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“Cannon, Breaker, Griller. Hang back a second.” I’ll give these three a heads-up to be on their guard where Bandit is concerned.

As the last of the brothers leaves, Cannon closes the door.

“We’ve already discussed it, Pres. Construction has more than enough work to keep another brother busy, and if they don’t, the storage facility always needs units cleaned and prepped for the next customer. We’ll get Bandit out of harm's way for a while and see if that cools him down,” Griller tells me. He and Breaker would be the ones to tackle any discipline issues, so I’m not surprised that they’ve had their heads together already, and come up with something to defuse the bomb that is Bandit. As they turn to leave there’s a commotion from the rec room, and they may have been too late.

*~* Fury *~*

Leaving church, I know Bandit is watching me. I can feel his eyes burning into my back. I know he isn’t going to accept my explanation and let this drop. Well, that’s his problem, not mine, unless he wants to push it, and then I’ll be more than happy to oblige.

When I lay claim to Jamie, he’s going to have to suck it up, because I’m not going to have him sticking his nose into our business every five minutes.

She saved his life once. I get it, I really do. That’s not something you forget. I don’t see him doing much in return right now about the problem of seeing she stays safe, except being blinded by his fixation with keeping me away from her.

Walking across the rec room, I‘m torn between a cold beer or a hot coffee, when I can almost feel his hot breath on my neck.

“Stay away from her, Fury. She doesn’t need an asshole like you in her life.” I think he was trying to say that quietly as a threat, but just about everyone in the room heard it.

Turning to face him, I feel my blood start to boil, and I know he’s pushed me too far. “You need to walk away right now, Bandit. You’ve had your say once too often now, and I’m done listening to your shit. You’re not her father, her brother, her lover, or her keeper. Right now, you’re not even lifting a finger to protect her. What the fuck are you going to do when I claim her and she’s my old lady?” Knowing full well that this will tip him over the edge, I’m prepared for it when he throws down on me.

His punch misses by a hair's breadth as I dodge it, and the second one is only a glancing blow. Laughing at him and pushing him in the chest has the desired effect of him getting angrier and angrier. He’s lost all sense now, and it’s easy for me to land a crashing blow to his chin. I put every bit of frustration and anger into that punch, and he drops to the floor as if he had a glass jaw.

Stepping away from him, I go to the kitchen and get a coffee. As I walk back, heading for Pres’s office, I see Saddle and Vortex lifting Bandit, still unconscious. Breaker, Cannon, and Griddle appear from church and as I walk past them I state, “It was self-defense. Plenty of witnesses. I’ll be in Pres’s office giving him my statement if you want me.”

As I step into the corridor where all the offices are, Pres steps out of church. He looks at me questioningly, and I just nod towards his office. I’m confident that he knows what just went down, and if he’s not? Bite me!

Chapter 14

*~* Thorn *~*

Meeting with Ghost was a lot easier than I expected. Making the call to arrange it had been far harder. I don’t know how many times I picked my cell up and then backed out. You’d think not being face to face would involve less stress, but not in my case. Maybe having made the decision the meeting part just came naturally. God, I don’t know, however, the meeting went well.

We arranged to meet at the diner outside of town because it was the most neutral place we could think of between us. That was a good start, as we both wanted it to be somewhere the other would feel comfortable. We chose the quiet time between breakfast and lunch so there would be fewer people around, and although there were more than I had anticipated, we found a quiet corner and no one sat so close as to be a nuisance. I think a lot of that had to do with Ghost’s cut and his glare, if I’m honest.

I asked him to explain the whole leaving me with his friend, the money, his expectations thing all over again, and this time I forced myself to listen and not interrupt or let myself get carried away by my own version of events. When he’d finished, I sat quietly for a few moments reflecting on things from his perspective. I can’t say that I would have done things the same. I’d like to think that I wouldn’t go off and leave my kid in the first place, but I can’t be one hundred percent sure of that. You do what you think is best at the time and have to live with that decision.

Wow. I think I’m growing up! I don’t like the whole ‘go off to rescue others and dump your own family’ thing, but Ghost did save a lot of women's lives in the process. While I sat here and digested the facts in this new frame of mind, I saw the tension in Ghost and had another lightbulb moment. How hard must it have been to walk away from your own kid?

Putting things in perspective, if he had it to do over, could he have done it any better? Choice of person, he has said that he trusted the guy with his life. They served together and were brothers in more than blood. Is there anyone whom you would trust more?

Financially, he has never stated the amount he left, but he obviously thought it would be sufficient if there were plans for me to go to college. Maybe it was such an amount that it turned his friend's head? Surely Ghost would have known him better than that?

I realize I’m just going over everything in my head that Ghost has just said, but that’s way more than I’ve done since he walked back into my life. I’ve been so convinced for so long that my bastard of a father just dumped me, this new information I’m finally processing has me seeing things differently. I am so glad that Fury came in for a trim and told me a little of his story.

“So where was I supposed to grow up then? Where did your friend live? Don’t tell me I was supposed to move to LA and live the dream life at the beach.” I smile at the thought of being some tanned Adonis. Oh my lord, I don’t see myself in that life.

“Sorry, son. Nothing as glamorous as that. He lived right here in town. Well, not in town. He had a place a few miles out. A small farm where he lived with his daughter. She was your age, and the idea was that you’d become part of the family. I expected that you would work alongside them, not become an unpaid farmhand. I never in a million years expected that I was abandoning you to your own devices.” I see the sadness in his eyes and the droop of his shoulders where the tension was earlier.

“Have you been to see him yet?” I ask.

“Honestly, I’ve been afraid to face him. Not in fear of him, but in fear of what I’d do to him. It will have to come to it sooner or later, but will it make any difference at the end of the day? I know you’ve suffered unfairly, and I wish I’d put something in place to keep a check on you. I was afraid that if I were caught, that something might have led back to you. It was all part of keeping you safe.”

“I understand that now. I never took a second to look at it from any perspective other than what I saw as my abandonment. I should have had more faith, I guess.”

“Faith in what, though? I was serving as you were growing up. Spent more time in the service of my country than I spent in the service of my family. Your momma wasn’t the person I thought she was, and that too could be my fault for never being around for more than a month in any twelve. What kind of life was I expecting her to have?”

“Well, I think it’s time we moved forward and started to get to know each other as adults, as friends and as family. What do you say?”

“I think that would be a hell of an idea. Let’s have another coffee and some pie to celebrate.”