Final Ride: Hellions Motorcycle Club (Hellions Ride Book 9) (2 page)

Past and Present Collide

Florida. We are in Florida for Paul “Victory” Watson and Fury MC. The fucker has messed with the wrong ones.

Everything happens so fast and in slow motion at the same time. My heart beats faster as we pull in front of the non-descript Spanish style, tiled roof and cream stucco home, not hiding who we are as we ride straight up on our bikes into the cement driveway.

I don’t know why this ride has me so on edge. From the beginning, twenty years ago, nothing with Fury ever sat right with me. The past always seems to bring conflict to the future, but this shit ends now. No more Watson, no more Fury. We are here to end it all for good. Fuck the consequences.

Women and children have always been off limits to the Hellions. It’s not how we work. Yet, somehow, we are pulling up to the ol’ lady of our biggest rival’s front door, Jayne Wheatley, Paul Watson’s ex-wife and the mother to his only child. If she doesn’t give us the information we need, I have no issue putting a bullet in her fucking brain after everything our club has gone through at the hands of this club.

Nothing could prepare me for going up to Jayne Wheatley’s front door. The doorbell chimes like any other, the door opens, and the woman in front of me is a shadow of someone I once knew.

My heart stops, and questions fill my mind as to why she is here. Of all the places, times, situations, my past is colliding with my present in a cold dose of fucked up reality.

“Frisco,” she whispers as I look deep into the hazel eyes I used to worship.

I wish I could say time has done her good, but it hasn’t. Her hair is brittle and sticking out wildly. Her face is wrinkled, but not in laugh lines like someone who lived a full life. Her lips have the wrinkled marks of a woman who has smoked one too many cigarettes. And she’s tan to the point of looking leathery.

Her eyes, though … They kill me.

The life is gone. The fight is gone. The woman who pushed so hard for me to choose her is a mess. The woman who once stood in my own damn house with a gun aimed at me looks completely defeated. The very woman who challenged me by flirting with a band one night at the clubhouse in front of all my brothers. The single woman who only did what she could to get and keep my attention. It was fucked up. We were fucked up. I know that now. I see it all clear as day.

Only, I never wanted her to hurt. I never wished this woman a single ounce of sadness, misery, or pain. Despite that, the woman in front of me shows the wear of all those things plaguing her, and it has been for a long damn time.

“No fuckin’ way,” Danza says from over my shoulder.

“Tilly …” I begin, wondering what the hell to say next.

“Mom?” I hear a teen’s voice calling out.

“Stay in your room. I’ll be right there,” Tilly orders back.

“We’re looking for Jayne Wheatley,” Danza says as I try to register why Matilda would be here of all places.

“You two need to go. Any other brothers you have with you need to turn around and hit 95 North and don’t look back.”

“Tilly,” I say her name again.

She shakes her head at me.

“Fuck,” Danza says, running his fingers through his hair crazily.

“I’m sorry, Frisco.”

“Sorry?” I repeat as I try to click the pieces together. “Loving me was part of a play with Watson? You’re Jayne? You set me and my club up?”

She doesn’t answer, but looks at Danza. “I’m sorry for the time you lost.”

Why is she apologizing to Danza? It’s me she attacked more than once. It’s me she killed inside when I had to push her away harshly because we were toxic to each other. Yet she’s apologizing to my brother? More than that, the gold specks in her wide eyes don’t falter under his stare. She’s silently admitting some wrong.

What? What did Tilly do?

Danza’s eyes grow wide. “I’ll fucking kill her myself.”

My mind races. I look at Danza, and we both nod as the knowledge settles in for both of us. There is only one reason for her to apologize to my brother. She set him and Roundman up on a transport years ago. The fucking bitch set up my brothers, my club prez, and our VP. They both served time, time they can’t get back with the ones they love. She took that from them.

My mind races as anger consumes me. They both said they felt set up all those years ago. Meanwhile, I stood up for her. I stood by her. I kept her around. I gave her access to the information she needed to use against my club.

Instead of continuing to stand on her front porch, I step into the doorway.

Instinctively, she moves back as Danza follows me into her space.

“You better talk, and you better do it now if you want Shannon to even make it to tomorrow.” I have never threatened a child before today, but this woman singlehandedly tried to rip me from my Hellions family.

Tears fill her eyes. “I guess it’s time you know the truth.”

“
Truth
? Do you even know the truth yourself?”

“Frisco, before you think of hurting her, you should know”—her voice shakes—“she’s yours.”

Gripping both her shoulders, I pin her to the wall leading to the outside of the house. “Bitch, don’t you play games with me. You named her after Paul
Shannon
Watson. Don’t think saying she’s mine somehow will save her ass or yours.”

She hiccups a sob before her eyes meet mine, boring a hole into my very soul with her next words. “I deserve that and more. Kill me. I don’t care, Frisco, but don’t hurt her. She’s the only thing I have good in my life.” She pauses, and there is a heaviness in the air as my mind races. “I did love you, Richard. I wanted you to choose me, start over away from all of this, just you and me. I didn’t want to be a pawn in Paul’s game anymore. Once I got to know you, I really did care for you.”

I don’t know how to take her words. I don’t know what to think about anything right now. And I don’t have to, because Danza cuts in, his words pulling out my anger once more.

“Why’d you apologize to me? Say it, cunt. Say the words. Tell me how you cost me and my brother three years behind bars. Tell me how you did it, bitch.”

I try to fight my urge to kill her and go see for myself if I really have a daughter or not.

She blows out a breath. “You deserve to hear me say it. I set you up. The day I kept Frisco home, I had been in touch with the authorities. I set you up.”

“You fuckin’ cunt!” Danza roars, bumping into my back as I stand stock still. Even though he already knew what she would say, it’s hitting him hard. “I lost years with my wife and child because of you! I fucking lost my mind because of wheels you set into motion.”

The sound of Harleys pulling up gets our attention. I release Tilly with the intention to move farther into the space and down the hallway to see her daughter for myself before I deal with the members of Fury MC who are sure to be outside.

Pulling out our Glocks for protection, Danza and I proceed to clear out of the doorway and go deeper into the house just as shots are fired.

I turn in time to see Tilly take a hit to the chest and fall. She doesn’t scream, doesn’t try to get out of the opening; she just takes what’s coming. And inside, it kills a little piece of me.

“Get the kid,” I say to Danza as I rush over to the woman I once cared for.

She’s bleeding heavily as she takes another bullet to the leg and arm from the entryway. Getting low, I reach out and drag her toward me. Then I extend my arm out and fire wildly into the yard as I settle her head on my lap. The sound of someone cursing can be heard as I see Tilly has blood coming out of her mouth.

“Frisco, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. She’s yours,” she chokes out as my jeans become saturated with her blood. “She’s yours, Frisco. You gotta believe me; she is yours.” The words strain to come out. “Promise me you’ll keep her from Paul. He doesn’t know. I just wanted a place to belong. He told me he’d give me that.” She gasps for air as blood trickles from her nose and mouth. “He lied, Frisco. He gave me hell, not a home. Don’t let Shannon go back to that.”

The shots are still coming as Danza drags out a dark-haired teen girl behind him. Her eyes meet mine, and I swear I’m looking in a fucking mirror.

“Mom,” she calls out from behind Danza, trying to see her mother, but the two of us are in her way.

“Shannon, my sweet.” She starts to choke but fights it back, fighting to keep her voice steady and not scare her daughter. “Go with them when they say go. I love you, and I’m sorry.”

The girl doesn’t move, doesn’t speak, but I see what I hope is a slight nod of her head in agreement.

“If she’s mine, I’ll keep her from Paul,” I give my word right as Tilly’s eyes close and her head falls back.

“Gotta get the hell outta here. She goes with us,” I tell Danza, getting to my feet.

The same second I spit out my orders, Shannon sees her mother and wails hysterically.

“Shannon’s inside,” I hear one of the assholes outside say. “Get out of here now! Prez won’t want her hurt.”

Well, thank fuck for that since she may very well be mine after all. I can’t help wondering if Watson already sees that for himself, too. I will damn sure kill him before he makes another play on my brothers, my club, and if she’s mine, my daughter.

I can’t believe Snake and Gomer left me here with the Hellions.

My mind races as I’m told to get on Frisco’s bike. Part of me wants to hesitate, yet I’m too numb to think clearly. My mother always trusted this man, yet the biggest disgrace I could give Fury MC is to take the back of a Hellions’ bike.

Am I loyal to Fury? Can I turn down my mother’s dying wish?

My mind blanks as I put my hands around the waist of the man who has the same eyes as me. How can I look so much like the man my mother has pined over for years? How can I feel like he has all the answers, and I need to go just to find out, when I have never met him before? The stranger in front of me holds the keys to my past, my present, and possibly my future.

My mom told me she did some bad things, and being with my dad was her Karma for what she did to Richard “Frisco” Billings. However, the price she paid for the past is far too high.

In the blink of an eye, a flash of light, the crack of gunshots, my mother is dead.

She’s gone.

All the years and everything she has fought to save me from has left her dead and me exactly where my father never wanted me to be … with the Hellions MC.