All For You (Snakes Henchmen MC 3)

I wrapped her in my arms and held her until her tears stopped. That's when she told me about my birth father. How he hurt her all the time, how she would shelter me from his outbursts.

That hurt me so much. She was just sixteen years old when I was born. She tried so hard to give me the family I deserved. Two years she stayed with that man, two years of humiliation before she finally left him. Or, he left her, rather.

I thought she'd fallen asleep because she was quiet for long minutes. I was about to lie her down when she mumbled how that man kidnapped her a little over seven years ago. My high school graduation. While I'd gone off to party with my friends, my parent's and siblings went to BlackJack's for a barbecue. It was there that man kidnapped her in front of a then four-year-old Max.

I urged her to tell me what happened, scared that she'd tell me something that would break me. She told me that he tried to rape her but she fought him off. She ran, he chased her, caught her, beat her. Didn't bank on her fighting back and stabbing him with a tree stump.

My heart pounded as she explained all of this. I didn't think I could take all the information in. I remember that day, I came home to find a prospect waiting for me to escort me to Taylor's. There she told me a random guy had dragged my mom into his car and took off with her. I was terrified, but mom was home just a couple hours later. She seemed perfectly fine the next day and told me never to worry about her, she's strong and would always find her way back to us.

But as she told me how she ran away from my birth father, that he was alive when she left him there. I realized she was hiding so much about that day inside of her. She told me that by the time she was reunited with Shepard, she was sure that man had died from his injuries.

I held her close as she begged me not to hate her.

How could I hate her? That man was trying to hurt her again.

I told her how much I loved her and how I could never hate her because she's my world.

Then she begged me not to hate Shepard. That he only did what he did to protect my mom and me. I knew in that second it was Shepard who killed him, not my mom. He killed that man for hurting the woman he loves more than life itself, the woman he can't live without.

I should have been scared, angry, but I wasn't. It should've hurt that I never got to know my birth father, but the way I saw it, I had a lucky escape. My parents did everything in their power to protect me from a violent bully who never loved me.

I had never wanted to meet him. Never missed him because I didn't even know him. He didn't want me when I was a child, never loved me enough to keep in touch. He was violent toward my mother, would have been toward me if she hadn't protected me from him.

Why the hell would I want to meet a man like that?

My point is: my mother is everything to me and disappointing her is not an option.

“You know, I used to wonder if this would happen.”

I turn my head and smile at my mother. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” She parrots back with a smile.

She's helping me unpack my small suitcase of clothes I had Hammer pick up for me. I have clothes here, we all do. We can't always grab things from home before we're forced to come here. But I need a few other things, my favorite PJ's for one. I could do without them, but I like my comfort when I'm vegging out. Mom was amused that I brought Hammer's thing into my room. I'd taken them from his old room and laundered them before putting them away in my room.

We've always had our own rooms here. Well, he used to share with Tank when we were younger, but then Nova came home and she and Tank were given one of the bigger rooms because they wanted to be together with Ember.

There is a hell of a lot of rooms in this huge mansion. The Prez and his wife have the biggest room. Each brother with an old lady gets his own room, those without share, so do the kids.

Prospects have the rooms in the basement. Not that it's cold or damp down there, it's comfortable, like every other room in this house. But the levels of this house are given out in order of ranking within the club.

Hammer shared a room with Cindy for the one and only time she came here, but I don't think him sleeping in there while we're together is a good idea. I don't want his mind to be overtaken with thoughts of Cindy while we're here. I know he wouldn't mean to, but I don't want to take any chances. Plus, the room has been decorated and the furniture changed since she died. But that doesn't mean he won't be thinking about her if he goes in there.

I'm not jealous of him thinking about her. But we're together now. And if we are to make this new relationship really work, I don't want his mind to be on a woman who is no longer here.

I love you, Cindy, and I know you'll understand why I'm saying this.

This has always been my room, but I never shared it with Trace, oddly. Of course, until he became prospect with the club he was never allowed to stay here, he wasn't part of the club, even if he was my boyfriend. As soon as he became a prospect, we slept in a small room down the hall on the level below. Never this room. I don't know why. I guess the only man I ever saw sharing my room was Hammer.

God, I was pathetic.

I like my room here, it's big, comfortable. I have a huge king bed against the wall in the middle of the room. A large dresser opposite that holds some framed pictures of my family and friends, makeup, perfume. The usual things a girl has. I have a floor length oak mirror next to the large window that's covered in cream muslin, a walk-in closet filled with clothes. I also have an en-suite bathroom of white.

My room here is better than my room at home.

“You had a massive crush on Hammer when you were a little girl.”

“Mom,” I grumble.

We had a big talk when I was thirteen about my crush on Hammer. She told me how it wasn't wrong to like him, but that I mustn't let it go to my head. Hammer was twenty-one at the time and it would have been very wrong for me to make it known how I felt.

Not that Hammer would've looked twice at me back then, I was a little girl. But I listened to my mommy and kept my feelings to myself. I even told her a little while later that I was totally over my silly crush. I have never been over it. I will never be over it because it was never just a crush. I have always loved him.

“I always knew you were lying to me, you know?” I groan inwardly. “I'm proud of you, Willow.”

“You are?”

She smiles while stroking my back the way only a mother could. “You have always made me proud, Willow. Since the day you were born, you have continually shown me that you are the best part of me.”

I blink back tears.

I have five siblings, two might be step-siblings, but my mother has never treated them as such, she loves us all the same.

But with me, there is a different kind of bond. She's my mother, my best friend. We can tell each other anything, and we'll always be there for each other.

When I woke up after what happened to me, she was right there by my side, holding my hand and thanking God for not taking me from her. She was with me all through my recovery, nothing was too much for her. It never has been.

“After everything that happened to you, everything you've lost, both of you,” She strokes the back of my head. “You deserve to be happy, baby girl.”

I turn and wrap my arms around her neck. “Thank you, Mommy.”

“I just want you happy and safe, Willow.”

I pull away from her gently with a smile on my face. My mother is a beautiful woman with beautiful green eyes, I'm proud to look like her. Even if my eye color is different and my skin tone a little darker. “I am happy and safe, Mommy. Hammer would never let anything happen to me. He saved my life, Mom. He didn't let go even when I told him to.”

“And I will always love him for that, Willow. I am happy for you, baby girl, I really am.”

I have my mother's blessing and that means everything to me.

“Do you think daddy will be angry about this?”

“He won't be happy, but you leave your fa

ther to me.”

“I love you, Mom.”

“I love you more.”

After my mom leaves, I'm standing in front of the mirror combing my long hair, ready to retie it when big hands encircle my waist, lips touch my temple softly, and I melt back against my man. His warmth envelopes me like a thick blanket in winter.

I can't believe this man is mine. All those years of wishing, watching my best friend become the woman he fell for, then his fianceé. All the pain it caused me, but the happiness also at seeing the two of them so happy and in love.

That was all I ever wanted, for the both of them to be happy, to see Hammer smiling. I wasn't the one making him smile, Cindy was, and I loved her so much for loving him the way she did.