Page 48 of A Love So Hard

Jay seemed a little shocked at that revelation, but his anger overrode anything my admission about my daughter’s feelings for him could have caused. “Dad, I just don’t…”

“Nah, son. You want to be a brother?” He nodded. “Brothers come first, everyone else is secondary.” My son looked like he wanted to say something then, but I shook my head. “She knows better than to pull that kind of shit. Been worried about this all along. She was with her mother for the first half of her life; apparently she picked up some bad habits. Being a conniving bitch and knowing how to hide it well apparently does run in the family. I won’t fuckin’ tolerate that shit under my own goddamn roof. Come on,” I finally shouted before turning back to Jay. “I’ll make sure she stays away from you and yours from now on. She won’t be coming back to the club anytime soon either so know that you’re safe to bring your girl here without having to run into someone who will make her uncomfortable.”

“‘Preciate that,” Jay remarked before turning and heading to the bar. Toby shook his head almost as if he couldn’t believe I’d just said that, but he only remained thoughtful as I clapped him on the back and started moving us outside to the lot where our bikes were parked.

“Let’s go home and deal with this bullshit.”

“You really believe it?”

“It all makes sense, Toby. I know you didn’t know her mom and we’ve never really discussed the shit she pulled. Hell, we never really discussed the shit the club whores and one of our brothers pulled that caused me to lose your mom all those years ago. That shit caused me to lose you too even though I didn’t know it then. When Anna was born it was both the best and worst day of my life.”

That caught his attention and he stopped walking to scowl at me once again. “Let me finish,” I told him and tipped my head toward the picnic table off to our left. We both perched on the table top with feet up on the bench as I told him. “I kept going back and forth that day, happier than I’ve ever been, so excited, and filled with joy that my body couldn’t actually contain it. One day, when you have a kid with the woman you love, you will get it. There was a flipside to that coin though. Every single time I felt that sheer joy that threatened to melt my fuckin’ heart right out of my chest, the thought of what I’d missed with you would pop into my head. I hated the bastards responsible for me missing out on that all over again.”

“What happened?”

I told my son the story about how I was betrayed by a brother and the club whores that worked with him to send his mother away the same day I’d planned to officially claim her with the club and propose to marry her. Before I could find out he was on the way, hell before his mom even knew he was already a possibility. “I know it seems like it ain’t worth the fight the way Jay goes through those high school bitches, but what if one of them was his Lucy? What if, for some stupid reason, he’d knocked her up and she took off heartbroken like your mom? What if he wasn’t as lucky as me to be able to get them back? Your mom was with someone else when I found you. If her father – stepfather – hadn’t come begging for help because that asshole had beaten on her I would have never know about you. We would have lost the chance to be a family because some jealous assholes told some lies. I can’t let your sister get away with that. She doesn’t even realize the damage she could have caused.”

“What if she didn’t though?” Toby still seemed a bit skeptical.

“Come on, Toby. Be smarter than that. You see how she looks at him, how she’s always followed him around. Are you telling me she has no hopes that they’ll be together in the future?” Toby shook his head. He couldn’t deny what we were all perfectly capable of seeing with our own two eyes. “Some women will do just about anything to make sure their dream – even if its delusional – will come true.”

“I guess. I see your point.”

“Come on, let’s go deal with this shit so I can have a beer. I thought this was going to be a good day.”

“Me too,” Toby muttered as he stood to head to his bike.

“It’ll all work out, T.”

“I don’t know how,” he lamented. “My two best friends are fighting now and everyone’s mad at my sister.” He shook his head then put on his helmet. “Let’s get this over with. I’m not looking forward to it.”

It didn’t take long to ride to the house from the clubhouse, and the moment we walked in the door Ever was there spilling her tears for Lucy’s benefit. Anyone watching would know it was typical girl bullshit. It just fired up my anger all over again to think she was trying to manipulate my wife. “You know better than to mess with a man’s…” My words were abruptly cut off when Lucy stood and smacked me across the face. She had never once, in all our years together, laid her hands on me in anger. The fact that she was an abuse victim before made certain we almost never even raised our voices to one another over the years, and now this?

“Don’t you fuckin’ dare come in here screaming your shit in my daughter’s face when you know fuck all about what just happened to her today.” Again, I was taken aback by my wife’s reaction, because she wasn’t one to cuss, and she’d just dropped the f-word like it was she was saying it was time for sweet tea. Granted, she’d added a filthy word or two to her vocabulary over the years of hanging out at the club and with bikers, but she was usually drunk or in bed and naked with me if she ever used them.

“Oh I know what…” I started to say as the shock of her slap and her words began to wear back down to anger. I’d been waiting all this time for Ever to cause a rift between Lucy and me, and it seemed she’d finally won out on that front too. I was cut off by Lucy’s hand rising again. This time it wasn’t to hit me; it was to shut me up.

“We aren’t at the clubhouse. We are at home. You will listen before you pretend to know something simply because a brother – a prospect actually – told you so.” Lucy turned her angry eyes on my son then. “Where in the hell were you today? Why weren’t you there to stop this from happening?”

“I sure as fuck couldn’t be in the girl’s bathroom where she was running her mouth. What do you want?”

“You stupid little shit! I raised you better than this. I know I did. That girl has had your protection and love since before I was too messed up to give it to her, and you think this is something she would do? You think she has a conniving bone in her damn body? Dig deep, son of mine, and tell me you believe that she has personally set out to destroy every bullshit relationship your friend has attempted to start with a girl. Jay runs through girls like water runs through the creek out back, and that’s no fault of your sister’s. It has more to do with the fact that he can’t keep his dick in his pants for every new shiny thing that pops up to catch his attention. He gets that from his father,” she spat out knowing exactly where I would end up going with my argument about Ever and her mother. She knew I couldn’t contradict her train of thought if I wanted to use that. Fuck. She was too damn smart, and also pissing me right the hell off.

“Do you have any idea what your best friend…”? She moved her eyes from Toby to me then. “What your future club brother, said to her today in front of everyone?”

“Yeah, he chewed her out for running her mouth to his girlfriend,” Toby informed her.

“Were you there?”

He shook his head just enough to indicate no as he answered sheepishly. “I was in the locker room.”

“I don’t even want to know why,” Lucy scoffed forcing another quick laugh from me, because I’d heard exactly why earlier at the clubhouse. “Well, let me set the two of you straight, because what he said had that girl so upset she ran all the way home from school.” That made me hesitate and my hackles rise.

“Joker’s territory is between here and there.” The Jokers were a new MC trying to move in on territory in the Charleston area. As a club, we were still working out how to deal with them. So far, they hadn’t been much of a problem for us, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t the typical animosity between two MCs sharing the same general area. There had been threats, and the kids were aware of how dangerous they could be. While we had damn near ended all of our illegal business dealings the Jokers were all about running anything that could earn them cash and they didn’t tolerate anyone or anything that got in the way of that. I didn’t get time to process the danger she’d put herself in, because Lucy then went on to tell us exactly what Jay had supposedly said to my daughter in front of the entire school assembly. Suddenly, I didn’t know who to be angrier with. These fuckin’ kids were far more brutal than the shit Lucy and I had to deal with in our day. Lucky for me, I could deal with both of them.

Ever didn’t want me bringing Jay to the house to hash it all out. That was fine, but I still couldn’t let her slide for what she did, no matter the fact that Jay was an asshole. He’d get his own punishment for the bullshit things he said in public. By the time Ever ran upstairs Toby had slammed the door on his way out. I wasn’t sure if he was going to go lay into Jay for pulling the shit he did, or commiserate with him over his sister’s betrayal. I was confused about how I felt, to be honest.

I knew she’d have it rough at school after a scene like that, but at the same time, she’d brought it on herself by doing what she did. I turned to see disappointment all over Lucy’s face and it hurt because it had been so long since I’d seen anything like it. “Luce,” her name was a whisper, and when I reached out for her she pulled back.

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