Never Forever (BlackPath MC Book 1) (32 page)

Chapter 5

Tommy

 It
has been almost eighteen months since we have heard anything from Karen and I
know she is going to pop up one day and mess up everything we have
accomplished.

 
Cam and Trent are still prospecting but are going to be patched in soon. My job
is great. I love working on cars. Some Saturdays I even get to take Callie with
me and she loves helping me. She said she is going to grow up to be a mechanic
like me. My boss even bought her her own coveralls with her name on them. She’s
a little grease monkey. We finally finished the renovations on the house, but
now we may lose it. Cheryl ran off with an ex of hers, but she’s back in town
and wanting the house in the divorce. Women, go figure. Grandma Sue moved in
with us to watch over Ty and Callie. Yeah, Cheryl left Ty when she left. Really
broke the little guy’s heart.

  Ty
and Callie have been playing ball. A Saturday on the ball field brings back
memories of when I played ball. They are both in martial arts. Now Callie is
starting dance. Her friends Sarah and Hanna are both in the class, so she wants
to be, too. Felix feels left out but he is in ball and martial arts. I need a
calendar for her social events.

 Today
I get to take her to her first dance class. A bunch of little girls in pink
tutus. How did I get wrangled into this? Oh, now I remember, she’s my
responsibility. I just hope we get out of here on time. I have my first date in
months and I can’t be late. If I don’t get laid soon I’m going to combust from
frustration. Now I know why you need to wait until you’re older to have kids.
They definitely take a lot of time.

 The
instructor comes in and its time for me to leave until this is over.

 “Mr.
Monroe, it is customary for the parental figure to stay for the first session.
Could you please take a seat? I’ll show you things for her to practice at home
after the class unless you pick it up during the class.” I know she did not
just say that. I have to stay and she thinks I can remember ballet stuff. Wrong
man here.

 “I’m
sorry, I will stay and watch but I doubt I will remember any steps. Can’t she
just do them here?” Surely she can understand I’m a man, not a ballet genius.

  
“Mr. Monroe, do you want Callie to succeed in ballet? It takes practice.
Practice she has to do at home and properly.” Well shit. Now I feel like an
idiot. I will do the best I can for her.

 “Ok,
I will stay and pay attention.” I feel like I’d just gotten in trouble from my
teacher.

 
“Very good Mr. Monroe.” She is very prim and proper to be teaching such young
children.

  An
hour and forty-five minutes later we are done and on our way home. My mind is
jumbled with everything they did today. We stayed an extra fifteen minutes for
me to get pointers on how to help Callie.

  As
soon as we walk in the house my cell goes off and I flip it open. Tamera is
calling. Maybe she got off early. I listen to her but it only pisses me off.
She’s cancelling on me again. Double shift. Well I guess this means another
night alone. Well not alone. Just at home.

 
Grandma Sue has had a long day, so I call in pizza to be delivered. Cam is in
the backyard playing catch with Ty, and Callie automatically wants to do the
same thing, so out we go.

At
least this is something I understand.

 We
practice for about an hour and the pizza arrives so we break to eat. We have
the kids washed up and sitting at the table and are discussing our day when
Callie all of sudden speaks up.

 “Uncle
Cam, Tommy learned to ballet today.” Oh crap. I am not going to live this down
anytime soon.

 
“What do you mean he learned to ballet?” Cam just has to know. I want to wipe
that smirk off his face.

 
“My teacher showed him how to help me to turn. He looks cute doing it. Don’t
you Tommy? You learned didn’t you?” Callie looks happy about it so I can’t make
her sad.

 
“Yes Baby Girl, I learned how to do your turns so I can help you at home when
you practice.” There, it is done. Let Cam laugh at me. At least my sister is
happy.

 
“Tommy will you show uncle Cam? You do it better than I do.” I am not doing it.
No way.

 “Come
on Tommy, show me. Callie will be sad if you don’t. Come on.” Cam is loving
this. He’s such an ass.

 
“Tommy there is nothing wrong with helping your sister. Be proud you are not
too proud.” Grandma Sue always seeing the good. Maybe she’ll help me get Cam
back as soon as I do this.

 
“Ok, Callie but you’re doing it, too. Let’s show Uncle Cam.” So I get her up
with me and we do the turns and then I hear the laughter and turn around. There
stands Trent, Blake and Whiskey. Well shit. Cam is fighting his laughter.

 
“Why are you laughing? Tommy is doing it right. Are you laughing at me? I know
I’m not good.” Then Callie bursts into tears. All the men stop laughing and I
scoop her up and try to sooth her.

 
Cam comes over and takes her from me and gives her kisses. Blake comes over and
pats her back.

 
Trent finally tells Callie “We were laughing at Tommy, sweetie. He doesn’t look
cute like you.” She finally perks up

 
“Uncle Trent, will you take me next week? Please?” Trent looks shocked. Callie
usually always picks Cam after me. You can see the smile spread across his face
once he realizes she chose him.

  
“Of course I will, Baby Girl.” Trent thinks he just won a prize.

 
Then she makes her way over to Blake, “Uncle Blake will you take me next then?”
Then he starts smiling.

 
“You know I will. Anything for you.” Blake looks quite full of himself.

 
“Aren’t you going to ask me Baby Girl?” Cam looks almost offended. He’s not
used to Callie picking someone else besides me.

 
“No Uncle Cam. You didn’t laugh at Bubba, they did.” We all look puzzled. “Well
anyone that goes with me has to learn what I do so they can help me practice.
Uncle Trent and Uncle Blake both laughed at Bubba and that is not nice. Now
they will have to learn, and I wouldn’t want anyone laughing at you Uncle Cam.”
Callie sounds so sincere.

 Whiskey
almost falls out of his chair laughing. He has tears in his eyes from laughing
so hard. “She got you both. Oh shit!  I can’t wait to tell everyone. A little
girl not quite five years old took you both. Callie girl, you are going to be
something else.”

 
With that Callie runs and jumps in his lap and kisses his cheek. “I love you Uncle
Whiskey.”

 “I
love you too, sweetheart, but I am not taking you to dance class. If you need
to go I will send someone, but I love you girlie.” Whiskey gave her a big hug.
Yes, Baby Girl had my back, too. Love that kid.

Chapter 6

Tommy

 Things
are going great. I have some money in the bank. I just redid the motor in my
old truck, and I just bought my first motorcycle. Nothing big and fancy. Just
something used to fix up. It is a Harley. As if there is anything else.

 
Trent and Cam have been patched in and I am going to prospect for the club.
Blake decided it wasn’t for him right now.

 Cam
kept custody of Ty and kept the house in his divorce. Cheryl left town after
Whiskey had a heart to heart with her.

 Baby
Girl is doing great. She has her little friends and her activities. She is
really smart in school. We haven’t heard from Karen and I’m waiting for her to
just show up one day.

 
Today I go to court for full custody of Callie. Mr. Hankins said it’s just a
formality, but I have my fingers crossed. With Karen you never know. Mr.
Hankins has the paperwork ready for me to sign to let Cam take over custody if
something happens to me. We had the temporary thing but this will be more
concrete. If everything goes off today like it’s supposed to, then I can
concentrate more on my personal life. More companionship definitely needed. I
didn’t want to give Karen anything to use against me. I’ll think about this
later. First things first. Time for court.

 
One hour after walking into court I am walking out and the weight of the world
has been lifted off of me. I now have full custody of my baby sister and I
signed the papers for Cam, so I am set. Next week I start prospecting and
everything is going forward for us, for once. At nearly six years old, my
sister can finally breathe easy. We have this. 

 If
I had only known what would be happening to us the next week. I would have held
on tight to my baby sister.

Chapter 7

Cam

 
Tommy had to go out of town to help transport some trucks his boss is going to
rebuild and sell. I am going to go and pick Ty and Baby Girl up from school.
It’s the end of the school year, so today they get out early. I was available
so I wanted to pick them up and take both of them to get an ice cream and then
they can go spend the rest of the afternoon with the other club children. We
mostly keep them away from the clubhouse, but Whiskey is there and wants to see
his grandchildren. Yes, he thinks of Callie as his little granddaughter now.

We
haven’t had a female child in our family for three generations. So she is
theirs now, too. Bourbon and Rye have done the same. She has a way of wrapping
all of us around her little fingers. She’ll be six in a little over a week and
it’s hard to believe Ty and her are growing so fast. Next year Ty will go into
third grade and Callie into first. Time is passing so fast.

  I
have Ty and I go to Callie’s room next. When I get there I stick my head in the
door and Callie’s teacher knows me instantly. But she has a strange look on her
face.

 “Mr.
Black, Callie’s mom picked her up around ten this morning. Her papers were all
in order so we released her.” What the hell?

 
“What do you mean her mom? Who?” I am beyond pissed. It is beyond me a school
would let someone else take Callie without calling one of us.

 
“Callie said her name was Karen. I thought it was odd she called her by name
instead of mom, but Mrs. Monroe explained it was a game they played. She had a
note signed by Mr. Monroe and we tried reaching Mr. Monroe by phone. The
principle allowed it.” She passed that buck off real fast.

 
“Mrs. Tate all I can tell you is if one hair on Baby Girl’s head is hurt,
everyone will pay. Look at your papers, Mrs. Monroe has no access to her
daughter. None.” I get my phone out and call Dad. Then I call Tommy. No answer
from Tommy. Probably no service where he is. Then I do the one thing I thought I
would never do. I call the Sheriff’s office and make the report so they can get
it on the wire.

 
Where could Karen have taken Callie? Callie has to be scared. I call grandma to
come and pick Ty up. He is worried about her too, and it is only upsetting him.
He has seen the damage Karen can do. I try to calm him by giving him
encouraging words but my heart just isn’t in it. I know I’m lying.

  I
go to the parking lot to wait on everyone. Whiskey is the first one there. He’s
glad I called the law even if he doesn’t like them. They are necessary this
time. Grandma is here next and you can tell she has been crying. I reassure her
even if I don’t believe it. I kiss my boy good-bye and hug him tight.

  I
keep trying to reach Tommy. After two hours he finally answers and I was right.
No service. He turned right around and is on his way back. I could tell the
news destroyed him. Bourbon and Trent have gone to meet him. That way he won’t
be alone and go off on someone. Dad has everyone out beating the pavement looking,
and calling in all favors to get Baby Girl back before she is hurt too much.

 By
the time Tommy is almost home we have checked every place we know. Then it
comes to me. We find T-Bone we find Karen. I let Whiskey know and he sends Rye
and me to get him. When I get my hands on him I will put him to ground if he’s
hurt our girl.

  We
approach the rundown apartment complex T-Bone keeps his whores in. The word is
that this is where they are at. We sneak up without being detected. We called
for back-up. I hear the bikes pulling up in front, and Rye has texted them. I
see Blake come up behind me. The others are going in the front and we are
taking the back. Some grungy looking man comes running down the hall with his
pants undone. Rye gets to him first and he shoots him in the kneecap, we don’t
want him going anywhere just yet. The man goes down hard. I kick him in the
face as I walk by and blood goes everywhere.

 As
I get to the door I push it open slowly. I step in with my gun pulled and look
behind the door. The room is dark, probably black-out curtains. I try to find a
light but I can’t find one. I hear whimpering though. I finally find a lamp but
I nearly knock it over. I feel around the neck of it and finally find a switch
to flick it on. When the light comes on I gasp. Baby Girl is in the bed with
very few clothes on and her eye is black and she has bruises. I can’t believe
what nearly happened. I yell and Blake comes in and when he sees Callie he goes
back in the hall and I hear a gun go off. Blake has gotten a little justice.
Now we need Karen and T-Bone.

 I
pull Callie to me but she is sluggish and tries to fight me. It’s like she
doesn’t recognize me. Then I look at her eyes. The son of a bitches drugged
her. I flip my phone up and call dad. I let him know we need a ride. No way
would I put Baby Girl on a bike. I also fill him in. We need to get her to the
ER. His last words chill me.

  I
walk out and our ride gets here. Rye looks to me and asks what dad said and I
tell him. “Burn it. Burn it all, and when you’re done go and burn everything
T-Bone holds dear. You see him or Karen put them to ground and then burn them,
too.” When Whiskey has a message to give, he does it big. Karen has just signed
her own death warrant. All of the BlackPath MC would be after her, no matter
how long it took.