AustinI glance at the door the nurse just vacated. I was an asshole I know, but I was speaking the truth when I told her I don't have time for her twenty questions. Road Kings could be heading towards the club house any minute now. When they ran me off the road earlier I had just come home from a run. Thank God me and Max had been riding together or they could have killed me. Max's quick thinking got us out of there. He cut one of them off with his bike and the guy crashed. It caused a small pile up for the ten or so that were there. He had lead me to an alleyway where we waited them out. Once he made the call, Shane, Chance and Psych had rode out to help. They brought the van for my bike and drove me here."I know you're trying to get out of here man, but I'm your VP, you have to know that if you need to stay, the four of us can go back to the clubhouse and hold shit down. Pissing off the nurses here ain't smart. I called Crush and he already told me he and the guys are holding dow
CandiceThis is it. Jared and Laynie are getting released today. I feel like a parent waving goodbye to their children on their first day of school. I don't expect to ever see them again, so today is bitter sweat. I spent most of my shift yesterday checking on them. Ben was not happy that I spoke with Jared, or that I assigned myself over to him and Laynie, but I know he was pleased I didn't take anything too far. I couldn't do that to them. Especially in their current state.Yesterday Jared woke up needing more pain medicine. I was able to talk with him a little and all he was worried about was Laynie. I am so happy for them, but at the same time jealousy roared its ugly head at me. I have never had a man care for me the way Jared does Laynie. "Here are your discharge papers. Jared's are in there as well. It reiterates everything Dr. Toring has explained to you. Phone number is at the bottom so if you feel any discomfort please don't hesitate to call." I say to Laynie as I handed
Austin"Fuck, pick up your phone." I say as I slam my cell phone on the bar. Max was supposed to be here over an hour ago and I can't get a hold of him. We started church without him and it's over now. He never misses church. I am just about to call him again when he comes waltzing through the doors like a fucking king."Where the hell have you been? Church started at eight. As in AM." I shout. I hate raising my voice at him, but he has been acting straggly lately."Sorry bro. Rescued a damsel in distress. Had to tow her car to the shop. Guess who it was?" He says nonchalantly."I don't give two fucks. We have serious shit going down right now, and if you didn't miss church you would know what the fuck that was." Max's face turns serious and looks around the room."What happened?" He asks."Jazz was attacked last night in his home. He is not sure who they were or how they got in, but they beat him pretty bad. Irma called me after they left, said some neighbors heard her screami
CandiceI get home a few hours later from the repair shop. Mom is in the kitchen making some kind of pasta and has the whole house smelling incredible. I stand at the archway in between the kitchen and living room just staring at her in her element. She is humming a little tune and it's moments like this that she reminds me of her former self and not the shell of a woman that has lost everything.I step closer and make my presence known. Mom stops her hum and turns to me while maintaining her perfect speed of stirring. I walk up to the stove top that the Ziti is boiling in and take a big whiff of the homemade sauce she is making to go along with it. I know I will have to make a mental note to go jogging tomorrow morning. I'm going to need it after tonight's dinner. Memories of my mother making this for me when I was little come rushing to me. I smile at the fond memory and get ready to ask her if she needs help when I notice she has her head down, a look of grief crosses her flawless
AustinI am awakened by shouting at my door. I jump out of bed and grab my Glock 18 from the nightstand next to my bed. I am delirious from lack of sleep. After Shane, Max and I got back from my mom's house late, I had to speak with Chance on meeting up with Snake. I want him and Cage to go with me. Cage is a lethal mother fucker. He would be a higher-ranking member but his temper gets a little out of control sometimes. It may be a little dangerous bringing him but if shit hits the fan he is who I would need next to me.A fist banging on my door brings me back to the present. I open the door quickly and come face to face with Max. He has a gun in his hand too and nods his head toward the front door. Our flood lights are on. I see other brothers running to the door and in one movement they all look to me. I walk up to the front of the pack and open the door. Shane is by my side instantly. We all run out separating at the gates to see who the hell would dare run up on us in the middle
CandiceI look around the room I am in. It's a bit on the small side, with just a queen size bed, a nightstand, a dresser, and a television mounted on the wall above the dresser. The girl, the one Austin addresses as Abby, scoots her chair closer to the bed I'm on. She has a small little nurse's kit hanging from her forearm. I close my eyes at the irony that I'm on the bed while a nurse is getting ready to evaluate me."Abby, was it?" I ask."That's right. Slice tells me that Austin said you were a nurse. Which hospital do you work at?" She asks."Treepointe." I say with a small smile. The small movement to my cheek causes me to flinch.Abby is by my side instantly checking my face out and going back to her bag to pull out a cold compress and some arnica cream. She starts rubbing the cream on my cheek softly and when her eyes meet mine I see a glimpse of compassion. She seems to be a very soft-hearted girl. She also seems to be a bit on the young side. She has long blonde curly ha
AustinI don't think I have ever had to explain my story to anyone. I have only ever had my brothers, my mom, and my club. Sure, I have had women here and there, but no one serious enough to know my business. Granted the only reason I am telling Candice about club business is because she is now mixed in it. I hate that they think she is with Max, but I am happy they weren't stupid enough to kill her. Another reason I need to speak with Snake. I no longer think this is his club's doing. They would never hurt old ladies. I know Snake and he would never do something like this.Snake and I go way back. He is a piece of shit but he ain't stupid. He knows our club would destroy his. He is around my dad's age and my father and him never got along. There was lots of bloodshed on both parts with them getting in each other's way of the drugs and money over the years. When I got the club, I let Snake know right away I wanted nothing to do with that shit.I look to Candice to make sure she unde
CandiceI look around at the women of the club. Austin told me that the club was on lockdown so I know not all of them are here but there are a few, and I feel completely out of place. When Austin asked me to help with the women I wasn't sure what to expect but now I think he was just trying to include me. It is clear by the faces these women are wearing they need no help."Who is watching from outside?" A woman with huge knockers, and blonde streaked hair asks."Dale is out there, along with Mipps and Evans." Another says coming in from the kitchen.They all look powerful and fierce. I envy that from them. Abby walks in with a little bandage around her ankle. She gives me a reassuring smile and sits next to me, I am just about to ask her a question when the men storm out. Most of them walk around and collect their women while Austin, Max and two other men head over to Abby and me. One of the men I recognize from the hospital the other day. He has dark hair with even darker eyes. T
AnnaSix Years Later"Sweetheart can you tell your father to come in here and grab the steaks?" Laynie asks her daughter Molly. Molly runs out to the back-yard hollering to her father that mommy said to get the 'sticks'.Laynie and both laugh which causes me to hold onto my enormous belly. I am currently eight months pregnant and I swear if there was a way to get this baby out sooner I would do it. Laynie walks over and closes the sliding glass door shut after Molly left it open."So how are you feeling?" Laynie asks coming back to the kitchen and grabbing the salad out of the fridge. We decided to have a barbeque at Alan and I's home for the fourth of July weekend. Shortly after everything went down six years ago, Alan and I got married and bought a house. I fought it at first, but Alan soon convinced me that we knew each other all our lives, we didn't need a timeline for marriage.Jared and Laynie are here with their three children, and Jed will be here soon. We invited Alan
AlanChaos. I've never truly understood the word until now. I've grown up in a house full of people all talking at the same time. I've had over thirty students yelling at the top of their lungs for a sound proof test the school was doing. I've been in a circle of both equal parts nervous and excited football players, preparing themselves for the big game. I've had noise, I've had excitement, I've had an uncontrolled environment. What I've never had, is chaos.I get in the car and drive after the ambulance carrying the woman of my dreams. My mind a flurry of thoughts and images of every moment we have ever spent together. I thought when detective Stephanson told me, Laynie and Jared the entire story of Anna's past, that I was heartbroken then, but nothing is compared the pain I feel in this moment.Thoughts of this morning come rushing back to me as I arrived at Jared's home. Detective Stephanson was there, I had recognized him from when Jared and Laynie were attacked last year i
AnnaMy phone vibrates in my palm once more. I can't answer it, I won't. I already know it's Alan. He has been calling for the last three hours nonstop. His words form last night are still raw and I don't know if I could stand to hear his voice right now. Alan finding out the truth last night has brought me to where I am today.I await the guards to finish frisking me and lower my gaze even further when the lead guard comes over and starts telling me the rules I have already learned. I am let into the room, a different one than the one I am used to being in and wait. Today is the day Jed gets out, and my nerves have given me both jitters and anxiety. I am not only nervous for Jed, I am nervous for me.A loud ringing sound starts, and I look around to see where it is coming from. The sound stops when a door opens, and I see two guards flowing in, followed by my brother. He looks different, almost happy. His long dirty blonde hair is brushed back, and his eyes are bright and vibrant.
AlanI had always assumed I had strength. The strength to move towards my goal as a teacher. The strength to move to a whole new city. The strength to say no anytime someone would offer me a drink at their dinner party, or a small get together. I had no idea that strength, real strength, came from pain.As I sit in my small blue plastic chair sipping on my overly stale coffee and listen to other people talk about what they have endured. What they have gone through, the horrible things they have done to get that last sip, or last hit. I realize that strength, real strength is a small part of what I would need to keep fighting my demons.It has been a week since I have been back in New York. I did what I was meant to do. I went to work, came home, graded papers, said hello to Delilah every morning, saw Laynie and Jared a few times for dinner, everything that was expected of me.What I didn't do, was relax. My mind couldn't. I was too wrapped up in what I had found on my first day
AnnaAnger has never been more clearly evident on someone as it is on me at this moment. As I watch my father waltz into a club full of men who could kill him simply by flicking their wrists, I wonder what his motive must be. If he has been tailing me, and I know he has because he showed up at my apartment the night I flew in from Minneapolis, then he knows what a mistake this is. Alan is here, and if father's plan is to get Alan to see that we still keep in contact, then it's working."What are you doing here father?" I snare at his pungent face. Now that Alan and I are over, something father doesn't know because I bullshited the story of me going over there in the first place, I want him gone even more.After I got home, I was broken. Alan had said some horrible, but truthful things to me and the last thing I wanted was to come home to father sitting comfortably in my armchair. He did what I figured he would. Questioned my trip with the Kings. I told him the very basics. The inter
AlanThere is no greater pain than knowing you caused an innocent person's tragedy. That night I made my decision. I had to change myself. I woke up the next day in the hospital to no Anna. My mother was sitting in the chair next to me, crying. My father nowhere to be seen. My hand was grasping my mother's tight and when the detective came in to tell me of my charges, I watched my father break down for the first time in my lifetime. He was always the strong one, the wall of bravery and courage that never backed down or gave up. He was the sturdiness of our family and I witnessed him crumble over and over again as they named my charges.Edith Monroe Jewel.She was eighteen years old, majoring in economics in college. Her favorite color is orange like the sunset she insisted on watching every night from her dorm. Only child to her parents and used all her money she worked at a movie theatre to buy a ten-year-old Chevy. She was the most innocent face I would ever see, the face that
AlanI remember it like it was it was yesterday. The pain and anguish, as if it were a mere ten seconds ago. She broke my heart that day. I not only learned that I was with someone that wasn't supposed to be with me, but I learned that the world is a cruel and ugly place. I found my place that night. The bottle called to me, and it never stopped.Two Years AgoAnna should be here any moment. I dash over to the kitchen and start cleaning there as well. I never realize how dirty my house is until I know someone is coming over. Anna isn't necessarily a clean freak but knowing my girl, she will bust my ass seven ways to Sunday if she sees my left over Chinese containers from three days ago. I've been a bit busy with helping to tutor little Arnold after school. He will be in my class the year after next and I for one cannot wait. He and his older brother have been having a hard time with their father and he is relying on me to come through for him this summer. I started teaching summ
AnnaI've never felt so helpless in my life. Not even when Jed turned sixteen and instead of a gift, father made him train with a nasty brute of a man named Serge. Father told Serge not to take it easy on Jed and he barely made it out of the match alive. I was eleven, and mother made me watch because my job, was to hopefully seduce Serge if he went too hard on my big brother. Always a way out. No, in this moment, I feel much more anxious than when Jed was slowly dying ten feet in front of me. Alan adjusts his tie for the hundredth time while the host, Margarette Knowles, asks Paul the next question. So far, the questions have been on the subtle side. Why he chose to run now? What he thinks of his competitor? What sorts of things he wants to change in our government. But I know the questions are far from over. She hasn't even asked about Paul about not going to the formal dinner back in New York."So, tell me Mr. King. What did your family think when you announced you were goi
Alan"Okay, either our bags were not on the same flight as we were, or I'm blind and need glasses."I look again at the spinning conveyer displaying everyone's belongings, well, everyone's but ours. We have been here for over ten minutes and I still cannot locate our bags. Should be easy enough with Anna's large Louie Vuitton messenger bag but still, I've got nothing. I look behind me and notice Anna is no longer standing behind me but much farther away. She is looking down at her phone and I feel a ping of insecurity. Ever since we landed, Anna has been on her phone and I don't want to be that boyfriend that snoops, but she is being a bit sneaky and it's making me a bit nervous.Each time I've asked her who it was, she hides the phone from me and says Laynie. I tried looking over her shoulder at the phone, but she types so damn fast and places it inside her jacket pocket, I can't tell who it really is."Alan?" I snap out of my daze and see Anna standing right in front of me with