Torched: Afterburn (Iron Serpents Motorcycle Club Book 2) Page 21

  “Then talk to me. What happened?”

  I let out a deep sigh and pulled up one of the pictures I’d been staring at on my laptop. “That’s the little girl Doc was talking about.”

  “The one you matched for a stem cell transplant?”

  I kept staring at the beautiful, strawberry blonde child and nodded. “Yeah, I hacked the registry and followed the trail to a Facebook page. Her name’s Nicole, she has leukemia.”

  He frowned. “She can’t be older than ten.”

  “She’s nine.”

  “Shit,” he sighed. “Cancer’s such a fucking bitch, no kid should have to deal with something like that.” He leaned down to get a closer look at something. “Her eyes are green like yours,” he muttered, “like the exact same shade. That’s weird, right?”

  I looked down. “It’s not weird… It’s DNA.”

  His head whipped back up. “What do you mean?”

  I just kept staring at my hands.

  “Babe,” he pressed, “Ohio was nine years ago, did you have a kid I don’t know about right before we met?”

  “No.” The tears couldn’t be contained anymore, I felt one roll down my cheek. Then another. “She’s my half-sister. That’s my father, Graham, standing next to her. He goes by Townsend instead of Belman now.”

  “What? I thought he was dead.” Torch took turns looking at the picture, back at me, then back at the picture again. His confusion was understandable, aside from the eyes and pale skin, I looked nothing like the freckled, red-haired man in the image. My mother’s ancestors had come from Spain, and those Mediterranean genes overshadowed my father’s Irish ones.

  I wiped my face and sniffed. “Yeah, I thought he was too. I never bothered looking for him after he dumped me with Mitch and Vince. All these years I just figured his drinking and gambling and fucking with the wrong people caught up to him at some point. Maybe I just didn’t wanna know. Turns out, he not only somehow shaped up, he got himself a nice, new family complete with a replacement daughter.” I snickered through the bittersweet pain. “He even gave her my name, I used to be Chloe Nicole Belman. I can’t tell if that’s supposed to be a tribute or some sick fucking joke.”

  “Jesus Christ, come here.” He pulled me into his arms.

  I let myself sink into his embrace. “You know what’s crazy? She was born the day I met you the first time, when I finally made it out and ended up in Ohio.” My voice started to crack. “You… you can’t make this shit up.”

  He kissed the top of my head and tucked it under his chin. Combing his fingers through my hair as my body began to tremble, he sighed, “It’s okay, baby, let it out.”

  I didn’t have a choice by that point, I couldn’t have held the emotions back if I’d tried. Whimpers turned into soft cries, which only intensified until I was clinging to his cut and sobbing uncontrollably in his chest.

  I had no idea why I was falling apart. Was it sadness? Rage? Jealousy maybe? There was no way to sort through it all, no way to compartmentalize any of it; my brain felt like it was about to short circuit from everything coming together in one big fiesta of fuckery. I clung to Torch, wishing I’d had someone like him to cling to as a kid and letting myself be rocked and soothed until the tears ran dry on their own.

  It was only when my brain’s defense mechanisms kicked in and replaced the recollection of where I’d come from with an awareness of where I was now, that my wounded psyche ran out of steam.

  Eventually, my senses returned and I managed to regain my composure, leaving a symbolic wet spot on Torch’s gray t-shirt where my tears had soaked in.

  “I’m gonna take care of him,” he promised.

  “I don’t get a say?” I asked, not quite sure what my say was yet.

  “Are you having an attack of empathy here? The piece of shit deserves a slow and painful death for what he did to you. And I’m more than happy to make it happen. Fuck him.”

  “Nothing happens until after the transplant.”

  “Babe—”

  “Torch, I’m not talking about this right now,” I cut him off. “It’s not that little girl’s fault she got the same shitty half of our genetics. Like you said, one thing at a time. I know there’s an honor thing in play, but what my father did happened long before you were ever in the picture. I think that gives me a right to decide for myself.”

  “The only decision you should be making is whether he dies by bullet, knife, or rope,” he argued. “The motherfucker gave away his fifteen-year-old daughter in a goddamn poker game.”

  “I know what he did, Torch,” I snapped. “And you have a right to your opinion, but it should be my choice. How many times are we gonna keep having the same argument? If it doesn’t affect you or the club, let me figure it out for myself. I thought we were past this with everything that’s happened the past few weeks. What are you worried about? That I’ll go running back to him like a child desperate for a family? Thanks to you, I have a family, that’s not even on the table. No matter what, I want nothing to do with Graham.”

  “Alright,” he conceded. “You’re right, it’s your call. I just hope you use your head instead of your heart, we both know there’s a big one behind that cold wall and I don’t want you wasting it on a man who’s not worthy of so much as breathing the same air as you. I’m not trying to take anything away from you, Liv, for once I just want you to let me help carry the load. Killing your blood isn’t easy, no matter how much you hate them. Can you just give me that inch? Can you let me take care of it if that’s what you decide?”

  I touched his cheek and gave him a kiss. “Yeah, I can do that. You know, sometimes I have these dreams of my time on the run and I wake up in a panic thinking I’m still on my own—”

  “Sweetheart, you’ll never be on your own again, that’s the only reason I keep caving on things no other man in my position would. I’m not just trying to keep you around because I’m a selfish motherfucker who’d rather die than give you up, I’m trying to make sure your stubborn ass doesn’t walk away from the people who love you almost as much as I do. If anything happens to me, I can rest in peace knowing my brothers are gonna be there to step up for my old lady. Nobody’s ever gonna abandon you again. You hear me?”

  “I hear you.” Pausing, I couldn’t help but smirk. “Look at us and our daddy issues. What the fuck?”

  He chuckled and shook his head. “Right? This is why it’s better to choose your own damn family.”

  : 25 :

  | LIVIA |

  I sat on the roof of the clubhouse and watched over the cookout below. The place was packed with Serpents—over forty with our guests—and the mood was somewhat light considering the circumstances under which we’d gathered. The out-of-towners had been nothing but cordial and respectful, but I was the only female to be seen. Sometimes a girl needed a breather when drowning in endless waves of pure testosterone.

  Hearing boots clanking up the ladder, I looked over my shoulder and saw Torch’s head pop up over the roof line.

  “Hey, what are you doing up here?” he asked.

  “I just had to get away from the crowd for a minute.”

  He scowled. “Did one of these assholes make a pass or something? Tell me who, I’ll fuck him up.”

  I laughed and shook my head. “No, relax. They’ve all been on their best behavior around me.”

  “Good.” He sauntered over and took a seat next to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. “You thinking about him?”

  I let myself relax into his chest. “Who?”

  “Your old man.”

  “I don’t think about things I can’t change, babe,” I sighed. “What’s the point?”

  “You never wonder how life would’ve turned out if he hadn’t done what he did?”

  I stroked his muscular thigh and sighed. “No. I have you, don’t I? My life couldn’t have turned out any better, there’s nothing in the past worth looking back on… Is that something you think about? How different things would be if you hadn
’t had to run away from home?”

  He shrugged and took a drink of the beer he’d brought up. “Only to think about what my sister could’ve become if I’d gotten her out too. Emily had a good heart, I wish she’d had more time to leave a mark on the world and that I could’ve at least seen her one last time. I was working on trying to make things right after our old man spent years poisoning her brain to turn on me. Turned out, I didn’t have as much time as I thought I did.”

  “Your father didn’t abuse her though, right?” I asked, suddenly realizing he’d never told me more than random bits of the story here and there.

  “No, but she saw him beating on both me and my mom. George instilled the idea that laying hands on people you’re supposed to love and protect is normal. He didn’t kill her, but he might as well have. She never would’ve stayed in the fucked-up relationship that ended with her being raped murdered if she’d had a better role model. I have no sympathy for my mother either, she had plenty of family with money and ways to get out, but she was cool with being the trophy wife of a lawyer and spending her days soaking away the bruises in champagne. She didn’t give a shit about her own kids until they were both gone, that’s why she slit her wrists a couple days after Em’s funeral. Or so she said in the note, I think she was just a selfish bitch to the end. She knew how to find me, all she had to do was pick up the fucking phone and let me know what my sister was dealing with and I would’ve killed the son of a bitch before he hurt her. Hell, Emily could’ve told me herself, she was already away at college, but George warped her brain so bad she thought I was nothing but a criminal who didn’t give a shit about her. I managed to get her on the phone a couple times the month before she died, and was gonna go up to Fort Collins to make her hear me out in person, but then I had to make a run for the club and she was dead by the time I got back.”

  Wow.

  Fuck.

  What could I even say to that? My mom had died of a heroin overdose, but she was just young and stupid and I had very few memories of her aside from finding the body in our bathroom. And my father, well, he’d pretty much lost his mind to booze and done the unthinkable by handing me over to a pair of drug dealers; but at least I didn’t have to live with any kind of guilt over my part in any of it.

  I didn’t think Torch had anything to feel guilty about either. There was no way he could have taken his sister when he left at sixteen and he’d tried his hardest to reach out after she made it out too. But I understood why the burden was still there. My husband—much like myself—kept a lot bottled up. I did it for my own sanity, he did it out of duty. Being so high up the ladder of an outlaw biker club didn’t leave much room for displaying any outward signs of weakness.

  Part of me felt selfish for falling apart on him the day before, for crying like a baby over something as ridiculous as my half-sister being named after me. What difference did it make at this point? Chloe Nicole Belman was as dead as dead got, the government had even changed my birth records to reflect it. Torch, on the other hand, still carried his father’s name on all of his legal documents. There was no escaping the reminders for him.

  His strength only reinforced my resolve to do whatever it took to support him and the club he loved so much. Both would have my unwavering loyalty until I drew my very last breath.

  I glanced up at him and caressed his cheek as he looked off into the distance, the pain in his eyes as clear as the blue sky overhead. “Did you catch the guy?”

  His jaw clenched. “The law did, I had him taken out in the slammer.”

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up things you don’t like talking about.”

  He took my hand, kissed it, and looked back over at me. “I’ll be making things right tonight.”

  “You’ll kill him even if he’s not there, won’t you?” I asked.

  He pursed his lips and nodded. “Yeah.”

  “Because of me? The hit-and-run?”

  He nodded again. “I may have the bastard’s blood running through my veins, but I’ll be fucking damned if I end up anything like him. I don’t hurt what’s mine, I protect it.”

  “Torch, you’re a thousand times the man he could ever be, don’t let him start fucking with your head now. I know you’d never hurt me, you make me feel safer than I ever have. I love you, baby. I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Love you too, sweetheart.” He kissed me and smiled mischievously. From inside his cut, he pulled out a folded-up piece of paper and handed it over. “I got you something.”

  I opened it and laughed. “Tickets to Magic Mountain? I didn’t know you like roller coasters.”

  He shrugged. “Don’t know if I do, never been on one. I thought we’d ride out to California and spend a couple days just being kids since neither one of us got the chance. We’re only taking my bike though, I learned my fucking lesson coming back from our honeymoon.”

  “This is an even longer trip,” I argued. “You don’t know how much a girl’s thighs burn riding bitch all day.”

  “Woman,” he growled, “how much more do I gotta bend? I’m gonna lose my dick and start sprouting a fucking pussy any minute. What am I gonna stick in yours if that happens?”

  “Oh fuck, that would definitely pose a problem,” I smirked. “You keep forgetting how much I’ve had to bend though, I did give up my bike. You of all people should know what a sacrifice that was. I didn’t even get to take it for a funeral lap.”

  “How’s that the same thing as swallowing my pride as a fucking man? Christ, I can’t even give you a present without you flapping your gums. We’re taking my bike or I’m going alone and you can stay under club supervision until I get back.”

  “Alright, alright,” I laughed. “We’ll take your bike. I guess I’ve compromised your manhood enough for a while, let’s go blow up some bad guys and replenish those testosterone reserves tonight. Thank you, babe, this is the sweetest thing ever.”

  He scowled. “Ever? I got a hundred fucking bikers to ride out to West Virginia with me and escort your ass home from the pen.”

  “Okay, so it’s the second sweetest thing.”

  “Really? I also put together our whole wedding. Well, I had other people put it together, but it was my idea. Do you just forget all this shit as soon as it happens?”

  I smiled and crawled into his lap. “Now you’re just fishing for compliments. Trust me, love, I remember everything.” Gripping his head with both hands and pressing my groin to his, I planted a kiss on his lips.

  The crowd below suddenly grew rowdy. Curious, I pulled my mouth away and tried to look down over the edge of the roof, but he slung his arms around my back and pulled me down. “We’re in the middle of something, pay attention.”

  “So demanding,” I cooed. But as soon as our mouths met again, a familiar sound really grabbed my attention. It was someone revving my old bike. My eyes grew wide and my jaw dropped. “Is that my Busa?” I asked with glee.

  “Goddamn it, I told Biff to wait to get it out.”

  “You’re giving it back?” I asked, probably a little too excited for his liking. To be fair, my Night Rod was a bitchin’ ride, but fuck if I hadn’t missed tearing down an empty road at a hundred and ten miles an hour without worrying about burning up the engine.

  “Hell no, just for today. If you’re gonna go do recon, you should probably take the smallest and quietest ride out.”

  “Yes!” I exclaimed. I kissed him again and jumped up.

  “What the fuck?” he hissed. “I thought you were gonna give me something to remember in case I die tonight.”

  “Oh, shut up, nobody’s dying tonight and it’s a fucking sauna out here. Just let me go touch it and we can squeeze in a quickie inside.”

  He sighed and shook his head. “I’m sticking that fucking thing in the compactor tomorrow.”

  I held out my hand to help him up. “You’re jealous of a motorcycle?”

  “That motorcycle just cockblocked me. Damn right I’m getting rid of it. Fuck that.”<
br />
  “You know you’re just giving me a reason to go ride the shit out of it before you do, right?”

  “Get your ass off this roof before I change my mind.”

  I grinned and made a dash for the ladder, not bothering to wait for him to follow. As soon as my feet hit the ground, I pushed my way through all the bodies and practically drooled as I got to run my fingers along the leather seat.

  “Torch, I think your old lady’s more turned on by that fucking rice burner than you, brother,” Slash from Kansas City crowed.

  “I heard yours is more turned on by a pocket dildo than you, buddy,” Torch shot back, sidling up next to me. “Guess you just don’t measure up.”

  Slash’s sneer turned into a scowl, but he didn’t have a chance to defend his dick before Gauge called out for Torch. “Sheriff’s outside the gate.”

  “Fuck, what now?” Torch huffed. “Let him in.”

  The guys moved out of the way as Sheriff Hiller drove his cruiser through the gate. Torch stood his ground and waited for the gray-haired, frowning old man to come to him. Like most of the local and county cops, he was in the club’s pocket.

  “Torch,” Hiller greeted, extending out his hand.

  Torch shook it. “Sheriff. What can we do for you?”

  “You can tell me what the hell you’re up to, son. The MC seems to have a lot of guests today.”

  “Our brothers were on a run and decided to stop for some food and rest. You got your payment this month, right?”

  Hiller shot me a glance.

  “Liv already knows where you get your extra income,” Torch reminded him. “You helped her cut a deal with the Feds last year, remember? I’m still fucking pissed at you for it, by the way. You want a burger?”

  “No,” Hiller huffed. “Look, Linwood PD may look the other way, but I’ve been around long enough to know when you boys are up to no good. I’m just giving you a friendly reminder to keep whatever shit you’ve got going on out of my county. All of it. Got it?”

  Torch smiled and patted him on the back. “Don’t worry, nobody’s making a mess for you to clean up, we wouldn’t want you to actually have to work for a paycheck. This is just a family get-together, nothing else.”