Fractured & Formidable: The Sacred Hearts MC Book V (8 page)

“I don’t have a child, Autumn isn’t mine,” I blinked,
stupidly.

My mother gasped horrified and cried out, “Jim!”

“Baby, Red, get your things sweetheart, we’re leaving,”
Zander’s voice was quiet. So serious, the most serious I’d ever heard him as my
father and I both stared one another down. I looked at my mom.

“Mom?” my voice sounded both wounded and unsure. She stared
back at me a mix of pity and horror on her lovely face.

“Mandy, Baby, come on. Get in your car, we’re leaving,”
Zander insisted sharply. Tears coursed down my mother’s face.

“Come with me,” I said but she shook her head.

“I can’t.”

I gave a frustrated sigh, made an inarticulate cry of rage
and scooped up my belongings off the grass. I let Zander lead me to my car, my
parents looking on. He unlocked and opened the door for me and I got in.

“Drive to the club,” he ordered. I shook my head.

“I’m going home.”

“Please. Red, for me, go to the club. I’ll be right behind
you.”

I looked up into his eyes which were beseeching and nodded.
Everett was at the club and I really wanted to see my soul sister. Zander
leaned down and pressed his lips to mine in a quick chaste kiss and shut the
door. I started the car. My father stood where we’d left him, hands balled into
fists at his sides. My mother hugging herself, standing just behind him,
watching me pull away. Eyes wide, makeup smeared by her tears.

I didn’t stop, but drove away, leaving Zander on the walk
between me and them. A living shield. I glanced at my own completely dry face
in the rearview and couldn’t bring myself to even feel sorry for my dad, even
knowing what Zander might do. I was surprised to see him say something to my
parents, his breath fogging the air, and then turn, The Sacred Hearts emblem
larger than life on his back as he trudged up the sidewalk and back to his car.

Just as he’d promised. He was right behind me.

Zander…

“You better listen and you better listen good! I swear to
fucking Christ, you hurt either of these women again, I’m going to end you old
man! You get me? You see if I’m fucking lyin’!” I told him just after Red
pulled away. She was fucking outstanding! Didn’t shed a single tear. Tough as
nails and I would so be making her mine.

“Just who the Hell do you think you are!?” her father
demanded. I spit on the ground in his direction.

“I’m the guy that’s gonna marry your daughter,” I said with
a shit eating grin and flipped him the double bird before addressing her
mother.

“He touches you, you call Mandy!” I told her and she nodded
dumbly, eyes wide and frightened.

“I mean it!” her head bobbed more rapidly.

I strode up to my Chevelle and left twin strips of rubber
peeling out in front of their house. I wanted Pastor Dickwad to remember me for
a while, having a reminder painted in front of his driveway every time he
stepped out to go somewhere and every time he came home was as good as any
place to leave it, even if what I wanted to do was leave it on his face for him
to look at every time he looked in a fucking mirror. Tire tracks would last
longer than the bruising but were a lot less satisfying to me.
Fucking
self-righteous prick!

I’d trailed Mandy since that morning. Content to spend
Thanksgiving with her whether she knew it or not. Stalker status much? Yeah.
But also necessary according to my Pres. All the women attached to the club,
and by women what I really meant was Ol’ Ladies, had a twenty-four hour detail
which really wasn’t saying much considering they were with their men most of
the time. I’d straight up assigned myself to Red, when she wasn’t at her shop
under guard with Everett anyways. She wasn’t an Ol’ Lady, wasn’t
technically
a part of the club, but Dray had made things clear as day to me and given me
the go ahead to watch her when she wasn’t with Ev or at home, absolving me of
any assignments elsewhere so I could do it. Thank God he knew what was what.
The girls didn’t. We were keeping all of this on the down low with them.

I followed Red through streets that were almost eerily
deserted because of the holiday until she just pulled over, out of nowhere into
an empty grocery store parking lot. I pulled up next to her expecting to see
her in some kind of full meltdown. It surprised me when I jumped out of the car
to see she was parked, both hands on the wheel, chest rising and falling with
deep even breaths as she kept her composure. Damn. Not a single tear. Most girls
would be a mess after something like that. I tried her door handle. Locked. She
hit the switch and I opened her door.

“ ‘sup Baby?” I asked her.

She looked up at me, her face unreadable and set in stone, “I
don’t know if I want to go to the club, I don’t know if I want to be around all
of those people. I don’t want to have to explain…”

I fell into a crouch by her open driver’s side door, “Shh,
don’t you worry about that Sugar. You just let me do all the talking. Okay?”
she locked eyes with me.

“Why were you there?” she asked.

“Didn’t want to spend Thanksgiving without you,” I said
softly which was the truth; just not all of it. She searched my face.

“So you parked outside my parent’s house and waited like
some kind of creeper?” she asked. I smiled.

“Actually, I was waiting for you to leave. I brought you
flowers, was planning on being some big sappy romantic dope and everything.” Her
eyebrows went up.

“You’re not serious!?” she said. I stood up and opened the
passenger door to my car. There, wrapped in white butcher paper was a bouquet
of these fierce trumpet shaped flowers in a riot of fiery oranges that reminded
me of her curls, nestled between them little white bell shaped flowers… I
picked up the flowers and brought them over to her. She sat stunned and I
smiled to myself.

“Lilly of the Valley,” she murmured, smelling the little
white blooms. “I don’t understand… lilies aren’t even in season! It’s too
cold.” She looked up at me and seemed so lost.

“Nothing I wouldn’t do for you, Sugar. Found a greenhouse
that forces ‘em, dropped a decent bit of cash but it was worth it with the way
you’re lookin’ at me right now.” She unhooked her seatbelt, got out of the car
and wrapped her arms around me.
Then
the waterworks started. All that
fucking bullshit, her dad backhands her a good one and she fuckin’ cries over
some God damned flowers. I held her close and breathed her in.

“Why would you go through all this trouble!?” she sobbed.

“Because you’re worth it Red,” and wasn’t that the God’s
honest truth?

“That and I feel like an ass for not getting in touch the
first part of this week. I got wrapped up with Trig dealing with the shop and
helping Ghost do some heavy lifting. I wanted to show you I wasn’t disappearing
again.” She settled down and wiped a few stray tears and I got her to agree to
come to the club through a little bit of fast talking. She got back in her car
with her flowers and spent a couple minutes fixing her subtle makeup with some
shit from her purse before pulling back out onto the route to the club.

The gate was closed when we got there but one of the new
prospects opened her up for us. I’d never seen the lot so full and I was glad
that the whole damned holiday didn’t go to waste. Red got out of her car with
her purse over one shoulder, flowers grasped in her hand like they were some
kind of treasure. Some of the guys were out back popping off rounds, no
mistaking that sound. I opened the clubhouse door for her and she went into the
common room to several cheers.

“Hey hey! Look who it is!” Dragon cried. He got up from his
place at the table and came up to crush Red into one of his bear hug deals. She
squeaked as he lifted her clear off the floor and set her down.

“Mandy!” Everett called surprised from the doorway, the
girls were all coming out with their empty pie plates from somewhere in the
back.

“Yeah, waited outside Red’s parent’s place ‘til they all got
done with dinner, had to make sure she saw all her family on the holiday,” I
stretched and shot her a wink and she gave me a grateful look. I got the
impression she didn’t like to lie and I was more than cool with that, and for
lying for her in this particular application.

“Pretty flowers!” Chandra exclaimed and Mandy beamed at her
and nodded.

“I need to put them in some water.”

Dray came in from the back and grinned, “Hey you!” he winked
at her and she blushed harder. Everett steered her in the direction of the
kitchen saying something about water and finding a vase but her steely gaze was
fixed on Red’s lip. Good. Hopefully she would get some ice on it. It wasn’t
swelling or bruising, which was good but it did have a small but healthy split
in it. Enough to make a visible line to know
something
went down. I
nodded to her and she went with Ev. Dray came over and raised his eyebrows.
Dragon looked me over, considering, at his son’s look.

“She come tearin’ out of the house like her ass was on fire.
Her old man grabbed her and is shakin’ her up some but she was givin’ as good
as she got. I think she had enough or somethin’, anyways he backhands her and I
intervened. Didn’t touch him, couldn’t do that with a fight comin’ up. Gotta
stay clean.” I put up my hands. Dray and Dragon exchanged a look.

The thing about illegal fights is that you can’t go popping
off on Joe citizen. That gets you the kind of attention that the underground
circuit likes to stay far the fuck away from. If I got arrested, they’d pull my
card from the running and truth be told, I needed the fucking cash now that I
had no legal means to earn. That meant staying out of trouble so I could get
in
to trouble. Bass aackwards right?

“Trust me. I want to take care of it. I want to take care of
it
bad
but between Red and the fights, I got every reason to be a pious
little angel.” I gave my Pres. and VP a feral grin and received twins of the
same from father and son.

“Naw, I get you,” Dragon said and patted then gripped my
shoulder.

“Reaver?” Dray asked.

“Naw! Reaver’s a bit much for this don’t you think?” Dragon
asked and Dray lifted his shoulders in a blasé shrug.

“Not from where I’m standing,” I said dispassionately,
Dragon barked a laugh.

“Yer a cold blooded motherfucker after what you saw him do,”
he commented dryly. I gave my president blank face. He nodded.

“I know you got a thing for the fire… hair,” he changed what
he was about to say at the last second at my baleful look and Dray looked
impressed.

“You trust us to get it handled? We won’t do you wrong
brother.” Dragon shook me back and forth by the shoulder and I nodded.

“Thanks for having my back.”

“Our pleasure,” Dray said. “I been living with her for the
last, almost year. So seriously, I’d do it myself but yeah…” He looked over his
shoulder and made some thoughtful nonsensical noises as he scanned the room.

“Duracell!” he called.

“Yeah VP?”

“You gingers like to stick together yeah?” Dray asked.
Duracell frowned from where he was sitting.

“The fuck you talking about!?” he asked and Dray gave a
wolfish grin and went over. Dragon chuckled I shook my head.

“Thanks man,” I held out my hand and he clapped his into it.
We clasped hands and shook on it.

“Happy Thanksgiving brother,” was all he said. We let go and
I went off in the direction of the kitchen. I leaned a shoulder just inside the
doorway and buried my hands in my shorts pockets.

Red and the rest of the girls were around the center kitchen
island. Everett was fixing her, and it looked like maybe even me, a plate. Hot
damn! Someone had found Red a tall cylindrical, thick glass vase and she had
the flowers out on their wrapping and unbound. She was clipping the ends with
some hand held garden sheers, the fuck if I knew where those came from, and was
artfully arranging both lilies and greenery as she talked with the girls.

“Where in the hell did you find lilies this time of year!?”
Chandra asked me, lighting the cig she had pressed between her lips.

“I told you, I’d have to kill you,” I said. She snorted and
smoke came out her nose.

“Classy,” I commented dryly. She flipped me off and I
grinned, pushing off from the wall. I took a seat on one of the stools the
girls had brought in from the bar as the microwave went off. Everett slid a
steaming hot plate of food in front of me.

“Thanks Irish,” she smiled and handed me silverware and a
napkin. “Ashton cook this?” I asked with my mouthful.

“Yes, you barbarian,” Sunshine said from the sink and I
blinked. I had the flowers between me and her and she was so damned small I
completely missed that she was in here!

Just to irritate her I talked with my mouth full again, “You
think I’m gonna stop eating your cooking just so’s I can talk!? Pffft!” a meaty
smack landed on the back of my head, the blow cushioned a bit by my favorite
Bucaneer’s hat.

“You got a bunch a Ladies in front of you asshole,” I
grinned unrepentant up at Trig.

“Whoa! Those are nice!” he exclaimed for Mandy’s benefit.
She smiled and it was the sweetest thing… I didn’t think I would need desert
after that, but fuck that if it was Ashton-made pie.

“Ash, you make the pie?” I asked.

She shook her head, “Mandy made them all for us,” I looked
over at my girl who was suddenly very focused on her flowers. She made enough
pie to feed the entire MC and everyone attached to it knowing she wasn’t even gonna
be here. I smiled. I loved her for that.

She finished putting all of her flowers in their water and
slid up onto a stool next to me to eat. She gave a little secret smile at her
flowers while she chewed thoughtfully and I wondered what was chasing around in
her brain under all those fiery red curls. Whatever it was, it looked to be
good. I was a lefty and she was a righty and unfortunately we were sitting on
the wrong sides of each other for it to benefit us which was both a blessing
and a curse. Blessing because the dudes wouldn’t be able to call me a pussy but
a curse because I really just wanted to hold her fucking hand where it rested
idly on the countertop by her plate.

The crowds in the kitchen and the common room were thinning
out as dudes hauled their Ol’ Ladies off to fuck and other dudes hauled
themselves off to just plain take a nap. Red covered her mouth politely to yawn
herself. She’d had a rough day so I was pretty sure it wasn’t the Turkey
kicking in. She stood and cleared our plates and I stood too.

“C’mon Red,” I said and held out my hand.

“What should I do with..?” she indicated her flowers. I
smiled.

“They’re fine where they’re at,”

She took my hand, and slung her purse over her shoulder and
I led her quietly through the back to my room. She went inside first and I shut
the door behind us. She set her purse on the black leather recliner I had in
the corner. That was pretty much it in here. Recliner in the corner with a lamp
behind it. Queen sized bed with drawers in the base for some spare clothes and
a bedside table. I had a couple of framed drawings up on the walls. Mostly
scenes I’d imagined from some books I had read. Cool shit.

Mandy looked at them, her eyes roving the one above the head
of the bed. It was a scene out of Dante’s Divine Comedy, complete with the
canto in its original Italian. Her eyes roamed the image for long moments.

“Is this in Latin?” she asked.

“Italian.”

“You know Italian?” she asked surprised and I smiled.

“No. I know what it says though,” I couldn’t stop smiling.

“What does it say?” she asked, the question of course,
inevitable.

“Says ‘Do, in me, preserve your generosity, so that my soul,
which you have healed, when it is set loose from my body, be a soul that you
will welcome.’ It’s from the thirty-first canto in Paradiso.” Mandy turned back
to the drawing of a ravaged Dante in his Beatrice’s lap as she lovingly bound
one of his wounds. I studied her face as she studied my drawing.