“He was not always going to be a cop. The way I hear it, something bad happened when he was at school. Changed his whole outlook on life and got him enrolled into the criminal justice program.”
“Yeah, could never have been what happened to me. But I don’t know what that have to do with anything?” Destiny said, frustrated. Of course Fabio was just going to happen to accidentally mention to the old hens that Trent had come to see Destiny. At least Stella was keeping quiet on the matter.
“I just thought you might want to know what he’s been up to while you were gone.”
“No I don’t. He and I went our separate ways years ago. We were young and dumb and I knew where I belonged and he wasn’t okay with where that was,” Destiny retorted in defense of herself.
“Yes, and baby, I love you. I love this damned club. I wouldn’t change that for the world, I’m till death. But I’m sure your daddy, and especially your mother, rest their souls, wouldn’t have wanted to see you patch Bastard,” Kristy shot back.
Destiny sighed. This was going nowhere.
“If you hadn’t lost that child, you could have had a good life with him.”
“Kristy, you know how many years it’s been since Trent Ulrey has crossed my mind? At least two. He’s my past, not my future. And is only currently an annoying part of my present, as, let me remind you, most cops tend to be to our kind.”
“You should have looked him up when you moved home last time,” Kristy egged on.
“I was in a wheelchair! I was never supposed to even walk again! I had more important things on my mind than looking up an old flame.”
“He was more than a flame and we both know it,” her aunt shot back.
“I was just a lost girl. Losing that baby was a blessing in disguise. We both had different agendas. Different lifestyles. The banker’s son and the outlaw’s daughter. Two things that don’t go hand in hand.”
Destiny had known this was how her day was going to go. Seeing Trent that morning had been the start of the perfect day. Fabio tended to hover over her anyhow but today seemed to only amplify it until she decided to take her chances and come to the store. Fabio’s distaste for Trent had always been in place. Despite the age difference, the two men had once been playground playmates. That went out the window once Trent and Destiny had hooked up her freshman year of high school. The hatred escalated quickly when Destiny found out she was pregnant a week before graduation. Trent coming back to town a cop didn’t make his and Fabio’s relationship a whole lot better.
“He has a girlfriend now, you know. Pretty brunette, works in a boutique a few streets over. Knick knack crap and the like,” Kristy was saying.
“I should go introduce myself,” Destiny replied and tossed her name badge on the counter and picked up her cut and strolled out of the store.
Destiny wasn’t really intending on going to meet the girlfriend. That was until she found herself parked in front of the shop. She killed the engine and put the kickstand down, placing her helmet on the handle bars and running her fingers through her long hair as she walked across the sidewalk and into the shop.
“Can I help you?” a girl asked when the bell above the door chimed as Destiny walked in. She had to be the girl Kristy was telling her about. A tad shorter than herself, the girl’s hair was dark brown and fell just below her shoulders. Dressed in jeans and a flowery top, she gave Destiny a forced yet pleasant smile.
Destiny wanted to laugh. She figured not many of the gang spent their money in a place like this. And they sure as hell weren’t women. The deputy’s pretty girlfriend was probably sheltered from her type.
Destiny gave her a smile and offered her a handshake. The girl accepted it. “No thanks, I’m just browsing. I’m Destiny Callaghan, by the way.”
“Marissa Quinn.”
“Nice to meet you,” Destiny added. It was clear this girl had never heard her name before. Oh well. Apparently Trent liked to keep his skeletons hidden away as much as she did.
“Likewise. You new to these parts? I know Sweetwater ain’t that small of a town. But I tend to remember people.”
“Especially people who are a little out there like myself, I imagine,” Destiny said lightly.
“If I must admit, that would make it more memorable. Haven’t seen many girls ride their own bike. Let alone a gang patch.”
“It’s not a gang. It’s a motorcycle club. Just a bunch of friends who like to ride together,” Destiny told her as she admired a concrete statue of an infant child resting in a pair of hands. My Angel Gone to Heaven, the plaque attached read.
A familiar pain ripped through Destiny as she let her fingers trace the inscription. It had been years since she lost her child. Just three months along but still…
“You lose a child?” Marissa asked.
“Miscarried. A long time ago,” Destiny replied forcing back the pain.
“Marissa. You ready for lunch?” a deep familiar voice asked as the man strode through the back. “Dallas.”
“Seeing you once in seven years is shocking enough. But twice in one day? That’s just uncanny,” Destiny replied. Trent had called her by her middle name once again.
“I thought you introduced yourself as Destiny?” Marissa asked, slight bewilderment showing on her face. It was clear she was confused as to why her perfect cop boyfriend would know the biker girl outside of an arrest record.
“I did. It’s Destiny Dallas. Few call me by just my middle name.” Destiny smiled. “I must be going now. Enjoy the rest of your day.”
Destiny left the shop with a grin. Seven years without Trent and she hadn’t felt a pull of need for him with their reunion. But she wondered if Marissa would now know the real Dallas that was tattooed over her man’s heart. That is, if Trent hadn’t had it removed.
6
Destiny got back to the clubhouse and tracked down Jay. He was in charge of Sweetwater’s communications, supplying burner cellphones and keeping up-to-date numbers for other charters and members. Since numbers changed frequently due to burners, it was a tedious and everlasting task.
But Jay was able to get a number for her brother in five minutes. Now Dallas sat outside the strip joint staring at the crumpled piece of paper in her hands. It had been four months since she had talked to him. Eight since she had seen him. Before that she hadn’t laid eyes on him since she was sent home from the hospital and before that it was when she was brought home on leave for Austin’s memorial service.
Needless to say, her family-oriented brother had gone off the wall since their eldest brother’s death. She was worried about him and missed him terribly. Hoping he would ride in Friday night was one thing, but maybe if she called and told him she was in Sweetwater he would make the extra effort to show.
Probably not. Houston wasn’t close with much of anyone anymore. He was a lone wolf. Keeping in touch only when needed. Holding church only once a month as required. She had heard he was still keeping his second, his own VP, close at hand but that was about it.
She put out her cigarette, sucked it up, and dialed the number. It rang four times and an automated voice answered, informing her that the person she was trying to reach was unavailable and hadn’t set up a voicemail as of yet.
So much for that.
Not on schedule for tonight, she was hanging back. Waiting for Bryant, who was running the show tonight, to divvy out duties. Fabio had said he would do his best to see that he and Drew were on monitor duty and promised to disappear when Destiny showed up. It had been five days now. She really needed to talk to Drew.
She hung out in the parking lot for another half hour. She dialed her brother’s number again but the response was still the same. Damn him. Maybe the aunts had a better way of getting ahold of him.
She tucked her own burner away and walked inside.
True to his word, Fabio was sitting with Drew in front of the TV monitors in the security room.
“Hey!” Fabio said when she walked in. “What the hell are you doi
ng in on your night off?”
“Bored, thought I’d hang out for a bit.”
“Good. Hang out in here. I gotta take a shit,” Fabio said and excused himself. Destiny sat down in his seat and kicked her feet up, resting them on the work counter in front of her.
“We both know you could find something better to do than hang out here. You hate the club,” Drew said as soon as Fabio was gone.
“That is true,” Destiny admitted.
“I’m going to assume the real reason you’re here and Fabio disappeared is that you want to know why I voted you down for your transfer.” Drew’s eyes never left the screen.
“That would be helpful information.”
“I’m not saying you’re incapable, Destiny. Nor am I saying I don’t like you. I just don’t think a woman needs to be a patched member of any MC. You have weaknesses that men can easily overpower. You might be the tougher of the women but it’s still the same. Besides, this chapter has just recovered from your family’s last disaster here.”
Destiny felt her pulse quicken. Drew had pushed a button. “My family stood by this club. We built this club. My brother was killed because of a rat. You were here. You know exactly what went down.”
“I know what went down with Austin. He was a brother to me too. But Houston tore this club apart just as much when he abandoned it, when it needed the strength of a leader the most. Alec’s not a young pup anymore. That wolf is getting long in the tooth. This chapter needed Houston but he was too selfish to stay. What’s saying another Callaghan won’t just up and leave when Sweetwater needs them? Your father did. Houston did.”
“I’m stronger than my father and my brother. They left with their own reasons but you remember that they transferred to a Nomad with good standing. That meant they were voted unanimously to be allowed out. You voted for Houston to leave. You let him walk out that door,” Destiny said, turning to look Drew in the eye.
“You can’t keep someone who doesn’t want to stay. Houston was gone a long time before that vote went through. There wasn’t a point in making him suffer, or the club. He had radical ideas that could have killed this charter,” Drew shot back.
Destiny fell silent. Apparently Houston had mentioned his suspicions to the club in Sweetwater. It seemed that everyone from the police to her club mates knew what her brother suspected, except for her.
“I will not turn my back on Sweetwater when they need me. Or this club. Fort Worth didn’t need me and I didn’t need them. But as for being a woman, I’ll show you, Drew.” Destiny stood to leave and banged on the door leading to the bathroom. Fabio could return now. And she walked out the door.
****
Unable to calm herself once she got home, she stayed up at the clubhouse bar, drinking alone and watching Sons of Anarchy reruns on cable. She didn’t know how to change Drew’s mind. Didn’t know how to pull her brother back closer, since he once again hadn’t answered his burner. Maybe Jay’s number for him wasn’t current.
She was lying on her back on top of the bar, Southern Comfort on the rocks in her hand, cold pizza on the plate next to her. She had just opened another pack of cigarettes when a bike pulled up outside. The security cameras above the bar told her it was Alec, so she let her trigger finger ease up and she set her gun back on the bar.
“Jack?” she asked when he walked in and the old man nodded.
She sat up and swung herself off the bar, put some ice in a glass tumbler, dumped some Jack in, cracked open a can of Pepsi, and added it to the mix.
“What has you up so late tonight?” she asked her uncle. Normally he would be in bed curled up next to Kristy by now.
“Jay said you asked him for a number for Houston.”
“What of it? Houston’s my brother.”
Alec shrugged. “No need to take offense. Just wondered if you got ahold of him.”
Destiny shook her head. “Apparently he’s not in the mood to chat.”
“You’re worried about him.”
“I’m always worried about Houston. Austin… he felt Mom’s death harder than Houston or me. Dad’s was expected. But Austin, he kept it together. Was a rock when this little broken family needed him. Houston was also a little more free spirited. He always stood on shakier ground. Now since Austin died… I’m hearing more stories… things… that make me worry.”
“You’re not the only one.” Alec took a long drink. “Fabio said you talked to Drew.”
“Is nothing in this family sacred?”
“Not really.”
“Yes, I talked to Drew. It didn’t go as well as I hoped. He intends to never let me patch Sweetwater.”
“He hasn’t come to me about it. Figures; it probably won’t do any good. Not with you being my niece and all.”
“His reasons are slightly vague. Gives his primary reason that my family has already torn apart this chapter enough. He seems to hold a grudge against Houston for turning Nomad. But other than that—I’m a capable woman he just can’t let patch.”
“His own stupidity could kill him one day. You have more military training than almost any of us. If there was anyone more fit to carry a gun and use it when necessary, it’s you.”
“You talk like there’s bloody days ahead of us.”
“It’s getting interesting, that’s for sure. But there are always rough times, bloody ones just come with the patch.” Alec took a smoke from Destiny’s pack and lit up.
“Look, I get I’m not Sweetwater. Never have been. Not with club legalities. But Kristy isn’t either. Nor Stella. Now I know there are two ways of keeping an old lady. You tell them everything or tell them nothing at all. I know my aunts don’t live in the dark. I want to know what they know. As someone who wears the cut of this MC and someone who is trying her hardest to change her chapter!” Destiny set her shoulders and stared her uncle down and they stood with only the bar and some heavy air between them.
“There’s not as much to it as you think,” Alec started.
“I know that Bryant cozied up with an Apache inside. I know you made a deal with Cochise to protect Bryant. I know you’re running a security detail on something but that’s it. Apaches aren’t straight arrows. They tangle with serious shit.”
“I know what you think.”
“I know facts! I know the Black Pride are acting strange. If the Apache are pissing them off and somehow we are involved... This shit is going to get serious and it’s going to blow back on everyone in this club.”
“It could mean good work for the charters!” Alec shouted back at her.
“At the cost of how much blood? It hasn’t been that many years since the first war with the Pride ended.” Destiny was not backing down. Sweetwater or not, this was her home.
“Until you sit at the head of this table, you have no right to question the decisions I make!”
Destiny stepped back as if she had been slapped.
“This club is a democracy. You may have been voted in by Sweetwater but as the mother charter you have an example to set for the rest of this MC. That’s not the example we’re supposed to follow.” Destiny took a long pull of her Southern Comfort. “I’m not questioning you, Alec. I’m just asking. Every biker who wears this cut has a right to know what kind of heat will be chasing them due to one man’s call.”
Destiny started to walk away toward her apartment.
“You do know that, right?” Alec called after her.
“Know what?” she turned.
“That you will one day sit at the head of this table. At the gavel seat. You’re a Callaghan and woman or not, it’s your destiny, Dallas. Kristy wanted me to change that clause, after your mother died and your father went Nomad. Wanted me to just try and have a few words amended so you couldn’t prospect. Said she lost too much when your mother died. Said it wasn’t right, you wearing a Bastard cut. You should have been content with being someone’s old lady.” Alec chuckled heartily with a soft sigh at the end.
“When I told Kristy to take it up wit
h your father, she did. On your fifth birthday. Wes Callaghan would have no part of it though. Kristy was ranting and raving and carrying on as she does and he just looked over at you, sitting on the floor surrounded by the boys and cuts and tattoos, playing with a toy Harley your father had brought you. He said Breanna had named you Destiny because you were to do great things. He believed you would one day do them sitting at the head of your own table.”
Destiny didn’t know what to say. She never talked to her father about patching. She had always been too scared to bring it up when she was little. By the time she was old enough to make a real decision about the matter, Wes Callaghan was in a box next to Breanna.
“I never knew… assumed…” she trailed off.
“Assumed what? That Wes didn’t know? Wes always knew. Breanna knew each of her children would wear the cut. You were no different. Kristy looked at your mother’s death as a sign that she saved you from all this club was and that you should run away from it. But your father, he knew it meant that this club would be what would fulfill your name.”
Destiny smiled at her uncle. “Do you think Sweetwater is where I will sit?”
“Without a doubt. I will see you transfer before I step down, and that day is coming soon. My health won’t allow me to sit at the head of the table much longer. Besides, I promised your aunt a nice, long vacation somewhere exotic and far from here. She’d give her life for this club but she’s already given more years than I ever planned to ask of her.” Alec smiled, thinking of his wife.
“I have never thought of taking the gavel,” Destiny said honestly. Once or twice in some wild dreams, she imagined what it would be like to sit head of the table… but that was all it had been—her imagination.
“You’re the only one. Austin led this charter strong in what little time he had. Houston, as crazy as it sounds, is probably the best president the Nomads have ever had. You will do fine sitting at the Sweetwater table. Where a Callaghan belongs.”
Destiny shook her head. “I won’t take it. Houston should come back and sit there.”
“But he won’t. You and I both know that Houston will never again wear the chapter patch of Sweetwater. It’s just not meant to be with him. I don’t expect you to even try and convince the boys to let you lead right now. Not when you have so much to convince them of just as far as moving to Sweetwater goes. Not that you’re even ready to lead this chapter,” Alec told her.
The Devils Bastards MC: Destiny Dallas Callaghan Page 5