“Jesus! Please, Dad! Uncle Dylan! Uncle Jacob! Uncle Austin! Please! Somebody do something! They’re going to kill each other! Please!” I heard Mia beg in a terrified voice.
I immediately stopped mid-punch, pushed off Noah, barely being able to stagger back up to my feet. My body swayed, my head throbbed. Pain radiated everywhere. Noah wasn’t any better. Groaning into the ground, spitting up more blood, holding onto his side. I continued to forcefully pant, trying to get my heart from pounding out of my chest. Hastily wiping the blood from my face with the back of my hand. Blinking through the mist and haze before I threw my hand down to help him up. He looked at it, contemplating my offer. Deciding at the last second to grab ahold of it and pull me into his awaiting fist. Catching me off guard, he got a few more hits into my face and torso.
It was then her uncles and dad pulled us off each other. Needing two of them on each of us to separate our bodies and hold us back.
Noah’s face was void of any emotion. For the first time I didn’t recognize the man staring back at me.
He was no longer my brother.
Looking at me with nothing but disgust in his eyes, he sneered, “Might as well keep him like that,” Nodding toward McGraw who was still holding my arms behind my back. “He’s the one who took Mia! He’s not the fuckin’ hero! He’s the reason she was fuckin’ missin’! He had her the whole fuckin’ time!”
Before McGraw’s hold could tighten on me, I broke away. My hand instantly reached down into his holster, pulling out his gun and clicked off the safety. He instinctively grabbed ahold of my arm, trying to wrestle it out of my hands. When a single shot fired into the air.
“NO!” Mia screamed, her mom and aunt holding her back. Ducking to the ground.
McGraw let go, jumping back with his arms in the air, surrendering. Knowing I wasn’t fucking around. Aiming the gun directly at all them, only having seconds to haul ass before they would take me in. I would never hurt her family, but they didn’t have to know that.
“This ain’t over,” McGraw threatened, eyeing me and then his gun.
I nodded, knowing he couldn’t have been closer to the fucking truth. I quickly backed away, never taking my eyes or the gun off them as I jumped onto my bike. Throwing back the throttle, the engine roared to life.
“You won’t get away with this!” her dad yelled. “I will hunt you down and fucking kill you myself if I have to!”
I wanted to look back at Mia one last time, needing to see her face for just one second, knowing in my heart...
I may never see her again.
I didn’t.
I couldn’t.
Too terrified to see the look on her face, showing her the man I always tried to hide. I took off like a bat out of hell instead, chucking McGraw’s gun into the bushes furthest away from them.
The war didn’t end here. It was only the beginning. I would get to the bottom of the truth that cost me my entire life, even if it meant...
I could die in the process.
“How does that make you feel?”
“Have I told you how much I hate it when you ask that, Dr. Garcia.”
“And yet after three months of coming to see me, you still know I have to ask,” my therapist chuckled.
Two days a week I sat on a comfortable leather sofa and poured my heart out to a complete stranger. We talked about anything and everything. Sometimes she just listened, and other times she’d ask questions. Trying to stir the empty holes in my memory into submission. Erupt something, anything from the months I was held captive. Wanting to trigger an emotion to open the floodgates and drown me with the truths of who I was.
My parents’ sat in on the first few sessions, but Doctor Garcia quickly put an end to that. My dad’s outbursts earned him a seat in the waiting room more often than not. So eventually he was banned. The doctor felt that their presence wasn’t helping with my healing process. If anything it was possibly making it worse.
“It makes me feel confused,” I simply replied.
“Have you seen him?”
“No. Not since I found out the truth. You know how it went down, Doctor. We’ve spoken about it several times.”
“Let’s talk about it again.”
I sighed. “I knew you were going to say that.”
She nodded, waiting for me to continue.
“I don’t know who he is... I don’t remember him. All I know is what I’ve been told or what I’ve seen. His name is Creed, and his brother’s name is Noah. I still don’t know what Creed and I were to each other, but from what I’ve gathered, he was very important to me. I guess we were important to each other... One night I ended up at his MC clubhouse and got knocked up by Noah, which is what my parents’ have told me. Kick to a few months later... I ended up getting taken by Creed, but I still don’t know why or where I was. From what my parents’ have said, I guess there was a shootout where I was shot in the back and...” I bowed my head, fidgeting with the hem of my dress. “They had to perform an emergency C-Section. My baby was only seven months and didn’t make it. Creed took me to the hospital after... and now... we’re here,” I relayed, shaking my head. “Jesus, that just sounded like a soap opera.”
She chuckled, “A bit, but trust me. I’ve heard worse.”
“I bet.”
“Does recalling those events stir any memories or emotions?”
I shrugged. “Yes, but not in the sense that you want. It stirs feelings from the fight I witnessed between them. It was so raw and real. So much pent-up anger, I felt every word, every hit, hurting right along with them. I know Noah blames Creed for the loss of our baby girl. He’s told me how he feels.”
“Do you believe him?”
“Yes and no. I don’t think it was intentional or malicious on Creed’s part. I think it just happened and they did what could under the circumstances.”
“Now why do you think that? You don’t know this man. He’s a complete stranger to you.”
“Something in my heart tells me not to be afraid of him. Here’s the thing, Doctor, from the second I saw Noah, I felt a connection with him and that was before I knew he was the father of my baby. The same goes for Creed. When I saw him at the cemetery, I didn’t even realize I was walking toward him until I was standing in front of him. It was like being pulled by a string he was controlling. Luring me right to him. Then when we spoke, I could see it in his eyes, hear it in his voice... he loves me. And not in the ‘I love you, I love you, too,’ kind of way. It’s in the ‘You’re my person, my lobster, my everything,’ and that alone tells me that what we had was true,” I sincerely expressed for the first time. Feeling like an elephant had been lifted off my chest.
“Do you want to remember him?”