She watched the phone and continued her busy work until a familiar blonde head walked by her door. She jumped up and ran to the doorway. “Chase, I need you now.”
The girl spun. “What’s wrong?”
Symone held a finger to her lips and shook her head, gesturing for her to come inside. Chase did as she asked and Symone shut the door.
“It’s Monster. He and Pan got into it over some heavy shit. I don’t want to share i with you, because I don’t want to piss him off. I’m really worried. I can’t leave the desk and if I could, I wouldn’t know where to look. Do you think you can find him?”
“Of course, the big man have and I have an understanding. I can think of a few places he might be holed up. What I got going, Pan can pick up. Hell, I’ll text him that shit myself.”
“Thank you,” she said, relieved he wouldn’t be out there on his own. She’d come to care a hell of a lot more than she should over the past couple of months. He’d infected her with his virus. Now, the only person she had eyes for was him. This is what it’s like to be smitten. I like it. Except when I’m worried sick.
“I got you, girl. We’re family here at Dueling Devils. We take care of one another.” Chase placed a hand on her shoulder and grinned. “You’re totally gone for him, aren’t you?”
“Yes, and I’m not sure how I feel about that,” she admitted.
“It’s good. Love, the kind he has for you and you have for him, is rare and worth going balls to the wall for. I’ve never seen him so into a girl, ever. It’s a big deal, Sy. I know you’re hesitant and I understand why. I try to keep out of everyone’s business. But I feel like it’s my duty as your friend to give you the inside scoop in this instance.”
“Thank you.”
“Us girls have to stick together. There aren’t s many of us I’d trust as far as I could throw them.”
The words made her think of Gia. They had a lot to settle. After this, I’ll go see her. “Yes we do,” Symone agreed.
“I’ll text you as soon as I find him.” Chase removed her hand and left the room.
Symone watched her leave, hoping Monster wouldn’t do something that would get him into trouble. Demon liked to keep things quiet, and with Ardy due at any time, he didn’t have an overabundance of patience. She forced herself to leave the room and sit behind the desk out front. Putting on a happy face for the customers due in the shop, she willed the phone to vibrate with a text.
Come on, Monster.
* * * *
Monster found himself at the graveyard where his mother was buried. He came here from time to time to remember the woman who’d showed him love and the true definition of being a man. Without her gentle touch and sweet nature, he and his brother had grown tougher and skewed. They’d been swallowed whole by the M.C. life with no anchor. It wasn’t bad, but he’d missed her womanly touch.
He steered through the gates and parked down the hill from the burial site. It’d always pissed him off that she’d been buried next to their old man, but he’d like to think they went to two completely different places, so he couldn’t touch her. His brothers might think he was betraying his dad, not putting the club member first, but they hadn’t lived with the hell the old man had created.
He parked and moved from the bike taking in the tombstones. Some were small squares in the ground while others were more ornate. The one thing everyone had in common was that they were all dead. No amount of money could prevent that eventual conclusion to the story of their lives. Losing everything so young, he’d learned the time you had was precious and he tried to find his own happiness.
He paused in front of his mother’s gravestone.
Mary Anne Louise Sumner, Loving Mother, Wife, and Friend.
Nothing they put could explain the vibrant, brilliant, big-hearted woman who’d been taken away far too soon. His brother’s word gave him an explanation to questions he’d always had in the back of his mind. Why hadn’t his mother gotten up? Had his father intentionally start the fire and allowed himself to succumb to smoke inhalation? They always said truth was stranger than fiction and in this case, there was no deviation from the phrase.
“Hey, Mom, I know it’s been awhile since I came last, but I could sure use your wisdom. I found out how the fire started and why Hartley refuses to accept my forgiveness or the way my life had become. He thinks he stole it from me.” He shook his head. “I’m not sure he’s wrong, but I don’t have any ill will toward him. We played the cards we were dealt the best we could. Our home was a glycerin sweating stick of old dynamite waiting to blow. Maybe he saved us all from a much worse fate. We’ll never really know.” He shrugged. “What bothers me most is how long he kept this from me. It makes me see him in a different light and that—that damn near kills me.” He shifted his weight. “I know I need to give myself time, but I see him every day at work and in the clubhouse. It’s hard to get over something when you have the person right there in your face day in and day out.”
Monster paused to look around at the cemetery as he gathered his thoughts.
“This shouldn’t have been the way I found out. I think half my anger is from the way he treated, Symone. God, she’s perfect for me. I mean, not many women can look past the mess the fire left and more than that, she understands what it’s like to live like this. Less than perfect and constantly reminded of that fact. I think you’d like her. She has a sweetness to her, despite what happened, or maybe because of it. She appreciates kindness, honesty, and loyalty more.” He took a deep breath. “I can’t let anything ruin this. I know it’s my one shot. She’s the one. I want to put a ring on her finger and fill her belly with my babies. I’m pushing thirty-five and time is not slowing down.” He rose on the balls of his feet. “I’m trying to keep a steady pace she can accept, but shit like this makes me want to go caveman and cloister her up somewhere…where nothing can touch her.” He sighed and shook his head. “Emotions make things difficult.”
He thought of the platinum two-karat, kite diamond that rested in the inner pocket of his vest. Life was a whirlwind. Why should this part of it be any different? His pocket vibrated. He removed his phone and smiled at her text. Yet another reinforcement of why he was choosing wisely. He removed the phone. “At a safe place. Thinking the shit through, don’t worry.’ He replaced the phone, feeling lighter. This was nothing more than a bump in the road he would overcome eventually. Maybe with things out in the open, Pan could begin to actually heal.
Pan’s predisposition toward managing his life had always seemed strange. Now, he knew he’d been trying to assuage his own guilt. It was easy to see where Pan had been coming from, but it didn’t make things magically okay. He took a deep breath and then spoke. “We’ll work it out Mom. You always told us to look out for one another and I’ll continue that tradition. He’s my twin and my brother in arms. I’d never turn my back on that. But things need to change. Maybe that’s why this came out. To break the chain that’s bound us together in misery. I’m going to go now Mom. I’ll bring Symone by soon. I think it’s about time for that.”
He left the graveyard feeling lighter than when he arrived. His phone vibrated once more and he saw it was Chase.
“Where you at bro? Want to meet up and talk? I heard there w
as a blow out between you and Pan? No details were shared.”