His Last Chance : Sons of Lost Souls MC Book Seven

by Ellie R. Hunter

  “Is that what I fucking said? Is it?” he roars, kicking his foot out at the nearest chair.

  The brother stands and braces his hands on his hips. “You said it could be a prospect, but this guy’s been planning for two decades. The rat would’ve been a prospect at one time, but it could’ve been a long time ago. He could’ve been a brother for years, right under our noses,” he argues.

  Cas slowly walks over, stopping within inches of him. The brother begins to shrink before him, but he doesn’t move away.

  Lowering his voice, Cas challenges, “Do you think I haven’t thought of that? Don’t for one second think I don’t trust any of you the way I trust my boy, or the way Sparky trusts JJ, Slade trusts Zach, Pope and Ricky trust the twins. Just because some of us are connected by blood, doesn’t mean it’s above the patch.” Cas spins on his heel and faces everyone. “We’ve always been equal since I took the gavel. Blood unites some of us, but our patch unites us all just the same. After everything we’ve been through, I promised you all we would never be caught out again. Never again would we bury one of our own because we didn’t see shit coming. This guy is coming for us, and if we start looking at one another with mistrust and paranoia, we will lose, and more lives will be lost as a result.”

  “What do you propose we do?” Dad calls out from the bar.

  “We do what we always do. We eliminate the threat to us.”

  “What about his information?” Dad throws back at him.

  Cas inhales deeply. “We ignore it.”

  Someone gasps behind me, and I admit, Cas’s turn of thought has surprised me too.

  “We what?” Sparky asks, needing to hear it again.

  “Brothers trust brothers. As far as the prospects are concerned, we do what we always do and see if they’re worthy of our patch. And as far as Kyle’s concerned, nothing has changed.”

  “And what if that Bert guy was right?” Dad coaxes.

  “Then someone dies.”

  “What about what he said about the fed?” I call out, getting everyone’s attention.

  “First, it means that guy’s men were close enough to us to see the fed here in the first place, and that shit needs to stop. Second, I’m not going to lose any sleep over a missing fed. His blood isn’t on our hands. Whatever this Bert fuck does with him is on him.”

  Sparky goes to argue back, but is halted by the bar door slamming open, and there my mom stands, clutching what I gather to be dad’s letter, and she’s steaming angry. I see her eyes flittering around the bar, seeking dad. When she finds him, she shrieks, “You blame me?”

  Dad’s standing not far from where India took her last breath, and that’s when Mom’s gaze turns from pissed to agonized, her eyes dropping near his feet.

  “Take this up to your room, brother. We’re done here,” Cas insists.

  I sit forward, ready to do what, I’m not sure. But she lets Dad approach her and grab her arm. Everyone watches them disappear upstairs, and then we hear his door slam shut.

  “I wouldn’t like to be Slade right now. She looks fit to take him out,” Myles mutters quietly to Mason across the bar, but I catch it.

  He’s not wrong. However, this is between my parents, so I pull myself up out of my chair and head over to check on my priorities.

  Slade

  She stands in the middle of the room, trembling from head to toe with anger. My words are being waved in front of me, yet I don’t feel guilty for writing them down.

  I’m glad she fucking read them. At least she knows what’s going on inside my head, because she certainly won’t fucking listen to them coming from my mouth.

  “Had you been drinking when you wrote this?” she demands to know.

  Falling against the door, I feel no anger or remorse. I’m back to feeling nothing.

  “No.”

  “You had no right to write this. No fucking right.”

  I bark out a laugh. This is far from funny, but it escapes me nonetheless.

  “Every word I wrote is the truth. I blame you as much as I blame myself. You’ve held me accountable ever since, but you didn’t fucking save her either. You’re her mom. What were you doing to get to her?”

  “You fucking bastard! I hate you!” She rushes forward and shoves me in the chest. I go with the impact, barely budging, before she backs off.

  “Yeah, you’ve made that perfectly fucking clear. What are you even doing here? Has the money from the shop not hit your account yet? Or do you just want to fucking break me completely before you go?” I yell, my voice bouncing off the walls.

  “Break you?” she shrieks, making me wince. “How can I break you when you don’t even care?”

  I push away from the door and I’m across the room, wrapping my hands around the top of her arms in a flash.

  “I don’t care?” I roar. “How fucking dare you!”

  I’m so angry, I could do something really stupid. But then, it hits me like a bucket of ice being thrown over me. I loosen my hold on her, but I don’t let go.

  “You haven’t wanted me to care. It made all your plans easier if you told yourself I didn’t.”

  “That’s…”

  Her words die off, and I know I’m right. “Even when you’ve spat venom at me, you’re still the one I’d die for, and you know it. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? Do you miss me, darlin’?”

  “I hate you.”

  “But you still love me. You’re reaching out to me, and you’re here. Tell me I’m wrong,” I urge.

  Yanking her arms out of my hold, she rears back and slaps me across the face.

  Stretching my jaw, I embrace the pain. Fuck, at this point, I’ll take anything from her. How fucked-up is that?

  “Do it again? Go on,” I goad her, and for the first time in our marriage, she backs down, afraid of me.

  “If it makes you feel better, do it again. Don’t fucking stop until you’ve taken what you need.”

  She goes to say something, but nothing comes out. Silence fills the room, and I can’t stand it anymore. “Why are you here, Kristen?” I shout so loud, my throat burns.

  The fight in her returns, and her eyes blaze with anger. “Because you don’t get to move on!”

  This time, I do laugh, finding her hilarious. I laugh so fucking hard, it’s almost painful.

  “You’re the one moving on, Kris. Me? I’m staying where I’ve always been. But you, you’re leaving town, divorcing me. You’re the fucking runner.” Moving closer to her, I tuck the stray hair falling down her face away, and behind her ear.

  “Out of the two of us, you’re the one moving on,” I repeat, but softer. “I can never leave the place where she lived, where she was happy.”

  I feel the exact moment she sinks, and like I’ve always promised, I catch her, and we fall together. On the floor in my room—though it hasn’t been my home for years, a place Kristen has never been comfortable being around—I hold her, and she doesn’t push me away.

  Her erratic breathing turns to cries, and they soon turn to heavy sobs. Her fingers curl into my shirt, grips tightly, and I hold her, rocking her back and forth.

  “She’s gone, Slade, and she’s never coming back,” she howls, and my own tears begin to fall, dropping down my cheeks like boulders. “He took her from us… our baby…” She doesn’t need me to answer her. “I can’t breathe anymore.”

  This time, I do answer. “Nor can I, darlin’.”

  “I carried her, nursed her, loved her, and now she’s gone.”

  “I know.”

  It seems like hours that we sit together, even after the sun sets and darkness fills the room, on the floor, not bothered that our asses are going numb, but I dare not move. This is the first time she’s needed me in a long time, and I’m not going anywhere now.

  “I need you, Slade.”

  Closing my eyes, I bask in her admission. The words I’ve needed to hear for months. Rearranging her against me so I can move, I stand while lifting her in my arms. Laying her down
on the bed, she rolls onto her side and reaches over for my hand when I’m lying opposite of her. Clasping it around hers, I bring it to my lips, holding it there longer than necessary. Fuck. I’ve missed her so fucking much.

  Her eyes flutter closed, and her chest shudders in exhaustion.

  “Sleep. Close your eyes and sleep.”

  We both need it, but I’m too alert to shut my eyes. Kristen, however, shuffles closer and nuzzles her face against my chest. I hold her closer, feeling a peace not even being on my bike can bring.

  “We’ve still got so much to talk about, Slade,” she murmurs, her voice broken and scratchy from crying.

  “We will. When we’re done here, we’ll go home.”

  I feel her chest deflate, and home becomes home again.

  “I just can’t see how life moves on for us,” she admits into the darkness.

  “As long as it’s together, it’ll move on whether we want it to or not,” I tell her, and it’s true. Life’s been moving on all around us since that night. We just wasn’t ready to move with it.

  “What shall I do with the divorce papers?”

  “Rip them up. I should never have gone that far. It was like I latched onto it because it gave me a purpose to get up in the mornings.”

  “And what about the shop? Will you stop the sale?”

  She thinks on it before answering. “No, I’m done with it. Zach doesn’t rely on us financially anymore, and India… We can put some of the money away for Rayna and Sebastian, and use the rest for us.”

  I release a sigh of relief, but there’s still one more question to be asked. “Do you still plan on leaving? Because we can’t go through this again. We lost her, but we still have family here. We have Zach and our grandchildren.”

  She takes a while to answer, and my hope begins to fade. When she first arrived, I was prepared to fight. Then I felt like we were clearing the air before having to say goodbye. But I was starting to believe we could make this work, here in Willow’s Peak—our home.

  “I don’t know how to survive if I stay.”

  “With me. We survive together.”

  “Have you not even thought it over? What it would be like to start somewhere with no bad memories?”

  “We’ll have our memories wherever we go, Kris. She’ll always be with us, but I prefer to be where she’s been. The thought of being somewhere she never visited leaves me cold, like we’re abandoning her in some way.”

  “I never thought of it like that.”

  Nor did I until a few months ago. I thought it hurt too much being in places she had been, but it wasn’t until I had a breakthrough, and I realised it brought up good memories when I could picture her around.

  “Here, we drive by where she went to school, and graduated second in her class. We have our home where she laughed and threw temper tantrums we thought were hysterical. We have her daughter, who’s growing up to be the spitting image of her. Here, we get to see her and hear her laugh. Rayna needs us, Kris, just as much as we need her.”

  Her tears begin again, and she silently cries against me. “I notice you’re not just back here, but wearing your cut as well.”

  “Is that going to be a problem?”

  “I don’t know if I can live through another death, and seeing your patches just reminds me of everything.”

  “The club is who I am. After all these years, it’ll never change, just like my love for you won’t ever change.”

  “I’m scared I’m going to forget her. Forget what it felt like to have her with us.”

  “That will never happen. I can promise you that, darlin’.”

  We lay in each other’s arms, Kristen eventually falling asleep, and me listening to her shallow breaths.

  I’m not a fool. I know we still have a long road before us, but this is a start, and I won’t ever walk away from her again.

  Cas gave me a look before I brought her up here, wanting me to find out if she’d spoken to the fed. It was my first thought before she showed up screaming at me. It’s what made me believe the guy at the diner about having a rat amongst us. The fed’s playing a long game, no doubt about that. But after talking to her, I don’t have to ask. She hasn’t spoken to him. She wouldn’t come back to me if she had. She knows the consequences of speaking our business to anyone, especially to a federal agent. No matter her reasons, she knows the club could never, and would never, let her go, let alone live.

  Zachery

  Seven hours later, I walk back into the bar as Dad jogs down the stairs. He heads over to Cas, whispers something in his ear, then grabs two water bottles from the fridge behind the bar before disappearing back up the stairs.

  “Is my mom still up there?” I ask Cas as I join his table.

  “Yeah. It’s been quiet for hours, though.”

  If she’s still here, that must be a good thing, right?

  “How’s the kid?” Sparky asks, distracting me.

  “He’s good. Sleeping again.”

  “You got a good one. I swear, JJ made it his mission to see how long he could stay awake. Bonnie and I didn’t sleep for months.”

  “What about you and Nina? You good too?”

  “What’s this? You telling me you give a shit?” I smirk when he throws a drink mat at me.

  “Can’t I care?”

  “Do you, though?”

  “I’m just making conversation.”

  That’s what I thought.

  “We’re fine, and I’ll be moving back home once we’re good to leave here,” I tell him before turning to Cas. “Which will be when?”

  “Whenever you like. But we still ride in twos, at least for now. This guy’s shown his face and given us his reason for coming at us, but it doesn’t mean he’s going to give up. They’re more than welcome to stay over at the main house while we sort this shit out.”

  I mull it over and decide to keep them here for a couple more days. It won’t hurt, and Nina might not feel so alone if she has the old ladies around her.

  “We should’ve put him in the ground while we had the choice,” Pope mutters from the other end of the table. “Especially if we knew he had the fed out of the picture.”

  No one responds to him, but I catch Cas giving Sparky a weird look. He might be telling us to move on, but behind his eyes, he’s not. He’s not letting it go.

  Later that night, Mom and Dad still haven’t shown their faces, and I can’t be bothered sitting in the bar listening to everyone dissect the day’s events.

  If there is a rat, they’ll be found out soon enough. The way the club’s been today, they’ll be sniffed out in no time. Or paranoia will be our downfall, which has been the old guy’s plan from the start. Kyle has still been a no-show, and it’s only added fuel to the fire that he’s more than likely the rat. Either way, it’s the unknown floating around us that has me locking Nina, the baby, and myself in the bedroom Nina stayed in last night, and shutting the world out.

  She has him settled in her arms, propped up against a mountain of pillow, and I undress down to my boxers before climbing in beside her.

  “I want us to get married.”

  Her eyes cut to mine, the shock evident in her expression.

  “I mean, we love each other, we live together, we have a child together. I want you till my dying breath, and I know you feel the same. We should make it official. And hell, who knows? Our son might even be awake for it.”

  This makes her laugh.

  “When?” she asks.

  “As soon as we can make it happen?” I ask in return.

  “Together forever? No more walking out?”

  “Forever.”

  We sit for over two hours discussing our wedding plans, taking turns cradling our son, when she changes the subject.

  “Something’s been different about you, and it’s been bugging me for days.”

  “What?”

  “Your eyes. They’re so clear. And you… you’re… I don’t know, different. The way you talk, the way you act
. You’re you, but you’re not.”

  I huff out a laugh.

  “It’s probably because I’m the most clear-headed I’ve been since I was a young teenager.”

  “You haven’t been smoking that shit, have you?”

  I’m surprised it’s taken her so long to notice.

  “I gave it up.”

  “When?”

  “The day he was born,” I tell her, jerking my chin at our son.

  “All this time, I’ve been trying to get you to quit and you wouldn’t, so why because of him now?”

  “One of the reasons I pushed you away was because I was terrified you’d end up hurt, or worse, like my sister. When he came into the world, I knew instantly I couldn’t let you leave. I knew I’d do anything to keep you and him with me, but I had to be on my game and see anything coming for us. I couldn’t be high while I did that.”

  “But—”

  “There are no buts. It was never a choice I found hard to make. The world isn’t so bad now that we have him.”

  A tear rolls down her cheek.

  “Hey. Why are you crying?”

  “Because I love you so much. I don’t know what we would’ve done without you.”

  “You’ll never have to find out.” I kiss her softly, slowly, before pulling away. Now, we really should sleep. Where are we going to put him, because I don’t feel comfortable sleeping beside him. I might roll over and squash him.”

  “Oh, I forgot to tell you. Alannah had a couple of prospects head over to our house and bring over his crib. It’s downstairs.”

  I haul myself out of bed and jog downstairs, hoping everyone’s in bed now, and clock the crib in the living room. Grabbing it up, I turn around to find Cas standing in the doorway.

  He cranes his neck to look up the hall leading into the kitchen, and when he’s satisfied we’re alone, he steps into the room and closes the door behind him.

  “I know it’s late, so I won’t take long,” he chuckles, noting my lack of clothing. “Come morning, tension will be beyond simmering between the brothers. It’s already happening, and I won’t be able to stop it.”