A Rebel Love (Black Rebel Riders' MC Book 7) (11 page)

Southern Kentucky

Liberty

My eyes are red and dry from lack of sleep, but I keep driving further away from the life I thought would protect my son and closer to what I tried to avoid for him. John won’t be able to hurt us anymore, that is if I can make it to Tread. But knowing John he won’t stop looking for us.

I can’t
believe
I fell for a man like that. 

I can’t
believe
he beat my baby and broke his arm.

John had the nerve to tell the doctor that Kyler
fell
trying to get our cat out of a tree in the backyard. We don’t even have a
cat
. I should have killed him, but I just wanted to get my child away from him as quickly as possible.

Thank God for small favors that Baby and Striker helped me the best they could. I guess I should refer to them as Karly and Nash, but it doesn’t matter. No one can know that I have seen them. No one but Grim. I promised Baby I would give him the pictures and her letter. She told me to make sure he burns them afterward.  Like I can tell a man like Grim what to do.

I didn’t read the note, but she mentioned it has instructions for the car I am driving on loan. I sure as hell won’t be driving it back to Florida. If I
never
see that state again it will be
too soon
.

I’ve crossed the Kentucky state line and still no Tread. I’d rather not just appear at the Roadhouse, but I will if it comes to it.

Chapter 12

Drag Creek

Romeo

Christ
. Being back in Drag Creek is like opening up an infected wound with rusty scissors. It’s only been a few years but it might as well be longer. Seeing Baby’s car, her Pepto pink Mustang sitting with weeds growing through the rims on the tires, makes it all too real. If I stayed away I could pretend she was alive and well, just not a part of my life anymore. But being here and seeing it with my own eyes, and feeling the emptiness her death has left here is haunting.

I never would’ve thought a person’s spirit is the embodiment of a place, but this place just lit up when she was here. The world was a little brighter having her smile in it.  Now that she’s gone…I can’t put it into words. I see familiar faces staring at me like I’m a ghost.
Christ
, maybe I am. I don’t feel like I belong here anymore. I wouldn’t be here now if Rebel hadn’t called. He needs me to sign adoption papers for Miracle, my dead whore of a wife’s daughter she tried to pass as mine.

I left Jamie at home with Sunshine, but Dawn insisted on coming with me. She misses home. I think it mostly has to do with her breaking up with her boyfriend, but I’m wise enough not to mention it. Teenage girls and their hormones,
fucking nuts
. If I wasn’t already gray headed she would turn my hair white.

There is one person I need to see before anyone else. Let’s just hope he doesn’t shoot first and ask questions later.

A wave of nostalgia crashes into me as I step through the backdoor of the Roadhouse. Memories of the past hit me square in the gut, nearly taking me to my knees. Baby’s smile, her laugh, the way she walked. Her smell invades my mind as though she were standing in front of me.

I’m a tough son of a bitch, but confronting these feelings I’ve pushed aside, is motherfucking
hard
.

I owe her memory better than this.

Better than what I have given.

I
loved
her.

I’ll never
stop
.

But she’s
gone
.

I made sure of that when I walked away from the one thing I’ve ever wanted more than breathing. The love I feel for Baby isn’t healthy. It wasn’t good for either of us.

All I did was bring us both pain. Now she’s dead. I can only move forward. I can’t change what has come to pass.

I’ve spent many years here, and now, I feel like an intruder walking into someone else’s life. I don’t live the club life anymore.  I still live by the biker code and the truth is I miss the brotherhood. I’d come back, but I’m not so sure that Sunshine would give up what we have in California easily. Not that I am welcome to return. I left without permission. I walked out on my club. I turned my back on my brothers for a woman—Grim’s woman. Sure they were divorced, but I knew he’d never accept it.

I love Grim, he is the best friend I’ve ever had, but I love Sunshine more. I’d make her my wife if she’d get a divorce from that piece of shit, Paul. I’d kill him if she wouldn’t hate me for it. She said she couldn’t do that to Patrick. Her admission makes me feel like a sorry bastard considering I did the very same thing to my children. They’ll never see LL again thanks to me. The bitch had it coming though and they are better off, even if they will never understand. I think Dawn knows what really happened to her mom, but she never talks about her, at least not to me. She looks so much like her the older she gets, same long, yellow hair. Even her body has the same, curvy, busty frame. She’s only sixteen and looks all woman.

“Dad, wait up.” She comes trailing after me.

“Come on.” I take her to the front. Foxie is behind the bar.

“Keep an eye on her,” I demand and her eyes light up like fucking twinkling stars when she looks up at me.

“Well I’ll be damned; didn’t think I’d ever see
your
handsome mug again in this life.” She comes around the bar and kisses my cheek. “Hey Dawn, you’ve grown up. Filling out real nice. Nona you watch the bar. I think I’ll have Dawn help me in the kitchen. Too many roaming eyes and hands out here.”

Good ol’ Foxie, straight to the point. Never missing a beat.

“Grim around by chance?”

“Don’t know if that’s a good idea, but he’s in the office downstairs with Rebel.”

I grunt and head to the stairs once I see that my daughter is out of sight. I know Foxie won’t let a
damn
thing happen to her.

Pictures of my old life line the wall going down the stairs. There’s even a few of Slim and me. Sorry bastard that he was, he had good intentions when he founded our brotherhood. Life just got in the way and had other plans for us. To be that young again, with problems we thought held the fate of the world over our heads. I chuckle. We didn’t have real worries, not really, in the beginning.

I walk on down revisiting my memories—my
shoulda, coulda, wouldas
.

Grim

“
Damn
, I feel for Amy. They fucked her clear up.
Hell
, we’ve both seen some shit and lived to tell about it, but I wouldn’t feel right sending her back to those
bastards
. We need a better plan.”

Rebel pinches the bridge of his nose. “
Fuck
, with all this shit going on I forgot to mention, we’ve got company coming.”

Before he can tell me just who in the
Sam hell
he’s invited in, a sickening sweat breaks across my forehead. Pulling my bandanna from my back pocket, I dab it across my face. I down my bottle of water that Foxie insists I drink more of.

She has been after me to start ‘
living healthy.’
Says a man my age needs to consider his health. The reaper will take me when my time has come. I don’t fear death, but I like fucking my woman, so I do what she says, to an extent.  “A happy wife gives good head,” or whatever the fuck it is they say. Haven’t married her but the stubborn woman knows I love her. I’ll never marry again.

A knock sounds at the door and I pull my piece. Don’t trust no motherfuckers. Rebel shakes his head, muttering how I am
paranoid
, walking to the door. Better to be paranoid than dead before ye know it. I’d at least like to look death in the face and give him the finger before I go.

“Who’s it?” Rebel asks.

“It’s me,” answers the gruff voice of the sorriest bastard I’ve ever known. Fucking pussy. Goddamn wife
and
daughter fucking
Romeo
.

Rebel throws the door open and my first instinct is to shoot the pansy ass bitch standing before me.

“Leave us,” I command Rebel. He takes one look at me and does as he’s bid. Boy knows not to interfere. Why the
fuck
did he bring
him
back here? I’m gonna shove my boot up his ass and outta his Goddamn throat for this shit.

“What the fuck are
you
doing here?”

“I’m here on business with Rebel,” he states being casual but flippant. I don’t like it.

“Why, you come back to fuck
his bitch
too? Or should I bend over and see if you can fuck me any harder than you have already.” I reach inside the desk and toss a bottle of lube at him. “Here at least get me wet first this time.”

“Look, I didn’t come here to talk about Sunshine. I wanted to say I’m sorry about Baby.
Christ
, you don’t know how my nights are haunted by her face.”

“You don’t get to talk about my daughter. You aren’t fit to eat her shit!”

“
Goddamn it
! Are we back to this shit again. I fucked up we both know it, but I can’t bring her back, and you don’t want Sunshine. So what the fuck do you want from me? I thought just for fucking once, you’d be past it all. But you can’t let it go. You never could. Not when it came to Red, Benji, Hook, or Slim. For once in your life get the fuck over yourself!”

“
Fuck you
.” I cock my gun ready to end him when I see a shadow move behind the door.

Then I hear a soft voice say, “Daddy you in here?”

“Yeah, Dawn I’ll be out in a minute.” He stares me down, daring me to pull the damn trigger and mow him down with his kid right outside the door. I’m not that dirty anymore. Maybe thirty years ago I would have, but I wasn’t a father back then. Not that I can call myself one now. Letting Baby go and getting her away from this life was the one good thing I did as her dad.

Sneaky bastard knew I’d want to make him bleed out on my floor, probably brought the girl on purpose. If she were older I might teach him a fucking lesson. Show him what it’s like for ye brother of the road to fuck ye daughter right under ye nose. But I’m not Romeo.

“We don’t have shit to discuss. You are
dead
to me. Handle your business and get the fuck outta
my club
and
my town
. And take ye kid with ye too before I show you what you put me through,” I growl at him as spit flies from my lips with my threat.

I nudge his shoulder hard as I leave him to go fuck my anger away with
my
woman, since I can’t kill him,
yet
.

Just as I am about to take Foxie home, Tread interrupts, saying he has a plan. About time somebody around here got their finger out of their ass and started doing something.

Rebel

Grim comes stomping up the stairs. His face is painted in rage. I don’t try and stop him. I knew it wasn’t a good idea to just spring Romeo on him, but if he knew he was coming he would have plotted to kill him. Romeo’s done some fucked up shit, but no more than the rest of us have. I don’t want to see him dead. Besides, I need him to sign off on paperwork concerning Miracle. Chelle and I are her legal guardians but we want to adopt her.

“I see you are still standing and I don’t see any blood. You and Dawn ready to ride out to the house and see Miracle?”

Dawn’s face beams at the mention of her sister. They haven’t seen each other in person, but Dawn and Jamie Skype with her on holidays and birthdays. Just because I am raising Miracle as mine doesn’t mean I want her to lose her relationship with them. I ruined my brother’s life and I’ll
never
let my mistakes have a place in my children’s lives.

“Yeah, we’ll follow you.”

I shoot a text to Chelle and let her know we are on our way. Miracle has no idea she is about to see her sister. I wanted it to be a surprise.  She is such a great kid. Never have a problem at school either. I can remember mom getting calls about Baby and us boys what seemed like daily. She was always having to come down and smooth shit over. Although Striker and me found ourselves suspended more than a few times. At least we graduated. They were probably just happy to be rid of us.

Striker,
damn
, I wish I could have been a better brother.
Fuck
, I wish a lot of things. But my old man used to say, “
wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which fills up faster.
”

Right now, I am wishing this shit with Romeo seeing Miracle goes smoothly.  I know how he feels about her, and a part of me can understand why he feels the way he does, but
damn
, she is just a child. She didn’t ask for LL to fuck around on him and have her as a result.

Them two was a fucking mess. Romeo should write a book titled
The Biker’s Guide of Women Not to Fuck
.