by Blair Grey
Hell, she was already damn good with art, and it didn’t take long for her to land a position with one of the best salons in town. She did a lot of wedding and prom makeup, along with parties and anything else people wanted. It was even rumored there was a talent specialist coming through one of these days to see if she would be a good candidate to do special effects for movies.
I supported her in all of it, just glad to have her back in town – and most of all, finally with me.
And now, after two long weeks of talking on the phone and arguing with people, the moment I’d been waiting for finally arrived. The men were delivering the glass for the shop, and we would be back in business Tuesday.
Zach and Vanessa, Nathan and his family, Aaron and Spencer, and even Carl showed up for the big event. Jonas and Tanner were going to show up later, but they were taking full advantage of getting some of the money back that they lost in the time they were unemployed, so they were currently working.
I didn’t mind. I didn’t blame them for trying to get some money when they could. God knew I was going to be glad to get my clients back. Erika walked up to me, wrapping her arms around me as she looked at the glass on the ground in front of us. We were waiting for the men to come put it in, and the anticipation was building.
“I’m so happy for you,” she said as she looked down at the crystal clear sheets. “They look so much better in one piece than they do when they are in a billion shards all over the ground.”
I laughed and pulled her close. “I agree.”
Before she could respond, I heard the sound of a car pulling up, and I glanced behind me. I grinned and looked down at her. “Your surprise is here.”
“What surprise?” she asked as she looked up into my face. I gave a slight nod over my shoulder, and she squealed as soon as she saw who had arrived. She flew from my side, running as fast as she could to the car, throwing herself onto the driver as soon as he stepped out.
“Daddy! Daddy, you’re here! You’re here!” she cried over and over. She was laughing, but there were tears running down her cheeks at the same time. He was laughing and holding her, kissing the top of her head. It had been quite some time since the two had last seen each other, and it was nice to see them together again.
Hell, I hadn’t seen the two of them together for more than six years. Back before I signed up for the military.
“You sucker,” Zach said as he jabbed me in the ribs. “You know how to do it just right, don’t you?”
“Eh, I thought it couldn’t hurt,” I said with a wink. He shook his head. He knew I did it for Erika, but there was also a part of me that did it for myself. Cooper had been my mentor for a long time. Hell, he had practically been a father to me for many years. I wanted to see him perhaps as much as his own daughter did.
With a grin, I walked over, holding out my hand. But, Cooper ignored that and pulled me in for a hug. He was glad to see me, that was for sure. Though I was concerned he might not like the fact that I was dating his daughter, he and I had always been close, and I knew he’d worried about me when I was in combat.
“How?” Erika asked.
“Well, you said how much you missed your dad, and I knew that you wanted to see him. I wasn’t too keen on you going down to Arizona, when I had to be here. Then again, I knew he’d want to make sure the shop was put back together the right way,” I said with a shrug. “When I was on the phone so much, I called him and said I wanted him to come.”
“He’s right. When I heard all that had happened, I wanted to see you. Then when he said that the shop had been hit, I knew I was going to have to come up here to make sure it was taken care of. Not that I didn’t think you could do it,” Cooper turned from his daughter to me, and put his hand on my arm.
“I still thought it would need the approval from the right person,” I said.
“I’m just glad you’re here. I can’t believe you were able to keep it a secret,” Erika said. “This is probably the best day of my life.”
“It was hard, that was for sure,” I agreed. “But I knew the look on your face when he drove up would be a lot better than the look that you’d give me when I told you that I’d invited him.”
“You devil.” She left her dad and came back to my side, and I held her close for a moment. It felt a little strange, holding her in front of her dad, but he didn’t seem to mind, at all. In fact, there was something about the amused look on his face that made me think he saw this coming.
“What?” I asked.
“Oh, nothing,” he said. But, there was still that smirk.
“Come on,” I coaxed, “Spill it.”
“It’s just that you thought if you left, you would avoid this, and now look at you,” he said.
“How did you…” I asked. But he gave me another look.
“Do you really think I didn’t see all the things that were going on when you worked for me? You did the right thing, I’ll give you that. But she’s grown now, and I knew the two of you were going to find each other again someday,” Cooper said.
I grinned. I couldn’t help myself. With another step forward, I gave him a hug. “Thank you.”
“Just take care of her. Hell, what am I saying? You’ve proven you can do that already.” He laughed. I pulled Erika close to me, and she looked up into my eyes. There was that same smile on her face she had when she was young, and as always, my heart melted.
“Yes,” she said, “he has.”
Without a word, I bent down and kissed her passionately. She was right, after all, about everything. But, especially about one thing:
This was the best day of our lives.
SPENCER
1
Spencer
“Things got kind of quiet around here since Nathan moved,” Zach said as he leaned against the wall of my garage.
“Yeah, he’s got his family thing going on pretty hard right now, I’m sure he’ll be back,” I muttered.
“I’m sure,” Zach said. “Once the honeymoon phase wears off, I’m sure he’s going to miss us.”
“If it wears off,” Adam said. “He’s been pretty enamored with her since they got together.”
“She is his baby’s mother,” I looked up from the bike. “So, I guess we’re just going to have to deal.”
“Sounds like someone’s a little jealous,” Zach pressed. “Don’t worry. He’s going to miss his brothers soon enough.”
“I’m not jealous, and I honestly don’t give a damn what he does. He’s got a family to take care of, and that’s got to be demanding,” I looked up from the bike as Zach shrugged. I knew he and Adam were only fucking with me, but I didn’t like it.
Zach didn’t fully understand what Nathan was doing because he didn’t have kids. He had started a relationship with the president’s daughter – the president of the rival MC, that is. The two of them ran away and fell in love, a regular Romeo and Juliet story.
But, being who he was, Zach was able to get away with the trespass, and before we even knew what hit us, the two of them were living together here in Santa Rosa. It had been a huge deal when it happened, but Carl, Zach’s dad, and Marcus, Vanessa’s dad, were able to make something of a truce between the MCs, and we’d been on shakily friendly terms ever since.
Vanessa, however, was independent and did her own thing much of the time. She loved Zach and liked to hang around, but growing up within the MC herself, she knew how things operated.
Things weren’t so black and white with Jenna.
Nathan Springer, a kid whom I had grown close to over the past six months, recently found out that he’d knocked up a girl a few years ago before he went into the military. She hadn’t said a word about it, so the entire thing came as quite the shock when he found out.
The only problem? She was also a member of Marcus’ MC: The Enemies.
As a Folded Flag, none of us knew what to do with the information. It was the fact Zach and Vanessa had managed to build some relations between the MCs that had proven to
be Nathan’s saving grace, and soon enough, he and his girl were also madly in love.
I’d spent a lot of time with Nathan over the past several months. He came back from the Service with only one arm, and though he was now disabled, he would forever be an active, enthusiastic member of the MC. So, he needed a bike.
Motorcycle modifications were one of the things I did best, and I put in many long, hard hours to give him a bike that would enable him to ride easily with the rest of us with his prosthetic. Unlike Adam, who was missing the lower half of his leg, Nathan needed his handlebars modified to use with the piece.
It had been a project the two of us had worked on for hours. Until Jenna came into the picture. Now, he had moved to a neutral town further south. Sure, I wanted to pretend like I wasn’t affected by the move, but the fact of the matter was, I missed the kid.
I missed the time we spent hanging out, the jokes and hard times we’d give each other. I’d never been in the Service myself, but I had done my fair share of hardship in life. Hanging out with the kid – a guy who was even more bitter about the unfairness of life than me – relieved some of the tension.
Now, he was gone most of the time. I got to see him when he came to the meetings and on the rare occasion when he was in town, but things weren’t like they used to be, and I did everything in my power to pretend like I didn’t notice.
Sentiment wasn’t something that I had subscribed to, and I wasn’t going to let the others in the MC think I cared that much. Though, with the relentless teasing that came from Zach and Adam, I had a feeling my face often betrayed me.
“Spencer!” A new voice filled the air, and we all turned to see Aaron stumbling into the shop. He tried to steady himself with a piece of equipment just inside the door, but it wasn’t nearly steady enough and fell to the floor with a loud crash.
“Way to go, idiot!” Adam laughed.
“Wow, Aaron, walk much?” Zach chimed in.
“Fuck off!” he snapped at both. “I thought that was more secure.”
“You wouldn’t have if you were sober,” Zach commented.
“Fuck off!” Aaron shouted. He shook his head and exchanged another look with Adam. Though I missed Nathan more than I wanted to admit, it was Aaron who would forever be my best friend. The man had also been in the military, but we’d met and gotten close when he’d gotten out a couple of years ago.
He struggled with a lot of PTSD, and right after his return to the States, he slipped into a terrible bout of alcoholism. At the time, he worked through his demons and came out stronger on the other side. But lately, he had taken up the drink again, and I was starting to worry about him.
He was drunk far more often than he was sober, and things were starting to get out of hand. But, he didn’t want to talk about it, and no one in the club wanted to confront him. At the same time, I knew he was losing respect.
He had lost a lot from Zach over the past couple months as things got really bad, and I knew it wouldn’t be long before Carl, too, wanted to say something. I felt bad for him, but I knew he had to get his shit together if he was going to keep his status in the club.
“What do you want?” I asked. “You’re not driving anywhere.”
“I wanted to see how things are coming with the bike,” he said.
“They would come a lot better if you weren’t knocking my shit over!” I sounded gruff, but I gave him a teasing grin as I looked up.
“I wanted to take it for a spin,” he said.
“You’re not going to in the state of mind you’re in,” I replied.
“Yeah, that’s not happening,” Zach chimed in.
“No one asked you!” Aaron snapped.
Zach snapped his fingers toward Adam, who tossed him the keys to Aaron’s bike. “Not happening,” he said. “I’m taking these until you can come get them from me sober.”
He walked out of the garage, followed by both Aaron and Adam. Aaron was loudly protesting the confiscation while Adam was backing Zach up. I didn’t care how much bickering they did as long as they did it outside and away from me.
If there was one thing that got on my nerves, it was the sound of relentless bickering, especially by adults. I knew Aaron needed to get his shit together, but I also knew how alcoholics worked. He was going to have to make that decision for himself one of these days.
No amount of teasing or telling him he was killing himself was going to make any kind of difference. The only thing any of us could do was take his keys and prevent him from doing something that would get either himself or someone else killed in the meantime.
I turned my attention back to the bike, but I only worked on it for a few more minutes before my phone rang. I didn’t want to talk to anyone. Except, maybe, Nathan. But I was surprised to see it was Roscoe’s number that flashed across the screen.
It had been so long since I’d spoken to him, I didn’t even have his name in my phone anymore. I still knew the number from all the times I’d called it right after I’d gotten out of prison, but I’d since deleted it when I didn’t think we’d hear from each other again.
“Roscoe?” I asked as I answered.
“Spencer! Is that you?”
“How’s it going, man?” I replied. It was nice to hear from him, even if Nathan had been the one I’d hoped for.
“It’s going. How you been? Been staying out of trouble?” he asked.
“I’ve been keeping clean and for the most part,” I laughed. “Not done anything that would land me back there.”
“That we know of,” he teased with a laugh. I shook my head. Roscoe Yates was the only prison guard I had liked at the Arbor Hills Penitentiary, a prison where I’d spent three years of my life in my early twenties. He was fair, he was nice as far as prison guards went, and he was one of the only reasons I was able to turn my life around and become the man I was today.
Unlike the warden, Ambrose Park, I truly believed Roscoe upheld the law and worked for justice and fairness. A far cry from most who were employed there.
“Anyway, I was calling to ask if you might do me a favor,” he said.
“Anything,” I replied, without even waiting to hear what the favor was.
“I have an inmate who’s being released tomorrow. She’s on the women’s side, and unfortunately, had a run in with one of the guards, if you know what I mean,” he said.
I knew exactly what he meant. There were many guards within those walls who did as they pleased with the inmates. Whether that meant they beat them or blackmailed them to get what they wanted, or they wouldn’t keep their hands to themselves. I had a feeling this was a case of a guard getting too handsy.
“And?” I asked.
“She doesn’t have anywhere to go. She’s being released in exchange for her silence,” he said.
“Warden Park’s doing that these days?” I asked in surprise. “What did she do?”
“She’s guilty of her crime, that’s for sure,” he replied, without going into detail, “but you know if she were to file a lawsuit with her lawyer, the entire place would be put under scrutiny. Now, I’m not saying that would be a bad thing, but the warden’s not going to let that happen if he can help it.”
“Where do I come into this?”
“Can you pick her up? Make sure she gets somewhere safe? Her mother died while she was locked up, there’s no dad in the picture, and she can’t reach her older brothers. So, I told her I’d make a few phone calls and get her a ride out of here,” Roscoe replied.
“Sure, I can do that,” I said. “Just let me know what time.”
“Tomorrow afternoon is when the process is going to start, so if you’re here around three or three-thirty, you shouldn’t be waiting long,” Roscoe said. “I appreciate you doing this, really.”
“No problem. Can you send me a picture of her so I know who I’m looking for? I don’t want to be hanging around that place any longer than I have to,” I said.
“Sure. I’ll text it to you now.”
I h
eard my phone chime as the picture came through, but I stayed on the phone with him a few more minutes before hanging up. We caught up briefly on what we’d been doing for the past couple years, then he had to get back to work.
“Thanks again, you’re one in a million,” Roscoe said before he hung up.
“Not a problem,” I assured him. “Happy I can help.”
We hung up the phone, and I opened the text. I wasn’t expecting anything great. Many of the women behind bars looked like they belonged there. At least, they had when I was in. Strung out and worn out, they all looked like they’d rather die than get out of bed.
But as soon as I saw this one, my jaw dropped. She was beautiful. A blonde bombshell to say the least, and I could hardly believe she was even locked up.What could a girl like that have done to land her in Arbor Hills?
I felt I’d been punched in the gut. It was hard to take a breath, and I was glad the guys had already left the shop. This woman was the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen, and I could see why the guard hadn’t kept his hands to himself. Hell, I was going to have a hard enough time of that when I picked her up.
I had more self-control than that, of course, but I’d be thinking it.
I was actually starting to look forward to this little rendezvous.
2
Brooke
I tossed and turned, the images slowly fading out of my brain. I could feel my body trying to wake me, but I was caught in the throes of the dream until I finally sat straight up in bed, my heart racing and the sweat running down the sides of my face.
I looked around. I was in the cell, sitting on my thin mattress, the blanket nearly thrown to the floor. The soft sound of my cellmate’s breathing underneath me told me she was still asleep, and I wondered what time it was, though I knew it really didn’t matter.
Time didn’t mean anything behind bars. We ate when we ate, we were locked in our cells when we were locked in our cells, and we went outside when we went outside. It really was a simple system that we all had to abide by, regardless of what we’d done or who we were.