by Leah Wilde
Felicity and I stepped out onto the balcony overlooking the pool from my—our—bedroom, and I held up my glass of whiskey. She held up her red wine. I was dressed just as the rest of the MC, in my colors, a t-shirt, and old faded blue jeans. She wore a bathing suit that made her look like she belonged on the cover of a magazine, or on the pages of that magazine’s main spread.
I looked out over the crowd drinking, dancing, and just hanging out on my patio. Those were all my brothers. We’d been through thick and thin together. Some had been around longer, but all had proven themselves true to the cause of The Forsaken Ones. Everyone down there had contributed, even the women who came along with some of my brothers. Yes, they were contributing just by being present.
“Brothers,” I called out over the music. Our boy stopped the record so I could talk. “We are here today to celebrate the MC. Everyone here is Forsaken. That’s for damn sure.”
They responded with laughter.
“On a serious note, though,” I continued, “we have grown this MC from five poor kids who grew up in a small rural town to fifty-plus total members right here in one chapter. We are about to start another new chapter in the legend of The Forsaken Ones. With the money we are about to bring in, we are going to be able to begin expansion into other chapters in other cities.”
They cheered again, raising their glasses and voices to me. Felicity tightened her arm around my waist.
“Some of you will find yourselves promoted to chapter heads, and you will have your own men directly under you who will answer to you.” As I spoke, I imagined how large the MC could be once it started growing. There were clubs out there that were international in scope. With the success we were already enjoying, I knew it wouldn’t have been long before we made it to that size.
“So, as we embark upon this new stage in our journey, raise your glasses and your voices for me. To The Forsaken Ones.”
My patio erupted with their shouts and whistles. The music started again, and I laughed as Felicity and I started back into the bedroom.
“What’s funny?” she asked. “I think that was a pretty good speech.”
“Just the fact that I’ve got them out there acting like they’re at a concert or something. Man, we never really let our hair down like this anymore. We’ve come so far from the rowdy bunch of punks we used to be, you know, so it’s just nice to watch them just be guys again,” I explained, reminding myself that Felicity hadn’t seen much of our story. All she knew was where she came in and what little she might have heard on the street prior to that. We had calmed down a lot since the early days.
“Well, come on,” she said, hugging me around my waist with her bare arms. “Let’s go join the fun.”
We walked down the spiral staircase and I saw that the TV in the living room was on. The house behind the reporter looked like Kleo’s mansion.
“Hold on,” I told her as I rushed down the stairs to grab the remote from the glass coffee table. I turned it up, and looked at her. “That’s Kleo’s house. Get the guys,” I rushed her.
While I waited for them to come in, the reporter was simply establishing the story and the shot.
“Notorious international crime boss, Kleo, was found today at her local estate. We aren’t sure of all the details yet, but it seems that she upset another of our local crime lords. Her estate was ransacked, leaving fifteen men who apparently guarded the property dead on her lawn.”
He continued as the camera crew walked through the rubble of the house.
“As you can see, the scene here is one of utter devastation. Whoever she upset was out for blood.”
They showed her office, and the shattered window, which I assumed happened when she and Felicity had fought earlier that same evening.
“Have they found her body yet?” Vice asked behind me as the guys came back in with Felicity.
Everyone watched in silence. Even the music outside had stopped.
“Kleo, whose real name is Caroline Fairchild, was found on a bench with three gunshot wounds to her stomach and chest. Authorities say they believe Fairchild was left for dead, and they say it is a miracle she is still alive.”
I could feel the eyes on me from the men standing around me. I couldn’t admit to them that I hadn’t checked to see if she was dead because I wanted to assume she was. I couldn’t explain to them that I hadn’t killed her because at the last minute I realized I respected her as a peer. If we had worked with Kleo instead of against her over the years, our two organizations could have been huge together.
“You didn’t make sure she was dead?” Felicity asked.
“I mean, she didn’t look like she was breathing after I shot her. She was done,” I told her.
“It’s okay, bro. We all make mistakes,” Rex said, patting me on the shoulder. “But it looks like it’s going to be a long time before we have to worry about her again.”
“Kleo, or Fairchild, is the head of a large international jewelry theft ring. The FBI is working with several international organizations now to track down known associates. Anyone who has any useful information is asked to call the FBI hotline. As of now, there are no reports of a reward being offered for the capture of several known criminals who were working for Kleo, but any help you can provide is definitely appreciated.”
“Appreciated.” Alvin snorted, turning to walk out.
“Nobody knows anything about me,” Felicity told me quietly while the others left the room. “I have only used my real name with two people—you and Kleo. Hell, I didn’t even know her real name until now.”
“Me either. I don’t think anyone did. She’s just been Kleo for so long,” I explained. “And none of her properties are in her name either. It’s like Kleo is a ghost, and Fairchild ceased to exist.”
“Unfortunately, she’s not a ghost,” Felicity reminded me.
“Yeah, but it won’t take much for them to put her away for a long, long time. If the FBI and international agencies were already searching for her, they have enough on her that we might not ever see her again.”
“True.” Felicity sighed.
“Look, you need to lay low for a while,” I explained. “Just until this blows over. If anyone has pictures of you to connect you to one of your aliases, that’s all it will take to put you on their radar.”
“I can go incognito,” she said to me with a smile. “You know, cut and dye my hair, put in some contacts to change my eye color, wear some fake glasses, change the way I dress. Maybe even go by a different alias for a while. Felicity Tarren had a very distinct look and style. Maybe I could be Tara Renner for a while,” she added with a wink.
I was both impressed and troubled by how quickly she pumped out a new name, but then I realized how similar it was to her last name, and of course, she used my name as part of it, which I thought was incredibly flattering and presumptuous.
“I like that one,” I told her. “It’s better than names like Poppy Lane,” I joked.
“Ah, but you remember it. See, you remember me, even though you weren’t Poppy’s target. That was a fun one. I should have saved it for someone else. The guy I used it on was pretty lame, and the job wasn’t very prestigious, if that makes any sense.”
She seemed thrilled that her old boss was out of the way, and she seemed to come alive at the idea of reinventing herself. It made me think, because different people did what we did for different reasons. There were people who got into our kind of work for the money, or for the power. There were others who just couldn’t work for other people and couldn’t find anything legal to do.
Then, there were people like Felicity, who simply enjoyed the challenge of what she did. She also seemed to enjoy being able to act as part of her job, but if she hadn’t put on a fake name for me, I wondered how much of her powerful seductress act was really her. Then again, it made sense that if she hadn’t been putting on an act, she would still be hanging around instead of disappearing back into the underworld.
“This is really you, i
sn’t it?” I asked her.
“It is. That’s why I fell for you, Hawk. I was only working so much when I was around you. I couldn’t work any harder on you because you just disarmed me every time you spoke or touched me.”
“That’s what I thought,” I told her.
“Well, come on,” she said, pulling on me. “Let’s join the MC outside. Everything’s over now. Let’s enjoy some much needed downtime. And besides, I didn’t put on this bikini for nothing, you know.” She gave me her devilish grin as she pulled away from me and backed up through my door to the patio.
The celebration was going full swing, and before I knew it, I had a plate of food in my hand and a new drink. Our DJ was cranking out some old classic rock tunes for everyone to rock out to, and I needed to find a place to sit so I could eat the massive steak in front of me.
The guys had really outdone themselves this time. It had been a couple of years since we’d done anything like this, and it was really good for the MC to have it at my place. Everyone was safe, and we had private security watching over us, so we didn’t have to worry about anyone coming in and causing trouble while we partied.
I tried not to think about business while I sat outside, but I still had the diamond on me. I wasn’t going to leave it lying around again. We had to reach back out to our original buyer and see if we could get more money this time, especially since it had changed hands again, technically. We basically had to try to kill someone and steal from them to get it back.
The value had to have shot up.
As I watched my old lady jump into the pool, I realized that we now had access to a jewelry specialist. She had spent her entire career stealing valuable jewels. She had to know something about them. Felicity might not have realized it, but she was about to be a big help in getting someone to purchase the Golden Diamond from The Forsaken Ones.
Epilogue
Felicity
“You look great,” Chasney said, stepping back to look at me. It was the first time I could remember another woman genuinely paying me a compliment. There was no knife aimed at my back, and it wasn’t in the heat of business. Chasney, Rex’s old lady, really thought I looked great.
I turned and looked at myself in the mirror. I hadn’t dyed my hair like I had mentioned on several occasions. I never assumed a new identity or anything like that. I had stuck by Hawk, and I had become a prominent member of The Forsaken Ones. I sat at the table with the original five founding members at meetings. Rex had even accepted me as an equal in the organization, which I felt created a huge responsibility for me to uphold his respect.
The woman looking back at me in the mirror, though, wasn’t just a top member of the MC. She was a gorgeous redhead in a beautiful white wedding dress with a large bouquet of roses in her hand. I tried not to tear up. I was wearing more makeup than ever before as well, thanks to the women surrounding the MC now.
Who knew that when Hawk was standing with me on the balcony talking about a new chapter in the MC’s story, the next chapter would be the one about old ladies? There had been a few women hanging around that day, but not a single one of them had lasted long enough to make it to the wedding.
Shortly after that day, just over a year ago, Hawk had proposed to me at Hazel’s old restaurant in his home town. We had gone by there just to see if it was still open and if she was still around. She was still around, and she had expanded the restaurant over the years. She was still in the same house, but she’d added on to the dining area to accommodate more people.
She had recognized Hawk the moment he walked in, except she called him Hog because of the bike he drove. Once dinner was over, he got down on one knee and proposed to me. It wasn’t anything special, and he didn’t make a big fuss over it. Later, he told me he did it that way so it didn’t seem like he was trying to woo me with money.
He had offered me two rings, though, one with regular diamonds, and one encrusted with golden diamonds. I accepted both, but I put away the golden one, since I thought it was special to us.
Once he shared our engagement with the MC, more permanent women started to show up. Of course, Chasney was first. Then, Ace had found a fiery little redhead of his own named Lynn. Alvin was dating a bookworm with a wild streak named Clarissa, and Vice had found a woman just like himself. Dee was wiry and muscular, and she liked to drink and fight. She looked damn good in leather, too.
In fact, she was the only bridesmaid not wearing a dress at the wedding. I thought it was appropriate because of it being Dee and the fact that the only people present were from the MC, so she was going to be standing at the end of the line of bridesmaids with her colors on and black leather pants. She did not often wear shirts, opting for a bikini top or bra when she was in public, so I had agreed to allow her just to wear the vest for the wedding.
It was amusing and aggravating at the same time, just as everything else had been over the last year, but in about an hour it was going to all be worth it.
“You do. You look great,” Chasney repeated herself, snapping me back out of my head.
“Thanks, we should probably let the guys know we’re ready,” I told her.
“Don’t worry. I’ll handle it. You wait until you hear the music.”
Chasney ran out of the room, and a few minutes later, she came back in to get me as the music started for us to line up and march down the aisle.
We were getting married in a large, beautiful church. The inside was almost as white as my wedding dress. It was a very wide open space with lots of natural light pouring in through the windows, and everyone from the MC sat in the pews while the pastor stood up front, waiting patiently to marry us.
Of course, the groomsmen were the original founding members, and the bridesmaids were their old ladies. The order in which the procession ran did not indicate anyone’s rank in the MC. We had to make sure everyone understood that. The only reason Vice and Dee started the procession was because she did not want to wear a dress.
She did make me wish we had a stripper pole up at the altar, but the pastor wouldn’t go for it.
There were a few whistles and catcalls as Dee made her way up the aisle with her jet black hair, her tight, shiny leather pants showing of her perfect, tight little ass, and her breasts barely hiding behind her vest. I blushed as I watched her walk up, realizing that while the idea had been amusing, it was incredibly inappropriate to let it happen.
Oh well, it was happening.
Next, Alvin and Clarissa walked up. Clarissa and the rest of the girls wore deep red dresses to match the roses we had picked out for the flowers in the wedding. Clarissa adjusted her thick, black-rimmed glasses a couple of times on the way up the aisle. She wore her golden brown hair swept up on top of her head. She was adorable, and probably the smartest person in the room.
Ace walked with Lynn on his arm, and I had never seen one man care for a woman as much as he did for her. I knew that Hawk and I shared something that no one else had, but no one showed it the way Ace did. He really was a gentle giant, but he was such a sweet, caring person anyway.
Then, of course, Rex and Chasney walked up together. It was no surprise that Rex was the best man. Everyone had expected it. In every way possible, he was Hawk’s right hand man.
Seeing those four men standing at the altar in their tuxedo shirts and slacks with their colors over the shoulders of their tux jackets, I knew it was real. I knew that everything that had happened over the last year, from being accepted into the MC to helping Hawk and Rex secure the sale of the Golden Diamond, had simply just been a trial run compared to what lay ahead of me. I knew that once the ceremony was over, I wasn’t just going to be Mrs. Felicity Renner. I was going to be a full-fledged member of The Forsaken Ones. My name might as well have been Felicity Forsaken at that point.
I took a deep breath as the music changed to indicate that the bride and groom were approaching. Since I had no one else to walk me down the aisle, no one to give me away, I chose to approach with Hawk. We were already marri
ed in our hearts as far as I was concerned, so it was incredibly symbolic to me for us walk arm and arm down the aisle.
“You ready?” he whispered as we stepped toward each other. He looked like a nervous little kid who was trying to keep from laughing.
“I am if you are,” I told him, offering him my arm.
We walked slowly up the aisle, and I thought about everything that had happened between us from the first time we met up until that day, our wedding day. I thought about how much my life had changed, and how much change I had seen in him as well.
I should have known that night when I sat and stared at the pictures in his office. I should have known that we were going to end up together. Neither one of us had cared much for the idea of settling down. Yet, we had spent so much of our time together acting like we were doing just that. Looking back, it had been obvious all along that we were going to end up settling down together, if we ever did at all.