Sara comes in for a snack. “Hey dad, you talked to Cole lately?”
“No!” I snap, not meaning to yell at her. I’m so tense and stressed the fuck out right now. I am going to kill that boy. Sara just happened to bring him up at the wrong damn time.
“Sheesh, sorry I asked.” She shakes her head, rolling her eyes at me.
“I didn’t mean to lose my cool, kiddo. It’s just, I don’t want to talk about it right now.”
“Do you have any away games this week?”
“Nope, no games.”
“That’s good.”
She looks at me quizzically. “Okay. I’m going to go paint my nails to match my outfit for tomorrow or something. You’re being all weird.”
I sigh as she grabs a water and granola bar from the pantry.
I suppose Sara and Karly could come with me to Kentucky. It’s been years since we left. There isn’t any threat to my family anymore. Other than my son being a dumbshit it seems. I can’t help but wonder how in the hell he ended up in Kentucky…in Drag Creek.
Time to have a talk with my wife. Time for the past to be laid to rest once and for all.
Karly
“He did what!?” I shriek, unable to process what my husband just told me. “How?” All the color has drained from my face and my hands won’t stop shaking. I’m going to kill my son and then I am going to hug him before I kill him again. I can’t believe he found my father. How did he know who to look for? Has my old man been in contact with him behind my back?
“Fuck if I know, but what’s done is done. I’m flying out in a few hours and need to get to the airport. Are you and Sara coming with me?”
“I don’t know.” I shake my head and pace the floor of our bedroom while my husband gets a bag together. “You know what this means don’t you? No more hiding who we were.”
“It isn’t as though most of them don’t know. Truth called me,” Nash tells me.
“I know that, but is this really a road we want to go down?”
“It seems Cole has left us without a choice.”
“I guess he has. I’ll talk to Sara. How much should I tell her?”
“As much as you can without freaking her out. I don’t know how Cole ended up where he did, but that can’t be changed. We can only move forward.”
“Book us tickets too.”
“Don’t need to. Called in that favor Kev owes me. He’s flying us.”
I sigh and fight the urge to have a glass of wine or the whole bottle for that matter. Before I walk into Sara’s room I put in a call to my supervisor. I never miss work and I hate Sara will be missing school, but there is no getting around this. It was bound to happen one day, but I was hoping it would be more of a deathbed confession; Hey kids, I’m dying but before I do, you have family I never told you about. Our real name isn’t Johnson…
After calling Lisa, I go to Sara. I knock softly on her door. I hear a thump and she turns her music down. The door to her room opens. “Hey mom, what’s up?”
“Sara, I don’t know how else to put this, but we have a family emergency. We need to go to Kentucky. Something has come up with your brother. I’ll explain more on the plane, but you need to pack a bag quickly.”
“Cole’s okay though, right?”
“He is for now. When I get ahold of him…” I shake my head. “Be ready to leave in fifteen minutes.”
I leave her to pack and make my way back to my room to get a bag ready for myself. I want to tell Sara more…the truth, but she is only twelve. I’m not ready to do this. I’m not ready to give Cole to my father, but deep down I know that life has always called to him, ever since he was a baby. All he has ever wanted to do is ride a motorcycle.
Now look at him, he’s right in the middle of everything I never wanted for him. Everything I ran from.
Chapter 18
Grim
Drag Creek, Kentucky
“We got a big problem, brother. Fuckin’ outta this world.”
“Whatta ye mean—we gotta problem?”
“We’re in transport. Get a room ready. Interrogation.” Romeo hangs up without saying more.
“Godddamnit. Son of a bitch,” I mutter under my breath and shut the TV off.
“What’s wrong?” Foxie asks, from the kitchen.
“Nothin’, have some shit to handle is all. I’ll be back when I’m back. Gimme some sugar,” I tell her, stepping out of her way as she moves to the sink to drain her noodles.
She pours the contents of her pot into a strainer that is waiting in the sink. Once she is finished she wipes her hands on a dish towel and sweeps her hair from her brow. Going up on her toes, she kisses the corner of my mouth. “Maybe I’ll still be here when you get back.”
“You’ll be here,” I say with a snort. “Couldn’t pay ye to leave.” I laugh and she smacks my chest.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were trying to hurt my feelings.”
“Never.” I wink and kiss her forehead. “Save me some of that, whatever it is.”
“Pasta salad.” She smiles with a nod, and I head out the back door.
Over in the basement of the Roadhouse, I open up a room that hasn’t been needed in a long ass time, maybe too long. Maybe I’ve gone too straight.
Flicking on the light, I go around pulling the white sheets off the furniture.
As I go through one of the cabinets, I stumble across an old photo. It’s of Slim, Foxie, myself, and Gypsy Red. Her stomach was swollen with our child, with my girl, my precious Baby.
Those days were short-lived and another lifetime ago. Some days I wonder if Gypsy Red would be happy for me, that despite all the bad, I’ve somehow managed to make a life for myself. And that’s the thing…things have been quiet too long. I have this feeling that I can’t shake; something bad is about to happen.
Running my finger over Gypsy Red’s stomach, the door opens. I look up and my chest seizes, I can’t breathe. I fall to my knees clutching the photograph to my chest, gasping for air. The room tilts and my vision blurs. If this is it…the end of my ride, I pray—–I pray that my maker takes me home. Takes me to an open road with Gypsy Red waiting for me, where we will finally get to be together.
I sway to the side and my vision grows black. The image of my one true love is burned into the backs of my eyelids.
**
Red hair glistens in the sun, as the woman walks to the gate, big black sunglasses hiding a majority of her face. My breath catches in my throat. My mind wanders back in time, forty years or so to be exact. A frozen place in time when the sun hugged the moon. Only it was dark and she was illuminated by the moon. A beacon burning bright, my Cara Marie, my Gypsy Red.
“The fuck you want?” The woman asks in a husky voice, thick with a southern accent, interrupting my daydreaming.
“Have an appointment,” I tell her gruffly, flashing a wad of cash in her direction and drop the bag I’m carrying at my feet. Pisses me off the bitch is wearing glasses, keeping me from gauging her expression.
“You armed?”
“I’d be a dumbfuck if I wasn’t.” I fold my arms across my chest as her lips curve into a smile so familiar it makes my heart ache. Pain sears from the middle of my chest. The flames of Gypsy Red’s memory burning me from the inside out.
A buzzer sounds and two armed guards step through and pat me down, removing the gun from my boot and the knife from my pocket.
The sun gleams in my eye and I blink. Suddenly, I can’t remember where I am or what I am doing here.
I am thrusts through the gate and it closes behind me.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” she says with a wide smile and a hairline scar above her lip catches my attention.
“Gypsy,” I choke out her name as she removes her sunglasses.
“Hey, stranger. Long time no see.” Her fiery eyes burn into me, and I am down on my knees wrapping my arms around her waist as tears fill my eyes.
I’m not an emotional man, but Goddamn all I ca
n do is hold her and ask her if she’s real. She sure as fuck feels real beneath my touch. Warm, soft, feeling like heaven.
“I’ve missed you, baby,” I cry against her stomach as her fingers stroke the top of my head and caresses my jaw. “How?”
“Come with me.” She smiles once more but it’s a sad smile.
Rising, I take her hand in mine, and I have to stop for a moment to savor the curl of her fingers in mine. Taking a deep breath, I breathe her touch in. I can’t form a coherent thought. All I know is I have the love of my life in my arms and I ain’t ever letting her go. I don’t care how or why…none of that matters. We’re together now.
She leads me to a house, I can’t tell what the place looks like. My eyes are only for the redheaded siren who holds every piece of me. She stops at a mirror and our reflection gazes back at me. She looks the same as I remember, only her stomach no longer holds our daughter. She hasn’t aged a bit. I look like a filthy old fucker next to her. I snort and she laughs as though she can read my thoughts.
I watch as she waves her hand over the mirror and suddenly images…fragments of my life flash before us.
“What is this?”
“This is your life. Every bad thing you ever did.”
My breath catches in my throat as I see myself as a boy holding the tire iron I killed my own mother with. Gypsy squeezes my hand as the face of every man…woman...faces of those I have killed stare back at us.
They fade into oblivion.
“You did a lot of good too, Jack.”
I look to her and those eyes that have haunted me to the core. A tear slides down her cheek and I capture it with my thumb.
“You were an amazing father. I’m so proud of you. You did good, baby.”
She motions for me to look and images of Baby and Sarah flutter by. My girls. An ache rips through my chest, Goddamn I miss my girls.
I shake my head. “No, I was a lousy shit. Didn’t deserve either of them girls and I failed. I failed them. I failed you.” Pulling her hand to my mouth, I kiss her knuckles.
Her lips curve upward and she shivers.
“You didn’t. I’ve talked to Sarah. She told me how good you were to her.”
“Whatta ye mean, you’ve seen Sarah?”
“She’s here, but you can talk to her later.”
“She’s here?” I look around confused as fuck.
This house we are inside of, it’s dark, the only light is the flame of a single candle burning on the table under the mirror.
“Grim… I—you…we’re dead.”
Jerking back from her I shake my head. She can’t mean what I think I heard. “No,” I say, denying it, but I feel it in my bones. The words she speaks are true.
“Is this…Heaven?”
She shrugs. “I don’t know.”
I chuckle.
“What’s so funny?”
“I guess the man upstairs did hear me. I told him if it was my time, to take me to you.”
“Oh, Jack.” She sighs and I pull her tight against me.
Her lips brush against mine and they feel all wrong… she says my name and it sounds so distant. I reach for her but can’t touch her.
I open my eyes surrounded blinded by a pinhole flash shining in my eyes.
Chapter 19
Romeo
“Goddamnit, motherfucker. Don’t you dare do this shit to me. Not now!” I beat on Grim’s chest. Fuck; he isn’t breathing.
I can hear Rebel barking orders for JT to get Carson. He’s a friend of the club and a damn good doctor. Lost his license, but he’s still damn good.
Pressing my mouth to Grim’s furry lips, I breathe into him and press against his chest. I don’t know what I am doing. It’s been a long Goddamned time since I’ve done CPR.
“Breathe Goddamnit. Breathe!”
I give him another full deep breath.
“Don’t give up on me you bastard.”
Doc Carson comes rushing into the room and pushes me aside. He goes straight to work. JT stands at his side holding his kit.
Carson works on Grim soundlessly, only motioning for his bag. Pulling out a syringe he fills it with adrenaline. Next thing I know he stabs Grim’s sorry ass in the heart with it.
The dirty bastard's eyes fly open and he coughs.
“Easy,” Carson instructs him, and for once, the fucker listens.
He glances around the room, wearing confusion on his weary face. His lost expression is soon replaced by a new emotion. Anger. He’s angry.
What the fuck for?
His fist clenches. “Why didn’t you just let me die? I was ready. I was with her!” He roars and shoves Carson back on his ass.
Carson shoots me a look.
“Give me a minute with him. Alone.”
“I still want to check you out. You had a heart attack,” Carson tells him, pointedly.
Grim shakes his head. “Not a word to Foxie.”
Rebel and JT nod, leaving the room with Carson and pulling Colt…Cole, whatever his damn name is along with them. Kid sure as shit appears to be sober now.
“You alright, brother? Gave me quite the fucking scare.”
“Yeah, well, I coulda done without your sorry ass trying to make out with me.” He cracks a half-smile.
Shaking my head, I ask,” Whatta ye mean you were with her?”
“Gypsy Red, I was with her, I was holding her. She was so real to me. I didn’t want to leave her.”
“No shit?”
“Serious as a heart attack.” He grins, but it’s not a happy kinda smile.
“Shit. Damn.” I shake my head. “Got someone you need to see, but don’t think now’s the right time.”
“Now’s as good as any.”
I shrug, knowing he won’t have it any other way other than his own. Holding my hand out to his, I help him to his feet.
“Your stubborn ass needs to go to the hospital,” I tell him.
“Fuck off. Who’s here?”
I pat his back. “Our past and our future.”
His brows arch. “You getting all poetic or some shit?”
“Just don’t go and have another heart attack. Got a lot to tell you, brother. A lot to tell you.”
Opening the door, I call out, “Bring him in.”
Rebel shoves his nephew forward, and for the first time since he was a baby, Grim is properly introduced to his grandson.
Miracle
Lexington, Kentucky
“God, Bridgette…he’s amazing.” I beam at her as I float through our dorm room.
Bridgette is chewing her bottom lip between her teeth, looking at me pensively.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, knowing she has something on her mind.
She shakes her head. “Oh, nothing.” She waves her hand around and rolls her eyes. “Just thinking about how stupid I was over Coy when there is a guy like Rhyner out there. He’s sweet potato pie.” She sighs.
“So, you like Rhyner?” I try to wiggle my brows in a lame attempt. Failing miserably.
“Yes, I like him. More than I should. More than I want to. So, you and Cole…”
“I am only telling you because I love you. We went all the way.” I blush.
“Wow, all the way huh?” She teases.
“Stop it. I have news that trumps that though.”
“Oh, really? Like what?” She eyes me speculatively.
“I found out something. It’s life changing really.”
“About Cole??”
“Cole? No.” I shake my head. “My dad. I know his name. My real dad.”
“Holy shit, when did this happen? I mean…who…how…I am so happy for you. I know how important it is to you. Damn. Congrats.” She hugs me briefly.
“So, he’s a biker. Go figure.” I laugh and she joins me. “My first dad, Romeo. He came through for me. He found this.” I pull out the little black book he gave me. “It was my mom’s. It’s full of her dates and whatnot, but most importantly is a recurring name. One that stuck out to
Romeo.”
“Well bitch, don’t keep me waiting.”
“Stone. His name is Joey Hendrick.”
“Shut up. You know who he is right?”
“Duh!” I smack her with the book.
“No, I mean that’s Cruiz’s dad. That guy who was awesome at basketball. I think he’s a few years older than us.”
I nod, knowing who she is talking about. I know all of Stone’s kids, I know their mother too.
“So, what are you going to do now that you know?”
I shrug. “Nothing. I’ll do nothing. I have enough siblings and I like his wife. I don’t know if he knows about me or not, but I am not gonna break up their happy life, I don’t want to ruin what they have built.”
“Seriously?”
“Totally. So, keep this information to yourself.”
“Okay. Shew.” Her belly growls. “I should’ve had you bring me food. I bet your old man took you somewhere good, didn’t he?”
“It was alright.”
She flops on her bed and opens her book with a sigh.
“Want me to go grab you something?”
“Oh my God, I would kiss you, if you do but not really.”
“Alright alright. I want a milkshake anyway. What do you want?”
Bridgette writes down her order and I grab my purse, digging my phone and some cash out.
“I’ll be back.”
“Hurry, I’m starved.”
“You work up an appetite did you.? Musta been all that romping in the sheets.” I giggle.
“Yeah, yeah. Get my food. A bitch has to eat.”
“I’m going. I’m going.” I flip her off and scurry out the door.
Downstairs in the main lobby, I bump into Tilley.
“So, did your date like the outfit?”
“I think so.”
“I want details.” She bumps her hip into mine.
“Yeah, later. I gotta go get Bridge her food before she starves to death.”
“I expect details.”
I smile with a brief wave.
As I am walking across campus a guy I don’t recognize approaches me. He seems harmless enough, wearing his Metallica t-shirt and faded jeans. “Morgan, right?”
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