by Nicole Fox
“Is that the biker boy?” she dramatically whispered, and I knew she was teasing. Ember slapped her mother playfully on the shoulder.
“This is Wheeler, yeah, Mama. Wheeler, this … is my mother.”
I pushed the kickstand down and stood, extending my hand for her to shake. Instead of shaking my hand, Ember’s mother wrapped around me in a tight embrace.
“Thank you, for taking care of my daughter.”
“Oh … oh it’s nothing, really—”
The stare that she leveled up at me cut me off.
“It’s always something when someone else is willing to stick their neck out for your child. Don’t even diminish the power that comes from doing the right thing.”
I swallowed and nodded. I hadn’t expected the fervor, but she wasn’t trying to beat me with a hatchet for getting her daughter into trouble (more than one meaning at this point, now, but she didn’t know that) so I was going to take that in stride.
We stood outside for a little from there. Ember and her mother caught up, Ember telling her mother about the things that had happened, our adventures in San Diego. She left out the part about the baby, but I knew that that would eventually have to come up.
Just like eventually leaving would have to be a thing.
I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to leave Ember here while I rode off. It didn’t feel right, and probably less so now that I knew that she was pregnant. There was just too damn much going on. I would be glad when it—whatever it ended up being—was over. When the pleasantries were starting to run a little too long, I cut it unfortunately short.
I nudged Ember and looked at her mother.
“Ah, Mrs. Amor?”
She stopped mid-sentence.
“Hm? Yes?”
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” I said. “But I unfortunately have to go.”
“Oh … You can’t stay at all. Not even a night?”
How I fucking wished.
“Unfortunately not. I want to, I really do, but …”
“Duty calls?”
I laughed a little at the phrasing, but nodded.
“Yeah. Duty calls.”
“I’ll leave the two of you to it.”
I was surprised that her mother was fine with leaving us alone. Mothers were usually … overbearing, weren’t they? Far too much in their children’s business for their own good. But I didn’t complain. Ember’s mother retreated into the trailer, and I looked down to Ember. I took her face in my hands.
“I’ll be back,” I said. “I promise.” I kissed her lovingly, because dammit, I loved her.
I could tell her. Right here. Right now.
But I held my tongue.
I would tell her when I saw her again.
I lingered on her lips and kissed her as long as I could before I pulled away. I knew that if I kept it up, I would just want to stay there, and I couldn’t do that no matter how much I wanted to. It would only cause problems, and it sure as hell wouldn’t do me any good.
I pulled away. Those three words were on my tongue, but I sealed them with another kiss.
“I’ll be back,” I said. “Promise.”
I didn’t look at her when I got on my bike and rode off. I couldn’t. The only thing I could do was ride back into San Diego, put on a tough face, and prepare.
We were going to set things right in our club. We’d deal with the heat as it came.
And then?
I was coming back for Ember.
Chapter Eighteen Wheeler
The ride home was one of the most somber that I’d ever had. There was nothing about it that made me feel like I was really heading home. Home was where Ember was. Home was where Ember was, and Ember wasn’t out here on this open road, and she sure as hell wasn’t there to greet me when we rolled up on the Big Sur clubhouse.
They were waiting.
There were a few stationed out in the front of the house. They looked like wannabe thugs, standing there trying to be menacing. I knew every one of them there, and I wasn’t scared of them. I was an enforcer, one of the biggest, and there wasn’t a damn thing that any of the current Sons members could do to stand against me.
I didn’t see any of the boys that I had sent this way to keep an eye on things among the bikers that were outside.
That … was a problem.
I had Boss and the boys to back me up, however. I pulled up and slid off my bike. Leech came striding out of the house, strutting his stuff like he had something to prove.
“And look here what the cat dragged in,” he said. He smirked at me. “I thought I told you to stay lost.”
“That was before you decided you were going to put Satan out of commission and take the head of the club yourself. You’ve overstepped your boundaries, Leech.” I wasn’t going to pull any punches. I got right to the point.
Leech didn’t look too concerned with that fact—though there were wary eyes on him as he approached me. Did the others not realize what he done? Had no one thought to give consideration?
“You come here accusing me of hurting my own father,” Leech said, as though he were an innocent babe over a snake in the grass. “When you up and hightailed it out of here at the first sign of trouble? You shack up with Boss, and then you bring them here, rolling up like a bat out of hell. Yet you have the nerve to ask me my intentions, Wheeler? Are you fucking stupid?”
“Almost as stupid as you are.” I looked around to the others. “He’s been skimming product, which I thought was pretty obvious. As obvious as the fact that he’s the one that shot Satan. Was anyone around? Did anyone see? Yet somehow there were cops here, there was an altercation, Satan got hurt. But there was no one here to confirm or deny the fact that there was something that happened here.”
The people around us shifted. Leech sneered.
“Come on. Who’s gonna believe you? You ran out. You left. I stayed. I took care of Satan. I took care of this club—”
“Just like you took care of it by getting us into this situation to begin with?” I shook my head. “No. I’m not buying it. Where’s Bones and Elise? I know they’ll vouch for the fact you’re a seedy little fucker.”
There was a quiet around the group. They looked around.
Leech grinned.
“Bring Bones out.”
One of the others walked into the house. There was silence, and when the other came back out, I narrowed my eyes.
He had Bones by the arm. Bones’ face was a bruised mess. He looked like he had gone through the ringer, and I was pissed off.
“The fuck did you do?” I turned my attention to Leech.
“He thought that he would try to get fresh and roust the club from me after Satan,” he said. “Seems he had the same notion you did. All sorts of wild shit about me doing things I shouldn’t be doing. I had to teach him a lesson, but obviously this was something that you were trying to enact from the start.”
I laughed. I honest to God laughed.
“Is there anyone here who honestly believes this shit? After everything that happened? Do you really think that this is the right course for the Sons?”
Where there had been hostility when I arrived, there was apprehension now—questions. They had apparently not tried to put two and two together yet. Until I brought it up. Until it was me and Bones that had brought it up.
Things Leech should have always known.
I had more sway in this club than he did.
Slowly, the boys started moving away from Leech. Like he was a disease. Like there was something wrong with him. He watched this with a growing rage reddening his face and making him flush with frustration.
“What the fuck are y’all doing? Get your asses back over here.”
One by one, the Big Sur boys joined me where I stood with Boss and the others. We outnumbered the fraction of a group that remained on Leech’s side.
“You can do this the easy way or the hard way, but you’re going to step down as president, Leech,” I said.
; He sneered at me.
“Or what? You’re gonna do it? Don’t make me fucking laugh.”
“I’m not going to tell you again, Leech.”
He was fuming. His temple popped with the vein throbbing as he grappled with his choices—stand his ground and lose for sure, or leave with at least his life even if he wasn’t left with his dignity.
Leech was just that. A leech. He had no spine and no real guts and push come to shove, that showed more than anything else did. He snarled at me, coming down the front stairs.
“You’re gonna regret this,” he huffed. His eyes were crazed. He was a madman. “You’re going to regret this. Fuck you. Fuck all of you!”
No one followed him as he got on his bike, and I didn’t make to stop him. his threats were empty and I knew that he wouldn’t be coming back. Not anytime soon. Not if he was smart. I let out a breath.
That could have gone worse.
Way worse.
I looked around. There were men staring at me, some in admiration, and others in apprehension. I knew why. I knew that they were likely wondering what my next move was.
“All right,” I said. “This is how it’s gonna be. No more drugs. No more guns—no more of that shit that was pulled at the festival.” I looked at each of their faces as I spoke. “This shit has gone on too damn long. We’ve had to do too damn much to build up this club only to have it fall by the wayside. Until Satan gets out of the hospital, I will be acting president, and if you have a problem with that, Leech is that way. Am I understood?”
There were ayes all around.
I turned to Bones.
“Fill me in.”
It turned out that Leech had completely taken over after I’d left. He had spun a tale of me walking out on the club to everyone involved, and they’d bought it—why wouldn’t they? I was gone. Then there were the reports on the news. Leech had done fine work convincing Satan that I had done it on purpose. That I was abandoning the club. When I sent the other chapters out and over, he’d made it out like I was sending them for a takeover. They weren’t looking to pick a fight, and they weren’t looking to be scorned either, with lies.
I didn’t blame them for leaving.
I got things as much in order as I possibly could while Satan was out of commission. On the third day, I finally made it to the hospital to visit him.
He had been unresponsive after being shot. I found out that it was in the chest, point blank. Leech hadn’t even been the one to bring him in, and that pissed me off even more. When I came to visit him, though, I was told it was the first day that he was opening his eyes, and that it was a miracle that he was beginning to speak.
I sat down beside him. He looked more fragile in the hospital bed than he had ever looked in his bedroom.
This was a fucking mess. And the sad part? I had no idea if leaving or staying would have ended up with a better result.
“Hey, Satan.” He smiled at me as I sat and took his hand. It was cold.
“Hey …” He coughed. “We’ve had a … rough bit of it …” He coughed again.
“Yeah. We have.”
I filled him in on everything that had happened since he had been in the hospital. In turn, he filled me in on a little something.
“It was Leech,” he wheezed out. “Who shot me. He tried to convinced me to burn you from the chapter … I couldn’t … not even after everything he told me you did.”
I was angry, but I wasn’t surprised. I’d guessed as much.
“It’s fine. He’s gone now. And when you’re back on your feet—”
“I want you to have it,” he interrupted.
I paused.
“What?”
“I want you to have the chapter,” he said. “Everything you say you’ve done … it’s the right thing. Everything you’ve already done has been the right thing. There’s no one else that I would rather have take over for me than you.”
“Bu t… you’ll be fine,” I said. “You’re not dying—”
“No, but I will. Eventually. And before I do … I want to take a backseat.” He coughed. Then, he smiled. “Besides, it’ll be good for you, you know? You’re bringing a child into the world … You should—”
My phone started ringing.
“Goddammit.”
I held my finger up to indicate I’d be a second.
It was Boss. He’d headed back to San Diego that morning. Why was he calling now?
“Hey, Boss, what’s up?”
“Wheeler, it’s Ember. Something big’s gone down here—”
Chapter Nineteen Ember
I had gotten so used to Wheeler’s presence that it was strange to not have him with me anymore. I loved being able to be around my mother again, don’t get me wrong. I had … missed her. Like any child misses their parent.
I missed Wheeler, too.
There had been something that felt like it should have been said when he left. I’d felt it in his kiss, the way he’d lingered, the way that he didn’t really want to pull away.
I had fallen for him. And that was the damn kicker, because I shouldn’t have fallen for him. Where had the time gone? It was like we’d gone through every step that was supposed to take years and years in a matter of moments.
It made me lightheaded.
It was a few days after Wheeler left that my mother asked me if I could go run some errands for her. It wasn’t anything that I was particularly jazzed about doing, but it would get me out of the house and give me a little distraction from my thoughts. I wanted to call Wheeler and see what was up, check in, but I knew that I shouldn’t be a distraction. He would already have enough going on on his end of things, and I wouldn’t want to spoil that for him in anyway.
I had another wig tossed onto my head, the blonde one that was my favorite, and the same sundress that I had worn when I’d found out that I was pregnant (that had been at least a smooth- sailing conversation with my mother; it wasn’t like it’d come as a shock to her, at the least.)
I took my mom’s little beaten up Suburban into town. She was convinced that I wouldn’t need my disguise, but with the ways things had gone, I wasn’t going to leave it up to fate, either.
It was a brisk, sunny day. I strode with a confidence that might have been a little fake-it-till-you-make-it. I was still getting used to the fact that I was pregnant. Growing a little life inside me.
I would have to talk to my mother about how she’d handled the mental process of working through that one.
I picked up a few things from the store, mainly a small amount of supplies for the trailer that my mother needed. I didn’t mind getting them for her and splurging on the nicer amenities that I knew she wouldn’t pay for herself. It was a little busy, so it took a while. I decided that since I had some time to kill, I would go ahead and sit in at a little diner and get something good to eat. I was feeling a nice, homemade greasy burger, and there was a joint in town to die for. I wasn’t feeling pregnancy cravings yet, but I figured I’d get in a decent bite to eat before they totally wrecked my good taste in food.
I walked into the diner, the bell chiming to alert my arrival. A waitress called over to me.
“Hey, hun! Seat yourself and I’ll be right with you.”
I took a booth near one of the big, sprawling windows. There were little menus already set onto the table and I thumbed through.
Mushroom Swiss burger …. Bacon cheddar … Double bacon and cheddar jack … Build your own burger …
“Hey, hun.” The same voice from before greeted me, and I looked up to see a cheerful waitress looking down at me. “Sorry for the wait. What can I get you for a drink?”
“Dr. Pepper.”
She scribbled that down.
“All right, and are you ready to order, or would you like some more time to think on that before you’re ready?”
“No, I think I’m good to order now,” I said. “I’ll take the mushroom Swiss? Double decker it. With potato wedges and slaw on the side.”
&n
bsp; She jotted that down, nodding.
“Will that be it?”
“And … a milkshake?” God, a milkshake sounded good. “Chocolate.”
“That’ll be coming right up, sweetie.”
The waitress flitted off, and I was excited to get my hands on my food. I was starving after walking around for the better part of the morning, and ready to get myself fed.