by Ana Jolene
“I’m so glad you’re here.” She sat in a chair beside her daughter. “What did you want to ask me?”
Seven cleared her throat, not bothering with playing it safe. “Why did you abandon us that day?”
“Okay, well.” Helen was obviously not used to Seven’s directness, but if she knew her daughter at all, she would’ve known that Seven didn’t beat around the bush for long. “I was scared,” she began. “I was only thinking of getting you away from your father that day.”
“Why?”
“I’d discovered something shocking that changed my entire world. Your father hadn’t been a bad man at first.” She paused, looking up at Seven. “Do you remember him?”
She shook her head.
“It’s better that way,” she said with a nod. “I don’t know how to tell you this but he had a strange obsession with you. At first, I thought it was just fatherly love. But that wasn’t it at all.” Her face morphed into something dark and angry, and I braced myself. “I had just put Ainsley down to bed and found myself frozen by the door, watching as your father self-stimulated himself while he watched you sleep.”
No. Don’t tell me that she was harmed that way. My hand found Seven’s, clutching it for support. But the whole time, Seven remained silent and cold, unresponsive to my touch. My own fears made breathing difficult. How much worse was Seven feeling right now?
“It threw me into a panic,” Helen continued. “After seeing that, the decision was simple. I had to get you away from him.”
“I don’t remember that,” Seven whispered.
Tears welled in Helen’s eyes. “I hoped you never would.” She reached out to touch Seven’s shoulder gently. “You have to understand that I did it for you two. I confronted him about it and when he threatened to kill me if I ever told a soul, I took you two and ran. We didn’t survive very long alone. I couldn’t find a job. It was hard trying to keep a low profile. When I realized I wouldn’t be able to take care of you myself, I—”
As Helen broke off, Seven glanced in my direction, breathing out as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Do you want to go?” I asked softly. Staying here was making me feel sick.
“No.”
“Did he ever touch her?” For some reason, I needed to know.
“I don’t know,” Helen answered. “But after that night, I wasn’t going to chance it again. I got them out. And while I regret leaving them like that, I still think it was better than the alternative.”
“Why didn’t you go to the police?”
Helen turned to me, eyes glistening with fresh tears. But it was Seven who answered. “She couldn’t,” she said. “My father was a cop.”
I felt the bottom of the stomach drop, sickened by it all. Helen was trapped, left in a situation with limited options. As a man of authority, Seven’s father would have the means to locate them if he wanted to.
“So what happened to him?” The look Helen shot us conveyed the words that she couldn’t say. “You killed him?”
Helen’s eyes glowed with anger. “I lost my children because of him. I didn’t want him preying on other children either.” She turned to Seven, begging. “I’m sorry. For everything. I wanted you to have a good life. Even if that meant that I wasn’t going to be there to witness it.”
Seven began to laugh then. A strange, almost hysterical laugh. As Helen shot me a confused look, I remained silent. “All this time I blamed you, thinking that if it weren’t for you, I could have saved myself from years of whoring myself,” Seven said. “But fate fucked things up for me earlier on. I just hadn’t realized it yet.”
“What are you talking about?” Even though Helen claimed to have watched over her, it was clear she didn’t have a clue about the Martins and what they’d made her do. I waited to see if Seven would tell her.
Seven
Bits and pieces were slowly coming to the surface of my mind. My father had been a pedophile. My mother had tried to stop him. She’d also stopped Trey from breaking into my house. Had everything I thought about my mother been wrong? Had she been looking out for me all this time?
As much as I wanted someone to blame for what happened with the Martins, it wasn’t fair. Sometimes shit happened and trying to find someone to blame only made enemies instead of peace. And peace was the only thing I wanted.
“A family called the Martins took us home that day,” I began. “Since no one reported us missing, they decided to keep us. We were kind of like lost puppies, I guess.” Instead of smiling as I’d hoped she would, Helen’s bottom lip trembled. “They treated us well. But once we turned legal, we were forced to pay them back.”
She glanced between Lucky and me, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion. “What am I missing here?”
“They forced your daughters to become prostitutes,” Lucky said bluntly.
Helen blanched, immediately looking to me for confirmation. When I nodded, tears fell from her eyes. “Oh God, I thought I could save you from it.”
“It’s fine. I survived it.” Ainsley hadn’t, but I didn’t think she would want us to dwell on her death when we could try to fix our relationship. If Ainsley were alive, she would’ve wanted to make an effort at trying to get to know our mother. Maybe that was what my dream was trying to tell me.
“I loved being a mother to you.” Helen turned towards me, squeezing my hand. “If I knew that would happen to you, I would never have left you. You have to believe me.”
Despite everything that happened, I did. While my mother had made a shit decision that day, she’d made the best of what she had, something I’d done for all my life just to survive. Sometimes it was strange. Sometimes it was unethical. But if it meant getting to live another day, sometimes it had to be done. “I know it’s been a very long time, but I’m determined to get my daughter back so we can be a family again.”
A family. The one thing I’d always wanted. I never once thought that dream could be in reach, but here it was, sitting right beside me. I just hadn’t decided if I wanted to take it or not.
“I don’t think you get to decide that,” Lucky cut in. “If you claim to want the best for your daughter, maybe you should try asking what she wants before deciding anything.”
“Of course.” Helen nodded with understanding. “You’re right.”
“Seven, what do you think?” I had to smile at Lucky’s protectiveness. As much as I had wished for a family, Lucky just proved that I already had one, one ready and willing to look out for me.
“I want to make this work,” I said. “But it will take some time. We’ve lost years and we can’t gain them back just like that. But I promise you, if what you’re saying is true and you want to be a family again, then I will do my part to try as well.”
Helen’s smile was immediate. “I would love that.”
EPILOGUE
Lucky
On the last night Dex and Lennon were with us, Glory MC threw a hog roast. After the tension-filled encounter of handing Vincent Cavezza over back to the Phantoms, everyone was looking for an outlet to forget about the last few days’ events. Nothing could be done about it now; the trade had been made and we’d handed over the one weapon that could possibly take down the Phantoms. At least we had gotten Bronson back alive.
“Lookie what I have!” Indy sang as she approached Seven and me sitting on a sand dune. In her hands were two bottles of our favorite alcohol. Seven made grabby hands until her best friend handed them over. “I brought some cups, too,” she said, looking into her purse for them.
“No need!” Seven twisted off the cap and drank straight from the bottle.
“Seven!” Helen scolded.
Seven shot her mother a sheepish look. “Sorry.” She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. When hearing about the hog roast, she’d asked me if she could invite her mother. The fact that she was trying very hard to rebuild this lost relationship made me so proud of her. While nothing about it would be easy, Seven’s personality always made room for
possibility and if there was any person who could forgive and forget, it was Seven, the girl with the open heart.
Attending the hog roast would be an eye opener for Helen for sure, but there was no point in hiding what would clearly be a big part of Seven’s life. I had no doubt that she would win over the rest of the club much like her daughter had. The fact that she was even here made me respect her more and it displayed just how hard she was trying to make up for her earlier mistakes.
After deciding that she would give this mother-daughter relationship a shot again, Seven made a special request of her mother—she didn’t want her to call her Isla. Although the Martins have given her the name Seven to remind her of where she had come from, it didn’t hold the same meaning to her. As Seven, she’d rose from the dark depths and cultivated this new bright world for herself. She didn’t want to lose that now that a part of her past had come back. Understanding how important that was for her daughter, Helen had agreed, and since then, the beginning of their relationship seemed to be progressing well.
So well that even my sister was getting acquainted with Helen. They sat side by side, Lennon laughing at something Seven’s mother had said. I would miss her laugh when she left, but I knew that my baby sister was growing up. She would make her own mistakes and hopefully learn from them. It wasn’t enough to want to protect her from the same devil my mother had fallen prey to. If Lennon was as smart as I thought she was, she would make it on her own, deciding for herself what was best for her. I couldn’t be there for every day of her life.
I looked over to where Dex stood beside Hastie, drinking a beer. For Lennon’s entire existence, I’d treated her as her mother’s daughter and never as herself. It took me a while to realize that Lennon needed the space to grow and become her own person. I had to trust her. And as hard as that was, I knew the leap of faith was necessary. It wouldn’t be easy, but it would be worth it in the end.
“What are you thinking about?”
I turned to Seven. “I was thinking about what Ma would think of me if she saw me now.”
She snuggled closer to me, resting her head on my shoulder as I took a sip of my beer and gazed into the fire. “Do you hate her?”
“Yes.”
“But can you forgive her?” Her words were an exact match as what I’d asked her about her mother.
My heart would heal in time. The more days that passed, the less I would think about her. Growing up, I’d been led to believe that I didn’t possess the capacity to love, but perhaps I’d made the mistake of loving a person too much when they didn’t deserve it.
In realizing that, I would now channel all that towards the woman in my arms, the one person who deserved my love because without Seven, I wouldn’t have realized that where a person came from didn’t necessarily mean that was where you’d end up.
* * *
“Are you crying?” Seven asked her mother as Lennon and Dex said their goodbyes.
Helen shot a nasty look at her daughter. “I just hate farewells, okay?” There was a chorus of laughter as Seven pulled her mother into a comforting hug.
My eyes met the same light blue of my sister’s as she turned to me. “Don’t tell me you’re going to start bawling too.”
Lennon rolled her eyes. “Please. I don’t like you that much.”
I hooked an arm around her neck and hauled her towards me. Sooner or later, she was going to admit that she liked having me as a big brother.
Dex met my eyes over Lennon’s shoulder. He smiled, nodding once as I released her. “Take care of her,” I told him as I watched them slide into their truck.
“You know I will.” This was becoming a routine between us, but hearing him say it always made me feel better.
In the car, Lennon promised that they would visit again soon. As they drove away, Seven turned to me. “What are we going to do now?”
“I’m going to drive your mother home.” Seven and I had borrowed Indy’s Chevelle again so that we could bring Helen here with us. “Then I’m going to get you in bed and peel this off your body.” I fingered the fringed part of her tank where it exposed her flat stomach. Ever since she’d put it on this morning, it was all I could think about.
Seven’s eyes heated as she smiled. “Better drive fast then.”
I grinned. “Let’s go find your mother.”
Taking my hand, Seven began calling out for Helen. “Have you seen my mother?” Seven asked Kitt as we passed by. The sergeant at arms straddled his bike, shaking his head before taking off. “She’s got to be around here somewhere.”
I scanned the dispersing crowd as they made their way to their bikes. Knuckle’s large figure hovered by his bike on the outer edge. He was no doubt waiting for Hanna.
“Come on,” I told Seven. “She’s probably with Hanna still.”
When we climbed the dune where we’d last seen them, it was just as I had expected. Helen was happily chirping away with Hanna. Knuckle stood beside them, looking like he wanted nothing more than to head home as he sucked on an end of a cigarette. He shot me an annoyed look. “Ready to head home?”
“Fuck yeah. Been a long night,” he said as he passed the cigarette over to me.
I jerked a thumb over my shoulder. “Thought it was you down there, waiting by your bike already.”
“Nah. These two know that if I got anywhere near my bike, I’d be gone.”
Despite being the prez of the club, Knuckle wasn’t a party animal, and hog roasts like these didn’t really interest him. “Well, Lennon’s gone and the sun’s coming up,” I said. “Best leave now before you get caught in the heat.”
“Hear that, babe?” Knuckle turned to Hanna. “We’d better move.”
“Helen wants to watch the sun rise,” Hanna said. “If you’re so keen on leaving, you go ahead and I’ll catch a ride home with Lucky.” She turned to me. “You wouldn’t mind driving me, would you?”
That would mean waiting to get into bed with Seven. My cock wanted to protest, but instead I said, “No.”
The women squealed like little children in a water park. Knuckle grunted. “Fine.” To me, he said, “Get her home to me safely.”
I nodded as Seven settled down beside her mother, curling up under one of her arms. I stood behind them, a protective presence as they enjoyed the view.
If there was one thing I learned it was that our relationships with people weren’t always perfect. But there were some people who, even though you hated them, you never stopped loving. Sometimes the best thing to do was face your fears because what you got in return was more precious than what you could’ve lost.
I brought the cigarette Knuckle had given to me to my mouth, taking a deep drag. I still didn’t understand what had gone through his head when he decided to give Vincent up. The Phantoms would hardly be the kind to ignore a threat as large as us. But he’d done it to protect us, and like he said, to get Bronson back unharmed. Glory MC still had to watch our backs though. The Phantoms would likely attack when we least expected it.
The large figure looming by Knuckle’s bike earlier flashed through my mind. If it hadn’t been Knuckle down there, then who was the person by his Harley?
Fucking hell. On a curse, I bolted towards the bikes, shouting for Knuckle. “Knuckle, no!” From here, I could see him straddling his bike, gripping the handlebars. I screamed again, waving my arms in the air to grab his attention, but Knuckle still couldn’t see me in the darkness.
He revved the engine and before he could even understand what was happening, the Harley beneath him blew up in flames, engulfing the prez of Glory MC with it.
NIRVANA
Glory MC series, Book Three
Tansy Bonheur survived the worst treatment a human being could be subjected to. After being rescued from the decaying, rat-infested cell she was caged in, Tansy hopes that this will be the end of her suffering. But a quick turn of events makes her realize that her reoccurring nightmares are the least of her problems.
Kittredge Calliope fe
ll in love with Tansy the first moment he set his eyes on her. Unfortunately for him, Tansy recoils every time he tries to speak to her. When an attack on one of Glory MC’s members forces the club to evacuate the clubhouse, Kitt must get Tansy to safety. But not even being in the embrace of Glory MC’s sergeant at arms can protect Tansy from the people out to get her.
In this dangerous, ruthless world, will their newfound love be enough to bring a hardened warrior to his knees and turn a timid beauty into the fighter she needs to be?
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A special thanks to the following people, without whom this book would never have made it to publication. Many thank-yous go out to:
Tanya Keetch and Judy Zweifel, my excellent editorial team who’ve done everything to make me look good.
Stacey Blake for the fantastic formatting.
Kristi Yanta and Laura Hunsaker for answering my many questions.
Helyce Canavero, whose friendship and support has been invaluable to me, especially during the release of the first book in this series.
My UTC girls—Angela Carillo, Francesca Bensi and Suzanne Bluff. Thanks for standing by me!
The bloggers and reviewers who took a chance on me and followed me into the world of Glory MC.
Sissy. For everything! Literally.
My family and friends who bought a book and pimped it.
Roko for being the best distraction on the worst of days.
And last but certainly not least, thank you, dear reader for loving these bikers just as much as I do.