Page 50 of Vapor's Blaze

She hugs him and buries her face in his chest. “Thank you, Track. I was tired of keeping that a secret.”

“I was just about to tell them about you and I pooling our money to buy the bar from the Savage Legion.”

Her head pops up and she looks like she was trying to smother down her excitement, probably because of the situation with our grandfather still fighting for his life. I was still feeling conflicted there, I guess that no matter how shitty they are, family is family. I wanted the old bastard to live, why? I had no idea. Maybe so I could finally confront him about what happened to my mom.

I reach out my hand, “Let me the first in our family to congratulate you both. I’m happy my brother found someone to get him on the straight and narrow at long last.”

Jamus adds his own welcoming words. “I’m less wild about giving up MC life, but I welcome you as well.”

“Tracker,” Vapor’s voice holds a note of warning.

Shooting Vapor an annoyed look, he admits, “The Savage Legion has offered me an opportunity to join them. During my time working at their bar, I’ve gotten to know and respect several of the brothers, and they me. Their club isn’t a one percent MC and I like the idea of continuing to be part of a brotherhood. The Hellfire Hounds no longer exist, so I’m not betraying my club. When this whole thing blows over, I intend to take them up on their offer.”

Jamus growls, “I understand a family man not wanting to run a one percent club. But joining the Savage Legion is a bridge too fucking far, Tracker. You’re spitting in the face of…” The old man snapped his mouth closed and looks away.

Tracker’s lips press into a firm line for a few seconds before he responds. “Go ahead and finish your thoughts, old friend. Is it spitting in the face of all the club brothers who just betrayed me, for money no less? Or maybe it’s a betrayal of the man who killed my fucking mother all those years ago.”

My head jerks around and I gape at Tracker. Hark has a determined look on his face, clearly not surprised at all by what I thought was our family’s deepest, darkest secret. So both of my brothers knew?

When Jamus doesn’t respond, Tracker glances at me before continuing. “I don’t know what exactly your objection is, Jamus. You always hated the illegal shit King dragged us into. Much like I enjoy tending bar, your happy place has always been working in the Hellfire Hounds garage.”

“I ain’t denying that, Track. King has done some bad shit and lived to regret most of it.”

“Do you want to go ahead and tell the rest of the story? Why my grandfather favored me and Hark so heavily and pretty much ignored Trix growing up?”

My brain suddenly cranks into high gear. “I always knew he hated me, I figured he just didn’t like females. But what I want to know is if he didn’t care about me why did he want to take me away that day?”

Jamus gives Tracker a pleading look. “Your sister has a whole family. Don’t make me take that away from her, she doesn’t need to know.”

Suddenly, it feels like a bolt of lightning hits my brain. Memories surface of Jamus visiting me when I was really little, maybe two or three. He used to come around a lot. It was Jamus that used to take me and my mom out to eat, far from Las Salinas. I remember it took us a long time to get to the city and there were new and more interesting things to do there. And lastly, I remember Jamus trying to get us to stay in the place he rented for us. But my mom always came back to Las Salinas.

My hand flies to my mouth when I remember it was because Tracker and the new baby were with my dad. The new baby was Hark and she couldn’t stand not being able to see them. I turn to look at Jamus. “I remember you tried to save her, but she wouldn’t stay away from her boys. I remember you saying they belonged to their father, but I belonged to you, and she was supposed to protect me.”

A short silence spins out as everyone stares at Jamus. He is not the kind of man to justify sleeping with another man’s wife.

Tracker speaks up. “It wasn’t cheating if that’s what you think. Mom divorced my dad right after I was born. She didn’t want us around all the illegal shit the Hounds were into, and she wanted to get clean. I was too young to know what was going on, but the other brothers slowly let it slip over the years, mostly when they were drunk and in a mood to be snide.”

Jamus put his hand on my knee gently, a fatherly gesture. After all he was my father, something I was having difficulty trying to get my head around. “King wanted you to use against me, and it fucking worked like a charm. As long as I was loyal and did exactly what he wanted, he left you alone. When your mom died, I made arrangements for you to live with her father. He was a good man. I trusted him to take good care of you. It was after he died, and you came to live with King and your brothers that things got really difficult. Having to look at the little granddaughter King believed should has been his blood if only her mother had stayed married to his son, changed him from a garden variety asshole to a bitter old man.”

“But you told me to marry Decker, to do what he said,” I say.

“Yeah, I wanted you away from him. All the times he went on and on about how much you looked like your mother and how his son had been too weak to control his woman made my skin crawl. Decker is a grade A asshole but he’s nothing like King’s first choice in husbands for you. So, yeah, I advised you to take the only deal on the table that would enable you to survive and have some quality of life. I only wish I could have looked after you like a proper father, but King had me between a rock and a hard place. You deserved better than an old man eking out a living fixing cars for an outlaw biker club.”

I look at Jamus with tears in my eyes. He whispers, “When you came to Savage Legion to get me out, I was sure you remembered me from all those years ago.”

“She told me you were like a second grandfather to her.” Vapor glanced at me before adding, “From what it sounds, she wasn’t far off the mark.”

Hark interjects, “That doesn’t explain how I came into the world. Did our mom keep running back and forth between you and my dad.”

Jamus swears under his breath, reaches out and shoves Tracker’s shoulder. “See what you started? You should have never opened your mouth.”

Hark continues to stare at Jamus, until the man speaks, “I wanted your mom, though it would have broken up the club, maybe it would have gotten us both killed. But in the end, she couldn’t stay away from your father, he had a hold over her. Maybe she liked to walk on the wild side, even if the lifestyle didn’t appeal.”

When neither Tracker nor Jamus clarify the situation, Hark finally gets it.

“I see what’s going on here. Tracker’s the one that was wanted, the one that was loved. Trix was the affair baby, not really quite an affair because our parents were divorced by then. And me? In order for me to be here my father must have circled back around to her one more time. What does that make me, the mistake?”

When no one disagrees, I speak up, trying desperately to salvage the situation. “You were wanted and loved, Hark. You were. Mom kept coming back because she couldn’t stand not seeing her boys, especially you. She loved you and always begged King to let you come back home.”

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