Chapter 21
CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE
CARBON
It’s late and Ronny-boy is none too pleased we were so late getting back.
He was ready for bed. So were we. We snuggle down under the covers, and I listen for Harry’s breathing to draw out telling me she is asleep.
My eyes focus on the darkened ceiling, one hand cupping the back of Harry’s head, the other cupped around Ron Ron’s body.
Tonight was a massive success, I knew it would be.
Hanger and Dad have always gotten along well, I would go as far as saying they actually are friends. Mom and Rox got along famously.
I did notice Roxy watching my every move, but she did it with a satisfied smile on her face, so I think she really is completely on team—nope, not going to say it, so fuck off.
My mom spent the whole dinner with hearts in her eyes.
She is enamored with Harry. While they were all a little sad that they didn’t get to be there for the wedding, no one gave us a hard time. They kind of all just seemed to get it.
At the end of dinner, while mom and Rox were hugging and cooing over Harry, Hanger wrapped his hand around my neck pulling me in close.
He leaned down to offer a reminder. He knew I was a smart man who wouldn't fuck this up, but he was still Harry’s father.
So, if I proved him wrong, he’d chop me into little pieces.
Both of us knowing that his role as Harry’s father more than him being from the Old Guard is what let him get away with that.
My dad of course just stood back with a quiet chuckle.
Harry was bubbling with her analysis of the evening the whole way home.
I on the other hand have officially now moved into concern.
Mint comes home tomorrow. There is a part of me that thinks he will be surprised and just move past it, but I suspect that part is full of wishful thinking.
The other part of me knows this is going to be a problem.
One I am real fucking worried about. Harry’s depth of hurt has conditioned her to run or shut down when shit gets scary. I won’t lose her. I won’t.
I won’t let Harry lose her brother either.
I need to tread carefully so that I can help them preserve their relationship, while keeping Harry and Mint myself.
The door to the office is propped open while I update Kev and Jolt on some documents I’ve been working on with Hero, Salt, Boyo, and Villain regarding some prospecting changes we want to make for the California and Arizona chapters.
Women’s happy shouts hit our ears. Jolt looks right up at me. “We stand with you. Got that?”
I nod.
Wally pops into the doorway with a big grin on his face. “Fuck am I glad to be home! It was great, but damn I miss my own fucking bed. How was shit?”
Kev pushes to his feet, giving Wally a slapping hug as Mint shows up. Kev throws it out there as he gives Mint a slapping hug too, “Meads do well?”
“Yeah, she was great. And fuck was it good to have her on our bikes.” They both grin and chuckle. Wally’s smile doesn’t make his eyes as he examines me, clearly seeing shit is up.
I step over, giving them both slapping hugs. Mint bumps his chin at me. “You gonna tell us why you bailed last second? And don’t claim you were needed for work.”
“That would be my fault,” Harry calls into the room from the door. “He was helping me.”
“What the fuck? Carbon. Carbon was helping you? Why the fuck would he do that?” Mint’s back is to me, so I can’t tell what his expression is. I can see the rest of my brothers crowding into the hallway behind Harry. Her eyes meet mine.
Here goes nothing. My mouth opens, but Harry talks over me, “Because he saw something no one else did. Because instead of ratting me out, he handled it.”
Sharp hand clap sounds echo in the hallway catching everyone’s attention. Hanger’s take charge voice fills the space, “I may not be council anymore, but I parent a fair number of you, so you will fucking listen to me. All of you, family room. Right fucking now.”
Jolt starts pushing everyone toward the council door.
Harry gets corralled ahead of me and I fucking hate that I can’t even see her as we move down the hall.
A hand rests on my shoulder as we walk, Kevlar gives me a firm chin bump before releasing my shoulder.
We get to the family room, but not a single person sits down.
Finally seeing my wife again, I go to move toward her, not feeling okay with the distance between us. A hand comes up to my chest, halting me. I flick my eyes over to meet Mint’s. “Even if I can concede that you saw something I didn’t, why the fuck didn’t you say something?”
Harry’s hand wraps around Mint’s wrist. “Don’t.”
He turns to her, frowning. “You are my fucking sister. He is supposed to be my brother. He should have said something was going on. Which, it must have been fucking big for him to bail on a fucking ride.”
“He didn’t tell you because it wasn’t his fucking shit to tell. If you will sit your ass down, I will tell you now,” Harry barks at him.
He grumbles but starts to move toward the couch. He suddenly pauses, swinging back around, his eyes narrow on me. Wally’s arm comes around gripping around his chest and shoulder. “Rick.”
He goes to shove his arm off but Meadow’s whole self-steps into the space in front of him. His head jerks down to look at her. Her hands on her hips.
“Your sister asked you to sit down. She has something she wants to tell you, maybe you should listen to that before you follow up on whatever this is.” She waves a hand.
To say every person in this room isn’t surprised… wow. Go Meads.
Mint backs up, turning, he heads to the couches.
Meads swings around to look at me, she mimes zipping her lips to me.
Her eyes wide as if to say ‘wait, just… wait.’ I nod my understanding.
I take a place half sitting on the arm of one of the couches, keeping myself tolerably close to Harry as she begins to pace some.
All my instincts scream at me to pull her into my arms, but I know right now that wouldn’t help this.
She needs to be able to say this so that Mint can hear it, then he and I can have whatever fight we are going to have.
Right now, is about Harry.
Harry stops her pacing, turns toward everyone, planting her feet.
“I was sixteen when this guy I dated dumped me for someone else. She convinced him to…” her words trail off as she swallows hard and seems to flounder.
I push to my feet to move to her, her head jerks back up, her eyes plead with me as she shakes her head, and I drop my ass back down.
“Let me start again.” She turns back to the group.
“I grew up thinking my mother’s husband was my father, as you all know, he wasn’t.
That isn’t the only shitty part of my life.
My mom was abusive. Home was just… bad. The first person to ever say ‘I love you’ to me was a boy I dated when I was sixteen.
He told me he loved me and I believed him.
He ended up cheating on me and breaking up with me when a popular girl decided she wanted him.
“Then she decided I was a problem. So, they worked out a way to get me to leave the school. He approached me after class with a cup, he told me I needed to change schools, and some other bullshit. Then he went to throw the cup of liquid on me, I thought it was water or something, kind of one of those insults to injury things, but I blocked his hand partially and it only got on my hand, stomach, and legs. Turns out it was acid.”
Mint stomps to his feet, Meadow pops up beside him, trying to soothe him and get him to sit back down. “Who the fuck is this guy? I’ll fucking kill him.”
“Rick, sit the fuck down,” Hanger snarls. “Let Harry finish.”
Mint settles back down but is tense as fuck. Harry looks over at her dad and Roxy. We already know he has some knowledge of what happened. Roxy gives an encouraging nod. Harry’s eyes move back over to me, and I hope I am offering her strength and encouragement in the look I am giving her too.
“I have a lot of scars. You probably have seen the ones on my hand. Anyway, they uhm, they went to jail. She got out with less time and then died in a car wreck. He got out recently. I made a plan to set his place on fire via a gas leak kind of thing. But… well, I fucked it up. Thankfully, Frankie showed up. He collected my stupid evidence, made sure Bobby didn’t die, and then got me out of dodge.
” Her eyes meet mine. “We talked. Really talked. And… and I realized I have still been living my life in protection mode. I run from things that are good for me. I don’t let people in.
I don’t… I don’t trust. I thought I was getting over all that, because…
” she motions out to everyone around us.
I push back up to my feet watching her closely, waiting for her to signal she wants me to step in.
Her nose wiggles, her eyes gloss. Shit. Her lip trembles and while I see Mint, Hanger, and Roxy all from the corner of my eye pushing to their feet, I throw caution out the window.
Closing the distance between my wife and me, I collect her up into my arms. She sinks into me immediately.
I clutch the back of her head with my widespread hand and hold her locked against me with my other arm. Her whisper quiet plea barely makes it to my ears, “Don’t let me cry. Please.”
My head tips up, my eyes meet Mint’s stunned look. “Ricky, you know why I saw something you didn’t. And I didn’t tell you because I knew if I did, I would never earn Harry’s trust.”
Harry’s body begins to relax some in my grip which lets me know the threat of tears has passed. I begrudgingly allow her to pull away. Mint’s face pulls into a look of rage.
“You stalking piece of shit,” his voice low, dark, disgusted.
Harry swings around to face him, my arm going back around her, pulling her back. She fights me trying to get her behind me. “Rick, this isn’t a passing thing. This isn’t like?—”