Game Changer (Hell's Saints Motorcycle Club)

by Marinaro, Paula

  Dolly told me I looked beautiful and Reno gave me a chin nod when he took in my hair. It occurred to me that I had never heard Reno say more than a couple of words at a time, but I had noticed that when he took the time to do that, people took the time to listen. They both had taken some effort with their appearance too. Dolly had on a pretty butter yellow top (Rolling Stones tattoo completely covered) with white silk pants. Dolly’s natural auburn curls were artfully arranged and her makeup was subtle and flawless. I had been with her every day for the past week and I never really noticed what a truly natural beauty she was. Dolly cleaned up good.

  Reno was another beautiful man. He had a darker version of his mother’s hair. The coppery colored locks were streaked in shades of warm caramel from the sun. He was bronze and lean. He had light brown eyes with fine sunburst lines radiating outward in his face from the years of riding and working outside. He was about 6 ft. and had a big Celtic knot tattoo on his bicep. He was wearing a white button down shirt with the sleeves turned up and black jeans that rode low on his hips. He had on expensive looking biker boots and a very cool black belt with a hammered silver buckle. He was sporting aviator glasses and a man bun. He looked dark and dangerous and grim.

  We rode in relative silence to the airport. Each in our own thoughts. Reno had taken care of our tickets and had checked in and printed our e tickets via internet. He parked in the parking garage and we made it with only minutes to spare to our gate. Then we were off.

  Chapter 28

  I sat next to Dolly on the plane. She had more than a few drinks but she could sure hold her liquor. I got treated to Dolly’s life story, Pinky’s story and some of the missing parts to my story as well. I don’t know what the airline tickets cost, but for me the ride proved priceless.

  My childhood assessment of her had been correct. Pinky had grown up hard through no fault of her own and had a heart of gold Dolly and Pinky had been friends since they were both 16 years old Pinky had introduced Dolly to her brother Pete. For Dolly at least, it had been love at first sight. Because Pete was 14 years older it took some convincing on Dolly’s part but eventually her total love (her words) for him won out and they were married the day she turned eighteen. Pete had been the love of Dolly’s life. For her there would never be anyone else. She still missed him every single day. Reno had been the light of his life and Dolly said she saw Pete in Reno every time he smiled. Since I never remembered seeing Reno smile, I couldn’t imagine it.

  Pinky and Dolly once best friends, now sisters in law, were closer than ever. Pinky and Prosper tried but were never able to have children. Reno was their godson. When Pete died in that car accident, Pinky and Prosper took Dolly and Reno in until they found their way. That was a long time ago. When Reno was old enough to decide which way the cat jumped, he decided that the cat jumped in the MC’s direction. His Uncle Prosper had guided him through the prospect phase of initiation and Reno was now a brother. Prosper and Reno were tight. Dolly and Pinky were tight. And now Claire and I were a part of that. I liked it.

  Evidently, Pinky and Pete’s younger sister Lilah had always been a hell raiser and a half. From the time she was a teenager, Lilah had made all the wrong choices. The bad boys had led to the bad men, which in turn had led to three bad marriages. She was an alcoholic by the time she was twenty five years old with a number of D.U.I.s under her belt and some jail time. Pinky had tried. Lordy Lordy how she had tried, but Lilah had been hell bent on destruction.

  Strange thing was that when she had wrapped herself around that tree she had eighteen months sober. Tragic thing was, that she wrapped herself around that tree trying to avoid a head on collision with a car driven by a drunk driver. The guy missed her but ran himself right off a steep embankment and died anyway. Dolly leaned in to me then and whispered, ”It’s a damn good thing too, because what Prosper and the brothers had planned for that drunken bastard would have been a lot more painful and a lot less quick.”

  By that point she had begun slightly slurring her words. I hoped it was the booze talking retaliation, but in my heart I knew it probably wasn’t.

  Dolly talked then about the summer that Pinky and Prosper had taken us in. She said she remembered it like it was yesterday.

  Prosper had lost his mind when he found out that we had been left alone. He had sent some of the brothers out to find our father while he went to get us. Pinky had been frantically waiting because she had been afraid that Prosper had killed Jack in his attempt to get at us. So the look that I remembered seeing clearly on her face that night had been both gratitude that we were safe and relief that Prosper hadn’t killed our father. No, Prosper hadn’t killed Jack. What he did do was send a very clear message that Jack had two weeks to clean his act up totally or he would never see his daughters again, ever.

  I was mesmerized. Dolly went on and on mellowed from the booze and nostalgia. I had lived my life thinking one thing and I was hearing something that was so much more than that. Mostly that Claire and I had never really been alone in our misery, in our mourning, in the sad story that had defined our lives. It was disquieting, validating and a host of other indescribable things to hear all of this from a perspective that wasn’t ours. We had been seen. We had been wanted and loved and fought for.

  Pinky had come into our lives after our mother’s death so I had always assumed that she had met Prosper after my mother died. Through Dolly I learned that hadn’t been the case. I had never even considered that Prosper and Pinky were involved while my mother was alive. Never. From what I remembered, he was with us, with her all the time in the months leading up to her death. I honestly never remembered him not being there. But evidently there had been times when he hadn’t been.

  It had started quickly between them, Dolly told me. In a very odd twist of fate it was actually Pete, Pinky’s brother who had led her to him. Evidently Pinky had been stuck on the road with her car one night and had called her brother to help her out. Because Pete had been about three sheets to the wind, Prosper had volunteered to go. Pinky invited him in for coffee and that coffee turned into a couple of beers and that was followed by a couple of really great days of hot. Just like that. Dolly laid it out for me. Just like that. She remembered it clearly and Dolly, god bless her, spared me nothing. At one point I wasn’t even sure she was talking to me anymore. She just seemed lost in the years.

  Apparently Pinky had openly confided in her girl, Dolly, about the enigma that had been Prosper. Pinky had known there was something, possibly and very probably someone who was getting in the way of her moving forward with Prosper. But when she tried to find her way to it, he would clam up. Woman’s intuition winning out, Pinky grew surer than ever that there was a woman. She enlisted Dolly’s help to find out who that woman was and the story that went with her.

  Because the brothers played it close to the vest, Pete was tight lipped about Prosper’s personal. The only thing Dolly could get out of him for sure was that Prosper was wrapped up in some pretty heavy shit that was reaping a world of hurt on him and it involved a woman. A good woman.

  But Dolly had been like a dog with a bone and wouldn’t let up on Pete. Pete held out as long as he could, but because he had a hard time denying Dolly anything and truly didn’t want to see his sister hurt, he had finally opened up. By that time, our mother had been in the most debilitating stages of her illness .When Dolly heard the whole sad story, she had sat at the table and wept. Then Dolly had called her girl.

  Pete had warned Pinky off but also told her that if Prosper could get on the other side of the shit he was carrying, he was a man worth having. Dolly saw things differently and thought the hurt was too heavy a burden and she wanted Pinky rid of Prosper. But Pinky had fallen hard and fast. So Pinky had hung in there, asking nothing and giving all. Dolly recalled the phone call she had gotten from Pinky the day that Prosper had come clean.

  According to Dolly, Pinky had been seeing less and less of Prosper. And when he did come to her she was never sure any longer what it
meant. Sometimes he was silent and angry and almost rough with her. Other times he was tender and gentle but so distant she knew that even though he was with her, he was somewhere else. Prosper was slowly breaking Pinky’s heart. It all had come to head the morning after an incredibly earnest session of all night love making. A night where Prosper had been so sweet and so distant that Pinky lay awake long after Prosper had fallen into a fitful sleep. When Prosper woke the next morning he saw the pain etched all over Pinky’s face. He pulled her close then, and sat for a while with his arms tight around her.

  “I don’t want to hurt you, honey. I know I can be a selfish bastard and I’ve not given a thought to what my coming to your bed like this could be doing to you. I just know that when it gets bad the only thing that eases that pain is feeling you all soft and warm and wanting me. I don’t know what this is. I just know I need it. But if you don’t want me to come back, I get that. I respect that and I swear to god you tell me to leave and I’m gone. None of it falls back on you. You take some time and you think about that. But before you make that decision, before I’m inside you again you need to know.”

  Then he had pulled himself away from her. He had wanted to see her face when he told her the rest.

  “Her name is Maggie and I’ve loved her since the minute I saw her. He claims her but she’s mine. Always has been. Always will be. She’s not just sick, she’s fucking dying. And it hurts so goddam much to think of a life without her in it, sometimes I can’t breathe.” Prosper’s voice had been ragged with emotion.

  Pinky had tried to move towards him then but he held her away. Then he said this,

  “I look at her and I see the only woman I’ll ever love.”

  My heart filled with sadness at the thought of how painful those words must have been to hear.

  “Now mind you,” Dolly was saying, “By that time, Pinky had known about your mom. Pete and I had laid it out weeks before. Pinky knew that Maggie was sick. She knew that Prosper was coming to her only after days and days of being with Maggie. Only coming to her when the sadness was so overwhelming he couldn’t bear it. She even knew that at times, it was Maggie he was seeing when he made love to her. She knew all this and had never said a word. Had been loving him through it all. Prosper had no clue what she knew and what it was costing her. It was the first time that Prosper had uttered word one to Pinky that there was someone else. And he led with that. Yes he did.”

  “What did Pinky tell him?” I was on my third little airplane drink by that time myself.

  “I’ll tell you what she told him, Honey. And I’ll tell you when I heard it, I was never prouder of my girl in my life. She did it quietly and gently which is her way but she sure told him.” Dolly’s eyes were on mine.

  “She told him that she loved him and that it hurt her to see him so full of pain. She told him that if she could trade places with Maggie to spare him that pain she would do it. But of course, she couldn’t do that. Then she told him the other thing she couldn’t do was to be a substitute for Maggie. That him coming to her for that was cheating all of them. She told him that she was willing to do just about anything for him but she couldn’t do that, she couldn’t be that. She told him that after Maggie was gone and he found he had some left, whatever he had left, she would be willing to take. She would even cherish it, no matter how much, no matter how little. But until and unless that day came he wasn’t welcome in her home, in her bed or in her heart. Then she walked him to the door and locked it behind him so he heard.”

  “Wow.” I breathed and shot back the rest of my drink. Wow.

  “Yep.” Maggie drained her drink too.

  “It took a while, but he found his way back to her. And when he did he found his way back to his two little sweethearts too.” Dolly finished.

  “Was that hard for her?” I asked softly.

  Dolly looked up quickly then. “Was what hard, honey?”

  “Us. Me and Claire. Her children. Was it ever hard for Pinky to be around us?” I wrapped my arms around me waiting for the answer.

  “Hard honey? Oh no. Oh no never ever hard. What was hard for her was to give you up. She thought you and little Claire hung the moon. She wanted you.”

  Dolly then told me that after everything went down that summer, Pinky had begged Jack to let them keep us. She had done this behind Prosper’s back and without his consent. Prosper had wanted us too, Dolly was quick to add. But both Prosper and Jack had made a promise to Maggie. Her dying wish was that her children wouldn’t ever be separated from each other or from Jack. Maggie had grown up without her father and she didn’t want that for her children.

  While my mother had loved my father deeply, she hadn’t loved him beyond reason. She knew he was an imperfect man. She also knew that it would be Prosper who would have to make sure our family survived a life without her. She had left this life loving and being loved by two men. In the end, Prosper couldn’t deny her. Anything. Even if it meant giving us up and inviting a world of worry into his life.

  “Pinky took to bed for a week after you two left to go to live with your dad. Prosper was so worried about her that he called me in take care of her. I cannot even tell you how many times she and I plotted to go get you and Claire. But she knew she couldn’t go against Prosper and his promise to your mother.” She smiled at me then.

  “She was just about in heaven when Prosper told her you had found your way back. Seeing you’ll do her a world of good just about now, honey.” Then she patted my hand and leaned back on her seat and snored lightly for the remainder of the flight.

  When I looked out the window, I saw that we were flying over the Grand Canyon.

  Chapter 31

  When we got off the plane Dolly and I had to use the Ladies and Reno was working his cell. We had just all brought carry-ons so gathering luggage wasn’t a problem. Dolly and I had miraculously beat the restroom line so got right in and did our business. Then we spent some time adjusting, readjusting, combing, spraying and refreshing our makeup. Like that.

  We were waiting at the pick up when a black escalade with tinted windows pulled up to the curb. The driver parked and came quickly around to our side of the car. I was busy organizing and pushing the handle down on my carryon when it was taken from me. I glanced up to see a pair of dark brown eyes looking at me.

  It was Diego. Damn if it wasn’t.

  He gave me a chin nod and moved on to Dolly. He gave her a great big hug and told her how happy he was to see her. Then he did the arm shake thing with Reno, called him brother and helped him get the bags in. Me, he pretty much ignored.

  Reno sat in the front with Diego and Dolly and I sat in the back. The talking was easy between the three of them and Diego filled them in. Apparently, I was the only one who was surprised to see him in Nevada. Diego didn’t address any of the conversation to me but his eyes met mine a lot in that rearview mirror. So much so I was squirming in my seat trying to find a way to get out of his vision. Short of literally ducking my head there wasn’t a thing I could do, so I took to looking out the window.

  Shit. Shit. Shit. Because seeing Pinky for the first time in twenty years at the funeral of her only sister wasn’t stressful enough, let’s add a little Diego to the mix.

  Chapter 29

  Pinky, Pete and Lilah had grown up in an old farmhouse near Carson City. Diego explained that although there were enough bedrooms for all of us, there was only one bathroom. Prosper thought we would probably be more comfortable in the hotel a couple of miles up the road so that’s where Diego brought us. The plan was that we should do what we needed to do to feel human again after the plane trip. Then Diego would be waiting to bring us to Pinky and Prosper where we would eat the potluck that well-meaning family and friends had foisted upon them.

  We checked in and I went to grab my bag from Diego, but he already had it in his hand along with the key to my room. He simply looked at me when I made a move for both of them.

  Then he said, “Room 33. Elevator. Third floor. Move.”


  Diego grabbed my arm and steered me in that direction. I craned my neck back to see if Dolly and Reno were following. Dolly was busy organizing something in her purse and Reno was back on his cell. No help there. Diego didn’t look at me while we waited for the elevator, not while we were in the elevator and not while we were out of the elevator and were heading towards the room. He didn’t look at me but he didn’t let go of me either. I kept sneaking little peeks at him and what I saw was scary.

  We were at the room. He put the suitcase down for a millisecond, slid the key card quickly through the lock and pushed the door open hard when the light flashed green. I hesitated, pulling back, worried about going into that room with him. He felt it and although he didn’t hurt me, he tugged me hard towards him. Once inside he kicked the door shut with his foot, threw the suitcase on the bed and pressed me hard against the back of the door.

  “Your fingers broken Raine?” He growled at me. His face three inches away from mine. His body pressed against me.

  Major Asshole.

  “Move back Diego.” I breathed at him.

  “You broke your fingers, both hands. Hearing gone too. Voice, ditto. Only explanation.” His hand moved to the back of my neck.

  “Stop it.” I twisted my head away. He held on tight.

  “You don’t pick up your cell. You don’t take my calls at the clubhouse. You don’t open your door for me. You ignoring me, Raine? You fucking ignoring me? Cause let me tell you right goddam fucking now I’m not the kind of guy you want to ignore.” His dark eyes glittered like shards of black diamonds.