4. Chapter Four
Chapter Four
SHERIDAN
T he aching on my face woke me up as I felt someone brush a washer against my skin. My eyes opened, one side sore as I looked up at Casey.
“Fuck.”
“Yeah, Sher, fuck is right,” he said, his tone angry. “Imagine the expletives I let out when I saw you beaten, passed out with fucking jizz all over your fucking face.”
“I’m fine now, Casey, you can go.”
“Like fuck, Sher,” he said. “You either tell me what the fuck is going on, or I go and find that useless twit of a husband of yours and start punching his face in..”
“Please don’t,” I begged him. “It’ll only make things worse for everyone.”
Casey ran his hand over his face, aggravated. “Fuck, Sher. Your kids know he does this to you?”
“I try to shelter them,” I told him, feeling my eyes burn with unshed tears. “But they’re old enough now to know what’s happening. The only saving grace is he doesn’t go after them, only me. I can take it, Casey.”
“Fuck that,” he said again. “You pack your fucking shit. Pack their shit. You’re coming back to the clubhouse with me.”
“No,” I told him. “I can’t. He’s the fucking chief of the police department, he won’t let me take them from him.”
“He’s going to turn his anger on them. They are old enough now, right? So you look after them. I won’t tell anyone, you’ll stay with me. No one fucking knows.”
“The girls have school,” I told him. “He’ll know.”
He hesitated before he opened his mouth again. I knew I wasn’t going to like what he had to say. “Why didn’t you call Ace?”
I sighed. “I didn’t want him to hurt him, then again, I doubt he would care. He hated me earlier.”
“He could never hate you,” Casey replied. “He was shocked that you didn’t tell him, and then his worst fear was realised. You weren’t his.”
Tears ran down my cheeks, Even though it hurt, I welcomed them. “I was always his, Casey.”
It came out quiet, but he heard it judging by the way his shoulders slumped, the tension gone from them.
“Sher, I’m not fucking leaving you here. No fucking way. I’ll rip his fucking dick off. How long has he been doing this to you?”
I looked away, not wanting to lie to his face, but the words wouldn’t come out. I sobbed, feeling the years of pain, of abuse tearing me apart. My door opened, and I looked over at my girls, both crying as they saw me fall apart.
“It’s been happening for years,” Shauna told him. “Please, don’t make us stay here.”
“Baby,” I turned to her, wiping at my eyes. “You know I can’t take you. He will find us and take you back and it’ll be worse for you. You girls only have a couple more years before you can leave. He won’t hurt you.”
“No,” Shauna bit back quickly, holding Ryleigh, the blubbering mess that she was, in her arms. “You don’t understand what’s been happening since you left.”
Fear shot through me at those words, and the resolve in her eyes. “No.”
“He doesn’t touch us, but his friends look at us in a way that…well, it scares us. One night he was having a poker night and I came down for a glass of water…one of his friends came in to feel me up. I kneed him so hard, he almost threw up.”
“That’s my girl,” I said, horrified that Neal would allow this to happen to his own children. I was filled with all consuming outrage followed by grief that I’d never been able to fathom. How could I not have known this?
“Dad told me that I couldn’t say anything, that if I told you…”
I immediately grabbed her and pulled her to me, holding her tight so nothing else could ever hurt her again. “I’m sorry you didn’t feel like you could come to me, baby. I’m so sorry.”
“Because Dad told me that if I told anyone, he’d send you to prison for drugs,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion. “He said he’d set you up, especially since you and Orla used to spend time with the MC.”
I saw Casey shift next to the bed, his tensed form looked ready to leave and kill Neal. I wanted to kill Neal for this. How the hell hadn’t I known?
“He told us that the day we turned sixteen, things were going to change and we needed to shape up or ship out.”
“When are you sixteen?” Casey asked them.
I felt myself tremble, the anguish taking over. “In a week.”
Casey turned to me, the look I’d seen a million times when he’d rescued me from my drunken father’s beatings coming over his face.
“That’s it. Girls, pack your fucking bags. We’re leaving.”
I tried to argue, knowing what could happen if Neal were to find them at the clubhouse, but he held his hand up. He was right though, I knew he was. The club was the only damn place we would be safe from Neal. “Sheridan, they are your fucking daughters. They need to be safe. We can find somewhere for you guys to go, away from this shithole and away from him. I don’t give a fuck who he is. If Ace found out, he’d raze this entire town for you and you know it.”
“You can’t tell him,” I felt suddenly scared that he would barge in here and lay waste to Neal’s empire. I hadn’t told him how bad this town had gotten on purpose, because I knew he had the heart to make it better. “Please, he has to stay away from this.”
Casey nodded. “Okay, but when he’s back, he’s going to find out. You have a few weeks before that happens, okay?”
“He’s gone?”
“He’s on a run, Sher. He’ll be back in a few weeks, but the club is yours. You know that. We have you and your girls’ backs. We are your fucking family and always have been. You should have called us, even when this fucking started. Now, get up, or I’ll carry you down the stairs and throw you in my truck.”
“Not your bike?”
“When your kid called me, I heard the panic in her voice. I knew it was definitely a truck kind of job.”
I was weary, the energy waning from my body as I tried to pull myself up. Casey lifted me with ease and helped me.
“Where’s your shit?”
“At my house,” I told him. “This is his house.”
Casey nodded. “Okay, I’ll have the bunnies go over and grab your shit while we get you set up.”
“He’ll find me at the clubhouse,” I told him. “I can’t let anything happen to that place.”
“He’s not going to succeed in whatever you think he's capable of,” he told me. But he didn’t know how deep his empire ran. How far he’d really fallen, his ties to corruption never ceased to amaze me. He had used his position to elevate himself, making sure he could live the high life, and fuck anyone who dared to oppose him. I didn’t want the club to feel his wrath.
I knew there was no way out, but to fight him, I needed my strength.
“He’s not going to find you,” he said. “Or them.”
I nodded and let him help me down the stairs where the girls were waiting. I was expecting the door to be kicked in and us dragged back up the stairs, but nothing happened. Neal was gone.
Casey led me to the truck, and helped the girls get in before he put me in the passenger seat. We took off toward the compound as I felt the tears pour down my cheeks. Even though I didn’t want him to see me this way, I also wanted him to be there so I could run into his arms and feel safe.
I needed Cooper.
Casey opened the door to a small cottage-type dwelling behind the clubhouse and far enough away that we would have a good chance to escape into the woods if anything were to happen. Casey had put his truck around the back of the cottage and given me the keys. If we needed to flee, we were told to take it.
He showed the girls how to work the TV and told me he would fill the fridge tomorrow.
“I’ll have Shona come down and feed you guys in a bit,” he said, running his hand over his short hair. I nodded. Shona was one of the old ladies who had been married to one of the former club members who had passed away. They still looked after her, and kept her safe. I liked her a lot.
“Where are you going to stay?” I asked him. “This is your home.”
He shook his head. “Don’t worry about that. I have a room up in the clubhouse. Just call me if you need anything and I’ll come running.”
I nodded. I felt safe here. I always felt safe with Casey or Cooper around.
The girls were watching TV as I walked Casey out onto the deck of his cottage and closed the door behind us.
“Why won’t you look at me?” I asked him, putting my hand on his arm. He didn’t move away, but he also didn’t make a move to look at me.
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because I failed you. You didn’t come to me to protect you, you felt like you had to put up with this shit. I can’t look at those bruises and be okay with sitting at the clubhouse and not hunting down the fucker who did that to you.”
I moved in front of him, forcing him to look at me. “Promise me, Casey Byrne.”
He sighed, shaking his head. “You can’t be serious, Sher. You want me to be okay with this?”
“You guys left,” I said. “Who was I going to run to?”
I saw the hurt register on his face, and immediately regretted it.
“I’m sorry,” I said to him. “I didn’t mean that.”
“Yes, you did,” he replied. “Why didn’t you call, Sher? You know he would have come running for you.”
“Do you think Donald would have been okay with that?” I asked him, sitting down on the chair by the door. He took the other seat.
“Ace needs to know, Sher. You know he’s going to lose his shit if someone tells him that isn’t me or you.”
“He left,” I said, quickly. “Again... What for? Because he found out I’m a mother?”
“I don’t think that’s what it is,” he said. “He wouldn’t care about that. I think it was more the shock that you didn’t tell him.”
“When, Casey? The only time I had with him, he was inside of me. I didn’t exactly want to start talking about my teenage girls then.”
He smirked. “Yeah, both of you have been wanting that for a while.”
“I wish he spoke to me. I want him to call me now and just tell me what’s going on.”
He sighed. “I can make it happen, but I don’t think you want that, Sheridan. I think you want to run away with those girls.”
I closed my eyes, knowing that I would have to bid Kilkenny goodbye, and that meant I would have to say goodbye to Cooper.
Again.
ACE
Snake, one of the Nomads who I’d put in charge of this chapter when we split away from it, met with me at the bar. He motioned to me when I sat down in the booth. Bear and Kendrick were sitting in the corner, in case this didn’t go well. The Nomads and us were still on good terms, but I’d noticed communication was starting to dwindle between Snake and I.
“You came alone,” I said, surprised.
“Not like you, Ace.”
“I’m in uncharted territory here,” I said. “Why did you come to Limerick? You know this is the Reapers’ territory.”
He shrugged, as if he were bored of the conversation already. My anger was mounting. As if I weren’t annoyed enough already, I had to deal with this shit.
“Look, I’ve been on the back of a bike for two hours and had a really shit day before that,” I said, garnering his attention. “You either fucking speak to me with the respect I’m due or I’ll be shaking up the nomads.”
Snake’s eyes darkened, the threat hitting him hard. He knew the men still respected me enough that his role was in danger. You didn’t leave the Ghost Rebels, you either died or you were ingratiated into the club somehow if you couldn’t ride.
He knew that.
“Where are you set up?” I asked him.
“Just outside of the city,” he replied. “I’ll lead you there.”
It was a power play and I knew it. I slid out of the booth and motioned for Bear and Kendrick to follow. They did without a word as Snake rode toward their makeshift clubhouse. The Nomads never stuck around for long, the longest we’d stayed anywhere was a year and even that made us itchy to get on the road again.
We followed Snake toward a quiet part of town just outside the city and through gates that led to an abandoned house they would have revamped. It was how we did it back in the day.
The men let us through, waving at us as we rode by. There were a lot of new faces, which made me wonder how many new members he’d welcomed in the last six months.
Bear joined me, his tension evident. “I don’t like that he’s not answering simple questions.”
“Tell the boys to keep alert. Snake has that name for a reason.”
Bear nodded. “Yeah, I remember. Ace, they outnumber us by ten to one.”
I saw that too, but I wasn’t one to back down, and he knew that. No one fucked this club up, my grandfather founded the Ghost Rebels with his brother. There’s no fucking way a simpleton like Snake would take us down.
“Ace.”
He needn't have said anything as I looked around at the drug den we’d walked into. We all did the occasional drug party, but never like this. Everyone was fucked off their faces, women half dosed out of their mind being fucked by members against every surface.
What the fuck.
Snake saw the look in my eye, a slow smirk making its way onto his face. He knew I didn’t approve, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. The only thing he hadn’t counted on was the day I’d had before I left.
The moment I realised Sheridan had never been mine, and never would be.
“What the fuck are you doing to the Nomads, Patrick?”
His smirk disappeared when I used his real name and he made a move to throw a punch at my face. Savage caught the fist before it landed and twisted his shoulder around, marching him back toward the end of the clubhouse. I saw a familiar face as I looked over the deal being made.
“Killian?”
His dark eyes locked on me and he smiled in recognition. Standing, he made his way over to me and shook my hand. “It’s been a while, Ace. Nice to see you.”
“Yeah, it sure is a surprise.”
He looked around. “No more surprised than I was when I walked in here. Your boy Snake invited us down to talk about the gun running in Limerick. Lorcan and Conor are both … indisposed, so I came by.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“Their women are pregnant,” he said. “Together, which means the place we’re building is not a fun place to be.”
I stifled my chuckle. “Damn, no wonder you came down alone.”
“Trust me, Conor was chomping at the bit to leave, but Tee would never allow him to go.”
God, I missed those guys. Helping them six months ago had been great, and seeing them with their women had made me miss the only woman I had ever wanted to be with.
Sheridan.
“What do you want to do, Ace?” Bear asked me, bringing me back to the task at hand. I looked around, and the club was drugged up to the eyeballs. This is not what the Ghost Rebels was about.
“Take him out back,” I said. “He’s lost his way.”
Some of the Nomads turned around, knowing exactly what that meant. I turned back to Killian.
“The Nomads won’t be gun running, not for a while. Keep them at bay if they ask.”
Killian watched as they hauled Snake out by the arms. “I doubt they’ll be asking anytime soon. Need me to stick around?”
“We got this,” I told him. “Club business and all.”
“Call me if you need help,” he said. I shook his hand again. “You know I love a little violence. Anytime.”
He walked out of the den of sin we’d stumbled across and left. I followed the boys outside and stood over Snake. He was on his knees as Savage and Viper held his arms out on either side. Bear and Kendrick stood behind me, as I looked down at the man who had always wanted my job. He had been my former VP, Dog’s, best friend. They came up together. When he died and I didn’t kill the guy who killed him, Snake had been a dick to everyone, shutting himself away, causing shit with townsfolk so we couldn’t stay long.
I gave him the Nomads as a peace offering. We couldn’t kill Lorcan. He’d killed Dog because he was trying to kill someone under his care. Dog had lost his way, and it was a clean kill. It had cleared the air between us.
“Any last words?” I asked him, taking my jacket off and rolling my sleeves up.
“Fuck you,” he spat at my feet. “You’re weak, Malone. You always have been.”
“Weak?” I asked, kneeling in front of him to look him in the eye. “My men make choices of their own and respect me. Yours? I don’t see any of them coming out here to stop this, to stand up for you.”
“They are lost,” he said. “Too high to know what happened.”
“You can’t control a couple of club members?” I replied. “And you call me weak?”
I grabbed the blade from my ankle and I ripped his patches from his cut. He didn’t say a word but he looked up at me, his eyes watery with anger and emotion. I looked over at Bear. He moved in and ripped his cut from him, and then his shirt, leaving him bare. I stood up, moving over to his club tattoo. We all had one, not in the same spot, but his tattoo was always on his shoulder. I sliced the blade through the tattoo. He tensed against Savage and Viper, but didn’t cry out.
At least he’d do this with some dignity.
I sliced at his tattoo until I’d marred his skin enough that the tattoo wouldn’t ever be legible again. “Let him go. He’s done.”
Savage and Viper both let him go, and he fell to the ground. Blood dripped down his back from the knife wound. Bear picked up his cut and we started to head inside.
“You fucker.”
We all turned around, just as I saw him aiming a gun at my head. There was no time to react. The bullet moved past my head, hitting the house behind us. Savage tackled him, knocking the gun free. Viper took the gun and pulled his knife free, slicing Snake’s neck. He struggled to breathe for a few moments before the gurgling stopped and his eyes became lifeless.
My blood was pumping hard, realising how close I came to losing my life just now.
“What now, boss?” Kendrick asked. I looked at the house, where a couple of men stumbled out, half out of their mind.
“We clean up the club,” I said. “We stay and get the Nomads back to what it was before we left. These guys have had no leader for too long.”
I didn’t know if that meant I would come back for good, or if I cleaned them up and appointed a new leader I could trust.
My chest pulled at the idea of never returning, almost as if I knew I needed to, but I couldn’t bring myself to.
She’s not yours .