Chapter 22
Kenzee
Storm has checked the bulletproof vest he’s put on me at least a dozen times. I get it, he’s worried but he’s also driving me insane. I roll my eyes when he checks it once more.
“Did you fuckin’ roll your eyes?” He asks me, staring me down.
“What are you going to do, if I did?” I tease him.
“Be serious, Kenzee. You could get hurt,” he snaps at me. I know he’s on edge with all this but I also know that none of these guys would let anything happen to me.
“Fine, sir. I will.” He narrows his eyes at me but doesn’t say anything else as we stand outside of the van.
We’re about a block from the old plant gearing up and getting ready to go in.
We’ve gone over everything that they can think of and then went over it again to make sure I knew how to follow the rules.
When we’re finally ready, I walk behind Storm just like I was told to do. We make our way to the plant and then we break off into groups. Half go around the building while the other half, us, stays at the back.
I watch Tide raise his hand, counting down from three before he shoots the door open. In no time, shots are being fired and I’m shoved to the ground just outside the door.
“Stay down! I’ll be back,” Storm yells at me. I crouch down, covering myself like they told me to do as more shots are fired. I hate not knowing what’s happening inside and it seems like it takes hours before I hear the word clear.
A few seconds later, Storm comes out and nods toward the door. I stand up and follow him inside seeing the guys rushing around doing things, the other club, some dead on the floor, others on their knees with their hands tied behind their backs.
I follow behind Storm as a few of the guys look at me funny. I’m not sure what they’re looking at, but I ignore them and keep going until he stops.
“You wanted to see this motherfucker. There he is,” Storm says as I turn my head and look at the man. I swallow hard knowing that it was him, the man that made the call to kill my dad.
“You,” I whisper but it was loud enough that he heard me.
“You look so much like your mother,” he says, causing my heart to drop.
“You killed him.”
“I had no choice,” he says.
“You didn’t have to kill him,” I tell him.
“He took my old lady. Put a kid in her that should have been mine! I had no fuckin’ choice!” I lunge for him, knocking him back before punching him in the face. Storm pulls me off him quickly. Tide rights him before he smiles.
“Got her attitude too, I see.”
“Why did you kill her?” I ask now as tears fall down my cheeks. I reach up and wipe them away quickly.
“She was useless after what she’d done. She was gonna go back to you, to him,” he says in disgust.
“Do I…I really look like her?” I ask softer now. His face softens for a second as he nods his head and nods toward his cut. Patch steps forward, slipping his hand into the pocket and pulling out a picture. He looks down at it before passing it to me.
I gasp when I see it. I do. I look just like her. Like the mom I never got to meet. Storm steps up next to me, wrapping his arm around my shoulders.
“Is this the closure you needed?” he asks. I nod my head, still in awe of the photo in my hand.
“I…”
“You don’t have to say anything, darlin’. This is it. It’s all over after this,” he tells me. I nod my head but before they can do anything else, I look up at the man once more.
“Did she…did she love me?” He smirks and lets out a laugh before Tide punches him in the face. He growls and rights himself before spitting blood on the floor.
“If you’re askin’ me if she wanted you, yeah, she did. I wouldn’t let her have you. I wouldn’t let her have somethin’ that wasn’t mine!” He roars, catching me off guard. I take a step back, looking at Storm.
“You can leave,” he tells me. I nod my head and look to my uncle who also gives me a little nod. I walk across the floor and out the side door, leaning against the wall just staring at her picture. She looks a lot like me. In more ways than I can say.
Multiple shots are fired, and I jolt with each one. Then I hear the asshole screaming in there and a small smile crosses my face. They’re making him pay. They’re making him pay for what he did to them.
I shouldn’t find solace in the fact that they’re killing people but I do. I feel a sense of peace wash over me. I feel like everything that has been wrong is finally right.
When the screams stop, I sigh. He’s right. It’s over. Everything is over.
After a while the guys all come out, some covered in blood. I look up at Storm and smile, throwing myself into his arms.
“Do you think that we can go back there?”
“Where?”
“Our old house,” I tell him.
“Baby, you burned that shit down,” he laughs.
“I know, but I want to go back.”
“I’ll do whatever the fuck you want to do,” he tells me. I wrap my arms around him and hold on as tightly as I can. Storm lifts me, using one arm to hold me to him and the other on the cane as we walk back to the van.
The wind blows slightly around us and I find myself smiling.
When we make it back to the van I kiss Storm like I’ve never kissed him before. The guys laugh, though I don’t pay them much attention.
“You gonna keep doin’ that?” he asks me.
“Only for forever,” I tell him. He nods his head and pulls me back into him, kissing me now. He climbs into the back of the van and sits with me on his lap, his cock hard under me.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think killing people made you hot,” I tell him.
“It does make my cock hard,” he admits as I laugh. The van takes off as Storm tells them where to go. I sit in his lap while we head that way.
When we get there, there’s nothing left. Just like he’d said. I’d lit the match, and I’d burned the past down so that no one had to live there with what had happened.
Storm helps me out of the van. We walk over, standing right where the house used to be.
“Your dad would be proud of you,” my uncle tells me.
“You think so?”
“I know he would. Look at you. You’ve grown into a beautiful woman that can handle herself in any situation.
You’ve found a man that makes you smile and gives you the world.
He’s damn proud of you, Kenz.” I pull away from Storm and walk over, hugging my uncle.
Without him, I wouldn’t be anything. He’s the one that took me in and raised me the best he could.
He put his life on hold for me. There’s no way that I can repay that.
“You’ve been the best uncle. You stepped in for him and I can’t thank you enough.”
“That’s what family does. We take care of each other, Kenz. Now go to your man,” he says, giving me a little shove. I know my uncle isn’t much of a talker or into feelings that much.
I turn and walk toward Storm where he stands in the middle of the vacant lot. He turns when I get close enough to him, smiling at me.
“What are you smiling about?” I ask him.
“Everything, baby. What’s not to smile about?”
“I don’t know.”
“Listen, when I was in the pen, I didn’t know what my life would be like out here. I didn’t know if I would end up alone, or fuckin’ dead. Then there you were, standin’ there like the picture of fuckin’ perfection. I don’t deserve you, Kenz. I don’t think I ever will.”
“Don’t do this again, Storm.”
“It’s true. The things that I’ve done, the things that I’ll do. Fuck, Kenz. You deserve more than what I can give you.”
“You give me enough, Storm. You give me everything I need.”
“And those words are the reason I’m keepin’ you. Forever, Kenz.”
“Forever.”