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“Well, someone needs to tell the Ghosts that then, but I’m betting that they don’t give a fuck about any upcoming holiday,” he said. “We’re going someplace safe where we can come up with a plan to take care of the Ghosts, once and for all.” She stepped free from the cage and smiled up at him.
“Smartass,” she mumbled under her breath. “Let’s just get out of here and then, you can fill me in and boss me around. It will be just like any workday, really,” she teased.
“Now who’s being a smart ass?” Brandon asked. “Listen, I know that none of this is ideal and that you didn’t sign up for any of it, but it’s just not safe here. How about I promise to try to have you home before Christmas? Will you agree to my plan then?” he asked.
She shrugged, “Sure,” she said. Honestly, spending Christmas with Brandon seemed like a dream to her. She had fantasized about being locked away in a cabin or lost on a secluded beach with him frequently. Having to hide away with him and spend her favorite holiday with Brandon seemed too good to be true to her.
“Great, follow me out of here then. Here,” he said, handing her a gun, “Watch our six.”
“Right,” Maven agreed. It was good to not be playing the victim for the first time in days. If Brandon wanted her to leave town, she would. Maven trusted him with her life, and that would never change, no matter who was coming for them.
Mistletoe and Mayhem (Royal Bastards MC Book 9) Universal Link ->https://books2read.com/u/boy68Z
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Sydney
Sydney Joy wasn’t sure how it all happened. One minute, she was standing at the end of the aisle staring up at the man she was about to marry, and the next, it felt as though her entire life was over. Tony was the love of her life, her partner in crime, and the person she was supposed to spend the rest of her life with. But then he said the words that stopped her world—“I’m sorry, I can’t.”
Sydney felt confused and lost. She wanted to ask him what it was that he couldn’t do, but she already knew. He had left her at the altar. Sydney was a jilted bride and instead of being her happily ever after, Tony left her feeling bitter and alone. The last thing she wanted was to be bitter about being left by the man she loved, but she was finding it hard to make her way back from the darkness that he left in her soul.
She had spent the next two weeks, sobbing uncontrollably, trying to piece together what happened, and paying for the wedding that never happened. She couldn’t let her father bear the brunt of those bills. This mess wasn’t his fault. Honestly, if she could find Tony, she would have had him paying for the chaos that he left for her to take care of, but no one seemed to know where he’d run off to. That was so unlike him. Tony was usually her rock—the one that she’d call when she needed someone to lean on. Maybe she was wrong about him this whole time because when she needed him most, he was nowhere to be found. He had left her without a shoulder to lean on and that hurt the most.
There were so many days that she had something happen, in the past two weeks, that she wanted to call him to tell him about it. Sydney would even pick up her cell phone and call him, only to have her call rejected or sent directly to voicemail. That was probably for the best because if he had answered, she wasn’t sure what she would have said to him. How could she know what to say to the man who broke her heart and left her without even a second thought?
Her dad was sitting in the kitchen, holding a white envelope, when she got home from work that evening. “What do you have there, Pop?” she asked. She and her father had lived together since her mother passed when she was a teenager. Tony was supposed to move into their house with them, so as not to upset her father’s routine too much. He was in the early stages of dementia and her Pop didn’t do well with change. A move would have been too much for him and the only way that she could ensure his easy transition after she and Tony married was to have him move in with them. He seemed fine with it too. Her father liked the fact that he’d be able to stay in the house that he had lived in for over thirty years and she and Tony liked that they’d be able to live rent-free and save some money for their future.
“It’s for you,” her father said, sliding it across the table to the empty seat next to him.
“Who’s it from?” she asked. She picked it up and studied it. “There’s no address or anything.”
“It’s from me,” he said. “I think you need a break, and well, that will help.” Her father nodded to the envelope, and she opened it. He’d shoved some cash in it, a set of keys, and a sticky note with an address scratched on it, in his handwriting.
“What’s all this, Pop?” she asked.
“The cash is for food and gas,” he said. “The key is so that you can get into the house. It belonged to your grandparents. They left the house to your mother and well, she left it to you when she passed. I was waiting for the right time to tell you about it. I was going to give it to you as a wedding present. You know, a place that you and Tony could go to get away from here when things got to be too much.”
“Dad,” she whispered. “Mom left me a house?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said. “Although I could hardly give it to you when you were sixteen. Could you imagine the parties that you would have thrown there? I did the responsible thing and held onto it for you until the right time, I thought that your wedding day might be that time, but I ended up being wrong.”
“A house,” she said to herself. How had she not known about her mother owning her grandparent’s house? Her mother didn’t mention them very much. They had both died when she was a young woman. That was something that she and her mother now had in common—losing a parent as a young girl. Her mother was pregnant with her when both of her parents passed. When she asked her mother about them, she simply said, “They’re gone now,” and that was it. As if that would explain what had happened to the both of them.
“It’s not perfect,” he said. “We used to take you up to the house when you were still little. Your mother tried to keep up with the care of the property, but it got to be too much for me after she was gone. I’m sure that the place will need some fixing up.”
“What about you, Pop?” she asked.
“I’ve called your aunt Jane and she said that I can come over and hang out with her on the days that you’re up at the house. I think it might be good for us both to spend some time apart. I don’t ever want to be a burden to you, Sydney,” he said. “And with everything that happened between you and Tony, I feel that’s all I am now, and it’s time that I did something about it. Besides, I’d like to spend some time with my sister. Neither of us is getting any younger, you know?”
“Pop,” she breathed, “you’re not a burden to me. You’ve never been a burden. What happened between me, and Tony has nothing to do with you.”
“Still, I think that it might be good for you to go up to the place for a week or so—you know, assess what you’ll need to do and what you want to do next. Take a week or two and spend some time up there.”
“Are you sure, Pop?” she asked. “I really am fine.” She was lying. She hadn’t been okay since Tony walked out of the church, leaving her to have to face their guests all alone and try to explain what had happened. She didn’t even know what was going on, yet there she was, standing in front of everyone trying to make them all feel better about what had happened to her life.
“Liar,” her father teased. “Just do it, honey.”
“All right,” Sydney agreed, not really up for a fight. “I’ll do it.” She wasn’t sure that she was up for an adventure, but for her dad, she’d try.
