by E. C. Land
“Yeah, it looks that way,” I agree and head for the door to follow Chains to the hospital. As my best friend I want to be there for him and Tiny.
We’d been here for hours without hearing any news yet. Only thing to happen was when we’d first gotten there, Tiny demanded the ol’ ladies be in there with her. I’ll never understand why the hell women want other women in the room with them when they’re pushing a fuckin’ kid out of their body.
Fuck, I don’t even want to think about that shit myself.
Finally, the doors open, the ol’ ladies following Chains out. I know something’s wrong with one look at his face. I watch as he left the waiting area, shit this isn’t good. As Breaker, Tyres, Ryder and Axel follow after him, I decide to stay here just in case there’s any news, I could bring him.
Shortly after, Chains comes back in but stays silent as he looks out the window. We all stay close yet give him space as we wait.
Only when Faith asks Chains if she can talk to him does anyone step into his space. Hearing what she went through when she had Alec, I felt for her. A small pang hit my chest knowing the fear she went through at possibly losing her son.
That’s a feeling, I’m sure no parent ever wants to experience, yet she felt that shit alone.
“Sloane Garnier’s family?” The voice breaks through my thoughts and I step into the shadows of the room as I look upon the woman through narrow eyes.
What the fuck is she doing back here?
Last time I saw her was the day my heart turned black.
All because she had to be a traitorous, greedy bitch.
Twelve Years Ago
Glancing at the clock on the wall I shake my head realizing Angelina isn’t coming. For some reason I knew she wouldn’t be able to get away tonight.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know of her parents dislike for me due to me not meeting their standards. But they’ve never not allowed her out on the weekends.
Turning out the light, I head to my room, remove my shirt, and crawl into bed. Only a bit longer and we wouldn’t have to put up with her uptight fuckin’ parents. Mamma even said just give it time and it will all work out. I’ve always believed in her since she doesn’t lie. Having the gift she does, my mamma refuses to lie to someone yet she also doesn’t want to tell them what she sees. It’s why she sometimes speaks vague or in riddles that you need to figure out on your own.
I’m surprised my sister, Raven, isn’t showing signs of having Mamma’s gift. Then again, Raven’s unique in her own way. Her and my best friend Chains’ sister, Victoria, have a talent to do things but Pops refuses to allow this just yet. They’re still too young and Victoria is stuck with her adoptive parents for the time being and doesn’t get the chance to practice as much as Raven does.
A sigh passes my lips as I throw an arm over my eyes and think about my girl. Angelina seemed off today and with the way she’d kissed me after school it was as if she were saying goodbye.
I don’t fuckin’ know but I’ll find out tomorrow.
Too bad tomorrow never came and I didn’t see her again. She vanished leaving me with a letter stating I would never be able to give her what she needs, nor would I be enough for her. The gutting part of the letter was the way she signed it, at the bottom ‘Love you always, ma raison d’être’.
Then a week later, I’d been asleep in my bed on my houseboat when I woke up to the damn thing burning up. Flames dancing all around me. I escaped the fire by breaking out the window above my bed, but I didn’t escape unscathed. Nor did I miss the men, standing on the riverbank laughing with Angelina in the arms of one of those men.
Shaking my head, I turn on my heels and storm out of the hospital after hearing Tiny and the twins, River and Brook, were going to be okay.
Finding she was here was not something I expected and I sure as fuck don’t want to be breathing in the same air as her.
Nor do I want to have to see her face, not after all this time.
Chapter Two
Angelina
Present Day
Leaning against my kitchen counter, I try to shake off the unease I’ve been feeling constantly for the past year. Why did I think it would be okay to come back here? I should have just gone somewhere else entirely, but I’d missed Louisiana. This was home and I’ve spent far too long away from here.
I’d been back for nearly a year working at the local hospital and I’ve been lucky enough not to run into that many people I knew. Well, besides the one time when I’d performed an emergency C-section on a woman who was connected to a man that use to be best friends with my ex-boyfriend.
When I saw Chains, I hoped like hell he wouldn’t recognize me, but of course, my luck has always been shitty and he knew exactly who I was if the sneer on his face was anything to go by. I honestly didn’t think I looked the same as I used to back in the day. Though my hair is a lot longer, I keep it pulled back constantly, not wanting the long locks in my face when I’m working with patients. I bet if he knew it was me who performed his wife’s C-section beforehand, he’d have objected, but I was one of the best in the area. I could have applied for a position at any hospital, but I’d wanted to come home.
It might be home but really there isn’t anything here for me anymore. I’ve been gone for a long time now. My parents disowned me a long time ago. And due to things that happened, I’d been afraid to come back here. Until a year ago.
Sighing, I blow out a heavy breath.
Knowing I’ll never actually truly be home again but I’d do anything when it comes to someone I care for. I work my butt off to provide to put food on the table, even when that food isn’t for me, but rather my son, Carson.
He needed food more than I did. Considering I’m the only one he has to provide that for him, I do everything I can to make sure he has it as well as all the other things a twelve-year-old requires. I’ll go without to give to him. I eat just enough to keep me going.
From the time he was born ‘til now it’s always been him and me. It definitely hasn’t been an easy ride, but I do everything in order to keep him from feeling the bumps.
Closing my eyes, I lower my head in exhaustion. Good thing I have the next three days off from the hospital, I need them to catch up on sleep. As well as spend some time with my kiddo which with my shifts I barely get time to do.
Thank God for my neighbor. If not for her, I wouldn’t be able to work these hours in order to pay the bills and keep food in Carson’s stomach.
“Hey, Mom,” Carson calls out as he comes into the kitchen. “Can we go to the park?”
Smiling at Carson, I can’t get over how much he looks like his father. The dark hair and the eyes alone are a dead giveaway. Then there was the height he’s already growing into. My kid is already taller than me at this point. Soon he’ll be even taller than he is now, he’ll probably end up being the same height as his father making him the ultimate spitting image of the man who has gifted him with his genes.
A pang of guilt and anguish flows through me whenever his father comes to my mind. Why I thought it was a good idea to come back here is beyond me. I should have known better, but for Carson, I wanted him to be around his family, just in case.
Shuddering I try not to think of all the reasons that brought me back here besides my missing home. Nor the fact, of who all is here that personally hate me and would like to never see me again. I can deal with their hatred as long as Carson doesn’t feel it.
“Mom,” Carson calls my name once again.
“Yeah, Car, we’ll go to the park. Eat some breakfast while I take a shower,” I tell him, pushing myself away from the counter.
“Did you eat, Mom?” I inwardly cringe, my kid would ask me.
“Yep, I actually ate a couple of slices of toast,” I tell him, being truthful, however it was at the hospital that I’d gotten these slices of toast.
Carson tilts his head as if he were trying to decipher whether I was telling the truth or not. “Okay, Mom,” he says, mov
ing past me.
Ashamed as he knows I’m not completely truthful with him, but he’s smart and doesn’t want to push the subject right now. How I ended up with such an amazing kid I will never know but I’m thankful for it.
Heading to the shower, I quickly get cleaned up to take my kid to do something fun.
“Mom, check this out,” Carson calls out from the top of the ramp, holding his skateboard off the edge waiting for me.
“I’m watching, Car, go for it,” I yell back from where I’m sitting on top of a picnic table keeping my eyes glued to my kid.
When I’m not at work and I’m out with my kid my focus stays glued to him the entire time.
Carson does his thing going down the ramp up the other side grinding across doing an axel stall then going back to the other side, repeating this move. As he comes down, I clap my hands cheering him on, he’d been learning to skate since he first saw someone doing it.
“Way to go, buddy,” I say as Carson comes over to me.
“What did you think?” he asks, his voice filled with such excitement.
“You’ve really been practicing.” As I tell him this, a chill comes over me as if we were being watched. “Go skate for another ten minutes or so then we’ll head home, and binge watch the Batman movies.”
“What about we watch all of the Iron Man movies?” he suggests.
“It’s whatever you wanna do, bud.” I smile lifting a hand up to ruffle his hair he was now growing out.
“Mom,” he says, jumping out of reach and fixing his hair.
“Sorry, kiddo, go ahead and have some more fun,” I say, nodding in the direction he’d come from.
“Okay, Mom.” Turning on his heel, Carson goes back to skating.
The sense of being watched doesn’t go away and I quickly turn around to see if I can find the culprit of the sensation. Not finding anything, I turn back to my kid to watch him as he has fun. I love when he and I have days like this.
I wish we had more, and I was able to give him more than I do.
Ten minutes later, Carson comes back over claiming he’s ready to go. We head to the car, him riding his skateboard slowly next to me as I walk.
Just as we make it to the car my back stiffens at the sound of motorcycles coming down the road.
Oh no.
Please. Please. Please, don’t let them be coming in our direction.
“Mom, you okay?” Carson asks, his brows furrowed.
“Yeah, Car, how about I order a pizza tonight to go along with our Iron Man binge?” I suggest hoping to distract him.
“Cool deal.” He grins and my heart flutters as the roaring of the motorcycles grows louder.
Heart thumping in my chest, I open my door, glancing in the direction of the sound as it turns toward us.
“I wanna ride a motorcycle one day,” at Carson’s statement, I inwardly groan. Like father, like son. If only they truly knew. I mean Carson knows a little bit about his dad, has a picture of him I’d given him, but I think he doesn’t talk about him with me because he knows the truth.
“One day, kiddo,” I murmur, just as I spot him in the group going passed, my chest tightens at the mere sight of him. Climbing into the car, I put the key in the ignition. It takes a moment for the car to start but when it does, I pull out of the park’s parking lot and turn us in the direction of home. The entire way there the sense of trepidation filling me.
Something’s coming our way and I’m not sure which way it will be coming from. More than one person wants me dead and one of them just rode past on his motorcycle.
Chapter Three
Pitch Black
“Pitch Black, you good, brother?” Chains asks, coming in my direction. Lifting my gaze to his from where I was hunched over my bike to find him holding River.
Since he and his twin, Brook, were born Chains is rarely seen without one or the other kid. You usually find Tiny not far away tending to the second twin.
“You need me for something?” I ask, turning back to the task at hand.
“Got a call just a bit ago from Ryder, Marcus and Micah are wanting a bunch of us to come play football with them at the park.” This isn’t an uncommon thing. Ryder’s boys love hanging out with us and I gotta admit they’re pretty fuckin’ fun. Now that they’ve gotten a little bit older and want to try out for a football team. Some of my brothers and myself told them we’d help them out. Meaning we usually ended up out at the park or here at the clubhouse playing around with them.
Normally it’s at the clubhouse, since Chains doesn’t like for his kids to be too far away from him. Nor his ol’ lady. The day the twins were born I know was the second worst day of my best friend’s life. First was when Tiny was taken right out of the clubhouse. He’s gotten better about it here recently, but it still doesn’t stop him from being spotted around the clubhouse with at least one of his kids with him.
Fuck River’s been in church with us several times. “Grooming him for club life,” Chains muttered with a grin the first time he’d done it.
“Give me a few minutes to clean this up,” I tell him, nodding to my bike.
“Alright, I gotta get River to Tiny anyways. She’s wanting to get them on a new schedule,” Chains says, tickling his son causing him to giggle.
“Sounds good.” Grinning, I go about cleaning up my tools, putting them away, I head into the clubhouse to wash my hands. Making my way back outside, I find a majority of my brothers already on their bikes ready to go. “Let me not hold us up.”
Riding with my brothers as we turn toward the park, my gaze catches something that causes me to narrow my eyes.
What the fuck is she doing here?
As my brothers and I ride by, I notice someone was with her. From where they’re standing, I don’t get a good look but something about it set me on edge. Even more so as we park and I notice her car driving away as fast as possible.
Good.
I don’t need that bitch anywhere near me.
Climbing off my bike, I step up on the sidewalk the same time my brothers do. “Was that who I think it was?” Tyres asks.
“Yep,” I sneer.
“Fuckin’ cunt. Why the fuck did she come back here anyway?” Brake comments. They were both there with me dealing with the aftermath of what being with her caused me. They’ve seen the scars.
Shaking my head, I make my way toward where Ryder was already throwing the ball with Marcus and Micah. “Bitch can do whatever the fuck she wants long as she stays clear of me.”
“We got your back, brother,” Chains declares, slapping a hand on my back.
“Appreciated.” Which I did but fuck if it doesn’t piss me off and make me want to hit something after seeing her.
Moment we get close enough to Ryder, I know he didn’t miss seeing Angelina and he makes it known. “Didn’t know she was here, Pit.”
“Not your fault, saw her leaving,” I mutter, with a shrug of my shoulders.
“You see the kid with her?” he asks furrowing his brow.
“What kid?”
“The tall dude who got in the car with her,” Ryder says cautiously.
“Didn’t pay attention, then again don’t give a damn about her or who she’s with,” I sneer.
“Are you talking about that lady who was watching the dude riding the skateboard over at the skate ramp?” Marcus asks.
“Yeah,” Ryder mutters, giving his kid a nod. Marcus’ eyes light up as he turns from his dad to me.
“You should have seen him. I wanna learn to ride a skateboard now. I mean he was freaking awesome. Seriously, he was doing all those tricks and his mom was sitting there cheering him on.” Stiffening at the mention of Angelina, I try to hide my hatred for the woman. I turn my attention from Marcus to Ryder as he steps closer to me.
“I figured you needed to see this kid, brother, he’s your fuckin’ twin,” Ryder murmurs soft enough for only me to hear him.
What the fuck?
I don’t have a fuckin’ kid.
I always wrapped my shit when I fucked Angelina. There was no fuckin’ way she had my kid without me knowing. This isn’t about to be a repeat of what Axel went through and I sure as fuck am not about to go hauling ass after her to demand answers.
Fuck that.
I don’t need or want anything to do with her.
Deciding to shake off my thoughts, I turn my attention to Marcus and his twin brother as he joins us. “You two ready to play some football?” I ask them.
“Yeah,” Micah yells, tossing the football to me. Catching it, we begin our game.
After spending the afternoon tossing the ball with my brothers and Ryder’s boys, I decide to ride out to see my mamma. Normally Pops and her come to the clubhouse, but she’d been sick the last few days and didn’t want to take a chance of getting any of the kiddos sick.
Between Chains’ kids, Breaker’s little one, Ryder’s ol’ lady just having their little girl, Lucy, and of course, Axel’s son plus him and is ol’ lady are due to pop any day now. With all of them being at the clubhouse more often than not, no one wants to see them sick. Not even me.
Pulling up to my parents, I sigh wondering if I can keep what’s running through my head to myself. Maybe coming here wasn’t such a good idea.
Swinging my leg off my bike, I straighten and head for the front door just as my pops opens the door. “Your mamma knew you would be coming by today and made your favorite for dinner,” he grumbles.
Giving him a grin, I shake my head. Everyone knows my pops as Fury, a man not to fuck with but to his kids he’s always been what he was supposed to be, our parental unit who works side by side with my mamma. Hell, he even took on my cousins, Lynch and his sister Harlow.
I can’t help from cringing at the thought of Harlow, she’s more like a sister but after finding her in the park laying on the ground unmoving, I will always feel a sense of guilt none of us were able to protect her from her fate.