“Amen to that.” Mountain growled under his breath. His eyes grew dark with rage when he heard the stories his family told about when they were growing up.
“But that’s all in the past now,” Sam reminded all of them. “Our women are safe and happy now. No one will ever hurt them again. They have found a forever home and the men who will love them for the rest of their lives with the MC and we will protect them from any more harm.”
“You’d better.” Leon growled. “If you let them down in any way, shape or form we’ll step in and keep them safe even from you.”
Black Jack, Mountain and Sam froze in their places.
Mountain glared at the two men who were the heads of organized crime in most parts of the world. “Now I hope I didn’t hear any kind of threat in that statement.” His voice went real low. Everyone that knew him knew what this tone meant.
Leon smiled but the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Of course not. No threat at all. I was just making a statement of fact.”
Tension grew between the five men but before it could get out of hand, a group of young children broke into fray.
“Daddy,” called out two year old Daniel Morgan as he barged right into Mountain’s lap. He gave his dad a hug then went over to his grandpa Dominic and gave him a hug too.
“Grandpa!” Screamed three year old twins Sam and Jemmia as they crowded around Sam.
“G.G.” Three year old Jesse and two year old Elliot called out as they ran over to Leon.
Seven year old Dusty came over quietly and hugged Black Jack.
Black Jack hugged him back and kept his arm around the little guy for a while.
Each man looked at the other then looked away again. No this group should have never come together but it did and for the sake of family it would stay together. The tension from earlier melted away like it never existed.
Then as soon as they rushed into the group, the kids all took off to run and play again. With their seemingly amount of childish energy, the older men watching them almost cringed.
“They need to bottle that kind of energy. Whoever did it would be a millionaire the second it hit the markets,” Sam commented drily.
Leon chuckled. “That my friends, is what this thing called life is all about. Family. Sons, daughters, and grandkids. Without them, it doesn’t matter much what you do in life. Without someone to share it with you, it just doesn’t matter. All the money and power in the world is useless without someone to share it with.”
“You got that right,” Mountain agreed. “I’d die for that little boy and his mother, even my grown daughter and it would be well worth it.”
Dominic leaned back in his chair and just stared at him for a long moment. “You want to know something strange? The first time I met you in that restaurant in Chicago, I remember you said the same thing about your woman. I thought it was strange at the time. I flashed back to the only time in my life when I felt that same way about only one woman, that woman was my wife. Little did I know that your woman was my own daughter. But when you said that to me, I immediately thought that I hoped wherever she happened to be, that whoever she happened to be with at that very moment, my daughter would have someone like you to protect her.” Then he sat up and scowled. “Then I asked Stephen about the bet you told me about. You see I knew who had made that particular bet. Stephan had been riding a dangerous line for a couple of years by that time. When he told me what it was all about I decked him, when I really wanted to kill the little bastard. I knew that sort of thing happened but I never believed in using a child for something like that. When he made that bet, she would have been what, fifteen years old? It took everything I had not to grab a gun and kill him. Then when I came here and saw her for myself, I knew exactly who she was. I knew she was my long lost child. I really did want to kill the bastard then. I never needed that blood test to tell me what my heart already knew. The moment I first laid eyes on her, I knew she was the daughter who was stolen from me so long ago.” He shrugged, then admitted, “There was something inside me that connected with her and I knew who she was in that instant.”
Mountain didn’t want to tell him but he knew he had to. He loved Izzy and his life just the way it was but the man did have the right to know. As much as he really didn’t want to, he told the other man, “Izzy told me she felt a connection to you too. When you first started coming around the main reason she wouldn’t do the blood test was because she didn’t want to have to choose between you and me. She told me that with me for the first time in her life she had something she’s never had before. Love, the kind of love she felt would last a lifetime. She said when she found that with me, it was something she never wanted to lose. Then she found you and that was something else she never had before, a real father. She said when she saw you for the first time, a tiny piece of her heart just clicked into place. It was like a piece she didn’t even know was broken was suddenly healed. She wanted to know you but she was afraid you would want to take her home with you. She wanted to stay with me but she also to know her father. She wanted to know what being part of a family was like.”
Dominic hung his head. “I didn’t exactly make that easy for her did I?” He lifted his head and stared at Mountain with tears in his eyes. “I am so sorry I put her through that. I never wanted to hurt her. I was just so damn happy I found her after all that time. Nothing else mattered to me at that moment.”
“I know that feeling,” Mountain told him. Then he shrugged. “I wouldn’t have let her go by that time, but there was nothing I could do. If she wanted to go with you I wouldn’t have been able to tell her not to.” He leaned forward and glared at the man. “But know this, old man. Even if she had gone home with you, I would have followed her all the way to Chicago if I had to, but I would have followed her to bring her back with me. She belonged to me by that time and I don’t give up what’s mine.”
Dominic smiled slightly. “I figured that much out already. But I really don’t think you had anything to worry about. Even then, I knew she loved you. I wasn’t blind to that fact even if she wasn’t sure… I was. While I would have moved heaven and earth to take her with me, I would have been wrong to do so. You and your MC have stood behind her and protected her when she needed it. For that, I will always be grateful. Hell, I lost her before I ever knew she was mine.” He nodded at them all. “But if I had to lose her to another man, to another place I couldn’t have picked a better man or a better place.”
“We do tend to take family serious around here,” Sam stated. “Whether it’s your daughter or mine or Leon’s granddaughter or even Mountain’s daughter, we protect what’s ours.”
Dominic nodded. “When Mountain first told me he thought his organization was like family, I thought he was crazy. I thought there was no way an MC could be like the family. I mean we were much older and more established than any MC could be. We had traditions that went back several generations.” He shook his head. “Boy, was I wrong. When I came here, I could see just how wrong I really was. You and yours have stood strong against all the odds. You and your people have something here that very few people have the courage to even look for. Most people think of MC’s as outlaws, lawbreakers and dangerous men but that’s not this group.” He chuckled then added, “I don’t doubt that you’re dangerous men, if the reason is a good one but that’s the catch isn’t it? You would fight to protect what you consider your own but you would never fight without reason.” Then he looked around the table. “And that’s why this, all of us being here together probably has never happened before. An MC and the Family together united for the same cause? I’ve never seen the likes of it before.”
Leon shrugged. “I don’t think it’s ever happened before either. At least not in my lifetime.” He glanced around. “The Family is a very close-knit group of people and closed off to most mere mortals. We’ve learned the hard way not to trust other people, only ourselves. I would imagine an MC is similar. Two groups that don’t trust anyone else, isn’t likely
to trust each other either.”
“Well fuck, maybe it should have happened before,” Sam argued. “Mountain was right in what he said. And us? We’re tied together by family. But family doesn’t only mean just blood, we’re brothers for a reason. Like you, loyalty means something to us too. Our family doesn’t mean just our kids but now by a second generation and in some cases a third generation. We might not have been there for our kids like we all wanted, but we will be for our grandkids. They matter.”
“Damn right, they matter.” Black Jack glared. “Raising kids should require a manual sometimes. We did the best we could for our kids but sometimes our best wasn’t good enough. We made our share of mistakes but we did the only thing we knew how to do back then. Sometimes that was enough and sometimes it wasn’t. But what we couldn’t do for our children we can do for the grandkids.” He paused then added, “Maybe that’s what life is all about? We’re so busy raising a family that when the grandkids come along, we realize our mistakes with our own children, so we go out of our way to make the time to stop and play with our grandkids. Doesn’t mean we didn’t love our kids but the hustle and bustle of providing for them got in the way. By the time the grandkids come along life has slowed down enough so we can enjoy it.”
“Some of us here have missed out of raising our own children,” Sam reminded them all. “So we have no choice but to take the time with the grandchildren. I watched my kids grow up from a distance and that hurt almost as much as if I never knew them.” When the others protested, he held up his hand, “Granted, that was my own damn fault, I chose to leave their mothers, but now I’ve got a woman who I can’t just walk away from. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t love my other kids’ mothers, I think I did in my own way, but with Melora, I feel more for her than I’ve ever felt for any woman before. I couldn’t walk away from her if I tried.”
“You’d better not.” Mountain growled. “I’ll pound you into sand if that happens old man.”
Sam chuckled despite the threat from the huge man. “I’m not so much worried about what you would do to me but more of what she would do to me. That’s what I’m worried about. That little girl of yours can be vicious.”
Mountain didn’t say anything but he did smile slightly. He gave Sam a nod as if to say ‘Ain’t that the truth.’ “She takes after me in that respect.”
“But she’s also very loyal to her friends and I, for one, am grateful that she met and protected Isabelle for all those years,” Dominic said softly.
“I know how you feel, my friend.” Leon nodded. “I thank the lord for Cassie every day too. Our daughters went through a hell we may never know about but he watched over and protected those girls and kept them all safe. I’m sure they have secrets that still haunt their dreams, secrets we’ll never know about.”
“Now that my brothers are here, my family is complete now.” Mountain leaned back in his chair. “I got my brothers, my woman and now my daughter and a baby son.” He nodded his head. “Life just doesn’t get any better than this.”
Black Jack agreed. “Yup, I have all my sons together and found a grandson along the way.” He grinned. “Not only that but now I was hoping for more grandkids on the way. I’m hoping that would happened sooner rather than later. Later, I’ll be too old to enjoy them.”
“I think we can all be thankful for the women in our lives,” Leon commented.
“Amen to that,” Mountain agreed.
Just then, Deke Tory joined the picnic. He roared into the parking lot and shut down his bike. Then he strode over to the first group he saw. He greeted Cassie first. Everyone watched with a smile on their face when Deke practically bent her in half and kissed her. Then he said hello to his brothers watching over the kids. He smiled at little Sam and Jemma as he paused for a moment to watch them swing. Finally, he walked over to the table and faced the five men sitting there. When he didn’t say anything, it was up to his father to ask the question.
Sam studied his son for a moment then asked, “What’s up?”
“I’m not quite sure just yet,” Deke admitted worriedly.
“What does that mean?” Leon asked.
Deke shrugged. “That just it, I don’t know. I just feel something is going to happen and it isn’t gonna be a good thing.” Shaking his head he admitted, “I just don’t know where it’s coming from.” He hesitated then pushed forward, “Something happened today that set every nerve in my body on alert. I just don’t know what it all means.”
“What exactly are you telling us?” Leon inquired as he sat forward on his chair.
Deke shrugged then looked at his father, Sam. “That’s the part I don’t know how to explain. After I did paperwork this morning, I had to swing by the club to pick something up for the picnic. When I got to the club there was a man sitting on a cycle across the street. I didn’t think too much of it at the time, I mean people stare at us all the time but there was something about this guy that just didn’t sit right you know? I’d never seen him before but he kept staring at me. I could almost feel the rage in his look.”
“How the hell do you feel rage?” Mountain wanted to know.
Deke shook his head. “I didn’t think it was possible either but today proved that wrong. His eyes were hidden by sunglasses but I could feel his anger, even from across the fucking street.”
“What did this man look like?” Sam asked. For some reason the nerves at the back of his neck were tingling.
“He’s about my height and size, with long red hair and a grinning skull tat on his left arm. After a few minutes, he took off his sunglass and I was able to see his eyes.”
Black Jack glanced over at Sam and then back to Deke as if they were having the same thought about this stranger. “What did they look like?”
Deke shrugged. “That was the weird part, with his coloring you would think they would be green or blue but they weren’t, they were as black as coal.”
“Sonofabitch!” Sam swore. He searched the park grounds but couldn’t see anything wrong. His young wife, Melora was playing with their son T-Bone on the swings while his older children were standing around talking with the others. Quinn was talking and flirting with Chance Morgan while Adriana was talking with Molly and Cricket. Sam searched the shadows but didn’t find what he was looking for.
“Who is this man?” Leon turned to search Sam’s reaction.
“He’s someone I prayed I’d never see or hear from again.” Sam ran his fingers through his longish hair and glared at Deke. “What you couldn’t see from across the street was the gold rim around the edge of his fuckin black eyes. It’s a trait he shared with his brother.”
“What does he want here?” Deke asked his father.
“Me or someone I love. But he’s here for twenty years of vengeance.”
“For what purpose?” Leon asked worriedly as he searched for his own family in the park.
Sam sighed hard and closed his eyes for a moment before he began to tell his story, “If it’s who I think it is his name is Ripper. I met him well over twenty years ago, well him and his brother Pitch. I was living in Maine at the time and just starting out with the Bastards. I’d been patched in a couple of years by then when Pitch pulled a robbery that resulted in him shooting the clerk. The clerk, he was just a kid all of seventeen at the time, died during the robbery and Pitch didn’t even care. He was just pissed that he’d only gotten four hundred dollars from the till.”
“What does that have to do with why his brother showed up today?” Leon asked.
“Pitch and Ripper had a party with the money they stole, laughing the whole time about the dumbass behind the counter. There were plenty of us sitting there that night that didn’t care for what they’d done. That they robbed a place didn’t really bother many of the guys, I mean back then we did what we wanted and no one ever called us on it. Clubs were different back then. Not something, I’m proud of but it was the times we lived in. But the clerk they killed was only a kid. He didn’t deserve to die like t
hat. Robbery was one thing, but murder? That’s a whole other thing all together isn’t it?” Sam shook his head. “Pitch could see how mad I was getting and he didn’t like it. He kept asking me if I had a problem and finally, I told him, I did. I told him I had a young son at home and that if some asshat had killed him I’d be after the blood of the man who killed him. I was pissed and he knew it. Pitch laughed at me and asked me if I had a death wish. He told me to come get him if I didn’t like what he’d done. Hell’s bells, twenty years ago I was still a hot head and looking for trouble.”
Deke chuckled and shook his head.
Sam raised a brow at him but he continued, “I went after him to teach him some manners. I beat the hell out of him and his brother Ripper that night. It took both of them to hurt me but I wasn’t alone in my thinking. Some of the other brothers got in on the action and the fight didn’t take long at all. You have to understand something about Pitch and Ripper. Pitch was the worst kind of bully there was. He liked to stomp people into the ground and he often started fights over the dumbest shit to do just that. Plus, he never fought fair. He liked to cheat, to sucker punch people. Hell, he just liked to hurt people, didn’t matter the reason. It was some kind of power trip for him to be the last man standing. He’d pound the shit out of Ripper all the time then turn around and blame his brother for being so stupid he deserved the poundings to learn his how to protect himself.”
“Damn,” Mountain shook his head.
Sam nodded. “Back then, Spider was in in charge of the Bastards. He didn’t want to have to kick them out of the club for what they did, so he made sure they paid for their fuckup. Spider and two others piled those two boys in the back of a truck and drove them into town where they turned them over to the police. They even still had some of the money from the robbery on them. And the money had the bank bands with the store’s name of it yet.”
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