by Jessie Cooke
When he finally sat her back down on her feet he said, “I’m sorry to sneak up on you at work.”
“Please, don’t ever be sorry for coming to see me. I’m surprised, though. I thought you were going back to Tempe.”
“I did, and I have to go back again and finish some things up I got started there, but I wanted to talk to you, when you have a minute.”
“Your timing is perfect. I just finished for the day. Let me finish gathering my things and we can take a walk.”
“Sounds great.” Jolene finished what she was doing and asked her atsili or, in English, “little brother” to take the bag back to the hogan for her. Once that was done, she and Atsa held hands and she led him toward a path that her sponsor family had shown her when she first arrived. Jolene had been impressed with Arizona’s beauty, but she was mesmerized by Utah. The orange and red colors of the mountains against the blue horizon surrounded them and when she woke up in the mornings and saw it out her window, she almost felt like she’d walked into a brilliant painting.
“So, I’ve made some decisions about where I want to go from here,” he said. Jolene nodded and he went on, “I’ve signed the papers to sell the business. It’s just a matter of escrow and all that now. I’ve also set up a meeting with my financial guy and I’m going to liquidate the rest of my assets. I’m going to put some money in a trust fund for my niece...”
“Oh! Have you met her yet?” Atsa had told Jolene about his sister’s child when they were in Vegas.
“Not yet. I’m planning on going back there to meet her and have another talk with my sister before I go back to Tempe.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
He smiled. “It’s fine. I’m excited about meeting her. But anyway, I’m going to give my sister and her husband whatever they’ll take from the sale of the business and the rest of the money I’ve decided to use to open more museums, like the one Tommy opened in Phoenix. Tommy’s agreed to help, be in charge of them, since I don’t know anything about it. I’m going to do what I do best and design the buildings and the grounds, and pay for stuff.”
Jolene stopped walking and threw her arms around his neck and hugged him. “Oh, Atsa! I love that idea!”
He kissed the side of her face and then held her back so he could look at her. “I’m glad. I feel like I owe it to my dad, for all he did for us, and I also feel like I owe it to myself, to get to know more about where I came from. But you want to know what I really love?”
“What?”
“You. I love you, Jolene. I don’t know how you feel about me exactly but...” Her heart was slamming into her chest and she actually felt lightheaded. She’d longed to tell him she loved him when they were in Las Vegas, but she’d been afraid he would think it was too soon.
“I love you too.”
“Really?”
She smiled through tears in her eyes and nodded. “Really. This has to be love. Nothing has ever felt like this.”
“I feel the same.”
“Does that mean you’ll wait for me to finish this job?”
“No.” The euphoria she was feeling was suddenly gone, just like that.
“No?”
He shook his head. “No. I can’t wait a year for you.”
“You want me to quit my job?” Her head was spinning. She didn’t want to lose him, but could she give up her dream? She didn’t think so.
“No, baby. I just don’t want this thing between us to be left up in the air while you follow your dreams and I follow mine. I was hoping...and please know that even if you say no to this, the way I feel about you won’t change. But I was hoping that maybe we could get our own little hogan, maybe one in all four corners of the Nation and when our passions bring us to the same spot, we’ll be together in that hogan. And when we’re apart, we’ll at least be in a home that we made together. And when the time is right for both of us, then we’ll decide where to settle down. Is that weird?”
Jolene had tears streaming down her cheeks. “Yes, it is weird, but it’s perfect. It’s more perfect than anything I could have imagined.”
Atsa brought his mouth down to hers then and somehow knowing that he loved her and they were going to figure out how to be together made it even more delicious than all the kisses they’d shared before. She was giddy with happiness and even the prospect of having to try to explain it to her traditional Italian mother didn’t dull it a bit.
28
Boston, Southside Skulls Ranch
Lion could hear the steady beat of the heavy metal music that was blaring out of the jukebox in the clubhouse. He was sitting out back, smoking a cigarette and hoping that Dax would come out and tell him he was free to go home. It was a long seventy-two hours on the road, but the seventy-two since they’d been back had dragged on at a snail’s pace. He worried about Madison, but hadn’t see her at all since they got to the ranch and she was handed off to Hawk. He hadn’t seen Hawk or Eugene since then either. Lion didn’t know what had become of Eugene, and he didn’t care. He’d had his chance at him and he’d passed.
He’d been trying to decide how he could take both of the gunmen on the porch out when Bubba showed up. As soon as the fat one saw him, he started shooting. Bubba was shot in the arm, and Lion took out both of the other two and then went into the house to find Finn holding a gun on a prone Eugene. He wanted to put a bullet in his head right there, but he’d settled for a kick instead. When he got to the room he found Gaston cutting Madison’s feet loose. Her hands were already loose and Gaston had thrown a blanket over her. Lion gestured at the kid and he left the room, leaving him alone with a sobbing Madison.
“Are you hurt?” he asked her. She’d looked up at him with those huge, wet brown eyes and the walls around his heart crumbled, if only for a minute. He sat next to her on the bed and she crumpled into his chest. For the next few minutes, he held and rocked her back and forth and told her it was all going to be okay. He’d been nothing but human and compassionate...for those few minutes. But once she finally started to calm down and she looked up at his face with her head still buried in the beard against his chest, he almost kissed her. He realized what he was doing only seconds before their lips met and he was appalled. This woman had just been abused and almost raped and he was a hair’s breadth away from taking advantage of her himself. He was no gentleman, but he sure as hell wasn’t a man who would use a woman’s vulnerability to his advantage. He did have some self-respect.
He pulled back and laid her back down on the bed. The whole time she was looking at him like she didn’t understand...like she had expected him to take advantage of her. The idea that she thought that little of him pissed him off. Or maybe he was just looking for something to be angry about. Being angry was familiar, and it was easy. He’d been angry since he was twelve. It was comfortable. Feeling the way he did when he was around Madison was not. He’d left her there on the bed and he’d walked out, just like that. He went outside then and called Dax and that was when Dax told him he was free to do whatever he wanted to Eugene...as long as he was still alive when they got to Boston. Lion knew that if he laid a finger on that piece of shit, he couldn’t even promise himself there would be anything left of him when they got back east...so, he hadn’t touched him again. He left Finn and the guys to watch Madison and Eugene and he broke into the trucking yard and followed Dax’s instructions. Hunter had somehow found out that the Lombardis owned the grain company, but used it simply as a tax write-off. The trucks they rented out to the highest bidders and since they had no shame, they didn’t care if the bidders were at war with each other. One of them, Lion didn’t know or care which one, had told Dax where he could find the keys to one of the trucks inside the office.
Once he had the semi running, he loaded up the Harleys and drove the truck over to the house. Someone had already dragged the bodies of the two men inside and now it was just a matter of cleaning up the rest of the mess. He parked the truck and sent Finn a text:
“Wr
ap Madison up in something warm and load her into the sleeper. I’m going to send Bubba and Gaston back out west. Their bikes are in the truck, they can unload them but tell them not to take off just yet. You can ride with me to Boston in the truck.” He thought about letting Finn go home too, but the truth was they still had a nineteen-hour drive and he didn’t want to be alone with Madison, and Eugene. He didn’t trust himself to resist her, and killing Eugene would be way too easy if they were alone.
After he sent Finn the text, he went around to the back of the house and in through the back door. He’d picked up a handful of dry cornstalks on his way to the trucking yard and he pulled them out of his pocket now. He opened the door on the water heater where the pilot light was and he stuffed them inside, leaving a piece of one hanging out when he closed it. “Everyone out of the house?”
“Everyone but Eugene,” Finn texted back.
“Have Gaston help you throw him in the trailer. There’s a couple bottles of water in my saddlebags you can give him, then lock him in.”
“You want him tied up?”
“Nah, he won’t be able to go anywhere once that trailer is locked. Tell him we’ll be in Boston in less than a day, that should give him plenty to think about on the drive.”
Lion stepped out back then and had a smoke while he waited for Finn to text again. After about ten minutes he got the text that said, “We’re all out.”
“Drive the truck out to the road and tell the guys to take off and head for home. I’ll be right there.” Again, he waited until he heard the bikes start up and drive away and then the semi truck. He went back inside and knelt down and lit the tail he’d left hanging out with his lighter. As soon as it flared up, he ran. He busted the screen door off its hinges as he barreled through it and in seconds he was in the cornfield and headed toward the ditch bank. He was just diving head first into the dirt when the house exploded. Wood and debris flew twenty or thirty feet up in the air and by the time Lion made it out to the road where Finn waited with the truck, the entire house and both cornfields were engulfed in flames.
Lion drove the rest of the way back east while Finn took care of Madison. Lion hadn’t spoken another word to her and she hadn’t said anything to him either. As soon as they got to the ranch and Finn lifted her out of the truck, Hawk wrapped her up in his arms and took her away. Lion had hoped that would be the end of his obsessing over her, but it had only gotten worse. For the next three days he’d thought of little else except how badly he wanted to go home. He craved the solitude of his own cabin. It was the only place on earth where he let his guard down and felt truly at peace. But when Dax asked him to stay, he didn’t question him. He just did what he was told.
Even when Finn left and Lion was aching to leave with him, he stayed and kept his mouth shut about it. He knew what he was...a soldier...and he didn’t make a move without a direct order as long as he was on duty. He’d been taught that a long time ago, even before he was part of the MC. But knowing Madison was so close while he was on the ranch was making him crazy. He was sure that once he was home, in the sanctity of his own cabin, that he’d be able to work her out of his system for good. What he felt for her scared him. Nothing good could possibly come of it and when he tried to tell himself otherwise, all he had to do was remind himself whose daughter she was. Nothing good ever came out of associating with Hawk. If he ever forgot that, all he had to do was visit his mother’s grave, and he remembered. What he needed now was to return to his quiet life, such as it was...and Madison was now free to get back to hers.
His quiet reflection was broken by the sound of his phone. It was Jace. “Hey, you still at the ranch?”
“Yeah,” Lion said. Jace chuckled and said:
“Sorry, man, I know that must be killing you.” Jace knew how much Lion liked to be alone. “I just wanted to tell you that I got a call from Hunter earlier. He said there was an article in the Jefferson City paper about the fire and the two bodies they’d found inside the house. It was a short article, but said they hadn’t identified the bodies yet and they didn’t have any suspects. My guess is that once they identify them as working for the Garibaldis, their suspect list will grow exponentially.”
“Yep.”
“Okay then, Finn’s back and Bubba’s arm is healing. I just wanted to thank you for taking care of them. They’re all fairly new to all of this.”
“No problem,” Lion said. “They did good, Finn especially.”
“I’ll tell him you said that. He’s kind of got this hero worship thing going on where you’re concerned.” Lion laughed at that. It had to be the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard. “Kid’s got issues,” he told Jace, who was laughing too. Lion had just ended the call when he looked up and saw Dax come out the back door of the club.
“Hey, Lion.” He started to stand and Dax motioned at him to stay put. He sat down next to Lion and lit his own cigarette. “I’ll bet you’re ready to get home, huh?” Dax was the only person other than Lion who had been in his cabin since his grandma died. Dax knew how important his privacy and solitude were to him and there was no person on earth that Lion trusted more than his president.
“Yeah, I’m ready,” he said.
“I’m sorry to keep you here so long. Hawk wanted to see you and I didn’t want to send you home and have to call you right back.”
“Is he here?”
“Yeah, he’ll be around in a minute. You did a good job, I appreciate you.”
“Thanks,” he said. Dax and Lion had known each other for a long time and without Lion’s saying a word, Dax knew what he was thinking.
“Don’t feel guilty about them grabbing her. You did everything right and you had no idea they even knew who she was. That’s on Hawk. The old geezer feels pretty damned bad about it.” Lion nodded. He didn’t agree, necessarily that he wasn’t at fault, but he wasn’t going to debate it. They sat there in silence, Dax smoking his cigarette and Lion thinking about Madison until the golf cart appeared from around the side of the clubhouse. When Dax saw Hawk he stood up and offered his hand to Lion. Lion stood up and shook it and Dax said, “When you two are done, you’re free to go. You got your pay from Gunner?”
“Yeah, he gave it to me, thanks.”
Dax nodded at Hawk and went back inside. Hawk looked at Lion with one eye of his half-closed the way he did sometimes and then after what seemed like an eternity he finally said, “Thank you. I know none of y’all could have been too keen on doing anything for me, especially you, but that girl is my world. I couldn’t wake up on this earth without knowing she was breathing the same air as me. You’re the only man I would have trusted to do this job.” He held out his hand and Lion hesitated before he finally took it. They shook quickly. Lion hated touching the old man. When Hawk let go of his hand, Lion noticed the old guy’s knuckles were bruised and one of them was split open. He didn’t comment on that; instead he said:
“You’re welcome. Jace’s guys did as much as I did.”
Hawk nodded. “I’ll let Jace know. One more thing.”
“Yeah?” Lion just wanted it all to be over. He wanted to go home and hopefully not have to lay eyes on Hawk again for months. He used to think he didn’t want to see him again until he was in his casket, but it would seem the old bastard was going to live forever.
“Something happen between you and Maddie, out there on the road?”
Lion felt his anger flare up. “No, I didn’t touch her. Why the fuck are you asking me that?”
He shrugged and said, “She’s asking me a lot of questions about you. I was just wondering why she was so curious.”
Lion cocked an eyebrow and said, “Maybe you should ask her. If that’s it, Hawk, I’d like to go home.”
Hawk nodded. “That’s it.” Lion started to walk toward the clubhouse door and Hawk said:
“Ridge?” Lion stopped in his tracks, took a deep breath, and turned back around.
“Don’t fucking call me that.”
“Sorry,” Hawk s
aid, obviously not. “I loved her, you know.”
Lion snorted and turned his back on the old man and walked away. Hawk was full of shit. He might love Madison, but if he did, she was the only person the old asshole had ever loved in his life. Fuck him thinking he had a right to use Lion’s given name...the name she gave him, Lion’s mother...the woman Hawk claimed he “loved.”
Epilogue
Three Months Later
Phoenix, Arizona
AJ was a nervous wreck. He’d planned on meeting Jolene’s parents the night before the wedding. They were all supposed to have dinner together but he’d gotten held up in a meeting about the museum they were breaking ground on the following week. By the time he made it, they had already finished dinner and gone up to their room at the hotel they were staying at in Winslow. He was afraid Jolene would be upset with him, but she told him her good mood was unshakable. Even when her mother had made a fuss over salmon being the only fish on the menu at the restaurant, and Italian bread being unheard of, she said she hadn’t even frowned. She admitted to giggling when her dad ordered a “traditional family meal” and they’d brought out quail, wild boar, and deer along with a big basket of Piki, a traditional Hopi bread. Her dad hadn’t been fazed, but she told AJ the look on her mother’s face had been priceless.
AJ had to leave her there at the hotel with her parents. They had agreed to not spend the night together the night before the wedding. He hadn’t been able to see or talk to her since then and it was killing him. He could only imagine what her mother must think of his not showing up the night before...and if she thought the traditional food had been odd, he couldn’t help but wonder what she’d said about her daughter’s handwoven rug dress and handmade silver jewelry. AJ hadn’t seen the dress, but he knew that his bride to be would make a potato sack look beautiful. He just wanted today to be over so he could take her home and hold her...forever.