“I . . . I’m sorry. It’s just really hard to believe a mother would act this way to their child. I know some women are exceptions, but man it pisses me off. I’d never treat Dasha, River, or Aurek like that. And if I ever did, I’d make damn sure Reed killed me for it.” Elena is the first lady of the Skulls Renegade MC in Tennessee. Her ol’ man, Reed, is the Prez and they have three kids. Dasha and Aurek are adopted, but they had River about seventeen years ago.
Long story short, Elena and I worked together. It’s how we met in our early twenties. We were both active field agents for the FBI, and then Elena got in this long-term relationship with this guy named Richard. He was a total asshole. The first time I met him I knew he wasn’t right for her, and he proved that to her eventually, by fucking his assistant on his desk. So, Elena left his ass and went back into field work. She came here to take the club down, but instead uncovered the truth about what they were doing. In the process she fell in love with Reed.
“Yeah, well, some parents are the cream of the crop and others aren’t. You know?”
Elena nods, “You can say that again.”
“Okay, onto other things. How’re things down here going?” Unfortunately, I only get the chance to see her about two times a year now. It’s the downside to living in Montana full-time.
Elena shrugs, taking a sip of her beer. “They’re going. Could be better, could be worse. I caught wind River lost her cherry to one of the boys here, and ugh, I haven’t told Reed.”
My eyes widen. “Why would you tell him? He’ll kill the fucker.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right.”
“Okay, but now you have to tell me who it was.”
Elena’s cheeks flush with redness. “Kane, Ksenia and Enzo’s son.”
“What? Has he grown up from that pudgy kid he was?”
“You’d think he’s in MMA now. Super slim physique, but adorable. Hell, I’m only saying adorable because I watched him grow up. If you were to ask one of the triplets they’d go on and on about how he’s so hot.”
The triplets are Elena’s nieces. They’re Reed’s brother’s kids with Michelle, his ol’ lady. Their kids are Skye, Remi, and Page. The girls are probably around fifteen or so. Hell, they might be fourteen. The years just seem to fly by these days.
I’m sitting across from Elena in her living room, on her plush emerald green velvet couch. Her Shar-Pei, Sadie, is sitting half on the other seat, half on her lap. Soaking up her mom’s energy. The door comes swinging open and Dasha walks in. She goes from her typical resting bitch face to a massive smile.
“Aunt Kristie!” Dasha rushes right over in my direction and throws her arms around me. I hold her tight, loving the fresh scent of vanilla and chamomile radiating off her.
“Hey, kiddo. God, you’re getting more beautiful every time I see you.”
She pulls away, unable to refrain from smiling. Dasha has the most beautiful soft white hair, with specs of a light blonde running through it. Her full lips are a brushed cherry, and she has the most mesmerizing eyes I’ve ever seen. She could be a model if she wanted. I have no doubt about that.
“You just like sucking up to me so Dad doesn’t fill your bedroom with mancave stuff.”
She’s caught me alright. Elena made Reed give me a room for when I come to visit them. She didn’t want to put me in a hotel, and she sure as hell didn’t want to put me in the club. Not with the ruckus these boys out here cause.
Hell, I’m just glad I’m here and I can be with the family that truly cares about me. I’m ready for vacation to start and man, I can’t wait to unwind.
Chapter Five
Secrets and lies kill relationships. No matter how careful you are, you will get caught. What’s done in darkness always comes to light.
~ Unknown
Chaz
“Yo, brother. Your sister’s here.” Kade tells me while he’s on his way back to have a chat with Damon. I figure he’s talking to Dixon, considering Abbey pops by every now and again. So, I ignore what he’s saying.
Boog rises from his seat and slaps me upside the head, “What the fuck you ignoring him for?”
“Huh? You’re talkin’ to me?” I ask Boog but look over to Kade.
His eyes dart from me to Boog. “Yeah, chick said her name’s Clem. That right?”
I nod and get up from my seat, heading toward the door, I turn my neck back to Kade. “You just left her outside and shit?”
He shrugs his shoulders, “How was I supposed to know she wasn’t some batshit crazy chick?
Rolling my eyes, I head out the door to find Clem in a sweater, holding her arms around herself. Shit, she’s so damn cold. “Crap, come in. You’re probably freezing.”
“I’m fine, Charlie. Can we talk somewhere private though? I have something I think you need to know about.” Clem’s tone sounds worrisome, so I put my arm around her waist and walk her over to my trailer. We get inside and shut the door. Clem immediately sits down on my couch and looks at me with fearful eyes, like whatever’s on her mind is really fucking with her.
“Charlie, God. I don’t want to tell you this. It feels so weird to say it, but I can’t let you be in the dark. I don’t want that for you. If I were in your position, I’d want you to know.”
I blink a few times, processing the way she’s going with this conversation. “What’s going on, Clem?” I’ll keep it plain and simple. The sooner she gets to the point, the sooner my heart can stop pumping rapidly in my chest.
Clem runs her hand through her hair but stays quiet, which doesn’t fucking help. Her silence is only amping me up.
“Clem, fucking tell me already!” I snap.
She shuts her eyes, furrowing her brows. “Are you still seeing that girl, Crina?”
I texted her a week ago when Crina and I fucked for the first time, telling her I found the right bitch for me. She was overjoyed, knowing I’ve never been one to really commit. Not since Lauren. Her death fucked me up in ways I will probably never really understand. I should really go see a therapist, now that I’m thinking about it.
“Yeah. Why? What’s up?”
Clem sucks in a deep breath and opens her eyes. Staring into my eyes, she opens her mouth and I don’t fully process what she’s said. Not at first.
Rage.
Fury.
Anger.
Betrayal.
So many feelings go through me right now. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how I should be reacting. I don’t know any fucking thing.
“Charlie, did you hear me?” She asks, but I can’t answer. I’m too caught up in my head, in the thoughts that will either make me want to ram my fist through every wall I can until I shatter them again the way Lucien did. Or, I’ll be murdering someone.
God. I can’t fucking believe this happened.
I cannot fucking believe this!
“Charlie?” Clem repeats my name.
Clenching my fists, I snarl at her. “Yeah, I heard how my fuckin’ girlfriend fucked our dad. Is that it, Clem? Or is there some other shit you’re forgettin’ to tell me, too? Huh?”
She jolts back where she sits, looking like I slapped her across the face, but I didn’t. I’m just . . . pissed. I’m so pissed that I don’t know what to do, how to react. What’s the right way to react in a situation like this? Should I have thanked her for giving me this information? Should I be all smiles and hunky dory?
Fuck no.
Fuck that!
“How do you know it’s true?” I question, not wanting to believe this right off the bat.
“Charlie, the staff. They were talking about it at the restaurant, so I asked Dad. He didn’t tell me no. In fact, he begged me not to tell you. He had no idea you were pursuing her and asked I keep it to myself so it wouldn’t ruin the relationship you have with him, or with Crina.”
“How fucking sweet. You for coming over here and telling me this shit, and him for wanting to lie to my fucking face for the rest of my life.” I snarl, wiping my h
ands across my face for a moment.
This is horrible. Some telenovela bullshit.
She curls her upper lip, like she does every time before she’s about to cry. “You know, I came here to tell you in case things progress between you two. I don’t know why you’re treating me like shit, but I assumed you’d want to know. Don’t tell me you’d want a secret like that kept from you, because I wouldn’t ever believe it.” Clem gets up from my couch and shoves my chest before rushing out of the trailer.
She’s pissed. I’m pissed. We’re both fucking pissed.
The sounds of tires pressing against gravel fill my ears and I spot Clem’s taillights reaching the end of the lane. But I spot another car coming down. I wait, standing in front of my living room window and watch as it parks next to my bike.
Speak of the devil.
Fern must be dropping her off this time and she starts to back up after Crina gets out, but I walk right out onto my porch. I won’t be dealing with this bullshit. Not now, and certainly not ever.
“Hold up, Fern!” I holler, causing the woman to press on her brakes. Glancing over to Crina, she seems a bit confused. Her brows draw together showing me she doesn’t know what I do. If she knew I had this knowledge, she’d be sick as a dog. The woman is a nervous nelly. Badass, but an anxious one. Like a squirrel. “Crina, did you fuck my dad?”
I watch her gulp, seeing every way her face contorts from the light shining down from my porch. She’s guilty. I already know it. But, I’ll wait for confirmation.
“Why are you asking me that?” Her words are barely audible. It’s just another confirmation.
“Answer the damn question, Crina.” I seethe, really not in the mood to play games.
“Yes, before we were together, I slept with your father.”
“Get in the fucking car, and don’t come back.” I snarl, turning around I head for the door. I have my hand on the knob when she speaks up again.
“Chaz, this was before we were together. Why does it matter? It’s irrelevant.”
I look back at her and man, I get even more pissed. At this point, I don’t feel like it is possible for that to happen. “Get in the fucking car, and don’t you ever fucking speak to me again. You’ve lost all my trust, Crina, and I’ll be damned if I’ll ever give it back to you again. We’re done. You hear me? We’re fucking done.”
“Charles!” She cries out my legal name just as I walk into my trailer and slam the door shut. I have no empathy for her. She made her bed, and now she can lay in it.
Who knows, maybe my dad will warm it up again for her. One thing’s for sure—it won’t be me.
I need to have a chat with Damon as soon as possible. I think it’s about high time I take a break and head up North for a bit. After what I’ve learned today, I need to clear my head.
Chapter Six
“Deep breaths are like little love notes to your body.”
~ Unknown
Cheyenne
“I’m going to tell you right now, these little shits are going to call me a pirate and I know it.” Alexa huffs as we make our way into the local mall. And when I say local, it isn’t local. We drove into town, but it wasn’t a good one apparently. So, she told me we could drive an hour away and find something similar, with a little bit more variety as far as the shops go.
“They don’t mean anything by it, they’re only pointing out your difference because they don’t know what else to do.” I tell her. I can tell she doesn’t like it when they call her a pirate, and it’s not like she chose to have her eye carved out of her head.
That’s what Ashley told me happened, I only knew a bit about it when I went to help her all those years ago. My brother, Boomer, made me go to aid the Reapers. Little did the Reapers know my brother was only trying to keep them off his trail.
Alexa was being held hostage and was tortured for days on end. It sounded gruesome and Ashley went into the nitty, gritty details, but I couldn’t stomach it. The mere thought of what she endured literally made me want to vomit. So, I came up with an excuse about needing to finally put together the dresser I ordered. Thank God it saved me. Ashley might look like a prim and proper girl, but there is some deep redneck in that girl that loves gore.
Alexa now has a side bang, so she covers her eye up. Ashley told me it’s something new she’s been doing, trying to appear more ‘normal’ when they go out. If you ask me, Alexa is super self-conscious about what happened and doesn’t like the attention it puts on her.
“Yeah, well, that’s shitty parenting. People need to stop raising their kids to be little bullies and assholes.”
I wish I could disagree with her, but I can’t. “Preach, sister.”
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve really noticed how kids don’t have any respect for their elders these days. I mean, if I didn’t say ‘yes, ma’am’, ‘no ma’am’, or ‘thank you’, and ‘please’ I was guaranteed an ass whooping. Don’t even get me started on switches and wooden paddles. My momma was old school, and man, sometimes I think she enjoyed teaching me a hard lesson on what respect was.
“The kids at the club won’t ever be like these little shits. If they are, ooo, girl, I will ream into their butts.” Alexa mutters.
I shrug, “I can’t blame you, but let’s be honest, their daddies would never let them get anywhere close to other kids. Bikers raise some respectable kids. Or the worst on the face of the Earth. You usually go from one extreme to the other.” At the end of my comment, I laugh, getting a laugh from Alexa too.
Alexa smiles, looking down at the ground for a second while we muster up the courage to head inside. “How are you feeling, after getting settled in up here and all?”
I wrap my arms around my winter coat, “I think everything is going okay. It’s all a big adjustment, so I’m trying to take it one day at a time. You know?”
“Nevada and Montana are two totally different places. Sometimes it even feels like they’re different worlds.” Yeah, if that isn’t the truth, I don’t know what is. Being up here would’ve been great if I needed a change of scenery, but I don’t know that I do. I thought everything was going well, but I understand why I was needed up here. It only made sense, but man, did leaving suck or what.
Maybe it wasn’t leaving that sucked, but the way I left. I miss my friends. I miss Sakura, and Chaz, and Kat . . . and everyone. I miss the way Fate and Orion would smile at me from across the club, and how Bridget and Danica would always want me to take them out for ice cream. Fuck, it feels like I lost my family. More of a family than my brother has ever been to me, and I know how horrible that sounds.
Zane and I have chatted briefly about his goal for getting the clinic up and running here. He wants me to have a legitimate business here, but to invest some money and gain some profits. It makes sense and I’m totally fine with it. However, he of course wants me to provide medical care to the club. Whether it’s man, woman, or child.
If you ask me, the Reapers try to find legitimate ways to keep going on. They don’t want to alert the FBI, ATF, or whoever else might be trying to come after their asses. Zane with wanting to invest in my clinic, and Octavia with her online nude website. I still don’t know the name of it. I should probably ask so I won’t look like a dummy. Sooner rather than later would be good. I don’t think they have any other legitimate forms of business, besides the Bad Bunnies Brothel back in Las Vegas. I’m not privy to the details of the arrangement, but I’m sure the Montana charter gets a cut of those profits as well. And, prostitution is legal in Nevada.
“So, what did you want to grab out here?” I ask Alexa, considering it was her idea to get me out of the club and go on a shopping spree.
A playful smile pulls at her lips, “I have something super important to tell Bull, so I want to get all sexy for him. Grab something I haven’t ever worn for him before. You know?”
“Ah, so lingerie. I like the way you think. I’m a sucker for a good corset and pair of over the knee stockings.” I throw money away for sexy
shit like it’s nothing, and I don’t even have anyone to wear this crap for.
“Yes, and I’m ready to dance around for him and show him just how much I love him, and his cock. God, I’ve been so horny lately. I can’t fucking wait. I’m getting wet now thinking about him.”
“Whoa, too much info, girl.” I stifle a laugh, putting my hand in front of my face.
Her cheeks flush red as we approach a lingerie store, “Sorry. I can’t help it. I had a procedure two months ago to remove some scarring down below since I have endometriosis. My doctor called me three weeks ago and said everything really looked good, and we could try the new fertility treatments that’ve given some success to women like me. I’m hoping and praying it’ll work, because I really want to give him a child. He might act like it doesn’t matter to him, but I know he’s downplaying it.”
“Let me guess, you’re ovulating right now?” I wiggle my eyebrows while letting my hand drift along the beautifully made pieces of lace, silk, and chiffon.
“I am, and I don’t think we’ll get pregnant right away, but this gives me hope. It gives me hope that I can give him something I never thought was possible, and that excites me.”
“As it should. Bringing life into this world is something to be celebrated, and women in situations like yours understand what I’m saying. It’s something so simple, something we fucking crave more than anything, yet . . . can be so hard to have.”
Alexa narrows her eye in on me, “You talk like you’ve had some sort of experience?”
I nod, picking up a sapphire blue number from the rack. “Yeah, when I was nineteen, I lost a fallopian tube. The pregnancy wasn’t viable, and my boyfriend left me. He said it was my fault, but the guy had no fucking clue. Things like that can’t be blamed on the woman. It’s nothing more than a statistic, a probability, and most of all, something fucking horrible.”
Frost (Reapers MC Book 15) Page 3