15. Reese
Reese
It didn’t take long to get settled at my parents’ place.
They’d raised a big family in that house, so they had several extra bedrooms. Nate took one with two sets of bunk beds.
Summer took my sister Annika’s old room, and I brought my things to the bedroom at the end of the hall—the one my brother Josiah and I had shared.
Being in my childhood home was surreal, but even more mind-boggling was the way I’d been welcomed back. At least Zachary had wanted to hit me. That tracked. I almost wished he would have. It was what I really deserved.
But Summer and Nate had a safe place to stay, and that was priceless. I’d live with the weight of my guilt. It was worth it.
Besides, I had four more brothers to contend with. One of them might hit me.
Dad offered to take us to see the house he and Josiah were remodeling.
It was in a quiet neighborhood, not far from the river.
Small—only two bedrooms—but we could make do.
It still needed some work, but like Dad had said, it wouldn’t take long to finish.
And that time would give us an opportunity to figure out furniture—whether it was stuff from Summer’s old apartment or things we picked up locally.
I made it clear we were not living there for free. He needed to charge me market value. He hadn’t really replied. Just grunted something noncommittal and walked away.
Right as we were getting ready to leave, my phone buzzed with a text. It wasn’t a number I recognized.
It’s Z. Timberbeast at 7.
I read his text with resignation. He must have gotten my number from Mom. And I knew exactly what it meant. Zachary wasn’t inviting me to have a casual beer with him. To catch up and talk about old times.
No. They were all going to be there, and it was time for a reckoning.
I have to admit, I thought about lying. Fabricating a story that left out at least the worst of the details.
But I couldn’t. I was home, and it was time to come clean.
When we got back to my parents’ house, I took the two of them out to the shop. There were things they needed to know. So I told them the truth. All of it.
Then I got ready to face my brothers and tell them the truth, too.
Shortly before seven, I left Summer and Nate at my folks’ place and headed for the Timberbeast.
Walking in the door was anticlimactic. The music didn’t stop with a record scratch, and the only people who took any notice of me were the five other Havens sitting around two tables pushed together. An empty chair and a beer waited for me.
Garrett and Zachary didn’t react, but I’d already seen them. The others gaped at me, like they’d been sure it was all a big joke and I wasn’t going to show.
It shouldn’t have surprised me that they were all adults. Of course they were. But the last time I’d seen them, we’d all been in our late teens or early twenties. A lot had changed.
Josiah looked like a younger version of our dad, with a beard and thick arms crossed over his wide chest. His stoic expression was hard to read. Garrett wore street clothes, but his posture gave him an air of authority. He’d hugged me earlier, but he wasn’t smiling.
Zachary was. He smirked like my return was amusing. Theo watched me approach with wariness, his gaze flicking up and down. Luke raised his eyebrows and his mouth opened.
“Are we sure this is him?” Luke asked.
“It’s him,” Garrett said and tapped the side of his jaw. “He still has the scar.”
Tilting my face, I let them see the jagged line beneath my stubble.
“Oh, shit, you’re right,” Luke said. “Dude, you got jacked.”
“Yeah, I almost didn’t recognize you,” Theo said.
I walked around to the other side of the table, pulled out the empty chair, and sat. “It’s me.”
Josiah’s expression didn’t change, and although he didn’t raise his voice, his tone brooked no argument. “Skip the small talk. Why did you leave, and where the fuck have you been all these years?”
I nodded slowly, not surprised Josiah would get straight to the point. “I wish I could tell you I’ve been off doing something heroic. That I joined the military and was sent overseas on top secret missions. Or that I was out saving orphans or something. But that’s not what happened.”
I took a drink of the beer they’d ordered for me, giving me a second to decide where to begin.
“I don’t know what Dad told you about why I left.”
“Nothing,” Luke said.
I didn’t know if that made it easier or not. I’d have to start from the beginning.
“Dad caught me stealing.” I hesitated, my eyes on the beer bottle in my hand. “Stealing from him.”
“Seriously?” Zachary asked.
Luke smacked him on the arm. “Shh.”
“I took some tools and car parts he’d had in the shop, planning to sell them. He caught me red-handed. And before you tell me it’s fucked up to steal from your own father, I know. I knew it then, too, but I was too stupid and angry to face what I’d done.
“When he confronted me, I lost it. Tore into him. I called him every name in the book. Told him I hated him and that he wasn’t my father.
He said a lot, too, and in the end, told me to leave and never come back.
I don’t blame him for that. No man should have to take that kind of abuse from one of his kids. ”
“Then what?” Josiah asked.
“After I left, I landed in a town out in Texas. I joined a motorcycle club. And by that, I don’t mean a group of guys who ride Harleys.
I mean an outlaw club. We had some businesses that were more or less legit—a bar, a strip club, a garage, stuff like that.
But those were mostly fronts for the illegal stuff we were doing. ”
“Shit,” Luke muttered.
“I’m not proud of who I was or the things I did. I was in a dark place. That’s not an excuse, but it kept me from even thinking about coming home. I wanted to keep pretending the life I was living was fine. Even though, deep down, I knew it wasn’t.”
“Is this the same club your girl was talking about?” Zachary asked.
“What girl?” Luke asked.
“No, and I’ll get to that. My club disbanded.
We got into a war with a rival club, and it got violent.
Really violent. None of the higher-ups made it out alive.
And those of us who did wanted out. Some of the guys kept the businesses we already had and went fully legit.
I partnered with some of the others, and we started hiring ourselves out as bouncers and security guards.
Our business morphed into private security, investigative work, that sort of thing. ”
“So, you’re not a criminal anymore?” Zachary asked.
“No.”
He nodded. “Good to know. Garrett, you don’t need to arrest him.”
Garrett shot him a confused look. “I never said I was going to.”
“Yeah, but the rest of us wanted to beat the shit out of him, so I figure you’d want to arrest him.”
“Okay, so you got out of the motorcycle club and started doing private security,” Theo said, getting the conversation back on track. “Was that like a week ago, or did you still just not come home?”
“It’s been almost ten years.”
“What the hell, man?” Theo asked. “Why did it take you so long?”
It took me a moment before I could speak again.
What I was about to say was hard to admit.
“I didn’t think I’d be welcome. I figured I’d burned that bridge to the ground and there was no going back.
And if I did come home, and any of you were willing to talk to me, once you knew the truth, that would be it.
I couldn’t face that kind of rejection, even though I deserve it. ”
“Do you seriously think we suck that badly?” Zachary asked. “So you did some criminal shit. You really thought we’d hold that against you for the rest of your life? Come on. We’re your family.”
“It’s a domino effect,” I said. “Once I went down that road, it seemed impossible to come back. I felt guilty for what I did to Dad, for leaving, for not coming home… I’m sorry. I’m sorry to all of you.”
“You’re here now,” Theo said. “That counts for something.”
“Yeah, I still want to be pissed, but my daughter loved you,” Zachary said. “And she’s basically a genius, so I have to listen to her.”
“Everyone has done things they aren’t proud of,” Luke said. “We’ve all been there.”
“Maybe not criminal motorcycle club things, but yeah,” Theo said. “We have.”
“I’m too old to keep holding grudges.” Josiah lifted his beer toward the center of the table. “I’m glad you’re back.”
The rest of my brothers lifted their bottles with a chorus of assent. I raised mine and we clinked and drank.
“Tell me something.” Zachary leaned forward, scrutinizing me. “Have you been in Tilikum since you left?”
I nodded.
He pointed at me. “I knew it. I knew that was you. You sneaky bastard. What the hell were you doing?”
“A job.”
“You know, it’s probably good that you didn’t drop in back then,” he said. “I think I really would have punched you. Although maybe not. You’re fucking huge.”
“And if you were in a motorcycle club, I have a feeling all that muscle isn’t just for show,” Theo said.
“Can we get back to the part about your girl?” Luke asked.
“It’s not like that,” I said. “Summer isn’t my girl.”
“But you did bring a woman with you,” Garrett said. “And a child.”
I put my hands up. “He’s not mine. I didn’t even know her then.”
“Who is she?” Garrett asked.
“She’s a…client. And a friend. Mostly, she’s a girl in trouble. Her ex is a member of an outlaw club. Not one I ever dealt with, but I know the type. These guys are bad news. The ex was out of the picture until the other day. Then he showed up at her son’s school.”
“Oh, shit,” Luke muttered.
“The club has harassed her off and on for years,” I continued.
“Her mom’s boyfriend is a high-ranking member, which means they kind of still see her as their property.
Now the ex wants the kid. And I bet he has the club’s backing on that.
I got her out of town after the ex tried to pick up her kid from school.
If he’d been there, and the school had let him leave, she never would have seen him again. ”
“Are you expecting them to follow her here?” Luke asked.