by Blair Grey
Almost immediately, I felt I belonged. I made new brothers, a new best friend, and I moved on from the past. Tim crossed my mind every now and then, but it was rare, and even rarer for April.
I walked out from behind the tree, just in time to see her talking to a man from the other MC. I didn’t recognize any of these men. They were either new, or they hadn’t been around when I was. Either way, it didn’t seem she was happy with the conversation they were having.
The man was really animated with his gestures, and he seemed smug. I hated to see April treated that way. Tim never would have put up with it himself. Hell, he would be over there right now telling that guy to fuck off, whoever he was.
Their conversation didn’t last long, but when he left, April looked down, her face contorted as though she were crying. With a sigh, I knew I was going to have to talk to her. Just to make sure she was alright. I was doing it for Tim, after all. He would want that.
“Hey,” I said.
She sniffled. I pulled out the bandana I used to shield dust when I rode and handed it to her. After wiping her eyes, she handed it back. “Thanks.”
“Are you alright?” I asked. Of course it was a stupid question, but I had to say something. I was struck, standing so close to her and giving her my attention, with how beautiful she was.
She’d always been a little hottie, but time had filled her out into a beautiful young woman. She nodded. “Thanks.”
“Is there anything I can do?” I pressed. It was awkward, but this was one of my best friend’s sisters. I was going to be there for her.
She looked up, and my heart skipped a beat. Damn, the girl had really gotten to be a head-turner. She looked like she wanted to say something, but then she forced a small smile and shook her head. “I’m alright, thank you.”
April didn’t give me the chance to reply. She turned and headed back toward the funeral car, her head down, her body small. She’d always had a narrow frame, but her hips had filled out and she had a defined waist. I could see it despite the fact her jacket hardly gave her any shape at all.
Oh, the things I’d love to do to her.
But, she was leaving again, and I had a feeling that was going to be the end of that. There was no reason for either of us to talk to the other, and with Tim gone, I wasn’t going to be back.
I had my own life, with my own MC. This was all an unfortunate thing from my past, that brought back memories from my past. I would be more than happy to bury all of them again, and move on with my life, getting my shit together and trying to function within my new MC before I got myself kicked out with my drinking.
All that, however, could wait. Tonight, I was going to head home and get hammered. I couldn’t get through a night with this weighing on me, there was just no way. I had to drown it out in one way or another, and the perfect way to do that would be with a fifth of whiskey.
I’d get this shit under control someday, but that would have to be when an old best friend of mine didn’t die after years of not speaking to each other. It would happen, after all, shit like this didn’t happen every day.
But I still hoped April would be alright.
3
April
I sat at home with Sabrina on my lap, bouncing her gently up and down as I fed her the cereal. She would look up at me, cereal on her chin, and smile every now and then. Her eyes were so blue and so big, so innocent of what the world was like, it made me sad.
But, there was an even bigger part of me that was filled with joy every time she looked up at me, and I couldn’t help but smile back at her. There were so many hardships she had brought with her when she came, but I was happy to go through all of them.
She was everything to me, and I wouldn’t trade her for the world. Hell, over the past seven months and even before, she had become my world.
I still felt the sting of losing Tim. Though he wasn’t able to stop by and see us often, knowing that he never would again hurt. I missed him already, more than I could say, and I wished my daughter was old enough that she could have remembered him.
I’d talk about him, I promised myself that. I’d make sure she remembered who her uncle was, and how much he had loved her when she was little. I’d never mention her father to her, however. I didn’t care what he said. This was my daughter, and that was the end of that in my mind.
If another man came into my life, he would be her father. She didn’t need to worry about the sperm donor.
A knock at the door caught my attention, and I rose, keeping Sabrina in my arms as I walked over and answered.
“Miss Adams?” the man asked. He was wearing a suit and had a briefcase in one hand, a pile of papers in the other.
“Yes, that’s me,” I said. “Can I help you?”
He handed me the stack of papers he was holding. “You have been served.”
“What?” I asked. But, he turned and walked away, so I closed the door, looking over the papers he’d handed me. Clearly, Hansen had meant it when he said he was going to fight for Sabrina. But, I was still confused. I didn’t understand why he suddenly wanted to be in her life when he’d wanted nothing to do with her before.
I couldn’t wait for the court date to show up to hear what he had to say. The more I read through the papers, the sicker I felt. He was going to do what he could to take my daughter, and I was supposed to just play along and let him.
The papers were strewn with all kinds of words and language I didn’t understand, and I was immediately overwhelmed. I knew the best thing to do would be to get a lawyer of my own, but I didn’t have the money. Hell, I was on welfare. I could barely keep the roof over our heads.
With both anger and anxiety flooding through me, I called Mama Rose. I didn’t want to keep going to her over everything, but since Tim had been part of the MC for so long, I knew it was going to be a while before I was able to let go of her.
“Hey Mama,” I said. “Sorry to bother you, but I really need to run an errand. It came up suddenly, and I’m not going to take Sabrina, can you take her this afternoon? Just for a couple hours?”
“Sure thing, Honey,’ Mama Rose replied. “Just drop her on by whenever.”
“Thank you,” I said. “I’m not sure how long this is going to take, but I’m hoping not too long.”
“Okay, Honey,” she said again. “Let me know.”
I hung up the phone and immediately called Hansen. I didn’t have his name or number saved, and I hated that I knew it from memory. But, I did, and he answered on the third ring.
“What the fuck is this?” I asked.
“What?” he replied.
“You know what!” I snapped.
“Papers?” he asked with a laugh. “I’ll be seeing you in court.”
“We need to talk,” I said.
“You can come over if you want,” he replied nonchalantly. “I’ll be here.”
“No, I’m not coming over to your place. We’re talking in public. Meet me at the diner just off the interstate on the West side,” I said. “I’ll be there in an hour.”
“Fine.”
I hung up the phone, my heart racing. I didn’t want to see Hansen, but I wasn’t going to wait to show up in court. I had to know what he was going to say, and why he felt he could just come in and take her. He’d not wanted anything to do with her, and to my knowledge, he hadn’t so much as seen her.
So why now?
I got Sabrina ready and took her to Mama Rose’s house, then I headed to the diner. I intentionally got there early. I didn’t want to have to wander around inside looking for him, and that was just the sort of thing he’d do. There wasn’t any sign of his bike in the parking lot, so I drove up to the order board and got myself an iced coffee.
Then, I pulled into one of the parking spaces right in front of the diner. If he got violent with me, we were right in front of the large window filled with diners, and I felt a lot more secure.
He’d never hit me in the past, but there were plenty of times when he w
ould yell and get in my face, making all kinds of threats over the things that he wanted to do to me. I was afraid of him at times, but then, before I got pregnant, I had also been addicted to him as well.
Not, I wanted nothing to do with him, and as I waited, the thought of him being on his way to see me made me sick.
I heard the sound of him pulling up before I saw him. I was just about ready to call it quits and head back to pick up Sabrina. My coffee was nearly gone, and he was twenty minutes late. But, he was here now, and I would rather get this over with than deal with him again.
Though I was sure this was just once in a long stem of times I was going to have to deal with him.
Henson pulled into the parking space next to mine and got off the bike, walking leisurely over to me as he took off his gloves. He got in the car, and immediately I smelled a woman’s perfume on him. I tried not to be visibly repulsed as he said nothing.
“Why?” I asked at last. “That’s all I want to know. Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why do you want Sabrina so bad now? You told me you wanted nothing to do with her before, and now, out of the blue, you are so dead set on being in her life. It doesn’t make any sense,” I tried to keep calm as I spoke to him, but it was difficult when the only thing I wanted to do was slap him.
If I was really honest with myself, I wanted to do a lot more than just slap him, too. The mere sight of him was enough to make me physically ill, and for the hundredth time, I wondered why Tim had to be the one to de instead of him.
He just shrugged. “I’m her father, and I want to be in her life. Why is that such a crime? I’d think you’d want to fight to make it happen, not the other way around.”
“I don’t want anything to do with you, and I don’t want my daughter to, either,” I shot back.
“She’s our daughter, April, if you remember,” he smirked. “You were more than happy to take me that night. If I remember right, weren’t you begging for me to cum inside that tight little pussy?”
I tasted bile. I didn’t want to ever remember the night I’d slept with him, and his comments were almost enough to make me shove him out the door right then. But, I still had to get answers, and I wasn’t leaving until I did. I didn’t care how aggravating he chose to be.
“Look,” he said, cutting me off when I tried to speak. “I don’t want to deal with this court bullshit any more than you do. Sign these papers and let’s just get this over with okay? We both know it’s just going to be expensive, time consuming, and a headache, all for me to win in the end anyway. Do yourself a favor and avoid all that why don’t you?”
He pulled himself off the seat just enough to grab a roll of papers out of his back pocket. Then, he slapped them down on the dash board. I picked them up, skimming the first few lines of the first page. I didn’t need to get any further before shoving them back in his direction.
They essentially relinquished all my rights as a mother, and with my signature on the bottom, he’d be able to walk with our daughter, plain and simple. Hell, they were naming him as the only one with custody. Though the thought of him being capable of doing that was laughable in my mind, the thought that he was trying for that only added to the illness I felt.
“I’m not signing shit!” I said.
“I’m going to win, you can play your little game, or you can be an adult about this and give me our daughter,” he said with a shrug. “I really don’t care which you do.”
“Fuck you! Get out of the car!” I shoved him. “Get out!”
I knew I wasn’t getting anywhere with him, and I was sick of his taunting. I wasn’t going to sit there and let him tell me he was taking my daughter away, and I was afraid that he was right, he would win. I was on welfare, largely because of the fact he’d gotten me knocked up to begin with.
It was expensive having a child, and I had to shoulder it all on my own. Tim helped where he could, but he could only do so much. The rest was on me and me alone.
He got out of the car without fighting, which I found surprising. But, he leaned in through the window. “I’ve got a damn good lawyer, April. Do you? This guy knows how to spin it to win it, and I’m paying to make sure he does.”
“Fuck off,” I said.
“See you in court!” he laughed. He walked over and got back on his bike, and I had to shake my head at the thought of running him over. It was tempting, that was for damn sure.
God, I hated him. Hated everything about him. But, if it was a fight he wanted, then it was a fight he’d get.
Because Sabrina was my daughter, and no one was taking her away from me.
4
Aaron
I knew it was early on in the evening, but I was already drunk. Hell, I figured anyone in the bar wasn’t going to judge someone for being drunk. Why else go? For the music? Maybe some, but that wasn’t for me. I was here to forget my past for yet another day, and so far, it had been working.
Overall, at least. It had been going a lot better until a couple of the guys from my MC showed up with their girls. Zach and Vanessa arrived first, heading straight for the booth they normally occupied. I had grown used to seeing the two of them together, and it was a strange thought to imagine Zach on his own anymore.
He had been such a rogue, back in the day. But this girl of his, she’d changed all that. He’d done practically a one-eighty from where he had been before, and now, things were looking like he was going to be quite the president of the club one day after all.
His father, Carl, had a tough time accepting Vanessa at first. She was part of another rival group, the Enemies. But, since the two of them had gotten together, things had pretty much smoothed out between the two clubs. Not entirely, that was for sure.
There was still plenty of tension to be had between many of the members. But, it was now understood that we were to all be civil to each other, and any disagreement was to be taken to either Zach or Carl and Marcus, the president of the Enemies, rather than settled with our own fists.
Nathan, another good friend of mine, wasn’t there that night. There had been a time in our lives when he would sit next to me and Adam, laughing and drinking the night away. But that was before. Now, Nathan was likely home with his family – his girlfriend and their little girl.
Adam, on the other hand, was more likely to be at a different bar. Though this had been our watering hole for as long as I could remember, when he got with a younger girl, they switched venues. I still saw them from time, but it wasn’t nearly as often as it used to be.
Spencer, the other MC member who had just walked in, was also accompanied by a woman. He was the most recent of my group of friends to leave the single life behind. I liked the girl. She was probably my favorite of all the girlfriends my brothers had partnered themselves with.
Brooke had recently gotten out of prison for some shit that had gone down. She was the victim of assault by one of the guards, and to keep things quiet, they’d let her out early. Of course, the Warden and the same guard who had assaulted her decided they were going to make sure she never talked, and most of Santa Rosa’s MC had to step in.
A man had been hired to murder her, but thanks to the fucking up of some key players, we were able to take him down. I was pleased with myself for the hand I had played in saving her from that fate, though now as I watched the two of them dance on the floor together, I was painfully reminded of my own singleness.
All my brothers had said at one time or another during the whirlwind of meeting these girls they never saw it coming. They didn’t think they would be swept off their feet by some woman because Hell, we were all known for hanging out at the bars and taking home whoever looked best that night.
But, it hit them out of the blue, and they were now practically attached at the hip.
I drained the rest of my drink. I was good for another two or three – maybe four if I was honest with myself, but I really wanted to pick out a woman in the bar to make my target for the night. Hunting for some Head,
as we used to call it back in the day.
It hadn’t taken long after Spencer and Brooke hooked up that I realized it was a lot more fun to be on the prowl with someone than going at it solo, but Hell, they were all engrossed in their own relationships, and I wasn’t going to be the sad guy at the bar staring down into his glass.
Besides, I knew many of the other members of the immediate MC here in Santa Rosa felt that I was growing to be a lost cause with my booze. I was forever getting drunk and stumbling around, being the idiot and the loser. I wasn’t going to be that tonight.
We were all drinking, and I wasn’t going to be the lone drunk in the crowd. I wasn’t about to be singled out and made the butt of jokes again. It was hard enough dealing with the shit that had been on my mind since Tim’s funeral the week before, I wasn’t going to sit there and wonder what the boys were saying about me now.
With the resolution in my chest, I scanned the bar for someone who looked gullible enough to fall for my charm. It wasn’t hard. I was hot. I knew it, and I wasn’t afraid to let women know. I’d walk right up to them and blatantly hit on them. If they weren’t receptive, there were plenty more in the bar.
Suddenly, my eyes fell on a girl wearing a black dress. It was clearly designed to hug her curves, and with her back to me, her luscious red hair fell in waves over the black fabric. The contrast was glorious, making my dick hard as I sat there watching.
There were other women in the bar to choose from, sure, but she was my target. That was the one I would be taking home and forgetting the rest of my life with, at least until morning. Then, I’d worry about how to get rid of the hangover, get drunk again, and repeat the process.
I didn’t have to work again until Tuesday, I was free to get as wasted as I wanted for the next few days.
Rising from the bar, I walked up behind her, preparing my most sensual pickup line. I didn’t want to waste too much time. The sight of my brothers with their girls was really starting to get to me. I didn’t want to admit that I was jealous. Hell, there had been a time not long ago when I thought it was the worst idea in the world to settle down with one person.