by Vera Quinn
I can’t look at either of them. I am embarrassed I would be with a man like Kendall. Even if he didn’t love or even like me, Shelby is his own flesh and blood. Brody steps towards me, but I back up. I guess I have a bad look on my face. I don’t like people to touch me anymore. I’m so used to the beatings I want no contact at all except for Shelby. He raises his hands in the air and backs away.
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I just wanted to give you some comfort.” Brody has an apologetic look on his face. “The man was a fool, and I will make sure he doesn’t get close to either of you as long as you’re here.” He looks down into my eyes, I could get lost in his eyes. They are filled with such compassion, but that is not something I can afford to do.
“We’ll all make sure the two of you stay safe. Can you get us that phone?” Rebel’s arrogance is gone for once. I move over to Shelby and start to take her out of her chair. “You can leave her. It won’t take you but a minute to get it.”
I look at Rebel and then Brody and I have to decide now if I will trust them. I am only going to grab my phone. I look at Shelby and I do something that I have never done before, I trust them to watch my daughter for a few minutes. It may be small to other people but to me it’s huge. I turn and rush over to the stairs and run up them to my room to get the phone out of my backpack.
I know exactly where it is but to me it seems like it takes me forever. In reality, I am only gone a few minutes but I feel out of breath when I finally hand the phone to the first one I come to. I couldn’t even tell you which man it was. I only have eyes for Shelby when I am back in the room.
I can’t believe my eyes; Brody is standing there with my baby in his arms and she is smiling at him like he is the best thing since her new baby doll that I bought her. I am flustered and all I want to do is grab my baby out of Brody’s arms, but Rebel catches me by the arm to get me to take a minute.
I look at him and then to Brody and then finally to Shelby. She is fine and apparently has made a new friend, she’s smiling. Rebel lets my arm go and goes over and takes Shelby from Brody and she goes to him, shyly she smiles at him.
I feel the tears mounting in my eyes and I have to turn away so these two men can’t see me fall apart because my daughter likes them. I have worried that Shelby would never like to be held by a man because the way her dad had treated her, but here she is smiling at not one, but two men.
Brody comes over by me while I listen to Rebel playing with Shelby. She’s laughing at him while he blows raspberries on her belly. I feel the tears slide down my face. I have to get a hold of myself. Shelby can’t see me this way. Brody takes me in his arms and hugs me. It’s almost too much kindness for me to take. I start to shake but Brody’s strong arms hold me steady. I wipe my face of the tears sliding down my cheeks.
“It’s okay. We’re here now to help you. Everything will be ok.” Brody’s deep reassuring voice steadies me, so I take a deep breath and back up.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have fallen apart like that. I have to be stronger than this. Thank you.” I glance up at Brody, and he has sympathetic eyes. “I'm not used to leaving Shelby with anyone. Jilly is the only one who has ever watched her, only once and only long enough for me to sneak our bags out of my house. She is usually so shy around people. Very few people besides me have even held her.” I glance at Rebel, and he is playing with Shelby but you can tell he has been listening to me. I step further back from Brody. “I’m okay now.” Brody nods his head like he understands.
“It looks like this little angel isn’t the only one who is a bit standoffish with people. We only want to help.” There is no sarcasm at all in Rebel’s voice.
“I know I keep saying it but thank you both. I will be stronger.” I look to both of them. Rebel winks at me.
“You have done nothing wrong, and you can quit thanking us. We want to help both of you.” Then Brody does something I would have never guessed. He leans in and kisses me on the head and then he just leaves without another word. My mouth is hanging open. Rebel starts to laugh, and I look at him still playing with Shelby. I finally shut my mouth and walk to Rebel and take her from him.
“He’s hooked you know. It’s been a long time since he has had a woman of his own but he has set his eye on you and that little beauty. Trust me, I know.”
I can’t even say anything to that. I start shaking my head. This is not what I want. This is not why I am here. “Sweetheart, he has a hero complex. He can’t help himself. He wants to rescue everyone. It’s why he became a marine and now a bounty hunter. Taking out the bad guy and saving the good people.” Rebel is shaking his head while he talks. “It’s why he and Jilly could never be together. Her aunt and uncle raised him so they were supposed to be cousins, but their feelings were not those of blood kin. I had a front row seat for it. I was her consolation boyfriend but I wasn’t good enough. Brody couldn’t stand it.” Rebel shakes his head and laughs.
I can’t believe he is standing here telling me this. “In the end we both lost her. That’s the last time he had that look in his eye that he just now did. Except for Selena, and that is a long story. That was a whole different look. Brody will try to run from it but it won’t do any good. He can’t run from his feelings. He has never been able to. He and I may seem very different to you. He is the one that’s nice, me on the other hand, not so much.”
Rebel comes over and stands right beside me and Shelby and just looks at me. He seems to be trying to see inside me. I feel it in my soul. Then he shocks me even more. “But I can tell you, angel, that you are on my radar too, and I don’t run from what I want, so be ready. I’ll give you time to get used to your surroundings but then I am coming for you, and I want all of you.” He then kisses my cheek.
I go board straight and hold my breath. He kisses Shelby’s head and then laughs at me while he is walking to the door, but turns back when he gets there and looks at me. “Only thing is Babe, I want you in my bed and I will have you. If that man comes anywhere close to you I will put him to ground. No one fucks with what’s mine and you are going to be mine.” Then he just walks out the door. I am speechless. I go to the door and shut and lock it. Then I set the alarm. What the heck have I gotten myself into?
“Mama.” Shelby is looking at me, but she looks happy. I finally know my next move. I have been on a rollercoaster the last hour. I head towards the stairs.
“Yes sweetie, it’s time to get you a bath, and I need to get a paper and find me a job. We have to get the heck out of here as soon as we can. These people are crazy.” That’s all it could be, and I need to get myself away from here. I make my way upstairs to get us clean and changed and ready to get this day going.
Chapter Four
Brody
I can’t believe I let Gracie get to me. I have learned from my past I am better alone. Only two women have ever owned my heart, and I learned real fast it is not worth the pain. Sure, I have had my share of women but not the sticking around kind. Only Jilly and Selena. I was always Jilly’s second choice, and Selena destroyed what was left of my faith in a relationship.
Gracie doesn’t need me for anything more than protection, and that is the way it is going to stay. I could get lost in her blue eyes. I could kill the bastard that put those bruises on her beautiful body. She’s young, but her body is all woman and it’s calling to me. When I was standing so close to her, I only wanted to take her in my arms and never let her go. That is dangerous territory for me. Rebel noticed my interest, and he is going to be a problem.
Rebel’s known me for years. We were best friends since childhood. Rebel, Jilly, and I are all thirty-six-years-old and have known each other from the day dad brought me home. I was four years old and alone. My biological mom, Amy, was a crack addict and had overdosed in a dirty motel in Quitman with me in tow.
Charlie was a deputy sheriff and on call that night. Child Protective Services had talked Charlie into bringing me home with him since he and Gladys fostered for the state from time
to time. I was hungry, filthy, and scared. My mom wouldn’t wake up and by the time help came she was already gone.
Charlie took care of me, and he was nice to me. That’s about all I remember from that night until Charlie took me into his house and it was warm, and it smelled good. I was used to rundown houses or cheap motel rooms where we never stayed long.
I thought Charlie’s house was a high-dollar place. That’s something my mom always talked about. She was always going to get us a high-dollar place but instead she smoked, snorted, or shot up any money she got her hands on. The minute Gladys laid eyes on me she said she loved me. All I know is I was fed, cared for and felt safe from that night on. Two years after I moved in, they finally found my biological dad, Brent Garrette, and he signed the papers for them to adopt me with the stipulation I kept his last name. It didn’t matter to my parents or me. I know who has always loved me.
I hear knocking at my door, and I know who it is before I even open it, Rebel. He’s not going to let it go so I make my way to the door and there he is.
“Are you going to ask me in?” I just step back into my house and wait for him to follow. It doesn’t take long until we are standing in my kitchen. I wait for him to start. “We might as well get this over with. I saw the look you had in your eye, and it is a no-go. I want her and both of us going after the same woman never ends very well.” I look at Rebel, and I know I can’t let him destroy another woman.
“Just walk away from her, Rebel. You want another toy to play with and nothing more. She has a daughter to think about. Gracie hasn’t had an easy life. Jilly told you as well as she did me.” I look at him, and he has that same shit-eating grin on his face as always. One day I will knock it off his face for good.
“Jilly sent her here to be looked out for not to be further damaged. What happens when you get bored of the newest conquest? You move on, and she has to start over again.” I lay on the sarcasm. I don’t like this asshole sometimes.
“I’m glad you think so highly of me, Brody. You know she will be mine, just like I do.” He half-laughs. “Don’t worry friend, I will leave enough for you. You always have liked my leftovers.” If I didn’t know better, I would think he was trying to provoke me into a fight, but that’s just his arrogance.
“You’re so damn sure she’s a sure thing for you. It didn’t look like that to me.” I look at Rebel, and a funny thought strikes me, and I know what he’s doing. I have grown up a lot since our last clash over a woman. He’s trying to see how interested I am. I’m up for that. “Gracie may be the woman that brings you to your knees. She loves her daughter, and she won’t throw her away like Selena did. You’re not exactly the daddy type.” Rebel looks like he could hit me and right now that is exactly what I want. I am itching for a fight.
“You still blame me for Selena aborting your child. I did not tell her to get rid of your kid. I told her I was not raising some other man’s kid.” Rebel is on the edge of losing it but I know exactly how to take the wind out of him, but I’m not sure that’s what I want. To feel my fist hitting his face would feel damn good right now.
“No, you just picked her up at the clinic afterward and then you threw her out on the streets a few days later.” I know Rebel feels bad about what happened, but it still didn’t stop him from doing it. Rebel rubs his hand down his face, and he can’t look me in the eye.
“Man I told you, she called me after it was over. I had no idea what she was going to do. I would have told you. I told her that because I thought she would go back to you and settle her ass down and the two of you would raise your kid.”
Rebel pauses for a minute, and I know he regrets what happened and his part in it but it was the final straw in our friendship. “Selena had nowhere to go and no one to take care of her. I was upfront with her that I would only give her a place to stay to recoup and then she was out. Do you really think, even though I am not exactly your best friend anymore, that I would lie about it? That’s not who I am. I would give it to you straight. You stood in between Jilly and me for years, and it was a little payback, and that was it. I didn’t lie to you, and I didn’t lie to Selena. She was a piece of ass, and I never made her think anything else. You wouldn’t commit to her, and she came to me, not the other way around. It was her choice, not mine.”
“Really, Rebel? She was living in my house. She just found out she was pregnant. I was shuffling things around to take time off so we could plan our next step. By the time I was back in town to do exactly that, it was already done. She was mine. Why didn’t you just leave her the hell alone? I’m not going through this shit again. You and I will never be friends again. Just get out, and I will protect Gracie and her daughter. Just stay away.” I am at the end of my patience and Rebel needs to get the hell away from me.
“There you go again making decisions for the woman that is in both of our lives now. I want Gracie so deal with it. I’m going nowhere. Even though I’m not a kid person, I think Shelby could grow on me. I’m not walking away.” Rebel is serious, and he turns and leaves. I don’t think I can do this again, but I also know I am not walking away. This may ruin us all.
Chapter Five
Rebel
I knew Brody still harbored bad feelings for me. Hell, I would hate me. No, I would put me to ground. I can’t help but to want to one-up that son of a bitch every time. He started the shit with Jilly. I was never good enough. I was no saint, but I never claimed to be, but I was always there when my girl needed me. I never cheated on her. I may have walked a fine line between the right side of the law and the bad side, but I never let Jilly down.
Her dad may have had to haul my ass into the drunk tank more than once or taken me home and dropped me off more than once, but I was no thug. I just liked to have fun and test to see how far I could go. I brought the adventurist side out in Jilly. The first time I put her on the back of an old bike I had bought when we were in high school, her parents and Brody had a shit fit but all she could do was smile. All I knew was it felt damn good.
Jilly is the only woman I have ever been in love with, and I think it happened when we were still in diapers. She was my everything, and I just knew we would always be together. Brody, Jilly and I were always together after Charlie brought Brody home, but Jilly was my girl.
Then somewhere around middle school, when Brody finally noticed the opposite sex, it started to change. I have to admit I was a handful by then. Nothing too bad, just fights and skipping school. Javier Sanchez, my dad, was a hard man and I acted out every chance I got. Yes, it brought the bite of his belt on my ass, but every time he hit me I was thinking of something else I could do to get under his skin. He drank, and he hit my ma, but she still loved him and until this day would defend his good name.
I don’t understand it at all. He came home smelling of stale booze and cheap women. Some people have said we’re alike, but I would never hit a woman, and if I had made Jilly mine completely, I would have never cheated on her, but we will never know.
For all the hell I raised, Brody was my opposite. I barely made it through high school, it was a bore. Brody excelled and was the star football player. Hell, who am I kidding? He was the star of everything.
Where I showed the world what kind of asshole I could be, Brody was quiet and respectful to everyone. Everyone thought Brody was going places and they thought I would make the most wanted list. I was okay with that until he set his eyes on my girl. They were brought up family and he wanted to blur those lines. I wanted to show Jilly the wild side, but he kept pulling her back. In the end, it tore us all apart and started this damn competitiveness.
When she had to choose, she did what she did best. She ran. She took off to college, and I am not a man to chase any woman, but I do regret that now. She was pregnant with my child. By the time I found out, I had already made my way through most of the females in this one-horse town and the town over. Jilly miscarried in her third month, but there were complications, and now she can never have a child of her own, and I owe
that woman.
I should have manned up, but I was too much of a jealous man. I lost my girl and my best friend. Jilly came back to town to introduce her man, Kevin, to her family. He helped her when I wasn’t there, and I have to give him that, and if I’m honest he seems like a good man, but he’s not good enough for Jilly.
Her being the woman that she had grown into, also came to fix Brody and me. It was like time had stood still when I saw her in her parents’ yard. I had already joined the Demented Revengers MC by then. Most people avoided me, but not my Jilly. When I saw Kevin holding Jilly’s hand I knew Jilly would never be my girl again. Just damn good memories. She had always been too good for me. Jilly did heal Brody and my relationship some, but it was completely destroyed over Selena.
Selena had always wanted Brody in high school, but he had his nose up my girl’s ass too much to notice. To be fair, he was also on the fast track to some damn good colleges with a football scholarship. He got a full ride to Oklahoma, but his future as a football star was cut short when he decided to join the damn Marines. He finished his education somehow, but his plans were changed.
He excelled at being a Marine. He saw some bad shit over there and finally decided to come home. Now he’s a damn bounty hunter. I, on the other hand, showed my loyalty to my club and we aren’t exactly legit, but we keep our town clean of any hard drugs.
We don’t sell women and we run our territory the way we see fit. None of our brothers are strung out on drugs, we don’t beat our women, and we love our families. I moved up in the ranks with loyalty, determination, and hard-work. Some of the brothers are in prison, and some have gone to ground but I am the President now, and I am not going anywhere for a long time.