Final Ride: Hellions Motorcycle Club (Hellions Ride Book 9) (10 page)

“Wanna tell me why I hear from my brother that Doll and Tripp gotta ride into town for my daughter?” I ask Amy harshly in our bedroom. She’s sitting with her legs crossed on our bed, her eyes challenge me.

“Well, caveman, Sass called her best friend, feeling like your daughter might need some sort of Hellion princess crash course.”

While the attitude is a turn on, I can’t help finding pride in how far Amy has come. Those first few weeks, she wouldn’t even speak to me. Then we had a time when she only said and did what she thought I wanted to see and hear. Now, after all this time, Amy is a woman of her own making. It’s hot. It’s sexy. It’s also just another reason I am attracted to her and want to see what kind of life we can build together.

“You’re missing my point. While the attitude may make my dick hard, you need to know your place.”

If her glare alone is anything to go by, I just said the wrong words.

“My place, huh? Well, if this is some fall-in-line bullshit, you sir, have the wrong woman. Sass and I took your daughter out to get her essentials, per your request. In the time that we spent together, we tried to explain to your daughter the things you clearly haven’t gotten through to her about how the Hellions are.

“Now, if you wish to handle a teenage girl on your own, then by all means, go for it. I was only trying to help. I get that Roundman has a pulse on everything that occurs with everyone in his club. I understand that, as close as you are, he would call you about Doll coming to visit. While you and your brothers live by your code, let me clue you into girl code, m … kay?”

Shit, I took this wrong. I feel the tension in the air from her. She’s hell-bent on making her point, about to hand me my ass and, oh yes, it’s hot. However, I doubt she would find it a turn on if I cut her off and fucked her right here, right now before she can finish laying shit out for me.

“Shannon may be your blood, but she, like me, didn’t grow up with the Hellions. In fact, I would say Fury was a hell she has yet to come to terms with. Looking out for the best interest of my man, as any good ol’ lady would, I didn’t call you and make your daughter more uncomfortable by ratting her out to her dad in front of her face. Girl code: Think of your fellow female’s emotions before you simply give all the dirt to your man.”

I smile. “Girl code, huh?”

“Really, I don’t care what you call it. I wasn’t about to make your daughter feel like I was going to run to you with every sentence she says. She has been through a lot. Have you thought about her? I know you have. Frisco, her entire life was uprooted by the bang of the first gunshot into her mother’s flesh. She hasn’t had time to wrap her mind around any of this.”

I raise my hands in surrender. “You’re right.”

“I don’t care to be right. I care to make sure that girl in the other room understands she is loved, and that we are here to support her. Have you gotten yourself wrapped around her mother’s death?”

“Amy, don’t go there.”

She throws her hands up in frustration. “You pig-headed, stubborn man. This isn’t some insecurity from me about your past love. Frisco, I know where I stand with you. Hell, I think we both have known for far longer than either of us are ready to admit it.

“How is Shannon supposed to grieve? She’s had no time to say good-bye. There has been no funeral service, no memorial, no moment to treasure the life that once was.” Tears start to stream down her face. “No matter how you feel now, no matter how much she betrayed your club—our club—Tilly is still the mother of your child. She gave that girl life and did the best job she could with her, whether it was right or wrong.”

Shit. She’s more than right. She’s completely on point. In all the chaos, I didn’t stop to think of a service for Jayne, Tilly—whoever she was in her mind. No matter my anger, my frustration, or my hatred, she is—was—still Shannon’s mother. That alone should allow my daughter the closure to her past and ability to move on to her future. I want to punch myself for not thinking about it on my own.

Roundman had her remains transported to a local funeral home here, but she’s simply sitting there with no arrangements made or even discussed.

Walking to the bed, I lean over as her eyes grow wide as she watches me.

“Thank you,” I whisper, leaning down and pressing my lips against hers. “Thank you for keeping me grounded. So much goes on around me—around us—it’s easy to get lost in the tornado of turbulence.”

“There was a time when you kept me grounded in the chaos I had in my mind.” She wraps her arms around my neck, and I climb over her. “I’m happy to return the favor,” she whispers against my lips.

Deepening the kiss, I relish the feelings I have for the woman under me. Always on the road, the rambler, the gypsy, I have never been so tied to anyone or anything in my life. It feels different, but not in a way that scares or confuses me. Rather, it’s in a way that soothes me.

Amy pulls back. “Heads up; you wanna talk about something going on, you talk. Don’t come in our room, accusing me of something like leaving you out. Got it? This is
our
room—you said you wanted me here. You wanna keep me here, then ask me about what happened before you start all the alpha speak, m … kay?”

“Alpha speak?” I ask through a laugh, dropping my head to her neck where I trace my tongue along the spot just behind her ear.

“Those romance novels I love to read, you have alpha speak down, Frisco. But Tripp and Tank may have it a little better. They are younger, ya know,” she teases as I slide her down under me so she can feel my erection between her thighs.

“Younger isn’t always better, baby. You should know that. They may alpha speak better, but darlin’, I believe actions speak louder than words, and I’m about to show you just how much I want you in this room, in this bed … with me.”

“Is that so?”

“It’s so. And then, when I’m done showing your body how much you fit to mine, I’ll make sure I don’t let my Y chromosome fuck with my head in how I talk to you in our room again. Sound good?”

“Sounds excellent,” she says with a smile as she moves her hands under my shirt to quickly rid us both of our clothing.

In the cyclone of chaos around me, in all the confusion as to what comes next, I don’t question this right here. Amy and me, she’s the final stop in my ride to love.

Lay to Rest

“Shannon.” I sit, eating dinner across from her. “Wanna talk to you.”

This feels so foreign. Fatherhood is something men have months of pregnancy to prepare for. The years the child is growing up, parents have time to grow on their own and work on their own skills. I have been thrown into this full-force, and now I have to tackle the hardest obstacle one faces in life: Death.

“Okay,” she says softly.

There hasn’t been a challenge between us, but my gut tells me there is more behind her dark eyes than she lets the world see.

“Made some calls. Your mom’s body was shipped here.”

She drops her fork on her plate with a loud
clank
.

Amy reaches out to squeeze her hand in comfort, only to be rejected.

“Shannon,” I use a warning tone. “Some things must be laid to rest. Your mother’s body has been at the local funeral home for long enough. It’s time.”

“
Time
? Suddenly she makes your radar! You haven’t mentioned my mother in the days and weeks I’ve been in your home.” Tears fill her eyes, but she is determined not to let one fall. “While you shack up happily with your whore, I’ve had to remember my mother alone, my old life alone. I didn’t just lose one parent, ya know. I lost my whole life. You want to sit here with this dinner like we’re some family and talk about laying things to rest? Well, how about we lay to rest the charades?” she lashes out at me unexpectedly.

I itch to shoot something. I wish I could bring Paul Watson back to life, just so I can beat the shit out of him until I kill him with my own bare hands. Yet, not backing down from my daughter’s icy glare, there is a bigger part of me that wants to beat the shit out of myself.

When I walked away from Tilly, I gave her what she needed to be on her way and never looked back. I never once followed up. Even when Roundman offered to check in on her, I declined. I have never been a man to play the “what if” game in life, but right now, I wonder: What if I hadn’t let my loyalty to put the club first cloud my mind? What if, just once, I had checked in on her and found out she had a daughter? Would any of us be where we are today?

“Okay, Shannon, time to sort some things,” Amy begins, keeping her voice calm and controlled. “I’m not your father’s whore. We’re in a relationship. I’m sorry that is hard for you, but it’s reality, just like your mother married and raised you with Watson and Fury MC.”

When Shannon’s glare turns on my woman, my instincts scream at me to yank the teen up from the very chair she sits on and teach her a lesson in respect. However, Amy looks at me and gives the slightest shake of her head to keep me in place.

“You don’t know anything about Fury, so don’t act like you do.”

With the confidence of the world in her features, Amy begins, “This isn’t about Fury. I know you don’t know me well. I also haven’t always been in a place to tell someone a single thing about anything. Confidence is something I’ve been working on. Living with your dad, with the Hellions, I’ve changed. I’ve gotten stronger. I want you to listen to me about what your father is trying to do here.

“Frisco and the club, they are trying to respect your place as a daughter to an original member. This is about you as a daughter getting to have your good-bye with your mother. This is about you having a place to visit her, memorialize her, and work through your emotions.” She sighs. “Honey, this isn’t about the Hellions, even though they put the wheels in motion to give the service to you. It’s not about me. It’s not about your dad. It’s for you to have an opportunity to lay to rest the woman who gave you life; a woman who, maybe was a picture-perfect mom or maybe she wasn’t, but she was a mother to you, nonetheless.

“The quality of your childhood may not have been what it would have been if Frisco and her were together, but she gave you what she could. This is about taking time to honor what was, what is and, baby girl, what will be for you and what she dreamed for you.”

Shannon jerks abruptly from her seat, picking up her glass and throwing the sweet tea in Amy’s face. “Don’t you dare pretend like you know what my mother dreamed for!”

“
Sit down
!” I roar, losing my patience.

Amy’s small hand grips my wrist in a movement of both comfort and a reminder to keep my ass in the seat.

In all this time, I have never seen her strength as clearly as I do now. The fight inside her, the strength to face whatever life throws at her, and the endurance to ride it all out—I see it, I feel it, and I cherish it.

Luckily, my daughter sits, though now glaring at the woman across from her.

“You aren’t a mother, so don’t act like you have a clue what I feel or she felt,” Shannon spits out at Amy.

Amy looks at me, her kind eyes full of the emotions from her past.

I shrug my shoulders, unsure if she’s looking for some sort of permission from me, or simply wondering what to do next.

Barely above a whisper, Amy’s voice cracks with emotion. “I know a mother’s love, Shannon.”

Her words take me back to her past.

Amy has gone through a hell I can’t even put into words. The look on her face tells me that she’s about to lay it all out there for my daughter to hear. This is something she hasn’t even shared with her own family, her own friends. The only reason I know is because I was beside her as she went through the agony of it all.

“Against all odds, against the worst kind of violation,” Amy starts as my pulse quickens, the darkness of my own emotions creeping in again, “I know a mother’s love for her child.” The tears run down her face, mixing with the dark liquid she never bothered to wipe off from Shannon’s outburst. “As we are still learning your past, I will share with you tonight a piece of mine.”

“Amy, please,” I beg softly. “I know what this will do to you.”

She shakes her head at me and smiles softly, fighting her own emotions.

“I wasn’t much older than you when a few bad decisions landed me at the hands of a monster.”

Shannon huffs disrespectfully, “Vic was a monster. I know what he did to my mother, Amy. Don’t make up some story just because you think I will suddenly bond with you.”

“It’s not some made up story!” I snap. “It was a hell you can only imagine, at the hands of a sick son of a bitch,” I growl at my offspring as the anger hits me like it was yesterday.

“Frisco, breathe, honey,” Amy tries to calm me, and then turns her attention back to my daughter. “Shannon, I’m sharing because you said I don’t know what it is to be a mother. To some degree, you are right.”

Shannon smiles proudly like a cat who caught the canary.

“You are also very wrong.”

Her smile fades quickly as Amy locks eyes with her.

“I was taken by a man, Felix Delatorre. This was a power-hungry man looking to take over his father’s business. He also wanted nothing more than to hurt the Hellions MC in a way that would bring them to heel.”

Shannon raises an eyebrow in question; otherwise, she remains stoic in her posture, like Amy has no idea what she is thinking or feeling.

“He wanted to control the club. He not only wanted his father’s business, but he wanted to have power over the Hellions as a whole,” I explain while Amy exhales loudly.

“Felix was a bad man. He was also a cruel man. He did things to me—deplorable things. I was nothing more than a toy he would play roughly with, and then lock back in a dark box.”

When Shannon smirks like a brat, I want to take her over my knee like a father would a child and get her to come to heel as she tramples all over something Amy fought years to overcome.

“What does you being taken have to do with being a mother?”

Eye-to-eye, Amy never backs down from the teen challenging her. “I was raped.” She pauses, and when Shannon’s mouth sits gaping wide open, Amy adds, “Repeatedly.”

Closing her jaw, Shannon sits back silently as Amy tries to keep her own emotions at bay.

“When the Hellions came to the warehouse, they could have killed me. Honestly, in that moment, part of me wanted them to. Only, I had recently realized my body was changing. There wasn’t simply my life to live for anymore.”

“God, no,” Shannon whispers.

“I was pregnant, Shannon.” Amy blows out a breath as the tears continue, and she wipe her face with a napkin. “In all the chaos at the warehouse, I wasn’t completely sure, but I knew something was off inside my body.”

I want to comfort her, but I don’t know how. Everything inside me roars to shut this down. However, the look in my woman’s eyes tells me to let her pursue this, even if it breaks her.

I want to slap Shannon for provoking Amy into feeling like she has to tell her story. It’s her past, her pain, and she’s pouring it out for my child. I can’t help loving her more for it. I may not have found the right time to say it, but I damn sure feel it.

“When Frisco brought me here, the Hellions had me checked out. I was nervous. What if Delatorre or one of his men, who also had multiple opportunities to get at me, had given me something more than the internal scars I’ll never get away from?” Amy blows out a breath and looks up at the ceiling. “The doctor came in and very clinically did the necessary examination. The nurses took my blood. I also had to pee in a cup. It was all very typical.”

Taking her hand in mine, I lace our fingers together, giving her physical support. She already has my emotional.

I remember the day she is sharing like it was yesterday. While Amy was in the small clinic as the only patient, I sat in the waiting room, pacing, knowing the hell the woman had endured already and feeling for her.

“The doctor left the room, allowing me to put my clothing back on. When he returned, there was a pained look on his face. ‘Miss Mitchell,’ he began, and I felt the room close in around me. ‘I don’t know how to tell you this. Mr. Billings gave me a brief rundown of the trauma you have faced. Your vaginal tissues are damaged but healing. I noticed some anal tearing that is also healing. All of it will be uncomfortable, but in time, you will recover. The new tissues look healthy, and I don’t see that you will have any permanent issues. If you begin having trouble at any point in time passing a bowl movement, then we will need you to see a gastroenterologist to make sure you don’t have scar tissue buildup and create a blockage.’

“I could tell there was more he needed to say, but he was trying to deliver some good news before what he presumed to be bad news. I can hear his words like it was yesterday. ‘Miss Mitchell, you are pregnant.’ The single sentence sent my world into a tailspin. I passed out.”

“Amy, you don’t have to give her this,” I try to stop the torture, seeing the agony in her eyes. I just want this to end. Now. “Shannon and I will discuss her mother’s service. You don’t have to explain yourself.”

“Where is your child?” Shannon asks quietly, tears pooling in her eyes.

Amy forces a smile for me before turning back to my daughter. “The doctor gave me options. There was a clinic I could go to and terminate the pregnancy.” She hiccups on her words. “He kept calling my baby an embryo and a fetus. Only, she wasn’t an embryo. She wasn’t simply a fetus. She was a piece of me. She didn’t ask to be created. And I may not have asked for her, and I definitely didn’t have a clue who the other half that made her whole was, but the one thing I did know was she was life.”

“She?” Shannon questions.