My Secret To Protect (Forest Falls #4)

1. Club Business

Club Business

Miles Campbell

Thirty-Seven Years Ago

M y stomach was in knots as I sat at the table, surrounded by the brothers I had come to love like my blood, about to tell them I wanted to walk away.

Not much scared or worried me anymore. Being a part of this club didn’t leave a lot of room for that, but this had me bouncing my knee under the table.

‘Miles, there’s something you wanted to discuss.’ Wrecker, the club president, a mean son of a bitch who considered me a second son drew all eyes to me.

I tore my eyes from the insignia on the wall, a skeletal hand holding a black and red rose, the words Bone Roses MC, South Carolina, painted underneath. The same club patch I wore on my back. The same logo I’d tattooed on my skin. ‘Um, yeah… I thought we could discuss this in private first.’

‘Does it affect the club?’

‘It does.’

‘Then it’s club business. Speak up, kid.’

I turned my attention briefly to Mikey, or Viking to most of the people in the room, my best friend since my family moved us to the city from our hometown of Forest Falls when I was fourteen, and the whole reason I was sitting there, a patched in member of a motorcycle club, and he nodded, telling me he had my back.

Taking a deep breath, I steadied myself.

‘I’m going to be a dad.’

The collective whoosh of air, followed by a round of, Congratulations, you son of a bitch I got from around the room, told me they thought that was it—that was all I had to say. I smiled, bumped their fists, accepted their hugs, and then met Wrecker’s eye as he leaned back in his seat.

‘Everybody, sit down.’ They all did but he held held my gaze, a knowing look in his eyes. ‘You’re not done.’

I shook my head. ‘Nah, see, my girl, Lynnie, she doesn’t know much about this life, and I don’t want her to. She’s sweet.’ I couldn’t help the soft smile at the thought of her.

‘Our girls are sweet,’ one of the older guys, Rat, snickered, raising up laughs around the room. The club girls were not sweet, and before I fell for Lynnie, they were happy to show me exactly how not sweet they were, and I was happy to let them.

‘The thing is, Lynnie, she’s from my hometown, and she’s just turned eighteen. She’s this small-town girl I knew when we were kids, but now, man, the second I saw her, I knew I was going to marry her.’

I met Mikey’s eye, and he dropped his gaze. He was there when I ran into Lynnie as we passed through Forest Falls. He saw I was a goner right off the bat, and he had my back, but he didn’t want me to do this, give up my life, the club, him. He had a son, and he understood my need to protect my kids, but the marriage thing, that part he couldn’t quite wrap his head around.

‘So, marry her,’ Wrecker grumbled, and my eyes met his once more.

‘I’m going to, but she’s hours away from here, still in the town I grew up in, and, well, I want my kids to grow up there too. She’s having twins, and I want to be there for them. I want,’ I took a breath and held Wrecker’s gaze, ‘I need out.’

Silence. Eerie, heavy silence chilled me as multiple sets of eyes bounced from Wrecker to me and back again. You didn’t leave the club except in a body bag. I knew this when I patched in. It was for life.

‘Everyone out,’ Wrecker growled, and the men surrounding me stood and started to leave. ‘Viking, sit down.’

Mikey sat and met my eyes as I waited.

‘Body bags, Miles, you know how it is,’ Wrecker said, his voice steady, always dipped in a level of anger.

‘I know.’ I nodded, holding his gaze.

‘Or—’ that one word was low, and I knew this was it, my opportunity to make a deal for a way out.

‘The mayor,’ I added quickly, and Mikey’s head snapped up to look at me. I knew this was going to be my offer, but he didn’t. The mayor was a local politician by day and the piece of shit crime lord by night. Drugs, weapons, girls, you name it, he trafficked it, and his work had made him an enemy of the club.

‘That’s not a job for you, kid.’ Wrecker shook his head and took out a cigarette, raising it to his lips before lighting it and blowing out the first puff of smoke into the already nicotine-stained room.

‘You want it done, so let me do it.’

‘Miles, you’re…’ he held my gaze and then inhaled deeply. Wrecker didn’t show sentimentality, not here, but I knew he saw me like a son.

‘I can do it, but I need something more if I do.’ I glanced at Mikey, and he shook his head. ‘He’s a dirty mother fucker, the kind of criminal with no honor. He beats his wife, pays for sex with fuckin’ kids, and he fucked this club more than once. I want him in the ground as much as you, and I won’t think twice about doing it and making it hurt.’ Wrecker looked to Mikey. ‘ No , I do it alone, just me, but I need to know my family are safe.’

Wrecker blew out more smoke, and my mind drifted to the fact that I couldn’t even smell the cigarette smoke in here anymore.

‘Kid…’

‘You know as well as I do, Wreck, that all it takes is one slip of the tongue, one sloppy drunk, pillow talk with the wrong girl, and my name gets out as the one responsible, and the mayor’s guys will put me down, but not before making me watch them hurt everyone I love, and that vendetta won’t just go away once he’s done. You said it yourself; it took the mayor twenty years to get revenge on that shithead from the Raiders, but he, his fuckin’ crew, they didn’t quit. Even after they got to him, they still went after his kids, and that took them another five. You know my parents, Wreck. I can’t be three hours away from them, raising my babies and just waiting for the news that they’ve been taken.’

‘Viking,’ Wrecker turned his ice blue eyes on Mikey, ‘thoughts.’

‘He can do it,’ my best friend answered without hesitation, and I was grateful. I knew he didn’t like it, but he always had my back.

‘You do this, you send a message. I want it to hurt.’ I nodded, knowing how this needed to be. ‘You do it, and you’re out. You understand what that means, right?’

‘Yeah.’ I nodded again, my attention coming up to Mikey as he inhaled deeply, letting his shoulders rise and fall.

‘I send a message. I get out. You make sure none of this touches my family, and I stay gone.’

‘No contact.’

‘Yep,’ I agreed.

‘You two have been brothers a long time,’ Wrecker pointed out as though it might make me rethink things, and I nodded as I held my best friend’s gaze.

‘Yeah,’ Mikey said, pushing to stand and heading for the door. ‘We always will be.’

I watched him leave the room with a clear head and a heavy heart. I was walking away. For my family, for my babies. I was walking away from this brotherhood I’d grown to treasure and from the best friend I’d depended on for years, and I was selling a piece of my soul to be able to do it.

Leaving hurt, losing Mikey hurt, but I knew, contact or no contact, Mikey Viking Harper would be my brother until I died. I just hoped that day was not coming anytime soon, but if it did, my family would always be safe in his hands. I never believed anything more than I trusted that.