2. Silas
TWO
SILAS
PRESENT
“Tell me again.”
I glared at the man across from me, ignoring his hollow cheeks and withered frame. My mother was patched to this man, living with him, in love with him. She’d finally found someone who cherished her, treated her right and protected her. And now he was about to die from the cancer in his gut.
Simon let out a heavy sigh. “I’ve already told you everything I know.”
My eyes flicked over to my mother whose thin lips and clenched fists told me she wasn’t appreciative of the fact I had drug the two of them out of bed to answer my questions. The memory of the attack was still a blurred dark mass in my head.
The minute I had called Simon and told him to get down to the Stone Riders clubhouse because they were under attack, I knew he’d go, not for me but because he had been the president of that club for nearly twenty years, until just a few months back.
Now his son-in-law was not only a patched member to the club but married to his daughter Callie, who was pregnant, stuck inside the club while it was being attacked. I knew he’d go, and I remembered the tide had turned once he walked in, but after that I didn’t remember anything other than the gravel under my knees and the way my heart felt like it was falling through my stomach when I realized Natty had been taken.
“Silas, of anyone in this room who would have the most information on Fable, you would have more of a lead than us. You studied him for years, you knew his movements, his purchases, his tactics. I haven’t talked to him in over twelve years, and Simon likely hasn?—”
“Two years…” Simon spoke softly, interrupting my mother. His silver brows crowded his forehead the smallest bit, like he was trying to remember. “I saw him two years ago…he wasn’t in Rose Ridge. It was in Richland, so I brushed it off, but I remember seeing him, clear as day at a rally.”
That wasn’t possible…he’d vacated the country two years ago. There was no way he’d return so soon.
Fable was the president of one of the most destructive and dishonorable clubs in the country. He had left The Destroyers behind to avoid prison two years ago. He’d fled to his homeland in Italy, but if he was amongst his club two years ago then the message I’d sent wasn’t quite loud enough.
“Did he see you?” I asked, my gaze snapping up to the retired president.
Simon shook his head. “I don’t think so… I just remember Fable’s Destroyers were riding with them. So were Sons of Speed.”
“Any clue which club he was speaking to?” Simon asked, searching my face for something, not sure what. But I was the one in need of answers, not him. I didn’t owe him shit on my family, and while my mother likely knew the answer, she wasn’t saying anything either.
Old habits died hard. Or for us, didn’t die at all.
Sons of Speed was present when he was seen in town…that was interesting.
I pulled my cell out and checked the time. I was wearing a watch, but I needed something to break up the silence, and while Simon was an ally and the man protecting my mother, I wouldn’t be spilling secrets in his company.
“I have to go.” I slid out of the chair and stood.
Simon’s expression furrowed as he flicked a quick look to my mother.
“That’s it? ”
“You can’t help me. I’m just wasting my time.” I walked over to where my mother was sitting and placed a kiss on the top of her head. She squeezed my wrist in that way she always did when she wanted me to be careful. My boots echoed over her floorboards as I walked outside. She followed on my heels, her arms protecting her chest as the night hummed with crickets.
“He’s baiting you, Silas. You’re smarter than this.”
Gravel crunched as I neared my bike, my chest tightening at her words.
“You think I don’t know that?” I glared at my mother, not wanting to dig into this. Simon had stayed inside, which I was thankful for. There were still too many secrets in our past and too many demons I liked to avoid.
My mother’s eyes betrayed nothing, but her lips were turned down, the fists under her cradled arms were clenched tight.
“Then why, Silas? Why are you falling into it?”
I shook my head as I dipped my face to untangle my bucket helmet. I didn’t always wear it, but there was a soft voice in my head that wouldn’t stop reminding me why it was important that I did.
Silas, your brain is my favorite part of you. My gloomy, dreary prince. Protect it at all costs.
Glancing back up, I let out a small sardonic laugh. “You know exactly why.”
She took a step closer, her bare feet hitting the edge of her covered porch. She’d moved out to this little farmhouse on five acres. Lush grass, a huge red barn, fences and pens for all her animals and a house just big enough for her and a dying man to enjoy.
“You have been down this road before, you saved her by letting her go, Son. She knows how to get herself out of this, he won’t kill her.”
“You don’t know that. I did what you asked of me. I found him, I even fought him…I nearly took his club from him.”
“But you didn’t. You came back,” she snapped, stepping off her porch, her bare feet cutting into the gravel.
Her eyes gleamed under the porch light, the desperation that was in her gaze all those years ago still just as demanding now.
“You should have never asked me to leave. ”
She cut me off, walking even closer, her voice rising. “You had to, and I kept Natty safe. I watched over her.” She pointed aggressively toward her chest. “I was the one, Silas. You act like she’s not like a daughter to me. Like she wasn’t at that kitchen table in my home every single day learning alongside you. You act like I didn’t feed her when her whore of a mother abandoned her. You act like I didn’t get her clothes and do her hair. You think it didn’t break my heart when her own mother offered her up to Dirk? I took her place. I went to hell and back for that girl. I love her Silas. But I also love you. I know what demons plague you, Son. You need to think clearly right now.”
The memories were as painful as a lash against my back. Killing Dirk all those months back was one of the best moments of my life. I just should have done it years ago.
“It was never your job to protect her.”
My mother laughed, tears gleaming in her eyes. “No, it was my job to protect you , but you gave so much of yourself to her, Silas, there was nothing left for me to protect. But this is something you won’t come back from. You’re a threat to him, Son. You always have been. He’s been making plans, and we all know none of them ever included Jefferson Quinn or Tuck Holloway. He’s got to be planning something with Alec, and now that Dirk is gone, and you’re leading the Death Raiders, he’s coming for you.”
“Then let him come. You can’t worry about me, Mom. However, if you are so inclined to panic, then help me find out who is helping him, and where he’s staying.”
Her face dipped, her dark hair falling over one eye. “It has to be Alec.”
“Sons of Speed isn’t that big of a club. It has to be someone else.”
I stepped closer and pulled my mother into a hug, pressing another kiss to the top of her head. “I will find her and kill him.”
“You should have killed Alec a long time ago, Silas.”
A tiny flicker of panic swelled in my chest. I wasn’t ready to dive into that topic, or even consider that he was involved. Not until I talked to my vice president, Lance, and had him do some digging.
My mother swiped at her face, then laughed again.
“Guess you really will burn the world down for her. You’re about two seconds from striking the match…I hope Fable understands the devastation he’s about to cause. For all of us.”
“Fable has wanted our world to corrode from the start…he has never cared that we burn, Mother. You of all people know that.” I straddled my bike and gestured toward her with a nod. She winced, lightly touching her side as if she was remembering all those times we’d curled up inside of a wardrobe, while she nursed her wounds.
I left, not wanting to revisit those memories either. I felt like I was constantly running from one nightmare to the next. All I wanted was Natty in my arms again. I’d waited long enough; Natty belonged to me, and even if this ended in both our lives being forfeited, at least in the end, she’d be buried with me.
Safely cradled in my arms.