Chapter One
Stryker
Funerals have never been my thing. They’re too morbid, and there’s too much crying. Seen the damn things too many times in my twenty-six years. They don’t get any easier the more they happen, and trust me, they’ve happened a lot in the seven years since I joined the Snakes Henchmen.
It seems there’s always one brother or another losing his life for the club, or because of the club.
Today’s funeral was particularly hard. Today we buried out President. Apollo was like a grandfather to me, to most of the younger members of the club. His grandson, Jett, is a member also, and Apollo’s death has hit him hard, as it has all of us.
Apollo was President for longer than I’ve been alive. He was a damn good President and one amazing man. Crazy in a totally out of his fucking evil mind kind of way, but the man was all about family, and a family is precisely what we all are.
His son, Shepard, was patched in as our new Prez the very day Apollo died. It was always written that Shepard would take over, as will Jett when Shepard is either killed, dies of natural causes like his old man, or steps down.
The funeral was huge. Every brother from our charter to California, New York, and fucking Alaska was there to see of the man who ruled them all. Nothing less would have done.
I raised a glass to the man we’ll all miss, but I didn't stay. I’m not the kind of man who parties hard. Yeah, sounds weird for a biker to say that especially one in his twenties, but that’s just me. I’m quiet, withdrawn most would say.
It isn’t that I'm anti-social or anything, it’s just the fact that I spent most of my life alone means I can’t deal with too many people all at once. Never felt the need to make myself heard, or show my stupid side. I’ll leave that to those who think they have something to prove. I don’t. Have anything to prove, I mean.
That isn’t to say I won’t kill a man if he crosses me the wrong way. I’m quiet, not a fuckin’ pushover. Don’t even give a shit that other’s make fun of me for not whoring myself around. I’ll fuck who I want when I want, but I have standards. Club whores are not my thing.
Who the hell in his right mind wants to fuck someone who’s fucked everything on two legs?
Excuse me if I want a tight pussy. If I wanted to fuck a gaping hole, I’d drill one in my bedroom wall!
I smile slightly as my little brother takes a seat beside me and bumps my shoulder with his. Dominic isn't really my brother, not by blood, his father, BlackJack, took me in when I was nineteen after I tried to rob him. Yeah, I had a death wish to try to rob a Snakes Henchmen, but I had fuck all worth living for back then. Taylor, his wife, kind of adopted me, wouldn’t let me leave. Even gave me their surname as my own, I took it with pride. She's been more of a mother to me these last seven years than my own ever was.
“You all right, bud?” Dominic nods his head while pushing his dark wavy hair out of his eyes. The boy could use a haircut. “Been a hard day, huh?”
“Hate funerals.”
“Nobody enjoys them, Dom.”
“What you two up to?”
“Talkin’ funerals.”
Dante, Dominic’s older brother, nods while taking a seat on the other side of me. Dominic is thirteen, Dante is sixteen. Both boys are tall, but Dominic is still very much a kid, where Dante is already gaining muscle. Gets that from working out with me each morning. Dante’s already talking about joining the club, he can’t wait until he’s eighteen. His father won’t allow him even to try joining until then.
There is no doubt in my mind, though, that Dominic will one day be a Snake. It’s in his blood as much as his brother’s.
“What do you think its like?”
“What?” I turn my head slightly in Dante’s direction.
“Dying.”
I narrow my eyes a little. He’s looking up at the sky and the Hawk flying high above us. I watch him curiously as a smile creeps across his face, his eyes closing for a second.
I often wonder what the hell goes on in his head. He’s a poet, always rhyming his words, saying stuff you’d only read in books. The kid is quite profound. Little weirdo.
“I imagine it hurts whatever way you look at it,” I answer.
“I wonder what it would be like to be a Hawk.” This kid seriously worries me sometimes. “Can you imagine being able to fly so high without a care in the world, to be so free?”
“I bet they care when they get shot down from the sky.” Dominic. Always the realist, even if it is illegal to shoot a Hawk. I can’t help but chuckle.
“Jerk off!”
“Fuck face!” Dominic yells back.
“That’s enough, you two,” Taylor hands me another beer as her husband wraps his arm around her shoulder. “This isn’t the time to be arguing about anything. We just buried Apollo, show some respect.”
“Sorry, Mom,” They say in unison.
I clasp both their shoulders and squeeze gently. They’re pains in the asses, but they mean the world to me.
“Dominic, it’s time you went in and got ready for bed.”
Boy doesn’t say anything he just gets out of his seat and heads inside. He knows better than to argue with his mother. She’s a force to be reckoned with is Taylor. She even gives me what-for, and I’m in my twenties.
“Think I might go see Julian.”
“And you can think again!”
“What the hell, Mom?”
I chuckle. Dante is nothing like Dominic. Must be his hormones.
“Calm down Hawk boy. It’s been a hard day. If your mother wants you to stay home, you stay home.” He shots me an evil look and storms inside.
Taylor kisses Jack’s cheek and follows her son into the house. Jack takes a seat beside me. “Things are changing, boy.”
“Yeah. Did you think Jett would make VP?”
“Written in the stars, Stryker,”
“Should have been you.” I swig my beer.
BlackJack chuckles under his breath. “Doesn’t matter what rankin’ I have. I’ve been road captain so long it’s just who I am now, don’t think I’d want the extra responsibility anyway. Besides, my best friend knows what he’s doin’. If his son is who he wants as VP, who the hell are we to dispute that?”
Jack takes everything in his stride. He’s never jealous or envious of anything in this life. He’s grateful for everything he has, doesn’t need anything more. Many a man could take a leaf out of his book. His sons are the same way. He taught me the same lessons.
I ride my bike back to my apartment. I moved out of Taylor and BlackJack’s a couple of years ago. A man in his twenties should not be living with his parents. Even if they aren’t actually my parents, they’re the closest thing I have to them.
My place is nothing special, one bedroom, a small living room/kitchen combined, a tiny box-shaped bathroom with a toilet, washbasin, and a shower cubicle inside. That pretty much sums it up. I don’t have much furniture because I just don’t have the room. However, it does me. I don’t need anything else.
The only trouble is, a place this small is like a furnace in this heat. Even with all the windows open, it’s a killer. I don’t have AC, so I feel like I’m suffocating half the damn time. Thank God for ceiling fans, or I’d sweat to death.
I take a shower to both cool down and wash away the hell of the day. Tomorrow everything changes. The club is under a new rule, a new Prez, a new VP. The Snakes are strong, ain’t nothing ever gonna change that, but with change comes new rules. Each President is different. Each one likes to make his mark.
Why the hell wouldn’t Shepard?
However, we’re all lucky to have Shepard. He’s a good man. A fuckin’ strong, not to be messed with man just like his father before him.
But I hate change it drives me crazy, and I have a feeling that many things are about to change. My life included.
Chapter Two
Coral
It feels strange seeing the old place again, the place I grew up. I have some very fond memories of this old house. All the times I played in the garden with my younger sister. The Christmases I spent with my family. Even the big greyhound we had that used to chase us in the yard, making my sister and me squeal happily. Bricks and mortar, that’s all it is, bricks and mortar. Just a house. Memories stay forever in your heart and mind. No one can take that away from you.
I breathe in the spring air through my nose, eyes closed, a smile on my face. But then, those vile memories of what happened to me when I was twelve and living here fill my head and I'm right back where I started nine years ago.
I shake my head. That monster won’t rule my thoughts. I’ve fought to keep him out this long, and I won’t fail now.
Turning my head, I see him astride his bike, the man who has always been like a second father to me. The man who dealt with everything after what happened. Most wouldn’t understand why he did what he did, but I do. He did it for me, for my family. Most would call him a monster, I call him my number two.
I’m a little surprised that he still lives in the same house. The house directly across from the house that was my parent’s. The largest home on the street. Three stories, I don’t remember there being three stories. Must have extended.
I make my way across the street. It’s been a while since I saw him, even if he did call now and again to see how I was doing. I’ve missed him more than I realized.
I watch him scrubbing harder at the handles of his bike like a madman. Still, I smile. “You’ll scrub the chrome off those bars if you’re not careful,” I tell him.
“What are you doing here, Coral?” He asks without looking at me. It’s been a few years since I last saw him, yet he knew it was me without checking first. I wish he’d look at me.
“I missed you.” It came out before I’d even thought about it. But it’s the truth, I have missed him so very much.
He finally turns to look at me, the big, bad biker man who used to live across the street. The big, bad biker man who once tried to scare me away from his motorcycle, the bike I was sat astride while pretending to ride against the wind.
Shepard is a big man, a huge man. He’s tall, well-built, muscles in all the right places. Big muscles that I suspect he got from a lot of hard work and fighting rather than the gym. He is a handsome man in every way, beautiful inside and out. He might be an outlaw, but he will always be like a father to me.
“I’m sorry to hear about Apollo. I’ll miss him.” Apollo was Shepard’s father, the once great president of the Snakes Henchmen MC. I liked him very much. He always treated me like one of the family.
“How long you here for?” His sharp tone hits me right in the gut. I understand he’s going through something awful and he doesn’t mean to snap at me. I know a lot about loss so I won’t take it to heart.
“Depends. Mom and Dad stayed in Cali with Cindy, but I wanted to come home for a while. I’m staying with an old school friend while I’m here.”
I’m really here because I needed to get away from my parents for a while. God knows I love them, but they smother me. I can’t go anywhere or do anything without them calling me a million times to see where I am and when I’m going to be home. I’m a strong woman, and I learned a long time ago how to take care of myself in every way. They didn’t want me to come here, but I put my foot down and told them to leave me be for a while. I’ll call them every day to let them know I’m okay, but they have to give me a little space.
They’re just as bad with Cindy, but I guess good parents always worry.
“So, I heard you married Lynette.”
Lynette was the woman who lived next door to Shepard with her little girl, Willow. Willow was Cindy’s best friend, and Cindy has never forgotten her.
“I always knew you were destined to be together.” I giggle.
I did use to tell him that Lynette was his destiny. He’d laugh and tell me, “Is that so? Maybe you're right. We’ll see.” Then he’d wink, making me laugh. I’m glad I was right.
I wish he were as happy to see me as I am him. “Haven’t you missed me at all, number two?”
He chuckles and climbs off my bike. “I’ve missed you as much as I’ve missed Nova all these years, Sunflower.”
I smile at the name he just called me, his special name for me. He used to call me Sunflower because he said I was always smiling, always brightening up a bad day or any room I walked into. Even as a child that meant the world to me. It meant I had a special place in his heart.
Of course, my parents were wary at first, me playing with the boy across the street, the son of an outlaw, but Shepard isn’t just an outlaw, he’s one who fights for what’s right. Fights for the people no one gives a damn about, righting wrongs the law either can’t or won’t. My father became friends with Shepard, just as many did, and he allowed me to play with his son.
As for Nova, she was taken by her mother years ago, never to be seen or heard from again.
“I’m sorry you haven’t been able to find her. I heard how you’d had no j
oy.” Denise, the friend I’ve been staying with, filled me about everything as soon as I arrived home.
“I’ll find her one day, Sunflower, don’t you worry about that. How’ve you been since...?” He tips his head.
“Since I handed my little girl over to strangers?”
Yes, I have a daughter, she's eight years old now.
Sounds crazy for a twenty-one-year-old to say that she has an eight-year-old child, right? She wasn’t conceived in a nice way, and I wasn’t all smiles, and happy go lucky for a long time after. I was a silly twelve-year-old who stood and spoke to a much older man when I shouldn’t have. You can probably guess what happened next.
I wasn’t allowed to keep my baby, Shepard took her from me when she was just a few days old on the orders of my parents. I loved her, even though she came from the worst experience of my life, I wanted to keep her so badly. My parents did not. My mother couldn’t even bear to look at her.
The day Shepard came to California, where my parents had moved me after what happened, I was so excited to see him. I showed him, my baby, told him how happy I was to have her. Then he sat me down as I held my little girl close to me, and he told me how I couldn't keep her.
You know what? I already knew why he was there. I knew who had called him. They’d already told me what would be happening. My mother and father had made no secret of the fact they couldn’t love her, didn’t want her around them, around Cindy, around me. However, I thought if I showed them how much I loved her, how well I could care for her, they’d let me keep her.