Nomads' Fall: Burning Bastards MC (11 page)

The big man moved fast and if Jolly wasn’t already frightened enough, she watched him punch Porter in the mouth. “I suggest you discuss the issue here and now, or the young lady will see something she really doesn’t need to be a part of. So if she needs your permission to talk, I think you might want give it to her.”

Porter looked miserable, his split lip was bleeding and beginning to swell. “If you got something you want to say, say it and get the hell out of here.” He closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath as if he was gearing up for more abuse. She couldn’t find it in her to feel very sorry for him, maybe later if she lived through today, but right now, she came here for a reason.

“I’ve been running from you and James for over two years now. I came here today to ask you to stop sending him after me. Just leave me alone, I’m not talking about that night to anyone, and I swear I won’t tell a soul, but you have to stop chasing me down. I can’t keep a job because that blue SUV shows up within a few weeks, sometimes days.” She tossed up her hands and used them to emphasize her point. “I…look at me, I’ve lost so much weight. I can’t afford to feed myself because you won’t leave me alone. I finally found the tracking thing in that watch you gave me. I treasured the damn thing. I thought it was so sweet of you to give me such a nice gift, that I kept it until I found the real reason you gave it to me. I pawned the watch off and the tracking disc is history now too. I was so stupid that I believed James was the one that wanted to kill me, but it was you all along.”

She knew she was babbling, but everything came out at once, each word fighting with other words to be spoken. “If you plan to kill me then do it, if not, I want your word that you’ll call off James. I’m not running anymore.” She stared at his face, and then looked into William’s face. “I’m not running again. I won’t live that way any longer.”

The door opened again, and she almost fainted when she saw the man who’d tormented her for over two years walk in. She had dreamt of him strangling her, and worse. Her hand automatically began to reach behind her where she had the .38 tucked in her waistband, but her wrist was caught before she could reach the pearl handle. William Kelley didn’t say a word, he just shook his head no, and let her wrist go.

He stopped just inside the door, but advanced into the room once he’d taken inventory of the occupants. William moved aside and James laid eyes on her, his expression darkened. He headed her way, however, was stopped by one of the two men who came into the room earlier.

William turned to her and asked her what her mother’s name was. “I just want to clarify something before I follow an inclination of mine. What is her name?”

“Her name’s Helen, and that’s another thing, she isn’t living in the house we had before I was forced to run. She’s either moved, or something happened to her.”

“Okay, Jolly, why don’t you take a walk with me and you can tell me about the past, did you say two years? I think Porter and his friend, James, need a few minutes to reflect on life and I want to hear about what you’ve been through. Why don’t we go to that nice little restaurant on the next block where we can have a little chat.” His smile was friendly and she found herself agreeing to go with him. They could walk to the place and there was plenty of witnesses to see if he ended up killing her.

The rain slowed to a light mist and it took just a few minutes to walk down the block. They sat in the furthest corner, William sitting opposite from her in the booth. He could see the door from his seat, but she was busy blowing the steam from the mug of coffee in her cold hands.

“So, Jolly, tell me what made you work for Porter to begin with? I’m interested in why a beautiful young lady like you would work in a strip club. I assume you weren’t romantically involved with Porter or his henchman, so that leaves work. Right?” He smiled and she found herself smiling back. He sure was familiar, but she couldn’t place him.

“I graduated from high school and wanted to go to college, but mom already worked as a waitress, and had a weekend job in a hotel cleaning rooms. I ended up working a cash register in the mall. We paid the bills, but that was as far as the paychecks went. On weekend days when I wasn’t working at the mall I used to go with her and help clean the rooms so we could get home early and she could put her feet up.” She remembered how Helen’s feet used to swell so badly she could barely stand by the time she got home.

“Long story short, mom had blockages in her arteries and one morning she woke up and couldn’t walk. I met Lisa when she was visiting her sister at the hospital and we got to talking. She said she made good money and didn’t have to do anything but dance for men.

“I applied for a job, and it’s strange, but Porter was looking over my application and asked me the same question you did. My mother’s name. When I told him, he smiled and hired me on the spot. I thought it was strange at the time, and now I know whatever this is involves my mother in some way.

“I started pole dancing, and pretty soon mom only had to work one job. Since I could walk to work most of the time, we saved enough money for me to take some classes.” She looked down. “I would have graduated last year with a Bachelors of Nursing degree.” She paused as she remembered. “I stopped by Porter’s office one night, to tell him that I would be quitting because I was planning to get a job as a certified licensed Massage Therapist, and I heard something I shouldn’t have. The security cameras caught me and they found out I was there that night.” She finished telling her tale of leaving her car at the airport. “I’ve been running ever since.

“So, now that I’ve spilled my guts and given you my life’s story, will you tell me how my mother’s involved in this? Maybe you could tell me why I should trust you not to give me to James?”

He watched the way her mouth formed words and looked her over as much as the tabletop would allow. It wasn’t a sexually interested look, more like he was studying her.

“I think you saw enough at the club to know I’m not a nice man. In fact, some people believe I’m the Devil himself,” he grimaced. “I thought you might have heard my name, but that must be the arrogant side of my nature believing the legend. Twenty-six years ago I was the manager of the Lovely Ladies Strip Joint. There was a pretty dancer named Helen, and we had an affair. I won’t tell you the details, but I’ll take my blame. She got clingy, I got a promotion, and Porter got the Lovely Ladies.

“Two years ago, I got a big promotion and I’m the kind of manager that likes to be hands on. I’ve been doing some house cleaning, and while visiting one of our properties here, I saw someone I thought I knew. Turned out, she was someone I used to know. I had to charm her into talking to me, because she thought I was going to hurt her. It seems her daughter had gone missing and she suspected Porter. The one thing she didn’t tell me was that she was my daughter.”

His hands were balled into fists on the table. He saw her looking at them and slowly relaxed. The girl was his, any problems this might have caused were no longer an issue. He had a wife, Brenda, and three children with her. He was fond of the woman, but she’d been a pawn, a stepping stone to get where he was today.

“We could take a DNA test, but I know you’re mine. You look like my oldest girl and my little sister looked just like you when she was your age. I used to call your mom Jolly because she was always laughing. The timeline works too. So that’s why you were hired, why you were tracked instead of one of the other remedies. It also explains why Porter thought I wouldn’t touch him when he helped himself to money that didn’t belong to him. I’d put money on him believing that I could be blackmailed with exposing a long lost daughter.”

On the way back to the club William told her that her mother was now living in a small condo. “She won’t have to work if she doesn’t want to, I’ll see to it. If she’s careful with her money, she can live a nice life. I’ll settle some money on you too, that way you can do whatever you want with your life, go back to school and finish your degree, travel, whatever. You came along before I married Brenda, she can’t bitch, and if she does, she’ll regret it.”

Chapter
Eleven

Jolly was heading back to Prindale. She still had a hard time believing the past week. She couldn’t wait to tell Gladys all about her time in Louisville, but she hoped the way Gladys had gotten off the phone with her yesterday didn’t mean she had replaced her for the summer. She looked into the rearview mirror of the new Mustang she was driving, and still didn’t recognize herself. The haircut was short, but it suited her features, and for the first time in years, her hair was her natural color of light brown. She still needed to gain some of the weight she’d lost, but that would come now that she could relax in one place without having to look over her shoulder and be ready to run at a minute’s notice.

It was after dark when she pulled into the driveway of the campground. The lights were on in the office and in the owner’s quarters. She saw two spots through the trees where she knew cabins were located, that had a hint of light shining through the evening darkness. She called Gladys to let her know she was there and she would be the one at the door. She was hauling her new blue suitcase from the trunk of the sporty vehicle when the door to the office opened and Gladys jumped the steps to greet her in a bear hug.

“I’ve been so worried. You need to tell me all about your visit and how did you get this car? Should we put it in the barn? Did you have to steal it?” Jolly hugged her tight and shook her head.

“No, it’s safe to leave it out tonight, I’ll just lock it. Oh, Gladys, I am so happy to be back here and I have so much to tell you. It’s so unbelievable, you’re not going to believe it.”

“There are people in two cabins, but we don’t have to worry about them.”

They decided to meet in the comfortable living room as soon as Jolly got her things put in her room and she’d changed into boxers and a long t-shirt. Gladys had taken advantage of the few extra minutes putting on a similar outfit in a bright yellow.

They dined on cold beer and cold chicken pieces that Gladys had baked earlier in the day for lunches when she was too tired to cook a full meal. Jolly related the story of her week’s adventure, leaving Gladys with a shocked expression and her mouth hanging open.

“You,” she almost choked on the bite of chicken in her mouth but swallowed it down with a good swig of beer before talking coherently. “Your father is actually William Kelley?
The
William Kelley? As in mob boss William Kelly? Holy Fuck, I don’t know whether to congratulate you or sympathize.”

“Well, it’s not like I plan to wear a sign around my neck claiming to be his daughter. Although he did pretty well when he found out that he had a daughter by a dancer he’d dropped because she was in love with him. He left before she knew about me coming, and after she found out, she was too scared to find him. He told me he wasn’t nice when he told her to leave him alone.”

“I didn’t ask him what he did with Porter and James, but if he really is this mob boss, I hope they got what’s been coming to them in the form of my favorite bitch, karma. I swear, Gladys, I was so afraid, especially when I saw Porter sitting in his fancy desk chair with his arms tied to the armrests.”

She grinned, “I’m still coming to terms with the fact I actually have a father walking around. When he handed me a wad of cash and told me to go get my hair done and buy some clothes so I wouldn’t scare my mother, I wanted to yell at him that he wasn’t my boss. Then I felt kind of strange, I liked hearing the man claiming he was my dad, telling me to go buy something pretty, you know what I mean? As if he really was my father and he cared about me.”

“Okay, but that doesn’t explain why you’re here, and that gorgeous car sitting is outside. Are you getting used to the high life now? Embracing it with open arms?” She grinned at the blush on her young friend’s face.

“He proved to me that he paid attention when I told him about leaving my VW at the airport. Yesterday he dropped off the keys to the Mustang. He asked me where I wanted to live, and I really haven’t decided. So I told him I had a job to come back to. He thought it was a good idea for me to come back and take some time to decide what I wanted to do. I also have one of those smartphones now, and he told me to leave the tracking on so he could find me if he needed to.

“I’m sorry I’m going on and on, but this is not the way I figured my running days would end. I thought I’d probably be dead, or worse, and look what happened. He even threatened to “bust my ass” if I didn’t call him every couple of weeks.” She knew she was crying, but she couldn’t help it. Gladys came over to her and hugged her while she cried.

“What a wonderful thing to happen for you, Jolly, and I’m glad you chose to come back here. Things have been pretty quiet since you left. Future and I had a falling out, and the only people I’ve seen are people in the cabins.”

Jolly sat up and wiped the tears from her cheeks, Gladys suggested they go to bed and talk more tomorrow.

“Now that you’re here, you can come with me to the Bastards clubhouse so I can get my belt and guns back.”

“Sounds like a plan to me, I’ll be ready. I’ll even drive you over there.”

*****

Something had to be done and soon. Demon and Knight watched the Prez drink himself into a stupor again. This was the end to a very long week. Big Dog and Georgie had organized a rodeo for Saturday and using the term organized was stretching it. They wanted one, and left it up to the rest of the men and women in the club to make it work.

Knight and Demon were setting up hay bales and pinning bullseye targets on the bales for the “jousting” game. They set the course and made sure Beadle and Mick had the small but sturdy 125 cc’s ready for the huge bikers to fold themselves over and on, to use as “horses” for the course. They had four six-foot long spears made from inch thick dowel stock that was shaved into blunt rounded “points”, and even picked out a Bon Jovi classic to play during the game.

There were silhouettes stapled onto thick railroad ties nailed together to make a wall, for knife throwing and later target shooting with 22’s. It would take a miracle for any one of them to complete the trifecta, the few that might get two games completed would then enter a circle either on the little bikes or on foot to wrestle in the mud the two men had worked hard to manufacture. Most of the time this resulted in the drunken competitors roaring into the arena as fast as the little scooters could carry their big asses, and the front tires would sink in the mire, tossing the man into the mud. Last time they’d had one of these rodeos, Butch had won, Tarzan had broken his foot, and Pressley lost a few teeth, and almost drowned in the mud.