After pulling out his cell phone, he texted his friends to let them know he wouldn’t be there tonight, removed his jacket, and knelt down. “What do you need?”
Devil chuckled. “I can still put shit together, son. No, I was wondering on our next run if you’d like to come with.”
“Your run?”
“You know, when we have to go and pick out a woman or a family from a bad situation.”
“Oh.” That was what The Skulls and Chaos Bleeds did now. They worked as a protection detail with the Billionaire Bikers MC in helping families or women in fucked-up, abusive situations and provided them shelter, a home, anything they needed. Simon had also heard that they helped to rescue trafficked women. It was the Billionaire Bikers MC’s MO. They helped lost women.
The Skulls and Chaos Bleeds were part of it. They helped where they could. There was a time a run meant delivering guns, drugs, whatever Ned Walker wanted, or whatever deal they had going. Simon had been young at the time. When both clubs had nearly been wiped out more than once by long-forgotten enemies, Lash and Devil had both agreed for the safety of their clubs and families that it was time to go legit. No more danger surrounding them. The days of lockdowns were so far in the past, he struggled to remember them. It was crazy.
It was during some of The Skulls and Chaos Bleeds lockdowns that he’d gotten close to Tabby. The love of his life.
“If you’re not up for it, I understand. We never know what kind of shit we’re walking into and it’s not for the faint of heart.”
“No, it’s not about that. Believe me. I want to.” He laughed, running a hand down his face. “You know, one day, I want to be like you.”
“No, son, you’re going to be better than me.”
“I doubt that.”
Devil stopped twisting a screw and looked at him. “Being a leader, the club President, you need to have doubt from time to time. What you need is to own up to it, and accept it. You’ve always got to be one step ahead of the game. You think I’ve been rooting for your education because of your mother, it’s not. I need you to be able to think on your feet in case anything goes wrong.”
Devil rubbed the back of his neck. “These runs, Simon, they’re dangerous. I’m not going to pretend with you. I know how desperately you want to be part of the club, and if so, you need to know what you’re getting yourself into.”
“When do you know when a run is going to happen?”
“We get a call. We organize. We never go in half-cocked, unless we have to.” Devil took a deep breath. “You still know how to shoot a gun?”
“Wow,” he said.
“Yeah, wow. Some of the places we go, we still have to deal with people.”
“By deal you mean kill.”
Devil looked past his shoulder and nodded his head.
“I bet Mom already knows the kind of shit you have to do.”
“Either way, I don’t want her to know the full extent of all the bad shit that goes down. She doesn’t need to be aware of it.”
Devil ran a hand down his face. “You can go on out with your buddies.”
“Nah, I’m good.”
“Really? You’re willing to spend time with your old man after all the shit I’ve heard about you being free to make your own choices and shit?”
Simon snorted. “Dad, I’m a teenager. Making your life hard is what I’m all about.”
Devil shook his head. “One of the best days of my life with you was holding you.”
“You never talk about it much. Why?” Simon asked.
He watched as Devil opened his mouth, closed it. “You know the drill. It was a hard time. Your mother and I, we didn’t always see eye to eye.”
“You know what I don’t get,” Simon said.
“What?”
“With Elizabeth, Josh, and all the others, there are so many photos of Mom pregnant. What happened to the ones with me? Mom doesn’t have any with her being pregnant with me.”
“They were lost, son, in a fire.”
“Right.” He stopped, wondering. “What kind of fire?” Simon asked.
“The kind that takes photographs. Go and grab me a soda, will you? I’m thirsty.”
Simon shrugged, got to his feet, and headed into the house.
His mom was in the kitchen, stirring something on the stove. The scent of chocolate was heavy in the air. After all this time, Lexie was still trying to perfect the best hot chocolate that Angel had perfected years ago.
“Hey, Mom,” he said.
“Hey, sweetie. I thought you were going out with some friends?” She turned to look at him.
“I was but I decided to help Dad.”
“Ah, he’s still pissed that his chair didn’t come with instructions. He’s determined to build it up from scratch.”
“He’s all manly. You know that. It’s what he does.”
She chuckled. “I love him so much.”
He grabbed two cans of soda and closed the fridge. “Mom, can I ask you something?”
“Sure thing.”
“What happened to pictures of you when you were pregnant with me?”
“Oh, I had them on my phone. It wasn’t a great phone but it took pictures. It got lost and they were all gone.”
“Right,” he said.
“Is that all?”
“Yeah, that’s all.”
He headed outside and handed his dad a soda. “What’s up, son?”
“Nothing. Nothing at all.” He had to wonder why his mom and dad had a different answer for the pictures of her being pregnant.
****
“He asked tonight,” Lexie said.
“What about?” Devil switched off the bathroom light, watching his woman as she put her book to one side.
She wore a sexy negligee that displayed her heavy tits.
After all these years together, he was never bored. Not once. His dick hardened at the sight.
“Me being pregnant with him.”
He’d hoped this kind of conversation would never happen. “Yeah, he asked me too.”
“Oh, no, what did you say?” she asked.
“I said they were gone in a fire.”
She winced.
“What?” he asked.
“Er, I said it was on one of those phones and it got destroyed. Did he ask you about it?”
Devil shook his head.
“What do we do?”
“For now, we wait and see if he asks any more questions,” Devil said.
“What if he does? What do we do? How do we tell him that I’m not his real mother? That she dumped him and then was killed?” Lexie covered her face and Devil went to her. He held his woman.
“You’re his mother, baby. You will always be his mother and he knows this. You did everything you could to protect him.”
“But he’s going to hate us. We never told him the truth.”
“He was too young to understand the truth.”
“But what about now?” she asked. “We’ve left it too long and now he’s going to think the worst.”
Devil caught her face in his hands. “This was the decision I made. I will face whatever anger he has. I will not let it come near you.”