Chapter 27 #2
His hand keeps holding out firmly to Blake.
Blake eyes Vanilla for a moment, then looks at Jolt who nods and his eyes flick up to me, I give a nod, feeling hollow and sad inside.
His eyes dart back to Vanilla. His hand comes up and slips into his outstretched hand.
Vanilla carefully pulls him up to his feet and the kid is tall, real damned tall.
He’s got to be close to my height. Vanilla gives him a soft smile and a pat on the shoulder.
“You have stuff around here?” he asks.
Blake nods and points over to a load of bushes.
Vanilla, with his hand still on his shoulder, walks with Blake over to the bushes and they pull out a single backpack.
When they walk back past, Vanilla is talking quietly with him asking if he has finished high school, no.
Does he want to? Yeah, but maybe not go to the school.
The last thing I hear them talking about is the GED.
I look over at Jolt, and he pushes his hand through his hair.
I whisper, “A fucking kid. He was… a fucking kid.”
Jolt nods slowly looking highly upset himself. “We’ll let Vanilla know that whatever he needs, we’ll be there for him too.”
I nod slowly. “Bobby is a dead fucking man. Anyone who made that kid do that shit—dead. All of them fucking dead.”
Jolt nods his agreement. “Anything Sac needs, we are there for it. Fuck.”
We get back to the clubhouse and have a little meeting to touch base.
Vanilla assures everyone that his parents are on their way to come get Blake and that he is going to be okay with Sac.
It takes a lot to shake this all off. My stomach churns and my heart aches for this kid.
I know I am going to have to tell Harry about it.
I need to know if this will change anything for how she wants to handle things.
It is really fucking late…or real fucking early, by the time we get back to the clubhouse.
Mint, Hanger, and I didn’t ride with Bobby in the van, it was always the plan because none of us was certain we could make the drive with that piece of shit without killing him.
Thanks to Kev, he spent the drive in a state of fucked up.
Aware, but unable to do shit. Groove, Nameless, and Fancy get him in the box and Latch is here to take first watch on the box.
I climb the stairs, letting myself into my room where Harry is already coiled up tight in my bed with Ronny.
We discovered a couple weeks ago that Ronny traveled well and that he gets along oddly well with Iggy and Indy, Kev and Gracie’s boys.
So, they all come stay at the clubhouse when we do.
I shuck off my boots and strip to my boxers before scrubbing my face and teeth real fast then climbing into bed.
Harry curls against me with Ronny repositioning himself to sleep against my hip.
I wrap an arm around my wife and the other around our son.
When the light creeps across my face, way too soon, through a little gap in the heavy blackout curtains Harry added, I blink my eyes open finding myself alone in bed.
The water in the bathroom runs, Ronny is in the corner eating his breakfast. Huh, maybe putting his food in the bedroom… nah, I like our mornings together.
I’m too tired to join my wife in the shower, so I roll over and am back out.
Sometime later nails lightly drag long the side of my face, pulling me back to the surface.
The warm smell of coffee fills my nose. Lips press to my forehead.
I let my eyes draw back open and I smile up at my beautiful wife.
“It’s eleven, I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to let you keep sleeping. Jolt only just showed himself downstairs, half alive.” Her nails graze along my cheek.
“Yeah, I should get up,” the words sound exhausted even to my own ears.
Harry holds a mug of coffee for me, I notice it is the perfect color, dark with a little haze from milk. Just a splash, the way I like it. I take it drawing in a long drag, feeling the heat as it rushes down my throat, my eyes meet Harry’s. She smiles.
“You’re happy.”
“He is here. I’m ecstatic.” She beams.
“There is some shit we have to talk about.” I push my hand through my hair then scrub it over my face and take another draw of my perfect fucking coffee.
Her shoulders slump some as she adjusts, her thigh pressing against mine. “Tell me.”
“When we picked him up, he was at a cruising spot. He was getting…” I trail off as I work to bring myself to say the words.
She eyes me. “Head?”
I nod. “From a teen boy.”
Her eyes widen a fraction as she swallows down hard. Her head shakes. “No.”
I nod again. “Vanilla, the Sac Prez, his family has taken the boy in.”
A single tear loosens from the corner of Harry’s eye and makes a slow spiral down her cheek. My beautiful, tough as nails, but softy of heart wife that doesn’t cry. My chest aches. “Will he be okay?”
Sighing, I feel unable to answer that fully, but I go with my gut. “Vanilla is going to give the kid a shot at a good future.”
Her hand shoots up, her fingers dash away the tear when it clings to her jaw and work at drying up the evidence it existed. Her head shakes. “I don’t… I don’t know if I have it in me to give him the end he deserves.”
“What end does he deserve? I’ll make sure to give it to him. Anything you want,” I promise her.
Her eyes close as her body sags in on itself. “Painful. Horrible. He is the worst kind of person.”
I nod even though she doesn’t witness it. “I promise he will get that, even if you can’t be the one to do it.”
Her eyes slowly open and focus on mine. Her hands come up cupping around my face. Her words soft, “I love you, Franco Harker. I love you.”
I press my forehead to hers. “I love you, Harlow Harker. Nothing I wouldn’t do for you.”
“Including stay forever,” she whispers.
I grin and pledge it to her, “Including stay forever, at your side. In this life and the next.”
“Us. Together.”
“Forever,” I finish our vows.