Biker Saviour: The Lost Souls MC Series (8 page)

“The woman was mom, right?”

I nod and try to hear it from her fresh ears, someone who doesn’t think my life is normal.

“Yeah, she freaked and ran off. I chased her down, I don’t know what she was thinking in her heels but as soon as I caught her and felt her cool, soft skin in my hand, I lost myself. For a fraction of a second and for the first time in my life I craved to be normal and feel that silky skin every day. Anyway, we took your mom back to the clubhouse and she was given two options. She could either stick around the club and be watched to make sure she didn’t talk about what she saw or Michael would help set her up somewhere far away. She was breaking up with the dead guy because she found out he was a biker, she wasn’t going to stick around. She opted to go far away, but on one condition. I was to go with her until she felt safe and that’s how we met.”

“What made you so special then?”

“I still don’t know that answer Ky, but whatever she found in me, I found someone who wanted to know everything about me but was patient to the point of saintliness to wait till I was ready to answer. The way she would look at me like she already knew me but wasn’t judging hooked me right in.”

If I close my eyes I can remember the look with perfect clarity. I was driving north as instructed by Michael. The heat was the hottest in history, the truck was old so there wasn’t any air con and the windows were wound all the way down. The breeze blowing around whipped her hair around her face and when she looked at me the smile she wore made me breathless. The feeling of being lost over a women was foreign to me. Instead of once fearing it like I did, I embraced it. There was something inside her that scared me and set me free at the same time.

“Your mom is strong, stronger than most men I know. For her to bring you to me knowing full well the life we gave you would shatter to nothing, it took everything in her to do it, because she couldn’t stand to watch you kill yourself.”

Kyla turns away and stares out of the window.

“We have kept a lot from you but that doesn’t mean we haven’t loved you, nor does it mean you can use this as an excuse to get high. You being here means quite the opposite actually, now everyone knows who you are the chances of you getting your hands on heroin are non-existent. Now you know us, every brother of mine will keep their eyes on you.”

When she turns back to me her eyes are watery and full of sadness.

“I don’t want to be that weak girl anymore,” she whispers, “I’m disgusted with myself like you wouldn’t believe.”

“Who do you want to be?” I ask.

“I don’t know yet, I want to stay here with you though.”

She looks almost as shocked at her words as I am.

A full blown smile spreads across my face. I never let myself imagine the possibility of her living with me permanently, up till now it was always a dead dream. I knew it would never become reality. Now it is and I don’t know what to say.

I suppose it’s a start, I’ve spilled enough blood and guts to her today and she seems unaffected. Definitely progress.

“One last thing,” she asks, I nod and she asks, “Why do they all call you Pope?”

I’m surprised she hasn’t asked this before now.

“The first time I killed someone, I didn’t break down at what I had done. It had to be that way and I got it over with, but it’s not to say I don’t think everyone should be sent to the other side without a few words of comfort. Taking an enemies life makes the world safer for you, but they’re still someone’s loved one. They call me Pope because when I take a life, I say a prayer as they take their last breath.”

Firing up the engine, the conversation mutually ends.

From now on, I’ll loosen my reign on her. If she’s serious about staying here then we have all the time to get to know each other. Next step, to tell Sally. Fuck knows how that’s going to go down.

Kyla

Everything is different. We were gone for a two hour drive and everything has changed. Hearing my father talk to me about killing people and listening to how comfortable he sounded telling me was enlightening, instead of being freaked out. The more I heard the more it explained my father.

I wouldn’t have thought he was a murderer necessarily, when he came to visit there was usually something off with him. He was always happy to see me and spend time with me, but now I know more about the real him, the more everything makes sense and I feel better being around the real him.

The bar is crammed with men and women when we get back but my father doesn’t stop when they try to talk to us.

Following him back to my room, I deflate after feeling like we were getting somewhere. A little part of me thought I might not have to come straight back to my prison.

He doesn’t come into the room, he stands in the doorway and now I can see, now I am learning about him and his ways. I can see he is stalling.

“What is it?” I ask, to help him out.

“There’s a party downstairs tonight, if you want you can come. You’ll stick by me the whole time till you come back up here.”

Wow, I wasn’t expecting him to offer that.

“Sure, I’d like that.”

It sure would be nice to be a part of the party rather than listening to it from up here.

“I’ll come back for you in thirty minutes, be showered and presentable.”

The reflection staring back at me causes me to stumble back onto the bed. It’s me but it’s the old me, well sort off. My roots have grown out but my hair isn’t limp, it’s got a shine to it again. There’s pink in my cheeks and my face is fuller. Fifteen days has transformed me, not completely but I can see the difference in myself.

Righting myself, I stand and move closer to the mirror again. Clean jeans and one of the camisoles that one of the wives gave me the other day match nice enough but I’ve never been a denim kind of girl. I preferred to wear dresses and skirts. Looking at my reflection now, I miss how I used to look. I want it back.

The door opens behind me and my dad actually smiles when he sees me.

“Ready?” he grunts.

No you look nice or nothing.

“Yes.”

All of a sudden I feel nervous. The only time I’ve had interaction with these people is when they’ve brought me food and I wasn’t exactly at my best.

If it was possible the place is even more crowded when we reach the bottom of the stairs to the bar and one by one they all stop and stare at me like the freak show just rolled into town and I’m the main act. They’re not subtle about it either.

“Stay close,” my dad says close to my ear.

He must sense my apprehension. He doesn’t need to tell me though, I’m not planning on leaving his side.

The kind of parties I’ve been going to the last few years are nothing like this. Most party goers were too out of it to dance and usually they were wearing more clothes then the women here. My father’s eyes are on mine as I watch everything around us. Sitting at a table to the side of what can only be described as a make shift dance floor, I have a perfect view of the entire place.

“Your usual drink, Pope?”

He nods once to the kid hovering near our table.

“And what can I get you miss?”

“A bottle of water, please.”

“I didn’t think about alcohol,” my dad says, frowning, “Is it a problem for you?”

“No, I never really drank much, even before I got addicted to…” I can’t bring myself to say it and the kid scuttles off. A couple to our right gets my attention. In front of everyone they are kissing and pawing over each other, that’s not what caught my eye though. The guy who’s brought me my food sometimes is covered in colour like a box of crayons have thrown up on him and the woman on his lap is beautiful and a quarter of his size.

“That’s Sparky and Bonnie, he’s a good man and she’s hell of a woman,” my father tells me catching me staring at them.

Embarrassed, I pull my eyes away from them.

“And over by the bar is Cas, he’s my president and them two on the couch is Slade and his old lady is Kristen. If you’re serious about sticking around, you’ll get to know them all very well.”

The women he names are completely different to the other women hanging off the guys here. Not just their clothes, well the fact that they are wearing clothes but everything about them. No wonder my mom didn’t like being a part of this life, she probably felt like she was against all these women for my dad.

“Are these women hanging around the reason my mom didn’t want to stay?”

I have to know.

Pope’s eyes narrow at me for a second and return to looking at his hands resting on the table.

“Her problem was with the men, at the time she didn’t trust anyone even though the men in this club was always better than the men she knew at our rival club. Believe it or not, she never questioned the women because she knew me and knew she was the one for me. I’ve been loyal to her for twenty-five years.”

Wow, he surprises me at every turn. Being loyal to one woman around all this temptation is amazing. Dean was hardly ever loyal and I spent nearly every day with him. It hits me that I never had any other feelings for him other than what he could do for my habit.

“And this fucker walking towards us is Oak.” He says a little too loud and waves his hand at the man himself joining us at our table and hands my dad a beer.

“It’s about time you looked more like a human, darlin’,” he laughs.

I don’t know what to say to him so I smile and look to my father for help, which he doesn’t with a brief flicker of amusement on his face.

My bottle of water arrives and I sip away while my father downs his beer.

Everywhere men and women are laughing and having a good time, they look like they don’t have a care in the world. My mood begins to sink when thinking how nice that must be.

Casting my eyes around the bar again I spot Ricky leaning against one of the pool tables and my mood sinks further when I see he isn’t alone. Draped alongside him is a badly bleached blonde, super slim woman who is barely dressed. I shouldn’t feel jealous, actually I don’t know why I am jealous. Before I can question myself, the memory of his hands on me in the shower the other night resurface and while they weren’t sexual, they definitely awakened me in some way.

However, there’s a whole load of sexual tension radiating off the blonde and him now. She puts her hand on his crotch and he closes his eyes wearing a huge smile.

Unconsciously, my fingers curl together until my father covers my hands with one of his. The warmth is comforting and distracts me from the agitation that was becoming unbearable.

“If this is too much, I can take you back to your room?” he whispers.

My first taste of freedom and it’s not my addiction that has me beginning to freak out, but petty jealousy on a guy I barely know. Damn, if the guy isn’t hot as hell with his strong arms and appealing lips I want to kiss.

“I’m fine,” I grit out a bit too loudly, gaining Ricky’s attention.

He peels himself away from the hooker wannabe and strides over to us with a huge smile on his face.

“Wow, look at you down here with us mere folk,” he beams, “How you doing?”

Agitation washes away completely and I return his bright smile. I have his full attention and it makes me feel good, better than I have felt in a long time.

“I’m good, you?”

“Better for seeing you,” he grins.

A growl comes from my father but Ricky laughs and bravely pulls out the chair next to mine.

I don’t know what to say, tonight I am a bundling mess around these men, so I say nothing and tuck my hair behind my ear shyly.

He leans in close beside me and inhales deeply.

“What are you doing?” I ask, leaning away.

“You smell nice, how a girl should smell like.”

Great, wasn’t I a girl before tonight? Of course not, I was dirty junkie and in the same time it takes to click your fingers my mood sinks again.

He doesn’t see me as a woman, only as a drug addict.

“I heard a joke today, do you want to hear it?” he asks.

“If that’s the one I told ya this morning, I’d keep ya fuckin’ mouth shut,” Oak spits at Ricky.

“Why’s that?”

“Cause I don’t think Pope will like it.”

While I listen to them begin to argue, the blonde Ricky had attached to him catches my eye and I wish she hadn’t.

All the heroin I’ve taken and it never got close to killing me, yet the glare she is throwing me could kill me where I sit. It couldn’t be any more obvious I have ruined her plans for tonight.

“Don’t worry about her.”

Ricky’s eyes bore into mine when I look to him. When I look back to the blonde, she is stomping off in the opposite direction to us.

“You should go after your girlfriend, she doesn’t seem to like you sitting with me.”

His eyes narrow and then he smiles.

“What makes you think she’s my girl?” he asks, once again leaning in towards me.

Oh, just the fact that a couple of minutes ago you were enjoying her stroking your crotch I think to myself.