AustinI ride to the clubhouse with Max by my side and Chance, Shane and Psych right behind me. It's a good thing I can ride to the clubhouse from my home in my sleep because my mind is not on the road. It's too wrapped up in a sexy as hell redhead I've got waiting for me at home. I don't know what prompted me to kiss her before I left. She gave me a panicked look as soon as I showed her the gun. I know she most likely won't need it, but I feel much more comfortable with her having something inside the house to defend herself with.We arrive at the clubhouse and park our bikes. I had called a church meeting right after I left Snake this morning. He was right when he said he had some shit to show us. I walk inside, wait for everyone to line up and then begin the tale of what transpired this morning. I still cannot believe everything I've learned from this morning."You ready?" Chance asks me as I cut my bike off in front of the clubhouse.I met him here instead of at my house because I
CandiceA ripple of anger and fear courses through my body. I never should have found this man last year. He has done nothing but cause pain in my life. I hate him with every fiber of my soul and as Austin gives me a worried look, I wonder if Nicholas has ruined any chance I may have had at happily ever after."Babe? Did you hear me?" Austin says."Wh-what?""I asked if you were alright? You looked like you saw a ghost." God, why does he have to be so perfect. As soon as I tell him who I really am, I'm going to lose him, and I've only just gotten him. "Oh, um nothing. The name sounds familiar is all. What's he do?" I ask, even though I already know. Fucking small world."Yeah, should sound familiar, he owns half of New York. He is a business mogul and has his own a construction company. Cole industries. That's one of his faces anyway. The other face is a drug typhoon. He controls most of the heroin coming in, uses the company to conceal it. My father used to work for him. Our cl
AustinI wake to a blaring sound coming from the ground to the right of me. I open my eyes slowly and feel warmth coming from my left side. Candice sleeps soundly on my chest and the memories from last night come rushing back to me. Fuck this woman is something. I wanted to be gentle but that went right out the window when she whispered dirty words in my ear. Candice was definitely made for me in the bedroom, now I just wonder if she was made for me in the clubhouse.The deafening sound starts again, and I realize it's a ringtone coming from my phone. One that I most certainly did not put on there. I don't recognize the song but it's some chick singing and sounds like cats attacking each other. I pick it up before it hurts my ears again and answer the call. "What the fuck did you do to my phone?" I yell to my brother. I hear Candice laughing her ass off, so I know she is awake."Sorry bro, had to. Figured that was your jam." Max laughs at his own joke on the other end. "Fuck y
CandiceAustin and Max's mother's house is absolutely beautiful. It is an older country style home that sits on at least an acre of land. It is by far the biggest house I had ever seen. There are large windows with white rusty shutters, the paint is peeling in some areas of the outside, a large chimney struck out atop the roof and as we walked further onto the porch, I could see a cedar ceiling that looked newly built under the roof of the porch.As we walk up to the house I could see their mother sanding there by a long white pillar. Of what I could see she is absolutely stunning. She has long wavy brown hair and light green eyes. I know Austin told me that she was on the young side to have grown men for sons, but the woman doesn't look a day over forty. Austin gets out and opens me door. Swoon. Once he has my hand in his we walk up to his mother and he walks up to hug her. Their size difference is almost laughable. She has to be about five foot two inches while Austin is way over s
Austin "How is she?" I ask Miles through the phone."Nervous. Just dropped her off a few minutes ago and she is barely knocking on the door now. She started giving herself a damn pep talk."I chuckle at my girls' crazy behavior and tell Miles to keep me updated. As I hang up the phone, I think back to last night at Candice's mood as soon as Jesse left. Even when we go home last night she seemed off. I tried to get her to talk to me, but she just kept telling me she was nervous about speaking with her mom today. I don't want to push her too far, I know her mom and grandmother are her only family, but I wish she'd be open and honest with me. I know that wasn't the only thing bothering her.I've had women in the past, a lot of women. Went through them like nothing when my father first passed. It wasn't until my mother sat me down and told me she didn't want to be a grandmother yet, that I realized I needed to cool my shit down.I got tested and was thankfully clean. I wasn't always ca
CandicePinochle is a terrible card game. My grandmother taught me when I was fourteen and I've always hated it. I just always play with her because my grandfather used to and it's one more thing me and her can reminisce about him. As she laughs her ass off her recent win, I get off the recliner and head to the kitchen for a water bottle. As I guzzle down the refreshing drink I think back on Austin and I's conversation a few minutes ago. Austin sounded distracted but it's to be expected. He did tell me that he had another meeting with that Snake guy today, so he is probably still absorbed with that. I hate that he can't be too specific about club business with me, but when I spoke to Abby about it, she explained to me that lots of old ladies feel that way, but it was for our own good. She also told me that after all this is done there won't be secrets between me and Austin because there won't be anything to keep from me. I didn't tell her that I relished in that.I walk back into t
AustinI ride as fast as I can and try to let the road take away my anger. I can typically get caught up just fine in my ride and lose myself in the road in front of me, but not today. I spent all day yesterday angry as fuck over so many things. Candice being the forefront of it all. After we left the hospital I went back to the clubhouse to explain why we no longer needed to tail Candice and her family. The brothers questioned me, but I just told them it wasn't important. I may be mad as all hell at her, but I won't have the guys take out their revenge.That meeting only led to more questions which I didn't have answers for. No one has seen Psych and I have no clue where the asshole could be. Spoke to Snake as well and he lost his lead on Psych. It's like the bastard just disappeared. I should have kicked Cole's ass yesterday when I saw him, but I knew that would lead to my arrest and his chance at my club. I'm not stupid enough to let that happen.I pull up to the clubhouse and he
Candice"Alright Mr. Welsh can you take a deep breath for me?" I ask the eighty-one-year-old man in front of me. He came in today for a broken rib and I just finished wrapping him up.After a few painful deep breaths from my patient, I send a nurse in to give him his discharge papers and walk back over to my office. When I get to my desk there is a single rose sitting on it with a note with writing in black ink. A smile pulls at my lips as I recognize Ben's handwriting.You look beautiful today-BenI smile warmly at the gesture. Everyone except Lyla is tip toeing around me today. It's my first day back at work after my vacation and it feel like it's been eight months since I've last worked, not eight days. So much has transpired since the day I got a flat tire on the side of the road. Last night, after Austin left, my grandmother talked me into going after him. Telling me that sometimes as women, we have to not be the damsel in distress but be the knight in shining armor. Her les
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