by Ryder Dane
For the first time in years, the woman who held his heart in the palm of her hand smiled at the affectionate term “momma”. When they’d gotten out from behind bars, and found that their children were gone, and that Stevie had disappeared from the “secure” foster home. A light in her eyes dimmed, she asked him not to call her that again until they found the kids.
“I love you to death, but it’s like a needle sticking in my gut every time I hear that word.”
She followed her parents home from the tavern that they’d taken over when they were released from the “darkness” as her dad called prison. Her mother hadn’t said much, but she had kept touching her, and Stevie was beginning to understand how much her parents had missed her and Harry. When her dad asked about Harry, and she shook her head, her huge tough father’s shoulders had slumped, and she saw desolation on his face for maybe a second. His next expression was narrow-eyed determination.
“When we get home, I want to know.” She’d nodded, and he nodded. It was one of those Biker things she guessed. They could say complete sentences with just a nod of the head to one another.
Her parents had been young when her mom got pregnant with Harry, at fifteen years old, she watched sixteen-year-old Rolf allow her father to beat the shit out of him for knocking his little girl up before she graduated from high school. The only thing that had saved her from her father’s belt had been the fact she waited until she was four months along in her pregnancy to tell anyone, and he was afraid he would hurt the baby.
They were still in their mid-forties, and looked great. Stevie remembered how she would come home from school bringing a friend with her, and walk in on her parents lying on the living room floor, wrestling around with her dad tickling her mom on her neck with his prickly beard. She always rolled her eyes and told them they had a room for that, but her father told her, “The whole fuckin’ house is ours, anybody that gets a tickle in their ass seeing us playin’ around doesn’t deserve to be in our home anyway. Fuck ‘em.”
Those memories had lingered with her over the years, and seeing them today brought home to her how much she’d missed them. She wished Harry was there too, but if he was alive, she had no idea where to look for him, and he wouldn’t leave her alone and unprotected voluntarily. She felt like a fraud coming here, they thought she was here because she just found out they were out of jail. Harry had always told her they couldn’t go back, that if they went back to the club, their parents would suffer, and so they stayed away. She hoped that Harry was wrong, because if she was going to avenge her brother and the damage to the bar, she would need help.
John might have helped her if she’d asked, but she wanted to prove that she was strong, she had to do this for her. John was a Neanderthal and would want to take over the task she’d set for herself, but it wasn’t his business, and she was the one that had to live with herself after the fact. He acted like she was his, but a couple of fucks didn’t make it so. Aside from the fact that she needed to deal with her parents, she was planning to kill a man to avenge her brother, and she needed to know what Harry meant by hurting her parents if they came back. None of it made sense, but hopefully they’d get it sorted out.
The house was a nice three bedroom, two bath, with an attached two car garage brick ranch, and it sat right in the center of the block.
Her parents parked the Road King in the garage, and she had to smile about the bike. Years ago her father wouldn’t have been caught dead on such a fancy ride. He was old school with his preference of ride. It was the main reason June Bug got her own ride, she complained about the bitch pad numbing her lady parts.
When Stevie was thirteen she got her own scoot, but didn’t get a license until after she and Harry had been on the road for a few years. It was something she planned to remedy soon, she needed her own bike. No matter where she ended up, or who she ended up with, she wanted her own transportation.
Riding with John on the bagger hadn’t been a hardship, but his daily ride, she could sympathize with her mother. Damn, she had to quit thinking about him like this. He was bossy, and he was so testosterone driven that he reminded her of someone, Oh fuckin’ no. She realized who he reminded her of.
The man striding out of the garage, coming toward her to carry her bag, her father was an older, hairier, version of the same cut of man as John was. She didn’t have daddy issues, no one had ever measured up to the man her father was, until John. Personality wise they were polar opposites, where Rolf James was large and in charge, John Handy was quiet and reasonable, as long as you did it his way. Fuck, just fuck. It was a good thing that she wasn’t in love with John yet, she would look around for a more compatible man.
Her door opened and her father looked at her with concern. “You okay, baby? You’ve been sitting her staring at the house for a bit, you ain’t thinking about disappearing again, are you?”
She shook her head. “No, I was just thinking, sorry, I seem to be having a hard time realizing that you and Mom are here and… Oh, Daddy, you have no idea how much I’ve missed the two of you.”
She slid out of the driver’s seat, and grabbed him by the arm, holding onto him while he opened the back flap and pulled the old leather carpetbag from the space. He hefted the familiar bag and stared at it for a few seconds before giving her another of those concerned looks. “You sure Harry is dead?”
“No, Daddy, I’m not sure of anything right now, all I know is that when things got too much for me, I made it my business to try to find you and Mom. I need help to sort it out, and who else would understand what is happening if not the three of us, I have more questions than answers.”
They walked into the house and June Bug pounced on her baby girl. She held onto Stevie, and there was no question whether she had been missed. “Baby, I prayed, I prayed so hard to find you. We’ve hired people to track you and Harry but nothing came of it. Now you’re here, just walked in the door like I haven’t been worried sick wondering if you are in a safe place and happy. You have no idea how happy I am right now. Come on, I’ll show you to your room. Oh, baby, I am so damn happy right now.”
Stevie let herself be drawn down the hallway. Her mother needed to talk to her, and truthfully, she wanted to hear her mother’s voice.
Chapter Twelve
They sat on the edge of the narrow twin bed and June Bug held Stevie to her shoulder, patting her arm and begging for forgiveness for abandoning her and Harry.
“Baby, that piece of shit lawyer told us we’d get probation or I would have refused to take the fall for that shit. We were lucky to get the sentence down after the fact. We were supposed to be home that night. Everyone was surprised when they took us into the prison that same day.”
It was Stevie’s turn to hold her mother, “Momma, I know what happened, Harry came and got me, he snuck into the bedroom window and we left that night. I was only there a couple of weeks.
“The foster home was just a married couple, who was either indebted to the Fed, or related to the man they called Pascal. They were really not happy that I told them I didn’t know anything about the club, or what you and Daddy did when you weren’t home.
“Harry did a good job of keeping us safe and fed, you’d be proud of him. One of the club brother’s told him to get away from the club and if we ever showed back up that you and Daddy would be in worse trouble than what you already were. I swear we talked about coming back, but Harry was afraid to cause you anymore hurt. I have so much to tell you about Harry and me, but right now I am really tired. I’ve been driving since yesterday afternoon. Do you think I could sleep for a couple of hours?”
Her mother became all hustle and nodded her head, “Oh, sweetheart, of course. You go ahead and have a sleep. The bathroom’s right across the hall.” She couldn’t help herself, she caught Stevie in a breath stealing embrace. “You have no idea how happy I am that you’re back. Dream big, honey.”
Stevie’s bag sat just inside the door, so she went over to it and hefted the thing onto the
bed. She pulled out the extra clothes she’d brought with her and picked out a pair of shorts and a t-shirt to sleep in. She walked across the hall to the bathroom and took a quick shower before going back to her room and falling into the bed. She was asleep within minutes of her head touching the pillow.
June Bug looked in on her at eleven, but she was still out. She went back to the big bed she shared with Rolf.
His big body was lying under the covers with one arm propped behind his shaggy head. She almost ran to the bed and jumped on top of the only man she’d ever loved. She bounced, giggling and hugged his wide chest. She sat up and put his hands on his head. “Our baby is home. Oh, Rolf, our baby is here where she belongs, and my heart is so full right now, you have no idea.”
Her eyes dimmed a little, but she kept the smile on her face, and he knew it was for his sake. There was still one missing, and if he wasn’t coming home, well, they’d deal with it when Stevie woke up in the morning. Tonight they would have a small celebration.
After June fell asleep on his chest, he found he couldn’t sleep. He tenderly rolled her onto her side of the bed, and moved the covers from where he’d lain and covered her sexy body. He shook his head at his sappy thoughts, but he would kill, lie, cheat, whatever it took to make her smile.
He went back down the hallway he’d just gone through an hour and a half ago. He came out of the bathroom in the hallway and almost collided with Stevie. He grabbed her arms to stop her from bouncing off his big body and she squeaked, and then to his surprise she giggled. He picked her up and kept walking toward the kitchen.
Just before he sat her in the chair, he kissed her cheek and gave her an extra squish. He grabbed a beer from the fridge, and offered it to her, she smiled and thanked him. The sub sandwich he tossed on the table was yesterday’s leftovers, but he figured it was still edible, so he pulled a knife from the block, sat down and unwrapped the multi meat, light on the garden filled bun. He raised an eyebrow in her direction and she grinned and held her hand palm out, wiggling her fingers in a gimme gesture.
“Baby girl, it’s damn good to have you home. Your momma’s been worried sick over you.” He looked at the half sandwich in his hand and looked back to her. “Truth, I’ve been just as bad as she is. I heard her telling you what happened, so you know I took care of that fuck lawyer as soon as I found out he’d double crossed us with that cocksucker Pascal. By then the damage was done.” He picked up the sandwich again and stared at it, the thing was dropped and he sat back in his chair.
“Stevie, I love you, and don’t you ever fuckin’ think you are not enough for me. I held you the minute you were born and you took a nice thick slice of my heart too. Thing is, I ain’t gonna sleep until you tell me what happened to Harry. I know it’s not good, but if he’s not coming back, well I need to know that too.”
She nodded her head, “Yeah, well it is a confusing thing, so let me get what I have, and you can tell me if he’s dead, or just gone, because I have doubts, but it might be wishful thinking on my part.” As she walked past him to retrieve the leather bag, she asked if they had a computer. He nodded and pointed to the living room, so she kept walking.
When she came out of the bedroom, her father had a brand new laptop in his hands that he had just taken from the box. She grinned. There was wrapping paper scattered around the floor, and she had to ask. “Who’s the present for? It’s not my birthday.”
“Still a smart ass aren’t you? It is a present for your mother, she wore the keys off the old one searching websites and message boards. We never gave up hope, baby girl, not for a day, not for a damn minute. Now since you’re so fuckin’ smart, you need to plug this thing in.”
She sat the bag down on the counter and dug inside for the two files she had of information about Harry’s accident, and the police report and pictures. “Here you go, this will keep you busy while I do your light work here.” She handed them over and found the cord and plugged it into the receptacle while she looked for the old computer router.
She had the laptop up and running with her external hard drive plugged into the USB port. She looked up and saw the way her father traced the picture of the burnt bike. He had tears trailing down his cheeks like she had the first time she’d seen the photos.
She went behind him and rubbed his shoulders, and leaned down next to his ear. “Look at the bike, does it look like a wrecked bike? Does it look like it went over a gorge? The tags are legit, they belonged to Harry’s bike, but there isn’t a mark on the scoot. The tank is in one piece and not even dinged up, and look at the forks, I’m no expert, but it is haunting me. The body they found was burned beyond any form of identification, and I never saw the body, they gave me no choice but to accept what they told me.
“Now, I told you about the bar, right? This guy is a real asshole, and maybe you can tell me what I’m not seeing here. The footage is from the past week.”
She went to the bathroom and when she came back out, her father was going through the bag on the counter.
“What are you looking for? All you had to do was ask, I’m not sneaking drugs in here you know.”
He barely glanced her way as he removed everything in the bag. Including the .45 semi auto. He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. She shrugged and he began tearing the lining out of the bag. The material pulled loose effortlessly beneath his tugs, and the thin slat of wood from the bottom of the bag came out and Rolf slumped back onto the counter as he pulled a small notepad from the space.
So this was why Harry told her to grab the bag if she could in case of an emergency. She thought he wanted it saved because it was all he had left of the old life.
He was smiling at first, as he read what the notepad contained, his demeanor changed, and he began cussing very low. By the time he was clutching the note in his hand, he was heading to the bedroom.
Stevie watched the big man stride from the room and she followed. Her father hadn’t shut the door, he was reaching into the closet and came out with two wooden boxes. She had an idea what was in those boxes, but was not quite prepared to see the wicked looking knife clutched in his big fist. There was a rounded guard where four of his fingers slid through to clutch in his fist. The other box contained a set of handguns. One was shoved into the back of his beltline and the other he carried in his free hand. He disappeared from her sight for a few minutes and she heard whispers, so rather than eavesdrop, she ran to her room and got dressed. If he was leaving, she was going too.
She came out of her room and saw her parents buckling on their chaps. She turned around and grabbed her new set of the leather protective covering for her legs, and the hair wrap. She looked in the mirror and grinned. This was the biker chick she would have been if the past years hadn’t gone like they had.
She stepped back into the kitchen as her father was stomping on his shit kickers. Her mother was wearing a shoulder rig under her leather jacket, their colors were old school, but both of them carried the old-fashioned denim vests in their hands. The blade her father had earlier was nowhere in sight, but she would bet that it was somewhere on his person.
Rolf stood in front of her. She knew he was assessing her and wondered if she would be up for whatever happened tonight. She nodded her head, reached around him and took the colt from the counter to holster it in the small of her back.
“I’m a James, we don’t run and we don’t quit. I don’t know who you plan to deal with, I don’t care, I’ve got your back, Daddy, let’s do this.”
His grim smile grew rueful and he looked at June Bug, getting the nod from her. “The man that betrayed us and told Harry to leave and not come back is none other than the VP of the club. I plan to take care of the rat, and anyone who follows him. If the prez and the brothers decide to take sides, it is gonna get bad, so if I tell you to get lost, I mean it. Don’t fuck with me on this one, baby girl. A pitcher of beer ain’t gonna stop this from happening. He engineered the whole fuckin’ thing, and ran our kids off so he could get in my former p
osition. Bernell fuck face Cornell is getting what’s coming to him tonight. I hate to think Trencher is in on this shit, but right now, hell I’m expecting anything to happen.”
Harry kept updating the notepad and all the time she hadn’t known he’d been so close. Why did he hide from her of all people, and where was he hiding out? Oh she planned to punch him in the gut when she saw him. To make her go through all that grief and pain was just mean. What in the hell was he thinking? She packed up the laptop and she was ready to go.
June Bug took the hard drive and put it in a bucket under the sink, before she walked out of the door.
Stevie hopped on the bagger with her father and June Bug started the Glide. Rolf leaned over and gave his wife a lip lock and Stevie thought of John. She looked away rather than flooding her mind with thoughts of his kisses. He’d probably forgotten her by now. She still felt bad about duping Lonnie, but one day, maybe he’d understand.
They had a short drive, but the most direct route was through the small town, and now Rolf knew why the two cops in the town had pulled him over last week. Bernell. That fucker, was not just a fuckin’ stool pigeon, he was a goddamned traitor. They took the eastern route out of the area and went the long way around town.
The ride helped Rolf clear his head, made things separate from the red haze that threatened to take over. The times that happened were few, but he knew he was deadly when that happened. Those punks back at the bar yesterday were right about the berserker coming out, his heritage was Scandinavian, and his lineage could be traced back to the Vikings. His temper was legendary, and while he wasn’t particularly proud of his exploits, he’d almost always been honorable. Knowing his former friend was behind all of the hurt that had befallen his family, he didn’t know how he could filter the information into a non-violent solution, he actually didn’t want to try.
The parking lot was still full of bikes, and Rolf pulled the bagger right up snug behind that fuck Bernell’s ride. He waved his girls into the spot next to the fucker’s scoot, and waited for them to dismount. “You all ready for the shit to splatter the walls?” He held his colors in his fist and June Bug pulled hers from the seat of her bike.