Healing Gabe (Last Hangman MC Book 3)

by Muriel Garcia

  “They made you go back to work already?” Ant asks him in disbelief.

  “Yeah, I was only allowed three fucking weeks.” He sighs and rubs his face.

  “That’s bullshit. How have you been?” Aleck says, we’re all fucking surprised that they wouldn’t even allow him a longer break to mourn the loss of his wife.

  “Struggling. Some days are better than others. I’m still hoping I’ll wake up from this nightmare and she’ll walk through the front door.” He sighs, looking exhausted.

  “You know we’re here if you need anything,” I tell him, meaning it.

  “I know, thank you. I just need to sort this on my own. You have enough on your plate, how is Viv?”

  “She’s good, getting there. Frustrated that she can’t do what she wants physically, but she’s making progress.”

  “That’s good, glad she’s better.” He smiles softly. “What about Bennett?”

  “He’s over three times a week, getting fatter by the minute with the amount of pastry Viv is shoving down his throat.” I say with a serious expression on my face and we all burst out laughing.

  “I can so picture her doing that,” Ant chimes in. “Ayd is doing the same, blaming it on having to try out different cakes for the wedding.” He shakes his head.

  “They’re all cake crazy.” Aleck chuckles. “Line has been doing the same.”

  “Good luck with that, Brother.” Ric chuckles. “My wife did that too.”

  “We’re fucked.” Ant elbows Aleck who nods. “Anyway, forget cake explosion, I wanted to thank you all for coming today. Today we’ll discuss the alliance between our three clubs, see if we keep it or call a truce and go our separate ways, but also something that was brought to my attention yesterday.”

  “What happened?” I ask him instantly, expecting the worse.

  “First, the club alliance.” Ant gives me a look and I nod. Ever since the incident, I naturally expect the worse whenever someone tells me they heard something new.

  Ric starts talking. “I’ve talked to my men. It’s good working alongside your two clubs. We’ve never had an alliance with anyone before, so it was all new, but the outcome has been beneficial, despite us losing two members. We don’t know what your two clubs are looking for, but we’re in if this is approved. Not gonna lie, the fact that we are outnumbering every other club out there is a huge fucking bonus. Things were rough for a couple of days with your woman getting shot and yours getting killed, but we’ve managed to take them down and word on the street is that it’s a lot better to live in the Kings’ old area. Not as much crime anymore.”

  “I’ve heard that too, looks like a couple of good things came out of this crazy man blowing up their compound.” Ant points at Sanders and we all look at him pointedly.

  “Don’t look at me like that. Had I not, more of us would be dead.” He shrugs. “Besides, always wanted to use one of those bad boys.” He smirks.

  “How did it feel?” I ask.

  “Pretty fucking amazing.” We all laugh.

  “I’m sure it was,” Ray chimes in. “At least, you didn’t blow one of your limbs off. Happened to one of our retired members. He held it for too long, then didn’t throw it far enough. Poor bastard.” We all join him laughing.

  “Sorry to hear.” Ant offers.

  “Don’t be, he’s living the fucking life of leisure in Florida or some old people place.” He chuckles. “Missing a leg sure, but never stopped him from getting pussy and marrying his old lady.” He chuckles. “But anyway, I have to say that ever since you got rid of the problem from my club last year, things have been a lot smoother. We separated ourselves from a couple of club members who were siding with Blades and joined the Kings. So I’m glad they are gone with the trash too. We patched the two prospects who now know better than to listen to anyone other than me for orders. They’re good kids, I didn’t invite them for our events as I didn’t know how you would feel about it and I didn’t want to make trouble. We took a vote and we all agreed this” he gestures around the table. “worked fucking amazingly. We’re in too.”

  “Very good and I’m grateful you didn’t force them onto us for the past few events. I’d like to sit down with them and have a talk. If we’re going to do this, we’re going to have to set some ground rules that we all have to abide by so we can avoid any misunderstanding. We’ll draw up those rules together with the Prez, VP and Sergeant at Arms of each club.” Ant explains calmly.

  “What about Sanders? He’s been very efficient, but what is he doing here or in the middle of this?” Ray asks quite confused by Sanders’ presence and so am I.

  Sanders looks over at Ant who nods at him. “It’s been brought to my attention, that while there are only ten members left of the Kings. Most of their charters have been fairly quiet, but the rest of the Kings and one of their charters are moving in together and creating chaos just outside of Louisiana. They call themselves the Hades’ Disciples. They haven’t made a move yet, but I’m sure it’ll come soon enough. Until we know what their goal is we need to keep an eye out.” I knew nothing good would come out of this.

  “So you’re telling us that a bunch of those no life motherfuckers are teaming up to come here to take us down?” I ask him sarcastically.

  “Take us down, not sure, cause chaos? Definitely.” Sanders answers truthfully.

  “Us? You consider yourself one of us now?” Ric taunts him.

  Sanders sighs. “Honestly? I feel out of place at the station. It’s all I ever wanted to do when I was growing up, but now it feels so fucking wrong. I feel more at home here than I do at the station.”

  “Why? Did losing your wife mess you up because there’s nothing your little cop friends could have done? Or maybe you’re realizing that doing your own justice is better than asking for help, when you know they won’t do shit.” Ric says rather harshly.

  “Fair enough. It feels wrong to work for a system that is supposed to protect, help and serve, but actually doesn’t do much. Working on Cabe’s case opened my eyes to the corrupted and dirty side of the law. From that point onwards, everything went south and led me to feel this way.” Sanders shrugs.

  “Good answer, but you’re going to need to rethink your priorities if you are about to work with us.” Ray tells him gauging him.

  “What exactly do you mean?” Sanders looks at him, unafraid.

  “While your position on the force could be beneficial for all of us, it could mean a lot of trouble for you, from inside and outside. No one likes a rat, even if that rat is a detective and it’s his job. You’ll have to choose between your cushy life or our lifestyle, can you handle that? Playboy?” Ray chuckles.

  “You mean choose between a lifestyle that is slowly killing me or one that makes me feel something, that gives me that same rush of adrenaline that being a detective used to bring me? The choice is easily made, but the decision will be made in due time. I think it can be beneficial until we know more about those Hades’ Disciples, don’t you think?” Sanders doesn’t cower under Ray’s intense gaze. Credit to him, he’s much tougher than I thought he’d be, he could easily be one of us.

  “You’re starting to grow on me.” Ray chuckles.

  “Not too much I hope. Next thing we know, you’ll be the one throwing a badge around.” We all burst out laughing.

  “You’re funny. That’s a good thing to have.” Ray smiles, approving of Sanders. None of us ever trusted anybody with a badge, but Sanders has proven himself to be a man we can trust, despite the badge.

  From time to time, I catch Aleck staring at me. I don’t know what’s wrong, but I can feel something is bothering him. We carry on talking about club business, laying down some important rules about the dynamics of three clubs plus a cop working together. It’s a good thing it’s only the ten of us, if the rest of the clubs were here it’d be fucking chaos, with everyone shouting ideas at each other. Get all of us into a room and you’d think we were a bunch of school kids stuck in the classroom.

&
nbsp; Two hours later, we all walk out and shoot the shit with our other brothers. I walk outside to call Viv and check on her.

  “Hey Booboo!!!!” she exclaims a bit too loudly. They’ve been eating Red Velvet donuts again.

  “Hey Doll.” I chuckle. “How are the donuts?”

  “How do you know?” she asks surprised.

  “Because you’re hyper as fuck, that’s why.”

  “Oooh…busted!!!” She laughs.

  “Either that or you’re drunk.”

  “No, we’re hyper on cake, donuts and wedding preparations.” She giggles shushing someone in the background.

  “Will I have another near heart attack when I walk inside?” I ask scared of what I might find.

  “Mayyyyyybe…” she says tentatively.

  “Oh shit, what have you done?” I ask, actually worried.

  “Nothing, I swear.”

  “You’re full of shit, Viv.”

  “I know, haven’t pooped yet.” I laugh.

  “I love you, you know that right?”

  “Yes. I love you too, everything okay?” she asks, obviously nervous.

  “Yes, more than okay. You’re just fucking crazy. I’ll be home for dinner, don’t cook anything, I’ll grab Chinese food.”

  She squeals into the phone. “Can the girls stay over?”

  “Yes, of course, I’ll bring Aleck and Ant.” It’s good to see her wanting to socialize again.

  “And Bennett.” She adds quickly.

  “I’m going to start to think you’re having an affair with Bennett with the amount of times you wanna see him,” I tease her.

  “Never! He just seems lonely.” she says sadly.

  “Never thought of that. I’ll stop by his house, don’t worry.”

  “Thank you Love.”

  “You’re welcome Doll. I gotta go now, I’ll let you know when I’m heading back home, alright?”

  “Okay, I love you, see you later, Sexy Beast.” I burst out laughing and hear Ayd, Line and Nic laughing on the other side of the line.

  “I love you too.” I chuckle and hang up.

  “Sounds like she’s feeling much better,” Aleck says walking towards me and sitting next to me.

  “Yeah. She has the girls over way too often for my own sanity though, they keep talking about wedding preparations, baby stuff, shit like that and it’s driving me fucking nuts. I know Viv isn’t pushing to get married or have kids, but Line, Ayd and Nic? They are fucking onto me, Brother!” I shake my head chuckling.

  “I bet, Line talks about it non-stop.” He looks perplexed.

  “What’s up, Brother? I noticed you were staring at me a couple of times back there, not starting to fancy me are you?” I turn to face him, trying to gauge his reaction and body language. “You didn’t slip back into drugs, did you?”

  “No, no, don’t worry, none of that. Although I could have.” He sighs.

  “Talk to me.”

  “Did you ever think that maybe the people closest to you have been lying to you all your life?” he says lost in deep thought.

  “Considering what happened a few weeks ago, yeah.”

  He nods. “My father passed away.”

  “I’m sorry, Brother. I know you two weren’t close, but it still blows.” I pat his back.

  “That’s not why I’m like this.” He sighs. “I found out some stuff when I went to their house.”

  “What?” I look at him concerned. He’s never like this, he look lost.

  “Was your mother ever pregnant between you and Nicole?” he asks out of the blue and I’m completely stunned.

  “Yeah. How do you know?”

  “What happened to the baby?”

  “I was four when it happened. When she went to the hospital to have the baby and she said I’d have a little brother, but when she came back, it was just her and Dad, they were devastated. The doctors told them that the baby was stillborn. Something happened with the umbilical cord or something. How in the hell do you know about it?”

  “My parents aren’t my real parents.”

  “You were adopted?” I’m still confused as fuck.

  “No. My so called mother who’s hated me for years told me the truth about where I come from.”

  “What did she say? Don’t leave me hanging Brother.”

  He scoffs. “Brother…”

  “What?”

  “Know how a lot of people think we are related?”

  “Yeah…You don’t think…” I can’t believe what he’s trying to say.

  “Yeah.” He sighs.

  “How can that be possible?”

  “She told me that they paid a doctor at the hospital to steal a baby, me. Her husband wanted an heir to their family fortune and legacy. He wanted a mini him while she just wanted a little boy but yet was too fucking preoccupied with her appearance to get pregnant herself. She said she couldn’t cope with the guilt and became the heartless bitch I knew her as.”

  “Are you serious?” I look at him in shock.

  “Yeah.” He sighs looking defeated.

  “I don’t want to sound like a fucking asshole, but how can you be sure about it? That we’re actual brothers I mean.”

  “She showed me a bunch of papers from the hospital, the original records they stole to make fake ones. It had your parents’ names on them.”

  “Wow.”

  “Yeah.” He nods and looks fucking miserable.

  “Well don’t be so fucking excited to have me as a brother, dickhead.”

  He chuckles. “It’s been messing with my head. I know I have Line, Ally and our little shrimp, but it’s not the same. If I didn’t have them, I’d be completely on my own.”

  “But you do have them, and now you have me and Nicole. Oh shit! That’s fucking brilliant, when she wants to complain to me I’ll send her your way!”

  “Now, who’s being the dickhead?” He chuckles.

  “Me, but taking full credit for it. Did you ever hook up with Nic?”

  “No! Fucking glad I never did, that’d have been fucking awkward!”

  “You don’t say.” I burst out laughing.

  “What’s so funny?” He looks at me confused.

  “Just all those years, since you’ve been in the club. I always felt very protective of you for some reason, I wanted you to be happy and to keep you happy. I know I’ve done it with most of the guys, but with you, it felt different.”

  “Yeah. I always saw you as a big brother figure. Guess we weren’t wrong.”

  “Guess not.” I chuckle still shocked by it all. “That’s fucking mental. Does Line know?”

  “It’s fucking mental and no she doesn’t. I wanted to talk to you first about it. I didn’t want to get her hopes up, she loves you and it would crush her if you didn’t want anything to do with me after I told you the truth. I guess I didn’t want to share it in fear it was too good to be true.” He shrugs.

  “Ah come on, you’re a good and respectable man. Everyone would be lucky to have you as a brother. Guess I’m the lucky bastard.” I chuckle.

  “Thank you.” he says, his voice full of emotion.

  “What the hell for?”

  “Accepting me as your brother, as a blood brother. It’s good to know I still have a family left.”

  “No matter what, we’d always have been family, but having you as my blood brother is pretty fucking sweet, ” I say meaningfully.

  “Thank you, Brother. Would it be too soon to play pranks on Nic? I’ve been dying to do so for a while. Perfect excuse now that we are related.” He chuckles evilly.

  “Be my guest, but be careful, she can be a mean bitch if you mess with her too much.” I chuckle.

  “I bet. She’s like us.” We both grin at each other nodding.

  “Amen to that.” I shake my head thinking about the three of us and how life is going to change knowing we have one more blood family member.

  “Viv and Line and going to love this, being sisters-in-law and shit. We’ll never hear t
he end of it.” He laughs.

  “Oh shit, didn’t even think about that! Also means that Ally is my niece.” I grin, I love the kid, she’s fucking awesome and smart.

  “She’s going to be fucking ecstatic, she loves you.”

  “Love her too.” I smile, feeling like another part of my life is piecing itself together.

  “Will you ever tell me about our parents?” he asks tentatively.

  “Whenever you wanna talk about them, bring a six pack and we’ll talk.” I clap his back and motion at Ant to join us.

  “Thanks Brother.”

  “You’re more than welcome Brother.” We grin like fools.

  “What’s up? Why are you two grinning like that? You creep me out sometimes.” Ant says.

  “Nothing, just family business,” Aleck says chuckling.

  “Family business? Did I miss something?” Ant looks between the two of us, confused.

  “Yes, we’re brothers, like blood brothers.” I tell him and he burst out laughing.

  “You’re messing with me.”

  “No, it’s a long story, but yeah, we really are brothers.” Aleck says smiling. He looks a lot more happy and relaxed than a couple of minutes ago.

  “Fucking mental.” Ant chuckles. “I can see the resemblance. You’re both dickheads!”

  “Asshole!” We both mutter at the same time and all end up laughing.

  Yeah, life can be fucking weird, but it feels good to know that I have a long lost brother and that we already get along so well.

  EPILOGUE

  Viv

  Three months later

  Things have been fucking insane!

  Since the surgery and the complications after, Gabe has become the most overprotective boyfriend in the world. Not the ‘my boyfriend is so cute and protective’ kind, oh no, he’s the ‘I’m gonna put a tracker in your phone and car’ type. I literally have cameras covering the whole of the outside of my house. The only positive thing about them is that they scare the shit out of sales people, I can see them coming from a mile away and scared the shit out of them with the speaker Gabe installed. Most of them are confused, some run away thinking the house is haunted or some shit. It’s fucking epic!