Chapter Two
Blaze
Nobody wanted to get back in that car. Oak gravitated toward the edge of the parking area, and I watched as he pulled out his cellphone and seemed to make a call.
“I know you want to protect me,” I quietly began, causing my mother to stiffen, even if she didn’t take her eyes off the busy stretch of road to acknowledge me. “Mom…”
I let the word hang until she huffed and gave me a side glance.
“At what point do you imagine I might be safe to venture out and find a career for myself? A first home? I don’t know… a life?” I laughed, trying to keep my words light. “It’s a trip to see my father’s family, that is all.”
“It’s a trip into troubled water that didn’t have to be made.” She firmly countered. “Your uncle could have brought that damn bike to Georgia if it were that serious, Blaze. I know you don’t understand. You can’t. The life we left behind in Illinois– People only see that shit on television, okay? You cannot fathom the fear and danger until you’re drowning in it, and I don’t want that for you. We lived safely. Silently…”
“You hid,” I pointed out, causing her blue eyes to flash.
“Blaze,” She raised her voice, when she noticed my sister was paying a little bit too much attention to our conversation.
“You hid,” I repeated, unwilling to be deterred. I’d lived with it for over twenty years, and I’d suffocated with her for the past several hours in that damned car. It was time to get a few things straight. “The suspect died, and you still ran three states– Was it three states we were stuck listening to their bullshit?” I looked back toward Karlotti, who jerked her head away like something in the distance had suddenly demanded every ounce of her attention.
I snorted, fanning the air to dismiss the need for her testimony. “Ma, at what fucking point do you say, we handled shit. There was a scary situation, and we fucking killed them. Life goes on. We conquered the bad guy.”
“Enough!” my mother roared.
“Apparently, it isn’t.” I sighed, pushing off the car.
Oak’s massive hand found my chest and he pressed me back against the frame, stepping his massive form in front of me like the damn tree that he might as well have been.
“Take Karlotti for some air,” he quietly advised my mother in that grave tone of his, without taking his eyes, or fingertips off me.
“Oak, it’s fine,” she whispered, that broken edge coming back to her voice.
It made my stomach sour, and I knew it had the same effect on my stepfather when I saw how his jaw set. I wasn’t trying to wound her; I just wanted her to stop being so overbearing. I wanted to breathe without having her fears and what ifs shoved down my throat.
I rubbed my face while my mother put her arm around Karlotti and steered her toward the opposite side of the emergency parking area.
“I didn’t mean–”
“To be insensitive? Disrespectful? Cold hearted toward your own mother… The only mother you’re ever gonna get?” He offered a few directions for me to end on and I swallowed whatever I was about to say and nodded.
“Don’t bobble your head at me. I spoke to you. Address me back, like a man.” Oak’s voice was gentle and caring, despite the firmness that carried in his words.
“Yes, sir.” I took a deep breath, “I do respect her, and I love her…” I tore in a deep breath and felt my throat tighten. She was my mother.
She would give her life for me, and yet she was the only one who could make me feel like I was suffocating on life itself. “...but I can’t live under a rock forever, Oak. I don’t want that anymore. I know she thinks it keeps people safe…”
“She doesn’t give a fuck about people, Blaze. She cares about you and Karlotti. Keeping ya’ll safe. That is her life mission, it has been since she brought you into this world.” He sniffed, and put his hand on my shoulder, bringing the other one up to point and wave in emphasis.
“Your mother lost a lot. Her husband. Her sister…”
“Yeah. I know. I was there, too, I found her body, Oak.” I reminded him, causing him to duck his head back. He actually ran out of words for a moment. “Nobody found the time to take me to her funeral… but I was the one who found her. My mother put me through a window because Joplin’s front door was locked that afternoon.”
Oak wasn’t afraid of anything, and he was never one to mince words. So, I wasn’t sure what to make of the sudden ‘deer in the headlights’ expression he briefly displayed.
Rather than continue the conversation, which I was certain he had meant to be a very long-winded one with the way he’d sent my mother and Karlotti packing, he just wiped his face with his hand, dragging it slowly off his jaw. He looked like he had something serious to say, but in the end, he just wagged his finger and nodded. His other hand hugged my shoulder where it had been resting and he never looked more relieved than he did when that van pulled in behind us and Aunt Daisy flew out of the passenger seat.
I hadn’t seen her in over a decade, but I would have recognized her anywhere. She scrambled toward me and snatched me up into a hug that left me clinging to her with my eyes closed.
The soft-floral scents that clung to her long hair brought back so many memories. I’d forgotten how much she loved to garden and work with soil.
I felt something hot and wet on my neck and realized she was silently weeping.
“Oh my God, I missed you,” she finally whispered through her tears before kissing my head a few times.
By the time she untangled herself from me, everyone had gathered around us.
“Daisy,” my mother quietly greeted, accepting her hug as well.
I leaned against the car while Oak took her in his arms when Aunt Daisy turned on him. She finally got around to my sister and reached for her hands, giving them an affectionate squeeze.
“This is Karlotti. Karlotti, this is Blaze’s auntie, Daisy Henshaw.”
My sister gave that timid smile of hers and bobbed her head at my aunt.
“Oak that is all your momma.” Daisy laughed, fussing over Karlotti’s red hair for a moment.
“Sorry we missed your wedding,” I offered, when Daisy’s husband, Montana, rounded the front of the car.
He made a dismissive rumble of a sound and threw an arm around my shoulder, hauling me against him in a side hug of sorts.
“Ah, don’t you worry about none of that, son.” He grunted with a grin. “We knew you guys were with us in spirit.”
“The pictures were beautiful,” My mother hesitantly added.
She almost sounded ashamed, and awkwardly began to steer my sister toward the back of Montana’s van. They sat in the back, leaving me and Daisy to enjoy the middle seats while Oak rode up front with Montana.
Oak adjusted the air and glanced back toward my mom once we were moving again.
“You girls doing okay back there, are you getting any of this?” He wiped his brow and continued trying to angle the vent, so it blew in their direction.
My mother kept her head turned, staring out the back window of the van while she clutched her purse. One hand was resting inside it, and I could only assume that the prominent knot against the leather of her bag was her service weapon.
The lack of response, and my staring at her caused Daisy to look back as well. When her gaze settled on my mother’s purse and her brows weighed with thought, I blurted out, “Wow, this is a nice van. I don’t remember you having a van, Monty.”
“Club vehicle,” He clipped, causing Oak to wince. “We use it for this exact purpose. Breakdowns.”
“Guess it proved handy.” I nodded, not knowing what else to say.
I was suddenly sorry I’d asked; I could feel the temperature rising behind me as my mother’s temper and her will to check out competed with one another.
“So, you graduated?” Daisy tugged on my sleeve, drawing my attention her way again.
“I did! That’s right.” I gratefully latched onto that topic.
She was smiling in an odd, almost bitter-sweet way when I finally lifted my gaze to meet hers, and she reached out and smoothed my hair off my face. The way she stared at me made me feel like she was committing it to her memory. It was as if she thought it were the last time we’d ever see each other, making the words dry in my throat.
“Boy graduated on the dean’s list. He wasn’t playing.” Oak answered from the front seat, reaching back to clap my knee in a proud squeeze. “He went in there and came out with not one degree, but two.”
I looked out the window, never one to grandstand about my own accomplishments.
“Two degrees?” Monty asked, checking me in the rearview mirror.
I met his gaze and gave a short nod of confirmation.
The old man’s smile lit up his eyes. “Atta boy.”
“What’s next then?” Aunt Daisy asked the question that usually caused the dinner table to implode. “Will you find an amazing job, or continue your education? Maybe go hiking in Europe for a year?”
“What?” I laughed when she started talking about international travel.
“I don’t think people do that anymore, Babe.” Monty spoke up again, “That hippie shit wore out with our generation.”
He and Oak laughed while Daisy swatted playfully at the back of his seat. I didn’t have the heart to tell her my mother would probably put agents on me if I crossed state lines without her at my side. I was as likely to explore Europe as I was Mars. Sure, I could do what I wanted. I was a grown man, but her fear mongering, hovering, and anxiety-induced lectures often sucked the joy out of anything that didn’t include smothering under her rock in rural Georgia.
“I don’t think the jobs are all that outstanding at my level. I don’t really know yet,” I found myself mumbling and hoping the conversation died there.
“Oh, bullshit,” Daisy countered, drawing my gaze back to her big, brown eyes. “You’re bright, Blaze. You’re going to do wonderful things.”
Oak nodded in agreement, a smile resting on his features as it usually did. It was hard to put him in a foul mood.
“What are your degrees in again?” Monty asked, as he flipped the turn signal on and slowed the van.
I took a deep breath even as my mother forcefully exhaled behind me.
“Uh– Psychology. Psych and History.” I cleared my throat.
“You could probably get a job anywhere, honestly.” He shrugged, making the turn off the highway.
The minute he was on his street, the old man started cursing, “Ah, shit, Daisy. I– Honey, I thought you said it would be a small affair with just Easy and his family?”
“Wha–?” Daisy managed, popping her head up just as my mother landed a hand on my chest and the other on Daisy’s.
“Nope. Not happening,” she announced, propelling herself forward and rounding on the door.
She grabbed the handle and went to jerking on it, but it apparently, wouldn’t open while the vehicle was in motion.
“Let me out!” she barked, causing Monty to slam on the brake.
She slapped off the back of Oak’s seat, threw the door open and leaped from it like she was under duress.
“What the fuck is going on?” Monty clipped, as Oak flung his seatbelt off and hopped out after her.
“Get the kids out of here, would ya, Monty?” He didn’t wait for an answer before shutting his door and shoving Daisy’s closed.
A small flock of people in leather vests had flocked from the overflowing yard to stare down the street at us. Meanwhile, Monty stayed parked, eyeing Daisy in the rearview mirror.
I cleared my throat and drew their attention toward me.
“It’s my experience one should get while the getting is good in these situations.”
Monty grunted and Daisy blinked.
“This… uh… This is normal?” she quietly asked, giving a glance back to Karlotti.
Karlotti put her head down and I gave a stiff nod.
“Anytime my father or the history surrounding him comes up, she loses it. Anytime we venture too far from her nest… she loses it,” I quietly admitted.
A slew of half-silenced curses was emitted from the driver’s seat before Monty threw the car into drive and we slowly rolled toward the bikers.