“You Drake?” he barked.
“Yeah. Who the hell are you?” He answered with his fist when I saw it flying towards me, clipping me on the chin. Who the fuck was this guy? The kid’s dad?
“Owen!” Ashlyn cried, running down the path in her pink slippers. “Stop.”
“She’s been hurt enough without her own husband walking out on her.” Seriously, who the fuck was this guy.
“Drive.” I barked at Tyler, he started the car and pushed his foot down on the accelerator causing the tyres to squeal before we were driving away from them. I looked in the side mirror to see that guy had his arms around her, her hands were covering her face. Was she crying? That thought made my chest hurt, I wanted her with me at the club, that wouldn’t be happening now that I knew she had a kid. I had nothing at all to offer them.
I STORMED through the clubhouse and straight to my bedroom. I dug my hand into my inside pocket of my cut and pulled out the ring box. I threw it against the wall and it bounced on the floor. I spun around when I heard a yelp.
“Hey,” I sighed as I fell to the bed and rubbed my good hand over my face.
“What’s this?” Cammie asked as she picked the box up off the floor and placed it on the bed next to me.
“I bought that for Ashlyn.” Cammie walked over to the bed and sat next to me, placing her hand on my back.
“Where is she?”
“Did you know she has a kid?” I looked at her as I said it, I wanted to see the true reaction on her face.
“No, no I didn’t. Wow.”
“Yeah, a gorgeous little girl, looks just like Ashlyn, she’s two.” I smiled at the thought of them both together.
“Drake, what’s wrong?” I rose my eyebrows at her. “Shit, sorry. I’m never going to get used to calling you Iron,” she laughed.
“I have nothing to offer them. All I have is a small room in a biker clubhouse. That’s no place to bring up a kid. At least the Prez has his own apartment in the building.”
“What about the apartments and houses that the club owns? Maybe Prez will let you rent one of those?”
“What houses?”
“All I know is that there are some properties owned by this club. I know Solar rents one of the apartments and has his room here. It’s always good to have a place to get away to. Speaking of, we are going back home to our house tonight. Now that all the danger has been taken care of and the lockdown has been lifted.”
“Thanks Cam. I’ll talk to the Prez.” She climbed to her feet and patted me on the back.
“Iron… Do you love her?”
“Yeah, I really do. With all my heart.”
“Then don’t give up on her.”
“What about the kids dad?”
“What about him?”
“What if she loves him? Wants to be with him? What if he can provide a better life for them?”
“You know Ashlyn. She’s an honest person, she must have had her reasons for keeping her daughter a secret. She never would have married you if she was in love or wanted someone else. She’s liked you for a long time, I saw every time she got jealous when you were with a local girl.”
“I don’t know how to fix this, Cam. I left her there, I walked away. I couldn’t protect her, I failed her and he got to her and hurt her again.”
“Hey, that’s not your fault. You were left for dead on the side of the road.” She crouched down in front of me and placed her hands on my knees.
“It will all be ok, it’ll work itself out,” she smiled.
“Hey, what’s going on?” I looked to my right to see Holes standing there with Harley in his arms.
“Nothing, VP. I’m just acting like a pussy today, feelings and shit,” I chuckled.
“You ready to go home, sweetheart?”
“I sure am.” Cammie walked into Hole’s outstretched arm. They were the perfect little family, full of love and happiness. Could I have that with Ashlyn? We had that before all this shit happened, we could have it again.
“Enjoy.” I smiled at them before I headed to the bar for a well-deserved drink.
Ashlyn
I WAS up in the bedroom that I shared with Lacey, her cot was pushed up against the far wall and my bed was in the middle of the room with a bedside table on each side. I had a matching white set of furniture, including wardrobe and drawers. A large toy box was underneath the window and Lacey was sitting on the pink rug surrounded by her toys.
“Ashlyn. There’s someone here to see you,” mum called up the stairs. My heart soared at the chance that it could be Drake. I jumped to my feet, picked up Lacey and a couple of her toys and darted towards the stairs. “There you are,” Mum smiled. “Your friend is here to see you.” She pointed towards the living room, I took a deep breath and walked inside.
“Cammie?” I smiled. She was looking happy, a smile covered her face and her blonde hair was straight and down her back. She stood by the three seater sofa that was in front of the coffee table. Our living room was joined to a dining room so it was large with a fake fireplace and two sofas.
“Hi, I hope you don’t mind us popping in,” she smiled back, pointing at Harley in his car seat. I placed Lacey on her feet.
“Baby,” she squealed, rushing over towards Harley. I hurried after her, making sure she didn’t grab at him or anything.
“Wow, Iron was right. She is gorgeous and looks just like you.”
“Iron?” I asked in confusion. Was he the guy that drove Drake over here the other day? Did he see Lacey from the car?
“Oh sorry, Drake. He’s Iron now.”
“He got his patch?” I smiled.
“Yeah, did he not tell you?” I shook my head. Why didn’t he tell me?
“Do you want a drink?”
“Tea would be great.”
“I’ll get those,” Mum said, walking into the room. “You sit and talk to your friend.”
“Thanks mum.” I kissed her cheek and Cammie and I got settled on the sofa. Harley was asleep in his car seat and Lacey was playing with a toy bus that you put shapes into on the rug. It didn’t take her long to get bored with Harley.
“How are you?” I asked.
“Now I should be asking you that. I hear Iron didn’t react too well to the news,” she nodded at Lacey and I sighed.
“What did he tell you?”
“Not much really, that she was gorgeous and looked like you.”
“He walked away.”
“He was in such a state when he got back to the club. I think you two really need to talk.”
“I miss him so much,” I muttered. I missed him holding me while we slept, kissing me goodnight and keeping the night terrors away. I woke up in a cold sweat every night, I was just thankful that I never woke Lacey up.
“You should come to the club this weekend, it’s Iron’s patched in party. Mason’s mum is going to look after Harley for a couple of hours. It’ll be like old times. Please?”
“I don’t know. He may not want me there.”
“Here we are,” Mum said as she carried a tray in with cups of tea and biscuits on it.
“Grandma, juice.” Lacey demanded.
“What do you say?” I asked her.
She scrunched her face up while she thought about it. “Pwease?”
“Good girl. Come on, let’s see what else we can find you,” Mum took hold of Lacey’s hand and led her away.
“Why didn’t you tell me about her?” Cammie asked as I passed her a cup of tea.
“I didn’t tell anyone. I didn’t want to risk her being hurt, can you imagine if Switch found out about her. It doesn’t bare to think about,” I shuddered at the thought.
“Were you never going to come back for her?”
“Yeah, I missed her every day. It was so hard not being able to be with her, but I sacrificed what I had to, in order to keep her safe. You know what it feels like, you’d do anything to protect your child from harm. I longed for the day I could hold her in my arms again. I dreamt of th
e three of us together, cuddled up on the sofa watching a Disney film or playing at the park.”
“Three?” she asked.
“Me, Lacey and Drake. That’s what I want. Us to be a proper family.”
“What about her dad?”
“He left before she was even three months old. He left us in a small one bedroom flat with no money, luckily my parents took us in. He said he was too young. We’ve not heard from him since.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Cammie placed her mug on the coffee table as she bent forwards and pulled a fussing Harley out of his car seat. She plonked him on me and took my empty mug from me. I positioned him in the crook of my arm and gazed down at him.
“He looks just like Holes.”
“Yeah and that’s all I hear from Mason. He’s a very proud dad.”
“And a proud husband,” I smiled, nudging her with my knee. “You got a good one there.”
“And so have you. I can’t believe you got married without me.”
“We were all a little surprised when we found out that bit of information.” Mum said as she followed Lacey in, who was happily munching away on a cookie. “I said we should at least have a party or something to celebrate.”
“Mum,” I sighed.
“That’s a great idea,” Cammie agreed.
“No, I told you we don’t want a fuss. We got married because we love each other, we don’t need a party for that to be real.”
“Oh, so where is he then? If he loves you so much?” she perched on the edge of the two seater leather sofa looking at me.
“I’ve told you, he’s been in hospital,” I snapped. All we told my mum and dad was that I got in the way of a plan and was being held hostage. I didn’t want them knowing the full details, I didn’t want them treating me differently.
“I hear you cry at night, some nights you wake up screaming. I don’t know how Lacey sleeps through that. Is that what this man has caused?”
“No. Mum, Drake would never hurt me.” I passed Harley back to Cammie and sat forwards on my seat. Why was she choosing now to bring this up? I could see how uncomfortable this was making Cammie.
“Shall we go to the park?” I asked Cammie.
“Yeah, park,” Lacey shouted, jumping up and down.
“Sounds good,” she strapped Harley back in his seat as I gathered Lacey’s coat and shoes.
“Ashlyn, please see this from my point of view. Why hasn’t he come back for you? Is it because of…” she nodded her head discreetly at Lacey.
“No, he isn’t like that,” I bit. I zipped up Lacey’s coat, slipped on my boots and headed towards the front door.
“I’ll just get Harley’s pushchair from the car.” Cammie said as she left Harley with me and disappeared to her car.
“Thanks for making my friend feel awkward, you couldn’t have waited til we were alone?”
“I’m sorry, I just worry about you.”
“I can take care of myself and my daughter.” I grabbed Harley’s car seat in one hand and Lacey’s hand in my other one. We walked slowly towards Cammie while she assembled the pushchair.
“Everything ok?” She asked as she placed Harley’s seat onto the frame of the pushchair.
“Yeah,” I sighed. “Sorry about that.” I picked Lacey up and we walked down the road to the park. It was colder today, winter was definitely on the way.
“You don’t believe anything she said, right?”
“I know he loves me…” I hesitated.
“But?” Cammie asked. We turned the corner and the park was ahead of us. Lacey squirmed in my arms to get down and I placed her on her feet. She ran over to the swings.
“Mummy, push,” she demanded. I looked at her, waiting for her manners. “Pwease.”
“What if she is right? He hasn’t come for us. What if he isn’t interested in both of us? He walked away when I introduced them.”
“That’s only because…” she started and trailed off. I watched as she tucked the blanket tighter in around Harley.
“Because what?” I asked.
“Huh?” she asked.
“Don’t play dumb with me Cammie,” I laughed as I continued to push Lacey on the swing. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“Promise you won’t say anything?” I made a crossing sign over my heart. “Fine, he’s worried that he can’t provide for you. He doesn’t have a house, somewhere you can bring her up. He doesn’t want you both living at the clubhouse.”
“Oh.” I understood what he meant, I didn’t really want to bring my daughter up out of one room at the clubhouse, but I didn’t want us to be apart either, maybe I needed to ask mum if he could move in with us, but then all three of us would be living in the one room too.
“Come to the party on Saturday night, your mum will babysit, right?”
“Yeah, I’m sure she will. But I’m not sure it’s a good idea to come there without being invited.”
“I’m inviting you, besides everyone would love to see you. It’s your club too, remember. You lived there too.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Great. I had best head home. I can’t wait to see you on Saturday.”
“I haven’t made any promises, Cammie.” She hugged me and said goodbye to Lacey before she turned around and walked out of the park.
“Do you want to go on the slide?” I asked as I pulled her out of the swing seat. She nodded as she ran away. I chased her and the laughter that rang out of her was the sweetest sound. I helped her climb up the steps and she sat at the top until I was ready to catch her at the bottom.
“Catch me.”
“I will,” I promised. She pushed herself down the slide and I caught her before she shot off the end, I swung her up in the air and she giggled.
“Again.” I placed her on her feet and we did the same for the next fifteen minutes. A chill crept down my spine and I looked around to see if anyone was near, there was no one around but I got an uneasy feeling. I quickly swept Lacey up into my arms and hurried back home. I wondered if I would ever feel relaxed when I was out on my own or would I always be battling my demons.
Drake
“THANKS PREZ,” I called out over my shoulder as I left his office. I headed towards the bar in search of Tyler, my arm was still in a damn cast so Tyler had become my personal driver. There was a hive of activity in the bar, the club girls were frantically cleaning, dancers were practising on the stage and Carla and Cammie were decorating, tonight was my patched in party and they had decided that the theme was going to be pirates. I had never known or seen a patched member have a themed party before, but if it made the women happy I wasn’t going to step in there way.
“Oh, Iron. I left your outfit on your bed,” Cammie smiled at me.
“Thanks.” I was never really in to the whole dressing up thing for parties, I was hoping to just get away with wearing an eye patch and carrying a sword. “Tyler.” I hollered, getting his attention. Once he was looking at me I jerked my chin telling him that I was ready to go.
“Wait, where are you going? We need his help,” Cammie said.
“Sorry, Cam. We got some business to attend to and I still can’t ride.” I rose my broken arm in the air showing her.
“Fine,” she huffed crossing her arms over her chest. She looked adorable pouting, I leant forwards and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
“I’m sorting out a future for me, Ash and Lacey,” I whispered in her ear. Her smile almost split her face and she was soon shooing me out of the door.
“Where too, Iron?” Tyler asked as he placed his sunglasses on. It was a chilly day but the sun was bright and low, causing us to have to squint.
“Here,” I handed him the list of addresses I had. “I need to go to all of these places.”
“Ok, let’s go to this one, it’s only five minutes down the road.”
“Are you from here?”
“Yeah, my parents own the Whitsand Bay Hotel.”
“Ah, I’ve heard o
f it, never been inside though. So, why are you prospecting here?”
“My parents always put me under so much pressure, ‘One day this will all be yours, son’ or ‘Don’t forget to greet the guests, they will be your guests one day’. I never wanted to own a hotel.”
“What did you want to do?” We pulled up in front of a building that looked like it was about to crumble to the ground. “Next,” I said not even bothering to get out of the car.
“I don’t know what I want to do with my life, but I know that I want to have fun and not worry about whether the brass door handles are shined to perfection. I’m only nineteen, you know?”
“Yeah, I hear you.” We sat in silence until we were at the next place, this building was large and from what Prez said it was made up of four apartments. It was overlooking the harbour which was nice and I was sure Lacey would love it, but I wasn’t keen on the fishy smell.
“Let’s head to this one,” I pointed at the piece of paper.
“Saint Germans? It’s only about ten minutes away.” We both climbed back into the car. “It’s a nice place. Has a castle.”
“Great, so tell me more about yourself.”
“Am I under an interrogation or something?”
“Na, man,” I laughed. “Just trying to get to know you.”
“Well, what do you wanna know?”
“You got a bird?”
“No, not anymore,” he sighed. “I loved her, wanted to marry her. I know, everyone says we would have been too young. She had an abortion, man. I begged and pleaded with her to keep our baby, she said she would consider it. I was ready to go and tell my parents that I’d keep my job at the hotel, so I could provide for them. She went off and did it behind my back. I couldn’t handle that sort of betrayal, so I left.”
“Shit, man, that’s some heavy stuff.”
“Yeah.” He got lost in his own head for a minute or two and I just left him to it. I’d have felt the same way as him.
“This one looks good,” I stated as we pulled up outside of a cottage. “I’m gonna have a look inside.”
South Coast Brothers Part 1 Page 63