Born to Ride_A Clubhouse Collection

chapter 22

Much to Lola’s delight, we decided to move back to Salt Rock. She was most excited about getting to finally meet the brother she’d only ever read about in her bedtime story. It took us a week to pack up our house and load it into a moving truck, then we were on our way.

I’m not going to say it was easy. It wasn’t. It was hard. Lola took to the situation with ease. She was just happy to have her daddy living in the same house as her and her momma. But me, the guilt ate at me. It devoured my insides. Guilt for what I had taken away from daughter, from Roam and from myself. Many nights I cried myself to sleep. No amount of forgiveness from Roam could make me forgive myself. On one hand, at times, the guilt consumed me. I couldn’t get past how much I had f*cked up our lives. But on the other hand, I was so very thankful to have a second shot at making things right. I wanted this to work so badly that I was prepared to do almost anything to make that happen.

The Christa situation still bothered me as well. Roam had explained everything to me – the fact that not only did she fake a pregnancy to sabotage our family, but she was also the person responsible for the attacks on me all those years ago. I had never done anything to her. I’d only ever had one encounter with her, and it was by way of drunken threesome.

It was also hard to face everyone from the club. I know Roam took them all aside and explained the situation, but it didn’t mean I still wasn’t embarrassed. They had classed me as family, and I had just left without a trace. As families do, though, they welcomed me back with open arms. It’s fair to say the girls were cautious at first, but soon enough we were on our way to rediscovering our friendships.

After I had found out Jenn and Switch’s relationship was on the rocks, I confronted Roam about how he managed to find me and Lola. He told me the story and that’s when I knew that, despite Jenn’s denial, hers and Switch’s problems were actually my fault. I knew I had to fix it, so one night I took him aside and explained everything as best I could. I told him the truth – that while I was gone, Jenn never knew my location until a few days before she came to visit me.

“Switch, mine and Jenn’s friendship is similar to the relationship you share with your brothers. You wouldn’t betray their trust would you? Well, she wouldn’t betray mine. I understand that it’s caused problems in your relationship, and for that I’m truly sorry. But, if you’re going to be mad at someone, that someone should be me. Jenn did nothing wrong.”

I left him sitting there and I walked away. A few hours later when I went to the bathroom, I walked in on them making up. I giggled, then excused myself, glad that I had set one stone right.

***

Jasper came over on our second night back. He’d grown so much in the time I’d been gone, but he was still the image of his father – just with blonde hair. He’d had his ninth birthday the week before, so Lola and I went shopping and brought him some gifts. We made him a special cake and a homemade card as well. Lola was nervous right before he was due to arrive. She couldn’t sit still and she kept babbling. “Momma, do you think he’ll like what we chose him? Momma, do you think he’ll like the cake? I hope he likes the cake. What if he doesn’t like me, momma?”

“Lola, I promise, he’s going to love you just as much now as the day your daddy and I brought you home from hospital. I bet he’s just as nervous as you are.”

As I predicted, he loved his gifts, he loved his cake, he loved his card and he loved his sister. He was also pretty excited to see me again, as I was him. Lola and Jasper spent hours together playing with his new toys, and then we sang him happy birthday and ate his cake.

After, while I tidy up, Roam takes the kids into the living room to watch a movie with them. The sounds of their laughter filtering through into the kitchen, is like music to my ears.

Three months later

I drop Lola off to her new daycare and head downtown to buy some groceries.

I find a park, shut off the engine and walk in. Grabbing a cart on the way past, I begin placing items inside.

The cart is full of food and I’m in the last aisle of the store, when I spot Christa browsing the shelves. I shove my cart forward and stomp up to where she is standing.

Surprise clouds her face when she turns and spots me standing there glaring at her. My arms are folded across my chest and my eyes are narrowed. I clench my teeth and my fists, and release my breath through my nose.

F*cking bitch-whore-mole, I seethe internally.

“Lacey,” she sneers, after finally schooling her features. “What a

surprise.”

“Christa, God bless your heart, you’re still alive.” A fake smile turns my lips up and I say the words in my most saccharine sweet tone.

“So, you’re back then?” Her tone is sarcastic and grates on my nerves.

“Not your business, Christa.” My lack of sharing pisses her off.

“I got you to leave once, bitch. Don’t think I can’t or won’t do it again.”

“What are you going to do, Christa? Trash another bar? Graffiti my name around town? Or try to sabotage my relationship, again?”

“I can do all of that and more,” she grins, evilly. “I’ve got plenty of tricks up my sleeve.”

“You’re deluded,” I tell her, honestly.

“No, bitch, you are.”

My fa?ade leaves me and emotions take over.

“Christa, you stole from Mitch! Why would you do such a thing?” I ask, bewildered.

“Because,” she spits, “You were supposed to get scared and run away. Then I could sweep in and rescue Roam from his heartbreak. I would mend him, put all the pieces of his broken heart back together and he’d fall in love with me. We’d live happily ever after, and you’d be Lacey Who? But you had to stay, and ruin my f*cking plans, which meant I had to go to greater lengths to get you out of my town.”

“You’re f*cking crazy,” I tell her. My eyes are wide from shock, I’m in total disbelief that one person would set out to sabotage another’s family just because of their own selfishness, and I’m pissed. Pissed at her for creating this mess, and pissed at myself that I believed her lies and ran, just like she wanted, which meant my daughter missed years with a dad who loves her and who would have treated her like a princess.

“I’m not crazy, you stupid bitch,” she shouts. “I’m f*cking creative! I bet you would never think to find someone who specializes in making fake baby bumps so you could land the man of your dreams.”

“I didn’t need to be creative to get the man of my dreams, Christa. I just needed to be me. That was enough.”

She stands there with her mouth gaping, and I turn and walk away. I’ve said what I needed to say, and now it’s time to pay for my groceries and get the hell away from that poison.

Roam pulls into the drive on his bike at the same time that I do.

“What’s wrong, sugar?” He asks, immediately taking in my frazzled, pissed off demeanor.

“I ran into Christa at the grocery store. We traded blows.” His eyebrows nearly reach his hairline.

“Verbal blows,” I smile, my anger dissipating.

“She’s back from hiding,” he muses.

“Seems like it.”

He thinks for a moment, and then says, “I gotta head back out for a bit. I’ll pick Lola up on my home.”

“Roam?”

“Sugar?”

“Don’t do anything stupid. Please.”

He shakes his head and smirks. Then he starts his bike and rides out.

I unload the groceries and take them inside to begin packing them away. When that’s done, I begin preparing the hamburger steaks with onion gravy and mashed potatoes for supper. I busy myself, trying to keep my mind from wandering into dangerous territory about what Roam’s doing.

The sound of the front door opening and closing brings me back from my daydreaming. I wash my hands and go out to meet Lola. She comes bounding in and hands me her backpack.

“Hey, baby,” I pull her in for a hug and kiss the top of her head. “How was daycare?”

“It was so much fun. I made a new friend, her name is Laura.”

“That’s great, sweetie.”

“Yeah, and then daddy picked me up and he took me on his bike. He drove really fast and now my hair is messy but it was so much fun!”

“It sounds like it. Why don’t you go on and wash up. Supper will be ready soon.”

“She loves the bike almost as much as her momma,” Roam says, looking at Lola’s back as she disappears down the hall.

I laugh. “I bet she does. How are your eardrums? I imagine she screamed loud enough to burst them.”

He rubs his ears. “I’m sure my hearing will return, soon enough.”

“Did you find Christa?”

“Didn’t need to,” he shakes his head.

“Why?”

“Police got her first. Someone overheard you two havin’ words in the store, rang the cops. They got her as she was leaving.”

“Seriously?” I whisper

“Yep.”

“Well, good riddance.”

Roam chuckles and pulls me into his arms. “That’s my girl.”

“Well, your girl thinks you smell like motor oil and other manly things that stink, so you best go get washed up before dinner.” I slap him on his gorgeous ass. He walks away, shaking his hips. I burst into laughter at the sight, and then stop to listen as his own laughter rings out down the hall.

Later that night, as we tuck Lola in, we both sit down on the edge of her bed and read her her bedtime story. But this time it’s the story we have written together.

I listen as Roam begins...

“Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess. She moved to a small town one day, and there she met a handsome prince. The prince was tall with dark hair, dark skin and a short beard. He rode a big motorcycle and wore a leather jacket. The princess loved the prince’s blue eyes; they twinkled when he was happy. The princess fell in love with the handsome prince. She loved him so much that she had a baby. The most beautiful baby the world has ever seen.

The princess looked down at her baby and named her Lola. She looked just like her daddy, with her dark hair and bright blue eyes. The prince and the princess were so happy with their new baby. They couldn’t wait to take her home so she could meet her older brother, Jasper.

The prince and the princess fell even more in love. They were so in love, they decided to get married and because they made such beautiful babies, the decided to have lots of them.

And they all lived happily, ever after. The End.”



Epilogue

I waddle through the door sideways. Huffing and puffing, I place the chocolate pecan and pumpkin pies on the counter. Jasper follows me in carrying the dish filled with green beans and new potatoes.

“Thanks, buddy. You can run along now and play.”

“Lacey, I’m eleven, I don’t play,” he tells me.

I roll my eyes at him and he races out the door we just came in.

Jenn comes in and sets a dish of steaming hot food down, then turns to look at me. “You don’t look so good.”

“Been a busy morning,” I reply.

“You should go on and sit down. The girls will be here soon, we can take care of everything from here.”

It’s Thanksgiving, and we’re celebrating at the clubhouse with the rest of the family. I make my way over to the couch and sink down into it. I’m exhausted. This morning, we celebrated Roam’s thirty-fourth birthday. The kids made him breakfast in bed and then gave him the present that we had gotten made for him. I had sourced a local artist to paint my favorite picture of Roam, Jasper and Lola. Roam was sitting on his bike with Jasper behind him and Lola in front. Lola’s head is thrown back into her father’s chest as she laughs. Jasper’s body language is full of confidence as he sits with one leg cocked up with his elbow resting on his knee and his closed fist tucked under his chin. Roam’s smile shows nothing but true bliss. The artist painted it in on a large canvas and I had it framed in dark wood. After opening it, Roam immediately got out of bed and walked out to the shed. He returned minutes later with a bunch of tools and proceeded to hang the painting in the living room. It looks perfect.

Now, it’s mid-afternoon, and I’ve been on my feet all day baking for tonight’s Thanksgiving feast. My ankles are swollen and I feel like shit. I rest my arms across my gigantic swollen belly and close my eyes. I must doze off, because I’m awoken by Roam kissing my temple softly.

“How you feelin’, sugar? You want to go lie down in a bed?”

I shake my head. “I’m good. I didn’t even mean to fall asleep.”

“Food’s ready. Come on in y’all and eat before it gets cold!” I hear Jenn shouting outside. A few minutes later, the room is filled with kids talking over each other and adults shushing them for being too loud inside.

Roam stands and takes my hand, lifting me to a standing position. My stomach tightens, but I ignore it and take my seat at the table. Roam hands me a plate loaded with food, but I only pick at the turkey and my bread roll.

“Did my mom tell y’all about the awesome present we got daddy for his birthday?” Lola asks around the table. Without waiting for anyone to answer, she tells them all about Roam’s painting. I tune her out as the tightening’s in my stomach become stronger. Convinced I’m just in need of some fresh air; I excuse myself from the table and wander outside. I’m only thirty six weeks pregnant, so I’m positive it’s only Braxton Hicks contractions and I don’t want to raise a false alarm.


I sit down on the picnic bench outside and take a couple of deep breathes. The pain eases and I let out a relieved sigh. After about fifteen minutes, I stand and take a step back in the direction I came, when suddenly, a pain rips through my stomach. I scream out and double over, gripping my stomach. The sheer amount of pain, instantly causes me to lose the contents of my stomach over the ground. Before I can catch my breath, another pain comes. And then another. And another.

“Lacey,” I hear Roam’s heavy boots hitting the gravel as he runs towards me.

“Roam.” I’m crying by the time he reaches me. He scoops me up into his arms and puts me in the backseat of the car. He jumps into the driver’s seat and wheels out of the compound, with the tires screeching and gravel flying.

My waters break as we pull into the emergency bay of the hospital. I’m quickly taken into a delivery room and forty five minutes later, I give birth to a dark haired baby boy named Ryder. Seven minutes after that, his identical twin brother, Tyler, enters the world.

ROAM

Two years later

I tug at the collar of my white shirt, unfastening yet another button. I adjust the waist of my jeans and shuffle on the spot. Sweat drips off my forehead and into my eye. I swipe it away and breathe out a heavy breath, laden with nerves. From the corner of my eye, I see Jenn appear at the end of the makeshift aisle.

F*ck, this is it.

The music starts and two identical terrors, sporting Mohawks, and outfits matching my own, race down the aisle with Jenn hot on their heels trying to control them.

“Daddy, momma looks like a princess” they giggle, when they reach me, their blue eyes shining with delight.

I ruffle their heads and Jenn takes their hands and stands off to the side with them. Switch nudges my shoulder and he flicks his head. I follow his gaze and I spot my princess. Her dark hair is curled and she’s got a pretty little white dress on. White sandals cover her feet and she sprinkles flower petals from a basket as she comes towards me. On her wrist, sits the bracelet that Lacey gave her on my behalf. Around her neck, sits a necklace that I brought her myself. I look into her eyes, and I see it. I see the twinkling that Lacey says she gets from me. I bend down and kiss her forehead. “Most beautiful princess I ever saw,” I whisper to her.

Lacey appears after her and my breath catches. I’ve never seen her look more beautiful. Her dress is long and white. Tight around her tits and then it flows off her hips.

As she walks toward me, her face lights up in a beautiful smile. I can’t help but grin back at her. I’ve never felt so f*cking happy.

The celebrant stands between us and after declaring our love for each other in front of our friends and family, the man pronounces us husband and wife. I grab Lacey’s hips and pull her into me, then my hands find her ass at the same time my mouth finds hers and I kiss her breathless. A round of applause and cheers fills the air.

Lacey

I put the car in park and climb out. Carrying the bunch of flowers and the chocolate cupcake, I kneel down in front of my mother’s grave. I run my hand over her name. “Happy birthday, mom,” I whisper. “You probably already know this, but I met a great man and I married him. He’s rough around the edges, but he’s so sweet and soft on the inside.He calls me ‘sugar’,” I laugh, “when really, he’s the one he’s who can give a girl a toothache.” I start to cry. “He gave me three beautiful babies, mom. I wish you were here to see them. You’d be an awesome Gran to them.”

I kiss my fingers and touch them to her name. “You were wrong mom. Sometimes running isn’t the only option. Sometimes fighting to stay is the right thing to do.”



The End

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~*~





STORM


BY NINA LEVINE



Dedication

This book is dedicated to my daughter.

You’ve watched me try many things in life, and what I want you to take from that, is that it doesn’t matter whether you follow the one steady path in life or if you veer off and try numerous paths – so long as you keep believing in yourself and follow your OWN path.

“Not all those who wander are lost.”

~ J. R. R. Tolkien



Acknowledgements

Baby girl, you will never know how thankful I am to you for giving me the space and time to write this book. You are one amazing kid, and yeah, it’s a damn shame that you aren’t older and able to beta read for me because the instant feedback would have been awesome ;)

To my amazing family (and this includes those not related by blood because I think we’ve already established that you are indeed family) – you all believed in me before I believed in me. And for that, there are absolutely no words to express my deepest thanks.

To my parents – have I ever told you how much I love you? Your support and encouragement in everything I’ve ever done has been unwavering. It has meant the world to me. Thank you. I love you both so very much. Dad, all the marketing talks we’ve had over the years paid off. Even when you thought I might not have been taking it in, I was. It was being filed for later use. And that time has finally come. You gave me a scare this year, but it pushed me into action. Mum, I know you’ve read 50 Shades but still... try to forget that your daughter wrote this book while you are reading it ;)

To my DBFFF – you f*cking rock! God, where does one start to even say thank you for everything you do and have ever done for me? YOU showed me what unconditional love looks like. We’ve been friends for over 20 years, and there were definitely times there where I thought you would walk away from our friendship; that I’d pushed you just that bit too far. You showed me that that isn’t how it works. The one thing I would wish for every woman and girl is that they have a best friend like you; one that is in their corner no matter what. I seriously don’t know what women do if they don’t have a best friend. Oh, and babe...you can’t f*cking write a book in a day. Seriously dude, what were you thinking? SMH. NFP.

To my brother – I’ve loved the last couple of years, chatting with you nearly every morning while we worked out how to solve the world’s problems. You’re another believer in me, and I thank you so much for that. In particular, your support over the past few months has meant so much to me. You let me chat books, and plots, and HEA’s, and marketing, and every f*cking thing else with you – you must be sick of hearing about the self publishing industry by now!

To SL – One of us is overdressed and it ain’t me... I mean, really, who cares whether you’re wearing panties, knickers or undies?? Just get them the hell off!! YOU, my friend, are a little bit of awesome sauce. I’m gonna put you in a book (in my head I am hearing Keith Urban sing ‘put you in a song’ while I type that).

NN – the day you walked into our shop was a good day my beautiful friend. Never saw you coming, but you just snuck up on me and now I am so thankful to call you my friend. Thanks for your belief and support.

To my KICKASS street team, Levine’s Ladies – you girls make my day every damn day!!! I love you all. And I couldn’t have done this without any of you. Thank you all so very much for being a part of this – you will never know just what you all mean to me. xxx

To the AMAZING bloggers and authors who have supported me. You are all rockstars! Thank you for everything you do. There are so many, but I do want to just shout out to Jani Kay, Carmen Jenner, Hook Me Up Book Blog, Island Lovelies Book Club, Sassy Mum Book Blog, Sizzling Pages Romance Reviews, The Danish Bookaholic, Louisa’s Reviews, Sticky Reads, Give Me Books, Book Addict Mumma, Totally Booked & Natasha Is A Book Junkie. I also want to say a huge thank you to the amazing Aussie authors who have welcomed me into their group, given me advice and shared my book on their pages. What a great little indie community we have in Australia.

Cover Photo from Big Stock Photo



Prologue

F*ck.

How had my life come to this?

Sitting on the gravel with my knickers on the ground next to me and blood spilling from the gash on my arm, I looked up at J. Tears were streaming down my face and my hair was stuck to it in places. I had dirt all over me and my dress was ripped. The only things still in place were my heels.

J was pacing back and forth, on his phone. Probably calling Scott, I thought. Yes, Scott would know how to fix this clusterf*ck of a situation. Normally, J would have something like this under control, but this time he was just too close to it to be objective.

I prayed Scott would come through for us.

My eyes slid to Rob’s lifeless body, sprawled in front of me.

You motherf*cker. Why did you have to do what you did?

I don’t know how long I sat there like that, staring vacantly at him, but movement to my left caught my attention and I turned to see what it was.

Scott was walking towards me, a fierce look on his face. When he reached me, he knelt down and gently touched my arm. “Madison, it’s time to go,” he said quietly.

I stared into his eyes, not sure what I would find there, but all I saw was tenderness. Unusual. Scott didn’t do tenderness. Not very often.

J knelt on the other side of me. “Come on, baby,” he said as he tried to help me up.

Pain shot through my body as I stood. I winced but didn’t let it slow me. J wrapped his arms around me and helped me to Scott’s Charger. I looked back at Rob, my eyes taking in his bloody body and then scanning the area to note my knickers on the ground; a reminder of the attack that had occurred.

J settled me in the back of Scott’s car and wrapped a towel around my arm where the blood was. His blue eyes met mine. They showed concern. “Will you be alright here while Scott and I deal with the body?” he asked.

I nodded and he left me; left me to deal with a body like it was just another thing to do in his day. Well, I guess it sometimes was. All part and parcel of being a member of the Storm MC. My dad’s club. The club I had grown up around.

F*ck.

I asked myself again. How had my life come to this?