Chapter Thirty-One
Aspen
I paced the main room of the clubhouse. The men had been gone for hours. Grace was here. Johnny brought her in, and she sat at the bar muttering about high-handed men.
I wasn’t listening.
That wasn’t strictly true. I wasn’t listening to the chaos around me, but my ears were tuned to the outside. Waiting to hear the rumble of the bikes returning. I needed Banshee to come home. Safe and unharmed.
“Aspen, honey, come sit down.”
“No,” I answered, continuing to pace.
“Aspen, I know you worried—”
“Do you, Mother? Do you know how worried I am? Do you even know anything about me?”
“That’s not fair—”
I spun around at my sister’s words. “Fair? You want to talk about fair?” I looked around the room and walked over to Beck.
“You see this woman? She didn’t grow up with her father.
She didn’t know anything about him until she moved back here and found out he was the sheriff.
That was at her grandmother’s funeral. And why did her mother keep her from him?
Because his brother was in a club. Is that fair? ”
I moved to stand by Ellie. “This woman lost her brother for a decade, only to find him when she came here to do a book release. Again, because he was in the club.
“Melissa isn’t here, but she lost her brother because of the club. He thought he was doing right by her. Another man who doesn’t ask the woman what she fucking wants.”
I looked around. “Kytten and Mimic aren’t here.
But they are both in a club. It was because of a club that they were lost to us.
Why Diana was lost to us. I had to hide because of a club.
Is that fair? None of this is fair. Grace was hurt because of a club.
And it all stems from you, Mother. You and your secrets! ”
“IRENE ELIZABETH COOPER!” my father bellowed.
Diesel rushed to my side, inching in front of me, snarling and snapping at my father.
“You will not speak to my wife that way,” he growled.
“My. Name. Is. Aspen.”
“Lucas, don’t.” My mother moved in front of him. “She is an adult; she is allowed to speak her mind. Her truth.”
“Not at your expense.”
“She isn’t wrong, though.” My mother turned around and faced me. “You’re right. My secrets got us here. I can’t take them back. I can admit that what I did... the choices I made were for me. But they were for you three as well. If anyone had known who you were—”
“What mother? What would have happened if they’d known? We’d have been kidnapped like Diana was? Like Mimic was? We’d have been tortured like Mimic? Used as a pawn like I was? Beaten like I was? Please tell me how our lives would have been different if we’d known who you were related to?”
I crossed my arms over my chest and waited for her to answer.
“I can’t change anything. I wish to God I could. I was sixteen when I left home. I had no one until I met your father, and together, we made a choice. When my uncle came looking for me, we made the only choice we could to keep myself and my children safe.”
“But we weren’t safe. I haven’t felt safe a day in my life since Diana disappeared. And it only got worse after I got married. I still don’t feel safe. Not without Banshee.”
My father scoffed, and I glared at him. “If he’s so awful, why did you offer me to him?”
“Your mother made me do it.”
“Lucas!”
“What is he talking about?” I stared at my mother. The look on her face was pure guilt.
“Can we talk somewhere private, Sugar?”
“No,” I said and pinned her with a glare. “What does he mean?”
My mother closed her eyes and blew out a breath. When she opened them, her guilt was gone, and her expression was one of cool resolve.
“I meddled.”
“Mom!” Diana gasped beside me.
“Meddled how?”
My mother turned and glared at my father. “Asshole.”
“I’m not going down alone, Rosebud.”
With another heavy sigh, my mother confessed, “I saw the way he looked at you. And I knew you had feelings for him, but you were too shy to say anything.”
“So you decided an arranged marriage was the way to go?” I shouted, throwing my hands in the air. “I can’t fucking believe this.” Turning, I walked to the bar. Archie was behind it, and as soon as he saw me coming, he grabbed the bottle of whiskey.
I didn’t drink often, but there had been a few times I was up late and couldn’t sleep. One of the prospects was always around.
I took the shot and gulped it down.
“And Pepper?” I asked, turning back around to my family. I looked around the room, not realizing everyone except the Gods of Mayhem and Haizley had left us alone. Haizley sat on the couch, there if I needed her.
“That was my fault,” my father confessed. “Skinner said he had a lead, and it was the first one we’d had in years. I let my emotions get the best of me. I honestly thought you would be okay. When I learned you weren’t, I went to get you.”
“But I told you I was happy,” I whispered. “Pepper made me lie. He said if I told you anything he would have Skinner attack the club.”
“We kept trying,” my mother said, moving closer to me. “We never stopped trying to contact you. It wasn’t until almost a year after you disappeared that we finally found the crack we needed to realize you were missing. That you hadn’t stopped wanting to speak to us.”
“How?”
“What?”
“How did you find the crack?”
I followed my mother’s gaze to Erebus. He stood against the wall, his face a mask. But his eyes burned with rage as he glared at my father.
“Erebus was the one who found the information we needed,” Zeus said.
“How?” I asked again.
“The how doesn’t matter, Shug.”
“It matters to me, Zeus.” I walked over and stood in front of Erebus. “How did you find the information?”
“Irene—”
“It’s Aspen now,” I reiterated. I tried not to get angry. I knew it would take time for them all to adjust to calling me something else.
“You’ll always be Irene to me,” he said.
“I’m not her anymore. I’ll never be her again. How did you find out, Erebus? Tell me.”
“One of their club whores.”
I nodded with a smile. That was what I figured. I looked up at him. He was handsome; they all were. I could even admit that my brother was good-looking. The Gods of Mayhem could have any woman they wanted.
Except me.
“Did you tell him?” I whispered.
“I told Zeus,” he whispered back.
I heard the roar of the motorcycles and smiled. He was home. Erebus and our past forgotten, I rushed to the front door, swung it open, and stepped onto the porch.
I stood on the porch and watched them all ride through the gate. My mother and sister stood beside me as my eyes locked onto his bike, ridden by Gunner.
“He’s not here,” I whispered.
I spun my eyes to King and rushed toward him. “Where is he?”
“Aspen, I need you to take a breath.”
“I don’t want to take a breath, King. Where is he?”
“Let’s go inside, and I will tell you what I know.”
He put an arm around my shoulder, and I immediately wanted to shrug it off. I wanted to scream and demand he tell me where Banshee was. But something inside told me I knew exactly where he was.
My family followed us into church. Haizley sat by my side and reached over to hold my hand. I knew without asking, without hearing him say the words, that he’d asked Haizley to be here knowing he would tear my world apart.
“The Death Dogs attacked the bar in town,” King began.
“When we rode out there, Banshee didn’t come inside with the rest of us.
No one realized it until Mimic received a 9-1-1 text from him.
We followed the location on his phone, and it led us to the highway just out of town, where we found his bike. ”
“But not him?” Zeus asked.
“No, what we did find was Pepper. Dead.”
I gasped, and King stared into my eyes. “Banshee did that for you. Whatever happens to him, he wanted you to be free. Pepper is dead.”
I was free. I was a widow. My husband was dead. Only, I didn’t want to be free. Not from Banshee. I wanted him to claim me. I wanted to be his old lady.
“They took him, didn’t they?” I asked.
“Yes,” King confirmed. “Skinner will call to make a trade.”
“I have money!” I sat up straight in my chair. I had leverage Skinner didn’t know I had. He was motivated by money, and I had more than enough to secure Banshee’s freedom.
“What?” King asked, sitting back in his chair.
“I have money. Skinner’s money. With Pepper dead, I don’t need it anymore. Skinner can have it all if he gives back Banshee.”
“How much?” Cash asked.
“Almost a million dollars.”
“Why do you have Skinner’s money and where the fuck did it come from?” King growled. Diesel whined beside me, and I put a hand on his head. King had a right to be angry. I’d been keeping secrets.
“Um.”
“I asked you if you knew why they moved the fucking club, and you said no. You said it had nothing to do with you.”
“It doesn’t, I promise. Skinner doesn’t know about the money. Pepper was skimming. He cut his drugs with sugar and sold four times what he was supposed to. It was the reason he kept me around.”
“Explain,” King snapped.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I went to college for accounting. Numbers are my thing. Pepper knew that. He was dyslexic, so not only could he not read well, but numbers got jumbled up in his head. He’d had some trouble keeping the weights and amounts straight, so I helped him one night.”
I turned back and glanced at my father, then turned back around to King.
“It was how I avoided being beaten that night. I’d heard him mumbling the numbers, and I knew they were wrong, so I corrected him.
That wasn’t the first time he’d punched me.
I knew he would have done worse, but I convinced him to let me help. ”
“How did that turn into almost a million dollars?” Jack asked.
“Once he realized I could keep the money and the weights, and all the numbers straight, he started cutting into the stash Skinner gave him to sell. He would quadruple each shipment, sell it, and give Skinner a quarter of the profit. The rest he had me put into an account.”
“Aspen, tell them about the last day,” Haizley suggested.
I looked at Haizley and took a deep breath as she nodded. “I was planning to leave. I had everything worked out; my bags were packed and stuffed under the bed. I’d taken the money and moved it to an offshore account. One Pepper couldn’t access.”
“He didn’t notice?” Colt asked.
I shook my head. “He rarely looked at the account. I guess he trusted me. When he needed something big, he would have me move the money into an account that Skinner knew about. But that last day was our anniversary. I’d planned to disappear, but he came home early.
He wanted to buy me something for all the help I’d been to him.
Only, he looked into the account, and it was basically empty. ”
“You stole the money,” King voiced.
“I stole the money.”