by KJ Dahlen
Someone knocked on the door.
When Brinn opened it, Boone stood there.
He looked at her and said, “Your parents are here.”
Winona came up behind her and wrapped her arm around the other woman’s shoulder. “Come on, let’s go meet the parents.”
They both moved out together and when they walked into the room, they saw a woman who gasped then she cried out, “Bethany!” Then Brinn and Winona watched as she tore across the room and wrapped her arms around Winona. She more or less pushed Brinn carelessly to one side as she cried over finally finding her baby girl.
Brinn stumbled out of her way and then felt Moose wrap her up in his arms. She watched in stunned fascination as the woman gushed over Winona. Brinn whipped her head around to glare at the Judge. She saw the empty look in his eyes and the way his hands were clenched into fists.
He marched over to where Cindy was still hugging Winona and wrestled her away from the other woman. “You damn fool, how can you not know your own daughter?” he growled.
Cindy glared back at him. “I do know my own child!”
“Then why are you hugging this woman?” the Judge demanded. “This is your Bethany.” He turned her toward Brinn.
Cindy stared at Brinn with disappointment in her eyes. “I’m sorry, it’s just been so long since I saw you last.” She took a deep breath, “I should have looked at you harder.” She brushed Brinn’s hair out of her face. “I can see you now. Yes, I see it now, you are my child.”
Just then a man joined them. He studied her for a moment then whispered her name, “Bethany, is it really you?” he asked.
Brinn looked over at him. “I don’t know.”
“We thought you were dead.” He stared at her. “We thought all these years that you had died at the hands of your kidnappers. That’s why we gave up on finding you. That was the only reason we stopped looking for you.”
“There’s no real proof I am your daughter, you know that, right?” Brinn announced.
Jackson shook his head. “You look just like my mother and a lot like your sister.” He paused and took a deep breath then exhaled it loudly.
Brinn stared back at him. “I’m sure you’ll understand then... that sort of evidence won’t stand up in court and you know it. And there will be those who won’t believe I am your daughter unless they see proof, even then they won’t believe it. They’ll think I’m just after your money.” She pushed her hair out of her face. “I am Brinn, that’s what I’ve been called all my life, well all my life that I can remember anyway. I don’t know you and you don’t know me.”
“I’d like to know you,” he told her.
Shaking her head, Brinn explained, “Then you need to listen to me. I’m not a child anymore. I’m a woman, full grown. I’ll tell you the same thing I told your dad, I need time to figure out what I want. What I need to complete my life. Despite what you may think, I grew up. Not the same way I would have grown up with you, if you were my family but I grew up all the same. I know what I want and what I need. But that might not be what you want and need. I had a woman I called my mother and while she wasn’t the best I could have had... she was all I had. I don’t know her...” She looked over at Cindy. “...I don’t know her at all, the same as I don’t know you.”
“As I said before, I want to get to know you,” Jackson said.
“We’ll see.” Brinn just stared back at him.
Cindy stepped forward and hooked her arm in Brinn’s. “Well, the first thing we can do once we get home is go shopping and get you some decent clothes. We’ll get your hair done and then we can have a press conference to show the world how happy we are that we finally found you.”
Brinn gently unhooked her arm from the other woman’s. She stepped back into Moose’s embrace. He then wrapped his arms around her waist. Shaking her head, she said, “I’m sorry but I’m not going anywhere. This man is my home and I’m staying with him.” She swung her gaze over to glare at the Judge, so she would be sure he’d heard her.
The Judge’s eyes narrowed at her statement and his lips tightened into a thin line. “We’ll see about that little girl,” he whispered under his breath.
Chapter Thirteen
As they walked outside, the Judge, Bartholomew took her aside and again, tried to pressure her to come back with them. “You really need to listen to me silly girl,” he admonished her.
“And you need to hear what I’m saying old man.” Brinn shook her head. “Your family lost me a long time ago. You have no claim on me and I have no claim on you. I’m not after your money or power. I don’t want it or need it. I’m well over legal age and I don’t have to go anywhere I don’t want to. If you bring trouble to these men, I will destroy you and your family. You work for the public and public opinion means a great deal to you. I have nothing left to lose and people can say what they want about me. I’ve lived that life and I just don’t care. You did your job, you found me again, now it’s time to let me live my life. I will never care about getting my hair or nails done, I could care less about nice clothes or money. I have what I want right here. I would like to meet my sister and get to know my family but I will not be bullied. There isn’t a thing you can do to me but if you take these men down, I will ruin you.”
The Judge snorted. “You can’t hurt me girl.”
“Then don’t hurt me,” she told him. “If you do, I’ll never consider you family. You seem to need me more than I need you. I’ve lived my whole life without you. I survived despite the odds against me and I can survive you people too.”
“Dad, she’s right,” Jackson spoke up. “As much as we want her to come with us, we can’t just force her to. She’s all grown up.”
“It hasn’t even established that she does belong to this family,” Cindy claimed sourly. “Just because she’s blonde and looks like your late wife, doesn’t mean she really is our long lost daughter.”
Jackson turned to his wife and frowned. “What did you just say?”
Cindy shrugged. “Well, there’s no real proof she’s Bethany, now is there?”
“I think you better shut your filthy mouth young lady.” The Judge growled. “You’re the one who lost her in the first place.”
“She was perfectly safe.” Cindy pouted. “I could see her the whole time she was out front of the store.”
“Stop it!” Brinn shouted. “You need to stop this bickering and just go home. You know where I am now. But I’m not moving.” She swung around to face the Judge. “I mean it, do not push this.” Then she turned and went back inside.
The Judge and his son went to follow after her, then he turned to his son. “We will get her back son. She’ll come home to us and soon.”
“Dad, leave it alone. Don’t hurt her, don’t make trouble for these men or you might not like what she does. Let’s get to know her first, then move on,” Jackson begged his father. “Let’s just go home for now.”
Cindy wrapped her hand around her husband’s arm and said, “Yes, when we get home, we can go out to eat and have an early evening. I’ve about had all I can take of this dump.” She shivered as she added, “I hate Texas.”
Jackson paused and glared at his wife as he shook her arm off then walked away.
Cindy scrambled to catch up to him but she didn’t dare say anything else.
Bartholomew followed them slowly. When he got into the limo, he looked back and saw several of the MC men staring back at them.
Inside the clubhouse, Brinn just sat in the corner, sitting on the floor, staring at nothing for a long while.
Finally, Gunner went over and squatted next to her.
Brinn looked up and stared at him.
“What did he tell you honey?” Gunner finally asked.
“He told me if I didn’t come home with him, he would ruin you guys. I told him if he tried, I would ruin his family name.” she whispered. “That I would turn public opinion against him.”
Gunner snorted and shook his head. “Thank you for
that baby girl, but we can take care of ourselves. We haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Neither did I!” she cried out. “I didn’t ask for him to come here. I didn’t beg him to accept me as one of his own. I’m not even sure I want to belong to that family.” She shuddered, “That woman is a nightmare and the Judge? That man needs a beating really bad.”
Gunner smiled. “I agree with you but you probably shouldn’t say that out loud.”
“You know the one I feel sorry for?” She looked at him. “I feel sorry for Liberty. She grew up in that house. She’s only fourteen and she’s got no chance.” Shaking her head she admitted, “I might not have grown up with any kind of love but at least, I didn’t grow up with that.”
Gunner chuckled. “Yeah, that’s true. Can you imagine having to call her mom?”
Brinn felt tears roll down her cheeks. “I’m sure Cindy would never have allowed that, she would insist on being called Mother.”
Moose joined them and pulled her up into his arms. “We got you baby. We got your back.”
“I know. And I got your back too. He can’t hurt me if I don’t let him.”
“Damn right he can’t,” Moose grumbled.
Hours later, the Judge’s family arrived back at home. New York City was a city that never slept and even at this hour, they hit traffic. Their limo was stuck in that traffic.
The Judge seemed to be in a real hurry.
Jackson wondered what his dad was going to do. Cindy was texting on her phone but he didn’t care about that. “What is going through your mind, Dad?” Jackson asked.
“I want that girl home with us where she should be.” He growled.
“You can’t force it without losing her altogether,” Jackson pointed out.
“I don’t care. She needs to take her place here, not in Texas.”
“Bart, that woman will never fit in with our family,” Cindy told him. “Forget about her.”
“That woman could very well be your own daughter,” Jackson pointed out. “Don’t you give a damn about that?”
Cindy turned her head. “I can’t help what happened twenty four years ago. I couldn’t then and I can’t now. All I could do was move on. Well, I chose to move on.”
Jackson didn’t say anything more but when they arrived at the mansion, he got out of the limo and left her to walk in on her own.
His father waited until the limo pulled around to the back of the mansion and then he got out. His home was attached to Jackson’s but they were two separate households. They all simply shared the same compound because Jackson’s sister Janice lived here as well. She also had her own home on the property.
When the Judge entered his home, his attorney sat there waiting for him.
“Well, what did you find?” his attorney, Harold asked as he nursed a drink in front of him.
“I found her,” Bart told the other man as he poured himself a drink.
“Are you sure?” Harold asked.
“I’m sure.” Bart smirked. “Only problem is she doesn’t want anything I have to offer her.”
“What? What did you say?” Harold asked surprisingly.
“She doesn’t want a damn thing this family can offer her.” He shook his head. “She doesn’t want the money, the power, the prestige, not a damn thing.”
“Well, that’s good.” Harold nodded. “At least you won’t be dragged through the courts on a false claim then.”
Bart turned to glare at him. “You don’t seem to understand something here. That young woman is my granddaughter. I know it and so does she. She just won’t act on it and that is unacceptable to me. She needs to come home and take her rightful place.”
“But Judge, you’re going to need a blood test to prove that. That’s your first step.”
Bart shook his head. “She would never agree to that. She’s a stubborn woman.”
Harold laughed out loud. “She must be one of you as she takes after you and Jackson alright.”
The Judge glared at the other man. “Speaking of Jackson, he may have my stubborn streak but he’s got terrible taste in women. That wife of his is really a piece of work. She didn’t even know which one of two women standing there was her own daughter. She’s useless and petty. Then when Brinn didn’t come home with us, she dismissed her existence altogether. “
“Brinn?” Harold asked.
“That’s what she calls herself,” Bart told him. “Her real name is Bethany but she calls herself Brinn. She claims that’s what she’s been called all her life.”
“So what are you going to do?” Harold paused as he stared at the older man.
“I’m going to not leave her a choice but to come here. Right now, she’s staying with a motorcycle club, of all people.” Bart shook his head. “That is unacceptable to me. Those are people she shouldn’t even have to acknowledge.”
“Which group is she with?”
“The Savaged Souls out of Jasper, Texas.”
Harold took a gulp of his drink. “Those men are bounty hunters. We’ve used them through the courts before.”
“I don’t give a damn.” Bart growled. “Find something I can use to destroy them with. I want to leave her no place to lay her head except with us.”
“That might backfire on you big time.”
Bart chuckled wryly. “Do you know she had the audacity to tell me the same thing?” He shook his head. “She claimed she would turn the public tide against the Morgan’s and that if she did, she would do more damage to us than we could do to that MC. Can you believe that horseshit?”
“Actually I can.” Harold was honest with him.
“What?” Bart glared at him. “How so?”
“You and Janice are public figures, you maintain a good relationship with the public, because you do a great job. But she could cast doubt on that and she could cause you both some trouble.” He shrugged. “Even being in business, Jackson relies on the public, if she cast doubts on his private life that could hurt him, maybe not a lot but then the stain would always be there.”
Bart shrugged. “I doubt she can spread that much discontent. I’m not going to worry about it.”
Harold didn’t say anything but thought he should let the others know of the threat. Janice, he knew would take this threat seriously. Jackson might be able to stop it but he knew Cindy wouldn’t care one way or the other. The only thing that woman cared about was when her next hair or nail appointment would be and who she was going to have lunch with.
Harold got up and finished his drink. Looking over at Bart, he nodded. “I’ll get on the information you need. But I still think this might be a mistake on your part.”
Bart growled but didn’t say anything, instead pouring himself another drink. He turned his back on him.
Sighing, Harold let himself out of the house. He walked around to the front to get into his car. Then he glanced over at the swing on the porch. He paused then walked over to the swing where Liberty was sitting.
She was holding a pillow to her chest and she wore a frazzled look on her face. She looked up when Harold sat down on one of the steps. “Did you hear?” she whispered. “My parents saw my sister today.”
Harold nodded. “Yeah, I heard.” He looked over at her. “How do you feel about that?”
“I didn’t even know I had a sister!” Liberty exclaimed. “Not once, has either of my parents mentioned it before.”
“I know this has to be a shock to you.”
“Are you kidding me?” Liberty beamed at him. “I think it sounds great. I might just have someone in this family that won’t ignore me, who might even think I’m worth speaking to. I think it’s great. I can’t wait to meet her!” She peeked over at him. “Do you know where she’s at right now?”
Harold nodded. “She’s in Jasper, Texas with a group of men called the Savaged Souls.”
“Who are they?” Liberty looked a little uneasy.
Harold nodded. “Don’t worry kiddo, they are good men. They run a bounty hunting servi
ce down there. They are also an MC.”
Liberty’s eyes went wide on her thin face. “Really?” She thought for a moment before she asked, “Do you think she would ever come here and see me?”
Harold got to his feet and shook his head. “I doubt it kid, she doesn’t want anything to do with your family. According to what your granddad told me, you have nothing she wants. She doesn’t want the money, or any of its benefits.”
Liberty watched him walk to his car and she whispered, “Yeah, I can see that myself. It really isn’t all that like my friends at school think. I would trade it in for just someone to talk to or confide in.” She reached for her phone and asked Google to show her the map. She wanted to know how many miles were between her and her sister. There were over 1487 miles between them. That was too many miles for her to go on her own. She bit at her lip. “But I so wanna see her.”
Chapter Fourteen
Two days later, Jackson woke up and stared at the ceiling in his bedroom. Turning his head, he looked over into the adjoining bedroom and saw Cindy was still asleep. Yesterday had been a busy day with meeting after meeting and he hadn’t gotten home until the early hours. Which was why he groaned when he saw the clock on the table beside his bed. Barely six a.m. and he could not sleep any longer.
Throwing off the covers, he got up and went into the bathroom. A few minutes later, he frowned, as he didn’t hear anyone else in the house. Usually by this time, Liberty was up and moving about. He decided to walk down the hall and see if she was awake yet. He knocked on her door but she didn’t answer. He knocked again, then walked in.
Then he frowned again. Her bed didn’t look as if she had even slept in it. He went over to the bed, then glanced toward the bathroom but didn’t hear anything from there either. Moving over to the desk, he looked around. Then his eyes widened when he saw the letter addressed to him sitting there.