All the Sky (29 page)

“Dad. I want to talk to you. Then you can go. Then I want you to go. Mom, Hav. Would you wait outside?”

“You sure about that, kid?” Havoc moved toward the bed. Cory could feel his protective distrust still emanating from him in waves. It made her chest cramp with love for him.

“Yeah, Hav. This is private. I’m okay.”

Cory took Havoc’s hand, pulling him toward the door. She stopped where Matt was still standing there, like a mannequin or something, and put her hand on his chest. “Don’t be an ass, Matt. You owe him straight answers. And do what he wants. Do right by him for once.”

Her ex-husband, her first, longest love, nodded. Then he grabbed Cory’s hand from his chest and held it, even as Havoc held her other hand. “I know I fucked everything up. I fucked you and Nolan up so much. I know. I don’t know how to make it right. I love you, but I don’t know how to be the man you need.”

“You’re not that man. That’s the problem. And you don’t love us. After all these years away, you don’t get to say that. You’re too much of a coward to love anybody but yourself.” She wrenched her hand free from his and took Havoc out of the room.

They waited in the hall. Cory sat, but Havoc was too agitated. Instead, he paced. After a few minutes, he stopped in front of Cory’s seat. “Aren’t you going fuckin’ nuts? What are they talkin’ about in there? What if he’s saying shit to the kid? Fuck, I need to make that asshole bleed.”

“Hav, you need to calm down. You’re not going to hurt him, not for what he’s done so far. Trust Nolan.” She did. She had a feeling she knew what was happening in there—maybe not the words that were being exchanged, but the import behind them. She thought Nolan was getting closure. Saying goodbye to his father.

Because that father had been replaced.

It was no more than ten minutes before Matt came out of the room. He looked shaken and sad. Havoc blocked his path to Cory in a pointedly aggressive, animal-kingdom kind of gesture, but Cory stood and pulled him off.

“Thanks for talking to him.”

Matt smiled a little, sheepishly. “Yeah. He’s not the kid I remember.”

She could have pointed out that Nolan had aged years since he’d last seen his father, so of course he was different, but she forbore. “No, he’s not.”

“I’m sorry about all this. Lindsay called me and gave me this big sob story about”—he cast his eyes sidewise in Havoc’s direction—“you guys being in danger, and then Alex…” Matt cleared his throat awkwardly. “I been having some money trouble, and Alex…”

Cory understood, like a spotlight going off in her head. “Jesus. Alex
paid
you to come here?”

Matt’s only answer was to look down at his Nikes. There was so much to be outraged about—that Lindsay and Alex would interfere in such a way, that Matt would take money in such a way,
that he would need to be bribed to see his own son in the hospital
—that Cory, overwhelmed, set aside outrage in favor of weariness. She sighed. “He told you to go, right? To stay away?”

Matt nodded.

“Do. We’re done. Lose our numbers.”

He nodded again. Then he looked up. “Do you know where Linz and Alex went? They’re my ride.”

Cory reached out and took Havoc’s hand. “I could not care less.”

She turned to Nolan’s closed door, trying to lead Havoc. But he stepped in front of Matt again and locked in place. “Staying away is your only choice, dude. You show up again uninvited, and I will handle the problem.”

Then he pulled Cory close and, his arm around her shoulders, led her back to Nolan, leaving Matt standing alone in the hallway.

~oOo~

In bed that night, Havoc wrapped her in his arms against his chest and asked her about her family. There wasn’t much to tell; he’d seen all the family she’d still had any real contact with today, and he’d seen all he needed to understand the dynamics of that relationship.

“What about your folks?”

Cory resettled herself on his firm chest so she could see his face. He combed his fingers through her hair. “Mom died when I was in high school. Linz was in middle school. Our dad’s a drunk. Linz sees him every now and then—I think they give him money. I’ve stayed away as much as I could since high school. We don’t talk at all. Nolan’s only seen him once, and he was too young to remember.”

“Why?”

She shrugged, not wanting to get into it, but not wanting to hold anything back, either. She needed to be open with Havoc, because she needed Havoc to be open with her. Cory had found the courage she needed to ask the questions that lingered.

“Like I said, he’s a drunk. A chaotic drunk, who starts the day with Irish coffee and works his way through the day to a six-pack of Coors, which he calls ‘a little something light before bed.’ He’s on disability—he worked road construction, and he was hurt on the job, and I guess the booze started as self-medication. But he’s been on disability since Linz was in diapers, so we’ve only known him like this. Anyway, he and I had an incident right after my mom died, and since then I just don’t have much use for him.” She kissed his chest. “So that’s my family. Charming, all of them.”

He lifted her chin with his hand. “What do you mean, you had an incident?”

She was quiet, remembering the night a few weeks after her mother’s death, when her father had come into her room, stinking of booze and puke and rambling about how lonely he was, how sad, how much she favored her mother, who’d been the most beautiful women he’d ever known, and how much he needed—she didn’t want to tell Havoc all of that, because she knew how he’d react, and it had happened years ago. She’d held her father off; nothing had happened but his fetid mouth on hers, and he’d never tried anything like it again. She wasn’t even sure he was aware it had happened. But it had killed the last dregs of love she’d had for him.

“Nothing. Long past. Dead history.”

Havoc stared hard at her, and she thought he was going to insist. She tried to figure out what she’d say then to move the conversation along, but instead of pressing her for more, he nodded. “Okay.”

“Now it’s my turn, Hav. I need you to tell me about the Horde. I don’t think I know it as well as I thought. I need to. I need to understand.”

He went still, his hand freezing in her hair. “You can’t ask me about club business. That’s outside of us.”

“I’m not asking for details about your business. Except Valhalla, I don’t need to know. But I do need to know if that business could get Nolan hurt. There’s a chance, I know that. The way you all reacted to what happened to him—there was a chance somebody did that to him to hurt you. There’s still a chance, I guess.”

“We will find who hurt him. We will.”

But that was a question—what did that mean? “Okay, let’s start there. Say you do. Then what?”

He shook his head, his eyes intent on hers. “No, Cory. You trust me. We handle it. That’s all you need to know. You have to trust me.”

“But you would hurt the person who hurt Nolan.”

“We make sure what’s owed gets paid.” He took a deep breath and let it out, not so much a sigh as a blow. Then he shifted, sitting up tall against the headboard, and pushed her away.

“Look. I’m not gonna bring you into club business. I’m not. It’s no place for you. But I’ll tell you this, because you need to know what my life is. The Horde is the law in Signal Bend. We set the terms. Even outside of town, we don’t run things the way most people do. So, yeah. We’re on the wrong side of the law sometimes. Valhalla, though—that’s straight legit. Wouldn’t bring you into anything that wasn’t. You’ve got no exposure there, so don’t worry. But sometimes we have enemies. Sometimes things get violent. But honey, I mean this true: I will protect you and Nolan with my life. Every patch in that clubhouse will do the same. You are mine, so you are theirs, too. They all have your back. Every one of them. You saw that, too, when Nolan was missing.”

He picked up her hand. “I’m not gonna tell you that there’s no risk to being with me. Things have been chill for a long time, but I think that could change soon. And then it could get dangerous for the Horde. I’m sure you’ve heard what happened to Lilli and to Show’s oldest girl. You saw that stupid fucking movie. Or maybe I don’t come home from a run someday. Or maybe one of my brothers doesn’t. But, honey, when I told you that I wasn’t gonna let you go without a fight, I meant it. It’s too late. What I feel—I can’t lose this. I can’t go back to what I was. So don’t you turn tail on me. Trust me to love you and keep you safe. Trust me.”

But it wasn’t just her, on her own. The choices she made affected her child. “I see Nolan on the same road. I know you see it, too. He’s so young. It scares me.”

“Yeah, I see it. I think you need to trust him, too. And I got his back. I’m keepin’ an eye out. You know that.”

“I know you are. I know.” She dropped her head to his chest, and he put his hands in her hair. “It’s too late for me, too. And for Nolan, I think.”

“So you trust me?”

“Yes.”

“You love me?”

“Yes.”

“You with me?”

“Yes.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“I can’t believe you. You went to all this trouble?” Sophie put her arms around Havoc’s waist and squeezed him hard. “You’re amazing. He’s going to find out, though.”

“So what? Didn’t do this to fuck with him. Did it for you. If he’s pissed, though, fuck him.” He kissed her head.

Len was backing his truck and horse trailer down the drive to his stable. Inside the trailer were Mabel and Spirit, Havoc’s Christmas present to his baby sister.

It hadn’t been that difficult to get the horses from their old man. Len had seen him at the feed store and struck up a conversation. By the time Havoc’s father had placed his order, he and Len had come to terms on the horses—Len had even got a better deal than Havoc had told him he’d pay—and they’d shook on the deal.

And now Sophie had her mare and her colt. And a place to keep them that was away from their crippling childhood home. Havoc could think of few better ways to spend some money. It wasn’t yet quite Christmas, but he’d managed to surprise her, picking her up for lunch in the club van and then bringing her to Len’s while she bitched about how bossy he was, making her run errands with him.

When Len stopped and got out, they all worked together to get the horses into a foaling stall. Both horses were agitated, but they calmed once they were alone in the stall. Spirit sought to nurse immediately. No great rush to wean him now, though.

They stood in a row outside the stall wall and watched. Then Sophie threw her arms around Len’s waist and held tight. “Thank you so much, Len! This is…this is amazing.”

Len hugged her back. “I was only the messenger, doll. Your brother’s the hero here.”

“You’re
both
my heroes. God, I love you so much! This is the best Christmas ever! I got that interview, and I got my babies, and I just
love
you!”

First Havoc had heard of an interview. “What interview?”

She let go of Len and turned to Havoc—who noticed that Len was a little slow in letting go of his baby sister. “I got a call yesterday. There might be a job for me in Springfield, starting January. It’s a private tutor for a family instead of a school, but it’s teaching, and the money is great. I’m going tomorrow for the interview.”

“Private tutor? Is that normal?” Sounded strange to him.

“It’s not that unusual. It’s basically homeschooling for people who can afford a teacher. This guy’s a banker or something, I guess. Anyway, I could stay in Signal Bend, near my babies”—she looked over the wall at Mabel and Spirit—“but get a place of my own. And actually be a teacher.”

“Still sounds off. I’ll come with you.”

Her back up all of a sudden, Soph put her hands on her hips. “No, you won’t. Don’t be an asshole, Joe. It’s not off, and you saying it is makes it sound like you don’t think I could get a teaching job. You’re flying high today, giving me these guys, doing all this for me. Don’t ruin that. Please.”

He didn’t know much about teaching jobs, but he knew what homeschooling was, and that it was a thing. Still, he felt an urge for caution. “Sophie, I don’t know.”

“It’s a good thing. Maybe I won’t get it, but I have a little hope today. Let me have it, okay?”

She was looking up at him, and he saw how much she needed it. He had no basis for being cautious, really, and it was only Springfield. An hour away, tops. Practically the back yard, as they measured distance out here. “Okay, Shorts. Okay. Good luck, then. Show ‘em how awesome you are.”

~oOo~

The next afternoon, Havoc came into the clubhouse hot. Show had called him. They had the guy who’d hit Nolan. Three weeks after the fact, they had the guy.

Mac fucking Evans, real estate snake oil specialist. Who’d been doing his thing around town for these three weeks, like nothing. No one had thought anything of him riding around in his Corvette instead of his big Dodge truck, even though he never drove that ‘Vette in winter. No one remarked on it until he’d come through town with a Christmas tree tied to the roof of that sportster he babied like it was an actual child.

Then people started to wonder where his truck was. So the Horde went looking.

In his garage, a headlight shattered and the grille smashed in. Nolan’s blood splattered over the hood.

Havoc had seen the truck. Now he needed to see the man.

Len had been with him when he saw the truck, still sitting in Evans’ garage. Now Len followed him silently into the clubhouse, having given up his admonitions to keep cool. Isaac and Show were standing between him and the hallway that led to the Room. Isaac put his hands out, and Havoc stopped, but only just.

“He back there?”

“You know he is. Double A’s got him covered. We’re talkin’ first. So sit.”

“He’s dying. I’m gonna run him down with his own motherfuckin’ truck.” Havoc tried to push past Isaac, but the bigger man laid his hands on his shoulders and held him where he was.

“No. We’re gonna talk. Evans is someone who’d be missed outside of town. So we’re gonna talk. Decide what’s owed. You sit, and we all talk.”