Brother to Brother: The Sacred Brotherhood Book I

by A. J. Downey

  She gawped at me open mouthed for a second, high spots of color on her cheeks as she drew breath and I cut her off again, “They’re my family now. Mel’s my wife, Noah’s my son, and you come near my family, try to fuck with them in any way, it’s not going to phase me none.”

  “Are you threatening me!?” she demanded and I again shook my head.

  “Nope, I’m telling you that you got two options, you can either leave us alone and maybe someday Mel will come around and let you be a part of her life again, or you can try to fuck with us and kill any chance you have at ever being a part of their world except for a distant bad memory. I’m not playin’ and I mean what I say. I won’t let you or that asshole hurt them anymore. She deserves better than a self-centered narcissistic cunt for a mother; it’s just too bad you couldn’t be that for her.”

  She really started squawking then, but I didn’t give a shit. Someone needed to stand up to Mel’s parents. The more she’d opened up about them, the more I wanted to just beat the shit out of something, so rather than listen to this shit, I got back on my bike and rode away. My three brothers at my back hadn’t said a damn thing, the whole exchange, but they knew. I’d talked to them about it on the way here.

  We stopped for a bite at the old diner Mel used to work at on the way out of town, the three of us agreeing that our business here was concluded and it was time to go home. I think all of us were irritated enough that we just wanted to put this place as far in our rearview as possible before we crapped out for the night. Maybe it was just me, or maybe I was just projecting. Who the fuck knows?

  What I do know, is that it was fuckin’ late when we stopped and that we hadn’t quite crossed into the next time zone, so it was later still where Mel was at. It didn’t stop me from calling her though. I was beginning to worry it’d kick to voicemail when she picked up, her voice dusky with sleep as it slipped over the airwaves and made the miles left between us seem like just some kind of cruel illusion.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey, Baby. Did I wake you up?”

  “Yeah, but it’s okay… wait… are you okay?”

  “Just fine, how’s our little man?”

  “A holy terror today, but sleeping like an angel now.”

  I chuckled, “What was his problem?”

  “He’s a toddler, heading into those terrible two’s, does he need any other excuse?”

  “What happened?” I asked her, “One of those ‘why is my kid crying?’ moments?”

  “He threw a full on fit at the grocery store, no reason why. Just threw himself on the floor, screaming, crying; the whole nine yards. I had to take him out, leave the cart and finally leave the store all together. It was so embarrassing! I felt horrible for the people in the store that had to listen to him, let alone the employees who had to put all the stuff in our cart back on the shelves.”

  “Woah, hey, that is bad, even for him. You get anything out of him on what the meltdown was for?”

  “No. We came home, he went into his crib, screamed for like an hour while I told him ‘no’ that his behavior was awful and I was having none of it, but you know, putting a one and a half year old in time out… they don’t really get it and I’m not about to hit my kid.”

  “No, I know, I hear you, Babe. I’m sorry you had a hard day.”

  “Actually, the day wasn’t so bad except for that.”

  “Hmm,” I sighed, and I asked her, “You miss me?”

  She was quiet for a time, and I heard her draw breath through the line, “Yes, yes I do,” she said quietly. I replayed her words from our last argument in my head, the last time the man I loved got on his bike and drove away... I don’t think she’d realized she’d slipped, but I had.

  “Okay, Baby. I’m sorry I woke you up, I love you and I’ll let you get back to sleep.”

  A long silence on the other end of the phone before a tremulous, “I love you, too. Hurry home and ride safe, please?”

  “You got it.”

  I hung up and stared into the star scattered sky up above. I was stretched out flat on a picnic table in a rest stop. The rest of the guys were laying across the spines of their bikes, but I wanted a little distance and, at the very least, the illusion of privacy for making my call. I closed my eyes, the hard and flat surface of the table giving my muscles a good stretch, even as I felt like my bones still held a hum from the long day spent riding.

  “We crashing here or we finding a hotel?” I called.

  “Fuck it, why spend the money?” Data called.

  “Out here suits me just fine,” Dragon muttered, the coal on the end of his cigarette flaring bright.

  “Might as well make it unanimous,” Trigger’s deep baritone filtered out through the dark.

  “Right, night then,” I said and settled in for a nap. We had until dawn or some state patrol pigs rolled up on us. Either way, we weren’t doing nothing illegal.

  Chapter 27

  Melody

  “I can’t wait to actually find a place and move,” I was saying. We were all gathered in what we affectionately called the club’s backyard, which was really just the mammoth swath of grass set inside the circular track of asphalt out back. It was all of the club’s ol’ ladies. Mandy and I were keeping a solid eye on Noah and Eden who were playing on a blanket nearby, while we all lounged in a semi-circle in the sun on chairs constructed by Rush.

  The guys had, for the most part, gone on a leisure ride and we were all content to have some girl time, and to stay behind with the kids and Shelly, who was due quite literally, any day now.

  “I am so ready for this baby to come out!” she complained for like the thousandth time and Mandy and I laughed, but it was more in solidarity. We knew exactly what she meant. Hayden stuck out her bottom lip and pouted.

  “Doesn’t look like it’s going to happen for me and Reaver, but you know what? That’s okay because it’s still a hell of a lot of fun trying.”

  Every woman, from Ashton to Dani, mother and non-mother alike had to laugh at that. Ashton wrung out a washcloth and helped lay it on the back of Shelly’s neck to try and keep her cool. The boys had staked a large table umbrella in the ground to give her shade, but it was still hot out, being the middle of August.

  Archer had returned from his run to Arizona something like two weeks before and we hadn’t spoken on it since. What we had been talking a great deal about was finding a house, both of us agreeing that we were totally over the apartment. One, it was too small, two, it was falling apart, three it was in a really shitty part of town, and four, the level of dealing, gang violence and domestic disputes surrounding us were off the charts. We didn’t want Noah around it, hell I didn’t want to be around it. It was becoming a harrowing experience just going from the front door to my car and vice versa.

  “Trust me, Honey… a few more months and I’ll be right there with you,” Mandy said patting her distended tummy. She was moving right along in her pregnancy, too.

  “I don’t know what’s worse,” Shelly complained, “The heat, the swollen ankles, the weight gain, or the having to pee because this kid wants to use my bladder as a trampoline.”

  “All of the above?” I suggested, adding, “I can’t imagine being as pregnant as you are in this heat, I mean, it’s so muggy compared to the dry heat of Arizona. I may be a sun worshiping fool, but this is seriously taking some getting used to.” I fanned myself with the catalog that Hayden had brought me full of housewares and the like. She and Reaver had gotten me a gift certificate to it for mine and Archer’s wedding and I was daydreaming about filling our future house with things from it, even though we had yet to find something suitable.

  “I’ll be right back,” Shelly said and Everett had to help her up out of her lounge chair. I winced in sympathy.

  “You look so uncomfortable,” Dani said with a similar look on her face that was on mine.

  “This is the pits,” Shelly agreed, took two steps and sploosh! She looked down between her legs and back up, fear and
panic on her face.

  “Yep! That just happened,” Mandy said and pushed herself to her feet.

  “Shelly, don’t panic honey; it’s okay,” I said and was the first one to her.

  “Did my water just break?” she asked, a little stunned, and looked down at her soaked sundress.

  “It sure did,” Mandy said.

  “Oh, god! Somebody call Ghost!”

  “On it, Everett declared, her cell pressed to her ear.”

  “Oh no, this is bad,” Shelly said and I let Ashton and Hayden take her from either side to walk her to Ashton’s Jeep which she had conveniently parked here out back just in case of this eventuality. Everett had her finger in her other ear as she spoke quickly to someone on the other end of the line. Mandy and I were making beelines for our kids. Dani was already there helping to pick up their toys, tossing them in a plastic bin and marching it to her shop for safe keeping.

  “Shelly, I need you to calm down,” Hayden was saying with some authority. I ran the blanket that Noah and Eden had been playing on ahead of them and put it on the passenger seat of Ashton’s Jeep before they could help Shelly into it.

  I ran back to Mandy who had Eden on her hip and was holding Noah by the hand, walking him along.

  “Why Auntie Shelly scared?” he kept asking, over and over, and was getting increasingly upset when he wasn’t getting an answer from any of the grownups.

  “Auntie Shelly is having her baby!” I told him and he just kept craning his neck in the direction of the Jeep as Mandy and I made for our cars and the car seats.

  “Why Auntie Shelly Scared? Where the baby? Momma I wanna see!”

  “We gotta go to the hospital with Auntie Shelly, I need you to be a good boy and let me get you into your car seat, okay?” I started to buckle Noah in but he kept twisting and fighting to turn around and see.

  “Why Auntie Shelly scared? I wanna see Auntie Shelly!”

  “Noah Jeramiah Turner, sit down!” I said in my no nonsense mommy voice after a full, almost five minutes of struggling to get him strapped in. His eyes as wide as saucers he complied and I finally got him buckled in.

  Mandy was similarly having troubles, Eden crying from her car seat, her mind firmly made up that she didn’t like all of the hullabaloo. Not one bit.

  “Thank you,” I told Noah and kissed the top of his head quickly.

  “See you at the hospital!” Mandy chirped over the roof of her car and I smiled.

  “See you there!”

  “I hope she isn’t in labor long,” she said and I shrugged.

  “Always hard to tell when it’s the first, it felt like forever when I was in labor with Noah.”

  “Tell me about it!” She called getting into her car. I got into mine but our windows were rolled down, she called out, “I was in labor for something like thirty-six hours with Eden.”

  I winced, “Okay mine wasn’t quite that bad, but not going to lie, my birthing experience was just awful.”

  Mandy’s face crumbled and we started our cars, “I’m getting that story over margaritas!”

  I laughed and waited for Dani who came trotting out the front of the club and got into my passenger seat. Everett climbed in with Mandy.

  “Okay, I got it, we’re ready to go.”

  Ashton and Hayden were long gone with their precious cargo and we pulled down the drive. When we were through the gate, Dani turned around and clicked the remote. The gate trundling shut smoothly behind us.

  She immediately got onto her cellphone, “Yeah Aaron, you might want to head to the hospital. Yeah, her water just broke. Uh-huh. I’m sad you missed it, too! Boo for late practices. Okay, yeah. Do you need to be picked up? No? Great, okay. See you there.”

  Dani and I had become good friends in the beginning, secretly commiserating about what an ass Archer could be, bonding over our less than ideal encounters with the private, stubborn man. She grinned and said, “I can’t wait for this.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “Disney is like Shelly’s BFF, he and Aaron are supposed to be in the birthing suite, Aaron has camera duty and he told me a long time ago that he’s always been gay, as in he’s never even seen a vagina.”

  I started laughing, “And his first encounter with one is going to be during the miracle of childbirth?”

  “I know, right!?”

  We both laughed hysterically over that for a minute, and I thought to myself, what I wouldn’t pay to see the looks on their faces at the same time that I prayed for Shelly that what happened to me with Noah would never happen to her. Although with the lot of these men and the ol’ ladies of the Sacred Hearts present, I didn’t think there was an icicle’s chance in hell.

  “I’m so happy for her I think I could die,” I confessed.

  “So am I, but I’m dying to know if it’s a boy or girl.”

  “Me too! I can’t believe she and Ghost literally waited to the last second.”

  “Me either.”

  We chatted about it all the way to the hospital, and when we parked, we got out to the sound of the far off thunder of rapidly approaching motorcycles. I got Noah out of his seat and he was twisting this way and that calling, “Daddy! Daddy! Momma I hear Daddy!” which made me smile. Everett and Mandy had Eden out of the car in equal time and we all headed inside.

  We met Ashton, Hayden, and Shelly just inside the door. Shelly was sitting in a wheel chair panting, a light dew of sweat on her upper lip as she squeezed her eyes shut and groaned.

  “Okay, here we go!” a nurse declared.

  Hayden said, “I hope you have a waiting room big enough for all of us.”

  “How many of you are there?” she asked.

  “A lot!” Dragon called, striding through the sliding doors.

  “Where’s my wife!?” Ghost called and Shelly started screaming for him.

  “Ghost! Ghost, I’m right here, oh god it hurts!”

  Ghost and Disney blew past us and took up post to either side of Shelly’s chair, holding her hands.

  “Aaron’s on the way!” Dani called and Archer found me and Noah.

  “Daddy! Auntie Shelly scared.” Our son reached for his father and Archer picked him up.

  “She’s gonna be okay, buddy. You’ll see,” Archer said and Noah hugged him.

  “Poor Auntie Shelly!” Noah declared to a round of laughter from all of us, brother and ol’ lady alike.

  “Waiting room is this way, folks! Come on!” Another nurse had taken charge of the lot of us and we followed her down to a waiting room.

  Noah and Eden ended up in a corner with the toys, sliding those wooden beads along the metal twisty and curvy wires. Those strange toys for infants and toddlers that just about every waiting room in every hospital or doctor’s office had.

  Nox was sitting with them and Archer and some of the guys had gone to raid the vending machines. We’d been sitting here a good long while. Like going on nine hours now and finally, Mandy broached the topic.

  “So what happened when you gave birth to Noah that made it so awful?” she asked.

  I sighed, “First off, I was alone. My parents had me take a taxi to the hospital. So as if that wasn’t bad enough, I couldn’t afford anything like birthing classes, so I had no idea what to expect. First, I was told by one of the nurses that I looked too young to be having a baby. She was the worst. I can’t even begin to describe how awful this woman was.

  “I was in a lot of pain, because first time giving birth, and I kept asking her if that was normal and she basically told me to quit whining.”

  “Oh my god!” Dani decried.

  “Yeah, if I’d been there, I would have hoofed her right in her front butt and told her to quit whining and walk it off, see how she liked it.” Everett said darkly.

  “Then, the doctor decided that he wanted to be home in time for dinner and that Noah wasn’t coming on his schedule, so that meant I needed a c-section, which I didn’t want.”

  “Are you serious?” Mandy asked.

>   “It gets worse. So I’m screaming at these people, no I don’t consent, that I don’t want a cesarean and the doctor looks at me point blank and says, ‘I don’t care what you want, I can write whatever I want in your chart. If I decide it’s medically necessary, then it’s medically necessary, now we’re doing this so I can go home.’”

  Shocked silence rang out from not only the women listening, but several of the men nearby, too.

  “Oh please tell me that that shit didn’t fly,” Reaver said.

  I nodded, “I was alone, I didn’t have anyone there to look out for me, so it did… but wait; it gets worse.”

  “How could this possibly get worse?” Rush demanded, looking up from where he was playing with Noah.

  “They wheel me into the OR crying and pretty much hysterical, right? They dope me up and they put up the drape and they start to cut, and I’m screaming at them that I can feel it, but they ignored me. I could feel just about everything, I don’t know if the epidural didn’t take or whatever, or if they didn’t wait for it to take effect, I just don’t know, but I could feel them cut me open and I could feel them pull Noah out of my body and I could even feel every poke and pull of the needle and thread as they stitched me up.”

  Stone cold silence, a bag of chips dropped and hit the floor and I turned to meet Archer’s equally horrified and downright angry gaze. If he had been turning that look on me, I would have been terrified, but the fact that he looked that way on my behalf, it warmed something inside of me and gave me back a piece of confidence I hadn’t known I was missing.

  “It gets worse,” I uttered and Dray threw up his hands and said, “Oh come on! That’s seriously not enough?”

  I shook my head, “So they pull Noah out and then, they wouldn’t even let me hold him. They just whisked him away without a single word. I kept crying and demanding to see my baby, but no one that was left in the OR would speak. They wouldn’t even look at me. I passed out, and when I woke up, it was to find out it was six hours later and I’d basically missed every first milestone bonding moment with my son. I had no skin to skin contact, that I was conscious for, and I guess a nurse had helped him latch and at least get the colostrum he needed, so I even missed breast feeding him for the first time, too.”