by Dawn Martens
“Gilvaja,” she says.
I smile. “Lilly, whatever happened to Gilvaja?” I ask her.
“Oh, he ended up retiring and moving away with his wife. I know he calls Jasper sometimes, to see how you girls are doing,” she says, looking at Melissa.
He was the one guy that Melissa bonded with. He was never part of the club, but he was like a grandfather to her. I never was close to him; I had that bond with Angel, though. Melissa was close with the guys, too, but not in the way I was.
“Eden!” I shout. She turns around, her hair still short, blonde, and she’s finally stopped hiding the scars on her face.
“Oh, Cori and Smelly!! So happy you’re here!” she jokes, coming to us, hugging us one at a time awkwardly so she doesn’t squish her baby.
“Why do you still insist on calling me that?” Melissa snaps at her, laughing.
“Well, let me in. Gee.” I hear said. I look behind Eden and see Moira. I always felt like a midget next to her because she’s so damn tall. Her dark brown hair is flowing down her back. She could be a model, but instead, she chooses to wipe old people’s asses for a living. Well, I think anyways.
“Moira,” Melly says, stepping close for a hug.
I look to the baby she’s carrying, and I’m so confused. That kid looks nothing like her or Mason.
I look back to Eden after hugging Moira and narrow my eyes at her. “Why didn’t you tell me you were having another?” I demand.
She just smiles. “Because I know you have a fear of kids, and if I told you I would now officially have six, you’d run away and never come back.”
I shake my head. “You’re nuts. You know that? At least Lilly is smart. Two kids, done. Bam. That’s it.”
Lilly bursts out laughing, and I laugh along with her. I don’t know how the hell this happened. Angel was always a stand-up guy, when I was around anyways. I saw how he was with kids, always knew he’d make an amazing father.
I smirk, looking to Moira, asking her the same question I ask her every single time I’m with her. “How can you put up with him? I swear, the guy is a moody prick most of the time.”
Moira throws her head back, laughing. “You got that right. He sure is. But he’s my moody prick,” she declares, smiling warmly at me.
After chatting for a while, Eden leaves with the baby to where Angel and five other kids are playing on the playground. I watch the interaction. Angel pulls Eden in close to him, smiling down at her, kissing the scarred cheek, his kids all squirming to get close, while one of the younger kids fights with two of the older ones. They look so happy, so at peace.
Moira leaves just after that with her son, to go to Reaper, who is seated on a swing, his daughter on his lap, while his little boy is next to him on the other swing. Another boy is playing in the sand just off to the side of the swing set. I look at him for a moment, and realize it’s Hunter, Hilary’s son. Moira hands the new baby to Reaper as his daughter hops off his lap and takes the other swing. Moira walks over to Hunter playing in the sand, and starts helping him with a sand castle.
Lilly says from beside me, “Sucks Hilary isn’t here, watching him grow up, but Moira is damn good with him.”
“She really is. I don’t know how some people do it, raising someone else’s child, but Moira is amazing that way,” I say.
“It’s sad, ya know. I always thought Hilary was Mason’s one, but seeing those two, I know now that Moira is his one. And before you question it, since I saw you looking at the newborn baby Moira was holding, they just adopted her. She came from a home that the guys were checking out. Moira went along, took one look at her, and told Reaper to get papers done because she was theirs.”
“That’s so sweet,” Melissa says, finally speaking.
Lilly giggles. “It is. Through all the bad things we’ve been through, life is looking up, way up.”
“Makes me know even more now, seeing this, I can have it all, too,” Melissa states quietly.
“Sweetie, trust me, you will. You more than deserve it. You both do,” Lilly says, squeezing Melissa’s arm.
“So who was the girl that was with T-bags?” Melissa asks.
Lilly laughs. “Would you stop calling him that? We haven’t called him that in years now, and you both know it. And, Tori, or Victoria, is my cousin. She’s gone through some bad shit, came up here about a two months ago to get away from her husband. We just keep praying every day he doesn’t find her. Bad man that guy is. Worst of the worst,” Lilly informs us, looking worried a bit over to where Tori is, standing next to T-bags by the grill.
“Mom! Hunter keeps pulling my hair,” a little girl yells, running up to Lilly. I smile. I look to where I just saw Hunter playing and see Moira is up and standing next to Mason now. Hunter is nowhere in sight.
“Did he? Did you do anything to him?” Lilly asks with a hand on her hip. The little girl puts her head down. “Elizabeth, answer me.”
Elizabeth looks up, chewing on her bottom lip. “I put sand down his pants,” she says, but hurries to finish, “but he kept stealing Hilary’s cake.”
With that, Lilly bursts out laughing then yells to Eden. “Stop telling Elizabeth stories about the boys! She’s doing it to Hunter!” Eden throws her head back and laughs.
“I swear,” Lilly starts. “Thursday, Elizabeth punched Hunter in the face because Hunter wouldn’t stop throwing mud at Hilary, and today, she’s putting sand down his pants. I swear, Bethy is so much like Eden it scares me sometimes.”
I chuckle. “Sounds like it.”
Lilly’s smile fades slightly, though. “It would be weird, though, Hunter and Hilary getting together when they are older. Hunter is so much like his dad, and Hilary is so much like her namesake, that it’s like watching Mason and Hilary when they were kids.”
Eden comes back over to us, dragging Tori along with her. Everything seems to be going well until Tori’s face pales as she looks at Melissa.
I frown. “Everything okay?” I ask.
“H-how old are you?” she asks Melly.
Melissa’s eyes widen slightly. “Twenty,” she answers hesitantly.
“Who is your father?” Tori whispers out haggardly.
I speak up then, “We don’t know who our father or fathers are.”
Tori keeps staring at Melissa, hurt flashing all over her face. “Do you… Do you know a man named Carson Lewis?”
Melissa frowns, and she looks at me. I shrug at her. “Sorry, but no.”
“Uh, Tori, hun, what’s going on?” Eden asks her.
“She looks so much like him,” Tori croaks out.
Eden’s body goes stiff, and Lilly’s face is now pale. Both girls are looking at Melissa in a whole new way now. Eden finally speaks up. “He’s what? Thirty-eight? You sure? Because that puts him at eighteen.”
“I-I gotta go,” she squeaks out and runs off. I watch her go, with T-bags—oops, I mean Trevor—hot on her heels.
“What was that about?”
“You girls sure you know nothing at all about who your dads could be?”
I shake my head at her, and Melissa says, “No.”
“I never saw it before, but Tori is right. You look so much like her husband,” Eden announces, still staring at Melissa.
“Come with me,” Lilly says. We follow quickly behind her into the clubhouse and to a computer in the sitting area.
I watch her go to a folder and click on it. There are tons of picture displayed in the file, and she clicks on the one at the top.
“This is Carson,” Lilly says and slowly turns to look at Melissa.
I lean in close and snap to Melissa instantly. “Oh my God.”
Melissa’s face is pale. “He’s… oh no,” she whispers.
The file name, I realize, says this is the Untamed Angels members. Those guys are the worst of the worst. There is no doubt in any way that this Carson guy isn’t Melissa’s father, or heck, maybe her brother.
“What’s going on?” Angel says, sounding concerned.<
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Lilly points to the picture on the computer and tilts her head at Melissa.
“Shit!” he says after a few moments.
“I just… I need a moment.” Melissa takes off toward the boarding room area, and we all leave her alone. When she gets upset, it’s best to leave her alone. Otherwise, you will catch hell from her.
“Tori was the one that figured it out. She went pale and got upset,” Lilly fills him in.
“I gotta talk to Trevor. After that shit years ago, and now with Tori being here, looks like we’ll most likely be seeing the Untamed again. Even if he lets Tori leave him for good, he’ll want to know his daughter,” Angel states gruffly.
I frown. “He’s a bad dude. He probably wouldn’t care,” I observe, confused.
Angel shakes his head. “He might be a shitty ass person, but he looks after his other kid. Man is a good father, that much I know, but the man himself, as a husband and more… no, not good. As soon as he finds out about her,” he says, nodding in the direction Melissa took off in, “he’ll want to spend time with her.”
I don’t like the sound of that. Lilly shuts down the computer, and Angel goes to walk away, but something occurs to me. “Wait, why do you have to talk to Trevor?”
Angel leans in close to me and whispers in my ear, “Trevor is his brother. That would make Melissa his niece.”
“Wait, what?!”
“Shh, Tori doesn’t know. He doesn’t want to tell her yet.”
He walks off, and I look to Lilly with wide eyes. “But if Tori knows him, how come she hasn’t recognized him?” I ask.
“He changed his last name, and he’s had a lot of reconstructive surgery. That’s why, but also, it’s been twelve years since she last saw him,” Lilly tells me.
“What a clusterfuck!” I declare.
BLAKE
The sun starts to set when Angel and the guys start setting up chairs around the fire pit. Some of the women and kids he is helping out are here, but decided to let the guys have family time, so they went into the apartment section of the compound.
Cori and Melissa both look so at peace here, so happy and carefree.
I watch Trevor stare after Tori when she gets up to go to the bathroom. It looks like he’s battling something, but I don’t know what; just seems to be really protective of her. She goes to the bathroom, he goes too. She walks away for a few seconds, he’s right there not long after.
Angel moves and sits next to me on the chair once I lose sight of Trevor. “That’s Lilly’s cousin. She’s married to the president of the Untamed Angels.”
I glower and turn to him. “Then what’s she doing here?” Untamed Angels are bad news, and if that woman is connected to them, it’s only going to bring trouble.
“She ran away and knew we’d help her out, since she helped Eden when she ran off. She’s trying to get a divorce. T-bags is apparently Hangman’s little brother, the brother Hangman thinks is dead. Turns out, T-bags has known Tori since they were kids, and they were together for a long ass time. But since T-bags was attacked by my father and left for dead, he looks nothing like the man he once was. Tori, it seems, moved on to his older brother, and then later married him. Now, she’s here, and she has no clue who T-bags really is.” He pauses. “I keep telling him to tell her, but he keeps putting it off, waiting for the right moment to tell her. I just know it’s gonna blow up in his face, though.”
“Sounds like it will. I just hope it doesn’t mean bad shit for your club.”
Angel shakes his head. “I’m sure Hangman will find her eventually. Although, Scraper, Hangman’s tracker, is with us now, too. So I’m sure it will be a long ass time before that happens. Hopefully.”
“Wait, an Untamed member is part of your club now?”
“Yeah, he came with Tori. He helped her leave. Said, after he saw what went down while rescuing the girls years ago, he can’t do it anymore. So far, it’s been a few months, and he seems fine. Even think he’s got an eye for older women,” Angel says smirking.
“Oh?” I ask.
“Yeah, Rachel, owner of the diner in town, she’s just about forty. Scraper is twenty nine, and he watches her. Man watches her like a hawk and even starts fights with men that sniff around her.”
“So he’s into cougars. Interesting.” I smirk.
Angel throws his head back and laughs, and then leans in close and gets serious. “Gonna need your help with Melissa for a bit.”
I raise a brow. “Why? Everything okay?”
He shakes his head. “We just found out some shit, not good shit. Melissa is Hangman’s daughter.”
Stunned, I stare at him before I can speak. “When the fuck did this get revealed?”
“Today. Tori took one look at Melissa, and bam. That was that. Melissa now knows.”
“That why she looks like someone died?”
He nods. We hear the girls giggling, and I see Cori with a mischievous look in her eyes. Angel must see it too and sobers. “Fuck, she’s up to something, and it looks like Trevor is in her line of fire. I better go warn him.” He gets up and swiftly moves toward Trevor.
Before he can get to him, Cori speaks up. “Hey, T-bags!” she shouts. “You tell your new girl here how you got your nickname?” The girls around her start laughing, and the guys look to their boots, trying not to give in.
Trevor narrows his eyes, and his face turns red. Tori, who is sitting beside him, looks at the girl. “No, he hasn’t, but I’m curious to know.”
“Tori,” Trevor growls out at his woman.
Cori rubs her hands together and smirks. “Well, you see, it happened about seven years ago. The boys decided to throw me a huge eighteenth birthday party, just the members, Lilly, and Melly and I. Eden and Moira were on babysitting duty, and T-bags got super drunk and had to take a piss. So, anyways, I walk in by accident to the men’s bathroom to see him peeing with his balls resting on Breaks’ forehead, who was passed out.”
“Wait… what? You didn’t tell me that’s how he got the name,” Zippo yells at Cori.
“That’s because, every time I tried to tell you, I couldn’t stop laughing,” Cori yells across the yard.
The whole group bursts out laughing. Poor Trevor will never live this down.
Another hour passes, and I can see the girls getting tired, so we all say goodbye, with everyone telling the girls not to stay away for so long next time, and then we leave.
Chapter 18
Cori
After Blake dropped us off at home, we’re both exhausted. It was such a great day. I missed everyone so much, and seeing Lilly, Eden and Moira again was awesome. I can see why Zippo, Reaper and Angel are so taken with them. Moira, even though she is a nurse at the hospital, is now actually a member of the club, as are both Eden and Lilly.
Another piece of info I got was that Eden now owns and runs Momma B’s old bakery. She said at first she didn’t want it, was going to just sell it off, but after talking with the girls and Angel about it, she decided to just change the name and make it her own instead. Which is crazy to me. I can’t believe I’ve missed so much by not being here. It’s not like we haven’t talked or visited in years.
If I wasn’t terrified of riding my own bike, I’d totally do it. But at the same time, I don’t think I could see the situations they go to. I lived a bad situation; I don’t want to be part of that mess again. It’s why I love my job so much. I just get to read about the cases and tear up, then smile when the case gets resolved.
Blake didn’t want to leave tonight. He wanted to talk to me, to stay, but I told him I really needed to chat with Melissa. She seemed totally off all day, and it’s bugged me.
Changing into more comfy clothes, I search my sister out. When I find her, she is laying on her bed, just staring at the ceiling.
“Okay, what is going on?” I ask her, flopping down on the bed next to her. “You’ve been off since this morning, so I know it’s not just the news about learning who your dad is.”
�
�It’s Dray,” she says quietly.
“Okay?” I prompt
“We slept together, last night,” she finally says.
I tilt my head to the side, wanting her to continue.
“I wasn’t even really that drunk, but after you left, Dray and I got it on. It was amazing, Cori. So damn amazing. When we were done, though, he wouldn’t look at me, just told me he had to get back to work. After that, I just got rip roaring drunk. Then I realized that we didn’t even use protection.”
“Oh shit, Melly. Safe sex. Always safe sex.” Well, there goes my hypocritical self. Blake and I haven’t used protection either of the two times we’ve done it.
She cries quietly. “I know, and that’s not even the worst part. I saw him leave later that night with some model looking bimbo. Not even three hours after fucking me, he leaves. Looks like I was right all along. He never actually liked me, just wanted me to put out.”
I take her hand in mine, both of us laying on our backs on her bed. “His loss, Melly. You’re great. He’s stupid not to see it.”
“I love you, sis,” she says, looking at me.
“I love you, too, baby sis.” We fall asleep in bed together. I take longer to doze off than she does, since now I’m worried about her being pregnant.
BLAKE
I walk away from Cori and Melissa’s condo and go up to mine. I didn’t want to leave; I wanted to talk to Cori, spend more time with her, but I knew that she needed to talk with her sister.
It’s late, but I don’t feel tired. I shrug off my jacket and toss it on the couch when my cell rings. “’Lo?”
“Blake, fuck man, you know that fucking Zambini case I’ve been racking my brain over?” Adam greets.
“Yeah, what about it?” I would have figured he’d have ended the case a while ago. There is something about it he’s not getting, though.
“Wife just fucking showed up dead.”
“Shit, man. Her testimony was all we had to go on,” I gripe, rubbing my face.