The Thunder Wolves MC - Anne (book #10)

2

Leaving my grandparent's house, I would spend the next few months on the streets. It wasn't so bad. I stayed on the beach, sleeping out on the sand in the warm weather when I could. Some nights I only got an hour or so of sleep before I had to hightail it out of there because the police were shooing people off the beach after dark. But it was worth it. Some nights I was able to sweet talk a girl into sneaking me into her room and staying the night. Those were always fun nights. But eventually, I knew I needed an actual stable place to stay, so I took my chances and looked up my father. The bastard was living the good life. He had found himself a wealthy widow to take his sorry ass in. He even had a whole setup in her guest house to make his drugs out of. Victoria was alright, I guess. I could tell she didn't care much for me, but that didn't stop my father from moving me in. I am sure the man never told her he had a kid in the first place. Never even hinted at the idea of him having a kid until he walked me into the house and introduced the two of us.

Life in Victoria's house was nearly as good as living with anyone else I had stayed with. My dad was able to keep himself out of jail for a good while. I will give him that. A year of him actually being in my life before he was gone again. Victoria was nice enough to allow me to stay in her house until I graduated from high school. That didn't mean it was all rainbows and sunshine, though. No, she spent every day reminding me that I was good for nothing, a piece of s**t just like my dad, and would end up in prison just like him. By this point in my life, I honestly believed everyone was right. And did my best to prove them all wrong.

For starters, I chose to leave Victoria's house and make my way into the world. I moved up the coast and found a small shop to work in. That only lasted a short while before I was on the move again. Over the next few years, I lived wherever I could find a place to lay my head. Everything I owned fit in a backpack. Well, almost everything. The one thing I owned that didn't fit in my backpack was my motorcycle. It was her and me against the world, making our way up and down the coast until one day, I simply chose to take a different road. Leaving California, I moved from state to state, town to town. Until I found a town full of guys that didn't care where I came from. They didn't care about my past. What I have done or what I might do. All they cared about was who I was now and who I wanted to be. I was allowed into their motorcycle club. I was given the chance to befriend so many who only saw me as one of them, a brother, a family member. I went from being alone in the world to having a whole army of brothers who had my back.

It didn't take long, and I was best friends with two of the younger members, Iron and Blue. The two had grown up together and admitted to hating each other when they were kids. But over the years, they got over themselves and were now good friends. Iron was brilliant. The guy could do anything with a computer. Hell, he didn't even need a computer, just the parts, and he could do anything. Blue was the first person I ever met that lived life like it was his last day on earth. He never did anything unless he could find a reason to have fun while doing it. That included working jobs. He took the jobs he felt he would have the most fun doing.

Even still, with all the guys, I didn't enjoy being around everyone all the time. Don't get me wrong. I was one of them. I knew I was and never felt otherwise. But I still enjoyed my solitude. And that I found in my house. It didn't take me long to make a good amount of money with the club. I worked my ass off, taking every job they offered me until I was able to buy the house I wanted. It wasn't fancy by any means and needed a lot of work. But it was mine, and as I worked on it and made it mine, I wished I could rub it in everyone's face from my past. I owned my own place, had money in my pocket, wasn't doing anything illegal to get that money, and wasn't in prison. For the first time in my life, I felt like I belonged and would have a stable roof over my head.

Hell, I even had a girl I was somewhat interested in, Cora. She hung around sometimes, but I had a feeling she wasn't entirely into me. That didn't stop me from trying to have more with her than a f**k buddy. She was, after all, another member's daughter, and I didn't want to start s**t with him by f*****g around with her. I even turned her away a few times in hopes that it would encourage her to take me up on my offer to be with me. But it never worked, and then I found out she was batshit crazy. I found out that the whole time she had been sleeping with me, she had also been sleeping with Blue. At first, I wanted to kick the guy's ass, but then again, it wasn't on him. He didn't know she had been hanging out with me at the same time. So instead, the two of us decided to let it go, bros before hoes, as the saying goes. Besides, she wasn't into either one of us as much as she was into Iron, who wanted nothing to do with her. Even less after he got his girl, Lexie, pregnant and planned to move out of town just to be closer to her.

And then life changed for more than just Iron and Lexie. A choice was made, not just by me but by Cora. She chose to try and take a life and took another. I chose to take her life and prove everyone in my past right and refuse to regret it. Instead, as I was handcuffed, I chose to embrace my decision. I choose to accept the results of my decision even though things may have ended differently if I hadn't decided to tell the cops what I did and why I did it before the club got a lawyer to the police station for me. It didn't matter. Even after the lawyer showed up, I refused to change my story. I accepted that I killed Cora and would do it again. Because of this, I was only granted a short time after posting bail to get my affairs in order, along with just enough time to say a final goodbye to Blue. The only thing I would change about that night if I could, would be Blue making it out alive. But I couldn't change it no matter what. So, even when the trial started, I stuck to my statement given the night of his death. I would kill Cora again if given a chance. I would never change that fact.

My life, it would seem, was set to the fate that I was told it would be by so many in my life. Strangely, I was at peace with that. Even as I was escorted through the halls after being transferred from the holding cells from the jail closest to the courthouse my trial was held at, to the prison upstate. The club's logo having been tattooed on my arm gave me some comfort that I still had the club behind me. I was told we had members on the inside that would have my back while I served my time. I could only hope that was true. Until I located those members, I was on my own.

Walking through the halls, the guards that walked with me and a few others stopped for only a moment as the doors were opened. Walking forward, I was walked into what would be my new home for now. Also known as general population. The large room I was walked into had several inmates scattered throughout. Some were sitting at some of the many tables that filled the middle of the room. Some lingered in the cells that lined the sides and back of the room on both the lower and upper level that made up the two-floor area. All chatter and movement stopped as the guards walked the four or so new inmates through that I was among. I followed them through, stopping with the group as the guards left us one at a time to unpack the few items we were given in our cells. As I followed, I quickly scanned the room with my eyes, taking in as much as possible. Sitting at one of the tables, I noticed a small group of guys who started whispering to each other while still looking in our direction.

Not long after being left in my cell, the same small group I had noticed before invited themselves to join me. If their own MC tattoos hadn't been on full display, I would have been slightly worried. But seeing all of them sharing the same tattoo I was given before being shipped upstate, I know they were the members I was told about. Brass, Rock, and Razer made up the small group of MC members on the inside and my new friends. All three were here for life, and none of them judged me for what I had done to be on the inside with them. All of them agreed instantly they would have done the same if they had been in my shoes. The fact Cora was another member's daughter didn't matter to them, she had killed one of our brothers while breaking into another's home. Who knew who her true target was, but it didn't matter to them. In the end, she pulled the trigger on Blue.

With the help of Brass, Rock, and Razer, it didn't take long for me to get into the routine of things on the inside. My time on the inside passed as quickly as it could. During my time on the inside, I wasn't the only MC member that came for a short time for some reason or another. Brass, Rock, and Razer accepted all of us and made sure we all made it out, making every single one of us promise they would never see us again on this side of the fence before we left. A promise I planned to keep. With the guy's help on the inside, I had Iron on the outside. He had full control of all my money and my home. After being on the inside for a year, he visited me and asked if I would mind if he rented out a room in my house. It was to Lexie's best friend and only for short periods at a time. Her job required her to travel to the small town I had made my home once a month for a day or two. Otherwise, she worked out of the company's main office in the same town Iron and Lexie were in.

At first, I wasn't sure I wanted to agree to this. I didn't know her and didn't really want anyone going in and changing anything in my house. But Iron said she had been helping him and Lexie to keep up the place already. He also assured me she would not change anything, so I agreed in the end. The place might as well have some use for it while I was here. Besides, it didn't make sense for her to pay for somewhere to stay when I did have a spare room she could use. And honestly, Iron could have told her to go ahead and use the place while I was serving my time and never tell me. The chances of me finding out were next to nothing.