Forever and Always (Texas Knights MC: 2nd Gen #1)

PROLOGUE

SIX YEARS OLD

Z ANE

“Get down here, Zane! Zoey! Get down right now!”

“Lark Forrester! If I have to crawl up there and get you, I’m going to lose my shit!”

Lark giggled before she said, “She won’t come up here. She’s scared of heights.”

“Boys,” Aunt Marie yelled angrily. “You better take your ass back over to that window and go inside, or I swear I’m gonna . . .”

“Where’s my mom?” Diamond asked.

“Did you bring the lighters?” I asked my sister.

“I got one for each of us.”

“We better hurry before they go get our dads,” Esme said as she snatched a lighter from Zoey’s hand and scooted over to her pile.

“My mom’s not down there, guys,” Diamond said worriedly. She stepped a little closer to the edge and looked around before she said, “She’s not anywhere around.”

“Shit! We need to get a move on,” Lark hissed as she turned her attention to her own stack.

“This is gonna be the best fireworks show in town!” Lawson said as he settled down by his small mountain of explosives.

His twin brother was just as excited when he agreed, “I know! It’s gonna be so cool!”

“Hold on. My lighter won’t . . . Okay, I got it!”

I glanced over at Lark before I asked, “Are you ready?”

“Ready!” everyone answered.

“Go!” I yelled as I lit a shell and dropped it into the tube.

I heard the hiss of all the fuses burning at once right before I heard a terrifying voice behind me say, “You have ten seconds to crawl your asses through that window before I throw you off this roof and see how high you bounce!”

“Oh, shit!” Lawson yelled before he took off running with Esme and Lark right behind him.

“But it’s gonna be so pretty!” Zoey argued. “Please, Auntie Willow, can we . . .”

“Don’t you start that ‘Auntie Willow’ shit with me, Zoey Duke. Zane! Diamond! Get inside right . . .”

Aunt Willow’s voice was drowned out by the first loud explosion as I watched Zoey, Fallon, and Diamond sprint past me.

The first fireworks went straight up, but some of the tubes had been knocked over when my friends ran off, and the last mortar shell just so happened to be aimed directly at the bag we’d used to sneak all the fireworks onto the roof.

Jonas was still sitting beside me and grinned as he put his hand up for a high five. I had just slapped his palm when the first firework shot our way. I managed to duck in time, but Jonas wasn’t quite as lucky, and the sparks singed his hair before they started smoldering on his shirt.

We were suddenly jerked backwards, but I didn’t care. As Aunt Willow dragged us back toward the clubhouse window we’d come out of, I could see the beautiful fireworks lighting up the sky.

◆◆◆

COURTNEY

“Let me help you pack some of your clothes.” The lady who had come inside with the police officers took my hand and led me toward my bedroom. “Do you have a favorite stuffed animal you’d like to bring with you?”

“Where’s my mom?”

“She had to go away, sweetie, but there’s a really nice family who you’re going to stay with for a while, okay?”

“I want to go to Grandma’s.”

“Where does your grandma live?” the woman asked as she tugged on my hand to get me to turn and look at her. “Do you know her number?”

I pulled my hand from the woman’s grasp and walked around the pile of dirty clothes in the hallway toward the bedroom my mom shared with her boyfriend. I wasn’t supposed to ever go in there, but I did when they weren’t home, so I knew where to find the papers with everyone’s names on them.

“Courtney, where are you?” the woman called from the hallway.

She was standing in the doorway when I popped out from underneath the bed with the metal box in my hands.

As she walked closer, I set the box on the bed and opened it to find the important papers, but I had to move my mom’s medicine out of the way first. Once the spoons and needles were lying in a pile beside the box, I got the papers out and handed them to her across the bed.

“Can you call my grandma now?”

The woman couldn’t hide the sadness in her eyes, but she tried to smile as she said, “I’ll see if I can find her.”

◆◆◆

FIFTEEN YEARS OLD

ZANE

“How’s my schmoopie?”

I frowned at my mom as she snuggled up beside me and rested her head on my shoulder but took the time to lift the blanket and cover her legs before I reminded her, “You know I hate it when you call me that, Mom.”

“That’s why I quit calling you that in front of other people.”

“I guess that’ll have to do.”

“Sitting here like this brings back so many memories,” Mom said wistfully. “Do you remember the first time you tried to surprise me with breakfast?”

“The year you tried to act happy that I made an effort but were so pissed about the mess I made?”

“I hoped you didn’t notice that. I thought it was the sweetest thing for you to try to do that for me.” Mom chuckled before she admitted, “The memory of what the kitchen looked like when I woke up that morning still makes me cringe. I’m glad you’ve gotten better at making pancakes since then.”

“Did you bring me all the way out here to test my skills?”

“I mean . . .”

“I’m trying to watch my figure, but I think I can choke down a stack or two.”

Mom poked me in the ribs and gave me a lopsided grin before she said, “You’re built like your father and can eat just like he used to.

When you and Zoey first started eating solid foods, I took her to the pediatrician for a checkup.

I wasn’t sure she was getting enough nutrients, because she ate so much less than you did. ”

“She’s always been smaller than me, huh?”

“Your birth weights weren’t all that different, but by the time you could hold your head up, you outweighed her by a few pounds.”

“I still do.”

“I know it makes sense, being that you’re fraternal twins, but it still shocks me when I take the time to look at your differences.”

“Well, she’s a girl, so there’s that.”

Mom rolled her eyes before she said, “You know what I mean, smartass.”

“She’s like you, and I’m like Dad. That’s why you don’t get along with Zoey like you do with me.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah. When you talk to Zoey, it’s like talking to yourself in the mirror, but when you talk to me, it’s like hanging out with Dad.”

“You may be right.”

“I’m always right.”

“You really are a carbon copy of your father.”

“I’ve heard that once or twice before.”

“Thank you for coming to the cabin with me this weekend.”

“We always come up together at least once every fall.”

“I know, but you’re getting older now, and I know it’s not cool to hang out with your mom.”

“I don’t care about that. I like hanging out with you.”

“I like hanging out with you, too, schmoopie.”

“I like it better when you don't call me that.”

◆◆◆

COURTNEY

“That’s the last of the formula,” my younger brother Ben said as he slid a bottle across the table toward me. “Liam and I can hit up a few places tonight and try to pick some up.”

“Don’t sugarcoat it, Bennie. You’re gonna go steal it.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Liam muttered as he stared into the cabinet like food might magically appear.

“If either of you gets busted for stealing, Child Protective Services will get involved and you’ll end up in juvie.

This time, Liam didn’t mutter anything. He smiled at me as he loudly repeated, “Wouldn’t be the first time.”

“I’m gonna make the call. She’s not coming back, and if she does, it won’t be soon enough to make anything better.”

“You can’t call us in, Court! They’ll separate us again.”

“I’ll call and ask if Grandma can come pick us up instead,” I said as I handed the baby to Ben so he could feed him. “Liam, can you keep your eye on Dawson while you swap over the laundry? Maybe we’ll have some clean diapers for Dayton by the time they get here.”

“At least they'll have real diapers in foster care.”

“Shut up!” Ben snapped, upsetting the baby in his arms. He smiled down at our youngest brother and then sighed before he said, “If Grandma can make it within a few days, I’ll figure out how to cover another can of formula.”

“I’ll get one while I’m at the store using the phone.”

My brothers didn’t argue with me, because what else was there to say?

We either stole formula or the baby went hungry.

We’d already started feeding him solid food even though the books I got at the library said it was too early, but we had run out of instant mashed potatoes yesterday, so we didn’t even have that for him.

I sprinted to the store so I could get out of the cold.

The last time our mom disappeared, when Dayton was only a few weeks old, it had been early spring, so the boys and I hadn’t needed our coats.

I took them down to the resale and exchange place for a few dollars with the thought that we could go to the thrift store and find some more as soon as Mom came back.

But, as always, when she came back with a million excuses and a new boyfriend, there wasn’t enough money for coats.

She promised we’d have some before school started in the fall, but then we moved, she never got around to getting us registered in our new district, and then she disappeared again.

She’d been gone for almost a month this time.

Considering the stack of bills piling up in the basket on the counter, my guess was that the utilities were about to be shut off.

We’d seen the landlord poking around outside and assumed we were about to be evicted anyway.

And all that meant was that if, by some miracle, she did come home tonight, we’d still be screwed.

She might shell out the money for some formula, but we’d have to move again.

If we didn’t, then we’d have to live without other basic necessities like water, heat, and electricity.

“Fuck that bitch. I hate her,” I muttered as I picked up the receiver of the pay phone and started the process of making a collect call.