Chapter Three Who’s Your Ma?
Fate
Did they not know I could hear most of this? I shook my head. I wanted to believe Belle, as she said Briget liked me. However, Briget claimed not to like me. This all seemed to be a bit highschoolish to me but the girl’s conversation was entertaining. All I really heard was that Briget didn't know me well enough to like or dislike me. The thing about that was she wouldn’t let me try to get to know her, so how could I change this?
I shook my head and finished my iced tea. I glanced over to see Talon and Ace were in a deep conversation. It looked serious. I assumed it was about this alley that Briget mentioned, but then I saw Hawk and Rip get up to move over to where Talon was conversing with Ace. “Liberty,” I called to my brother.
Smiling, he looked over at me.
I motioned my head across the table at the men who were talking in low tones.
Liberty followed my gaze. He stared at them as his smile dropped away then he glanced back at me. “ Trouble, ” he mouthed at me.
“Obviously, but what kind?” I asked him aloud.
Across from us, Talon suddenly stood from his chair and tapped his spoon against his glass.
I had already been staring at him, but now everyone at the table looked over at him.
“We will be having a security meeting in the auto bay,” he announced. “In ten minutes.”
“Well, damn,” Belle said. “That sounds ominous.”
I silently agreed as I saw my dad head over to talk with Talon and the guys. Since we’d been in a literal war, this could be huge news. I was finished with my meal anyway, so I stood to gather my plate, utensils and glass.
Heading to the kitchen, I almost collided with Belle’s chair as she pulled it out.
“Oh sorry, Fate,” she stated with a laugh.
Briget stepped away from her chair on the other side and said, “No, she’s not sorry. She's interfering.”
I looked from Belle to Briget and asked, “Interfering in what?”
“Nevermind,” Briget said as she shook her head. With her dishes in hand, she walked away.
Looking from her to Belle I felt confused and I decided to just ask, “Can you tell me why she dislikes me so much?”
Belle gave me a smile. “Oh, I think she likes you.”
I raised a brow at her. “Could've fooled me.”
“Right?” Liberty quipped as he stepped up next to Belle. “You being fooled is not a stretch, baby brother.”
I scoffed. “Whatever Lib. This happens to be none of your biz wax, remember?”
He laughed. “Man, you gave me hell over Belle before she and I got together. And now that this very entertaining attraction thing between you and Briget has come along…. you think I’m gonna just step aside and keep my mouth shut about it?”
“You? Keep your mouth shut about something?” I snickered. “Impossible.”
“I’m gonna go catch up to Briget, guys,” Belle said as she laughed at our banter.
Liberty grinned at me then motioned for her to go ahead, looking over at me again, he said, “Let's turn in our dishes and then see what’s going on.”
We both headed to the kitchen.
As usual, the place was noisy and busy with Ma Walker giving orders. We all took our turns for kitchen duty, so we knew to just set the dishes in the tubs and stay out of the way of the crew who were working this meal.
“I’m gonna stay and help Briget,” Belle told Liberty. “She’s on dish duty tonight. Let me know as soon as you hear about what’s happening, ok?”
He leaned in to kiss her cheek then he pulled back. “I will.”
I still had trouble getting used to the idea that Liberty had a steady girl. He’d never been the type to stick with one girl. But I guess this was the real thing. Looking over at the triple sink area, I saw Briget talking and laughing with one of the ‘Walker wives’ as I thought of them. There were like six of them living here. This one was Sofia and she was married to Dagger I think?
We made our way to the large garage. Being the largest extra building that Connor House had, it’d been made into a headquarters sort of thing for the troops. The Rebel Saints and the Walkers all gathered here when needed. Tonight, it seemed to be packed full of men.
Just after we arrived, the large crowd of men all seemed to quiet down.
Our cousin, Liv Walker spoke up as she stood next to Talon and Ace, “We recently spotted two men who were scouting out Connor House. We believe they work for Deacon.”
Talking in the large room grew loud as the men reacted. We all knew this meant that the Walker hideout might have been discovered by Deacon.
Her voice got louder as she went on, “We made no real move against them. In the likelihood they would be looked for out here close to where we are, we didn’t attempt to capture them either. Instead, we had them followed and we aren’t making contact.”
“Have you found out where they went?” Hawk asked.
“Yes, and it was that same area that this girl Briget described,” Talon explained.
“So you really think he’s in downtown Ramton?” I asked.
Talon nodded. “I have a team scouting that area out as we speak.”
“So what’s the plan?” my brother Redemption asked. “I mean for the rest of us.”
“We all may have to move,” Talon replied.
“The hell?” Liberty asked. “With so many of us, where can we go?”
“That’s what we need to decide,” Liv replied. “We may need to split up into groups.”
I stared at her then at Talon. They were fucking serious. Looking over at Redemption, I could see him shaking his head. Yeah, none of this was good news.
Talon nodded as he spoke again, “We will need to establish small groups and have a few of the Rebel Saints as guards to each group.”
Liberty and I glanced at each other.
“Each family would go to a different location,” Liv explained. “I don’t like it any better than all of you, but as one large group, we are more vulnerable to his threat of bombing us all at once.”
“Usually, I would say we need to stick together,” Talon interjected. “But Deacon has made it clear that he fully intends to actually use missiles to level the place if and when he gets the chance. So I have to agree with Liv.”
“To what locations?” my dad asked.
Liv answered this one, “Dagger’s wife, Sofia has a list of properties that she says are unoccupied. Some are in trusts, some of the owners no longer live in this area, a few belong to Sofia herself and she has kept them in holdings so said owners can buy them back.”
“Like our ranch,” Ma stated from the doorway as she stepped in.
We all looked over at the matriarch of the Texas Walkers.
“That’s the only reason we got the ranch back,” Ma explained. “Sofia kept it in holding, instead of selling it.” She walked over to where her son and daughter, Liv and Talon stood.
Talon shook his head and said, “Ma…”
She scoffed. “Don’t Ma me…” She looked over at my father Jared. “And don’t you even try to make me leave.”
My dad raised his hands up at her. “Like I would try to make you do anything, woman.”
There were chuckles here and there from the crowd of bikers and the Walkers. No one who had any common sense would try to tell Ma what to do. Oh she was kind hearted alright, but if you ticked her off, you ended up being sorry for sure. This was pretty much a well known fact.
Ma turned and looked around at all the men. “First off, there are some men here that I don’t want to scold.”
“Lucky them,” Hawk, one of her sons muttered as he gave her a huge grin.
Ma looked over at her son and said, “You aren’t too old for me to take a switch to yer behind, boy.”
The group all laughed. They all knew Ma Walker, the woman, the legend. If you needed advice and or someone to listen to you, she was the woman to go to. She’d make you a cup of tea and then tell you what was what. She’d become like a mother to many of the men and women who lived here. Including me. You also better not cross her by being rude, mouthy or late to a meal.
“Anyways,” Ma went on. “I wanted to formally thank all my personal heroes. The Rebel Saints…All three chapters of them. Without you all, I don't know what would’ve happened to us Walkers. So thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
The room got quiet.
“So as I understand it,” she continued. “We might have to leave Connor House. We will all be going separate ways from what I hear. That saddens me a lot cuz we have all become one huge family that’s for sure.” She smiled at everyone as she swiped at a lone tear rolling down her cheek. “I love all of you.”
Small shuffles and some low murmurs could be heard in the crowded garage.
Ma looked a bit emotional now as she simply waved her hands at everyone there and walked across the barn toward the door.
“We love ya too, Ma!” one of the bikers called out.
“Yeah, best mother in the whole damn world!” another man cheered.
“We love you Ma!” many voices rose up from all over the garage now.
Ma turned when she got to the door and she looked around for maybe five silent minutes, making eye contact with at least forty of them. Shaking her head, she swiped at more tears and went out through the double doors of the auto bay.
I had to admit that they were right, Ma was like our mother. She had insisted on feeding homemade meals to all the Rebel Saints that had come from other places, following Hawk. That was why so many were needed for kitchen duty. It hadn't been just the large Walker clan that she fed, there was also a fluctuating amount of men on the property at all times. Maybe fifty to sixty bikers and most were vets or ex-military. They all volunteered to help protect the Louisiana Walkers and from what I heard, they had done that over and over again.
We Texas Walkers had been around for a few months and I sort of felt like we had close family ties now with our southern cousins. We never knew they existed for the entire time we were growing up. This subject hadn't been discussed much, but apparently, many years ago, our dad had been in love with Bea Walker better known now as Ma. The problem with that had been the part where she had been in love with our uncle, dad’s identical twin brother. She had married him. On their wedding day, our dad, Jared Walker got onto his Harley with just a few items to his name and left the state. He had ended up starting his life over in Sugar Land, Texas.
This had all been a history that none of his kids ever knew about until Glory was kidnapped by Deacon. We were brought here by kidnapper instructions in order to get her back. Then the most twisted part of it had been that Deacon was also a Walker of all the fucking things. Another cousin. When I first heard this, I was helluva shocked. To think that Ma’s sister Olivia…Deacon’s mother had perpetrated all sorts of evil upon the family.
From what had been said, the list of crimes she committed against the Walkers went from multiple kidnappings to framing Dagger and sending him to prison, all the way up to murder. Olivia or better known as ‘O’ by her enemies had actually murdered both of our uncles, my dad’s twin brother and his older brother. This had been par for her course though as O had killed many people in her years of running her own notorious crime organization.
In some ways, the Walker clan was sort of fucked up. I mean sure, there were many families that had what you would call skeletons in the closet but my father had hidden what equaled an entire graveyard in his closet. We were all grown up now and for all these years, he never told us that we had other family. Yes, maybe he had his reasons but it was still sort of fucked up.
Ma on the other hand, made you feel proud to be a Walker whenever you talked to her. She had enough love in her big heart for all of us and the men here were right…we all loved her and would miss her.
I glanced over at Liberty.
He looked back at me. “Belle, me, you and Briget. We stay together.”
“I agree.” I nodded at him. I figured Briget wouldn’t care as long as she got to stay with her best friend. Me? I wanted to stick close to my twin. And yeah, close to Briget too.