Game Changer (Hell's Saints Motorcycle Club) (7 page)

When the call came in telling him that Raine had just walked into the MC, Prosper had let out a deep sigh. His first go to was complete and selfish joy. Pure unabashed, unashamed happiness. He was going to be seeing his little darlin’ again. He knew that if she remembered after all this time, meant that she had never forgotten. There wasn’t a day that went by that he hadn’t thought about her and Claire.

The second go to was anger, because on his watch, the bad had come around and found her. He wasn’t sure what the bad was, but Prosper knew that Raine had known some hard times and had found her way around them. For her to have come now, well, he wasn’t feeling good about what that meant.

Prosper had kept a close watch on them for a very long time. Years. Last time he knew Raine was in nursing school and Claire had been working at a bank. Things seemed good and he was satisfied. Time had moved on for him and life happened as it does. Thinking the girls were in a good place, Prosper had eased up on those reigns.

Now, after all these years, it was with mixed feelings that he pushed through that door. She had her back to him and that was enough to stop him cold. That long dark silky hair that hung to the small of her back, slim body, long legs. So much like her mom. His Maggie. The love of his life then, twenty years her being gone and still. Still the love of his life.

Maggie’s girls. Raine and her sister was all he had left of her. He honestly thought never to see them again. Now here his little darlin’ stood. Coming to him for help, for counsel, maybe even for a home. It took everything he had to call out her name. He had no idea what to expect when she turned around. Not knowing how he would handle it if he saw Maggie’s face in hers. Not knowing how he would handle it, if worse, he didn’t.

Then she turned slightly to him, her eyes averted. He could see her battered face and it looked bad. Really bad. Dark fury clouded his vision and he looked to his boys to make sure this would be dealt with. First, seeing the beating life had showered on her, then looking past that and seeing his little darlin’.

Just enough of her mother in her to mark her as Maggie’s daughter. She had the high, proud cheek bones, full mouth and the beautiful tawny skin of a Lakota woman. That hair was all Maggie’s. The deep blue eyes that hid nothing and said volumes, those were Jack’s eyes. The long thin nose that was Jack’s too. Prosper saw his old friend in her, she was her father’s daughter for sure.

But the sad barely holding it together for the greater good look, that was all Raine and a look he remembered seeing on her too often. When her mother was dying, when she was following that fool bastard of a father around for days hoping he would notice her. When he found her in that shit hole of a house sitting on the floor trying to untangle her baby sister’s hair when she was no more than a baby herself.

He had never forgotten the look on her face when he and Pinky had taken Claire from the van and had tried to reason with an eight year old Raine. The sadness bleeding out of her. The anguish on her little face. That way she had of her drawing into herself, arms holding tight against her waist and eyes pulled away. It had broken his heart, watching her retreat into a place where he couldn’t find her. He hoped never to see it again. Seeing it now on her made him want to kill.

And once all the facts were in, someone was definitely going to die for this. That was for sure. But for now, he was going to take care of the closet thing he would ever have to a daughter.

Diego couldn’t fucking believe it when she walked into the MC. Could Not Fucking Believe It. He had just spent the day drinking and sexing her off his mind. He had spent the better part of two days clearing that shit up with his club. He was even feeling it enough to put up with Ellie hanging all over him. Yeah, he was golden.

Then the door opened and Raine walked through it.

Last person he ever fucking expected to see in this shithole den of thieves.

Seeing her had hit him so hard in the chest it plummeted him forward. One thought, get to her and get her the fuck out of there. Then she kicks at him, pushes him and walks up to Cage, easily the biggest badass in a room of very big badasses and says some shit about needing to see the guy behind the bar. Who everyone in the room knows is the GO TO GUY.

Then Jules tells
him
to back off. Back the fuck off?? He had to be shitting. Had to be. Then the shit about Prosper and her lighting into him.

Making no sense.

Then making all the sense in the world.

He could definitely see where she got that, the money thing. He had gone to explain it and he got so caught up seeing her beaten up like that, then got caught up in a different way, that the message didn’t get relayed. So she had gotten a different message. And it had scared the shit right out of her. Then she was raging at him.

Raging. At. Him.

Then Raine had started crying.

Diego watched as his brother Jules had made her a drink, and made her smile. He watched as Jules put his hand in her hair and leaned in close.

Really close.

Too fucking close.

Then seeing her with Prosper. Raine not being able to look at him, looking all beautiful and broken. Pulling herself in like that. It moved Diego right off the chair, and if it wasn’t for Jules pulling him back, it would have been him holding her. Not Prosper. It would have been him. Whether she wanted it or not, it would have been him.

The Hell’s Saints compound consisted of a few buildings and a large clearing. There was the main clubhouse where Prosper and I sat talking into the night and half the next day. The room that had been “cleared.” It was a large room that housed a long fully stocked bar, several tables and chairs, a couple of pool tables, and a variety of big worn couches and deep soft seats. To the right of the main area lay a set of heavy wooden double doors that had the Hell’s Saints insignia on them and led to a meeting area.

There were two other long buildings. One was a warehouse, and I wasn’t sure what was in that. The other was a dormitory style building. It was similar in size to the clubhouse but it held a large kitchen with several industrial size appliances. One very long table down the middle and several other small tables and chairs. Off the kitchen were two long hallways built shotgun style with rooms off the main corridor to the left and a back entrance. Those belonged to the brothers and were for their private use. Whatever that meant.

Just to the back of the buildings was a large outside gathering area. There were several picnic tables, Adirondack chairs, grills and a big fire pit. A huge stack of wooden pallets and logs were covered under a tarp not too far from the pit. There was also a concrete slab with some more picnic tables that was covered by an open porch and wired for electricity.

The whole compound was surrounded by woodlands and if it were not for my GPS getting me close to it, I would never have found my way.

Prosper and I had sat talking long into the night and after more than a few cups of hot coffee, that talk continued into the next morning. There was so much to tell, so much to say. Once that door was open, the words came flooding in. He wanted to know everything about Claire and me. Everything I had to say, he was interesting in hearing.

So I shared and watched. I watched taking my lead from the expressions on his face. When his eyes grew soft and his mouth curved into a small smile, I continued. When something I said made his eyes grow dark and hard, I hurried passed that to the next thing. After a while he sensed that, and kept his face open and neutral which made it both harder and easier to share. But I told him everything there was to tell. Letting him in, keeping nothing back. Eventually all that talk brought me to the events of the past week. Claire, Jamie, Gino, the fragile looking blonde that saved my skull from being cracked like an egg, and finally Diego’s part in it all. I saw his eyes go hard at that last part for one instance, but then it was gone.

Prosper also shared with me. But not everything. That wasn’t his way, but the important things, the things that would matter to me, he shared. He talked about the MC and how he had helped it to grow and expand into several thriving businesses. I secretly wondered how many of those businesses were on the books, but of course I didn’t ask.

He talked about how a “break of faith” had taken him outside the MC for a short while. He left then, to get his head cleared and he spoke of the places he had traveled to. Eventually his meandering brought him back to the Hell’s Saints. The place where he had begun and the only family, save mine, that he had ever known.

To my delight he told me that his restless travels had also brought a new understanding of committed love. That understanding came in the form of a small blonde with a big laugh who made the best cookies east of the Mississippi. Pinky. They had stayed together through it all and had gotten married last spring. I was happy for both of them and couldn’t wait to see her.

It was nice and familiar and safe being with Prosper. I had no doubt in my mind that I had done the right thing coming to him. The only doubt I had in my mind is why I hadn’t done it sooner, because sooner may have made all the rest so much easier. But as they say, hindsight is 20/20.

The brothers had given us the time we needed to work it through and the club house had stayed cleared without so much as a knock on the door. Prosper and I walked out arm and arm into a cloudy early afternoon. I was exhausted and I think Prosper was too. Diego, however, looked wide awake and was leaning back against the wall of the warehouse watching the door waiting for us to come out. Then he pulled himself away from the door and walked towards us.

In a straight line. Right towards us.

He totally ignored me and chin nodded Prosper.

“You and me.”

Prosper looked at him and nodded.

“Then me and her.” Diego shot that out like a bullet. I took the
her
to mean
me
but since he was still not looking at me, I couldn’t be sure.

“Respect that you bided your time and gave us that to sort it out. But you going there with Raine, see how it lands with me first brother. I’m feeling it, then it goes to her. I’m not feeling it, it stays.” Prosper’s tone was mild, but his eyes were hard.

“Let’s do this.” Diego started towards the clubhouse, then turned around and looked right at me.

“Don’t wander, babe. This will not take long.” He looked at me long and hard.

Prosper and I had been on our way to the kitchen house for some lunch when Diego put himself in front of that path. Prosper told me to go on and someone would be there to help me find things and get settled. He had a suite of rooms in the house and they were to be at my disposal. He had already had one of the recruits go in there, change the sheets, bring my stuff from the car, and put some shower stuff in the bathroom for me. Prosper really only had the rooms out of old habit. He and Pinky owned a house not far from the compound.

Forget the lunch, I hadn’t showered or slept in two days. If you count the night of worry, make that about three. I was going to take a really long hot shower. Then eat, if I could make it that long without falling dead on my feet.

I wasn’t even thinking about dealing with Diego.

Prosper had that. And I was going to leave them to it.

Prosper and Diego had their sit down. Because Prosper had been dealing with some Saints business a couple of states away for the past month, he had to be brought up to speed with the whole mess. The Hell’s Saints didn’t deal in drugs but had been on the radar of the Los Diablos Rojos MC because of a missing cache of cocaine and heroin. Business and relations between the Saints and the Rojos were shaky at best. The Saints involvement with Jamie came on the money lending part of things. Jamie had his own agenda. He was borrowing money from the Saints, and fronting dope from the Los Rojos with the intent of hijacking both the cash and the drugs.

Essentially, he had intended on building a small fortune then disappearing. In order to clear the way for that, he was playing the MCs against each other. Prosper’s charter bordered the Rojo’s territory so when it all came down, it all became clear. Diego had come down to sort things out. The sort out had gone well and both sides left church that day satisfied. The tenuous alliance the Rojos and Saints shared back on track.

The only thing that had been left to sort out was Claire’s involvement in the dealing and the deception. In order to clear this up there had to be no loose ends or stones left unturned. Serious blood shed could and had been spilled over that much green and that much dope. Jamie had just been beginning and they were not sure how wide his shit had spread. When they found out Claire was just a stupid little piece (yeah, he said it) that got hooked up with the wrong guy, they had decided to let it alone. The MC had no way of knowing that Claire or her sister, Raine, had any ties to Prosper. Nor did they share that.

Diego told Prosper that he solidly, solidly regretted putting Raine in the path of that psycho. He shared with him his intent on dealing with Gino before Raine went to him and how he had pushed MC discussion along to make that happen. He told him about the file and the phone call making sure that Gino was going to pay for the hurt he had put on Raine. He explained how when his wrecking crew had got to Gino’s house, he was gone. The house had been tossed and nothing had been found. Diego had Gunner on the house and so far nothing had turned up, but they would find him and when they did. Well, when they did.

Prosper listened to it all. Intently. Because this was his club he knew most of the story but had needed some of the details filled in. He also wanted to hear what his brother had to say. Diego had Prosper’s respect, and had from the time he was a recruit. He accepted what he said, gave props to him for sorting it all out in the way he did, and in the time he did it in. He asked a few more questions. They shared a beer and then a couple of more.

Prosper liked him. Diego was a solid, clear thinking, tough mother fucker of a man. But that didn’t necessarily mean he wanted him sniffing around his little darlin’.

“So, you and Raine.” Prosper asked casually.

There it was. Diego wasn’t fooled at all by the casual tone of Prosper’s voice. He was going to meet this head on.

“Yeah, me and Raine.” Diego took a long pull on his beer. “But she don’t seem to know that yet.”

Then he put the beer down and looked Prosper in the eye. “You good with that?”

“Not sure Brother.” Prosper replied honestly.

“You know me.” Diego said. “I know you and understanding what she means to you, the respect I have for you, you know I wouldn’t go there and fuck her up.”

“Worry is brother, life has fucked her up. So a man wouldn’t have far to go, all good intentions aside, to cause more pain. Truth is, I would like to see a brother get in there, take care of my girl, keep that shit away from her. Raine needs someone who would lay it down for her. She deserves it. Her mother deserved it. Claire deserves it.” He was looking into his empty glass now. Prosper grabbed the bottle, filled Diego’s glass and then his own.

He drank it and muttered, “Damn Winston women keep picking the wrong fucking men.”

Then he looked at Diego.

“D, looking out for a brother here. Seriously, don’t know if you want to go there. Women like Raine and her mother, beautiful inside and out. So fucking heart breakingly beautiful that they get in there and stay in there. Even when they are not yours, even when they are fighting for their last breath, and even after they have passed from this life to the next. Women like that, so achingly soft and good and so fucking special. You get all of it, you’re the luckiest man on the face of God’s green earth. You get a part of it, you take it and thank the Lord for the small bit you get. Every fucking day. You thank the Lord.”

Diego looked at Prosper and he knew it wasn’t the booze talking. The only woman Diego had ever seen Prosper with was Pinky. They had a good thing. He treated her well and as far as Diego knew, he didn’t fuck around on her. Prosper was getting on in years now, but no doubt he was still a good looking guy. Tall, all lean hard muscle, and although gray now peppered his light brown hair, he still had all of it. The lines on his face made him look like a badass with experience and the chicks really seemed to dig that. But no, Diego never knew Prosper to step out. You just had to take one look at Pinky to know she adored her man.

But listening to him now, Diego came to realize the ties that bound Prosper to Raine went deep. Raine’s mother had evidently been Prosper’s one true love. And as badass and tough and dark as Diego could be, he absolutely positively believed in the whole one true love thing. He knew what having that would mean to a man like Prosper. He knew, long ago, what it had meant to him.

“Raine’s been through some shit.” Prosper was looking at Diego. “Shit that happened in what they call the formative years. Shit that happens when you’re that young, sets a course for the rest of it.”

Prosper was looking right into Diego’s eyes.

“Shit that she keeps buried deep. So deep she has to wrap her arms around herself to keep it in. Because if she don’t, she’s afraid that on the way out it will tear her up so bad inside, that it will kill her. Stuff she keeps down. Stuff she thinks no one knows or can see or can touch but her. She carries that for her and for Claire. She doesn’t share it, she carries it.”

“That’s where you’re wrong Prosper, she gave it to you last night. I saw it. I heard it. She gives it sometime.” And she will give it to me, Diego thought but didn’t say.

“Twice. Twice in a life time of carrying it. She trusted me with her shit twice. Last night, and when she was a tiny little thing of eight years old. She only gave it to me then because she was dog tired and worn out from being left alone to care for her baby sister for two fucking days just one month after her mother had died. That’s what it took then. Her sister in danger of being killed and a beating that left her face battered is what it took this time. I cannot even begin to imagine what she has dealt with on her own for the last twenty years if this is what it took.”

Diego was getting it.

Prosper looked at him, pulled his hand through his hair and slapped his hand hard on Diego’s shoulder. He gave him a little grin.

“Brother, you just don’t know. She will complicate your life. You’ll have to fight to get in, and sometimes it will take everything you got just to hang in there. These women define complicated. But once you’re in, there’s nothing sweeter in life than a woman like my Maggie was. Guy who gets a shot at her daughter, guy willing to go the distance. Guy like that, tough road ahead, paradise at the end of it. Eternal fucking paradise. But the getting there, the shit you don’t know. You might want to think about it. Loving and being loved by a complicated woman like that’s hard work brother.”

“You see any part of me that spells weak, Boss?”

Prosper grinned.

“You got a story to tell me, I got a story to hear.” Diego was ready. He wasn’t smiling.

Prosper looked at him for a long minute, his face serious. Then began.

“Once upon a fucking time…..”