Stryker

17 - This right here is my home

Stryker

Ain’t no worse feeling in the world than the feeling of one of the club’s women being kidnapped. The fact our First Lady, Lynette, Prez’s wife, was taken by some cunt from BlackJack’s front yard while Shepard almost killed me is probably one of the worst things to have happened to the club since Titus and his Old Lady were taken out.

I left Coral with Taylor and the kids while I jumped my bike and took the fuc.k off looking for Lynette. Every member of the club was out looking.

Jett managed to track down an abandoned car over at Lover’s Creek. It took hours to track down. No one had any clue that the cunt would be so close to home.

There was no sign of Lynette. Prez arrived and had everyone searching the surrounding wooded areas around the lake. Came upon a man slumped against a tree, bleeding out from his stomach. Few of us stood around and watched the Prez as he interrogated him.

Seemed Shepard knew just whom he was talking to, the cunt who took Lynette. “Where is she?”

“I should’ve known it was you. Bitc.h told me she’d married a filthy biker.”

Prez grabbed the guy’s face in my hand and squeezed so hard it seemed the like the guy’s eyes would pop out of his damn head. “Who the fuc.k are you? What have you done with Lynette?”

“You know who I am, asshole, just as much as I know who you are.”

“Is that so? Where is she?!”

“All she had to do was let me see my daughter, and I’d have left her alone.”

His daughter?

I had no idea who he meant. Not until BlackJack’s eyes locked with mine. Then it dawned on me. He meant Willow. Lynette’s beautiful daughter, the girl Shepard adopted years ago.

“Willow will never know the filth of you. I am her father. The only one she’s ever known.”

I turned my head as many of our brothers suddenly came running through the woods. Jett stopped dead in his tracks and looked at his father crouched down in front of the motherfucke.r who took his mother.

“Who is that?” He asked me quietly.

“Willow’s biological father,” His eyes widened, but he didn't look away from his father. “He took Lynette.”

“Yes, and we need to stand down while Shepard deals with this.”

Cueball was right; that’s why no one made a move to stop nor help our Prez; he had this.

Prez slipped his knife from his ankle holster and brought it up to fucker.s face. His eyes widened for only a second before he started laughing.

What kind of psycho laughs when they’re about to be hacked to pieces?

“Tell me where she is!” Prez yelled while pressing the tip of the knife into his throat. Everyone was silent around me, no one daring to breathe too loudly.

“I don’t know where she is. Stupid bitc.h stabbed me with a fuckin’ piece of wood! I hope she’s fuckin’ bleeding out as we speak!”

“What the fuc.k did you do to her!?”

“Calm down, Jett,” Prez told him.

But what man wouldn’t be anxious when his mother was missing?

Me, I guess. I haven’t seen or heard from my mother in more years than I can remember. I don’t even know if the evil old cow is even alive, and I never want to. As far as I’m concerned, she’s long since gone.

“Keep your dog on a leash!” The stupid fuc.k yelled.

Big mistake.

Prez pushed the tip of the knife into his eye socket. He screamed bloody murder as Shepard dug out his fuckin’ eyeball. Blood and gunk gushed from the socket.

“Oh, God,” Cunt features groaned in pain.

“You have three seconds to tell me what the fuc.k you did to my wife, or I’ll tear you limb from limb. I’ll keep you alive long enough to feel every damn slice of your skin, every break in your bones, every damn thing I’ll do to you.”

“You fuckin’ stupid cunt! I don’t know where the bitc.h is. She took off after she stabbed me.”

“I ain’t in the mood for your bullshit, Jose!”

“I may have... cut the bitc.h before she ran.”

That’s the last thing he ever said. Prez went about hacking him to pieces.

Ain’t no one ever said this shi.t was pretty. There’s one thing you don’t do to a Snakes woman. You don’t kidnap her, rape her, touch her in any fuckin’ way, and expect to live to see the next morning.

One thing I learned at that moment was that our Prez was a fuckin.g psycho. He loves Lynette so fiercely, deeply, purely, and honestly that he’d literally dismember a man for touching her.

I would have done the same thing. I can't lie.

“Dad? That’s enough. He’s dead. We need to get back to the house and figure out what to do next.” Jett grabbed his dad’s arm.

“Red? Pick some of the boys to help you get rid of the body. I don’t care how you do it; just do it.” Red nodded at Shepard and told Ace, Roman, and Tank to help him.

“What about the car, Prez?”

“Burn it, crush it, I don’t care, CueBall. Just get rid of any evidence Lynette was there.”

“Prez.”

“Come on, Brother, let’s get you cleaned up. There’s nothing more we can do tonight.”

“I ain’t givin’ up, BlackJack. If I don’t keep looking through the night, it might be too late!”

Grabbing his shoulders, BlackJack forced Shepard to look at him. “You need to get cleaned up. No one is givin’ up lookin’ for her, Shepard, but you can’t find her covered in her ex’s blood, guts, and brain matter! You also need to check on your kids. Taylor texted, Willow is home. She’s frightened, Shepard. She needs you.”

“Go, Dad, I’ll keep looking for Mom. Any sign and I’ll call you.”

“I’ll be an hour.”

It was probably less than an hour before BlackJack made the call to let us all know Lynette had been found safe and well. Can’t tell you how big a breath I let out. We all did.

I make my way over to BlackJack’s to collect Coral. I walk in, and she runs right to me, crying her eyes out. Relief and fear will do that to a person.

Jett comforts Willow, letting her know that her mother is fine.

BlackJack comforts Taylor. Lynette is her best friend, and she must have been so scared.

All I want to do is go to my room with Coral and hold her in my arms all night long. I don’t even want to go home. I just want to stay here the night.

“You did well tonight, Son.” I smile slightly at BlackJack. I didn’t do anything the others didn’t do. Coral clings to me as BlackJack stands in front of me with his arms around his wife. “Nothing better than finding one of our own safe.”

“She is all right, isn’t she?”

“She’s fine, Will.” Jett’s sitting with Willow on BlackJack’s couch, his arms around her, hers around him. “Mom’s strong, she fought hard to get back to us.”

“When can I see her, Jett?”

“First thing in the morning, I promise.” Willow nods her head and lies it against his shoulder.

“I hate to run, guys, but I'm going to my room. I need to talk to Coral alone.”

Yeah, I still have a room here. Taylor says I always will. It comes in handy for times like this one. Plus, I stay here once a week so that I can spend time with the boys.

“Okay, sweetheart.” Taylor grabs me and hugs me to her. Beautiful woman is always willing to show affection to anyone who needs it. She then hugs Coral tightly. Coral blows air kisses to BlackJack, Willow, and Jett then takes my hand and allows me to lead her to my room.

As soon as I close the door, she sags against me and cries. I hold her tightly, calming her tears and her fears, telling her how nothing like that will ever happen to her.

She’s still upset that she went to Shepard without telling me she was going to do so. I was pissed off at the time, but after everything that’s happened with Lynette, and the fact Shepard isn’t going to kill me or make me take back my claim on my woman, I’ve let it go.

I lead Coral over to the bed as soon as her tears subside. I tell her who the guy was and why he took Lynette, all the time stroking the tears from her face.

“Lynette is so brave, and she’s such a wonderful mother. All she wanted was to protect Willow from that monster of a man.”

“You knew him?” I ask as I take her hands in mine and pull her to her feet. I strip her to her underwear gently, and she doesn’t fight me on it.

“I kind of remember him from when I was a little girl. I wasn’t very old, but some things you never forget.”

I grab one of my t-shirts from the bottom of my bed and slip it over her head. It’s too big for her, but she will only sleep in it.

“He was cruel to Lynette. Hit her a lot, denied Willow.”

“You have a good memory for a little girl.” I kiss her head and pull the sheets back on my bed before motioning for her to climb in.

She does without hesitation.

I strip my clothes and climb in beside her, pulling her into my arms where she belongs. I just need to hold her close to me to know she’s really here. This thing with Lynette has shaken me up in a way that I never wanted anything to shake me up.

“Some things are more vivid than others.”

I pull her closer to me and kiss her head; this has brought back bad memories for her, I can tell. I wish I could wipe it all from her mind, but I know I can’t. Just as I can’t erase the past from mine.

“Nothing is ever going to happen to you, Coral. You know that, don't you?”

“I know you’ll keep me safe, Mark. I know it deep in my heart. I also know that I love you more than anything in this world, and if I ever lost you...”

I nudge her with my shoulder until she’s lying on the pillow beside me, looking at me. “You will never lose me, Coral.” I stroke her hair out of her eyes. “I love you so much, ain’t nothin’ ever meant anything to me, not really, not ‘til you walked into my life and stole my heart like a thief in the night.”

She giggles, and it's a heavenly sound. “You stole mine, too.” Her eyes droop. “I’m always going to love you, Mark Anderson.”

I smile and kiss her softly before wrapping my arms around her.

This right here is my home.

She’s mine.

She’ll always be mine. I know that more than I know anything else.