The Fall of V (The Henchmen MC 13)

They don't make them like they used to.

I mean, what the fuck kind of thought was that to have? Especially now. Especially with Ferryn pulling another fucking rebellion, sneaking out of school with her friends.

Yeah, it was her birthday.

And, yeah, I got it.

I got her better than she got herself. I guess because she had a lot of me in her.

She was independent, brave, free-thinking, and stubborn as a goddamn bulldog.

Somedays, when she was railing against me or Summer for some rule we laid down, that she objected to, I had to work to keep from smiling. And, if it weren't for Summer sending me that Don't you dare look in my direction, I likely would have smiled too.

Because Ferryn and I, we were cut from the same cloth. And, what's more, I liked it. I liked hearing her argue and bitch and refuse to back down.

I liked when she took a stand, and followed through, even if she didn't have permission.

I might not have liked it when she came home with a hole through her nose, but I found myself respecting her balls.

I mean, even my men wouldn't pierce something if I expressly told them not to.

And here was my daughter, this black-haired, gray-eyed, tall, and slight thing, coming in with her chin jacked up so high you'd swear she was fucking royalty, telling you that you can punish her all you want, but she has a right to "bodily autonomy," and that no one could make her take it out.

I'd wanted to laugh, but held it in until I got into the bedroom with Summer later, after having doled out a punishment of three months cleaning the entire goddamn clubhouse top to bottom on the weekends when I knew she wanted to hang with her friends, but she hadn't objected, hadn't begged or bargained for a lesser sentence. She took her punishment without complaint.

"Bodily fucking autonomy," I had chuckled as a smile finally split Summer's face too.

"That sounds a lot like Alex, don't you think?" she'd asked as I dropped down next to her on the bed.

"Can't decide if she's a good, or a bad, influence," I agreed about the smartass, loudmouth, opinionated wife of Breaker. Not technically part of our strange, varied family, but Alex and Janie were buds and coworkers on their cyber vigilante missions, so that meant she was part of the girls club. And if she was part of the girls club, that meant she had a hand in helping raise our kids. Most especially our daughter.

"I think she is going to show Ferryn how to unapologetically speak her mind," Summer decided, nodding a bit.

"Even if she's speaking unapologetically to her parents."

"Oh, you love it, and you know it."

"Yeah, guess I do," I had agreed before, well, we stopped talking, finding not-talking a lot more fun, as we often did. Even after all these years. I'd never get enough of the woman. I swear on my deathbed, I'd be begging the universe for one last time with her.

So, yeah, Ferryn was a mini me, with a better vocabulary and therefore sharper arguments. Much like the one she'd given us about her sixteenth birthday.

And, yeah, she'd had a point.

It wasn't fair that she got locked up on her birthday instead of celebrating with her friends.

Summer, especially, felt guilt in this particular situation.

Because it was her raging bitch of a mother who was preventing her children from being allowed to have a normal life.

Not that it was anyone's fault that she'd gotten free.

Well, except for Abruzzo.

Who'd paid with a lot of bloodshed before he hopped on board on the mission to track down the elusive V.

He'd been about as effective as we had, as Hailstorm had. Meaning not at all.

The kids were all getting stir crazy.

Ferryn, as always, more so than anyone else. Because she was older.

She was missing out on more.

Really, it was my own fucking fault for not seeing that this would be a stunt she would pull.

I'd have done the exact same thing in her position.

Had I thought of it, I would have made sure there were extra guards outside the school.

Summer was a wreck, sitting up at Hailstorm saying how she never should have let her go back to school.

I'd assured her that she was just being, well, Ferryn, and that we'd find her, punish her, then wait for her to pull something like this again. As we both knew she would.

Hell, Mina had pulled me aside once to tell me that I should prepare myself for Ferryn's teens, that she'd be a lot to handle.

And she was.

Clearly.

But I had calls out to her friends' parents, and people trolling all over Navesink Bank to find them and bring them home, kicking and screaming if need be. Which it would likely be.

She'd come home.