I focused on my clasped hands in my lap. “Maybe a little.”
“Doll face, do you really think Gram or Pop would knowingly take me or you anywhere that wasn’t safe?”
“I suppose not,” I mumbled.
Phoenix reached over and placed his hand on my thigh, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “There’s nothing for you to worry about. I’ll stay by your side the whole time if you want me to.”
“Okay, Phoenix.”
He seemed satisfied with my response, but I remained a ball of nerves for the rest of the journey.
When we pulled through the gates to the compound, Gram and Pop were already out of their car and hugging or shaking hands with various leather-clad men.
Phoenix took my hand and approached the sea of leather as if he didn’t have a care in the world, and I guess he didn’t.
“Phoenix, good to see you, boy,” a man who looked very similar to Pop said as he pulled Phoenix into a hug. “And who do we have here?”
“Uncle Talon, this is my girlfriend, Annabelle. Annabelle, this is Pop’s brother and president of the Blackwings Motorcycle Club, Talon Black.”
I carefully extended my hand and squeaked in surprise when he engulfed me in a hug. “Pleasure to meet you, Annabelle. Merry Christmas.”
“Uh, Merry Christmas to you, too, sir.”
“A pretty girl with manners. You better hang on to her, Phoenix,” Talon said.
“I plan to,” Phoenix replied instantly.
“Follow me. I need to get back inside before Hawk’s two hellions destroy the clubhouse.”
We followed him inside to find two little boys who were undoubtedly up to something. They stood side by side with their hands behind their backs grinning at their grandfather.
“Boys, say hello to your cousin and his girlfriend, Annabelle.”
Both boys said in unison, “Hey, Phoenix,” but never glanced his way. They kept their eyes fixed on me.
“Hello, Annabelle,” one of them said, stepping closer to me and reaching for my hand. He placed a kiss on top of my hand and continued, “A beautiful name for a beautiful girl. I’m Copper Black and I must say it is a pleasure to meet you.”
Not to be outdone, the other boy took my hand and placed two kisses to the top of it. “Hello, Annabelle. I’m Bronze Black. Welcome to the clubhouse. May I offer you something to drink? Perhaps a snack? Somewhere to sit?”
“Good gravy,” Talon muttered while shaking his head. “Hawk!” he yelled. “Come get your spawn before I let Phoenix crack their skulls together for hitting on his girl in front of him!”
A man looking just like the rest of the Black men appeared and put a hand on each boy’s head. “You two go play outside and for fuck’s sake, stay out of trouble!”
Both boys winked at me before they ran off as instructed. “Sorry about those two. They’re a handful. You must be Annabelle. I’m Hawk Black, Talon’s son,” he said and extended his hand.
I shook his hand and asked, “How old are your boys?”
“They’re nine years old. I don’t know what we’re going to do when they’re teenagers.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize they were twins.”
Hawk laughed. “They’re Irish twins, not traditional twins.”
“Irish twins?”
“Yeah, Bronze was born early, so they’re only eight months apart,” he explained.
Our conversation was interrupted by a woman’s piercing scream. “Goldie!” Hawk yelled and took off down the hall followed by Talon.
Talon stormed past us moments later and straight out the front door. He came back inside with Copper’s upper arm in one hand and Bronze’s upper arm in the other.
Phoenix wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close. “Just watch, baby,” he whispered.
Hawk returned to the common room carrying two snakes. I tried to turn and make a dash for the front door, but Phoenix held me tightly to him.
“Boys! I told you to make sure their cage was latched. I promised your mother this very thing wouldn’t happen. If Slither and Squeeze get out again, they’re gone. Go put them up and for the love of all that is holy, make sure the top is latched!” Hawk ordered before handing the snakes to Copper and Bronze.
The boys disappeared down the hall and Hawk turned to the room to explain. “Goldie was going to take a short nap before lunch. Found the new pets curled up under the heating blanket on our bed.”
Talon chuckled. “I told you not to get them those snakes. You knew something like this would happen. Though, I am surprised it happened so fast. They’ve had them, what? Two? Three hours?”
Hawk rolled his eyes, but otherwise ignored his father.
I turned to Phoenix and quietly asked, “Those snakes are going to be here, inside the clubhouse?”
“Yeah, doll face, they are, but there’s no reason to be scared. One, I highly doubt those snakes will get out again today. Two, even if they did escape again, they’re ball pythons and won’t hurt you.”
“You can’t be serious?”
“I am. A lot of people have them as pets. They’re non-venomous and they aren’t big enough to kill humans by constriction. Well, they might be able to kill a baby, but we don’t have any of those around so it’s not an issue.”
“I’m not sure I believe you,” I said hesitantly.
He grinned and reached into his pocket. “Here,” he said and handed me his pocket knife. “Keep that with you. If one of the snakes gets out and wraps around your neck, use my knife to cut it.”
My eyes widened in surprise. Phoenix just laughed and said, “Trust me, doll face. We won’t see those snakes again during our visit. Copper and Bronze have been begging for pet pythons for the last two Christmases and they know their mom will make them get rid of them if they escape again.”
I believed him, but I still jumped and flinched with every unexpected touch, from an actual person or when my clothes wrinkled against my skin for the next few hours.
When we sat down for dinner, I felt much more comfortable with the bikers surrounding me. I was amazed at how easily these men of no blood relation formed a family. And that’s what it was, a family. A family I looked forward to being a part of.
I joined Phoenix’s family for New Year’s as well. I don’t know if my mother didn’t realize I wasn’t home for any of the major holidays or if she was too out of it to realize it was the holidays. Either way, I enjoyed the holiday season for the first time in my life.
After the holidays, my life at home was marginally better. My father continued to drop in unannounced every two weeks or so and my mother continued to drink herself into a coma on a daily basis. I often wondered where she got the money since she wasn’t working that I knew of, but ultimately figured I was better off not knowing.
As the months passed, I fell more and more in love with Phoenix. We spent many evenings and nights with just the two of us making our plans for the future. He would join the Marines after graduation while I would stay in Croftridge and continue to work at the shop with Gram. I was hoping to get a scholarship and take some classes at the local community college while he was away. When he returned home after his first deployment, we would get married and I would either move to the base with him, move in with Gram and Pop, or maybe even share an apartment with Macy—anything to get me away from my parents until Phoenix and I could be together all the time.
Little did either of us know, we didn’t have the luxury of waiting for him to return to Croftridge. No, after his plane took off, our plans crumbled in the wind.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Annabelle
Phoenix had been gone for a little over three weeks and I was dying to talk to him. I needed to talk to him. He told me he wouldn’t be able to call often and it was even more difficult for me to talk to him because I didn’t have a phone. The two times he had called his Gram’s shop, I hadn’t been there. Those two times had been on a Tuesday. So, when the next Tuesday rolled around, I was bound and determined to
be in the shop.
I opened the front door, ready to climb on my bicycle and pedal to work two hours early, to find a familiar yet unexpected guy standing on the front porch, poised and ready to knock. “Octavius, what are you doing here?” I asked.
I remembered him from school, though I didn’t know him very well. We weren’t friends, but we did have one or two classes together. Still, there was no reason for him to be at my house.
“Hello, Annabelle. I’m here to speak to your father.”
“He’s not here right now,” I said, confused as to why he would be asking for my father.
“Yes, I am, stupid girl,” my father grunted from behind me, causing me to jolt in surprise.
Octavius cleared his throat. “May I come in?”
“Get the fuck out of the way and go to your room, girl,” my father ordered as he shoved me toward the hall.
“I was just leaving. I have to work today,” I said quietly.
“Go to your fucking room,” he bellowed.
My father had never raised a hand to me, but I highly suspected that had more to do with the fact that he was rarely ever home and less to do with his moral compass. Regardless, I wasn’t going to test my theory, so I scurried to my room as ordered.
My stomach churned as I waited in my room. I could hear Octavius and my father talking, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. I had a bad feeling and no amount of pacing or nail chewing was doing anything to alleviate it.
The knock on my bedroom door startled me. Before I could walk across the room and open it, my father flung it open and barged into my room. “You’re coming with us,” he told me and grabbed my arm. “Let’s go.”
Instinctively, I pulled against his grip. “Let go! What are you talking about?” I yelled.
“Stop fighting me and get your ass in the car!” he bellowed as he drug me out of the house kicking and screaming. I was certain he was on some kind of drugs. We didn’t even have a car.
He roughly tossed me into the back seat of a large SUV. Inside, I found my mother in her drunken haze sitting beside Octavius, who was creepily smiling at me.
I pushed myself up and dove for the still open door. My father slammed it shut, narrowly missing my face, and then I heard the unmistakable sound of the doors locking.
I whirled around. “What in the hell is going on?” I screamed.
My mother didn’t so much as twitch, despite my screaming. Octavius, however, casually leaned back in his seat, propping his elbows beside the headrests. “Allow me to explain, Annabelle. You see, your parents borrowed quite a large sum of money from me and have been unable to pay it back. As per our agreement, your parents must work off their debt on my family’s dairy farm. To prevent people from trying to skip out on their debt, I require them, as well as their families, to live on the property until the debt is paid off.”
No. No, no, no, no, no. “What about my stuff? I need my clothes and all of my other things!” I was grasping at straws, but I thought if I could get him to let me go back inside the house, I could figure out a way to get away from him. If I could just get to Gram and Pop, they would help me.
“I’ll arrange for some of my men to pack up your belongings and have them delivered to your room on the property.”
“What about my job? I have to be at work in an hour!” I shrieked.
“You won’t be working anywhere other than the farm.”
“No!” I screamed and lunged for him. I wrapped my hands around his throat and managed to get in two good shakes before I was pulled away and forcefully placed in the rear row of seating.
Octavius cleared his throat and smoothed his rumpled shirt. “I would advise you not to try anything like that again. This is your only warning.”
“Fuck you,” I spat.
He sighed in exasperation. “Fine. Have it your way.” He raised his hand in the air and made some gesture. Suddenly, two men came at me. Asshole One cuffed my hands behind my back while Asshole Two placed a gag in my mouth and fastened my seatbelt.
“You’ll learn, Annabelle. If you do as I say, things will go smoothly, but I will not tolerate disrespect from you or anyone else.”
Well, I was in for a bumpy ride because there was no way in hell I would ever respect a little weasel like him.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Phoenix
When I stepped onto the front porch, I wasn’t sure if I should knock or not. It was technically still my home, but it felt strange to walk right in since I hadn’t lived there in almost a year. Plus, Gram and Pop weren’t expecting me. Had they known I was back from deployment and coming home for a few weeks, they would have met me at the airport.
I knocked on the door as I pushed it open. “Anybody home?” I called out.
“Phoenix!!” Gram shrieked and came at me full speed ahead. “Why didn’t you tell us you were coming home?” she asked as she cried against my shoulder. “Let me get a look at you. You’re not hurt, are you?”
“No, Gram. I’m just fine. I didn’t tell you because I wanted it to be a surprise. I have a few weeks of leave before I have to be back at the base.”
“Come on in the kitchen and let me make you something to eat. Oh, I need to call Pop and tell him your home,” she rambled as she made her way to the kitchen. “He had to run some papers into town, but he should be on his way back by now.”
When she finally took a breath, I asked, “Gram, where’s Annabelle?” I hadn’t been able to talk to her since the day I left and I was anxious to see her or at least hear her voice. When I left, she didn’t have a phone and refused to let me buy her one. Instead, we’d planned on me calling the store to chat with her and Gram when they were both working. However, every time I called, Annabelle was either not working or had just stepped out.
Gram turned around to face me and the look on her face had my blood turning to ice. She slowly approached the table and sat down beside me, grabbing my hand with hers. “Sweetheart,” she said and her voice cracked. “We don’t know where she is. We tried to—”
“What the fuck do you mean you don’t know where she is?” I roared, jumping to my feet and knocking the kitchen chair over.
Gram’s sniffles turned into sobs. The front door flew open and there was Pop. “Phoenix Alexander Black, sit your ass down and apologize to your Gram. You know better than to take that tone with her!”
“Gram, I-I’m sorry. I just...I don’t understand. Where is she?” I asked, desperate for any morsel of information.
“Phoenix,” Pop said, taking a seat beside Gram. “We don’t know where she is. After you left, everything was fine for a few weeks. Then, one day she didn’t show up for work at the shop. We knew she didn’t have a phone, so I rode out to her house to check on her. No one came to the door and it looked like no one was home. Macy showed up at the shop that afternoon to take Annabelle home from work and was equally concerned when we told her what was going on. She promised to call if she heard from Annabelle and we promised to do the same. I went back to the house for the next two days with no luck. I did get the guys at the police station to let me file a missing person's report, though there wasn’t much they could do other than monitor the property for activity. Since her parents were gone, too, it appeared like the family moved. I even checked with the post office to see if they left a forwarding address. I wanted answers and I knew you would, too, so, after I left the police station, I called a friend of mine who’s a private investigator and he’s been looking for her and her family ever since.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked, barely managing to contain my anger. It wasn’t Pop’s fault, or Gram’s, but I was furious and I was close to taking it out on them.
“Because we love you. Think about it, Phoenix. If we told you Annabelle had disappeared while you were overseas, it would have been hell on you to know you were stuck over there and couldn’t do a thing about it. You would have likely gotten yourself killed or court-martialed. I made the decision to keep it from you for your
own good and I’m not sorry for it.” He paused for a moment and softened his tone, “And a part of me thought we would find her and have her here with us by the time you got back. I’m so sorry, my boy.”
I nodded in acknowledgment, keeping my eyes on my clasped hands in my lap. Slowly taking in a deep breath, I rose to my feet. “I’m going to head out for a bit. I need some time to myself.”
I moved next to Gram. “I’m sorry for raising my voice at you. I’ll be back a little later.” With that, I kissed her cheek and headed for my bike.
Pop and Uncle Talon helped me get a motorcycle for my 18th birthday, despite Gram’s valiant protests. From the moment I got it, Annabelle and I were on my bike every chance we got. As I rode to Annabelle’s house, I could almost feel her arms around me, could almost hear her laughter being carried away by the wind. I refused to believe the last time she was on the back of my bike was the last time.
I parked my bike in her driveway and walked right up to the front door and started banging on it. After several rounds of knocking and waiting, I walked to each window and peered inside. Months had passed since I left, yet it appeared no one was, or had been, living there.
When I came to the flimsy back door, I eyed it for a few brief moments before deciding I didn’t give a shit and kicked the fucker open with my booted foot. I stepped into the house I had only been in a few times before and surveyed the area. What little had once been in the house was completely gone. Still, I refused to believe what I was seeing.
Upon entering Annabelle’s room, the truth finally hit me like a battering ram. She was gone. She’d been gone for months, just like Pop said, judging by the layer of dust on the window sill. Her room was completely bare, not a single piece of evidence to prove she ever lived in this space.
I lost it. I threw punch after punch and kick after kick into the walls until I couldn’t feel my hands or feet anymore. Stumbling back into the wall, I clutched my chest and tried desperately to breathe. I slid down the wall until my ass hit the floor. Sucking in a large breath, I screamed my pain into the stale air while rivers of tears streamed down my face.
Phoenix (Blackwings MC Book 3) Page 3