Up in Smoke (King #8)

“I know that,” I say. “Now.”

“I wanted to kill you,” Nolan cracks his knuckles.

“I would have killed you,” I say. “You’re a better man than me.”

“But I came here for a reason. I got something to say. Something important.”

I sigh. “What?”

“You don’t gotta leave again. You can stick around without worry. In fact, after talking to Rage, she brought something up, but she didn’t want to ask you so I’m gonna, and just so you know, the answer is yes because I’m not going to be the one to tell her otherwise.”

“What is it?”

“It’s for her.”

“Just fucking spit it out already!” I groan.

“We’re getting married,” Nolan says.

“Holy shit,” I say, a smile spreading across my face.

Nolan returns my smile looking downright proud of himself. “And I only had to ask her about sixty times before she said yes.”

“I’m impressed,” I say, because I am impressed. Rage of all people. Married?

“What do you want from me?”

“I ain’t gonna ask your permission or nothin’ because she’s my girl, and I don’t need your fucking permission, just let me say that first.”

I nod.

“But, I do want to ask you if you’ll give her away.”

“What about her dad?” Rage is the only killer I know who’s in tight with her mom and pop.

“We’re doing a little backyard ceremony for them. Just the four of us. She doesn’t want to bring them around this world, and I don’t blame her. But we’re gonna do something here right after. At the club. And in that part of it she wants you to give her away.”

I’m so stunned by the request that I don’t speak for a while.

“And?” Nolan waves his hand in the air, waiting for me to answer.

“And I’m really surprised there aren’t bullet holes in the wall right now, and that we’re really talking about this,” I say, making Nolan laugh.

“Me, too, motherfucker. Me, too,” Nolan says. “So, you’ll do it?”

I look across the courtyard and catch Rage watching us. She turns around and pretends to be picking something up off the floor like she wasn’t listening and watching us the entire time.

“Yeah, man. I’ll do it.”

Nolan nods. “Good.” He turns to leave but stops again. “There’s one more thing. The Wolf Warriors are merging with Lawless. I’m going to be Bear’s new second in command. I talked it over with Bear, and this is yours if you want it.” He kicks a bag at his feet that I didn’t even notice he’d brought in, then leaves.

I get up and empty the bag onto the bed. A new smelling leather cut falls out.

The back has The Lawless MC with their logo and on the front, is my name and a new patch underneath. LIFE MEMBER.

I sit.

They want me to be a part of something. Something bigger than myself. I shrug off the worn leather cut from my shoulders. The blank one that tells no stories and no lies. And I shrug on the new one. I pause in the mirror as I turn around and inspect the new logo on my back. I expect to feel overwhelmed. Suffocated.

But I don’t. I feel warm. Comfortable. I can breathe again; the same way Frankie makes me feel I can breathe again.

I feel like I belong. To these people. To the club.

To Frankie.

After thirty some odd years adrift, I’ve found my place in the world.

Who’d a fucking thought.





Chapter Sixty





Three weeks later





“Sit,” he demands, and I’m too tired to fight so I take a seat at the edge of the mattress.

Recovering is exhausting.

Smoke hands me a manila file. “I have something for you.”

“What’s this?” I ask.

Smoke takes off his cut and hangs it over the back of a nearby chair. “Something didn’t add up to me about your father, who was an accountant and a money launderer, suddenly taking up something like human trafficking. One doesn’t exactly lead to the other. So, I had Nine look into it for me.”

I open the file and gasp because at first, I think it’s a picture of me I’m staring at, but it’s not me. It’s my mother. “What is this?” I ask scanning my eyes down the page. It’s like an HR file, but it’s not about her work, it’s a resume about her life. Smoke points to the bottom of the page where it says in big red bold letters. DECEASED May 13th, 2012 in Mumbai India.

May 13th was two days before I found my father’s body in the basement.

“That’s wrong.” I say shaking my head. “She didn’t die in India. She was here. And the date’s wrong. She died when I was a toddler.”

Smoke shook his head. “No, she died in India three weeks after being kidnapped coming home from work at the dentist’s office…by Griff’s men.”

Panic hits me in the chest like I’d been struck with an arrow. Sharp and deep. I look to Smoke, but he doesn’t say anything. He’s looking down at me cautiously like he’s waiting for whatever it is he’s trying to tell me to sink in. Finally, it does. But sinking isn’t just the feeling I get when the information hits my brain, it’s my heart and soul shriveling up, pitting in the bottom of my stomach.

“She was sold into human trafficking,” I say on a whisper as the bile rises in my throat, and I can actually feel the tearing of my heart as it pulls apart. I sink down, but Smoke catches me before I hit the floor, pulling me onto his lap.

“Look at me,” he demands, turning me to face him.

I look up at him. The file falls from my hand to the floor and papers flutter all around the carpet as my arms fall limply to my sides. I search Smoke’s eyes, but I don’t feel anything but a sickening awareness of what had been done to my mother.

“Why are you telling me this now?” I ask, my voice a weak rasp.

I search for anything in his expression that will tell me that he’s trying to intentionally hurt me, but there’s nothing but stern calmness. A well-built ship navigating stormy seas.

“Yes, your mother was sold into slavery. We don’t know the details of what or who killed her, but we know her body was found off a road connecting two towns.”

“I don’t…” I start, but Smoke isn’t finished.

“Frankie, your father knew. He found out she’d been taken and the reasons why.”

“I still don’t understand.”

“Frankie, your old man still did all the bad shit. He transferred all the money for Griff. He contributed to a lot of deaths and his share of despair. That much is true. But the reason why he did it wasn’t greed,” Smoke says. “He was trying to find her. Your mom.”

“Oh my god,” I say as his words sink it. I press my face into Smoke’s chest and my tears are absorbed into his shirt. “He was looking for her. But he still hurt so many others.”