Her mouth forms into a small ‘o’, “Fuck.”
“Yep.”
“I’ll give you Max, but you keep my Father out of your shit.”
“I don’t care about Rage. I just fuckin’ want Max.”
“Fine. I’m shocked you’re the one up here and not Reed, though. What’s up with that?”
“His wife just had a baby, so he’s kinda pre-occupied. Plus, leavin’ her alone right now with Max in the wind isn’t exactly a smart thing to be doin’.”
She nods once, understanding where I’m coming from. “Give me a second and I’ll tell you where he’s supposed to be going. I have him running errands for me over the next few days.”
Thank fuck.
Max, you’re about to get tricked.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“I’m not going anywhere. The only time I’ll let go of your hand is to grab your ass.”
- J.M. Storm
Angel
Enzo and I went to the store to grab more groceries for the club early this morning, but they didn’t have the type of milk I wanted so I ended up dragging his ass to three different stores before I found it. He may not realize it, but he likes it the best too. It’s the only milk I can get the brothers to drink. At first, I didn’t think that I’d be taking my job as kitchen cook too seriously, especially since I’m working at the studio now too… but I do. It’s important to me that everyone is getting some nutrients in. Plus, it distracts me and as Enzo kindly reminds me, I need more of that.
Upon arriving back at the club I see Trick’s bike parked out front and butterflies swarm over my stomach. He’s been gone for eight entire days. So long that I thought he might never come back. His trip was only supposed to be three or four, and it kept getting extended. Why that is?, I’m unsure.
I park the car, grab two handfuls of groceries and charge in through the front door. Not giving a care in the world that I left Enzo with an entire back seat full of stuff to carry in. He’s strong. He can handle that shit.
“Trick!” I call out, looking for my man. I don’t see him anywhere in sight, so I run into the kitchen and drop off the groceries then head straight for our bedroom. Maybe he’s in our room! Opening the door, I glance around and see that he’s not. God, this is frustrating.
I go back out into the main area of the club and wait, wondering where else it is that he could be. Church would be the only other option, but that can’t be right because Enzo was with me and then I see Chaos sitting down. If church happening… my brother would be in there too. “Hey there, porn star.”
I ignore Chaos, knowing that’s all I can do these days. Otherwise, whatever it is he says eats at me too much. I’m not paying a lick of attention, but the sound of skin hitting skin is enough to pull my attention that way. Maria is standing up, glaring down at him, cursing a whole bunch of words at him in Spanish. Well, I’m assuming that she’s cursing because I don’t speak Spanish and I have no idea what she’s saying. “What the fuck is wrong with you?!” She screams at him. “Why do you always speak to her like this? It’s not okay.”
He scoffs, not caring because let’s be real, he never does. “More like what the fuck is wrong with you, taquita. You don’t get to judge me when you’re keeping that… thing…” He glares at her, and I mean… this glare is something that I’ve never seen before. He looks at her like he hates her entire existence, worse than what he’s ever done to me.
My eyes dart around the room and I try to see if anyone has heard him, but no one else is here. “I come back from being gone for days, expecting you to tell me you handled it… and it’s the exact opposite. You’re keeping that… devil spawn.” He spits out, walking out of the main area and out towards their room.
“Maria,” I say soothingly.
She puts her hand up, “No. It’s okay. I expected this from him. I’m fine…” Before I can stop her, she’s out the front door and I hope she’s heading to Pain. He’ll know exactly what to say to her.
I take in a deep breath and wonder if I should continue my search for Trick, but I know better. Instead, I head for where Chaos just disappeared to. Walking down the hallway until I reach their room, I don’t bother to knock as I walk in.
He’s staring out the window, completely still. Unphased by the fact his door just opened and closed.
“It’s okay to be angry.” My words come out of nowhere, like something is taking over my body as I speak. I don’t want to be here, comforting him. The sad reality is that I know he needs it. And I know that if I don’t do this right here, right now… his anger will end up destroying everything he holds dear, and then himself. “It’s okay to be angry at yourself for what happened, but blaming yourself… you can’t do that.”
He turns himself towards me, “I didn’t ask you for your opinion.”
“I wasn’t asking for permission, fuckface.” I snap, continuing. “You love her. I know that you do, and you know you do, and everyone else knows you do. She told me and you have to know this is so hard for her. Do you realize how scared she is?”
Chaos doesn’t say a damned thing. I want to curse and scream at him, but I don’t. I just continue. “It’s not that baby’s fault that something awful happened to her. It’s not Maria’s fault that this happened to her. If she’s making the decision to keep this baby, then you need to support her, Chaos. I know it’s hard, and I can’t imagine what it must feel like for you… but if you want your relationship with her to work… you have to love that child when it’s here. You can’t look at it like you hate it, and you cannot judge her for the hard decision that she’s had to make.”
He blinks a couple of times before he brings his hand over his face and lets out a deep breath. When he removes his hand, I see the redness covering him. The fact that he’s barely holding it together. He’s at his limit and if he’s not careful… he’ll crumble worse than any of us ever have.
I don’t know what takes over me, because lord knows he doesn’t deserve what I’m about to do. It’s almost like I’m afraid that I’ll change my mind if I give myself a minute to think. I rush over to him, and wrap my arms around his body, pulling him into the tightest hug I can muster up.
He coughs, and I feel his chest going up and down. His nostrils are flaring, trying to hold back the emotions that he’s held in for so long. “Keeping them buried in doesn’t help.” I whisper, rubbing his back.
“I’m sorry,” He says it quietly, putting his arms around me. “I’m sorry that I’m so cruel to you. I just can’t… can’t go through it all again. If I hate you, I don’t care if you’re dead… but if I care and something happens… I’ll… I just can’t.”
“It’s okay.” I say, because I understand what he’s saying more than he can fathom. It’s hard loving an addict, and what Chaos sometimes forget is, that he’s an addict too. Out of the three of us, he’s the hardest to love. I mean, think about his serious attitude problem.
There’s a light rap on the door, “Come in,” I say, pulling away from my brother. Fuck! I didn’t think about how he was emotional.
The door comes open and behind it is my Trick. I smile all bright eyed and bushy tailed, starting to go over to him, but he stops me. “Not now, Angel. We’re having an emergency meeting of church. Be there in five, Chaos.”
The guys were gone days longer than they should’ve been and I don’t know how I didn’t put it together, but that must mean something is really wrong. I just hope it’s not too bad.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“She was not fragile like a flower. She was fragile like a bomb.”
- Anonymous
Trick
I can honestly say that, It seems like nothing is going our way.. We got the information from Boss and as per usual, we lost him. I think we’re all starting to feel it now. The disappointment, frustration and anger. Lord knows I am.
I can’t understand how it is so hard to locate one man when we have an abundance of contacts all over the world. How is he this hard to nab?
How?
“I don’t understand it.” I bring my thoughts out of my head and say it to the brothers. Watching as a few of them nod their heads in understanding, while others just stay quiet. “There has to be another resource that we’re not using, another way to find him, to make sure that he’s not one step ahead of us.”
“Do you really think he knew we’d go up to New York?” Seamus asks me, and I shrug.
“It depends how well he knows Reed, and how he thinks.” I say, looking to our Prez. “He knows your mentality pretty fucking well.”
Enzo sits up in his chair, “So, the answer is simple. Don’t leave it up to Reed on what to do next. Max is already thinking like that… thinking about the resources that we have and what we’d use. He doesn’t know about my resources, because we’ve never had to use them.”
Reed speaks up, stating his opinion. “No. It’s not an option, and I won’t allow it.”
Enzo scoffs, “I’m not asking for permission. I’m fuckin’ tired of this bullshit. It’s gone on for far too long and I have connections on both sides of my family. We’ve never needed to use them before and for fucks sake… Reed. Now is the time where we use the pull I have. If you ask me, we’re out of options.”
“We have plenty of options, ones that don’t pertain to using your… family.” Shit. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that Reed has a problem with Enzo’s family. I wonder what that’s about.
“That’s bullshit. We don’t have any options that will work. You know that as well as I do. Let me help. Jesus, let me fucking help!”
“No. They’ll want something in return.” Reed shuts him down immediately, not even giving him the time of day.
The room grows quiet, no one knowing what to say next, but just as Enzo opens his mouth to speak, the door comes flying open. It’s Angel and everything about the expression that’s sprawled across her face tells me that something’s wrong.
“What’s going on?” I ask, getting up from my seat to approach her.
“I… I don’t know how to say th-this.” She murmurs, eyes darting all around the room. She’s trying to look at everyone, but no one. There’s no mistaking that she’s terrified out of her damn mind.
I run my hands over her shoulders, urging her on. “It’s okay, just say it.”
“Bubba’s just blew up.” Whoa. What?!
“What do you mean?” Seamus asks her.
“Bubba’s… b-blew up. It’s o-on fire.” At that, half of the brothers are rushing out the door to get on their bikes and see what’s going on. There’s no mistaking what she said. There’s only piecing together what happened, but we all know who’s behind it.
I look over to Enzo, “I think it’s about time we use your resources.”
“No. I already said no.” Reed snaps at me. “You don’t know who his family is.”
“It can’t be that fuckin’ bad if he’s a brother in our fuckin’ club!” I roar at him, not giving a damn for whatever amount of disrespect I’m throwin’ at him.
There needs to be change, and it needs to happen soon. We can’t keep doing this. None of us can.
Epilogue
“I want to move on,
But moving on means forgetting I’m not ready to let you go yet.”
- K. Azizian
Angel
16 years later…
“I’ve always known that there would be a day where I wouldn’t have you by my side. I just never thought it would come so quick, that our time would run out so fast.” It’s only been a week since Trick passed away peacefully in his sleep, going out the way any old man would. I bring my hand up to my face and wipe away the trickling tears that somehow manage to escape, rolling slowly over my cheeks. I smile down at the gravestone, “I know I said I wouldn’t keep doing this, but you know I’m an emotional old hag.”
I run my hand over the grass that’s already starting to grow over the dirt. Somehow, I think it will soothe me, but the only thing it does is destroy me a little bit more and more. “Mom, you ready to go?” I turn my head back and stare at our boy, who looks just like you. I fucking hate you for that, for passing on the same very features to our son. I hate that I have to stare at him because he reminds me of you and reminding me of you only does one thing – it hurts.
“Just give me a couple more minutes, sweetie.” I tell Brooks. His birthday is in just a few days, and I know how badly you wanted to be here. How badly you wanted to give him his bike yourself. All these years, you told his ass that he couldn’t have one until he was eighteen and even then, I knew you were full of shit. You’d never keep something so precious from him.
I make no mistake as I hear Bree click her tongue against the roof of her mouth. Something you’d surely pick on her for if you were here. We both know what’s coming. “Geeze. Give her a break. Dad’s dead you jerk!” Sassy and mouthy, just like me.
I whirl my body around, stopping this shit before it goes any further. “Okay. Let’s go.”
“Home?” Brooks ask me, and I shake my head.
“No, we’re going to the club.”
“Yes!” Bree jumps up and down with joy. “I can’t wait. I have so much to tell the trips.” The trips, the lovely term the kids have come up with for Michelle and Kyle’s three girls. They definitely are trips all right, so the name is very fitting.
Brooks rolls his eyes and heads straight for my Jeep Wrangler. I know how hard this is for me, so I can’t even imagine how hard it must be for my poor kids. Especially Brooks, he’s keeping all of his emotions bottled up, but he isn’t fooling me. His father’s death is destroying him, and I’m seeing every bit of it under the mask he has on.
After we’re all hauled into the jeep, I take the short drive over to the club. Upon arrival, I see that it’s packed. Now that some of the older kids have cars and bikes, the entire lot barely has any room left. I bring the jeep up to our usual spot and park, hopping out just as the kids are. “We’re going home in two hours!” I call over to Bree, who waves her hand up in understanding. She’s too excited to see her friends, and I can’t blame her for that. In all honesty, I’m just happy that she’s able to find some happiness right now.
Brooks disappears out of sight, off to god knows where. Probably the garage out back to see what Seamus and Ryder are working on these days.
I don’t waste any time and head straight inside, opening the front door to see the load of new prospects the club has. Reed is sitting in his old, worn out leather chair chatting amongst the group of them while I see Elena seated at the bar with River behind it, liquor in hand. Jesus Christ, she’s not old enough to be drinking yet.
I march over and start to put in my two cents, “You’d better put down the tequila, woman. Before I cut off your hand.” I warn River.
She looks right at her Mom, who only laughs. “Uh…mom told me I’d have to learn how to make drinks if I’m gonna start bartending at Bubba’s.”
I give Elena a look that tells her she’s batshit crazy. “Oh hell no. What crazy juice is your momma drinking these days? You can’t even hand a customer an alcoholic drink with the laws they have in effect these days. You have to be twenty-one, sweetie.”
River huffs, throwing her hands up in the air. “I’m so tired of my age stopping me from all of my dreams and doing the things that I want to do.”
“Did I hear you right? Did you just insinuate that working at Bubba’s is a life dream of yours? You’d better aim higher pumpkin, cause that shit is sad.” I say, not regretting a word of it. River is the smartest girl in this joint. Her mom is an ex-FBI field agent, her father is one of the strongest MC Prez’s around… and this little girl wants to work in a bar. No, it’s not adding up. She slams the bottle of tequila down on the bar so hard that it breaks and runs off down the back hallway.
“You know she hates it when you’re sarcastic and pushy with her,” Elena chastises me.
“You two can’t keep sheltering her. She’s practically an adult, and she needs to experience the
world for what it is these days. Brutal and awful.”
Elena cocks her head in my direction, “The world isn’t as tough on all of us as it was for some of us. She needs to go through her own experiences.” She takes in a deep breath and I can already tell she’s going to ask what I don’t want her to. Placing her hand on my belly, she rubs gently. “How are the two of you holding up, all things considered?”
“As good as a seven-month pregnant lady can after her husband randomly died in his sleep.” The words come out rushed because I have to shove them out before I get myself upset. Never did I see myself here, alone…pregnant at my age with two teenagers on my hands. This baby was a surprise to say the least, but a welcome one at that.
“Did you decide on a name yet?” I’d thought long and hard about a name for my little guy. Trick and I got in so many fights over the last few weeks because we just couldn’t seem to agree on a name that would be fitting. After everything that’s happened, I think I’ve finally come up with the perfect one.
I smile, trying to hide the pain behind my words. “Yeah. TJ. Short for Trick junior.”
No matter what obstacles we may face my children and I, we’ll stand strong and overcome them.
Note from the Author
Dear Reader,
I know there’s a good chance y’all may hate me for finishing the book like that. I thought about writing another ten chapters in this bad boy, but then Retribution (Skulls Renegade MC #10) wouldn’t be out to y’all for another couple months and I just couldn’t do that to you. Plus, it needed to end here. I hope you enjoyed Angel & Trick as much as I loved writing them. Don’t worry, I sobbed like a baby bitch too when I was writing the epilogue.
Reclusive: Skulls Renegade MC Page 10