Tank

5 - Prez's daughter

Tank

Before Jett is even finished with his call, the door opens. Shepard walks in with his cell to his ear. He narrows his eyes before pushing his cell into his leather jacket and closing the door behind him.

Shepard is fifty-one years old but as strong as a man half his age. As strong as his son. Hell, they look so much alike that they're often mistaken for brothers. They’re the same height, but Jett is bigger built.

Shepard is the leader of The Snakes Henchmen here in Tennessee. He’s a damn good President with many morals. He’s not afraid to dole out the punishments when needed. He’s also not afraid to kill for what’s right. He’s taught me some things over the years I’ve been part of this club. I owe him so much, my life included.

“Wanna tell me what the hell is going on?” Shepard asks as he steps deeper into the room. I look from Jett to the brunette in front of me. Her eyes are closed, and I can see tears soaking her lashes.

What the hell is with this chick?

“This bitc.h,” I wince at Jett’s choice of words. “Walks in here asking for you. How the fuc.k she even got past the gate is beyond me.” Shepard doesn’t say anything, and his expression gives nothing away. “She also seems to know my given name. Nobody knows my name!”

“Calm down, Jett. Have you politely asked her to tell you how she knows your name?” Jett says nothing. “I didn’t think so. You can be far too hot-headed sometimes, boy. Young woman, can you face me, please?”

She looks at me for a second before turning around to face Shepard.

“Would you mind telling me why you came here?”

“I came looking for you.”

“Why?”

“Don’t you recognize me?”

“Should I?” He raises one eyebrow while crossing his arms over his chest.

His eyes travel the length of her body and back up to her face. I know Shepard; he’d never fuc.k around with any woman, especially since he’s married and faithful to one of the most amazing women I know. That’s why I know he’s not looking at this girl with lust. Which is crazy, she’s fuckin.g gorgeous. But he’s curious.

“Have I seen you before?”

“Yes,” She nods. “Around fifteen years ago. You knew my mother.” She turns her head to look at Jett, who looks as though he wants to rip her head off. “You knew our mother.” Each one of us stands a little straighter.

Their mother?

Jett opens and closes his mouth so many times it’s almost comical. If they have the same mother, that means this girl is Jett’s sister. It means I know her too. Fuc.k! But she looks nothing like... No, wait, yeah, she does look like the little girl I once knew.

No wonder Jett’s looking at her all bug-eyed; he wanted her, even provocatively touching her leg. Bet he feels fuckin.g sick. I laugh inwardly, the stupid dic.k.

The girl turns back to Shepard. “Don’t you recognize me, Daddy?”

Shepard’s hand shoots to his mouth as he gasps a breath.

This girl really is his daughter?

It can’t be.

Or can it?

“It cannot be.”

“She’s lying!” Jett says. “She can’t possibly be...”

“I am.” She cuts him off. “My name is Anna Campbell.”

“Proves my point!” Jett yells. “My sister’s name is...”

“Nova Jackson.” She cuts him off again. “My mother’s name is Celia Campbell. My father’s name is Vincent Jackson, and my brother is Tate Jackson. My birthday is the same day as my brother’s, September fifteen. I am twenty-two years old. My brother is twenty-seven. My father is fifty-one. My parents met almost thirty years ago; they were never married but had two children. Tate and me, Nova. My daddy called me his Supernova.”

I feel like I shouldn’t be here. But then, if Shepard didn’t want me to hear any of this, he would have told me to leave the room already.

Neither Shepard nor Jett’s eyes have left the girl yet. Maybe they’ve forgotten I’m even here.

“My mother wanted to leave my father, this way of life, and take her children with her. By that time, I was seven, and my brother was twelve. She told me some story as to why she left her son behind, but she took me with her because she wanted better for me. Or so she said.

“I asked for you both every day until a couple of weeks after we left, that’s when she told me that you had both died. She told me that I couldn’t tell anyone my real name, that if I did, the bad people would find us and kill us like they had my brother and my daddy.”

I am so fuckin.g confused. My eyes are darting all over the place.

Okay, I know about Nova; I remember the little girl from when we were kids, the little girl who used to follow Jett and me around as Willow did. The little girl who told me she wanted to marry me one day.

However, this can’t really be her, right?

“We moved around a lot when I was little. I never knew where I was from one day to the next. There were lots of men. Always men.” She shakes her head. “Bikers mainly. She had a thing for them.

“Can you believe that? She left because she didn’t want this life, yet she just moved from one biker to the next, and none of them were ever very nice. My mother married a man from a dangerous club when I was twelve, a man who wasn’t very nice to either of us. A man she killed when I was eighteen.”

“Celia killed a guy?” Shepard asks.

Nova nods her head. “He was beating on her like always. I tried to stop him. He got angry and started smacking me around like always. I fought back. He didn’t like that, so he stabbed me in the chest.”

She subconsciously places her hand over her chest, right by her heart. Shi.t, he could have killed her! Shepard's eyes widen. I’ve seen that look before. It’s the look he gets right before he kills a man.

“He was laughing at me as I lay there, slowly bleeding to death. He leaned over me and told me he was going to watch me die. That it was a shame, my father couldn’t have been there to see it. He would have liked to watch the look on your face when you saw the light go out of your daughter’s eyes. Mom shot him through the back of his head. I didn’t even see it coming. She called an ambulance, and, of course, they managed to save my life.”

“Jesus Christ! Where’s your mother now?”

“She’s... safe. Brett’s death was ruled self-defense, so she didn’t serve any time in prison or anything, but it messed her up.” She shrugs again. “A few weeks ago, she told me the truth about you guys not being dead. I was so angry. I had grieved for you both for so long and then she dropped it on me that she lied.

“I asked her why, and she told me that she couldn’t deal with your way of life, so she left. I yelled at her because she’d told me that a hundred times before; she didn’t want your way of life; it killed you and her son, but she never stopped being with bikers. That’s when she told me that she didn’t love you anymore. That she was scared, you’d take me away from her if she told you that she wanted out.

“I asked her why she really left Tate behind, and she told me that it was already too late for him. He was already your mini-me, and she knew should she take him from you that you would never have stopped hunting us. She told me that you didn’t give enough of a damn about me to come looking.”

“That is not fuckin’ true! Nova,” Shepard steps in front of her. “I searched for you for years. I had the best damn men in the country looking for you, but there was never any trace.”

“Mom took me out of the country. We lived in and around France for five years. Then she brought me back. I guess she figured you would have given up looking for us by then. Although we never stopped moving around.”

“How do we know this isn’t just some bullshit story? How do we know that you haven’t been sent here by...”

“You have a small six-shaped birthmark just above your right wrist.” Jett turns his arm over and stares down at what we both know is there. “You have the same one.” She points to Shepard, who nods in agreement. “So do I.” She all but whispers while lifting the sleeve of her jacket to her elbow, showing Shepard the mark.

“Mom used to tell me how we three had the same mark. That Tate and I were your musketeers. The three of us bonded in a special way. It’s me, Daddy. Your Nova.”

He cups her face and brushes the tears from her cheeks. “I never thought...” He stops himself and pulls her into his arms, holding her close to him.

I’m not an emotional man. I have no emotions at all, if I’m honest. But I can’t imagine what Shepard went through losing his daughter like that, and I can see Jett is finding this a little hard to get his head around.

“My little princess. I never gave up hope that I’d one day find you.”

“I found you, Dad.”

“Lynette was right. She told me when I left the house this mornin’ that something special was about to happen, and here you are.”

“Here I am.” He holds her tighter.

I guess this really is little Nova Jackson. And I just had to feel that damn connection with the fuckin’ Prez’s daughter.

Great!