Chapter Ten Past Into Future
Briget
The next day dawned like any other in Louisiana. The sun rose and heat already moved across the land. The huge household all went to breakfast, including me. Except today wasn’t like others really. We were all leaving for different destinations. I spent my evening as most here probably did. Packing and making sure I was ready.
I also kept looking for little Daisy, my terrier. Dang, I missed her too. She had always slept with me ever since we adopted her as a little puppy. Now though, she had a whole family spoiling her and I rarely even saw her let alone did she sleep in my bed anymore. I figured she might be with Hawk’s son. Maybe? He’d seemed to have an instant ‘love’ for the dog. She’d been adopted by the entire family here, so she could be anywhere. I decided looking for her all night would serve no purpose except to make me tired. So that was what I planned to do after breakfast…look for my spoiled pup.
Ok, and yes…I did think about Fate last night and first thing this morning when I opened my eyes. I tried not to, but that was almost impossible now. The guy had made a total 180. He seemed to be just casually friendly ever since I met him. Flirting with me a little maybe but after I told him we would not work out, he’d decided that we were meant to be together. How insane was that? According to him though, it wasn’t insane.
Now we would be travelling together. This would be a real challenge for me. One that I don’t think I’d ever faced before. A good looking, classy guy would be pursuing me. While that wasn’t a first, the fact that he claimed it was for serious reasons, would be the rare part. I hoped he would just get bored with this male conquest thing over me and move on. Yes, I liked him, but that wasn’t the point or maybe it actually was. I liked him and he could hurt me…very easily too.
When I arrived at the dining room, the noise level was pretty high. A lot of the family were talking and discussing different things. From what I caught, yeah most of it was about whatever trip they were going to take.
I looked for Belle and no surprise, there she sat next to her Liberty. Then of course , Fate sat with them. Heading over, I realized there was only one empty chair by Belle. I let out a sigh as I saw that it was in between Fate and Belle. Sure, of course it was...had to be. I stopped at the chair.
Fate stood right away, smiling at me as he pulled the chair out from the table.
Moving over, I sat and he pushed the chair in a little. The old world gentleman chair thing was sort of cute. I admit it. I wasn’t used to guys doing what he did. Opening doors for me, pulling chairs out and such. In fact, I don’t think I’d ever had a guy do that kind of thing before. I looked over at Fate’s dad, Jarret as he pulled a chair out for Ma, so she could sit at the table.
Yep, ok. Mystery solved.
Fate poured me a cup of coffee then set it in front of me.
“Thanks,” I mumbled. Sitting forward, I grabbed a serving plate and used a fork to pluck up a couple pieces of toast. Setting them on my empty plate, I looked around.
Fate set a jar of strawberry jelly next to my plate and laid a butterknife next to it.
Raising my head, I stared at him.
He shrugged and then stood so he could lean over the table to get one of the metal karafes. He set that close by too. “Your cold milk.” He paused, then nodded at a glass and informed me, “Your cup is on the other side.”
Toast, jelly and a cold glass of milk, my go-to favorites. I shook my head at him. “So, you know what I eat and drink for breakfast?”
Nodding, he chuckled. “I will confess right off, I’ve been paying attention for the last ten days or so.”
Shaking my head, I reached for and opened the jelly jar. Dipping the knife in, I lathered a little onto my toast. I chanced a peek over at Fate.
He had turned his head and was looking down along the table.
Following his gaze, I saw who he’d been looking for.
Talon had just come in and sat down.
Fate glanced back at me and said, “He’s supposed to talk to the family after breakfast. I’m just curious, is all.”
I couldn’t blame him. I wondered too what his announcement or instructions might be. What was about to happen here would be a huge undertaking. It wasn’t everyday a family this size broke apart and certainly not because a freaking madman was out to kill them all. Plus, just the different parts of it would be confusing and complex when dealing with so many. I had to admit in light of this Talon’s military ways were needed after all.
After about a half hour, Jarret stood from his chair and tapped a spoon onto his glass. Ma Walker stood next to him.
“We wanted to talk with all of you,” Jarret said.
“Nah, Jarret didn’t, he doesn’t have much to say usually,” Ma joked.
He laughed. “I can do a talk, Bea. Just watch me…”
Again, the room filled with laughter.
Raising his hands, Jarret went on, “The first day we arrived at the ranch was one that rocked some of you to the core. Well, most of you, including my sons. I know it wasn’t an easy time. None of you knew the others existed. My kids and my brother Jacob’s kids.”
I glanced over at Fate.
He met my gaze and nodded his head.
“It was a revelation of a past that I never shared with my children,” Jarret explained.
Three months ago… Walker Ranch, Louisiana
Everyone in the house watched the security feed on the PC screen.
At the front gates of the ranch, a man on a Harley cut his engine and kicked his stand down. He stepped off his bike and planted his boots onto the ground. He had a presence all right. Like a man used to being in charge. He raised his hands slowly and took his sunglasses off.
With a few taps on his keyboard, Logan zeroed the camera in on the man’s face.
We could see the man well now.
A huge gasp sounded in the room.
It had come from Ma as she had her hands over her mouth and her eyes were huge in her face.
We paused at this but we heard more gasps from the video feed, so we looked from her back to the screen.
Talon slowly walked over to the gates, then he halted. Staring at the stranger, he backed up a step and asked, “Dad?”
All Ma could do was stare at the PC screen on Logan’s desk.
The tall, wide shouldered biker stepped toward the gate and stared at Talon. “No, son. I’m not your dad.”
When she heard the man’s voice, Ma gasped again. She looked white as a sheet.
On the camera feed, Talon glared at this man who was an exact duplicate of his own father, who had died years ago. “Who the hell are you?”
The man looked around at the Rebel Saints and the Walker men who were all aiming rifles at him and at his men on the bikes. Then he turned his gaze to Talon to finally answer him, “I’m Jarret. Your father’s brother.”
Ma kept shaking her head while looking astonished as she stared at the screen.
“I never heard of you,” Talon replied.
“Well, maybe that was a good thing, I don’t know. I’ve been gone a long time.”
“What do you want?” Talon asked. “Did you just decide to come visit and bring a whole MC with you?”
“It’s a long story, but I need you to know that we came in peace. We are not here to make any trouble.”
Talon studied Jarret then lowered his rifle and lowered his hand at his men to do the same. “We have to be careful as we have been under attack for a while now.”
Jarret nodded. “From some woman named O, right?”
Talon stared at him. “What do you know about her?”
Jarret slowly shook his head. “Not much, just that she did something recently… or she had something done to one of our own.” He glanced back at the men on cycles behind him to wave one man over then he looked back at Talon. “You’re Jacob’s oldest right?”
Talon nodded. “Weston Walker or better known as Talon.”
Jarret nodded and motioned to the man who’d dismounted from his bike and walked over. “This is your cousin, Redemption. He’s the President of the Requiem MC, out of Sugar Land Texas.” Jarret turned to Talon. “My MC.”
Talon stared at Redemption. “I will ask again, what do you want?”
Redemption glared at him. “We want to know why our sister Glory was fucking kidnapped and the ransom is not money, it is a person.”
Talon looked confused.
“Can we come inside and sort this out?” Jarret interjected.
Talon glared back at the angry looking Redemption then looked over at who was supposed to be his uncle. “Yeah…” He looked up and called out, “Open the gates.”
The guard gave him a nod and the gates opened up.
“Thank you,” Jarret said.
Present Day….
“And now that it is no longer a mystery about being part of the same family,” Jarret went on. “We all have been able to move forward with our lives. Except that we cannot really do that completely, due to Deacon Walker. I know some of you are upset that we have to break up into small groups and go our separate ways. But this is not the end of us all being a family. I’ve gotten to know my nephews and my niece. I’m proud to know them. This isn’t goodbye, as I do hope most of you will be at the Ranch with Bea and I in the future.” He then looked around. “As for my kids, you all will most likely be returning to the Requiem Ranch and compound when this is all over. But that doesn’t mean that we won’t be seeing each other. There are holidays and days when I may just pop in on you at the old Requiem, just to check up on ya.”
“Cause you think we will be goofing off, right?” Redemption called out with a laugh.
Jarret nodded at his oldest son. “Of course!”
Everyone in the room laughed.
I again glanced over at Fate to see that his gaze remained riveted on his dad.
“I will say it again though, this isn’t goodbye.” Jarret spanned his gaze around at the long table at all who sat there. “I made a tough choice all those years ago and it separated us as a family. I don’t regret it because it blessed me with all the children I was lucky enough to have. And now that I have seen you all together as adults as a family… I realized this was all meant to be. The way it played out had been the only way. All of you stay safe and take care of each other.” He nodded his head and looked over at Ma.
She shrugged and swiped tears from her eyes. “Jarret said it better than I could… Who woulda thunk it?”
Laugher again echoed through the room.
Ma took her own sweet time to look around at everyone in the room for at least a few minutes as we all went quiet. Then she broke the sad silence, “I love you all. All of you Walkers and all of you who are in love with a Walker. Come home when it’s over is all I ask. I gots to have some grandbabies to fuss over and raise, ya’ll.”
Laughter rippled through the room.
Both of the Walker patriarchs gave nods of their heads and sat down in their chairs.
Talon stood now and spoke loudly, so we could all hear, “You all have been assigned your guards and destinations. Our only concern is traffic. It might draw unwanted attention with so many leaving at once. Some of you in off road vehicles or ones who have been assigned to, are going to head out through the back forty, both sides, east and west. Then you will hit different roads from there. Only twenty percent of you will be leaving from Connor Road and even that will be an hour apart. Depending on who you are, you will be in contact with me, Liv, Redemption, or Logan. We will receive and send messages through your guards if nothing else. Do not draw any public attention, just pass through the area and head to your hideouts. Your vehicles have already been stocked with your start out supplies by the men. You all have trackers in your vehicles and phones, so we can make sure to keep track of you. I have a specialty team that will be doing just that. So, if you run into trouble or you spot trouble, have your guards relay that to us.” He looked around. “If you still have questions, please ask your guards first. They will pass it to us if they do not have the answers. Good luck and be damn careful. Stay safe, Walker family.” He sat back down.
The room became eerily quiet as if his message had brought it all home, so to speak. The reality of leaving and not being a part of a huge group anymore. The saying was, there is safety in numbers, but I guess this situation was the exception. Deacon supposedly wanted them all gone, so much so that the Walkers all believed he would drop a bomb here to wipe them all out.
Turning my head, I stared at Fate.
He looked upset now, like suddenly, it was more than real to him as well. He would be separated from most of his family and we didn’t know for how long.
Feeling bad for him, I reached over and patted his hand.
Looking over at me, he grasped my hand and squeezed it.
Suddenly, I paused. Why the hell did I just do that?
Everyone in the room slowly got back to talking and having conversations.
I sat holding Fate’s hand and neither of us spoke as our eyes met. Aww, hell. I knew I had just gone and done it. How would my mom or Ma Walker put it? Hooked my wagon up to the horse and now we were a team.
The way I would put it? Holy crap, I just made a huge mistake!