Originals Ride: Hellions Motorcycle Club (Hellions Ride Book 8) (10 page)

I should have known the first time we got pulled over that something wasn’t right. Danza wasn’t speeding, the truck was up to code, and all the plates were good. There was no reason for the first cop to pull us over.

Hell, the really fucked up part is I wasn’t supposed to take the run at all.

Frisco got himself a woman, Matilda, some time ago. Well, Tilly called this morning as he was about to roll out with Danza to say she had to go to the hospital. Dia offered to take her, but she said she needed Frisco, that it was a private matter. Assuming she had womanly issues, my woman told me to stand down and take the ride-along while Frisco took care of what’s his.

I can stand behind that. If it were my woman and she was sick in any way, I would want to be with her, not in some rig on the highway.

We aren’t an hour passed the last place we got pulled when I see blue lights in the mirror again.

“Danza, we got company,” I inform.

“I see ’em,” he says as he brings the rig to the side of the road.

After I hand him the log books, the registration, and insurance, he reaches in his wallet for his license. Then he rolls the window down, and we wait.

Automatically with our hands in the air so the officer doesn’t get trigger happy, we allow him to open the driver door to the rig.

“Need you to open the trailer,” he automatically orders.

My suspicions rise.

“Mind telling me what we got pulled over for?” I ask. “We have a deadline.”

“Got reasonable cause. A truck matching this description came in on the scanner as reported stolen. I have to match your load and registration to your logs and search to make sure this isn’t the load reported.”

I look at Danza.
Someone called in a stolen transport that just happens to fit the description of our rig?
This doesn’t sit right with me.

He gives me a slight shrug of his shoulders as we clamber out of the truck. We both know what’s back there. We both hope like hell he doesn’t do a deep search.

We are both up a creek without a paddle.

Two hours later, the rig is impounded, and Danza and I sit behind bars. The tiny town we’re in isn’t the least bit concerned with rights, schedules, or a damn thing we have going on at home.

We are given one phone call for the two of us. We need to make it count.

“Rocky,” I say quickly when he answers the shop phone. “Danza and I are in lock-up. Need you to handle shit.”

With his affirmation, I hang up and am taken back to the holding cell.

“Hello,” Claudia answers, and I hear little Delilah in the background.

“It’s Rocky,” I explain. “Roundman and Danza have a delay.”

“What kind of delay?” There is worry in her voice, and I don’t like it.

“The kind that may take a while,” I tell her honestly.

“They okay?”

“Yeah, just gonna be gone for a while. If you need anything, I’m here.”

“Mary Alice know yet?”

“That’s my next call.”

Claudia, being the strong woman she is, says, “I’ll handle it.”

“I appreciate it.”

Hanging up the receiver, dread fills my gut. Our top two in lock up for God knows how long is the last thing we need right now.

I spend the day tightening things up at the shop and getting an attorney for the guys.

If the situation were reversed, the two of them would have my back and my family’s. I’ll do the same. Too bad none of us could have predicted the future to know just how deep we were. Trouble is funny like that, though. You never know how much you’re in until you’re there.

***

The gavel crashes down in the courtroom. Claudia jumps up and rushes to Roundman to give him a kiss on the cheek as the deputy comes over to escort him to the jail before his transport to the state penitentiary. Mary Alice twists her hands nervously from her seat but doesn’t move as Danza calls out to her. She looks up slowly, sad eyes meeting my brother’s as he is guided from the room without his wife moving an inch. I give the ladies a few moments to collect themselves before I clear my throat, signaling we should leave.

After loading them up in my car, we make our way silently back to Haywood’s Landing. The weight of the club rests on my shoulders. Frisco and I have to step up while Roundman and Danza serve their time. The club has expanded into central and western North Carolina, and we even have a few charters in South Carolina now. I’ll need to get in touch with all our charter presidents to make them aware of the final verdict.

Leaving Claudia with Mary Alice, I drive home instead of to the shop. Marie opens the front door before I can even reach it.

“You okay, Tommy?” she asks me in the tender way that simply is my wife.

“Been better, baby.” I step into our home and go to the couch to take off my boots.

Marie sits down next to me. “How bad is it?”

I let out a huff. “Three years.”

Softly, she places her hands on the back of my neck. “You can do this. You can hold things down for them. If the situation were reversed, they would take care of me, Dina, and all of your obligations.” She smiles sweetly. “It’s the way you Hellions are: trouble making, love making rebels with a heart for family.”

Leaning over, I place my lips against hers. “Damn, I’m a lucky man.”

“I’m the lucky one,” she says against my lips. “I believe in you, Tommy. I always have, even when you were the smelly boy next-door, climbing trees. Every time you fell over the fence, I knew you would get back up and do it again the next day.”

I laugh. “I was doing that in hopes of getting your attention. Instead, I got your daddy yelling about me making a mess in your yard with the leaves and broken branches.”

“You tell a lie, Tommy Fowler! You didn’t even know I existed. You were hoping you would see my sister Becky in her bathing suit.”

I lift my hands in surrender. “Busted. But, baby, you should know, now that I’ve seen all you kept hidden just for me, your sister ain’t never had shit on you.”

“I love you, Tommy. You, Blaine, and Rhett have been the three amigos since we were kids. We’ll get through this together like everything else.”

“I love you, Marie. Thank you for having faith in me and my club.”

“As Claudia says, ride until we die, baby.”

***

They spend three years locked up in the state jail for possession with intent to distribute across state lines. Mary Alice had a rough time of it early on, but she’s strong. Claudia and she moved in together for a bit to help each other with the babies growing up.

The club now has an attorney who said it would be in our best interests to separate the businesses. Haywood’s Landing now has my car restoration and mechanics shop down the street from what was once Clive’s and is now Roundman’s bike shop. Claudia and he are building a house on the lot next door so the property is expanded.

Mary Alice doesn’t want Danza on the road anymore. I told her he could work for me since Frisco has been running the bike shop while Roundman was away.

While they were locked up, we managed to build a real clubhouse and grow the Hellions MC. We are stronger than ever before, even though Fury MC has kept their distance.

The day they rolled in on Clive is one that is forever engrained in my memory. I will never forget the fear I felt, the helplessness that consumed me as I was left with no choice but to take a life in order to save that of my friend and myself.

We are family. Through thick and thin, we hold each other up.

Dear Rhett,

I know you expected me to visit today and bring Savannah. I can’t. I just can’t do this anymore. The time is nearing for you to return home, and I’ll be honest with you and myself, I don’t think you should come to our house. You see, while you’ve been serving your time, so have we. You see, while you’ve been away, I’ve been okay on my own. Rocky, Frisco, and all the club have stepped in during your absence, but more than that, I’ve learned to stand on my own without you. I’ve learned not to wait for hours on end for you to pull in to our driveway. I haven’t had to spend my time wondering if you would come home or if you would pick a fight with me just to have an excuse to leave.

This is the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make, but for me and my daughter, I’m asking you to go to the compound and not here. I’m asking that you let me go.

I’ve stood by you through everything. I’ve done anything asked of me. Now I ask of you to please make this easy and let me go.

You will always have my heart, but I cannot continue to remain numb to the pain you continue to bring me. I will love you with every breath I take, but I need the same from you.

I want a life with mutual respect, adoration, and emotion through the good and the bad. If you can’t give me that, then at least give me the freedom to be on my own rather than wait around for you to have an epiphany that will never come.

With love and tears,

Mary Alice

Three weeks until I get out of this place and this is what she sends me.

I punch the brick wall of my cell, and Roundman stands and comes to me.

“Wanna tell me what that’s about, brother?”

“Not gonna let her go,” I growl.

“Then you better straighten out your shit, brother.”

I let my mind go over all the wrongs I’ve done. The first time I stepped out on her, I told myself it was just to have something new. Mary Alice was my first everything. I knew it was wrong, but each and every time I let a barfly touch me, I found some way to justify it to myself. There is no justification. I’m wrong. I have taken for granted the gift of her love. I have expected her loyalty without giving it in return. I have left my woman and our child while I serve time and really not given a second thought to what it has done to her. Well, I see clearly now. I’ve done wrong, but all is not lost.

This isn’t the end, Mary Alice. I’ve made mistakes, but I can’t walk away.

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