Chapter Thirty
Jack
“What was that fucker doing here?” I asked.
“A better question is, what was he talking to Carrie about?” Ryder said.
I snapped my head around to look at Sammy. “What?”
“He was talking to Carrie. That was what initially drew us out there,” Sammy confirmed. “But it was more than that. He called her Marsha, Jack. He knows her as Marsha.”
“What the fuck is going on?” Blade barked.
My phone rang, and I pulled it from my back pocket. Patch’s name was on the screen.
“What’s up, brother?” I asked as the call connected.
“Hey, Jack, I need you at the clubhouse. I have the test results,” Patch said.
“Fuck. Ok. We’re on our way,” I replied, cutting the call.
I looked around the room, my eyes landing on Sammy.
“We have to get back. Patch has the tests results.”
She nodded, grabbing her purse and the giant bag she brought with everything she needed to work on her project.
“What about Mimic?” Sammy asked.
“He knows his way home,” I said with a smile.
Sammy smacked the back of her hand on my chest as she walked by, rolling her eyes.
Everyone followed except Ryder.
“Hey, man, you coming?” I asked him.
His shocked expression told me he hadn’t counted on me asking.
“Nah, it’s club business. I have a lot of stuff to do here, and Avery will be here with the girls before long. ”
“Would you stop with the club business shit?” Blade whined. “I explained why I said what I did. If I had known you knew, I wouldn’t have said anything.”
“But you did say something, asshole,” Ryder clipped. “Just go, like I said. Avery will be here in a while.”
“Ryder, please come with us,” Beck pleaded.
“No.” That was all he said before he kissed her forehead.
Sammy walked over and hugged Ryder. He leaned down and kissed her on the head. I said nothing. I knew Ryder wasn’t after our women. But when Rachel hugged him and he kissed her cheek, Cash growled, and Ryder laughed.
“Go on. Sammy, we can meet again later in the week,” he said.
“Bye, Ryder.” Sammy waved as she walked out the door.
Outside, Blade, Cash, Zero, and I walked to our bikes. Beck, Grace, and Rachel walked to Rachel’s car, and Sammy walked over to hers, putting her things in the car. She stood there with the door open.
“Everything ok, Sammy?” I asked, walking over to the car.
“Can I ride with you? We can get my car later,” she said hesitantly.
“Yea, baby. You can always ride with me. Come on.” I took her hand, leading her over to my bike. I pulled her helmet from my saddlebag and placed it on her head. Once the strap was in place, I climbed on, holding my hand out for her.
Taking my hand, she climbed on behind me. She scooted up close, and I could feel the heat of her body. I reached down and rubbed her calf before starting my bike.
Rachel pulled out first, and the four of us fell in line behind her. The ride to the clubhouse was short, and I vowed to take Sammy out more on the bike before the weather got too cold.
As soon as we arrived, we all filed into the clubhouse, and the first thing I noticed was Tank, but no Charlie.
“Where’s Charlie?” I asked, my gaze locked on Tank.
“Amber took her upstairs to watch TV. Figured she didn’t need to be here for this.”
“I guess you’re right. She already knows I’m her father. The test is just a technicality,” I said.
“Uh, Jack. The test revealed a slight complication,” Patch stated.
Sammy stiffened beside me.
“That’s not possible. I hadn’t been with Derek in weeks before Jack.”
Her hands started to shake.
I stood in front of her, bending down to look at her eye to eye.
“Hey, we can handle whatever it is,” I told her.
“It’s not possible, Jack. He must have done something to the test. Changed it somehow.”
“Sammy, he didn’t know we did the test.” She focused her eyes on me.
“How could he not know?” she asked, confused.
I stood up to my full height. I knew what I was about to tell her might make her angry.
“The other night, when I came to bed late, it was because Blade, Mimic, and I rode over to where Derek was staying. He wasn’t there, so we broke in and got something with his DNA on it,” I confessed.
She took a step back.
I held onto her hands, not letting her get away.
“Jack, that won’t help us in court. You can’t steal his DNA. It won’t be admissible.”
“We’ll work that out later, Sammy.”
“Jack.” I turned to look at King. “We need you in church.”
“No. I want to do this out here. Sammy needs to be here for this.”
King nodded, then turned to Patch. “Go ahead, brother.”
“Jack, the results show you are Charlie’s father. There is no doubt.”
As soon as I heard the words, I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Then what the fuck are you scaring us for? Jesus, Patch, you had Sammy almost in a panic attack,” I scolded.
“Jack,” he began. “The test revealed something else.”
“What?” I asked .
Patch looked at Sammy, then at King.
King nodded.
“Would you just fucking tell me?” I bellowed.
Patch began going over the results. I had no idea how my life was about to change.
“The test compared your DNA and Derek’s to Charlie’s. You are a ninety-nine point nine percent match to Charlie. That makes you her father.” Patch paused.
“Ok. You already said that. What aren’t you saying?” I pushed.
“Derek and Charlie are a twenty-five percent match,” Patch continued.
Sammy gasped beside me.
I looked at her, then back at Patch. No one else in the room said a word.
“How the fuck is that possible?” I questioned.
“I had the lab test your DNA against Derek’s,” he explained.
“What the fuck for?”
“Jack,” Sammy whispered. “I didn’t know. I swear, I didn’t know.”
I looked down at her, taking a step away from her. “Didn’t know what?”
I didn’t know what the fuck was going on, but I was sure it wasn’t good.
“Jack,” King said, getting my attention. “Let Patch explain.” He looked over at Patch. “Go ahead, brother.”
Patch took a deep breath. He needed to just fucking say whatever it was.
“This drama is bullshit. Just tell me,” I barked.
“You and Derek share fifty percent of your DNA.” I looked at him, confused. How was that possible?
“You’re brothers, Jack,” Sammy whispered.
“WHAT THE FUCK!” I screamed.
Blade rushed over. Pushing me against the wall. His arm against my throat.
“Calm down, brother.”
My nostrils flared .
Rage coursed through my body.
I had a fucking brother, and he was a fucking asshole.
My breaths came fast and heavy.
My head swam with questions.
“Focus on me, Jack.”
I could barely hear Blade through the haze. As I tried to slow my breathing, my heart rate sped up.
“Get. The. Fuck. Off. Me,” I rasped.
“Not until you calm down. I know this is a shock, but I can’t let you go until you settle.”
I closed my eyes. Trying to control my breathing. Trying to slow my heart rate.
“Breathe, Jack,” Blade whispered. “She doesn’t need to see you like this. You’re scaring her. Think of what she’s been through.”
My eyes popped open, and I looked for Sammy. I found her in the middle of the room. Rachel and Beck held her as she cried.
Her tears broke me.
I closed my eyes against the emotions that consumed me at seeing her crying because of me.
Again.
I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly.
“Come on, brother. Another one,” Blade encouraged.
I did it again. And then, I did it again.
My heart was no longer thumping in my ears. My breaths were coming slowly and steadily.
“I’m ok,” I said.
Not sure if Blade believed me. Not sure if I did, either.
“I’m ok,” I repeated. “I’m ok.”
Maybe if I said it enough, we would all believe it. Blade leaned back, his arm releasing my throat, but holding me against the wall. My shoulders slumped.
“I’m ok,” I said one last time, and he stepped back.
I slid down the wall until my ass hit the floor. My knees came up and my arms rested on them. My head hung between my arms, and I just sat there, numb.
Sammy sat beside me. She didn’t touch me except to lay her head against my shoulder.
“I swear I didn’t know, Jack.”
I lifted my head to look at her. The tears in her eyes fell silently. I tilted my head to lay it against hers.
“I know, baby. I know.”
I looked over at Patch. “What does this mean? Can you tell if we share a mother or father?”
“Jack, a fifty percent match means you are full siblings. You have the same mother and father,” Patch explained.
I closed my eyes and banged the back of my head against the wall.
“Fuck.”
“I know this is a lot right now, Jack, but we have more we have to talk about,” King said.
“Go ahead, it can’t get any worse, right?”
King looked at Nav. I closed my eyes again.
“Just fucking tell me.”
Sammy wrapped her arm around mine, scooting as close as she could. I placed my hand over hers.
“Nav did a deep dive on Derek after Patch told us. Derek was raised by Luther and Delilah Reynolds. He was six years old when you were born and left at the firehouse.”
“So they kept him and threw me away.”
I always knew I wasn’t wanted. I told myself that maybe my mother was just young and scared and didn’t know what to do.
“Jack, we don’t think she threw you away. We think she gave you up to save you,” King said.
My eyes snapped to his. “What?”
“Nav found police reports. A lot of them. Your father beat her, Jack. Her and Derek. We believe she got you out of the house and left you at that firehouse with no information, so that Luther couldn’t hurt you.”
“Derek told me his father beat him and his mother. I always wondered why he would do that to me after what he went through, and what he saw your mother go through.”
“Children learn what they live,” I said and kissed her head. Then, I looked up at Nav. “Where are my parents now?”
“Your mother died ten years ago. Your father died in prison five years ago,” Nav said.
“Did he kill her?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“Yes.”
I laid my head against the wall again. “Anything else?”
“No,” King confirmed.
“Yes,” Sammy said at the same time.
I looked at her. Waiting for her to tell me. She looked up at me, a grim look on her face.
“I think Derek lied about when he got his vasectomy.”
She could have told me the sky was made of salad dressing, and I would have thought that would be more relevant.
“Why does it fucking matter?” I asked, my voice drained of all emotion.
“Because I think he might be the father of Marsha Wade’s daughter.”
“What?” King asked, standing from the stool he was sitting on.
Nav grabbed his computer, and his fingers started clacking. Everyone was quiet for a minute. Too stunned at what Sammy said.
“Son of a bitch!” Nav exclaimed. “She’s right.”
Sammy closed her eyes and expelled a loud breath. She was the one with her head against the wall now.
“That’s why she was obsessed with Charlie,” Tank offered.
“I think she may have been stalking me,” Sammy added. “They say hindsight’s twenty-twenty.”
“What do you mean?” Blade asked.
“Before Carrie and I became friends, I was always running into her. At the grocery store, the park, a restaurant. Then she got a job at the place I worked. I thought it was fate.”
I slid my arm around her and pulled her into my lap. We stayed on the floor, leaning against the wall. I didn’t have the energy to get up.
“But Carrie knew Charlie was Jack’s,” Beck pointed out .
“She is mentally unstable. She knew Derek’s name was on the birth certificate. So I imagine she convinced herself that Charlie was a replacement for the little girl that was taken away from her,” Rachel surmised.
I looked around the room at everyone. Most of the guys had made it in. One I knew was still out there.
“Has anyone heard from Mimic?” I asked.