The Way Home

by Shannon Flagg

  “There's only one way to find out. Just ask him. Six does sound better than five.” Houdini couldn't help but think that it would be better to have more men, even if they were entering an era of peace and quiet. “What about Fire? I thought we agreed to let him live, to be able to raise his son. He saved Susan, went against Michael to make sure this building remained and every piece of the past we have is because of him.”

  “He also stood by, watched Master kill Whiskey. Took off his patch and put on a Griever one.” Deacon sighed. “Which I know he did because of his son, but he didn't even tell us that he had a son. How do you not tell your Brothers something like that?”

  “Most of our Brothers didn't know my past,” Houdini pointed out. “None of them do now, except for you. Some things are just too personal, too hard to share. For Fire, it was having a kid with some random woman.”

  “Not exactly random,” Deacon replied. “Do you remember Lauren Ames?”

  It took Houdini a moment to put a face to the name. Lauren had spent a few weeks around the warehouse, but he'd never spent any real time with her. She'd seemed nice enough, had mostly spent her time with Master or Double, and then one day she just stopped coming around. “What about her?”

  “She's the mother, or was. Looks like The Hunters got to her.” Deacon grew quiet for a moment. “He called me. He wants to come back to Center City, bring his kid back with him. Wanted to know if The Vikings would have a problem with it.”

  “What did you say?”

  “I said I'd bring it up for a vote.” Deacon replied. “And the more that I think about it, the more I wonder if we should vote on his patch as well. As in giving it back to him.”

  Houdini had never considered that particular possibility, and he wasn't sure if Deacon wanted his opinion or just needed to say the words out loud. “Never really thought about it. You sure about this? You just said that he was right there when Master killed Whiskey. We all know what that old man meant to you.”

  “He was more a father than my own father was, but he'd also be the first to say that sometimes you make decisions you regret and that what you do to make it right is what matters. I think that Fire wants to make it right.”

  “I think that you're right about that. I won't stand in the way of him getting his patch.” Houdini realized that he'd actually be relieved to have another proven fighter on their side, just in case. It was nothing against the newest brothers, but they lacked experience. “Might be smart for us to start thinking of other people we might want to talk to.”

  “You're right about that. We'll call a meeting, see if any of the guys have suggestions.” Deacon rose to his feet. “We'll do it after the funeral, so see if you can think of anyone.”

  “I can do that.” Immediately Mason sprung to mind, but the Stray was known to be a little on the anti-social side, so it wasn't a sure thing that he'd even be interested. “You headed home?”

  “Going to make a pizza run first, grab something to tempt Vera to eat. She's getting really picky these days, but she usually can't resist pizza and garlic knots. Want me to drop something back off for the two of you?”

  “I'd appreciate it. Do me a favor, send Susan in on your way out?”

  “Like any force on earth could stop her from coming to check and make sure I didn't tire you out too much. We really are lucky sons of bitches.”

  “That we are. I'll see you tomorrow Pres.” Houdini shifted so that he was laying down more. Maybe Susan had a point about resting, he was feeling his wounds more than he'd admit to anyone.

  Susan came in the door a minute after Deacon stepped out. “You wanted to see me?”

  “Can you come here a second?”

  “Are you having pain? What does it feel like? Is it...”

  Houdini grabbed her wrist before she could take his pulse. “I am having a pain.” He held her firmly. “I think I know what will make it better. I think I need a kiss.”

  “You could have just said that without freaking me out first.” Susan leaned in and pressed a light kiss against his lips. “Deke said he's going to bring us back pizza, but I could find us something else if you're hungry.”

  “I can wait for pizza, and I think that we both know that wasn't a real kiss.” Houdini released her wrist and moved his hand up to cup her face. She went still for a moment and then relaxed. “You know that I love you, Susan. I love you so very much.”

  “I love you too.”

  His heart sped up at the words. It was so fucking great to hear them from her once again. “I want to ask you something.”

  “Don't ask me about what happened when I was gone, Houdini. Please don't ask me that.” Susan remained where she was but shut her eyes. “I can't.”

  “You can't keep it inside forever, Baby. You know that as well as I do. The longer you keep it in, the more it's going to completely eat you up inside. Nothing that you can say is going to change anything between us.”

  “It will,” Susan opened her eyes. “It'll change the way you see me, and I don't want that. I can deal with what happened, but not if you can never look at me and not see it.”

  “You really think that little of me?” Houdini questioned. “You think anything could make me love you less? It couldn't. It won't.”

  “You don't know that. You can't know that.”

  “I'm not going to drop this, Susan, and you're not walking away from it. Look at me, Baby. Just talk to me, tell me it all. Get it out.”

  “You want me to get it out? Tell you all about it? Where do I start? Do you want to hear about the beatings first? Or maybe being locked in a metal box listening to a woman be raped to death? Or maybe you want to talk about what happened after I tried to run for the first time. Do you want all the dirty details?” Houdini tried to speak but she cut him off. “Do you want to know what it was like to be bound in one place? No separate bathroom, no privacy? Just you and a dozen other people and some hay. I can't even describe what it's like to feel that dirty but to know when you're dragged away to be hosed off, it's just going to get worse? To know that you're going to be forced to do things that you....”

  Houdini reacted on instinct, grabbing her and pulling her to him. His injured arm protested sharply, but he ignored it and held her tight against him. “Shhh.” His lips brushed against her ear as she began to cry.

  “It was...”

  “You don't have to say it, Susan.” Houdini wasn't sure that she could say it.

  “It was the worse than anything I could have ever imagined. Even when I wasn't being constantly hurt, it was just.... Rick used everything he knew about me. He took things that I liked and he... he made me hate them and afraid of them.”

  “Are you afraid of me?” Houdini pulled back so he could look into her eyes.

  “No.” She smiled at him. “I'm not.”

  “Do you trust me?”

  “Yes,” Again, there was no hesitation in her answer. Houdini could also see the signs that she was relaxing.

  “I will never push you to do anything.”

  “I know that too,” she sighed. “I'm sorry.”

  “What are you sorry for?” Now Houdini was confused. Surely she wasn't apologizing for what had happened to her. It wasn't her fault, none of it was.

  “This can't be how you imagined it being once I was back, none of it. I'm sorry that you're not getting what you want.”

  “Baby, I've got you. That's all that I need.”

  “What if I never can... what if we can't....” She fumbled for the words, a blush spreading over her cheeks.

  “We'll figure it out. And we don't have to figure it out tonight. Tonight, we're going to have pizza and beer, in bed while we watch a movie, and then we're going to have ice cream. I'll run out and grab whatever you want.”

  “You couldn't run anywhere if you tried, and you're not going to try. I have ice cream in the freezer. I picked it up at the store the other day.”

  “Baby, there's no way that ice cream is still there. Have you seen ho
w the guys eat? Nothing lasts more than a day or two here.”

  “Trust me, it's still there.” Susan assured him with a smirk. “Want to know my secret trick?”

  “Yeah,” Houdini replied.

  “I buy the smaller containers and hide them in my frozen dinner boxes. No one ever wants to eat the frozen dinners, well except maybe Vera. So no one ever sees the ice cream.”

  “Sneaky. I like it. But now I know, aren't you worried I'm going to steal your ice cream?”

  “No,” she replied. “And if you ate it, I figure you'd replace it, because you love me.”

  “That I do,” Houdini confirmed.

  “Good. I love you too.” She leaned in and kissed him lightly on the lips, and his heart soared.

  <#<#<#<#

  “I'm just saying, think about it, Mason. It's a nice town, good people, plenty of space for you to change.” Houdini took a sip of his beer, looked around the nearly completed warehouse. A good chunk of the space was now walled off. There were three more rooms for brothers or guests. The pool table was back, along with a felt-covered poker table. There was even a stripper pole, though he wasn't sure who exactly was going to dance around it, but he was sure someone would break it in at the party they had planned for the following week.

  “That's your sales pitch?” Mason took a cigarette from the pack that he'd tossed on the table and lit up. “I will think about it, though. Grass isn't so green where I'm at now.”

  “Got something you want to talk about?”

  “Nothing I can talk about.” The man replied. “Who else are you asking?”

  “Shepard,” Houdini admitted. He watched Mason's expression change. “There's a guy from town and a couple from the pack.”

  “Shepard might as well accept, he's going to be here anyway.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “You haven't heard?” Mason took a deep drag off his cigarette. “I got the call before I came out here to meet you, The Council has reassigned Lina to Mexico and assigned Shepard to stay here and oversee the area. Effectively, they've put him out to pasture.”

  “Why would they do that?”

  “Who knows why they do what they do?” Mason replied. “They call the shots. You know that. They say he stays, he stays.”

  Houdini knew the power The Council had over The Strays. They adhered to the rules and weren't known for being warm, fuzzy or the least bit compassionate. What had Shepard done to piss them off? He was one of them, a voting council member, so Houdini couldn't imagine they'd send him to essentially the middle of nowhere without a purpose.

  “Rules are rules,” Houdini said after the silence got too long and deep. “You up for a ride?”

  “Always,” Mason replied. “I really will think about it, Houdini. Got to be something about this town with all the shit that it's been through.”

  Houdini nodded. There was something about the town and about the people, something that had made him feel at home in a way he never had, not even in his own home. The fact that he'd found Susan there was just icing on top of a pretty sweet cake. “This town changed my life.”

  “It sure fucking did,” Mason chuckled. “I've got to admit, I wasn't expecting to be impressed by you. I was all what the hell is a human doing running with us, but the first time we went out together, I was impressed. You know what? Fuck it. I'm in.”

  “You're in?” Houdini wanted to be sure that he was hearing right.

  “I'm in.” Mason repeated. “Or I should say, if all your guys are sure on me, I'm in.”

  “Let's go and tell 'em the good news.”

  <#<#<#<#

  With Mason, Shepard, Vince and Fire, The Vikings was now nine members strong. Houdini looked around the now crowded room. Voices overlapped, but the mood was light, full of excitement. He was glad for their new brothers, proud that they were still all on their feet and that they would rebuild. They'd make The Vikings as strong, no, stronger than before.

  Deacon rose to his feet, whistled sharply and the room fell silent. He was, as always, a commanding presence. These days he seemed more so, maybe because he was so focused on Vera and their child. She was starting to show now, just a round bump beneath her shirt. “Before we raise a glass in honor of our new brothers, I'd like to say something. Tonight is a great night for all of us and for this club. Tonight we take a step into the future, and the future is what we make of it. This is a rebirth for us and for the town. I will be reopening the trucking company within the next since months. Every single one of you have a place there if you want it.”

  Truth was, they'd all work for Deacon because it was the best bet to be able to earn clean. The Vikings were the best way to earn not so clean. Every man in the room would earn equal, pay equal dues and carry the same weight in a vote. Houdini was proud of his friend and all he'd gone through to get his life back.

  “Now, let's drink.” His words were followed by cheers. The energy in the room had risen during Deacon's words; it seemed that the idea of a future they controlled appealed to all of them. Houdini knew that it sounded really good to him.

  The main room of the warehouse had quite a few people in it, but he spotted Susan immediately where she stood watching as Sam chased after Fire's quite active son, Chase. She noticed him looking at her and smiled, but before he could just go over to her, he was called over to join his brothers for the first drink. The official celebration would be that weekend; tonight was more about family.

  They toasted and drank several rounds. Someone put music on, and suddenly it was a party. He grinned as he realized it was the first time in a long time that they could enjoy themselves without having to worry or watch their backs. Tonight and for the foreseeable future they could simply relax.

  Houdini knew exactly how he wanted to relax, just as he knew that Susan wasn't ready for that particular kind of relaxation just yet. She would be, one day, and he wasn't going to rush her. They'd made progress; he was no longer sleeping in that damn chair, though it was unlikely his back would ever fully recover. They slept as they always had, tangled up in one another, and it was the best he'd slept in a while. He thought it was for her as well; the nightmares she'd returned with seemed to be fewer.

  “Hey,” Fire approached him. “Can I have a word?”

  “What's up, Brother?”

  “I've got to thank you for this second chance. You and Deke didn't have to bring me back. I never thought that you would. Didn't think I'd be able to bring my boy here, raise him with people I know. Raise him. Poor kid, he's screwed. What do I know about being a dad?”

  “You know more than you think, trust me.” Houdini remembered clearly the days before Junior was born, the months before, really, when he'd just sit up at night to wonder what sort of example he could set. “I had a kid once. You end up figuring it out. Seems like you've already figured out you need a hand. Heard that you asked Sam to be your nanny.”

  “Yeah, Chase took to her the second they met. She wasn't working, figured that it was a win-win.”

  “You looking at her for more than a nanny?” Houdini felt like a gossiping teenager to even ask, but there he was. The last thing that The Vikings needed was internal strife over a woman.

  “She's hot, don't get me wrong, but I hit that, we don't work and then I don't have a nanny. I'm not entirely stupid.” Fire grinned. “Still, it's nice to have someone pretty to look at.”

  “That it is.” Houdini looked over to where Susan was now talking to Eddie. The man was a borderline hypochondriac, so that was no real surprise. “You find a place to stay yet?”

  “Yeah, I put an offer on the Sanchez place.”

  “You get an inheritance no one knows about?”

  “Nah, I was going to put an offer on a different place, but the real estate guy said for the same price, I could get the Sanchez place. They want a quick sale.”

  “Good for you. It's a great house.” The fact that Gina and Richard were selling so quickly and so cheaply could have meant anything, but the fe
eling that it was important settled over Houdini. “Lots of room for the kid, looks like he's going to need it.”

  “I'm thinking about getting him a dog, too. A boy should have a dog. And a tree house.” Fire looked over at him with a smile. “Feel like helping me build a tree house?”

  “Yeah, I think that would be fun. You're buying the beer, though.”

  “That's a deal. I'm going to go and grab the boy and give Sam a break. I'll catch you later?”

  “Absolutely,” Houdini replied. He set his empty beer bottle down and scanned the room in search of Susan. She'd just been right there with Eddie, who was now over at the bar getting another drink. Panic rose inside of him, but then he felt the feeling of familiar hands pressing against his back. “Hey Baby.” He turned and found her there with a smile on her face.

  “Hey.” She tasted like tequila when she leaned in to kiss him.

  “Started drinking already?”

  “Just one. Trust me, I wanted more.”

  “Did something happen? Did someone bother you?” Immediately Houdini was on alert.

  “No,” she said quickly. “Everyone's great. I guess I just didn't expect so many people to be here. It's nothing. I'm fine. Come on, let's get a drink.”

  “I've got a better idea. Let's get out of here.” Houdini suggested. “We'll have enough time for socializing.”

  Chapter Eighteen.

  Susan looked around the warehouse, all set up and ready to go for the party, and she already felt exhausted and the influx of people hadn't even started yet. Crowds had never really been her thing, and since she'd been back, she'd done her best to avoid them.

  Of course, that was easier said than done when her home was the base of operations for The Vikings. So she smiled her way through the best she could and had become a near expert at finding reasons to excuse herself. But she couldn't do that tonight, even if it was exceptionally tempting. Tonight was for Houdini, for The Vikings and for the town. Susan knew that it was important she stay, show everyone that they were united in moving forward and creating a better future. She also knew that it was important to Houdini. The Vikings had given him what he needed after he'd lost his family. They'd allowed him to find another one and those bonds meant the world to him.