Final Ride: Hellions Motorcycle Club (Hellions Ride Book 9) (14 page)

Shaken

I just got her. We haven’t had enough time together. We are just getting to know each other. How can she be gone?

Panic fills me. Where did she go? Why did she go?

I look over to see Amy is on her phone.

“Our daughter is gone.” Her voice cracks as she stands in the open doorway with tears rolling down her face. “Well, she’s my man’s daughter, but she’s gone. We woke up,” Amy chokes out the words, “and she’s just gone.”

Tension cuts through the air. I feel helpless, anguished, lost.

“She’s eighteen.” Amy blows out a breath. “She’s in my car. It’s a 1996 Toyota Celica, black.” She pauses as I rush to slide on pants and a T-shirt. “You can’t help us?” There is a hiccup from Amy. “I’m not going to charge her with taking my car!” she gasps. “Missing persons? After twenty-four hours? This can’t be real.” Frustration builds in her voice before she hangs up.

I’m at her back just as she turns, throws the phone, and starts sobbing.

“They said she’s eighteen, so they can’t send someone.”

I wrap my arms around her as she crumbles in my embrace.

“Call Roundman,” she sobs out hysterically. “Send the cavalry. Someone go find her! She can’t be out there alone. She can’t leave us, Frisco. She’s got no one. That’s not a way to live life, I know.” Her knees are weak, and I hold her up, keeping her tight to me. “I’ve been there, Frisco. She’s too innocent, too nice, too naive. We can’t leave her out there.”

“Shhh …” I try to console her as I fight back the demons building inside me of where my daughter could be. This is a parent’s worst nightmare.

Reaching into my back pocket, I grab my phone, feeling the stress of nerves. Roundman doesn’t answer, so I dial Danza. He doesn’t answer. The next in line would be Tripp as Catawba’s prez, or Tank as our road chief.

“Tripp,” he clips into the phone.

“Shannon took off. Cops won’t help. Need the club,” I give him as I guide Amy, who is falling apart against me, to the couch. “She took off in Amy’s car.”

“On it, brother. She got money? How far can she get?” he asks as I let Amy fall onto the cushions and rush into the kitchen.

“Check for the house in Florida is gone. She’s heading to the bank.”

“Bosco, ride out; two only to the Credit Union. Don’t spook her. Tail her and report in,” I hear Tripp order before he tells me, “I’ll call when we locate her, and then you can handle it. I don’t want her spooked by the whole club.”

“Thanks, brother.” I let out a sigh, grabbing my wallet from the counter and noticing all my cash is gone. Shit!

“Always, Frisco. For you, always.” Tripp clicks the phone off.

I look at Amy, who is in my T-shirt and boxers, her hair a mess, and tears falling freely down her face. “I’m gonna bring her home. I promise you.”

“Don’t let her become me, Frisco.”

“You have my word,” I vow as I rush to finish grabbing socks and boots to hit the road.

I won’t let her end up a victim to someone’s sick game. I will give my last breath to bring her home and show her the life of safety, security, and love. I haven’t had enough time—
we
haven’t had enough time—and it won’t end today. I’m shaken, but I’m not deterred.

***

Three hours pass by, and the only thing we know is she did attempt to cash the check at a bank in Duplin County. She’s heading west. That’s a good start. With help from the Sandhills Charter, we get a lock on her location. She found her way to the interstate and is heading south.

Hitting the open road, I ride out like a bat out of hell on the back roads and highways to catch her.

Dillon, South Carolina, she stops for gas, and I cruise in behind her.

I watch as she exits the small gas station with a bottled water, her dark hair blowing in the wind. She lifts her head, dark eyes meeting mine, where I lean casually against the door of Amy’s car. My heart races, and my mind runs rampant.

“Frisco.” She lifts her chin to face me, not backing down.

“Shannon,” I say softly.

“I am a legal adult, ya know.”

“You are, but the car you’re in isn’t yours.” I push off the door, but I don’t give her room to get inside it.

“I left a note.” She drops her head to avoid my gaze. “I left Amy a note. Once I got myself a car and a crash pad, I was gonna call and tell her where she could find her car.”

“You don’t have to leave. I’ll get you a car. Something more reliable than this.”

She laughs sharply. “Why do you let Amy drive it if you don’t think it’s reliable?”

I run my hands through my hair. “I don’t let Amy do anything. She worked and saved. This was something she did on her own. I offered her a brand-new ride we could rely on. That woman, much like the one standin’ in front of me, has a mind of her own; an independent streak that can cover the globe, and a determination to not owe a single soul a dime.”

“I can respect that,” she replies then looks at me again. “What’s next? Are you gonna make me go back?”

I pause to think. “No, Shannon. I would hope you’ll want to return on your own. Then we can discuss what made you want to leave.”

“You gonna pump that gas or what?” a man calls from the doorway of the store.

I raise my hand, waving him off, then set about filling the tank.

“You stand by your word, right?” she asks me as I set the nozzle into the holding tank.

“I do my very best, yes. I’ll be honest, I’ve failed before. I failed your mother in the worst of ways, and I’ll regret it for eternity, but it was the path life had for me. I can’t turn back the hands of time, no matter if I wanted to.”

“I told myself I wouldn’t stay. I told myself I would get a plan and head out. If I can’t keep my word to myself, then who can I?”

“While I admire that, you do know people change their minds as the course of time passes on.”

She studies me as the pump clicks off.

“Can you give us more of a chance?” I ask.

“I can’t live there. I can’t be in your space, pretend like we all somehow fit together, and forget where I came from. It doesn’t feel right.”

The rumble of two bikes approaches, and I watch my daughter tense.

Looking to my right, I see Tank and Bosco approach. I raise my hand for them to keep their distance.

“I can’t live with another club. I dread the sounds, I despise the violence, and I cannot live knowing my mother died from a war between two clubs and I took some side in something I never understood,” Shannon gives me honestly while twisting her hands nervously.

“Then we start over. Me, you, and Amy. I’ll make the arrangements. If you come home with me now, I give you my word that I’ll lay it all down. We’ll start over.”

There is a hope in her eyes that I find refreshing to my old soul.

“I need something from you in return.”

She bites her lip and nods.

“Gotta have your word that you don’t take off again. We talk. Gotta know you’re gonna give this an honest to God shot. I’m walking away from the only family I’ve ever known to have a family with you and the woman I love. I gotta have your word we are gonna do this right. Respect is both given and earned. Trust is never broken if we keep it on the up and up, right?”

“You would give it all up because I can’t live like this?” There is that hope in her eyes.

“I made a mistake once that set wheels in motion with your mother.”

She raises an eyebrow at me.

“Don’t get me wrong, Shannon. Your mom and I … It was never meant to be. I see that now, and I think she knew it, too. The first time she asked me to choose the club, I should have let her go. I never should have pushed and pulled, and set the line in the sand between us. A house divided cannot stand; I know this. I lived it, and I won’t do it again … not to me, not to you, and not to what I’ve built with Amy.”

“I like her,” Shannon says, calming down. “I respect her.”

“Good.”

“You should tell her, ya know.” My daughter smiles at me, and the air seems to change between us. “You should tell her you love her.”

“Don’t I show it?” I grab my chest, wondering if Amy knows how I feel.

“Yeah, but Frisco, women like to hear it.”

I take in her words as I study the young lady in front of me. The young woman who I can see my eyes, my features, and her mother’s heart is in front of me, and I feel it. I feel it deeply.

“Shannon, you gotta know, I love you. I may not be the best at saying it, but I promise you, with my every breath, my every word, and my every thought and action, I will show it. You are my daughter, my flesh and blood, and my legacy. You are every wrong I ever made right.”

Tears fill her eyes. “Is this what a real family is? I’ve never had someone believe in me just because I am me. It’s not about being Vic’s namesake, it’s not about Fury, it’s not about my mom, but it’s me?”

Reaching out, I pull her to me. “It is you. The love I have for you knows no bounds and never will. I gotta know, my daughter, you gonna come home with your pops so we can pack up and let Amy know we got a new plan, or is this where the road is going to divide us and we will be on two separate paths that never bring us back together?”

She wraps her arms around me in a hug, but doesn’t speak.

“Trust has to start somewhere.
We
have to start somewhere. I’m giving you all I have. You gonna take it?”

I feel her nod against me as my T-shirt soaks up her tears.

This morning, I was shaken to the core. This afternoon, I have a hope for the future I never imagined for myself, but it somehow feels right.

Yes, this is family. I squeeze my daughter tighter. This is my family.

“Hello?” Mary Alice answers on the first ring.

“Hey, it’s Tripp. Have you heard from Danza or Roundman today?”

She hesitates.

“Mary Alice, I know you’re loyal to your man. Frisco has a situation. I handled it, but I think he could use his brothers when he rides back in, and I can’t find our prez or VP. If you can’t tell me where they are, can you at least tell them to call?”

I hear the phone shuffling.

Her voice is weak when she comes back on the line. “Where is Doll?” she asks, and my pulse automatically quickens, sweat covers my skin, and my mind races.