Chapter 3 Diesel
DIESEL
The guys and I rode into Tunnel Canyon, a three-mile stretch of land that sat in between two massive clay mountains.
It was the darkest spot in all of Redding, and it was the best place to hear people both coming and going.
All motorcycle clubs in and around the area knew of that place.
The halls of those mountains held secrets beyond anyone’s wildest imaginations.
Quality control and control of outside influences with regard to this meeting were imperative, so it only made sense that the meeting would be conducted in the one place where both could be easily controlled.
My club and I rolled up on our bikes and came face to face with The Black Hornets.
“Dean.”
“Diesel”
“Good to see you again,” I said.
“Wanna get down to it?” Dean asked.
“Fine by me. The sun’s about to set anyway, and you know how hard it is navigating this shit at night.”
“Ran my bike into many of these mountains crevices trying to get the fuck out.”
My eyes danced along the man I hadn’t seen in years.
And I still couldn't look him in the face without thinking of Brynn.
My heart weighed heavy, and I wanted to get this meeting over as quickly as I could.
The sun was setting, my guys had families to get back to, and I had a woman to forget about again.
Though I knew I’d never be able to truly forget her.
Dean’s hands gripped his handlebars a little too tightly.
Almost to the point where his fingers were white.
And his carotid. It pulsed a little too erratically.
I forced myself to look into his eyes. The eyes he shared with his daughter.
I saw how they darted around. How they seemed wider than usual.
I looked down at his feet and saw him pressing into the dirt.
Almost like he was trying to contain himself.
Dean was in distress.
“Got anything you want to tell me?” I asked.
I felt all of my men go on high alert.
“Look, you need muscle. A club you can trust. We got you there, one hundred percent,” Dean said. “But I gotta have something in return.”
“I figured. Dealing with you always comes with a price.”
He winced at my words, like I’d punched him in the stomach.
“What’s the price, Dean?” I asked.
“You gotta become family. Actual family. We protect our own. That’s how we work. It’s part of our code. You want the Dead Souls to be protected? You become our family. Two clubs connected.”
My eyes narrowed before dropping to his pulse again. It practically fluttered against his fucking neck. Something was up. Something was wrong. And I wasn’t agreeing to anything with this man until I knew exactly what I was about to get myself into.
“Define ‘family’,” I said. “If you are talking about the Dead Souls being patched into the Black Hornets, that ‘aint –"
“You gotta marry in, Diesel. Simple as that.”
My heart froze. Marry in? What the fuck was he talking about?
Grave snickered behind me and I held up my hand. I looked back at Dean and I could practically feel the waves of anxiety pouring off of him.
“You’re distressed,” I said. “Nervous. Agitated. Unwilling to have a lengthy discussion, which means you’re in a rush. Who needs protection and what the fuck’s going on, Dean?”
“You want my help or not?” the old man asked.
“Apparently, not as much as you need mine,” I said.
Dean sighed, raking his hand through his hair before he leveled his gaze at me. I could tell how serious this was to him.
“You’re not gonna like it,” he said.
“Try me,” I said flatly.
I knew my guys needed this. Our club needed this.
Outside of marrying a girl half my fucking age, I was willing to do just about anything to dig my club out of this fucking hole so they could get on with their lives.
Their futures and the futures of their families all relied on me doing whatever the fuck it was I had to do in order to secure their safety and privacy.
“You’ll become family by marrying my daughter, Diesel.”
Everyone’s eyes turned to me as I cocked my head. What the fuck was he talking about?
“Don’t think I heard you right. Try that again,” I said.
“Marry Brynn, keep her safe, and you got yourself a fucking deal.”
“I’m sorry. I could’ve sworn you told me--”
“Brynn’s alive, Diesel.”
In the span of ten seconds, my entire world flipped on its head.
Flashes of her funeral crept into the forefront of my mind.
I felt my men step up beside me, readying themselves for whatever punishment I had to dole out.
I heard some of them talking. Asking questions.
Picking brains. But all I saw in my mind’s eye was her grave.
Her tombstone. Her closed-casket funeral.
All I heard in my ears was her sweet, soft little voice.
“What the fuck do you mean, marry Brynn?” I asked darkly. “She’s dead.”
My eyes hardened on Dean as everyone stopped talking.
“She isn’t, Diesel She never has been.”
In a flash, I had my gun out of my holster and aimed right between the Dean’s eyes.
I forced my hand to stay steady as my eyes grew wide with fury.
My heart raced. My legs locked. My shoulders rolled back and every single part of my body rose to the challenge.
There was no way Brynn was still alive. This old man was playing a game with me. And I wanted to know why.
I buried Brynn.
I buried her ten years ago.
“Diesel, you sure you want to do this?” Rock said as he drew his own gun.
“Who the fuck is he talking about, Diesel?” Brewer asked.
“Fuckin’ hell, Diesel. Put the damn piece in your pocket,” Dean said.
“You better start talking Dean,” Grave said, pulling his own gun out.
I watched the Black Hornets step up to the plate to defend their President, but Dean held out his hand.
All of them stopped moving as I cocked my gun, ready to take aim and splatter the contents of his head across the side of the fucking mountain.
But deep down inside--in a place I had refused to acknowledge for years--was a spark of happiness that ignited dying embers in my gut.
“I still go to her grave,” I said breathlessly.
Dean got off his bike and started walking towards my gun.
“I still go to her grave!” I roared.
My voice bounced off the caverns of the mountaintops, echoing through the desert as Dean pressed his head to the barrel of my gun. His eyes dripped with sorrow. With hurt. With pain.
I clenched my jaw to keep it from trembling.
“Every Thursday morning, I ride by that fucking cemetery and I put her favorite flowers and her favorite cup of tea on her goddamn grave, Dean. Pale yellow lilies and green chamomile tea. Every. Damn. Thursday. Because Thursdays were our day, Dean. Ours. Mine and Brynn’s.
Our afternoon to spend lying out on the football field after school. ”
“She’s not dead, Diesel. We faked her death to get her out of town,” Dean said.
“Why?” I asked as my gun began to tremble.
He went to raise his hand to my wrist, but I pressed the barrel deeper into his skin.
“You’ll answer me now, or you die,” I said flatly.
“It was because of Rex. Before Rex got involved with the Black Saddles, he was part of a local street gang,” Dean said. “He somehow got high up in the ranks and started to stir up shit. Started fires. Spray painted buildings. Even killed a few innocent citizens to prove a damn point.”
“Yeah, I was your fucking prospect for the Black Hornets then. I was well aware of what Rex was doing. But what the hell does that have to do with Brynn being alive?” I ground out.
Dean held up his hands slightly. “I know you were aware of Rex then. But what I never told you was how he turned his sights on Brynn.”
I could no longer contain the trembling in my hand.
“At first, it was nothing really. I chased him away from Brynn’s window a couple of times.
Told him not to come back. Shit like that.
But then, he started following her. He started telling everyone that would listen that Brynn would be his.
I thought he was just a punk ass kid. Until he tried to rape her. ”
“Holy shit,” Knox said behind me.
“He followed her. Stalked her after swim practice. She was leaving school late and he attacked her at her car. I got there just in time to save her, but he shot her. I drove her back to the lodge.”
“The shootout,” I said, as all the puzzle pieces began to fall into place. “That’s why it happened. But you said she died.”
“It wounded her. Bad. Rex followed me after I saved her from him. He got his gang involved and they shot up our lodge. A bunch of fucking teenagers fucked our world up. Brynn was shot twice and did a two week stint in the hospital because of that asshole.”
“So, you… what? Faked her death to get her away from Rex?” I asked.
“That piece of shit was willing to kill her if he couldn't have her. Willing to kill all of us to get to my daughter. So, yeah. I got her better, faked her death, helped her get her GED. Then fucking sent her off to college. I haven’t seen her since. Once Rex thought she actually died, he stopped attacking our club. We chased out Rex’s gang, leaving him with no support.
After a few years, our guard died down and the club focused on other shit.
None of us knew he joined up with the Black Saddles. ”
My arm finally fell back to my side as my entire form went numb.
Oh my fucking god.
Brynn was alive.
“She ain’t dead, Diesel And she’s being stubborn.
She wants to come home, and I don’t blame her.
Nothing really has happened in the past ten years.
Until now. Until your phone call about Rex.
The second you mentioned his name, I knew he never fucking left this area.
I know I can’t stop her. But the second she touches ground in Redding, she will be a damn target.
You marry her, she’ll have protection from both clubs since she would be family to both, and we give you what you need. ”
Silence blanketed all of us as the sun finally set beyond the horizon.
Darkness shrouded us. So much so that all I could see of Dean were the whites of his eyes.
My heart felt like it had stopped permanently.
My back began to sweat. I holstered my gun and turned my eyes up to the stars, trying to digest what all had just been told to me.
But there were only two things I could focus on.
Brynn was alive and she was coming back.