He loved his father with his whole heart, front to back and side to side. He’d grown up thinking of him as a god. Maverick Helm looked like a tough motherfucker—and he was—but as a family man, his heart was wide open. He’d never held back his love or his enjoyment of his wife and kids, and he’d worked hard to give them everything they needed and most they wanted.
He did not, however, want any of his children to live the same kind of life he lived. For years, he’d done everything he could think of to keep Duncan from a patch, and he’d nearly beaten Dex to death when he and Kelsey got together. Eventually his need for his children to be happy pulled him back, but his protective streak was fucking infuriating.
Kelsey and Duncan were fully enmeshed with the Bulls. Hannah was the last one left, and she wanted in the family business, too. She was by far the most defiant of the three kids, and now she was eighteen. She only wanted to work in the convenience shop, but Dad did the hiring, so she didn’t have a chance. If there had ever been any chance he’d give in with her the way he’d relented with Kelsey and Duncan, she’d blown that up when she’d started flirting with Monty awhile back. Monty was too smart to fuck Mav’s baby girl, but the guy couldn’t help flirting with any and all girls who looked at him twice.
Nothing had happened between Monty and Hannah, and neither of them had been sincerely interested in that, but now Dad had the idea that she might get with a Bull to add to his dire imaginings of Hannah’s life. His feet were sunk in cement on the issue of Hannah working in the shop.
Lately Hannah was threatening to bail on the whole family—like run away and disappear—if Dad didn’t back off. Duncan didn’t really think she’d do it, but she was the only of the three kids who might actually.
They all three had talked about it more than once. Even Kelsey, who tended to act like a parental proxy, thought Dad was irrational about the issue. For one thing, the man had made a family in the Bulls. Kelsey, Duncan, and Hannah had been raised in that family; it was what they knew, who they loved, and the lens through which they understood the world. Of course they’d be most comfortable making their own lives within that circle. He had made them comfortable there.
Virtually all of their generation of club kids wanted to stay put. Including Zach, now VP in Laughlin, four Bulls sons had taken the patch, and Sam’s younger brother, Mason, was prospecting and would no doubt make number five in a year or so. Kelsey and Athena were with Bulls. Hannah’s interest in dating and all that was sporadic at best, but if she decided she wanted romance and family, she would probably love to land a Bull of her own one day.
If it was Monty, though, Duncan would stand with Dad in her way. He loved the guy, but Monty was a hound.
Even those club kids who weren’t interested in a patch or being with a patch weren’t turning their backs. It was a good family, and they all felt it. If Hannah did really bolt, it would be because Dad wouldn’t let her in closer.
Dad should be proud that his kids wanted to make their own lives in the nest he’d built. He’d given them a life they wanted to keep. But all he saw was the occasional danger and turmoil that shook the club. Like riding to California to take over another MC. A friendly patch-over had failed, so now the Bulls were going in force, ready to start and win a war if they had to.
For some reason, when he thought of his children’s future, Dad could see only the hard times, not the many more good times, and not the way the family closed ranks and kept each other strong during the hard times.
So when he turned to face him after the chapel, Duncan fully expected his old man to try to make a case for him to stay home from the run, or at least consider it.
Instead, Dad said, “Talk to me about that Sierra at the back of the lot. Mason said you had him tow it in.”
When Duncan laughed in surprise, his father frowned at him. “That’s funny?”
“No, it’s just—” There was no point in trying to describe the whirl of thoughts and feelings that had just spun needlessly through his head. “Never mind. Yeah, I was on my way home from Kelsey’s last night and stopped to help a woman on the side of the expressway with a horse trailer hitched to her truck. The engine’s shot—threw a rod. So I called Mace to bring the wrecker, and I towed her and her horse down around Checotah, where she lives. I told her I’d check it out today, see if there’s damage to the chassis or anything else, then see if I can get my hands on an old engine to drop in it.”
His father had started to smile about halfway through Duncan’s explanation. “This girl pretty? That why you didn’t come home last night?”
Duncan laughed. “Yes, Dad. She’s very pretty. And yes, that’s why I didn’t come home. I like her.”
“I assume you want to comp a whole-ass engine replacement?”
“If you or Eight get salty about it, I’ll cover it. But she runs a non-profit—a farm animal rescue—so we can probably write it off as a donation.”
“Animal rescue? Does she know your sister? And did you hear that Kelsey won an award last night?”
He said it like most people would say Did you hear that she cured cancer, established world peace, and became Queen of the World last night? Dad was a sap for any of their accomplishments, but he was especially proud of Kelsey.
Hannah insisted Kelsey was Dad’s favorite. Duncan understood that point of view, but he had a clearer sense of how Dad and Kelsey had become close, so he didn’t sweat any extra sheen on his love for her. Besides, Dad had always been there for Duncan, too. As he was for Hannah.
Maybe it was just harder to be the second daughter when Kelsey was the first.
“Yeah, Dad,” he answered letting the unspoken word duh color his tone. “I was with the kids last night. She told me when they got home.”
“Right, right. It’s great, huh? I’m so proud of her.”
“It is great. But Phoebe doesn’t know her. I asked last night.”
“Phoebe, huh? That’s a pretty name. And she does rescue work? Sounds like a nice girl. So this could be something? Between you two?”
Part of the squishy family-man side of Maverick Helm was an almost grandmotherly interest in his children’s romantic lives—and real enthusiasm, so long as it wasn’t one of his daughters hooking up with a patch. For Duncan, his enthusiasm was unbridled.
Duncan rolled his eyes at him. “No idea, Dad. I just met her like twelve hours ago. But yeah, I want to see if there’s anything there.”
Dad slapped his arm. “Let’s check out her truck.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
In the way of an Oklahoma winter, when the stretch of freezing temperatures that had frozen the world since before Christmas finally broke, a false spring barged in through the cracks. A few days after Phoebe and Duncan had met on the side of the frozen expressway, most of the windows were open at the Ragamuffin Ranch, and the animals were full of piss and vinegar. Gremlin, their farm-slash-herd dog had spent part of the afternoon running the goats, alpacas, cows, and Puff the magic sheep around in circles, apparently just for fun for one and all. Now he was stretched out on the big rock in the corner of that pasture, basking in the sun while he kept half an eye on his weird little herd.