“If something had happened to Gray that day, I’d never forgiven you.”
“I know, which was why I made sure he could save his sorry ass.”
“He told me.”
“Where is he now?”
“I don’t know. He left yesterday. Only dropped some money off and told me not to worry about him and that he’d make me proud.”
“Fuck. What the hell does that mean?”
Mom searched my eyes. “Why are you alive, Maddox, if you aren’t working with the Italians? They didn’t kill you. Gray said you made the Vitiello girl your woman.”
My woman.
I liked the sound of it. “She means a lot to me.”
“More than that if she’s worth becoming a traitor for. You lived for the club. Is one woman enough to make you forget what happened to your father?”
“I didn’t forget, but I’m sick of living in the past. Marcella makes me want to think about the future.”
“What kind of future? What do you want to do without the club? You don’t know any other life.”
“I’ll figure it out.”
She laughed darkly but at least she finally aimed the barrel at the floor. “If you work with the Italians, every biker will want your head. They’ll probably want it anyway once word gets around that it was you who killed him.”
I tensed. “What are you talking about?”
Mom slapped me again. I saw it coming but didn’t try to defend myself. She had every right to be angry at me. “Don’t lie to my face, Maddox. I’m not stupid. The info comes from the Italians. Or are you telling me they’re spreading rumors to destroy your reputation?”
I looked away from Mom. Who had spread the truth? Only very few people that I knew of had been in the Famiglia prison. Luca, Amo, Matteo, Growl, and Marcella.
If one of them spread that I’d killed my uncle, that could only serve the purpose to make the other Tartarus chapters in the country and the Nomads of our chapter seek revenge on me. Someone had pretty much put a bounty on my head. They wanted me dead. Question was who.
On the first glance, Luca seemed unlikely since he could have me killed easily while I was his captive—but not without making Marcella resent him. Making the other bikers hunt me gave him an easy way to have me killed without getting his hands dirty and Marcella wouldn’t blame him. “Do you know who’s spreading the rumors?”
“Gray didn’t tell me.”
“Gray is the one who told you?”
“Did you kill your uncle, Maddox? That’s all I want to know.”
“You know how Earl could be, Mom. He was obsessed with revenge, even more than me. If we turn into monsters to kill a monster, we are as bad as him. Did Gray tell you what he did to Marcella?”
Mom nodded. “He’s become more radical over the years. But you should have handled it in the club. You could have challenged him for the spot as president.”
“I would have never been voted president. The more progressive, liberal members have all become Nomads over the years. The men who remained in the club were absolutely loyal to Earl. And even if I’d won, he would have never accepted the vote. The club was his whole life. Nothing else mattered.”
“I know,” Mom said bitterly. Her eyes searched my face. “I don’t know what to think. I don’t know if you are the same boy I raised.”
“I am, Mom. I had to make a choice just like Earl made his choice when he tried to kill me with his dogs. But I’m sorry you are alone.”
Mom laughed. “Oh Maddox, you know Earl hasn’t been around in almost a year. But without the club, I can’t pay bills. The ten grand Gray left me won’t last forever.” She put on a rubber glove as she always did when she smoked to prevent her fingers from becoming yellow. Considering she smoked about forty cigarettes a day, that was probably a good idea.
I jogged back to the truck and grabbed thirty grand from the suitcase. She watched me with a healthy dose of suspicion and didn’t look mollified even as I handed it to her. “This should get you through the year. I’ll send you money once I start earning again.”
She finally put the shotgun down. “You really going to work for the mob?”
“I won’t work for them, but I might work with them for now. I’m just so mad about this girl… I can’t…”
“I hope she didn’t trick you. I really hope giving up everything was worth it. You gave up the only home you had for this girl. Does she even realize it?”
She was right. The club had been my home for as long as I could remember. Mom’s house in Texas and now here had always only been the place where I’d gone to sleep.
So much had happened in the last few days that I hadn’t had time to realize I was homeless now. I’d never had my own place, always only a room in the clubhouse. I’d had club brothers or club girls to keep me company when I needed it. I’d become a Nomad but without a place to return to. Marcella and I… we didn’t have a place yet, and just thinking about moving in with a woman, my pulse picked up. How would it even work?