Fueled in Fire

by Ryan Michele

  “We all good with replacin’ Kevin?” The vote went around the table.

  I looked at Wrong Way. “Find a new lawyer. And make sure he knows what he’s signing up for.”

  “On it.”

  “What do we do about Kevin?” Phoenix asked with a devilish smirk. “I want him dead.”

  “Agreed,” I said then continued. “Let’s put it on hold for right now. Keep him on as Rook’s lawyer so we can keep eyes on him. That way when all this other shit pans out, we can deal with him.”

  The table nodded in understanding. It was the best thing for the club at the moment.

  “Ebony? Anyone find her?”

  A loud banging came on the church door. Everyone around here knew when those doors were closed no one knocked or bothered us unless it was serious shit, like the fucking place getting blown up. Nodding at Phoenix, he went to the door. Ethan was there. “I didn’t knock, but…”

  “Crow, get your ass out here right now.” It was Sophia. I didn’t mark talking to her about Simon being out of her house on my list of shit to get done. While it pissed me off she was interrupting church, I needed to give her time.

  “Give me five,” I told the guys, walking out of the room and closing the doors behind me.

  “Sorry. She was comin’ no matter what,” Ethan started, and I just held up my hand to get him to shut the fuck up.

  “Leave,” I ordered him as he scurried off.

  “I cannot believe you!” Sophia, not acting like Sophia yelled at me. We’d known each other forever and not once had she ever done that. Normally, she was calm, cool, and collected. One of the things I admired about her. She wasn’t giving that to me currently.

  “What the fuck is goin’ on with you?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. You kicking my boyfriend out of my house without talking to me maybe.” Her hands went to her hips in bitch pose. Yeah. This was unusual for Sophia.

  “Get that, but this isn’t like you.”

  Her eyes flared in a way I hadn’t seen before. “This is me, Crow. You do not get to come into my life when you want and dictate what I do. Did I say a word about the little tart you had here for your father’s funeral? So what makes you think you can tell me when I’m done with a relationship.”

  One word stuck out of all of that. “Tart?”

  Her hands went up in the air. “Out of all of that, that’s what you picked out?”

  “Look, I should’ve come and talked to you, but shit’s been crazy around here. The guy is bad news. Really bad news, just found that out. You need to stay away from him, and you need to keep my boy away from him.”

  “Bad news and what, you’re good news?”

  To say I was shocked would be an understatement of the year. Sophia was so even-keeled in all the years that I’d known her, she’d never acted like this. It was as if she wasn’t in her own body or something.

  “Tell me what’s really goin’ on here.”

  “What’s he into?” she asked me instead of answering.

  “Can’t tell you that.” One, because I didn’t know and two, because it was club business.

  “Of course you can’t.” She turned around and looked down at her shoes. I moved to her and put my hands on her arms. She sucked in a deep breath and said, “You kissed me.”

  “What? No, you kissed me.”

  “At your house, yeah. But at the clubhouse that night after the funeral, you kissed me.”

  Liquor was a dangerous concoction, and I had the slither go up my spine. Parts of that night were a bit fuzzy which was unlike me. Fuck. Please tell me I didn’t do that shit. That couldn’t have happened. “What?”

  “Just forget it.” She started to make her way out of the clubhouse when I got in front of her.

  “Simon is a bad guy, and I wanted him away from you and my boy. I had other shit goin’ on, so I’m sorry I didn’t call and tell you. But where is all this other shit coming from?”

  She turned around and looked up at me, those eyes that I’d loved at one time and still cared deeply about scoring at me. “One thing your father wanted was for us to be a family again. I thought with you kissing me in front of the club, your brothers, that’s what was happening. Then with you kicking Simon out, I thought you wanted to be with me and wanted the man out of my life. I’m guessing this was a mistake. I came here so I could tell you unless you’re comin’ back to me, you don’t get to dictate my life like movin’ my boyfriend out of my house.”

  Fuck, she still loved me. After sixteen plus years, she still wanted me.

  Sad thing was I loved her as my son’s mother, not as someone who I wanted to spend my days with. This shit right here could fuck up a lot of things, and even treading lightly wouldn’t help one bit. And all I could think about was if Rylynn saw me kiss Sophia and that was why she left. Fuck.

  One thing at a time.

  “I was drunk, Sophia. Memories are foggy. Sorry I kissed you and made you think that. But, babe, we’ve been over for a long time. You didn’t want anything to do with the MC life, and I gave you that out. Remember?”

  Her eyes beamed up at me. “What if I’ve changed my mind?”

  If she would’ve told me this sixteen years ago, she’d have a ring on her finger and we’d be together. It was something I so badly wanted at the time. Sophia though, wanted me to give up the club, and that wasn’t happening. She knew it going in but thought she’d change me. No one fucking changed me. I was who I was. The end.

  The long huff of air that expelled from me didn’t help a single fucking bit. “I’m not where you are, Soph. Not sayin’ this to be a dick, just givin’ it to ya straight. You’re my kid’s mom, and that’s all you’ll ever be to me.”

  “She left though,” Sophia whispered.

  Like I didn’t fucking know that one. “Yeah.”

  “Are you bringing her back?” she asked with hope beaming from her.

  “That’s none of your business, Sophia.”

  “But it’s your business to kick my boyfriend out of my house? You can’t have things both ways, Crow.”

  That was when I did something that I’d never done with Sophia before. Never had to. I got into her space, her eyes widening. “You wanna be with that dickhead. Fine. But Greer comes and lives with me. You want that fuckup to mess up the life you’ve built, that’s on you, but my boy does not live there with him. We’ve had a great relationship over the years, Soph, and I don’t want to fuck that up, but this,” I pointed between the two of us, “isn’t happening. You’ve had more than your fair share of shots to get exactly what you wanted, and you never took one. Pushed me away. Then I bring home Rylynn and everything for you changes.”

  “She’s a kid, Crow,” Sophia responded.

  “If you would’ve talked to her, you’d know differently.” I stepped back. “You decide if you want to stay with that asshole. If it’s yes, I expect my boy at my house. If he’s not and I find out, I’ll be over.”

  “You can’t…” she started, but I’d already opened the doors to church, went inside, and shut them hard.

  “She break your cock off?” Phoenix asked.

  “You wanna suck it and see?” I retorted, falling down into my chair. This was fucked up. I now knew why Rylynn left, and it was all my fucking fault.

  “What else do we need to talk about?” I questioned Brewer, not letting anyone get anymore jabs in.

  “Tony’s at the store. He and Gus are gettin’ to know each other. Gus is on call to let us know if anything’s amiss.”

  “Alright.”

  Hornet spoke up. “I’ve got eyes inside the building.”

  “How?” I asked, sitting up in my seat.

  “Cat. Put a camera on her collar. The problem is she doesn’t go to the places I need her to, but I’m workin’ on that.”

  “Good. Where we at with Ebony?”

  Wrong Way spoke up, “Searched her credit cards and she is, in fact, in North Carolina.”

  “Fuck. What else?” My eyes went t
o Lemon who put his head down. Fucker needed to be doing the searches.

  “Just the eyes Tommy said. Don’t know if that shit’s real.”

  “We keep it real until we know it’s not. That way our shit is covered. What about the guns?”

  “Wells is set. We just need to set up a time for the drop.” This was good. If we did have these fucking eyes, we needed to get the shit moved.

  “Good. Buyer for the others?” I asked and watched his face closely. I knew it before he said it just from his expression.

  “Just Starling.” He paused waiting for me.

  “Know that shit’s a lot of cake, but we can’t sell to them. They’ll turn around and stab us in the back with our own shit. Even with a deal in place, there’s no trust there and they’ll break it. For me it’s off the table.” This was said with a finality that Brewer didn’t miss as he nodded, then I continued, “When we move the hands, we take the AKs and ARs with us. We need to find a place to store them that prying eyes won’t know about.”

  “Right. I’ll get on setting all of that up.”

  I nodded, just needing this shit to be done. There was so much coming at me from all angles, and already being pissed about Rylynn didn’t help one bit.

  “That Damien Curtis from Xavier and Marcus’s run. Xavier was right. He’s made several moves on their territory, and Xavier’s crew is holding their own for now. But here’s the kicker,” Brewer said while my imagination went crazy. “Damien called me and wanted to set up a meeting. Wants to move our business from Xavier to him. Told him I’d get back to him.”

  “Money talks. We have no allegiance to anyone,” Wrong Way said. “Say we talk to them, give them a price that’s off the charts high and see if they bite for it.”

  “Vote it,” I called out, hearing the ‘yeahs’. I slammed the gavel down looking at Brewer. “Make the call and set it up.”

  “On it.”

  “One more thing,” I said to the table. “Talked to Wrong Way about patchin’ in Ethan. Next church we vote. This is your heads up.”

  Walking out of the clubhouse, I headed home, needing a shower and shut-eye.

  The call to Rylynn went unanswered once again. This was going to change.

  Add this day to the many that were fucked up before.

  “Daddy, what’s wrong?” my daughter asked while we ate dinner. Gourmet chef, fuck no. Put meat on a grill and make mac and cheese out of a box, fuck yeah.

  That was a loaded question. Everything felt like chaos without Rylynn here. Pissed wasn’t even the word for it. When she left anger took over me. Two seconds more and I would’ve punched Rhys to get to her, but the car she was in pulled out into the road and was gone.

  Rhys just shook his head at me, went to his bike then he and Tanner took off. They all took off, and I was so pissed I didn’t say good-bye to my new family.

  Now come to find out, I set all that in play by my drunk antics. Fuck. Rylynn must be feeling this shit hard, and I couldn’t blame her one bit. It was my fucking fault.

  “Just miss your grandpa.” It wasn’t a lie fully. He just wasn’t the only one I missed.

  “Yeah. I do too.” She picked at her mac and cheese going for her drink. “Mommy liked him.”

  One topic not up for discussion was her mother. Dealing with her was never an option. Hadn’t heard from her since the funeral. Lemon had cameras on the house and she hadn’t tried to get back in there. Who knew where the fuck she ended up. “Yeah. I know.”

  “Mommy probably needs me.”

  This killed me. A ten-year-old taking care of a thirty-year-old who had so many fucking drugs in her veins she couldn’t make it to the toilet to puke. She’d been around that dysfunction long enough. I’d let it go on for too long. That was on my shoulders.

  “You do a great job with her, Van. But it’s time for her to take care of herself.”

  “What?”

  While this choice wasn’t hers, she would do it in a heartbeat. I’d always been open with my kids, and Van already knew how bad it could get. She’d seen more than she should. Therefore, I only added a bit of sugar to coat the sting. “Mommy is a grown-up, and she’s sick. She went to a place to make her better, but she left. Right now there’s nothing that you or I can do for her. We need to let her figure this out on her own.”

  “Why?”

  “Why does she need to do it herself?” I asked as she nodded.

  “Grown-ups need to be able to take care of themselves. They get jobs to pay for the things they want in life. Then when they get sick, they need to make a choice to get help. If they choose not to, they get sicker. And, Van, I can’t let you be around that anymore. It’s not healthy or safe. And you know Daddy always wants you safe.”

  “Yeah.” She didn’t say anything for long moments and when she did, it rocked the ground under me. “Where’s Rylynn? She hasn’t come back.”

  Talking about Rylynn didn’t help. Nothing helped. “Rylynn had to leave to go back to Sumner.”

  “Did she leave because of Greer?”

  My back straightened. After the revelations of the day with Sophia, this didn’t bode well only adding salt to an already gaping wound. “Why would you say that?”

  “Because at the party Greer said you loved Sophia and Rylynn needed to leave so you’d be a family.” She paused and bit her bottom lip. “Am I going to be part of your family too?”

  “Come here.” She came and climbed on my lap. “You are my world. You’ll always be my family. Forever.” She smiled bright. “Tell me what you heard Greer say.”

  “Just that you always choose Sophia. She was your true love. But that’s not true because you picked my mom.” The innocence of a child. I wished she’d stay that way forever. Even knowing the shit that was thrown at her by her mother, she still had that naiveté.

  “Right.” I kissed the top of her head. “Are you done eating?” She nodded. “Go pick out a movie to watch.”

  Rylynn had seen the kiss between me and Sophia at the club. Then had Greer’s words rolling through her head. That’s what she meant about me needing my family. I’d fucked up, my son added to it, and all of it pissed me off. One thing I knew, I needed to get to Rylynn and do it now.

  Van hopped down as I pulled out my phone.

  “Hello?” Kara asked hesitantly.

  “Need you to come over and watch Van for a couple of days.”

  “What?”

  “The only question you have is ‘what time’.”

  She stilled on the line then said, “I’ll be there in twenty.”

  Hated leaving my girl, but Rylynn was coming home. Everything that was broke, I’d damn well fix again.

  14

  Rylynn

  Either Irwin and Snider already had a talk about what happened that night, or they were telling the truth because they were both on the same page. The fact that Snider’s dad grounded him for not speaking up sooner and threatened to take away his car and phone if he didn’t tell the truth, I was betting on the latter.

  Showing up to their doorstep this morning didn’t go over so hot at first. It was the father this time who put his foot down for information. The thing that sucked ass was he gave me nothing new to go on.

  This meant that Elizabeth either climbed out of the window or someone grabbed her out of it. She sure as shit wasn’t going to make it down the fucking toilet.

  The police report had the fingerprints found on the windowsill and came up with the mother and father of the property, but nothing else. Not even the kid who lived there had left prints. They stated that the grass wasn’t depressed on the ground, but it could’ve bounced back that night.

  The cars at the party were all tagged, the owners, the parents, allowing for fingerprinting. The only one who had her prints was her friend Penny, which was expected since they went together.

  The report stated that there were no unusual tracks, which was a bunch of shit because of the number of cars at this party there were a shit ton of tracks. There was
no direct path out of the house. Cops just couldn’t pick out the unusual because of all the cars.

  Every bit of my energy went into finding Elizabeth, keeping all of my focus on it instead of other things.

  The damn reports were burned in my brain having gone over them looking for something that was missed. The cops did a great job in finding all the information available. I had to give them that.

  It was thorough and detailed. The fact that they came to a dead end didn’t surprise me. The more I stared at those reports, the more I willed them to talk to me. Nothing had.

  I wasn’t giving up. There had to be something in there that would help find this girl.

  The police asked her friends if they thought Elizabeth would run away from home, and not one said yes. She wasn’t that type of girl was written so many times in that damn report that it was the only thing that stuck out to me.

  The problem was, where would she find the money to disappear. She hadn’t used her name because it didn’t show up on any searches. The credit card she had from her parents was never touched during her time missing. Her ID also never pinged in the system.

  She went up in a puff of smoke that night. Combing through these files was leading me to the same conclusion as the cops. I hated that, but everything made me come up empty.

  Elizabeth’s parents had called me twice wanting to know if I found anything. Telling them no was difficult but necessary. While I knew they had hope and I did too, any news would’ve made their healing better. I just couldn’t give that to them.

  Searching for her friend Penny was becoming a real challenge. Every way to contact her from the police records came up empty. I’d driven by the house dozens of times, always empty. Even left a note on the door and in the mailbox, nothing. She was my key. Finding her would lead to answers. I knew it down to my soul.

  Coffee in hand, I stopped dead in front of my house on the sidewalk. A very familiar bike was parked at the curb, the sun shining off the black and red paint job. My breath caught and feet wouldn’t move.