Brothers
Travis
I enjoyed dinner last night. The three of us took Brock out and it was a good night filled with good stories and lots of laughter. It was the last time Magnus and Wrenly would see him before we left to go back to Indiana.
I woke early and Brock took the day off, so we were back in Tulsa when the dealerships opened. We test drove quite a few trucks until we came across a nice used Ram 1500 diesel with low miles and good tires. Brock inspected it from front to back and only found a few minor issues that the dealership agreed to take care of before it left the lot. Financing took forever, but mostly because I was co-signing and a ton of offers came in, so we had a few banks to choose from. Typically, when I purchase a vehicle it’s paid for in cash, and I could have financed the truck, but Brock had absolutely no credit and he needed to get that built up. The lender we chose offered him a credit card and a low interest rate for the loan. I put down a nice down-payment and it was a good lesson for Brock on how financing works. I also worked it in that the truck would be delivered and they took his old truck as a trade unseen. I had no problem helping Brock, I owed it to him. My dad lost everything when Brock was little, and a good portion of that was my fault because of the lawsuit. Paula seemed to bounce back much better from it than Robert. Mainly because she had Charlie to fall back on.
We went back to his house and made a few calls. Clint gave me the name and number of the cleaners the local police use to clean up crime scenes. I locked one down and made the appointment for them to come in one week. We had a few hours to waste before our appointment with the attorney, so I did a video chat with Wrenly so she could update me on the MC and let me see her pretty face. While we were talking a delivery truck came with boxes and boxes of clothes for Emma. We put them in the garage and didn’t tell Emma. We had it planned out that they would stay in a hotel for a few days before they left, and we didn’t want the new clothes to stink. Brock had a few doctor appointments set up for Emma that should help with that situation.
I felt like we were so busy that we did the amount of work an entire team couldn’t have wrapped up in a month. We accomplished a hostile takeover and started to get our families squared away.
The attorney was the easiest part. We met with her, and she quickly had the power of attorney forms ready. The trick was getting the forms notarized. Emma was still in bad shape, and nobody deserved to sit in the same room as her. She did have a shower, by herself I might add, but she still smelled. An attorney in the practice thankfully was a notary and he quickly did it on the front porch of the house. By that night I had everything squared away with Brock, the rest was up to him. It was a quick few hundred bucks for the attorney, and I would hire our own practice to be the third party power of attorney back in Indiana.
The following day was our last in Oklahoma. We met with the MC, and gave each member their roles and left Charlie as president and appointed the State Highway Patrol Chief as the VP as a backup in case Clint accepted our offer. That night we had dinner with Wrenly’s parents. Clint had already talked with Heather, but they both had a ton of questions but promised to let us know as soon as they made up their minds. The offer Creed’s Lake made on their house was more than they anticipated. With Creed’s Lake in control of their MC, we would end up relocating a few operatives, so they could rent Tony’s place and Clint and Heather’s house from us. Mine wouldn’t be available anytime soon because I wasn’t into the idea of evicting a family.
The entire thing was a very quick decision, and hopefully one that will keep Clint safe. It was also a move that gave us a hell of a lot more protections and power to serve more areas in our DV division. I had one last thing to do before I left Oklahoma. That was why I was holding Wrenly’s hand as we stood in the front porch of my mother’s home.
The door swung open, and my mother stood in the doorway, looking a bit nervous, maybe out of sorts. I could tell she had been crying and Charlie was suddenly behind her welcoming us to their home. I understood why my mother was out of sorts. She was about to learn the fate of her oldest child. I wasn’t going to tell her the full truth, but she would have what she needed to know.
“Come on in.” Charlie said, and they both backed up to let us inside before Charlie shut the door behind them.
“Would either of you like something to drink? I have beer, tea, or a coke if you’re interested.” My mother offered.
Wrenly and I both requested a beer, and they led us to their kitchen. The home wasn’t anything like the one we had when I was a kid. Ours was a two story home that always felt cold and empty. Their home was a brick ranch style home, it was large and spacious, with an open floorplan, large living room, and kitchen. It seemed alive and warm, the way a home should feel. Charlie pulled out a chair for Wrenly at the kitchen table and I sat next to her.
“Sorry you missed Evie.” Mom placed the beers in front of us. “She’s at Basketball practice and a friend’s mother will have her home in a few hours.”
Well, at least one of us got a normal childhood.
Mom sat next to Charlie, and he reached under the table to hold her hand. “You’re leaving tomorrow.”
I nodded. “Yeah, we have to get back to work.”
“What happened to Josh? Did he already leave?” Mom asked.
“No, he stayed back at the hotel. He had some work that he had to get done.” I answered.
“How is your life back in Indiana, Travis? Are you happy?”
I looked at Wrenly and smiled before looking back at my mom. “I’ve led a very fulfilling life, surrounded by people I care for very deeply. We do good work and I’m proud of my accomplishments. I love an amazing woman, and we have a very bright future.” I squeezed Wrenly’s hand.
“When will you be back?” Mom asked.
“My final trip here will be in about five weeks. I’ll be helping Brock get things packed up for their move.”
Mom swallowed hard. “Your final trip?”
“Yeah, I think we have one last bit of business and other than that, there really isn’t much here for me. We may visit Wrenly’s grandparents, but I have a feeling they’ll be stopping by Indiana during their summer trips.”
Tears built up in moms eyes. “There’s really nothing I can do to get another chance?” She swallowed hard again, and Wrenly squeezed my hand.
“You had thirty years of chances.”
Wrenly squeezed my hand a little tighter and I cleared my throat. “I mean, you have my number if you need anything.” Damn Wrenly was strong.
Mom gave me a nod. “I will definitely be using it.” She looked at Charlie then at me. “What if I happen to find myself in a small town in Indiana, maybe Cold Springs? Would you possibly have dinner with me?”
Fuck, of course she made me feel sorry for her.
She continued without hearing my answer. “There is nothing to argue over. I was not the mother you deserved, that cannot be changed, but I’d like a chance to try again. Maybe just talk on the phone, some short visits since I can’t visit you at Creed’s Lake. Maybe we could meet somewhere outside your community. I’ll take whatever you will give me. All I want is little pieces of your time.”
I sighed. “I don’t know, Mom. Once I tell you what I know, I don’t think you’ll have much of a use for me anymore. I’ll be giving you all you’ve wanted for thirty years.”
Her tears really started flowing. “What if I say you don’t have to tell me anything? I’d sacrifice learning Bobby’s story if you’d just let me have you.” Charlie put an arm around her and kissed her temple and she shut her eyes as she rested her head against him. She cried for just a moment before she opened her eyes and looked at me. “I can be the mother I dreamed of being to you the day you were placed in my arms. I am so proud of you.” She paused when she sighed. “I’m so tired. Tired of searching, tired of regrets, tired of guilt, and this crushing heartbreak I constantly feel in my chest is no longer Bobby’s it’s yours.” She wiped her tears off her cheeks. “Whoever took Bobby didn’t destroy our family without help. I allowed evil to distract me and poison our little family.” She wiped her tears again. “Learning Bobby’s fate won’t fix us, we have to do that ourselves. I can’t give you your childhood back, I can’t give you the version of Robert you deserved to have as a father, but I can offer you the version of the mother you always deserved.” She sniffled. “I’m in the process of forgiving myself. Could you please just hang in here with me?”
Wrenly squeezed my hand really hard, and I looked at her to see she was crying too. I looked at mom, then at Charlie, then to Wrenly, then sighed in defeat. “Shit.” I stood and made my way around the table and pulled my mom up and wrapped her in my arms. She cried so hard I had to hold her up. She felt frail and her cries cut through me like a knife. She was sobbing and her tears and snot were soaking through my shirt. “Wrenly, could you get something?”
She knew what I was asking and left the table.
“I don’t like the woman I was for so many years. I don’t like her, she was so horrible. I don’t want to be her ever again.” Mom spoke in a shaky voice.
Charlie was rubbing her back as I held her. “You haven’t been that woman in a very long time.” He assured her.
Mom wouldn’t let go of me and to be honest, I didn’t want her to let go either. Wrenly returned with a roll of toilet paper and put some in moms hand, but she wouldn’t let go of me.
“You saved both of our lives that day.” I kissed the top of her head. “By keeping his case open and in the public eye, they didn’t come back for me either. You made it too risky for them to come get me.” I wouldn’t add that if they were determined enough she would have made it easier for them just by not keeping me with her. By not always keeping me safe. “Every single person involved in his disappearance and eventually murder faced very long painful deaths.”
I kept her in my arms as she became stiff as a stone. “There were photographs on a computer. The person who owned that computer was the first to go, then his brother who supplied them to him. That led to a couple who at one time led some dangerous gangs. It wasn’t Bobby that was targeted at first, it was me and you. The woman who wanted me planned to take me from you when you were still pregnant, but her husband became obsessed with Bobby. She wanted you because she couldn’t have babies of her own and she wanted to be there when I was taken out of you. It was a gang initiation that day. The woman was angry that her husband hadn’t followed through with abducting you before I was born. The boy you helped with a cut knee decided to spare us because the woman had plans for you despite the fact that I was already born. He was supposed to take all three of us, but you showed him kindness, so he spared us and just took Bobby. The wife was angry, and eventually became jealous because the man was spoiling Bobby. Mom, they lived an hour from us for four years.” My mom just listened and held on to me. “The husband left town on gang business, and she sent Bobby away with the man that killed him. It was painless, they poisoned him then made sure he was gone before they put his body in the ocean. There’s no evidence of what I’m telling you. I just need you to take my word for it. They all saw justice, even the boy that took him. That’s all I can give you. I’m sorry I can’t give you more, mom. He was seven when he died, that’s all I know.”
“So, it wasn’t sexually motivated?” Charlie asked.
“It didn’t appear to be.” I lied. If there was anything I was going to leave out of the story, it was that part. “They couldn’t have children, but they wanted your sons, mom. If you wouldn’t have been nice to that boy, all three of us would be dead. The man watched us for years, but there was some hardship between their gangs and the Cartel, so the man and woman took off and went into hiding, but they were found and handled. They all died knowing it was justice for Bobby.”
“Are you sure Bobby’s gone?” Mom asked.
“I was briefly shown a video that proved what happened to Bobby. The wife had it made to show her husband in an attempt to hurt him. It showed Bobby.” I cleared my throat. “Bobby peacefully falling asleep and by the time they were in the ocean on that boat, it was apparent that Bobby had passed away.” Moms legs gave out and I thought she passed out at first but she was just letting it all out, or letting it go, I wasn’t sure.