by Mallory Funk
Lily looks at me with a small, reassuring smile.
“Sometimes we all need time to claim a piece of ourselves back,” she says looking in the direction her son went.
Tyson “Torch”
I needed to see Camilla before I opened the box. Maybe it was selfish of me, or not, but it felt completely terrifying to be opening a piece of the past.
My parents knew what I was going to do without me even having to say it. I could tell by the looks on their faces.
My legs feel heavy as I climb off my bike and into my house.
I stop in the living room and stare at the final thing that Stacey had given me.
I hear thunder in the distance and it almost felt fitting that I was opening this while a storm was on its way.
Sitting down in my recliner, I pull the box towards me and ignore the fact that my hands are shaking.
I lightly traced the words written on the top.
“For my love Tyson.”
Here goes nothing.
Slowly peeling the tape back, I open the flaps.
My breath catches in my throat as what I can see is a set of baby booties and a onesie that says “Little Snake” on it.
In the bottom of the box, I can see why it was so heavy. She had gotten a motorcycle that was small and looked like it could be one of those horse rocking chairs for babies, but instead of the horse it was a motorcycle.
Tears automatically well in my eyes.
There is a card in the box and I almost don’t want to open it but there, in Stacey’s handwriting, were her final words to me.
Tyson,
We had talked about a family when we first met. I wasn’t ready then. I didn’t know if I was ever going to be ready. You said it didn’t matter to you, but I guess that this is my way of telling you that I am ready for that family we talked about.
Love,
Stacey
Tears fall freely from my eyes as I take in her words.
I feel the same pain in my chest that I felt when I lost her.
This was something that I wasn’t expecting.
My father was known for bugging everyone for lots of grandkids. Stacey has made it clear she wasn’t ready, and I always could tell in her eyes that she was afraid I would walk away if she didn’t give me a family. That is something that never would have happened.
To see now that she was ready the day that she was killed feels like I’m losing her all over again.
The strong urge to drink pulls at me, but I fight it off as best as I can.
I don’t know how long I sit there with everything in my lap. The storm is in full swing outside and there is no light in the sky.
As I am staring outside in thought, I see headlights approaching the house. I hardly even believe this is actually happening as someone would have to be crazy to drive in this weather.
The person in the car runs up to my house and comes in without knocking.
“Ella! What the fuck are you doing driving with the weather like this? Are you fucking crazy?” I ask my sister.
“I saw mom and dad at the clubhouse and when they said what you were doing, I knew I had to come here,” she says, and her eyes land on everything in my lap.
“Did you know?” I ask her roughly.
She nods her head and tears well in her eyes. “Yeah, she told me before and had gotten the motorcycle custom made to surprise you.”
“I can’t believe she couldn’t just tell me she was ready,” I say as a sob tries to work its way out.
Ella sits down on the couch closest to me. “You know Stacey, she was never good with words.”
I nod my head knowing that was true.
“I wish she would have just told me,” I say on a whisper.
“I know. At least this is something you have of her and you will be able to share it if you ever decide to have a family,” she says.
I don’t say anything for a few minutes. I don’t know if I could ever share something like this with anyone else, especially Camilla. I know that I will need time to adjust to the fact that I would have a family now if it wasn’t for that fucker.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with this information now,” I say.
She nods her head in understanding.
“It’s a lot to take in. Just let us help you through this time,” she says, and I know right away what she means.
When I lost Stacey, I pushed my family away. I let myself drown in alcohol. I wasn’t a man that anyone would be proud of.
I fight the lingering urge to drink and take the comfort my sister is offering me.
The storm rages outside and my phone rings as soon as the power goes out.
“Yeah?”
“I just wanted to make sure that you were okay. The storm is really bad and I hoped you weren’t outside,” Camilla’s sweet voice says to me.
“Yeah, baby, I’m fine. I’m at home. Ella is here. She will probably be stuck here until the storm passes,” I tell her.
“Okay. Well Xavier is here. Since I don’t like storms, he hasn’t left my side,” she says.
I close my eyes and wish I could have been at the clubhouse with her. I didn’t know that she didn’t like storms, and I want to be able to protect her from anything I can.
“Call me later if you get too upset. I’ll be there as soon as the storm lets up,” I tell her.
“Okay, bye Tyson,” she says, and I hang up.
I look at my sister and she is smiling sheepishly as she hangs up her own phone.
“Please tell me that was Damien giving you shit for driving in a storm,” I say and she shrugs with a smile.
“It was. I didn’t tell him that I was coming here. He thought that I was still at the clubhouse. When he couldn’t find me, he called me.”
I shake my head at my sister. “You know that you always have got to tell someone where you are. We can’t take any risks. Especially right now.”
“I know, but he would have tried to stop me and I knew that my brother needed me right now,” she says, and she doesn’t look the least bit sorry.
“That was a dumb move, but I’m thankful to have you here. Especially since I want nothing more than a bottle of whisky right now,” I tell her honestly.
“Well I’m sure that we can think of something to take your mind off of it. You got any board games? And perhaps a flashlight so my phone doesn’t die,” she asks.
I nod my head.
“Well, I have the one you gave me when you first arrived. Let me go get it,” I say as I get up.
I go and find the board game that Ella bought for me a long time ago. When I get back to the living room, Ella has found a few emergency lamps that she has turned on.
She gasps when she sees it in my hand. “You haven’t opened it?”
I shake my head with a smile.
“When would I ever find the time to play this and willingly get whipped cream in my face?” I ask her.
“Well, it’s hilarious. I made Damien play it a long time ago. You should have seen his face when he got hit with the whipped cream. I recorded it,” she says excitedly and shows me the footage of my brother and the shocking look on his face is definitely hilarious.
I spend the next few hours playing board games with my sister and laughing like there isn’t a storm raging outside.
Maybe I can make it through this with my family after all.
Chapter Twenty
Camilla
Three weeks later.
The last few weeks have completely flown by. They were amazing.
If it wasn’t for the fact that I wasn’t allowed to leave the clubhouse, I would have completely forgotten that Reaper was still out there.
I am dressing in my room when I see my phone ringing on my bed. I go to grab it and see a blocked number. I answered it without really thinking. When I hear Reaper’s voice, I freeze immediately.
“You think that they can keep you safe from me? No one can keep you safe from me, Camilla.” The cold tone
in his voice chills me to the bones.
“What, too shocked to speak? You think that I have forgotten about you? Or how about the fact that you are in your room now; all alone.”
My eyes take in the room the room around me. My eyes go to the window that is only slightly drawn open.
“What do you want?” I ask with my voice shaking.
“What do I want?” he says with an evil laugh.
“I want you back where you belong. You will come to me, Camilla, or everyone that you love in that clubhouse won’t live to see their next breath. I’ve come to tell you that you have two weeks to come to me or I will blow that precious place to nothing. With you in it. Tell anyone about this phone call, and I might just do it anyway.”
His words have me freezing on the spot.
“You answer when I speak to you,” he says angrily.
I nod my head. “I hear you, Reaper.”
“Two weeks.”
I hang up the phone. My hands are completely shaking. I can’t let anything happen to anyone. What am I going to do? Willingly walk into my own hell?
When I hear the doorknob turn, I run to the bathroom. I need to get myself together because whoever that is will be able to tell something is wrong.
I hear my brother stomping around the room and he knocks on the bathroom door.
“Cami, you about done in there? You have been in there all morning,” he states.
I take a breath before I speak. “Yeah, I’m here. Just about ready,” I say washing my face and hoping that it will help get rid of some of the terror overcoming my body.
I take another five minutes before I calm my breathing down. I also make sure that I don’t look so scared. I have to think of something.
My brother rushes into the bathroom after I walk out. I can’t help but laugh because I know that if he wasn’t rushing right by me, he would have noticed immediately by my face that something was wrong. He and my parents will definitely know that something is going on, so I have to keep myself occupied until I figure out what I am going to do, although something tells me that I already know what it will be.
When Tyson walks in early in the morning, he looks at me with a smile that has my fears and thoughts melting away.
If I’m only here for a few more days then I am not going to worry about Reaper and his threats. I’m going to enjoy the man that would have been mine if I didn’t have a horrible past trying to catch up to me.
“Morning baby, did you sleep okay?” he asks as he gets close to me and places a light kiss on my lips.
“I sure did,” I say nodding my head. It’s not a lie, but I can’t exactly tell him what ruined what was going to be a good day.
“Good. Ink wanted to show you the tattoo he made up for you,” Tyson tells me.
I nod my head and fake excitement. I won’t be able to get it now because if Reaper sees that I covered his name, he would make me pay by re-carving his name over it even more slowly and painfully than he did the first time.
“Sure, we can take a look and see what he’s come up with,” I say as Ink himself walks into the room.
He’s holding a tube that I’m assuming has my would-be tattoo in it.
“There she is! I have to admit that this might be my best work yet,” Ink says as he sits down beside me. Lily, who I didn’t see was in the room, hands him a coffee.
“Oh thanks, darling,” he says taking a sip.
I rub my hands together. “Well, let’s see it.”
“Now hold on. You will see it, but you have to promise me that you will tell me if you hate it. You have to love it. It’s not going on my body but, if you don’t like it, I will find someone who will because it’s just too good to waste,” he says with a wink.
I nod my head eagerly. Now I definitely want to see it. His excitement is contagious.
When he takes the drawing out of the tube and spreads it out over the table in front of me, I can’t help but gasp at what I see.
“Ink,” I say in surprise.
The phoenix is big which is what I expected. It’s also full of colour and perfect. The body and part of one of the wings would have been covering Reaper’s name. Bright red, orange, and yellow covering that awful part of me. The wing extends out to my back along the middle and lower while the opposite wing extends to my stomach going far enough to cover everything. The tail reaches down to my hip bone and it makes a beautiful picture with some blue coating areas around the Phoenix.
I can’t help the tears that well in my eyes.
This is beyond anything I could imagine.
“Ink, it’s perfect,” I say not able to hide the emotion in my voice.
“Wow, you outdid yourself, brother,” Tyson says from beside me.
“Told you, it’s my best work. I couldn’t have drawn it better if I tried,” he says, and I can hear the smug tone of his voice.
“Alright now, don’t let that head of yours get too big or you won’t be able to walk out of this room,” I say bumping my shoulder with his.
Everyone laughs at my words and I can’t help but smile.
He works out a time when he can schedule me in for my first session. I nod my head along because its two weeks away and I know I will be gone by then.
Derek comes into the room looking angry.
“Church!” he hollers through the room and the brothers get up and follow their president into the room where all their meetings are held.
I worry that maybe Reaper had done something stupid and threatened them, but then immediately scratch that from my head.
He wants me desperate enough, and I know that he wouldn’t do anything that would risk that.
Torch “Tyson”
The look on my dad’s face has my guard instantly drawn.
Something has happened for him to call an emergency Church. When Ink and I get into the room, Tech is already sitting there with his lap top looking pissed.
Fuck, I hope that they found something on that fucker Reaper. The last missing piece to the Devil’s Souls. Maybe then we can finally put that club to rest in hell, where they belong.
We wait until every brother comes in and, considering it’s still fairly early for us, everyone looks like they just got out of bed.
To my surprise though, Xavier comes in the room. He had only just started prospecting for the club and we don’t allow prospects in Church. My stomach fills with dread because there is only one reason that he is here and it has got something to do with Camilla.
The doors shut once the last brother walks in and everyone takes their seats. The room is sound proof, so we don’t have anyone hearing something that they aren’t supposed to hear.
“Now, we all know that this fucker Reaper had gotten away from us but, since we moved Camilla here, we haven’t heard a single peep from him,” my dad says and a bunch of grunts fills the room.
Everyone’s attention is on our president right now because he’s going to say something that I’m not going to like.
“Until now,” he says and angry snarls fill the room.
“Tech, pull it up,” he says angrily.
“You think they can keep you safe? Nothing can keep you safe from me Camilla.”
I listen as Reaper’s voice fills the room and I realize that I’m listening to a conversation between him and my woman.
I clench my fists as I listen to him threaten everyone in the club and hear the terror in Camilla’s voice.
Once the call is played through, angry shouts fill the room.
We never told Camilla that the phone we gave her is being tracked and bugged. I had really wanted to tell her, but the club didn’t want to risk her tipping Reaper off if he ever called her. I now am happy that I was able to hold back from telling her.
I knew that there was something off about her this morning, but I couldn’t figure out what it was. Now I know. The fucker thinks that he can just take her and she will willingly walk to him? He knew the threat of bombing everyone in the club would be enough to sen
d her running his way. She would never put anyone’s life at risk.
“Alright, so we need a plan on how to deal with this,” Prez says.
“I have an idea, but you may not like it,” Kid says.
“Tell us what you think,” my dad says to Kid.
Kid nods his head.
“Alright, I think we should let her think that we don’t know about any of this and let her think that she had left unnoticed. We get someone undetected to follow her because he will know if it’s one of us. We will be able to catch him and have him brought back here for the torture that awaits him at the hands of the club.”
No one speaks for a few minutes, everyone taking in the words that Kid has spoken.
“I don’t like the idea of using my sister as bait, but I don’t know how we are going to catch him without it. I have no doubt that the fucker has some sort of plan to bomb this place, and I’m not willing to let you guys risk your Old Ladies and children. We will have to make sure that she thinks she got passed us, but not make it look so easy that she will catch on that we know; she would never let anyone put themselves at risk for her,” Xavier says.
“Fuck,” I let out a loud curse.
“I know you hate this, brother, given everything you have been through and what Camilla means to you, but what else can we do? He’s a Devil’s Soul. They have proven time and time again that they don’t care who they take down to get to us,” Damien says looking straight at me.
“Stitch, you think you could call in your brothers for a favour?” Prez asks. Stitch lets out a big sigh.
Stitch takes his phone out and puts it on speaker so everyone can hear. “Baby brother, to what do I owe this pleasure?” one of his brothers says in a slow drawl.
“We have a situation,” Stitch starts by saying and follows by explaining Reaper’s abuse towards Camilla and how we found her, now he is currently using threats to the club to lure Camilla back to him. The fucker knows that he would have been caught and is taking the easy way out.
We work out a plan that includes making sure to have the women and children in the bunker on the other side of the property in case the fucker gets any ideas. We decide to move them at night to avoid drawing attention.