The Viking's Rampage MC (Tucson Chapter Completed Series Books 1-11 Set)

Chapter 1

Hush

“You need to go home, Hush.”

Those were the last words I’d expected to come out of my club president’s mouth as he’d come walking up to my solitary spot. I sat on a picnic table, overlooking the woods and enjoying the late spring evening, while darkness encroached around me.

“You kickin’ me out, Cade?”

He nodded. “It’s time.” He rubbed the back of his neck, agitated to have to be saying the words. “If you could be happy here with us—really happy—I’d keep you in a heartbeat. But, you’re not.”

I opened my mouth to argue, then shut it when he pinned me with a hard look.

He was right. I was only happy up to a certain point.

It’d been almost a year since everything had gone down with Thornton and the club had gone legit.

I’d been here through weddings, the birth of my club brother’s babies and still I didn’t know what it was going to take to get me all the way there.

I was happy for them—to see them content in their new lives—but I was still numb.

This restless feeling had started itching deep inside of me and I hadn’t been able to extinguish it.

Each day it raked its nails over my insides, insistent and persuasive.

He watched me with solemn green eyes. I could see how tense he was.

He didn’t want to be doing this. One thing about Cade was, he’d do whatever was necessary for his people.

His next words confirmed that he was doing this because he knew it was the best thing for me.

“We love you. You’re always welcome here.

But this isn’t your true home, never will be.

” This was him saying goodbye. Giving me the push I needed to leave.

He was only doing it because of our friendship.

That didn’t make it any easier on either of us.

I’d grown so close to the people here in Texas.

The night my wife died had sent me into a tailspin.

I’d gone Nomad, unable to live my life in Tucson, in the city where I’d lost her.

I’d left my original club brothers behind, too brokenhearted to remain, even for them.

I’d traveled from place to place, never staying long, drinking my pain away.

I wasn’t aware at the time that I’d been searching.

Looking for a new group of people who I could belong to, without Daphne’s memory making it too hard to stay.

Over two years ago now, I’d found that here in Austin, Texas with this chapter of The Viking’s Rampage MC.

My Viking’s Rampage brothers from Tucson had come out to help when we found ourselves caught between a rock and a hard place, dealing with Thornton and his corruption.

It’d shocked me to realize I didn’t feel that gut wrenching pain when I saw them anymore.

Especially Lockout. Daphne had been his older sister.

Losing her couldn’t have been any easier on him than it had been on me, but he never blamed me.

I wouldn’t ever be able to stop blaming myself for her death, but maybe Cade was right. As much as I loved my Austin family, Tucson and my brothers there were calling to me. Maybe it was time to go home.

* * *

The sunshine beat down on me, reminding me that the Tucson summer was in full swing. Shoving my hands into my pockets, I walked through the grass and stopped before the headstone I’d been looking for.

It’d taken me a couple extra months since Cade’s talk before I’d come back.

I’d stayed in Austin to help the club finish tying up any loose ends.

After they’d gone legit—no longer a one-percent club—there had been a lot to do to sort everything out.

It’d taken most of that year after Thornton was arrested to situate everything.

No one regretted the decision the club had made.

It’d been necessary for them to stay off their enemies’ radar in the future.

To make sure their families were never a target.

Over the years Cade had encouraged all his members to start and run successful businesses. They were set up for a great life. Everything was done for them, except to just live and enjoy each other. There was nothing left for me to do there. It’d been time to come home.

Almost four years had passed since I’d set foot inside these city limits, inside this cemetery. Staring down at the gravestone, I bent and laid flowers on Daphne’s grave.

“Welcome home.”

Tipping my chin toward my chest, I sighed as Lockout’s voice came from behind me.

“How’d you know I was here?” I asked.

“Cade called, said you were making the trip home. I figured this would be your first stop.” He stepped up next to me and squatted, laying his own flowers on his sister’s grave.

My heart wrenched in my chest. We’d both lost so much that night. Then Lockout had lost more, because I hadn’t been able to stay and face life without Daphne. I was still racked with shame for leaving him when he needed family. The fact that he had forgiven me so easily made it hurt that much more.

He stood and studied me, his hazel eyes intense. “You staying at the clubhouse?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. We’ve missed you, Hush.”

There was no stopping my smile. These men who made up our MC weren’t just my club brothers. Every one of them had served in the military and were my brothers in that regard as well. “I missed you guys, too.”

“Your Sergeant at Arms position has been waiting for you.”

I sighed and shook my head. He’d told me that when he and some of the others had come to Austin to help us wage war against a corrupt police commissioner and a large street gang. “You still shoulda filled it,” I pointed out. “It’s been years.”

Lockout shrugged. “There isn’t a man in this whole state brave enough to take what’s yours. Besides, I knew you’d come home at some point. Knew you’d come back to see her if nothing else,” he said, motioning to the grave.

We sat in silence, the cicadas buzzing in the nearby trees.

The humming from the bugs was so loud it vibrated inside my brain.

I used to love listening to them, but not anymore.

Their mating season—and when they started the buzzing—usually indicated that monsoons were coming.

My favorite time of year had been turned to nightmares by my wife’s death.

“I miss her laugh,” Lockout said. His face split with a wide grin.

“When I was deployed she used to send me weekly care packages. The first one she sent, there were a bunch of porn videos in it. As if that wasn’t bad enough, she left a note on top of the box for the Private and Staff Sergeant to make sure they’d search my shit and find it. ”

I chuckled and rubbed my hand over my beard. That sounded like Daphne alright. She was a prankster and loved to laugh.

“Each week they’d search my stuff, find whatever she’d left me, and let me know about it.”

“‘Cause of course they confiscated it,” I replied.

“Most of it. Not the thousands of condoms she stuffed a box with once, though. She was nice enough to send some Oreos with them. I still have most of those fucking condoms. How many years later?” He squinted as he did the math.

He’d first deployed when he was twenty-five, but she hadn’t sent the condoms until he was a few years in. “Eight years ago,” I offered.

“Fuck. How has that much time passed?”

Hell if I knew. Lockout seemed much older than thirty-nine. Between taking over the MC and his sister’s death he’d grown up a lot in those years.

There’d been numerous deployments for us both.

Some we’d gone to the same place together, others we didn’t.

He’d been an Apache Helicopter Pilot. I was Marine Force Recon, the Marines’ version of Special Forces, only better.

We’d worked together, but him from the air watching my ass while my team cleared out insurgents on the ground.

There wasn’t anyone I’d trust more than him to be my eyes—and guns—in the sky while I worked.

“Can’t believe you haven’t used all those yet, you must be slowing down,” I teased. Lockout was never hurting for the company of women, though even before I’d left he’d slowed down and spent more time by himself than not.

“It was over a thousand, Hush. Even I don’t sleep around that much.”

“No, that’s Smokehouse’s MO,” I agreed.

Lockout chuckled and slapped a hand on my shoulder. “Yeah, that’s the truth.”

The enforcer for our club was notorious in this city. The women called him a fuck boy. They weren’t wrong.

“We’re going camping.”

“What?” I asked, eyeing him.

“It’s a welcome home party. The guys need to get out and cut loose and I figured you missed sleeping out in the desert under the stars.”

“You slept in one sandbox, you slept in ‘em all,” I quipped, but grinned as I said it. I was actually looking forward to it. It’d been years since my boys and I had camped.

“Let’s get back to the clubhouse and pack up. The others are shutting down the bar early tonight.”

I rode beside him, my Harley purring beneath me, and everything came back like I’d never left. I’d lived in Tucson ever since I’d retired from the Marines. Daphne had wanted to move home to be near her brother and I’d agreed.

At fifty-one, I’d been retired for some time, but the habits I’d built in the Marines had never left me.

We pulled into the clubhouse lot and I cut my engine.

Our place was on the north side of the city and no one bothered us much.

The locals were happy to have us nearby and the police kept to themselves.

No one wanted the kind of trouble that would happen if they stuck their nose into our business. We’d just gone through enough in Texas, didn’t need that sort of trouble here.

Stepping through the doors to the clubhouse made my heart shatter into a thousand tiny fragments.

Right there, front and center when you walked in, was a picture of Daphne hanging right behind the bar.

It was like a shrine to my pain. It was a hard, itching reminder of what I’d lost. Everywhere I turned reminded me of my wife.

Her smiling face flashed through my mind.

I never thought I’d be back here, in this city, or in this club, yet here I was.

I’d brought Ari’s sisters to Tucson a year and a half ago, but I’d met my president outside the city limits to hand them over.

I’d refused to step back into the city where my loss was greatest. I hadn’t been ready then.

I wasn’t ready now. There wasn’t any other choice for me, though.

Cade had been right, I needed to do something.

“Hush!”

I was swarmed by my brothers-in-arms and despite the permanent ache in my heart, it swelled with affection and happiness. It wasn’t going to be easy to get past my hang ups, but it was good to see them. Good to be home.