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1
Dodge
Life went on, day in and day out, like I hadn’t had my heart ripped from my chest after my girl was taken from me. I couldn’t draw in a single breath without my lungs burning. Sleep was pointless. All I did was dream about them: Emilee and my son.
I’d been going through the motions of living without them, filled with anger, sadness, and hate. I hated everyone in this goddamn club, the town, in the world… even my uncle Raul, who’d taken me in all those years ago. I hated him for keeping me on a short leash, and I hated my cousin Track for babysitting me. It was like they couldn’t trust me. Hypocrites, they were, after everything that had happened in the last year. Hell, in my whole life.
Then there was my president, who’d ordered me to stay away from Emilee or he’d lock my ass up in the quiet room, where unstable brothers went until they calmed down. There hadn’t been anyone to go there since I’d been a member of Knight’s Legion. Storm might as well have threatened the dungeon. I felt like the enemy, like I was tortured daily by my so-called brothers.
Why not just get it over with and kill me like the evil bastards we never let see the light of day again?
This was supposed to be my club. My crew. My brothers.
Some family.
As a member of the Knight’s Legion MC, we lived by a code. We respected and obeyed our president and each other. And I had, even though it fucking killed me.
Bitterness flooded my veins as I took in the festivities around me. A couple of bonfires blazed off to the side behind the clubhouse. It was the middle of July. It was the first summer party we’d had this season.
Many of the brothers had gone to Vegas for Boxer and Snow’s wedding on a private plane Prez had chartered a few weeks ago.
Not me. I had stayed behind with my babysitter, Track. I’d been in a bad way since I’d found out my son was born at the end of April. Then Madeline had had her baby a month later. I’d dreaded the day Storm brought home his bundle of joy.
Sure enough, I’d gone off the rails the first time I saw Prez cooing at his baby girl, holding her protectively in his arms. I’d drunk myself into the toilet that night, then spent my days away from the clubhouse as much as possible to avoid the happy family.
With each passing day, my respect for Storm and the club as a whole dwindled. They didn’t have my back as I had theirs. They should’ve been outraged over Justin taking Emilee and my child away from me.
What the fuck were they thinking?
Justin had turned in his cut. He’d bolted after the shit with the Dirty Hunters, turning his back on the club. I honestly understood his over-the-top response. He could’ve lost his only daughter. Emilee was all he had left after his wife had lost her battle with breast cancer.
It’d killed me when he took my girl away, but I’d listened to Storm and my uncle. Trusted them when they said Justin would eventually come to his senses. Eleven months later, nothing had changed.
Justin wasn’t a KLMC member anymore. But did it matter? Fuck no.
Almost a year later, I questioned why I was doing as I was told. Why I’d let a man take my pregnant girlfriend away from me. Why I’d let my so-called “family” tell me what to do regarding my girl and son.
Why, why, why?
I swept my tired eyes around the backyard. We were celebrating Copper getting patched, Ire’s promotion to enforcer, and Storm and Maddy’s baby girl, Melody—or ratherBirdieas Storm called her.
I searched for the baby in the crowd and found her in her daddy’s arms. She wasalwaysin his arms when I was around. It was probably a coincidence, though it felt like a slap in the face. Storm had been the happiest I’d ever seen him after Birdie’s birth. When she was in his arms, he looked at peace.
However, calmness didn’t mean he wouldn’t tear a person to shreds if they dared to harm his wife or child or his brothers and club. Prez would release his inner savage and destroy anyone and everything in his path like a category five hurricane. His protectiveness was something I’d admired. There was a time I’d wanted to be like him. Not anymore.
I viewed the scene before me with a beer in hand, biting down on my back molars. This party was more like a gathering, a large family get-together. It all left a sour taste in my mouth.
Twinkling lights illuminated the gazebo, where I was sure Prez’s Angel would grace us with her phenomenal voice. Karaoke became a thing here at the clubhouse on weekends and at parties. Some kittens even participated, shaking their asses in their bootie shorts. Prez had forbidden them to dress in bikinis when his baby girl was present. I’d overheard him telling Hero that the party could get raunchy like our previous orgies after the kids left—kids meaning Prez’s baby, of course, and my little cousins Raymond and Valerie.
The kids ran around wild, blowing bubbles and jumping on a bounce house. Since I arrived five years ago, there hadn’t ever been an inflatable toy that wasn’t a woman my brothers had dicked around with. A bounce house was a sure sign the club was changing.
I dropped my chin to my chest. It hurt to see Storm kiss Birdie’s head, rubbing his hand up and down her back. I had no idea what it was like to hold such a tiny person against my chest or cradled in my arms.
Fuck, my heart ached.
I didn’t even know what my son looked like. The day he was born, Raul had come to me late in the evening. He’d put his hand on my shoulder, squeezed it firmly, and said, “Emilee had the baby this morning. Congratulations, you have a healthy son.” He didn’t tell me anything else.
I hadn’t heard any other information about my child since his birth. I had no idea what Emilee had named him. We’d never got the chance to talk about names.
