by Vera Quinn
“Devil, I respect you as my President and the man you have become but I am only giving you what has to do with the Feral Steel MC. The rest you need to get from Kat. You ask her and if she doesn’t tell you everything I will give it all to you but it is her and Steel’s story not mine and everyone gave their solemn oath not to tell you boys or your sister. I gave that oath to the club, your dad and your ma. Just give Kat the chance. That’s all I ask.” I know I am putting Slick in a tough spot but Stone needs to be stopped. I take my phone out and make sure Oz knows exactly what he needs to do.
“Slick give it to me.” I insist.
“Chainz was a hot head. He helped your dad start the Feral Steel MC. Your gramps and some of his buddies were around but Steel and Chainz did all the work. When it came time to vote in officers everyone wanted Steel for President and that enraged Chainz. When your old man was busy trying to get us organized and making allegiances with other clubs. Chainz was drowning himself in the bottom of a bottle or he was high on whatever his drug of choice was and he wasn’t picky about what he took. He fucked the Feral Steel over more than once but we wouldn’t vote him out. At the time, we wanted the outlaw life. I am a big enough man to admit I loved it myself. I guess we thought we had no right to tell him how to live if we didn’t want people telling us how to live. He always spun something to his advantage on him taking the club’s money. We partied, we fucked, a lot of us finally found a place we fit. It was a damn brotherhood and no one stood in our way. It wasn’t enough for Chainz. He wanted everything Steel had but he didn’t want to put in the work to have it. More than that, Steel had Kat, and Chainz wanted her. Chainz had Kathy but he wanted Kat, her best friend. That part you need to get from your ma. I know Chainz stole from us more than once. He had some dealings with clubs that Steel steered us away from because they sold women. Not as in spread their legs and get paid for it but more along the lines I will sell you a woman and you own her. Him and the clubs he was dealing with wanted to expand in Feral Steel territory. No matter what the Feral Steel ever did on either side of the law we never went there. That is just a line we wouldn’t cross. That and any kind of child abuse. He brought it before the club and we voted it down every time. The last time, Steel laid it out for Chainz, that it wasn’t ever happening. A motion was brought before us to not bring it up again and we voted. It carried and it made Chainz a mean son of a bitch. He took it out on Kathy and his kid. Chainz was handled and the club cleaned it up. Kathy had his oldest son and she was pregnant. After the boy was born she took off. We looked for her but it was like she vanished and she took them boys with her. The rest you need to get from Kat.” Slick is leaving important parts out but at least I know where the club stood with Chainz.
“Why the hell haven’t you told me any of this before? Fuck the silence oath. We have been getting hit for a while now. This might could help. You owed it to the club and as your President you owed it to me. What happened to Chainz cut and what about his ink? Who killed Chainz?” Slick needs to make me understand before I lose my temper.
“We burned his cut. Steel cut his ink off himself. With all due respect, I can’t say I am sorry because I’m not. I gave my oath to the club and my word has no time limit on it. Ask Kat the rest and if she doesn’t give it all to you I will. That’s my oath to you.” I look at Slick and I guess that is all I am going to get. I need to have a serious talk with ma. My phone vibrates in my pocket. It’s text from Creole. He’s on gate duty. I look at it and I am shocked at what it says.
Creole: Boss man at the gate says he needs to talk to you.
Says it has to do with Stone. Name of Kane.
Me: Do not let him leave!
I look at Sarge, Bowie and Tazer at the bar with Hacksaw. “Kane’s at the gate. Let’s roll.” This asshole may never walk away from this compound.
Chapter 17
Kane
I have been getting this feeling ever since I have been back that Stacks has not been honest with me. It’s what brings me here today. To find out the other side of the story. He’s the only family I have left since mom passed but sometimes it is hard being his brother. He and Stone want to either get their cooperation or take down the Feral Steel MC. They say it is ours by birthright. Stolen by Devil. Things haven’t been feeling right. Stacks and Stone stay high all the time and most of the time all they do is ramble. Charisma and Starla have stopped coming around. Charisma had her own agenda but Stone couldn’t figure that one out on his own. Starla just followed her cousin around and did whatever Charisma would demand of her. Starla dropped hints to me everything is not as it seems. I need to confront Devil face to face. They talk about the Feral Steel MC being a brotherhood and I want that.
I haven’t had stability since I left the army. I feel lost without it. The army is the first stable place I had to call home in my life. Mom was good to us but she was always withdrawn to some extent. Her life was not an easy one. Her family was religious and strict and she left as soon as she could get away. She never held back from us. She told us she was a club girl and that is where she met the man that was a DNA donor to me. He was never a dad. Stacks is the same way. Our mom was both parents to us. We moved from town to town and never really made friends. It’s like we were on the run for all our lives. I am the youngest of the two of us. Stacks and myself. We are all we ever had to depend on after mom passed. When I made it to high school we finally stopped moving. Mom became sick and we had to stay put for her treatments. Stacks began to hang around with a tough crowd. He was a few years older than me but he ended up quitting school. I think it broke mom’s heart. All she ever wanted for us is a better life than she had. She pounded it into our heads that we would go nowhere without an education. The day Stacks told her he quit school she cried. My mom was tough. Everything we had been through and that day was the first day I seen her cry and I swore I would never do that to her. My freshman year of high school was hard. Mom couldn’t work so we were on public assistance. I did handy jobs for our neighbors to get extra money. All Stacks did was sleep all day and party all night. I was almost happy when he wouldn’t show up at home so mom could rest without him drunk or high. He would get mean and loud when he was drunk and he was unpredictable when he was high. The second year of high school was easier. Mom seemed to improve and she went back to work and with my odd jobs we were doing better. Mom started attending church and I made friends at school and for once in my life I didn’t feel like we were so alone. Stacks moved out and went off with his friends. He’d come around when he was trying to get money off mom. She always tried to give him a few bucks and then we wouldn’t hear from him until the next time. During my third year of high school an army recruiter came to our school and from the first time we talked I knew what I wanted to do with my life. I just couldn’t see myself leaving our mom alone. It just didn’t seem right. I talked to her and she said she thought it was an excellent idea and I needed to go off and become a man. She assured me that she would move where ever I ended up permanently or as close as possible. The summer before I was to start my senior year of high school two things happened. Stacks went to county jail for a drug charge and Mom came out of remission. There was nothing I could do to help Stacks. He was headed for prison. Mom went back on treatments. I worked and went to school and tried to be there for mom. Mom got to see me graduate and it was the second time that I saw her cry but she said they were happy tears. After graduation, her health declined so fast. It’s like she was just holding on until she could see me with that diploma in my hand. I tried to get a visit set up for Stacks and mom but she was too weak to travel and there was no way they were letting him out to see her. She made me promise on her death bed that I would go in the army and not look back after she was gone. She also made me promise to look after Stacks. I tried to argue with her and tell her she wasn’t dying but we both knew the truth. Then she told me the whole truth about my dad and why we were always moving. She explained to me the way Stacks got his nickname. I can’t say I was sho
cked because I knew the way we were always moving wasn’t how everyone lived. I buried my mom two weeks later. I signed the papers to join the army a day later and a month after that I was gone to basic in South Carolina.
After Stacks was released from prison and I received leave, I went and visited him. I had kept in touch with him through letters. I put money on his commissary while he was inside because he had no one else. I told him everything mom had told me and he wanted every detail. He had me repeat it until he said he would remember every word and then he had me write it down. I never questioned it. After I returned from leave I was sent overseas for the first time but not the last. I tried to keep in touch with Stacks over the years but each I time I returned for leave he seemed more distant and he always seemed either drunk or high. He was slipping away more from the brother I once knew.
Stacks still had all his shady friends and I asked him many times what he did for money. Where he worked or even if he sold the drugs he always was using? He gave me the look that told me he didn’t want me to question him. He would finally give the same answer, ‘I hustle. I’m a hustler.’ As if that explains anything. He was always paranoid like someone is looking over his shoulder or on his tail. I just quit asking.
My last tour of duty in Afghanistan I received my second purple heart and the injury that I received took my career away from me. I had to have my hip on my right side completely replaced and my knee has metal in it. I rehabbed close to a year learning to walk again. I still have a slight limp but unless I am tired it is not too noticeable. I bought a motorcycle when I received my first resign bonus from the army. I kept it in storage when I was gone and it has been a challenge learning to ride again. After I hurdled all the challenges I had to, I found Stacks again, but it has been one lie after another from him and this Stone guy is as far out there as Stacks is. I keep having this feeling in my gut like I did when I was in combat that something is wrong. Stone is supposedly our family. Mom told me that we had family out there but I am not sure of anything. Stone and Stacks have a big business opportunity with another biker club and some growers in Colorado. It all depends on getting the Feral Steel MC to agree. That’s all they have told me. Stone is wanting to get his woman and kids away from his brother. I don’t trust what Stone and Stacks is telling me so that is what is bringing me here today. This Devil, has no right to hold a woman and her children against her will. If she really is Stone’s woman, then I will do what I can to help Stone get her back but I must know the truth because my gut is telling me this is all wrong. I get off my bike and approach the small building with a man in it. I see one man on the other side of the glass. I step up to it. “I need to speak to Devil.” The man looks me up and down. I can barely understand him when he asks who I am. He has a thick accent.
“Who are you? What do you want?” The guy asks.
“It has to do with Stone. I am Kane.” I have nothing else to say to this man. That’s all the information I’m giving. It doesn’t take very long until the man comes out with a gun. Maybe this was the wrong move.
Chapter 18
Callie
The doctor is finally letting me go home. I am ready to get out of this hospital and get back home to Kellan. I miss my little man. When I get home and close to the clubhouse then Kylar will relax some so he can concentrate on finding Stone. I can’t wait until Kellan and Killian get to spend time together.
I am dressed and ready to go just waiting for the paperwork so we can head out. Dad has gone with Killian for his last check-up before we get out of here. Fe is gone to the nurse’s desk to rush my papers along. I think he likes nurse Chad but he’ll never admit it. I’m packing all my stuff up so it will be easier to get it to the SUV. I sent Rix down with the first load. He wasn’t sure if he should leave me but I insisted. Crockett is outside with some of the other brothers waiting on us to come down so we can get home. I hear my door open behind me and when I turn and look I see a man I don’t know. He looks familiar but I can’t place him and he’s not wearing any hospital ID. I know I can’t panic. “What do you want?” I say as calmly as I can.
“You know you are a hard bitch to get a conversation with. Never mind who I am. We are getting out of here this place is crawling with people trying to keep us from having this little conversation but if your dad walks back through that door with your son before we get out of here I will aim the first shot right at your baby. So, what is it going to be? Do you want to save yourself or your kid more?” This man asks me. He must be one of Stone’s guys.
“You may have slipped past the men protecting me but they know you are here and they are not going to let us walk out of here. If you want to get out of here without a body bag you need to leave now. Don’t you think it is funny how Stone is always sending someone else to do his dirty work and they always get caught and he gets away free. Seems like his friends would figure it out and make him do his own work because I don’t even know you so I couldn’t have done anything to you to make you hate me or want to harm me.” I try to make him see reason as I sneak my hand inside of my bag and feel the knife I have hid. Dad gave it to me when he left me. I should have kept it in reaching distance. These people must be crazy trying this again. I look closely at this guy and his eyes are glassy looking and bloodshot. His hair is stringy and looks like it hasn’t been washed in days. His clothes are rumpled and dirty like he slept in them for a few days. Drugs. That makes it worse. There will be no talking sense into a drug addict. I just need to stall and get him to look away so I can get this knife in my hand.
“Bitch you are not getting in my head. Incompetent people is what has come after you. That is not me. No one caught me coming in and you better hope no one sees us going out. Like I said, move it. Chief gets back here then you get to watch your kid die and maybe dear old dad too.” He is watching me but the door pushes open and catches him off balance. Rix looks surprised as he pushes in. Him and this guy are fighting. This guy is taller than Rix but Rix has more weight. The next thing I know the gun goes off and I come out of my shock and grab the knife and hit the floor. While on the floor I look across the room and Rix is backing away holding his side where there is blood but the guy ran out of the door. I get off the floor and push the call button for the nurse and go to Rix to try to help him. I get him on his back and grab the sheet off the bed and try to stop the bleeding from the wound. I pull open door and yell. Fe and Chad are running down the hall. Mayhem has broken out in the hall. There is a security alarm going off. As soon as Chad is in the room I back away. Fe has his arms around me. I can’t quit shaking. I take my phone out of my back pocket and text dad to make sure he is safe with Killian. It only takes a minute for me to get a text back that he is locked in the nursery. More nurses and doctors are pushing their way in. Fe takes me into the hall. I see Crockett getting off the elevator. He makes his way over to us.
“Is it Stone?” I shake my head not being able to speak. “Callie concentrate! What the hell happened?”
“Some man I haven’t seen before came in and he was going to take me. He told me to either go with him or he would shoot Killian when dad came back. He must have been watching because he knew dad was gone with the baby. I had sent Rix down with my first load of stuff but when he came back Rix scared the guy. They fought over the gun and it went off. Rix was shot and he ran out. Dad is locked in the nursery with Killian. When the alarm goes off it automatically locks that room up. Thank goodness.” I start thinking what could have happened. We need to get out of here and back home or to the clubhouse so we can be safe.
“The cops will want to talk to you. We’ll lock this place down.” The alarms are off now.
“It’ll be ok Callie. We’ll get you out of here. I’m not leaving your side until you are out of here. If you need to pee then I am going to be there to hand you some paper to wipe. I am your shadow. I shouldn’t have left you to go flirt with that fine specimen of a man. I am so sorry Callie.” I can’t help but laugh at Fe. He is just so serious when he sai
d he was my shadow. I love my best friend. Crockett gives him one of those lifted eyebrow looks.
“Felix I think the Prez would have a bit of a problem with that. We have this.” Fe looks at Crockett and lifts his eyebrow at him.
“I’m not scared of Devil. We all will do what needs to be done. Where were you at? Where are all the badass bikers who are supposed to be Callie’s protection? I am not impressed.” I know Fe is concerned but he needs to calm down before he is way over his head with this hot head. “If you weren’t so damn cute I would give you real what for.” Then Fe smirks and winks at Crockett. Crockett is speechless. Crockett shakes his head and smiles. The tension is eased a little. Crockett walks to my room door and looks back over to us and smiles. The door opens and they are wheeling Rix out of the room. The elevator opens and three police officers step off the elevator. Here we go again.
Chapter 19
Devil
I shove my way out the front doors of the clubhouse with Sarge and Hacksaw right behind me. I am beyond pissed and ready to take my anger out on this asshole. All the worry over my family and club has come rushing back to me and I am ready to get some of my months of frustrations out on this bastard that thinks he can just walk up to our clubhouse. He just saved me a trip to hunt his ass down and he won’t be walking away from it. This could be his ultimate mistake. I see a tall figure standing beside Creole. His back is to me and I can’t get a good look at his face. I close in on him and before he can turn around I swing him around by his arms and give him a right hook straight to the side of his face and shove him back up against the guard house. I finally get a look of his face and it has me confused. His face has the similar features of my face. Yes, I am older but he has an uncanny likeness to me. I know we are cousins but there is an eerie likeness. Sarge and Hacksaw stand beside us with their mouths hanging open. I know they see the likeness of us. It’s not just me.