Fabio and I had been with our family when we got the news our brother was dead and the circumstances. We had support. Destiny was stateside but still thousands of miles away on the East Coast. There were no Bastards that far out. I couldn’t bring myself to leave but Fabio was on a plane just hours after getting the news.
He went alone against the wishes of his father Eric and his re-acting president Alec. He travelled alone to be at the base, to tell Destiny in person that our brother was dead. Fabio couldn’t bring himself to tell her what happened aside from Austin was murdered. They were back in Sweetwater almost twenty-four hours later when Alec had to sit his girl down and tell her the truth.
Austin was found tied to a cross in a field. Lit on fire. There was nothing recognizable on him. The preliminary ID was done based off his cut and his bike being on site. Later a small piece was salvaged for DNA. It confirmed what we knew.
Fabio was bringing Destiny home when we got word Micky had been picked up on the 90 outside of Beaumont, hundreds of miles from where he should have been. He was handed over to the feds and turned states’ evidence. Protective custody. From time to time I thought about asking Dez if she could hack those systems, but I didn’t want to know.
Part of me knew that if Dez found it, no matter what I paid the hacker, she would run to my little sister. The eccentric woman was oddly loyal to the current Sweetwater Pres. If Destiny found out where Micky was, she would kill him, and anyone in the way, feds included. Destiny didn’t need that on her soul and most importantly, for whatever reason, despite everything, despite the traitors we had eliminated in the last years, I just didn’t see Micky turning against Austin.
It would be like Tate turning against me.
None of it added up. We were told by a badge sporting family friend that Micky set up Austin to be to be taken out by the BPs. As soon as Destiny returned to her post I led the charge, full on attacks on the BPs territory. I spilled blood and left a wake in my path, such a mess that Fabio had cleaned up. Then I split for Nomad and Scottie stepped aside, putting the Pres position up for election. They handed it to the Callaghan prince no questions asked.
Fabio stayed as my VP for a while, but my oldest friend was wrecked from Austin’s death and then Destiny nearly died, and he couldn’t handle life on the road anymore. Tate stepped up to the plate as my essential babysitter as I drank and fucked my way throughout Texas and beyond.
Those dark days were behind me now. I had stepped on toes and pissed people off. Sweetwater mopped up my messes and it wasn’t until I was standing next to my sister at Fabio’s bedside in the ICU that I had my true awakening. We had buried a patch brother just days before and I wasn’t looking for any more trouble.
I should have been dead. I was lucky I wasn’t killed on the open road. Lucky, I hadn’t cost a patch brother their lives. Lucky that my Uncle Alec ran Sweetwater or else I could have been put down by my own club like the rabid dog I had been.
I lit a cigarette and kicked the brick and mortar that was the dinner. Lost in my own internal mess and pacing I didn’t notice Amelia come outside until she was right in front of me.
“Houston,” she said putting her hand on my arm and I was so startled I almost swung.
“Damnit! You startled me!”
“Yeah, well, you’re beginning to startle me,” she said, and I went back to my pacing before she grabbed me again, pulling me back to her and kissed me. And she didn’t let up until we both felt my anger and anxiety starting to let up. “I’m sorry,” she paused searching my face for answers. “I know that you hoped Scottie brought news to help you put Austin’s death to rest.”
“He told you that?”
“No. I figured it out. Wasn’t that difficult. You’re not exactly the mystery you think you are. Not to me anyhow,” her voice softened, and she ran her fingers through my hair.
“Amelia…” my voice was strained.
“Don’t give me any sass boy. You are going to finish that cigarette, go back inside. Drink my coffee and eat your lunch. I can’t have you getting hangry on me before we get to Sweetwater, it’s quite a ride still.”
“Hangry?”
She pursed her lips together in a smartass teasing look. “You are the worst when you’re hungry and it takes a lot of grub to sustain you.”
I tossed my cigarette out and placed a hand on each of her cheeks. Slowly I tilter her face up to meet mine. “You are too amazing Half-Pint.” I kissed her lips just briefly and pulled her close to me.
***
By the time we left the diner we were four bikes strong. Other nomads riding from Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas and California would meet us outside of Sweetwater making us about twenty bikes strong. There were Nomads in nine or ten states now. Some only came in twice a year to keep their patch. Others are required to ride more often, those in Texas especially.
Not all of them would come in for Destiny’s wedding. Hell, I probably couldn’t even name all the Bastards anymore. Last year Fabio and Destiny had spent a month or so touring every chapter there was just like the good like Biker Princess she was.
As we reached the outside of Sweetwater and passed the rest of my crew that pulled out behind them, I was strangely concerned about the amount of people attending this wedding. Last time I had seen Alec he was mumbling something about reserving the local motels. I would bet it was close to five-hundred. The fire code at the hall Kristy had rented said six hundred. If I ever accidently got married, it would be a much smaller affair. Me, my bride, the preacher and the two required witnesses.
I had told Alec that we would meet them at the clubhouse. Which would be overflowing, but we had to make our appearance. As we slowed to turn into the fenced in property on the other side of town I noted there were at least fifty bikes and fifteen cages in the lot. But there was room for us to ride in and a spot for me up front with the Sweetwater chapter and the rest of the chapter presidents.
There were obnoxious cheers that went up that you could hear over the thunder of the bikes and I felt myself unconsciously sit up just a little bit straighter. This was my turf, and this was my family.
I pulled up front and killed the bike. I quickly climbed off to claim just a moment to speak to Amelia. “Just hold your ground and ignore whatever happens next,” I told her as we removed our helmets and I peeled my gloves off with my teeth.
“’Bout time you fucking got here!” I turned to see Fabio forcing his way through the throng of leather.
“Brother!” I shouted, and we hugged, slapping each other on the back.
I tugged at Fabio’s long hair that was pulled back in a pony tail. It was shoulder length when it was loose. “How are you managing to keep this for tomorrow?”
“The family donation to Saint Francis this year is a little off the charts,” Fabio laughed, and his eyes settled on Amelia standing behind me. “I see you extended my invitation. How come Mom or Double D didn’t tell me?”
“That’s because I didn’t tell anyone,” I glanced back at Amelia. She hadn’t run yet, but she was looking a little nervous.
“You’re brave.”
I just shrugged. “I only invited her yesterday, and I wasn’t sure I would actually get her here. She’s only here so I can make sure she isn’t tangling with the rustlers by herself. She scares the crew I left behind, and I don’t want her doing anything irrational without me.”
“Bullshit. But I’m happy to have you home and too distracted by this fiasco we’re calling our wedding to argue right now. The women are inside for the moment. She will be safe with them while you meet with the Nomads, the presidents and the elders.”
“Safe?” I raised my eyebrows in a laughable question.
“She’ll feel safer,” Fabio corrected. I turned to motion to Amelia to come to me when another voice cut through the crowd and everyone fell silent.
“Have fun,” Fabio said stepping back as his fiancée cut through the crowd.
Chapter Seventeen
Ameli
a
I tried to pretend that all eyes weren’t on Houston when we pulled in, and due to my proximity to him, on me. I tried to pretend that when he left me at the bike that his warning wasn’t a little off putting or that half the crowd’s eyes stayed glued on me as Houston greeted the patch member with a ponytail who wore a Sweetwater name plate and the Vice President label where Houston’s said President.
The men looked curiously at me and some with suggestive eyes. The few women glared but everyone looked. Everyone assessed.
Then I heard the female voice ring out through the crowd.
“Last God damn minute he decides to pull in? Of course, nothing less for the Nomad Bastard President. Taking off for fuckin’ Laredo the week I get married,” the woman didn’t have to push through the people; they all moved and made her a path. Her hair was longer than mine, it fell just shy of her waist and was dark red with dark near black streaks. Her arms were covered in ink and she sported a cut.
Devil’s Bastards MC. Sweetwater, Texas. President.
That added with the matching skin tone and facial features told me that this was Destiny Dallas. Houston’s beloved kid sister. His blood kid sister. Not just patch sibling either. His last blood, the other Callaghan.
And it was her wedding. What the actual fuck did I get myself into? I screamed internally to myself. When Houston asked me to come to town for a Bastard affair and wedding, he didn’t say it was his sister’s wedding. It was one thing to impose on a what I thought it was, and I was hesitant at that. But to show up to a siblings wedding that I had never met?
Houston crossed his arms and stared down his sibling and everyone backed up a few feet. The woman stopped at the edge of the half-assed circle.
“You got any answers for me Callaghan?”
“Not any you would like Callaghan.”
Destiny was quick, she jabbed him hard in the stomach as she tackled him and they both went crashing to the ground just in front of my feet. Houston tried to fight back but his sister was smaller than he was, and she used it to her advantage. The Sweetwater VP laughed as his President got her brother in a headlock and wasn’t letting go as Houston tried to get to his knees.
“Enough!” yet another woman’s voice rang out as she appeared in the circle. She was in her early fifties, had mahogany brown hair that was clearly dyed and from the ink that she wore she was an old lady. She was followed by another woman who wore a lighter scowl but looked like much of the same but with blonde hair.
The two women’s walk demanded respect amongst the bikers and Houston and Destiny stopped rolling around and straightened up. Destiny released Houston and he helped his sister to her feet.
“You are getting married tomorrow and you two are brawling in the parking lot! What about the pictures?” the first one started in. The Sweetwater VP chuckled.
“You should know better! Letting them brawl like that,” the second woman snapped at him. “After all these years you knew it was coming! That’s your brother and your fiancé for Christ sakes Stephan.”
“Yes Mom,” Stephan, the VP answered, and he tugged Destiny to him and kissed her wickedly.
“Houston,” the first woman started coldly.
“Momma.”
Momma? I knew his mother had been murder. Oh shit, oh shit! He had been raised by his father’s club mate and his wife. Alec and Kristy something or the other? At times he referred to them as uncle and aunt. This must be that Aunt.
“Don’t you start that shit with me, trying to be all sweet when you know you’re in trouble,” I could tell her coldness was all an act now.
Houston walked up to her and kissed her cheeks and wrapped her in his arms. “Auntie.”
“My sweet boy,” she kissed his cheek and then slapped him in the chest. “You should have been here days ago. Where the hell have you been?”
“Ranching!” Stephan answered excitedly.
“Fabio,” Houston warned.
“Ranching?” about a dozen or so voices asked and as Destiny turned on her fiancé asking how the hell he knew where her brother had been.
“Been trying to take care of a cattle rustler issue at Homeland, it’s Tate’s family ranch and he’s on the oil rigs right now. Thought I would help if I could. Rustlers aren’t anything different from what we are used to,” Houston explained, and his aunt looked over his shoulder at me, narrowed her eyes and nodded in my direction.
Houston reached out with an open hand behind him and glanced back, motioning me forward. I took his hand, worrying now about how I was going to be introduced. Tate’s sister? His plaything?
“Aunt Kristy this is Amelia Lorbosh. Amelia, this is Kristy Vandergriffen. She raised me and mine. My sister Destiny Dallas, the Double D. The Bastards only female patch and the Sweetwater President, her fiancé my oldest friend in the world, Stephan “Fabio” Ames. Fabio’s mother, my Aunt Stella Ames. She had a hand in raising us especially when Kristy was at her wit’s end. Don’t worry it’s not a blood relation, they were mom’s best-friend’s and their husbands Sweetwater patches so this shit ain’t really inbred.”
Houston presented me like I was a prized mare and yet I wanted to shrink under their gazes and tuck myself under Houston’s arm. Bury myself in his grasp until I was invisible. But I remembered his words and so I stood my ground and held myself tall.
“Pleasure to meet you all,” I answered, and Kristy’s lips twitched in a grin she was trying to repress.
“You best come with us darling. Houston won’t be of any good company for a while. Bastard business. How good are you in organized chaos?” Stella asked as she took me by the arm and started leading her away. I threw one last glance back at Houston who was full out smiling.
He was happy. And even if his aunts and the rest of the women ended up being just awful I would manage with a happy heart. Houston had too much hurt in his world, if he was happy that they were taking me into the fold, I would melt right in.
***
I listened to the women bustle around me. We were inside the clubhouse with twenty or so odd “old ladies” as they called themselves. As far as the pecking order went, Houston’s aunts stood at the front of the line.
The women were directing the flow of food set up, they intended to feed everyone who showed up at the Bastards clubhouse tonight.
“You have the wedding rehearsal in a few hours. You should be getting cleaned up and headed to the church,” a leathery skinned woman told Stella. I had never caught her name, but I knew was tied in to someone with the Fort Worth Bastard chapter.
“I know,” Stella said wringing her hands. “We won’t be much longer here. Besides, what’s the use of us heading over to the church when the bride and groom are holding informal Bastard church?”
“He’s your son,” Kristy said with a soft glare to Stella.
“And she’s your daughter,” Stella shot back. “Good Lord how are we ever going to get through the next two days?”
“Same way we do everything else, with some hope and a whole lot of barking orders,” Anastasia, the one new addition whose name I remembered. She was the maid of honor in the wedding and she looked as tough as the rest, but she had a nice enough smile and was toting a toddler around.
“Still trying to see how you’re goin’ to get those men in them tuxedoes,” another one of the younger women shouted out. “I can’t wait to see one on Houston and won’t mind stripping it off him.”
Kristy slapped the girl upside the head. “I’ll have none of that talk around here. You want to stop being a club whore and find a steady man, there will be none of that talk. Houston was never going to give you a backward glance Tasha and you know it.”
I questioned yet again why I was here. I had always known that Houston had a wealth of experience in the bedroom but to be in the presence of his former lovers? Because by looking around the room at the mischievous smiles and sideways glances from the other women I was sure that there were more than Tasha that had tasted Houston.
I
busied myself. For some reason, proving I was helpful here in preparing to feed these big burly bikers, was important. Anastasia was making up lunchmeat sandwiches and I offered to help.
“Pay no mind to those women. They are jealous of you, that is all,” Anastasia said with a roll of her eyes back at the others.
“I don’t, but jealous? Whatever for.”
“You’re with Houston and they’re not.”
“I’m just Tate’s kid sister. We’re not together, Houston and me. He just brought me here to keep me out of trouble with the cattle rustlers while he was gone,” I shrugged as I layered up some of Anastasia’s sandwiches on a platter.
Anastasia laughed. “Honey, you’re more than that. I came up with these people, you got to remember that. Known them all my life, my Daddy died in the war around the time Houston and Destiny’s mom did. So, I know the Callaghan’s well. Houston has never brought a girl home to meet the family. He’s entertained those club whores from time to time, sure, but he’s never brought them into the fold.
“He’s never introduced anyone. Never brought them before his aunts and certainly not for something as important as his only bloods wedding.”
“That’s supposed to make me feel better?” I asked quietly.
“Only if you care about him I suppose. Callaghan’s are tough as hell and try to be cold as ice, but I know that’s not the case,” Anastasia finished with the sandwiches and I placed the last few on the platter. Something in Anastasia felt lost.
“You talk like you know from experience … were you one of Houston’s… Houston’s…” I couldn’t find the words.
“Oh no darlin’ not Houston,” Anastasia laughed, and I looked to the small boy that the other women passed around. I thought the boy, Brooks, Anastasia had said, looked like a child Houston could have fathered. But if not Houston… no Austin had died long before Brooks would have been conceived. But that didn’t mean the far off look in my new associates eyes wasn’t for the eldest Callaghan sibling.
“Cowgirl!” I heard Kristy call out and assumed the woman was talking to me. I turned to see Kristy standing with her purse in her hand and an unlit cigarette in between her fingers. “Come on, we have a rehearsal to get ready for. You are with us.”
Houston Callaghan: The Devil's Bastards MC Page 11