Chapter One #2
I drop the photos back to the porch and quickly gather my stuff.
Running the short distance to the door, I unlock it and rush inside.
The sound of my son, Bryce, playing fills the house I’ve tried my hardest to turn into our home.
From the noises he’s making, he’s playing with his motorcycles.
Caleb and Kreed have bought him a million of the things over the years and they’re his most treasured possessions.
He plays with them daily. I don’t hear my daughter, Rory, but that’s not surprising considering she’s only five months old.
She’s more than likely napping and will be up soon to eat.
“Caliana, are you okay?” Tiffany asks me, panic in her voice as I startle and look up at her.
I place my hand on my chest as my heartrate kicks up even more and I start to feel dizzy. I’m not usually so jumpy, but today hasn’t been a normal day. It’s been rough and I need to go to bed and reset myself. I’ve got hours until I can go to bed though.
“No, I’m not. Did you hear anyone on the porch today? Did you take the kids out of the house?” I question her, my voice coming out in panted gasps as I try to catch my breath. Each breath I take feels harder than the last one and I know I’m on the verge of having one of my worst panic attacks.
“I haven’t heard anyone at all. The kids and I stayed inside all day.
We didn’t even go out back for Bryce to play.
It rained earlier and I didn’t want to get them sick with the chill in the air,” Tiffany answers me, her voice hesitant as she looks me up and down to figure out what’s going on with me. “Did something happen?”
“The porch is covered in pictures from my life. Can you stay in here for a few minutes so I can get the mess cleaned up?” I ask her, already thinking of what I have to do to clean this shit up because there’s no point in calling the police when they won’t do anything.
I’ve seen it happen too many times to count where a woman calls about things like this happening and nothing gets done about it.
I’ve called them myself in the past about my father and the police believed his lies that nothing was wrong and I was just pissed off at him because he wouldn’t let me go out to turn into a whore.
The police left without doing anything about my father screaming in my face and grabbing my arm so hard I had bruises left behind.
They heard him shouting at me when they walked up to the house and still did nothing.
I don’t trust the police and would rather go to Caleb and Kreed for help.
I know the Feral Dragons MC, the club they started when they got out of the military, will help me find out what’s going on and who’s leaving this on my porch.
“I’ll stay as long as you need me to, Caliana. You seem pretty shaken up. Do you want me to call the cops?” she questions me, already pulling her cell phone out of her pocket and unlocking it.
“No!” I practically shout and reach out to stop her.
“I’m sorry. The cops won’t do anything. I don’t deal with them unless I absolutely have to.
I’ll just clean the mess up and give it to some friends of mine.
They’ll be able to help me more than anyone else,” I inform her as I set my things down on the floor of the entry to my home and move past her toward the kitchen.
“Hi, Mommy,” Bryce calls out from his spot on the living room floor where he’s playing.
“Hey, Buddy. Did you have a good day today?” I ask him, needing him to not know anything about what’s going on right now.
“I did. I’ve played with my bikes all day long, Mommy. Uncle Kreed got me a new one today. He was here for a minute to see us,” my son tells me as a smile forms on my face.
Kreed shows up every single day. Even if it’s only for a minute to check on us, he never fails to stop by.
Bryce loves seeing him and Caleb, though Caleb hasn’t been around as much lately.
I’m not sure what’s going on with him. Every time I ask Kreed, he changes the subject and avoids my gaze.
That tells me something bad is going on with my best friend and they don’t want me to know because I’ll worry.
It’s not like I don’t already know the anniversary is coming up and it has to be weighing heavily on Caleb’s shoulders.
He was the leader of the team they were all on and has taken responsibility for Darren's death on himself. I don’t blame him and no one else does either.
Well, Darren’s parents do but they’re assholes and never deserved to have a son like Darren. At least before he started changing.
Grabbing a pair of gloves and one of the large storage bags, I make my way back out to the porch.
Bending down, I carefully pick up each photo and take a look at it.
Kreed and everyone else are fine in the pictures.
It’s only Caleb that has the X slashed over his face.
My eyes linger on the images of Darren. Especially when he was younger and so sure of himself and didn’t spend hours getting lost in his head with thoughts he never shared with me.
I’m sure some of them were about the missions they were sent on while in the military.
Other times, I often wondered if he was thinking of a different girl.
Someone who could love him with her entire heart and give him exactly what he needed.
That was never me even though I tried desperately to be who he wanted and needed over the years we were together.
Tears slide down my face as I place the pictures in the storage bag.
There are definitely drops of blood on them as memories play one after another in my mind.
Memories built in the happier times of our lives when we didn’t have the weight of the world holding us down so hard we couldn’t take a minute to simply enjoy the peace of our own home.
The images of Darren especially hit hard as I remember the moments we spent alone together and he showed me little pieces of who the man was behind the mask he always seemed to wear.
Especially when we were around his parents.
Darren could never be himself when his father was home and it hurt my heart to witness the change in him.
He became so cold and unfeeling. It was at those times I truly questioned why I remained with him and didn’t tell him it wasn’t working out between the two of us for a multitude of reasons.
Once all the pictures are cleaned up and locked away in the storage bag, I scour the porch to make sure nothing else was left behind.
After several minutes, I find several droplets of blood leading down the steps.
Whoever did this was injured in some way and it makes a chill rush through me.
The nurse part of me wonders what kind of injury this person has and how much blood they’re actually losing.
Then I think about calling Caleb and Kreed for help.
They’ll know exactly how to handle this situation and what I need to do moving forward.
Instead of calling them and letting them take care of this for me like normal, I think about what they’d do.
Caleb would go into protection mode. He’d hover over the kids and me like the threat is going to pounce at any second and take us away from them.
His entire attitude would shift and none of us would be able to predict what he’ll do.
Caleb becomes reckless when one of his loved ones are in danger.
It’s why that became his road name. He’s jumped in without thought to dangerous situations more than a few times over the years.
It’s something Playboy and Sam can’t stand and are always yelling at him for.
Kreed would also become overprotective, but he’d be the one to look at the situation rationally and come up with a solid plan of action to move forward with.
The first step being to install one of the best security systems money can buy.
So, I grab my phone from my pocket and call Rex, better known as Master.
When I asked why that was his road name, he explained that he’s the master of breaking into anything computer related and no one can touch his skills.
Master answers his phone and I explain what I’m looking for.
When I try to avoid why I suddenly want a security system when he’s offered to install one several times over the last few years, he doesn’t let me push the question aside.
Rex demands an answer from me and I have no choice but to tell him what I walked up on when I got home from work.
Rex is pissed by the way his voice goes colder than ice and he demands to know if I’m okay.
When I assure him the kids and I are fine, he finally relents and promises to be out here tomorrow morning to install the security system before doing anything else.
He’s doing this because of Darren. They all watch out for me because of him and I know this.
Caleb and Kreed are the only two who don’t make me feel as if I’m nothing but an obligation to them.
Not that the rest of the guys intentionally make me feel that way.
Walking back inside, I let Tiffany know I’m going to clean up before she leaves for the day.
Heading for my room, I quickly stash the bag of pictures deep in my closet so no one can find them and jump in the shower.
I wash and rinse off before drying off and dressing in a pair of sweatpants and one of Caleb’s old tee-shirts.
I’ve had it for years and it’s the softest piece of clothing I own these days.
It’s been washed so many times over the years I’m surprised the picture on the front of it is still visible.
Now, I have to push everything else to the back of my mind and focus on the kids as I walk into the living room just as Rory starts waking up.
The rest of my night will be spent with them.