?
“But you’ll hurt him?” I ask nervously.
“Depends which fucker it is.”
I sigh deeply. I’m going to have to tell him. There’s no getting out of this, no matter how long I put it off. I started this by thinking he’d understand, that he’d want me to be happy. But he’s not happy right now, he’s angry and trying to hide it from me.
Regardless, I tell him, “Stryker.”
His eyes widen so much I thought they were going to pop out of his head for a second there. I adjust my blue shirt at the hem, pulling it away from the waistband of my jeans, anything just so that my hands have something to do.
“Stryker?” I nod my head as proudly as I can. “Stryker!?” His voice is getting louder, and I’m shaking in fear. I know what this man is capable of, what they’re all capable of, and it’s only now I realize this was a very, very bad idea.
I watch as he rakes his fingers through his long dark hair, hair that’s graying at the sides with age. He’s huge biceps flex with the movement, and I see just how strong this man really is.
“How long, Coral? When did he force you into this?”
“He didn’t force me into anything!” I will not allow him to think that of Stryker. I went into this relationship with both eyes open. “I love him, Shepard!”
“How long?!”
“A couple of months.”
His eyes widen again, chest heaving. I should have told him weeks ago. Now he thinks the worst of both Stryker and me. “I’ll kill him. I’ll fuckin’ kill him!” I don’t get the chance to say anything in response because he’s already out the door.
I chase after him, yelling, begging him to calm down, not to hurt the man I love with all that I am. However, my pleas fall on deaf ears as he charges out of BlackJack’s house and out to the backyard where most of the club members are drinking. We came here for a barbecue, for everyone to relax for a while and I ruined it with my big mouth.
I scream, unable to stop myself as Shepard grabs Stryker from where he stands with some of the others, stunning him, punching him in the face before pinning him to the fence to the left side of the garden.
I can hear the kids of the club screaming, and their mother’s trying to calm them. The kids are not used to seeing this kind of behavior. Shepard never allows it usually. That’s how I know he’s beyond angry, he’s not thinking straight.
My brave man looks at Shepard, no fear in his eyes. He knows what I’ve done, what Shepard is about to do to him, but he says nothing. I don’t even think he’s angry with me for spilling our secret without him there. I guess I’ll find out later if Shepard doesn’t kill him.
BlackJack grabs Taylor’s arm as she attempts to make a move toward the man she calls her son. Jack knows as well as everyone else here that you don’t get involved when the Prez has something he needs to get off his chest. But I can see how badly Taylor wants to ignore her husband and try and stop Shepard.
“You motherfucking son-of-a-bitch!” Shepard’s forearm is against Stryker’s throat, cutting off the oxygen supply to his lungs, and I am so scared that Shepard will kill him, and it’s all my fault for not waiting until Stryker was ready to tell Shepard himself. “I warned you what would happen. Didn’t I?!” Stryker nods, eyes now wide. He can’t breathe!
I won’t wait for that to happen, I won’t wait for the man I see as my second father to kill the only man I have ever loved. The only man who has ever loved me, the man I want to spend my life with, the man who keeps me safe in his big strong arms. I couldn’t take losing anyone else.
“Please, number two, please!” I yell with all my mite and emotion. “Please! I love him!”
That seems to snap him out of it a little because he loosens his grip on Stryker’s throat, allowing him to breathe a little.
Everyone is now staring Stryker down. Not one person had worked it out before now. We were smart enough to keep our relationship on such a down low that now on suspected a thing. BlackJack knew, but that’s it. My eyes catch Denise’s for a second. She’s standing with Ice, wrapped in his arms, legs clad in denim, a leather jacket on her back. She’s pissed that I didn’t tell her about Stryker and me the way she told me about her and Ice. But I don’t give a shit right now.
Shepard asks my man, “And you? Do you love her? And you dare fuckin’ tell me yes if you don’t mean it, boy, and I will fuckin’ kill you!”
Stryker rubs his neck for a second, then tells Shepard, “I love her, Prez. I love more than any fuckin’ man ought to love a woman. I didn’t mean to fall for her, dammit, but I did. You have no idea how hard I tried to stay away from her. I know why you’re so protective of her, she told me.”
Shepard’s eyes shoot to me. He’s surprised that I've told Stryker my story. However, he must know that I would only have done that if I trusted Stryker enough for him to know.
“I would never hurt her or let anybody else hurt her like that. I swear to you, Prez. If you want to beat the shit out of me, then go ahead, but you won’t beat what I feel for her out of me.”
“She worth losin’ you place with the club for?”
Oh god! Shepard can’t throw him out of the club. The club is all Stryker knows. Yes, he’ll have me, but I know what the Snakes mean to him. I feel my stomach roll over. I feel sick; this is all so wrong!
But my man shocks the hell out of me by telling Shepard, “She’s worth losing everything for, Prez. The club, my home, my very life. This club is my family. I have been nothing but loyal to every brother in this club. If you tell me there’s no way you’ll let us be together, then you’ll have to kill me, because I won’t walk away from her, Prez. I can’t. Just as much as you can’t walk away from Lynette.”
Tears are falling from my eyes. This man loves me so much he’d willingly give up everything just to keep me. God knows I’d give my very life for him.
“I love you, number two,” I tell Shepard while looking right into his blue eyes. “Please don’t hurt me like this. I love him. I never thought I could love any man like this, not after everything that happened to me, but I do love him. He’s so good to me. I trust him with my life, my heart. Please?”
I look to Stryker. He’s looking at me, and my heart is breaking, I didn’t mean to cause all of this. But his eyes tell me that he’s not angry with me at all for this. He knew it was time. He still loves me as much as he ever did.
“You hurt her once, and I’ll personally cut your balls off.” Oh, my god! He’s not going to hurt Stryker, or me!
“I won’t, Prez, you have my word.”
Screeching, I throw my arms around Shepard’s neck. “I love you, number two. You will never know how much.”
“I love you too, Sunflower.” I know that he does, this big, bad biker man.
“Daddy!”
Shepard practically drops me to the ground in shock before racing over to his youngest son, Max, who’s now sobbing in Jett’s arms. “Maxy, where are you hurt?”
“Mamma! Man... Took... Mamma!”
Oh god, No!
Chapter Fifteen
Stryker
Ain’t no worse feeling in the world than the feeling of one of the clubs women being kidnapped. The fact our first lady, Lynette, Prez’s wife, was taken by some cunt from BlackJack’s front yard while Shepard almost killed me, is probably one of the worst things to have happened to the club since Titus and his old lady were taken out.
I left Coral with Taylor and the kids while I jumped my bike and took the fuck off looking for Lynette. Every member of the club was out looking.
Jett managed to track down an abandoned car over at Lover’s Creek. It took hours to track down. No one had any clue that the cunt would be so close to home.
There was no sign of Lynette. Prez arrived, had everyone searching the surrounding wooded areas around the lake. Came upon a man slumped against a tree, bleeding out from his stomach. Few of us stood around and watched the Prez as he interrogated him.
Seemed Shepard knew just whom he was talk
ing to, the cunt who took Lynette. “Where is she?”
“I should’ve known it was you. Bitch told me she’d married a filthy biker.”
Prez grabbed the guys’ face in my hand and squeezed so hard it seemed the like the guy’s eyes would pop out of his damn head. “Who the fuck are you? What have you done with Lynette?”
“You know who I am, asshole, just as much as I know who you are.”
“Is that so? Where is she?!”
“All she had to do was let me see my daughter, and I’d’ve left her alone.”
His daughter?
I had no idea whom he meant. Not until BlackJack’s eyes locked with mine. Then it dawned on me. He meant Willow. Lynette’s beautiful daughter, the girl Shepard adopted years ago.
“Willow will never know the filth of you. I am her father. The only one she’s ever known.”
I turned my head as many of our brother’s suddenly came running through the woods. Jett stopped dead in his tracks and looked at his father crouched down in front of the motherfucker who took his mother.
“Who is that?” He asked me quietly.
“Willow’s biological father,” His eyes widened, but he didn’t look away from his father. “He took Lynette.”
“Yes, and we need to stand down while Shepard deals with this.”
Cueball was right, that’s why no one made a move to stop nor help our Prep, he had this.
Prez slipped his knife from his ankle holster and brought it up to fuckers face. His eyes widened for only a second before he started laughing.
What kind of psycho laughs when they’re about to be hacked to pieces?
“Tell me where she is!” Prez yelled while pressing the tip of the knife into his throat. Everyone was silent all around me, no one daring even to breathe too loudly.
“I don’t know where she is. Stupid bitch stabbed me with a fuckin’ piece of wood! I hope she’s fuckin’ bleeding out as we speak!”
“What the fuck did you do to her!”
“Calm down, Jett,” Prez told him. But what man wouldn’t be anxious when his mother was missing?