His only regret had been not making Grace love him. He regretted the fact that even if she had stayed with him, there hadn’t been a chance of her loving him, not the same way she loved Orrin.
He and Orrin had been as different as day and night. Orrin had feelings, as he knew what it was like to fly high or drop so low you had to claw your way up just to breathe the air you needed to survive.
Orrin been there when Grace had his daughter, Cordy and he’d been there when Grace went through labor to bring his own daughter into this world. He’d also been there when Grace breathed her last breath. He knew in his heart that Orrin had grieved for Grace every day after that until the day Cordy blew him up. Oh yes, he knew it was Cordy. He’d investigated that and had come to that conclusion.
He raised his teary eyes to the heavens and called out, “I’m sorry brother. I never understood what you went through. I dropped the ball with Grace. I missed out on having a family I so desperately wanted with her, but you didn’t. I made your life a living hell and until now, I didn’t understand why I did that.” Hanging his head, he sobbed. “I know it too little too late, but I saved your girl tonight. I took out a threat to her life and I’m glad I did that. I want you and Grace to know that I forgive you. I know I didn’t say the words when it could have made a difference, but I am sorry. I put the blame on your shoulders when it should have been on mine all along.”
He tipped his head back and stared at the stars overhead. “I know you and Grace are together in heaven and I envy you that. My children and my enemies are waiting in hell for me to join them and I deserve that. The Jessin line ends tonight and that’s the way it should be. You told me that a very long time ago but I was too arrogant to listen, to full of my own expectations to care what you thought. I thought I had time to have a son of my own to carry on the name I was so proud to bear.”
He coughed and couldn’t stop. Each cough brought him pain and he could feel a gush of fresh blood pumping out of the hole in his chest. He felt his mouth filling with blood and he tried to spit it out but couldn’t, instead it drizzled out of the corner of his mouth staining his chin with color. When he was finally able to catch his breath, Bane felt his head swimming. Everything around him was floating and he had spots behind his eyelids.
Bane wasn’t ready to give up the fight just yet. “Grace,” he whispered, “Please forgive me for being who I was when I knew you. I did care about you but I didn’t know how to treat you back then. I hurt you time and time again, when I should have cherished you. I just never knew how to do that. You never betrayed me—I can face that now. I betrayed you. It took your sweet daughter to teach me that.”
Tears dried on his face as he faced his final goodbye. “Grace, Orrin, please forgive me,” he whispered as he felt his heartbeat slow down. He didn’t try and fight the inevitable. Instead, he let it take him.
His heart beat one last time and the air rushed out of his lungs as Bane let go of the pain of the struggle. His conscious mind saw a star twinkle in the distance before he saw nothing at all.
EPILOGUE
Everyone in Troy was still sitting there or maybe they had gone home to rest and had come back but now they were all sitting waiting to hear the news.
“I spoke to Reaper a few minutes ago,” Deke announced to the group. Looking over at Cricket he told her, “They found Bane’s body. The bullet Stark shot at him ended up killing him. He bled to death. Reaper and his men waited until dawn broke to look for him and they found him sitting up against a tree. It looked as if he died peacefully anyway. He’d walked quite a ways away from where he was shot.”
Deke’s expression took on a stubborn look. “You can’t blame Reaper or his men for not wanting to search in the dark. They did the best they could. They just didn’t want to get shot.”
Cricket shook her head. “I’m not blaming anyone for anything. If I were in their shoes, I certainly wouldn’t have gone after him either. Who knows what Bane would have done if they had found him in the dark. They did the right thing by waiting until dawn.” Shrugging she told them, “Bane always thought he would die alone. He told me about it in one of our little conversations. That’s what he wanted, so it’s fitting that’s what finally happened to him.”
“Honey…” Deke shook his head. “They want to know what you want to do with his body. They’re waiting to hear before they hand it over to the cops. The police haven’t searched the woods yet, they’ve been too busy sorting through the rubble for all the other bodies.”
Cricket stared at Deke for a long moment then asked timidly, “Would it be okay to bring him back here for burial? I know you probably don’t want him here and I don’t blame you but I don’t know where else to go with him. He had no other family besides me.” Turning to Raine she asked, “Is that ok with you? I mean I hope it is but if you don’t want him here, I can make other arrangements.”
“No that’s fine with me. He was your uncle after all.” Raine nodded at Deke, “It’s really up to him and the rest of the club. This is their home too.”
Deke paused then finally nodded. “We can bring him here. I can call Reaper and ask him to take care of the body until we can send someone after him. I can send up a detail of men to bring him back.”
Cricket nodded and would have turned away but Deke’s next words stopped her. “There’s something else you have to think about.”
She turned back and waited for him to bring her more bad news. “What is it?”
“When they found Bane’s vehicle they found his last will and testament.”
“His what?” Cricket frowned.
“His will,” Deke stated. “And there was a personal note to you as well. They didn’t read it but they found it curious to say the least that Bane left it on the seat where he knew it would be found if anything happened to him and he didn’t get back to his car.”
Cricket sighed and then nodded.
~*~
Hours later, the men returned with Bane’s mortal remains. They also brought the letter he left for Cricket.
She sat down and with Raine sitting next to her, she opened the only letter she’d ever received from her assassin uncle.
Cricket,
If you are reading this, I didn’t make it back. I’m not sure if you’ll be sorry about that or not. I’m not sure if I’m sorry about that or not either but it is what it is. My life is over and yours has just begun.
Congratulations on the wedding. I know you think what I did to you was wrong but there was a reason for it. And I’m going to tell you what that reason is. Our family history is a sorted one. Filled with people like me, people who don’t feel emotions like everyone else seems to think we need. I got along perfectly well without them but I would watch other people. I could see what I was missing and I never wanted it. I did however, want it with Grace. Your mother, she was the closest time I ever got to having real feelings for anyone and even she turned her back on me.
Orrin was my brother, my only brother, but he was as different form me as day and night. He had feelings where I never did. I always thought he was the weaker man until I met you.
I never really expected much from you, I always figured family would never amount to anything except disappointment and betrayal. But you did neither. I challenged you twice and both times, you came through for me. You even went beyond what I expected and warned me of Michael’s betrayal. That didn’t surprise me as much as I thought it would. I should have known better, I guess he was after all my son. While I didn’t know Cordelia, I understood her better. She was after all my child as well. But you, you continued to surprise me. When I came to warn you about the contract, you stepped forward for this rabble assortment of bikers. You weren’t their family, but you stood up for them.
I had to know if you would honor your word or if you’d run. Well, you didn’t run despite all the pressure to do just that. So I did the only decent thing I could think of. I faced my deepest fears, my own demons if you will. I always thought I would die
alone and this just proved it. I’ll die alone but I’m not going to hell by myself. I’ll take that mother fucker Stark along with me.
Let the Jessin line die with me. You deserve better than that as a legacy. The Jessin name has always been something to fear for the most part, and people were right to fear us. There’s no one left now but you anyway and you’ve never called yourself a Jessin. Your father was right to change his name. He hated our name as well. I’m leaving all my worldly goods to you, use it to be happy. Lord knows, it never brought me happiness, maybe it will bring it to you.
You are truly your mother’s daughter. As much as she hated me, I did try very hard to love her and I think in my own way, I did truly care for her even if it wasn’t enough for her. I can say I was proud to be your uncle for a time. You deserve a good life.
Bane
Tears ran down her face as she read her uncle’s last words. There was one more in the Jessin line but he was nothing like his mother, his uncle or his grandfather. Dusty was more like his grandmother.
Wordlessly, Cricket passed it over to Raine who in turn passed it along to Deke.
Deke took a few minutes to read Bane’s letter, then passed it to his dad.
Raine just held her. He didn’t need to know what Bane told her, only that Cricket needed him. The rest of the guys were sitting there and no one said a word as they watched her grieve for a man, her only living relative, a man she claimed to hate.
When Gambler, Dusty’s father got to read it, he looked over at Cricket. “Do we need to worry about Dusty inheriting this curse?”
Cricket shook her head. “No I think we’re safe. He takes after my mother’s side of the family. He should be ok. He would have shown it by now.” She nodded. “Whatever there is to inherit from Bane’s estate, he’ll get half. It’s his right by birth. Bane was wrong about that. He did have someone else left. Dusty is his grandson after all.”
Gambler shrugged his shoulders. “Whatever you think is best, although you should know I choose not to think of him in that way. He may have had Cordy for a birth mother but you were more of a mother to him than she ever was, and Bane didn’t even know he existed. He’s my son and your nephew not theirs.”
Cricket smiled at his remark. “Thank you for that. But the offer still stands. Dusty will get half of everything.”
Gambler nodded then turned and went down the hall to join his son.
She looked at the men around her. “Thank you guys for going after him.”
Bones gave her a nod, as did Mountain and the rest of the men.
Raine finally gathered her in his arms and walked her down the hall to the room they shared.
~*~
The next day dawned bright and sunny for such a sad occasion. Cricket, Raine and the others followed six men bearing a plain handmade coffin. Inside the coffin were Bane’s mortal remains.
They walked to the edge of the woods and then turned into the trees. Deke and Sam led the way to a peaceful place. Nearby were the waterfalls that Reva always sat beside. Off the left of that, hidden inside the woods someone had dug a hole large enough to hold a casket.
When they laid him in it, Deacon stepped up to say a few words.
When they began shoveling dirt on top of the casket Cricket just stared at her uncle’s coffin. He’d never been a kind man or even a good man. He’d scared her beyond any reason and never showed her any mercy nor even an ounce of compassion but he was her father’s only brother. She should be able to feel something for the man but right then she didn’t. And that scared her even more.
She might not have any other family now besides Dusty but she had a new beginning, soon she would have her own family. She wanted to give her uncle something he never had in life. Before she could move on with her better life, she had to let go of her old life and the only way she could do that was to forgive the man who caused her the most pain. “I forgive you uncle Bane. I may have never understood you but I have a new life just starting. My children and your grandson will never know you and maybe that’s for the best. You asked me to let the Jessin line die with you and maybe I will do just that. Goodbye Bane. I hope you found your little bit of peace in death that you never found it in life.” Her whispered words were carried away into the breeze.
Cricket stood quietly for a moment. She never believed this man could do something selfless. He had though. He never had to involve himself at all. Yet, he gave his life so she could keep hers and it kept the people she loved safe. He was more human than he knew. In the end, it was his love for her mother Grace that had made him decide on this last stand and meet death on his own terms.
The man believed he had no emotion, let alone love. He was proved wrong. He’d proved himself wrong.
Love, it was the most formidable of any emotion.
Family Does Matter
Prequel to
Sin’s Bastards MC Next Generation
DEDICATION
For all the readers who have followed Satan’s Spawn MC Series & Sin’s Bastards MC Series.... Here is the beginning of the Next Generation for the Sin’s Bastards MC.
Thank you for reading my stories
K.J. Dahlen
Chapter One
Five men sat around at a picnic table at Griffin Park in Troy, New York. It was a warm Saturday in October just before Halloween. Echoes of children’s laughter and squeals warmed their hearts. The scent of grilling meat and vegetables surrounded them and at this particular moment in time, life couldn’t get much better than it was.
Sam Tory, Mountain Morgan, Leon Vincinti, Black Jack Moore and Dominic Marconi were all sitting together laughing and joking while sharing a beer, or in Leon and Dominic’s case… a bourbon.
By all accounts, these men shouldn’t be sitting together, they shouldn’t even be together, let alone sharing anything. Mixing MC and Mafia had never been done before.
MC and Mafia, a dangerous combination from both sides of the coin, yet somehow this one worked. These five men had seen a lot of life’s good and bad and had lived with both. They could be brutal men when the situation called for it but they were also fair men. None of the men sitting at this table had what the law likes to call ‘clean hands.’ They’d all done things they probably shouldn’t have done but all of them would do those same things again, in defense of their families. They wouldn’t hesitate for a moment to protect what and who they called family. That’s just the kind of men they were and always would be.
But today they were simply dads, granddads and great granddads. For a brief moment in time, they could set aside that part of their everyday life.
Dominic leaned back in his chair and announced, “Now this is what I consider the good life. One I never thought I’d ever have.” He sighed heavily and admitted, “After I lost my wife and the baby I didn’t think for one minute after all these years I’d ever find her back again. There was a hole in my soul I never thought would be filled again without her.” He chuckled and stared at his son in law. “It took one man on a mission backed by an MC to bring my daughter back to me. And I thank God every day that you had the courage to do so.”
Mountain nodded but didn’t say anything. He just sipped his beer. In some ways, Dominic was an enemy but not here and not today. Today, he was just Izzy’s dad and Danny’s granddad. He tried very hard not to hold a grudge against the old man but sometimes, that was very hard to do. He kept trying to get Izzy to take the money he offered and she wouldn’t do it, now he’d set up a trust fund for Danny and Izzy didn’t want it. Hell, he didn’t want it. He could, and did take care of his family very well thank you very much. But Dominic just wouldn’t let it go. He kept pushing and pushing. Mountain was almost done with him altogether but for Izzy and Danny, he would keep the peace, or at least try to keep it.
In his own way, Mountain knew exactly how Dominic felt. He hadn’t know about Melora most of her life either and when he did find her, she was already with Sam. He’d wanted to be the one to offer her the world. It had been a b
itter pill to swallow that Sam was there to give her what she needed rather than him. But as her father, he kept an eye on their relationship, ever ready to step in if she ever needed him too. The way she grew up, she’d learned to be independent too soon and she still was to some extent. Much to both his and Sam’s displeasure.
“You got that right, my friend,” Black Jack agreed. “I didn’t have time for this sort of thing when my boys were growing up. I was too busy trying to earn a living and put food on the table but now, I can sit back and watch my grandkids grow. There’s no greater feeling in the world than that.”
Leon agreed with both of them. “After we lost Peaches I never thought I’d ever know anything like this.” He motioned toward where the children were playing. “All we could do was pray she was still alive and would someday come home to us. Somehow, even in the darkest of days, you never lose that sliver of hope.” He chuckled “We didn’t know then that all those missing years she had her own guardian angel with her, an angel named Cassie. Or that Cassie was trying to get her home the whole time.”
Sam chuckled. “Yeah, that’s Cassie all right. She just wouldn’t stop until Peaches got back to her family. She was going to run away from the FBI’s protection detail that night, once they figured out what was going on. Cassie wasn’t no dummy. She knew the system better than anybody gave her credit for.”
“She had to, didn’t she?” Leon reminded them quietly. “From what we’ve found out since then, the system has been used and abused by those in power.” He glanced over at Dominic. “You’ve seen it too haven’t you? Izzy went through hell along with Melora because of the system. The same system that was supposed to protect them, abused those kids time and time again. But I thank god every day our women are stronger than they appear. The system didn’t beat them. Instead, it gave them the strength and the smarts they needed to beat it.”
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