Ryker by Jeneveir Evans
Chapter 6
I like to think that I’ve got determination, and I’m fiercely protective of the people I love.
~Andrew Lincoln~
Ryker
September 25th, 1999
South Dakota
It had been over four months since Bane was here and I wanted to see my son again. A big part of me wanted to see Deb too. Realistically, I knew I didn’t stand a chance with her, yet a small piece of me held onto hope. Hope that one day she would forgive me and let me make her mine finally.
One thing I wanted more than anything was to get to know Bane better, I’d also love to get to know Leigh if she would let me. Bane and I had been texting every day, sometimes on and off all day. I think we both needed the contact with each other. I didn’t want to lose my son and he didn’t want to lose his dad.
Thinking about how his demon tormented him because of his lack of knowledge about me, seriously made my heart hurt. I knew, all too well, how those fucking voices could damn near drive you insane with their insidious and incessant ramblings.
Thoughts have been hounding me for the past week that I needed to be where Bane was. I wasn’t sure what to do either. My life was here, although I had to admit that for many years it wasn’t the life I wanted to live anymore. The MC had become something I no longer enjoyed being a part of. It was a fucking chore, one I damn sure didn’t want to do.
King had always had the club into illegal shit. He’d catered to the men’s desire for money, alcohol, and women. The most lucrative way to get all of that was selling contraband. When I was a younger man that was exciting, but now that I’m older, I’ve gotten to where I wanted to be away from it all.
I’d never thought about the dangers and consequences running illegals could have when it was just me, but when I started having kids, I’d thought about it enough to try to get out of the club, only King wasn’t having it. He’d told me the only way I was getting out was when I quit breathing.
When Tor wanted to prospect, I had tried my damnedest to convince him not to, but I hadn’t been successful. He’d had stars in his eyes. He wanted to be like his old man and be a biker. After watching him prospect, then patch in, it had hit me hard that he could go to prison for life if he was caught doing the shit that I had spent my life doing. This was my son and I didn’t want to see him wind up behind bars. I was afraid we’d all end up behind bars, if not dead, if the club continued down the path King was taking it.
While he was here, Bane had told me about ARMC. He’d talked about the Prez and the VP. I’d never heard of Mad Dog, but I’d been shocked as hell when I heard who their VP was. I actually knew Viper well and considered him to be a close friend. I’d met him one year when our clubs had gotten together at Sturgis. Then I’d had numerous dealings with him when he was in Spawns of Satan MC.
I’d questioned Bane endlessly about how Viper had managed to get away from SoS. After hearing how he had gotten himself, his family, and some of his men and their families away from the MC, I had seriously started thinking about ways of getting us away from Hell’s Retribution.
The more I thought about it, the stronger my determination became to find some plausible way of doing that for Tor and myself. I also needed to check with my best friend Brawn to see if he would want to leave too. Hell, now that I think about it, there were several men who would want to go with me if I could figure out some way of getting away from King and the MC. Fuck, they would all want to go to another club. I would either need to start a new MC or find one to patch into.
Dammit, I was tired as hell. This shit was spinning like crazy in my head, not letting me get much sleep. I’d been dissatisfied for so long and meeting Bane had brought everything to a head. I took a long drink of my beer as I stared at the James River flowing slowly as it wove its way through the countryside. I heard the door open and close, then Tor passed in front of me carrying two beers. He set one down on the table between my chair and the one he sat down on.
“Missing him, aren’t you?” Tor asked as he opened his beer. He raised his bottle and took a long swallow.
“Needed more time with him, Tor.”
“Understand that, Dad. I think we all feel that way.”
I glanced at my son. “You really mean that?”
“Yeah, Dad. I actually found it kinda cool to have an older brother. A couple days wasn’t enough time to get to know him.”
“When he first arrived I asked him to join HRMC. That was before I knew he was in an MC.”
“Fuck, Dad. You wouldn’t want him to do that anyway.”
I turned to look at Tor. “Got something you want to tell me?”
He grimaced.
“Dad, been thinking about things for a while now. Wished I’d listened to you when you tried to get me not to prospect. Taron is going to want to prospect soon and, Dad, I don’t want him to. He doesn’t need to be in this shit. It’s steadily getting worse.”
“If I could find a way out for us, would you want to go?”
He snapped his head around and stared at me.
“You’d leave?” he asked incredulously.
“Yeah, I’d leave. I tried to leave when y’all were kids. King told me the only way that was happening is if I was dead. The last several years while I’ve wanted to go, I couldn’t seem to find the motivation, now, I have. I hate saying this Tor because I don’t mean for it to sound like your brothers, sister and you weren’t enough to get my ass in gear but Bane being here fired that up fast. He brought everything that has been weighing heavily on my mind to the forefront. Son, as a matter of fact, there are several reasons I want out of this nest of snakes. Only thing is, I’m not sure what we would do. Start a new club or try to find one to patch into?”
“I know Bane is one reason, what’s the others?”
“You, Taron, Raiden, and Bronte. I want all of you far away from this fucking town and from the fucking club. Been worried, Tor. Worried that you’re gonna go to prison, or worse, end up dead. That scares the shit out of me, son.”
“Yeah, I’ve been thinking the same thing a lot lately.” He took another pull off his beer while I finished mine and grabbed the extra he brought out. I quickly opened it and downed half of it.
“Would you want to go to Arkansas?” he asked curiously.
“If I said yes, would that bother you?”
“No, Dad. It wouldn’t bother me. If anything, it would get us far away from this shit that King wants to get the club involved in. As it is, the drugs, guns, and running women have been bad enough. I’ve always hated how he treats females. All a member has to do is say something negative about a club whore and King has them put into his prostitution stable.”
“Yeah, I’ve never liked how King treats women either. To him they're nothing more than chattel. I know I’m probably the biggest asshole around by not wanting to do anything more than bust a nut in a woman, but I can say I haven’t ever mistreated any woman I’ve been with. They all know going into it that all I want is a quick fuck and nothing more.”
“Same, Dad.”
“You’d really go?” he questioned again. I heard the shock in his voice.
“Yeah, I would.”
I heard him blow out a deep breath. I knew something was bothering him. I’d known it for the past month or so and I had my suspicion what was preying on his mind.
“Gotta be truthful, Dad. I’m not gonna start trafficking human flesh. I’m not some sick bastard who wants to kidnap, rape, torture, then sell broken kids. They’ll have to kill me first.”
“Same, Tor. I’m not doing it. I’ve spent just about every waking hour that I wasn’t working, or doing something for the club, trying to figure a way out of this mess.”
“Yeah, me too. Any luck coming up with anything?”
“I’ve got ideas but nothing concrete. It will get ugly, Tor.”
“I can handle ugly if it will get us out of the club and away from this area.”
“How do you think Bronte, Taron and Raiden would feel?” I queried.
“You know wherever we go, Bronte’s going. Taron and Raiden might be a little worried about leaving Trina, but they would both want to be with us.”
As if they knew we were talking about them, the front door opened and all three of my youngest children walked out onto the porch.
“What’s going on, Dad?” Bronte questioned quietly as she sat at my feet. Taron and Raiden leaned against the rail in front of the chairs Tor and I were sitting on.
“Been doing a lot of thinking lately.”
“Yeah, we’ve noticed.” Raiden stated as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Ever since Bane left, your mind has been hundreds of miles away.”
I grimaced. “Sorry, guys. I hope you don’t think I’m ignoring you.”
“Nah, Dad,” Taron muttered. “We all know you’re worried about Bane. We know he struggles with demons like you and I do.”
“I’ll admit that’s some of it.”
“What else is on your mind, Dad?” Raiden asked.
“This shit that King is trying to get the club involved in has my asshole puckered up so tight you couldn’t wedge a toothpick up it with a hammer.”
“Gross, Dad.”
Bronte stuck her finger in her mouth and faked a gag. I grinned wickedly at her.
Taron studied my face before asking, “It’s pretty bad then, huh?”
“Yeah, son. It’s one of the worst things a person can get involved in. I have no desire to do it nor does Tor.”
All three of my youngest children looked at my grim expression and winced.
“Will everything be okay, Dad?” Bronte wanted to know.
“I’m working on it, baby girl. Your old man will figure something out.”
She looked into my eyes, searching for how bad the situation really was. I’d always had a hard time keeping shit from her. I swore she was a soothsayer. She frowned then shook her head at me as she reached for my left hand. She laced her fingers through mine and I squeezed hers gently.
Bronte questioned softly, “Dad, do you think about his mom?”
“Yeah, a lot. Why, I don’t know. It’s been so long and she was so hurt that there isn’t any way she would want to have anything to do with me now. Guys, I really wounded that woman with what went down that day. If she’d wanted me to know about Bane and Leigh, she knew how to find me and she chose not to, that pretty much says it all right there. Besides, we are different people than we were twenty-eight years ago.”
“If you had a chance with her, Dad, would you take it?” Raiden queried.
“Hell, yes, I would. She meant the world to me and I fucked that shit up bad.”
“Dad,” Tor began, “we’ve all talked about it. If there is any way we can move to Arkansas and be close to Bane, let’s figure out how to do it.”
I was shocked as shit that my kids had already discussed moving. I hadn’t realized I’d been showing my emotions that much.
“You all would be willing to leave? Because I’m not going if all of you aren’t with me.”
“Gotta admit, it will be kinda hard leaving Mom, Dad.” Raiden's voice was husky. I could tell the idea upset him. “But we all know you haven’t been happy in the club for a while now. Tor’s not happy there either. We know what’s going down. We know King is trying to push trafficking kids. That’s not you, Dad. It never will be either. I want to be in a club one day, but I don’t want to be in one that does that shit.”
“Me too. Tor talked to me about how bad it was and that he wished he’d never joined. Between that and knowing how unhappy you are there convinced me not to prospect,” Taron added.
“Bronte, how do you feel about all of this?”
“Dad, I’m not in a relationship with anyone. I really don’t even have close friends. I’ll be fine wherever we end up.”
I felt a little bit of the weight that had been holding me down, lighten.
“I’ll talk to Trina soon and see where her head’s at with all of this,” I informed the kids. I saw the relief that crossed over their faces. I didn’t want them to think that I had planned to leave their mom behind.
“Dad, I’m sure some of the brothers would want to leave too,” Tor commented.
“Yeah, thought that as well. I’ve got to figure out what the hell we can do. We need a way of leaving that doesn’t include a pine box and preferably without a beatdown. We need to know who all would go without King finding out this shit. He hears anything about this and he’d have us killed, Tor. We need to have a set plan on what we’re going to do to get out of this fucking mess. We also need to figure out if we want to start a club or try to find one to patch into,” I told my kids.
“Dad,” Bronte began hesitantly, “what about ARMC? Do you think they might possibly let you patch over there?”
“I’ve thought about that, but I’m not sure it would work out, baby girl. While they’re a 1%’er club, they’ve never done the illegal shit that I’ve done. Not sure how they would feel about taking a man like me.”
Tor looked at me searchingly. “Would you want to patch over there if we could?”
“I’d need to see the place, Tor. Talk to the Prez and the men there. See what type of club they are.”
“Viper’s there, Dad. He knows you. He knows me. He knows the type of men we are. Hell, he’s done some of the same shit we’ve done,” Tor stated.
“You’re right. Viper’s recommendation would probably be the only way we could get ARMC to even consider letting us patch over.”
“Is there any way you can talk to him?” Tor asked.
“I don’t know if I should try to talk to him and the Prez together or what. I don’t want to immediately get off on the wrong foot with Mad Dog. Let me think about it.”
“Alright, Dad. Just keep us in the loop,” Taron uttered as he stood up. “Raid and I thought we’d run get some pizza for dinner. That sound okay?”
“Yeah, that works.”
~*~
I laid in bed that night trying to figure out how the hell I could make this work. I needed to think of a way to get us out of the situation we were in. I didn’t tell the kids because I didn’t want to disappoint them, but I had a feeling that I’d done too much bad shit for an MC like Angel’s Rebellion to allow me to join, much less walk through their doors.
~***~