Page 91 of Hard Corps (Selected Sinners MC 7)

CHAPTER FORTY

Summer 2015, Austin, Texas, USA

Regardless of my attempts to separate myself mentally or physically from my family, they were, and would always remain, my flesh and blood. No amount of effort, or lack of the same, would ever be able to break that bond.

I stared at the text message, reluctant to respond, but fully knowing I needed to.

It’s dad. Wherever you are, you need to come home. He’s bad.

As much as I despised some of the decisions my father had made, he was still my father. He was the man I once admired, and always looked up to. He was the one who taught me how to shoot a rifle, how to hunt, and how, at least initially, to defend myself. He made his values my values, and instilled a belief system within me that allowed me to become a hero in the eyes of many and a remarkable man in the eyes of at least one woman.

“Who was it?” she asked.

I glanced up from my phone and gazed blankly in her direction. The possibilities of what could have happened to him were running through my head, and it wasn’t so much that I didn’t want to face him, I really didn’t want to face the problem – or the unmistakable truth that he was getting older.

“Huh?” I murmured.

“Your phone. You didn’t answer. Who called?” she asked.

“My sister,” I said.

“Oh,” she said, narrowing her eyes slightly.

“I guess I knew you had a sister, but…”

“I need to call her back, she sent me a text message,” I said.

“Is everything okay?” she asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. “Hard to say with her.”

I pressed redial, and paced the floor as the phone rang. Four rings into the call, and one ring away from me hanging up, and she answered.

“Alec?” she asked. “Is that you?”

“Who else would it be?” I asked sarcastically. “So what happened?”

“He had another heart attack. His COPD is pretty bad and his heartbeat is irregular. They uhhm. They said if you want to see him alive, you better get here in in the next few hours,” she said.

“They don’t know shit,” I snapped back.

“Alec, he’s at the heart hospital. Galicia. A specialist has been assigned to him. He’s had a lot more heart attacks than you’re aware of, and he’s had all the bypasses they can give him. They were talking about an ablation, but they don’t think he’ll live through the procedure. It’s complicated. Come home,” she said softly.

After my second tour, she had given me her promise to keep her son. Raising him without a husband certainly wasn’t an easy task for her, but it wasn’t impossible, either. After giving up on herself and her ability to raise him without assistance, she had moved back in with my father. Before my tour ended, he talked her into giving the child up for adoption.

I’d never forgiven her for doing so, and I had my doubts as to whether or not I would ever be able to. Since I turned my back on her and my father, it wasn’t uncommon for her to stretch the truth regarding my father’s medical condition – all in an effort to get me to be closer to her – and to him.

“I am home, Alicia. I live in Texas now. I tell you what. I’ll drive up there, but if this is another one of your bullshit…”

“The doctor’s given him a few hours to live, Alec. I don’t know how long it will take you to get here, but if it takes too long, I’m afraid…”

“Be there in eight hours,” I said.

And I hung up the phone.