Wrench

13 - She needs to know the truth

Coral

I watch my little boy playing on his swing in the backyard. I waited forever for him. God, did I ever? I suffered two horrible miscarriages a couple of years before I had my boy, and I never thought I’d get so lucky to have another child.

However, I did, and my little boy means everything to me; he is my life. My husband is my life also. I was lost until I met him. Stryker, they called him, a biker with an attitude, but one of very few words, and I knew I should have stayed away from him, but I just couldn’t. Something drew me to him. The second our eyes locked, I was his, and I have been every day since that first one.

We've been together for almost twelve years. At first, we had to date in secret because Shepard, my second father, forbade anyone from so much as looking at me. His men, at least.

Trouble is, Stryker couldn’t stay away from me. Oh, he tried for a few weeks, at least, but everywhere I was, he seemed to be. Stryker told me that he was looking out for me and didn’t want anything to happen to me. It made me laugh because he so didn’t only want to make sure I was okay.

He turned up at my house one night after he’d saved me from a druggie who tried to rob me – and I know he beat that guy to death. I asked him to come up for coffee. Stryker didn’t have coffee on his mind.

He grabbed me and kissed me like I never have or will never be kissed again. That night, he told me he was claiming me, and I claimed him right back.

From that night, Stryker was my whole world. We fought hard to be together. He stood by me when I told him the horrors of my past, the reason I couldn’t sleep with him. I thought Stryker would walk away from me when he knew the truth. He didn’t; he told me how much he loved me and always would.

He made love to me that night, my first time with someone who loved me. We spoke to Shepard a couple of weeks later, and then he asked me to marry him, and I couldn’t believe how in love with him I was. The night before our wedding, he told me the horrors of his past, and I held him together through it, and we’ve been together ever since.

We have a beautiful three-and-a-half-year-old son, Mark. We have no secrets between us at all, and he knows my deepest fears and my biggest regret.

Stryker is the only one I have ever told, the only person who could ever understand how much it still hurts. Of course, there are those older members of the MC who know and helped cover it up and sort it out. None of who I have ever gone into detail with about any of it.

I can’t stop, have never stopped thinking about it, and it kills me every day. Almost twenty years have passed, and it still hurts as if it was yesterday.

Arms slide around my waist from behind. Lips touch my temple, and I smile. There is nowhere in this world I feel safer than in my husband’s arms. Ever since my baby sister was murdered right in front of my eyes, I find it hard to sleep, hard to trust, hard to feel safe. Even all these years later. It saddens me so much to know my beautiful sister will never know my son, that she will never know Elisha.

“It’s time, baby.” My husband says in the most soothing voice. Soothing to me. People may think that strange when his voice is rough and husky, but it’s so calming to me.

“Not yet,” I tell Stryker as I wrap myself tighter in his thick arms. I know it has to be done. Hell, I tried to tell her that day in the bathroom before she ran away from me. Now she stays away, now she avoids me at all costs, and it is the worst kind of feeling.

My husband turns me in his arms so we’re eye to eye. Cupping my face in his hands, he looks at me with those deep eyes of his. If I ever lost him, I would die. I die a little each time he goes off to fight some battle or another. The fear is always inside of me that any day I could lose him. Mark could lose his father, and he’d grow up never knowing how wonderful the man who saved my life really was.

“Look at me, baby,” I look him in the eye. I get lost in his eyes. “She needs to know the truth. This cannot go on. She’s planning something.”

“Planning something?” I parrot back.

“Revenge. On Hammer.”

My heart slams against my chest.

She’s just nineteen years old; what kind of revenge could she possibly be planning?

And why against Hammer?

Oh God, Cindy!

“She believes he’s the reason Cindy is dead.”

“How do you know this?”

“She spoke to Nova this morning about contacting The Exorcist. You know Nova is The Exorcist, but no one else does.”

I nod. I do know that. It’s a club secret, but I know because my man never keeps anything from me. Plus, those of us women who are ingrained in the MC and are loyal know. Nova told us herself. We are her friends, and she trusts us. There are those who know they can contact Nova to have The Exorcist carry out the job they want doing. After all, that is how Hammer hired The Exorcist through Nova.

“I don’t know how Elie knew talking to Nova would help get to The Exorcist, but she did. Elie told Nova what she wanted from The Exorcist, not to kill the man but to leave him paralyzed. She then handed Nova a file and a lot of money.”

My heart is banging against my ribcage as my husband explains how Nova opened the said file and saw the picture of the man Elie wanted to be harmed in bad ways. Hammer.

Tears fall from my eyes.

How did it come to this?

How could I have allowed her to go on thinking Cindy was her mother?

All of this is happening because of me. Because I didn’t force Elie to listen to me.

Surely Elie must know Cindy couldn’t have been her mother?

Surely she knows Cindy wasn’t even eleven years old when she was born?

She’s been to the grave; she has to know.

“What am I going to do, Mark?” Mark, Stryker’s real name. Of course, I named my baby boy after him. Why the hell wouldn’t I? He’s the man of my dreams.

“Tell her the truth, Coral. She needs to know. Nova isn’t going to do anything about what Elie told her. If we sort this out now, no one needs to know anything. If we don’t, Nova will have no choice but to tell Shepard, and you know what will happen then.” I do know he’ll have her taken out, and I will die along with her.

“I can’t lose her again, Mark, I can’t.” I sob.

“You’re not going to. Baby, we’re gonna talk to her. Together. Sweetheart, you are not alone. You will never be alone.”

I nod with my eyes closed, tears falling like a fuckin.g fool, and Stryker pulls me into him, holding me close and tight.

“We’ll fix this, baby girl. I promise.” I nod as my son comes rushing toward us, calling for his father to lift him, wanting in on the hugging action. Jealous little man. But, God, do I love him. “Let’s take Mark to Taylor and go find Elie.”

“It will be okay, won’t it?”

“Everything will be just fine.”

I bury my head in his chest and pray he’s right. I also pray that Elie understands why I did what I did.