Reverence: MC Romance (The Davis Chapter Book 3) (8 page)

Faith squeezed my hand. “I’m not trying to hurt you, but I’m also not bullshitting you, Julie. I’m only trying to be realistic.”

“I don’t know what I would do without him. I really don’t. He came along when I thought I didn’t need anybody, and he made me realize that the opposite was true. I needed somebody like him more than ever before.”

“Look at me.” Faith’s voice was hard. “Look at me, Julie.”

I had to blink away the tears to see her clearly.

 
“You are safe here in Bakersfield. No matter what happens up north, we’ll keep you safe. I know I can’t promise the same for Romero. I can’t promise the same for Raven’s beau, my husband, or even my son, but I can make you that promise. Until we hear otherwise, you are going to stay here with me.”

I knew that Faith was trying to help, but goddamn, that sounded ominous.

I would’ve killed for some music or a TV playing in the background. Anything to shatter the heavy silence. There was nothing to distract me from the ever slowing tick of the clock. Every moment that went by, I tried to imagine what was happening up in Davis.
 

I tried to think of Romero walking away without a scratch. The problem was that it was just as easy to imagine him not walking away at all. It was easy to imagine him suffering a fate worse than Ty or any of the bikers that had died when the Rising Sons fought against a rogue ex-member in Las Vegas.

Ty’s death ate at me, but I’d done everything I could to try and stop the fight. I think in the end, it was his own hubris that got him killed. Was it really worth it to die for a club? The question made my skin crawl, especially considering what was probably happening a few hours north at that very moment.

When would the phone call come? An hour? A day? Longer? Maybe not at all.

Maybe the call would come from my father, telling that Romero and every one of his compatriots was dead. That thought clawed its way deep into the recesses of my mind as I sat on the bed in Faith’s guest room. I checked my phone again and again, watching the battery drain to nothing with no news.

I wanted to stay in the guest room and be alone, but I couldn’t live with myself if someone called when my phone was dead. I could hear Faith working in the kitchen, and I dragged myself in there, phone in hand.

She was kneading dough on the counter, unaware of me for a second before looking up. “Need something, dear?”

I nodded and held up my phone. “You don’t happen to have a charger, do you?”

It was painful to see just how much she looked like my mother. They wore their hair the same way, and neither gave the impression they were an ol’ lady. So familiar, so different. I kept feeling close to Faith and having to pull myself back. Everything was still slow up in the air. Everything was still so dangerous.

She nodded and clapped some flour from her hands. “iPhone? Yeah, I’ve got one over here on the end table.” I followed her until I saw the white cable. “You can take it into the guest room, if you want.”

Sitting alone with my thoughts was no good. I had to be the strong person that Romero and Raven saw. I knew she was in there, I just had to drag her out. I plug the phone in and turned to Faith. “No, I think I could use the company.”

“Now you’re getting it. Even when our men leave, we’re not alone.”

The screen lit up as my phone came back to life. I dropped into a stool across from Faith. She smiled at me and went back to kneading the dough. “Fresh bread for the morning,” she said with an infectious smile.

 
My heart leapt to life when I heard the throaty sound of approaching motorcycle. Dusk has settled over Faith and Bear’s home, and the two of us were lounging in the low deck chairs beside one another. I sat up, my mind racing at the possibilities. Half of them good, half of them tragic.

Faith pulled me back to reality. “I hate to burst your bubble, but it’s Raven. I figured we could have a bit of a girls’ night.”

Of all the things running through my mind, a girls’ night was not one of the things I’d thought of. “How do you stand this? How do you stay so cool?”

Faith let out a chuckle. “Honey, I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve watched Bear ride off. I mean, shit, I watched him get carted off to prison for five years. Now
that
was hard. I sat by his bedside day after day wondering if he would come back out of that coma;
praying
that he would. I don’t know, maybe I’ve just come to grips with things.”

“Like if he didn’t come back, you’d be okay?” I didn’t really get what she was saying. I knew Faith was talking with the wisdom of age and experience, but it was all flying over my head.

“Oh, God, no. I’ll never come to grips with that. I guess after years and years, I’m just very Zen about the whole thing.” She looked over at me, a very complex smile on her face. It wasn’t what I’d call a truly happy smile. “This is my life. This is the only one I’ve got, and I’m going to live it to its fullest. I know damn sure that Bear does the exact same thing.”

The squeak of the gate came from behind me, and I turned to see Raven made her way into the backyard. The shades and Rising Sons cut had been left at home. Despite coming on her Harley, she wore a simple T-shirt and jeans. I could see the very hint of a baby bump, and I wondered just how much longer she’d stay on the bike.
 

Faith didn’t turn around. “Welcome, welcome. Grab a chair and join us for this beautiful evening.”

Raven didn’t seem like the type to admire beautiful sunsets. I’m sure she was still fuming about missing the battle up north. I smiled at her as she dragged another chair into the grass beside me.

“No news yet.” She said it very matter-of-factly like it was nothing terribly important. She could’ve been talking about some new park being built, not life and death. I had to keep reminding myself that they lived this life day in and day out. I had only experienced the life on the fringe.
 

 
I held up my phone. “Silence on my end, too.”

Faith heard the sadness in my voice, “Remember what I said: a man can be at the grocery store or in the middle of a gunfight, he’ll still forget to call.”

“Amen to that.” Raven lowered herself into the chair, letting out a very unfeminine grunt. “It feels like this kid has already shrunk my bladder in half.”

“Placebo effect, trust me. It’ll get worse before it gets better. At least your morning sickness is tolerable. I can’t stand throwing up, and when I was pregnant with Trask, it was like the only thing I did.”

Raven’s eyebrows raised as her voice dripped in sarcasm, “Oh, goody. Absolutely cannot wait for that.”

Faith reached over and slapped my knee. “Just see what you have to look forward to!”

Raven laughed. I didn’t. We hadn’t even had sex, yet, let alone any discussion about children.

Faith’s laugh subsided. She leaned back in her chair again and let out a heavy sigh. “All right, let’s stop scaring the girl and get down to business. This wedding isn’t going to plan itself.”

My eyebrows furrowed. “What wedding?”

“Don’t worry.” Raven laughed. “There’s no shotgun pointed at your back. One of the Davis chapter Sons is getting married in a few months, and Faith has been tasked with event coordination. I don’t know how I got sucked into it, but here I am.”

Faith looked past me to Raven. “You got sucked into it because you’re the only woman I know who has a sense of style
and
is a biker. You don’t find that combination too often, and since I got one upstanding young lady marrying one biker, I need to combine sophistication, class, and chrome.”

Raven shook her head, but I could see that she was happy. “Just don’t expect any miracles from me. You can put a group of monkeys in suits, but that doesn’t mean they won’t still fling their shit.”

Faith raised her glass. “Ain’t that the truth.”

I don’t know if it was all orchestrated to help calm me down or not. It just seemed so out of place that I would be sent all the way down to Bakersfield to help the only female Rising Sons and the matriarch of the Rising Sons plan a wedding. Whatever the reason, it wasn’t long before I fell into it.

It was going to be outdoors in a park on the outskirts of Davis. As the two talked through ideas, it was clear that it would be a biker wedding; equal parts biker and wedding. At the ceremony, there would be a piano player. At the reception just a few minutes later, that piano player would join the rest of his Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute band. I had to stifle laughter more than once.

It wasn’t until much later that I realized I had stopped checking my phone. I had stopped thinking about whether Romero would come back to me. If Faith had been getting to know me over drinks, I’d like to think she approved of me. I like to think that she was doing her part to welcome me into the Rising Sons with open arms.

As we laughed at the ridiculous idea of riding a motorcycle down the aisle, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. At the exact same moment, I heard Raven’s phone beeping out. My smile fell away as I pulled it out. The screen was still on, and I saw the text from my brother.

Gage: Dad’s dead. You need to be here.

“Oh my God.” The phone slipped for my hands and into my lap. “Oh God.” My body went numb. My mind went blank. My heart gave out. The lights faded, and I did nothing to try and hold onto consciousness.

 
When I came to, I was back in the guest room. Raven was sitting on the edge of the bed, and Faith held a cold washcloth on my forehead.

I sat up, pushing away Faith’s hand. “I have to go. I have to get up there!”

Raven turned around. “You’re not going anywhere. Read this and tell me you still need to go up to Davis.” She extended her phone, letting me read the text she got at the same time as mine.

Gunner: DBs all over Davis trying to flush out the girl and Romero. We haven’t engaged.

My mind was pure confusion. I looked back up to her, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. “What does this mean?”

“It means Gage is bluffing. It means that Branchers don’t want to fight until they know you’re safe. Basically, they think we kidnapped you.”

The confusion was replaced with anger. It burned hot and white inside me. “Well, haven’t you? Jesus, you made it seem like I was on vacation, but I’m trapped here, aren’t I? Aren’t I?”