought your father and uncle back,” he said. “Their deaths are on me, not you. They weren’t worth saving. You killed them in self-defense and did our people a service.”
I shook my head in argument, and he moved one hand back to my cheek. “Yes, little one. You’re strong, brave, and powerful. You’re one of us. They weren’t, no matter their blood. I hold responsibility for their deaths, not you.”
The MC had reserved a small section of the campground in a back corner, but if it hadn’t been storming it’s possible we’d have been seen even back in the little out-of-the-way location the guys had arranged. I was soaked to the bone, but I realized Dare was helping his brothers get the human bodies out of sight.
“I need to help hide the evidence,” I told Grandfather.
He turned to watch the men roll bodies into tarps. “Unless I’m mistaken, they won’t want you to know where they hide the bodies. Let’s pay your mom a visit so you can shower and get into some dry clothes.”
I needed to get out of the daylight in probably the next ten or so minutes, and a warm shower sounded good. I looked to my hands and arms, saw the evidence I’d recently fought, and said, “I need to change, and then I’ll need food. I know a good barbecue place.”
So many of the restaurants in and around Bryson are all about the view, but I’d found a little bar with blacked-out windows, and it specialized in barbecue during the day.
Dare paused as he rolled a body into another tarp, and turned to me with a nod. “Good thing we left our bags in the car. Bubbles will ride with you and Grandfather to your mom’s house once you’ve changed and healed. We’ll clean up and break camp, and will meet ya’ll at the restaurant in a little while. I just need to get a change of clothes from the car before you go.”
Right, because Bubbles was still on parole and being questioned on a multiple murder suspicion could send him back to prison, even with no proof.
Dare changed his bloody hands to wolf and back to human as he walked to me, and held me as Brain said, “None of us saw any of these men. It’s likely they told friends and family they were coming here to confront us, and we’ll all say they never made it here. We’ll clean the area, trample it with our footprints so no one can find any of theirs, and do all the other things necessary to make sure no one can prove they were here. Dare knows where we can take the bodies and then we’ll all go into town so we can be seen with no fighting injuries.” He looked at me. “You never saw them. You last saw your uncle at your mom’s house last night. It’s been years since you last saw your father. Repeat it to yourself until you can say it and believe it.”
I’d seen Gino fighting with us, and noted he was now helping pile the bodies onto the tarps. He didn’t stop working as he said, “I’m not a known associate, and as far as law enforcement knows, I’ve never met any of you before. I’ll say I was here and didn’t see anyone besides your group.”
Duke nodded. “We appreciate your help. If you’re ever in Chattanooga, you’ll get free food in our bar during your stay. Look us up and hang out with us, let us throw a party for you.” Duke looked to
Grandfather. “I assume you’re on board with our plan?”
“I am. Hailey acted in self-defense and there’s no reason for her to have to prove it to anyone. Maybe the rest of you could’ve chose to injure instead of kill, maybe not. Doesn’t matter. You were attacked and you defended yourselves.”
Chapter 31
Hailey
“Your mother can’t know what just happened,” Grandfather told me again on the drive to her house.
“I know.”
“Can you hold yourself together around her?”
“Yeah. I’m probably still in shock right now. I know it hasn’t sunk in, so I’ll just keep it from sinking in until we leave North Carolina.”
“If you think you’re going to lose it, get a bite of something too spicy so you can cover it up.” He touched my arm and told me again, “Their bodies had enough life force left to be changed, but I chose not to. Their death is on me, little one.”
“I take responsibility, Grandfather. They died by my hands.”
He sighed. “I respect you for it, but I wish you’d let me take some of it from your shoulders. Tell your mom you helped break camp down until the men decided you and I should come here so you could shower.”
Bubbles was in the backseat, and he added, “Ghost didn’t want you alone in case your uncle was here, so he sent me with the two of you.”
I nodded. “You said that as if it’s the truth.”
“It is.”
Right. I needed to believe it if I was going to pull this off. “Yeah. Okay. Thanks.”
* * *
Ghost
Hailey, her mom, Bubbles, and Grandfather were eating when the rest of the MC showed up at the little barbecue dive. My wolf needed to hold her, so I pulled her up from her chair and wrapped my arms around her. I probably held her longer than was polite, but our heartbeats synchronized and I needed to feel her a little longer. She didn’t pull away, but stayed wrapped in my arms until I was okay.
I’d seen her fighting her uncle and father, but I’d been too busy fighting three men at once and couldn’t help her. She’d held her own, and I resolved to be sure she got lots more self-defense training in the coming months and years.
“It’s only been a few hours since you saw her,” her mom quipped. “Tell the waitress what ya’ll want, and let’s pull some tables together.”
Hailey had finished eating and was nursing a beer, but sat with her leg touching mine as I ate with my brothers. She knew I needed the contact.
We talked about how we’d need to open the tents to dry them out when we got home, and just generally kept the conversation on home. We planned to leave when we finished at the restaurant and wanted to set the stage.
I knew we weren’t going to walk away from killing nearly thirty people without it costing us, but I’d assumed we’d at least have time to get home before we were confronted.
It was really too bad they sent so many people after us, but we’d been outnumbered more than two to one and we’d had to fight them with all we had.
We’d covered every base we knew to cover — including Brain hacking into the cell companies’ databases so there wasn’t a record of any of the phones we recovered coming to our campsite. Now, we just waited to see who came to us with questions.
It turned out the wives confronted us first, while we ate. James’s wife got in Hailey’s face screaming, “Where’s James? What have you done!”
“I haven’t seen James since he left mom’s house last night. Did he not come home?” Hailey asked her aunt.
“Don’t play stupid! He and his friends left to go see you this morning!”
“In the storm? It was pretty miserable this morning. We slept kind of late, and then Dare sent me to mom’s to get ready while he broke our tent down and packed everything in the rain, and he and the other guys met us here.”
The woman looked at me. “Where’s my husband!?”
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but I can’t help you. When did you last talk to him?”
“When he and his friends were on their way to talk to Hailey and her boyfriend’s motorcycle gang!”
“Ma’am?” Duke said as he approached us. “We’re trying to have a friendly meal here, and you’re disturbing my friends. We saw your husband last night, and he was downright rude to his niece, but I’m not sure where he went later. Have you tried his cellphone?”
“It goes straight to voicemail! He was coming to see your gang! What have you done!”
None of the RTMC were wearing our cuts, but I suppose we still looked like bikers, even without them.
“I think we said all we had to say to him last night,” Duke told her. “There was no reason for him to come to our campsite, and we sure didn’t invite him. He said some pretty awful things to Hailey. Most folks don’t pay us a visit after they’re that rude to someone we care about.”
Now, her voice went low. “Are you saying you hurt him and the others?”
“No ma’am. I’m not saying that at all. It seems to me he talked big to you and then didn’t follow through, because we didn’t see him.”
Things went back and forth for perhaps five more minutes when the door opened and two uniformed officers stepped in.
“Hello, officers,” said Duke. “I think this lady needs to file a report with you. Her husband’s missing. She was under the impression he was coming to our campsite this morning, but none of us saw him. She can’t reach him on his cellphone and she’s worried.”
“It ain’t just him! There were a bunch of ‘em, and no one’s answering their phone and no one’s come home!” She pointed to Hailey and me. “They know what happened — they have to!”
Brain’s grandfather, father, mother, and siblings are attorneys. He’s been raised with that mindset all his life, plus he’s a mega-genius, so when we don’t have our attorney with us, we tend to let him speak with LEO.
“Officers,” Brain said as he stepped forward. “Several of us saw Mr. Griffin last night at Aggie’s home. We were camping in Deep Creek, but with the weather we packed up and came here to eat before we head out of town to go home. I’m sorry to hear Mr. Griffin is missing, but we have no information on his whereabouts.”
We talked to the officer perhaps ten minutes when a man in jeans and a khaki shirt with his badge embroidered onto the shirt walked in, introduced himself as the sheriff, and dismissed the uniformed officers.
“I’m in need of lunch, so why don’t I sit and eat, and we’ll see if we can’t get this straightened out.”
Twenty minutes later, we had eleven women in the room who said their husbands had been coming to see us at the Deep Creek campground, and hadn’t come home, and weren’t answering their phones.
When the sheriff answered his phone, the supernaturals could all hear the deputy tell his boss, “We got four vehicles parked on a service road about three miles from the Deep Creek campground, near a trail they could’ve taken through the woods to the campground. Plates are registered to four of the men assumed to be missing.”
“Okay, video the area, and take pictures of the ground from a distance but stay off it until the rain stops and we can get in there to track properly. If you see signs of foul play let me know.”
He disconnected and called someone else.
“Talk to me.”
“No shell casings, no blood. The area’s pretty trampled but nothing suggests foul play. None of the nearby campers report hearing gunshots or seeing anything out of the ordinary. No reports of motorcycles in the middle of the night. One of the women reports a biker brought her four-year-old son to her yesterday after he wandered off into the woods while he was supposed to be napping. Said the guy was polite and not at all scary to her, but he put the fear of bears into the boy and her son hasn’t strayed off alone again. Says he fixed her lantern for her while he was there, too.”
The sheriff hung up and looked to James’ wife. “They found four of their vehicles, but not the men, ma’am. There are no reports of gunshots or fi
ghting. As of now, evidence does not support them making it to the campground.”
“Twenty-eight men left my house in those four vehicles,” said James’s wife. “Those damned bikers have to know what happened!” She looked at me. “Your dad was with them! What did your boyfriend do to your dad?!”
“I haven’t talked to my dad in years.” I imagined the last full conversation the two of us had, and managed to pull the statement off as truth. One of the women with her stepped close to me and smelled, so I knew she’d find out soon enough I was either telling the truth or a sociopath.
The sheriff looked to us and back to the women. “I see a dozen bikers. Why did twenty-eight men park three miles away if they were coming to see the contingent from Chattanooga? By all accounts, your husband said some pretty racist things to Miss Griffin and her African American boyfriend. If they just wanted to talk, seems to me they’d have driven to the site. I understand why you’re upset, seeing as how your men were probably saying they were gonna teach the bikers a lesson. If these men’s hands were all beat to hell, I’d be inclined to believe there was a helluva fight and I’d be looking for bodies and checking hospitals, but I don’t see a scratch or nick on ’em.” He shrugged. “No fist-fight, no gunshots, no blood. Did anyone else know what your men were intending? Is it possible they took them out, in hopes the bikers would be blamed and they’d get away scot-free?”
“Them bikers did somethin’ with our men!”
“I’m not with the bikers, Sheriff,” Gino said as he stepped forward. “They camped near me and I just met them. It stormed like the dickens this morning, but I’m pretty sure I’d have heard a fight if one happened.”
“I ain’t with ’em either,” said Grandfather. “I was at Aggie’s last night, and with Jordan, Hailey, and Ghost this mornin’. I ain’t seen James or his cohorts after he left Aggie’s house last night.”
The sheriff looked to James’ wife, then the other wives, met Aggie’s gaze, and then the bikers’.
Finally, he told Brain, “I have no reason to detain you. This is a public place and one of my deputies has taken pictures of everyone here, and we have the license numbers of all the bikes and out of town vehicles outside. If any questions arise, we’ll be able to find you.”
Ghost: The Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club, Book 8 Page 21
