Page 23 of Wait For Me

“I wasn’t going to hurt her, just fucking with her,” Striker called out to us before turning and heading back to his club brothers and their campsite.

“I do know that not everyone here can be trusted,” I told the man. “Most can’t, for one reason or another.”

“Ah, sounds like you’ve learned a lesson or two in life already.”

“What happened to your daughter?”

“I didn’t have her back when I should have. Now, she’s gone. Lost to me.” He glanced around, almost as if he hoped to see her there. “She lives not far from here now. I keep hoping that she’ll be just around the corner so I can see her again, even if it’s only a glimpse to know that she found happiness.”

“I wonder if my father does the same?” Though I said the words out loud, they weren’t really meant to be heard. He heard them anyway.

“Have you been lost to your family too?”

I shook my head. “No. I still speak to them, but I’ve been gone for a little over a year. I was close and thought I’d pop in to see the members who traveled here this year. My father and brother should be among the members of their club. They usually come for Sturgis.”

“Well, there they are,” he tipped his head in the direction of the site my family, the Savage Vipers, usually occupied and sure enough, there they were. Unfortunately for me, the very first person I noticed was Bagger, in profile view with his ass hanging out, as he banged away at some rough looking biker chick. She might have been pretty if she hadn’t overdone the makeup.

“Fuck!” The man standing next to me hissed. “That’s Striker’s Ol’ lady. He ain’t gonna be happy about this.”

“Well, considering he was attempting to pick me up, I don’t think he has a lot to complain about.”

Reaper laughed. “Normally, I’d say I agree. You aren’t marked though. She is, and very clearly since she’s still wearing her own leathers with her property patch on it.”

“Yeah, well, Bagger has never been picky about who he sticks his dick in.”

“Damn, kid. Seems like maybe you know too much.”

It was my turn to laugh. “I grew up in the clubhouse after my mom died. It’s no place for a young girl. That’s for sure.” I smacked Reaper playfully with the back of my hand. “Besides, why should Striker get to have fun on the side if his Ol’ lady can’t? That’s very misogynistic. You biker boys need to get with the times.”

Reaper shocked me when he threw his head back and laughed loudly. “That’s just the thing Myra would have said to me.” He patted me on the shoulder. “You’re good for the soul, girl.”

It was when I glanced back over, that I noticed Reaper’s laughter must have caught Bagger’s attention. “I see some things never change,” I called out to him as I turned slightly and left Reaper standing there while I went to go find my father and brother in all the chaos. Somewhere, not too far from their campsite, guitars were strumming, and a soulful voice belted out a verse of Wayward Son. I don’t know why, but it lifted my spirits just a bit to know that some things really never did change. The biker community, my family, was thriving in my absence. It made me happy for them.

“Star?” I heard Bagger call out to me but be damned if I was going to turn around and watch him disengage from that chick.

Once I got closer to my family, it was my Uncle Mack who recognized me first. “Holy shit! Look what the cat dragged in!” He yelled exuberantly.

Heads turned and before I knew it, my body was swept up in a mass of hugs and hellos that I couldn’t place right away. I was literally drowning in a sea of friendly faces, who for once, didn’t watch me with pity in their eyes.

“Wow! You are lookin’ really good, honey.” Grady smiled as he pulled away from the hug. “Fuckin’ glowing!” He added before passing me along to my father.

“It’s really you,” my dad mumbled before sweeping me up in his embrace and squeezing me damn near to death. “You’ve had me on the edge of a heart attack for a full fucking year and then some, kid. Why didn’t you come back sooner?”

I glanced up into his glassy eyes as he finally let me go. “I’ve been out there, finding myself,” I told him truthfully.

“And what have you discovered?”

I grinned widely as I answered. “That I’m fucking awesome!”

Dad laughed. “I coulda told you that for free without you having to leave,” he informed me, as if I didn’t already know he’d say something like that.

“Well, then I wouldn’t have believed you. Now, I know it’s the truth because I learned it on my own.”

“She’s grown wiser and far too beautiful for words,” my father pronounced. “Quick, get some rope so we can drag her home now and lock her up before she shatters too many hearts.”

Laughing with my family felt good for my soul. I’d missed them so much. In fact, being around them made me start to question if maybe they were the home my heart had been searching for all along. I was just about to tell him that maybe it was time for me to come back home when my brother noticed me standing there and instead of coming to me, he walked away.

Of course, I had no choice but to follow.

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