by Lane Hart
“I met a girl and we’re, um, living together,” I inform her.
“Really? That’s wonderful! I would love to meet her,” my mother says.
“Audrey would really like to meet you too,” I tell her.
“Then you should come home,” she suggests. “I know you can’t ever forgive me, but Todd and I forgive you. Now, he’ll even tell you that he was selfish and deserved what you did to him.”
“Is that right?” I ask, unable to believe he would ever say he deserved an ass whooping.
“We miss you, Maddox,” she says. “Come home and see us. Please?”
Clearing the emotion from my throat, I tell her, “Yeah, Mom, we will. But Audrey’s in college, so we’ll have to wait until she finishes her classes.”
“Of course,” she agrees. “Anytime. You’re our son. The door is always open.”
“Thanks, Mom,” I say as I heave a sigh of relief. It feels like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders after finally making contact with her. I was worried she would be angry at me or hell, have forgotten about me. But she hasn’t.
…
Audrey
“You’re being a real d-i-c-k, Warren,” I tell my brother, when the four of us sit down at the table in his dining room to eat Thanksgiving dinner without Maddox.
“D-u-c-k is duck, but I’m not allowed to say d-i-c-k,” Ren informs me, making my jaw drop.
“He’s reading now. Has been for a while,” Warren says with a smile, reaching over to ruffle Ren’s dark hair. Then, glaring at me, he says, “So don’t spell anything else like that unless you want me to wash your mouth out with soap.”
Rolling my eyes, I tell him, “I’m not a child anymore. Mom and Dad’s threats no longer work on me.”
“It was only a threat for you, the baby. But they actually did make me eat soap!” Warren grumbles.
“You deserved it for using the f-word on the church playground,” I remind him.
“That little jerk knocked your teeth out. He’s lucky all I did was call him a name and drag him by his collar over to his parents.”
“It was a baby tooth, singular, so it wasn’t a big deal,” I explain to Nova, who has been silently eating and observing our argument, which brings me to ask her, “Nova, what do you think about the situation with Maddox?”
“Oh no,” she says, waving her white napkin at me like a flag. “I’m not getting in the middle of this.”
“Good,” Warren mutters.
“But I have met Maddox and I think he seems like a really nice young man,” she adds, making me smile, and Warren turns to narrow his eyes at her.
“See!” I exclaim. “Maddox is a nice young man. And he loves me!”
“Whatever,” my brother grumbles.
“He does!”
“You’re too young to even know what love is,” he replies.
“No, I’m not,” I reply. “I remember how Mom and Dad looked at each other and how you could see the love between them. That’s how I feel with Maddox. He’s like the missing piece of my soul that no one else can fit.”
“Maybe you should’ve majored in theatrics instead,” Warren scoffs.
“Not only did Maddox come to Wilmington and help me when I needed him, but he gave up everything for me! You have no idea how much becoming a member of the Savage Kings meant to him. It was the one thing he’s worked toward for years. All he wanted was to follow in his father’s footsteps, with the only connection he had to the man, and you took that opportunity from him!” I say, then the words I just blurted out hit my own ears. I drop my fork and slap my palm over my mouth, wishing I could take them back.
“His father’s footsteps?” Warren repeats because he was, unfortunately, listening to my entire rant, about the same time Ren asks, “What’s the Savage Kings?”
“It’s just a name of a group of men who ride motorcycles,” my brother tells his son before turning to me. “What did you mean by his father’s footsteps?”
“Nothing. Forget I said anything,” I say in a rush before grabbing a roll and stuffing it in my mouth. “’Licious,” I tell Nova around the mouthful.
“You’re not supposed to talk with your mouth full,” Ren helpfully informs me, and I give him a wink.
“Who is Maddox’s father, Audrey?” Warren asks.
I take twice as long as usual to chew up the roll before I answer. “I have no clue what you’re talking about.”
My brother stares, unblinking, at me for several long moments before he tosses his own fork down with a clatter and pulls out his phone.
“War, really?” Nova asks, trying to deter him. “We’re in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner. Can’t you wait until later to make a phone call?”
“Nope, sorry,” War tells her sweetly before his glare hits me with the force of a wrecking ball. “Reece,” he says into the phone. “Who is Maddox’s father?”
I hold my breath as I wait for some man on the other line to spill Maddox’s secret that I promised him I would keep.
“No, I don’t want to ask him, I’m asking you! You know, don’t you?” Warren huffs. “It is my business! Don’t you hang up on—” Warren pulls the phone from his ear to look at the screen. “He hung up on me!”
“Good,” I say. “Serves you right for trying to be snooping in other people’s business.”
Instead of letting it go, my brother’s head creases in thought. “Torin is way too young. And even Miles or Reece would’ve had to be, like, twelve, so that’s rather impossible,” Warren contemplates to himself aloud as he starts listing men. “So that leaves only the original members, and there’s only three that Torin’s really talked about. Eddie, who is still around, Rubin, who is Dalton’s father, and Deacon, Torin and Chase’s uncle.”
“There are probably several others, right?” I quickly suggest when he gets too close.
Rather than respond to me, my brother gets back on his damn phone.
“Torin, hey brother, sorry to bother you on Thanksgiving,” Warren starts. “Important question. If one of the original members had an illegitimate child of say, twenty-one years old, who would you guess is the father?”
“There is no way for him to know that!” I huff indignantly.
“Rubin or Deacon?” War says into the phone as he watches me for a reaction. “Yeah, I think it may be one of them too.” It sounds like the man on the phone asks a question, to which War responds with a one-word response, “Maddox.”
“Warren!” I exclaim. “This is none of your business, or anyone else’s!”
Ignoring me, he says, “I’ve already called Reece and he won’t tell me!”
“Hang up the phone, Warren!” I demand.
“I’m going to find out and when I do, I’ll call you back,” my brother says into the phone before he finally ends the call.
“I wasn’t supposed to say anything, and it accidentally slipped out. Please, let it go,” I beg.
“Fine, if you won’t tell me, I’ll just ask Maddox when he comes to pick you up,” Warren declares.
“You would really do that?” I ask, as tears spring to my eyes. “You would ruin everything between me and Maddox because you’re nosy and I almost let one of his secrets slip?”
“If it ruins everything, then you were never really in love, right?” the jerk asks.
The worst part is, I can’t even argue with his logic.
Chapter Twenty-One
Maddox
I can’t say I’m shocked when I pull up at War’s house to pick up Audrey, and he comes storming out with her on his heels. Fine, if he wants to hit me, I’ll give him one shot. Maybe that will give him some sort of satisfaction.
Turning off the car, I get out and walk around to meet him in front of the hood.
“Who’s your father?” he snaps at me.
“Huh?” I grunt, since I was expecting a physical blow, not a psychological one.
“Who is your father?” War repeats slowly. “Was he really a Savage King, or is that some bull
shit you made up?”
“I’m sorry!” Audrey exclaims when she runs up beside her brother. I can tell by the pleading look on her concerned face that she must have accidentally spilled the beans. I’m sure she didn’t do it on purpose, and I can’t be mad at her for telling him my secret that I should’ve brought up a long time ago.
Figuring War wouldn’t believe me if I simply tell him, I pull out my wallet from my pocket and then remove the tattered old piece of paper that’s been folded into a small square. “Here,” I say when I offer it to him. “See for yourself.”
“Maddox, you don’t have to do this!” Audrey says, reaching between us and swiping the paper out of my hand before War. “I’m so, so sorry. I didn’t mean to say anything, but I was angry at him and ranting, and when I was saying how much the Savage Kings meant to you, it just slipped out!”
“It’s okay, baby,” I tell her. Giving her a sad smile, I reach for her hand to pull her closer to my side. “Besides, it doesn’t matter now.”
“Are you absolutely sure?” She looks up at me with her big brown eyes.
“I’m sure,” I reply before I gently remove my birth certificate from her fingers and hold it out to War again. He’s so busy glaring at my other arm around his sister that it takes him a while before he finally snatches it from me.
Audrey and I watch silently as he unfolds the paper and then his eyes start to scan the words. When he gets to the important part, his golden eyes bulge before they lift to glance between the two of us again.
“Seriously?” he asks. “Deacon was your father?”
“According to my mother,” I respond. “By the time I found out, he was already dead, so I couldn’t ask him or get a DNA test. And while my mom lied to me about it for years, I don’t think she would’ve put his name on my birth certificate unless she was certain,” I explain. “She changed my last name from Fury to Holmes a few weeks later, when she married the asshole who raised me. My stepfather didn’t want the inconvenience of having to deal with another man in our life...”
“Jesus,” War mutters. “Why didn’t you say anything before?”
“Why do you think?” I ask. “You and everyone else would’ve gone easy on me. I wanted to earn my patch, not just be handed one because of a name I was born with.”
“So Torin and Chase don’t know yet?” War asks.
“Nope.”
“But Reece does?”
Nodding, I tell him, “Reece found my birth certificate and Change of Name documents when he was searching through my background. I asked him to keep it between us and told him that if I patched in, then I would tell everyone. So, he did.”
“Wow,” War mutters before he turns around and starts to walk back into the house. When he’s a few feet away, he stops, remembering he’s still holding my birth certificate. He comes back and hands it to me before disappearing inside.
Blowing out a breath, I tell Audrey, “It feels good to finally tell someone else.”
“I feel awful,” she says, burying her face against my chest.
“Don’t. It’s not a big deal,” I assure her. “I was going to tell them…so now is as good a time as any.”
Tilting her head back to look up at my face, she says, “My brother’s a dick.”
Smiling, I place a quick kiss on her lips. “He’s just trying to protect you. Maybe you should tell him that you stole my innocence, and see if that helps his opinion of us being together,” I tease.
“I will if you think it will help,” she replies.
“No,” I say, with a shake of my head. “Let’s keep that embarrassing detail between us. I would never hear the end of it if the guys found out that a sweet little girl like you popped my cherry.”
The smile slips from my face when I realize I won’t be seeing the guys again to even give them a chance to rag on me. That part of my life is over.
Brushing that depressing thought aside, I decide to change the subject. “So, I called my mom today.”
“You did?” Audrey asks excitedly. “How did it go? Was she happy to hear from you?”
“Yeah, I think so,” I respond. “And she wants us to come visit…”
“Us?” Audrey repeats with a broadening grin.
“Yeah. Us. I told her about you.”
“Aww, that’s so sweet,” she says, standing on her toes to kiss my lips. “I can’t wait to meet her.”
“I told her we would maybe visit when you finish up the semester.”
“That sounds perfect,” she replies. “Now, how about we go home and start our own Thanksgiving tradition?”
“That is a great idea.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Audrey
It’s a week after Thanksgiving, when Maddox’s phone rings while we’re getting ready for bed.
“Must be work,” he grumbles before he grabs it. His brow furrows seeing the screen. “It’s Torin,” he tells me before he answers. “Hello?”
I watch him as he listens, biting my lip because I already know what it’s about.
Maddox doesn’t know it yet, but my brother finally came through with what I consider an early Christmas present.
“Yeah, sure. Okay. See you then,” Maddox says into the phone before he hangs up.
“What’s up?” I ask innocently.
“Torin wants me to meet him at the salvage yard tomorrow afternoon,” he says, face still showing his confusion.
“Did he say why?”
“No,” Maddox answers. “And you don’t exactly question the president…not that he’s my president anymore.”
“Right,” I agree. “Well, come to bed. I’m sure it’s nothing serious.”
“Yeah,” he agrees before he climbs under the sheets with me. “Mind if I borrow your car to drive up there?”
“Not at all,” I respond before I push his chest down to the mattress to climb on top of him. “Now sit back, relax, and let me make you feel good.”
A grin finally appears on his face. “You always make me feel good.”
“Then I’m about to make you feel fucking amazing,” I tell him as I start licking my way down his bare stomach. I glance up with a coy look. “Your birthday is coming up in twenty-two days, so do you want twenty-two spankings or twenty-two blowjobs?”
“Ooh, that’s a tough one,” he says, and then pauses as if he’s actually considering his choice. “I think I’ll go with…the blowjobs.”
“I thought that’s what you would say,” I tell him as I reach down to wrap my hand around his hardening shaft and give him a squeeze before leaning forward to give the crown a thorough lick.
“Oh, yeah,” Maddox groans, his eyes closing and hips rolling as his fingers thread through my hair. “Twenty-two days of this right here? You’re too good to be true, baby.”
“I’m gonna treat you better than a king,” I promise him, before my lips wrap around his shaft and the time for talking is over.
…
Maddox
I honestly have no idea why Torin wanted me to meet him at the salvage yard. His voice didn’t sound angry on the phone last night, and I can’t think of anything I did wrong, so I’m thinking maybe he just wants me to return my key to the Savage Asylum and my apartment. He probably wanted me to do it in the salvage yard instead of the clubhouse to avoid War.
“Nice ride,” Torin says from where he’s casually leaning a shoulder against one of the open garage doors, when I climb out of Audrey’s car.
“Haven’t had a chance to come back and make the repairs on my old bike,” I tell him as I approach. “Is that what this is about? You want me to get my shit out of the apartment and move my bike?”
“No,” he responds. “We just wanted to talk to you.”
“We?”
Jabbing his thumb over his shoulder, he says, “Chase is here too.”
“Oh,” I mutter as the other Fury brother comes out to join him. “I guess War told you?”
“He didn’t come right out and say it, but we’ve
put the pieces together enough to make a guess,” Chase responds. “So, our Uncle Deacon was your father?”
“According to my mom,” I answer, as I pull out my birth certificate and offer it to Torin. “They went to school together.”
“And he didn’t know?” Torin asks as he reads the paper and passes it to Chase.
“Nope. I didn’t even know until six years ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Chase questions.
“Do either of you ever wonder if you got special treatment with the MC because of your uncle?” I ask.
“Deacon didn’t go easy on us, that’s for sure,” Torin replies with a grin. “But yeah, it probably took Chase and me a little longer to actually earn the respect of the other brothers who thought we were given a free pass.”
“That’s what I thought,” I say. “And I didn’t want to have to wonder if I got my patch because of the name I was born with. I wanted to earn it.”
Chase and Torin exchange a look. “Makes sense,” Chase says. “A weaker man would’ve walked into the Savage Asylum on day one and posted this on the wall to try and take the easy way.” He waves my birth certificate in the air before handing it back to me.
“Thought never crossed my mind,” I admit. “Honestly, after meeting the two of you, I wanted to bury the damn thing or burn it because I was worried that if either of you found out, you would think I was trying to steal your MC or some shit.”
“It’s not our MC,” Torin says. “And it’s not War’s either. We’re all just one piece of a bigger brotherhood, and we voted you in unanimously.”
“I know,” I agree. “But War was there first, and I don’t want to cause more problems for the club.”
“You think you and War are the first brothers to have an argument?” Chase asks with a chuckle, then turns to his brother. “How many times have you and I fought?”
“Too many times to count,” Torin remarks with a grin. “But we settle our shit and do what’s best for the club. You willing to squash this shit with War?”