Hard Charger: Jake & Sophia: A Hot Contemporary Romance
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Authors: Tracy Fobes
Rebel Guardians Motorcycle Club
Hard Charger
Jake & Sophia
A Contemporary Romance
Tracy Fobes
Rebel Guardians Motorcycle Club
Hard Charger
Jake & Sophia
A Contemporary Romance
Copyright April 2015 © Tracy Fobes
Ebook Edition
www.tracyfobes.com
All rights reserved. This work may not be copied, redistributed or stored in a digital database, with the exception of short quotes and passages for the purpose of review or analysis.
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental. Organizations, places and events in this book are either fictitious or used fictitiously.
Rockport Grove, NJ
Table of Contents
Rockport Grove, New Jersey, 1990
The moon rose high and full in a starry sky that night. It had a pinkish cast that some people called a harvest moon, and others thought of as a blood moon. They say that nothing good can come from a moon like that—it drives people to madness, crime, suicide, and major crisis. On this night, it threw enough light onto the Gallent family front yard for Jake to see every detail of the worst—and last—fight his parents would ever have.
Just as the ocean responded to the moon’s pull, each wave creeping farther up the shoreline than it ever had before and ripping the dune grass from its tentative moorings, Jake’s father also rolled into new territory when he rode his motorcycle up the driveway of the family home that evening. Laurie Gallent had been wearing a hole in the rug pacing back and forth in front of the bay window. She’d been waiting for Kurt and, now that he’d finally shown up, she let out all of the steam that had been building up inside of her in one giant explosion.
“Goddamnit, Kurt, where the hell have you been?”
Jake dropped the controller he’d been using to play Super Mario Bros. on his Nintendo and ran to the window. His mom, he saw, stood on the porch with her hands on her hips.
He turned to look toward the driveway, his gaze sweeping across a crabgrassy lawn and cracked cement walkway. His father had just dismounted from his Harley, a shiny silver and brown motorcycle he’d bought a month back, and was walking toward the porch. The porch light seemed to shine upon the motorcycle like a benediction.
“Shut the fuck up, Laurie,” Kurt said as he started across the lawn. “I’m not ready for this. I don’t want to fight. I just want a goddamn beer, all right?”
“That’s too bad, Kurt,” she jeered, “because tonight, you don’t get a beer, and you don’t get to go hide in the living room with the television.”
Kurt scowled. “You good for anything but whining?”
Jake thought he heard his dad’s voice slurring. He was drunk. All of a sudden, he saw that he’d left the bike his parents had given him for Christmas laying in the grass. He felt a chill gather in the pit of his stomach.
Please oh please God make sure my dad doesn’t see that bike...
Seconds later, his father came across it too, and gave the tire a kick. “Can’t that damn kid pick up his toys? Where is he?”
Jake winced. He silently said goodbye to his Nintendo.
“Never mind Jake and his toys,” Laurie said. She stood square in her husband’s path, blocking his way into the house. “What about your toys? That’s all you care about—your goddamn club and your goddamn motorcycle. Look at this place, Kurt. It’s falling apart. But not your Harley. It’s all gold and shiny like a wedding ring. Why don’t you marry the thing?”
“I can’t marry
it
. I’m married to
you
,” Kurt sneered, as he reached the porch. “Get the fuck out of my way.”
“No.” Laurie stood her ground. “I’m not moving until you tell me you’re going to be the father and husband you promised to be.”
Jake could see that neither of his parents were going to budge an inch. He tensed.
Kurt clenched his hands into fists. “I’m so sick of your bitching.”
“And I’m sick of living in this dump.” She jabbed her finger angrily toward the wall, which Jake noticed was covered with peeling white paint. “I want to fix it up but all we got are bills. We don’t have money for anything.
None.
It all goes to your motorcycle.”
“I don’t owe you explanations for how I spend my own goddamn money.”
Jake saw his neighbor’s outside lights flick on and knew a moment of deep shame, that everyone who lived around them now knew the details of their troubles. He also figured he’d never heard quite so many
goddamns
in the space of one minute as he had on this night.
Laurie clenched her fists. “Why don’t you take a second to think about your son, then? Jake needs his dad, for Christ’s sake. But you’re never around. Always riding out somewhere, doing some job for some fucking ‘club brother’ who doesn’t give a shit about us.”
“For every job I do, someone does something for us,” Kurt replied, his voice lower. “You know that. That’s how it works.”
“What the hell have they ever done for us?” Laurie hissed. “Look around, will you?”
A long pause ensued. Jake saw that his parents were staring at each other. Assessing each other for weaknesses, maybe. Kurt looked away first, and Jake figured his dad knew on some level that his mom was right.
Laurie smiled, but Jake didn’t see any humor in it. “I don’t want
their
help. You gotta get a normal job and start being a real father, for Jake’s sake.”
“Watch your mouth, woman. I’ve had just about enough of it.”
Jake heard the warning tone in his dad’s voice and knew it should stop there. He didn’t particularly like his father, but he did respect his anger, and he had a good sense of just how far you could push Kurt Gallent.
His mother, however, had no common sense.
“You’ve had enough of
my
mouth?” Laurie’s voice was rising higher with each word. “What about that slut across town? You tired of her mouth?”
Kurt drew in a sharp breath, then muttered a slow, disbelieving curse.
A few more lights went on in the houses around theirs. “Hey, shut the hell up, or I’m calling the cops,” one of their neighbors yelled. Jake felt his face flush with humiliation. In that moment, he hated both of his parents.
“Oh yeah, that’s right,” Laurie sneered. “I know all about her. What’s her name...Kristin?”
“I forget,” Kurt replied nastily.
Without warning, Laurie drew back her arm and slapped Kurt across the face, hard. Jake saw his dad’s head snap back. Then Kurt straightened and stared at his mom with something close to hatred.
His mom put her hands to her face and started crying noisily, with great gulping sobs.
Jake turned and raced for his bedroom door. His parents had a habit of fighting, but this was way worse than anything he’d ever seen. He had to stop them somehow.
He took the steps two at a time and made it to the front door, then yanked the door open, only to see his mom grasp his dad’s jacket and try to pull him in.
“I’m sorry, Kurt,” Laurie sobbed, her crying coming close to hysterics.
Kurt tightened his lips, and ripped her hands off his jacket, pushing her away in the process. She sprawled backward onto the grass.
Then he turned on his motorcycle boot heel and stomped down off the porch. Jake saw the emblem on the back of his jacket—the deer skull with the words
Rockport Grove Rebel Guardians
beneath it—and the moonlight glinted brightly on the skull. It flickered as if it was alive, reminding him of the grim reaper coming to collect his due...
He felt wetness on his cheeks and realized he was crying. “Daddy, wait!”
Kurt paid him no attention. Rather, he stalked over to his Harley and slung himself onto the seat.
As Kurt mounted his motorcycle and pressed the starter, Jake saw the skull on the back of his dad’s jacket winking and glittering at him.
“Daddy...don’t leave!” he shouted, the tears coming faster.
His father slanted a look toward him, and for a moment, their gazes connected. And Jake saw that his father didn’t care. Not anymore. Maybe never again. He raced over to his mom and did his best to help her up. He was only eight years old, but suddenly, he felt like the parent. In the distance, he heard the wail of a police car siren.
Kurt rolled the throttle, making the bike roar angrily. He pushed the bike into a tight U-turn, slammed it into gear and took off into the night, leaving Jake and his mom crying helplessly on the front lawn.
It was the last time anyone saw Kurt Gallent alive.