Sorry for the delay
People have been very informative on the motor industry in the USA :D I had no idea number plates could expire! That doesn't happen in the UK unless you've personalised them.
I hope you like the next chapter…(s) Double whammy.
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Chapter Four
Edward
My hand tightened, gripping hard. The muscles in my thighs protested as I pushed down firmly over and over, until finally the sound of the engine firing up roared through my ears.
"Told you it wasn't scrap." I said, laughing as old John praised my magic touch. "I can't believe you assholes doubted me." John mounted the bike, no doubt he'd be back. The heap was worth less than the metal it was made from, but you couldn't teach an old bastard new tricks.
I couldn't complain, —standing outside of Maxine's with Jasper and Emmett, getting my hands dirty under a bike, — it was something I'd been dreaming about for years; two years, seven months and three days to be exact. My dreams weren't exactly big these days.
Prison will do that to a guy.
It had been five days since my release, and I was itching to get back to the grind. Working on cars, girls and payback. No way I was letting James H, that piece of shit Reaper get away with it. He was the reason I lost nearly three years of my life and I'd be the reason he lost his.
Things had been pretty settled with the Reapers for a while, they stuck to their territories, and we stuck to ours. Until Emmett went and fucked it all up.
The way he told it, fate, the stars and every crappy romcom aligned the night he found Rose and her two kids sitting in The Lodge, one busted up face and one rucksack between them with nowhere to go.
You could say history was repeating itself there. The one and only time I tried to tell Emmett that, I ended up with a black eye. What the Swan men saw in these Reaper chicks, I had no idea. Whatever it was, it was worth nearly destroying the club for. Still, I didn't blame her for what happened. That was all James.
Rosalie was Roy Kings old lady. Roy mother-fucking King. Right hand man to the president, James Hunt. Fucking loser changed his name when he turned eighteen. I suppose with a name like Higginbotham, he wasn't being taken seriously enough.
I look up over to Em, who had drifted over to a parked car over the other side of the lot and halted as he said. "My old man had one just like this when he was my age."
He was leaning into a El Camino, yapping happily as only Emmett could to a complete stranger. She on the other hand looked like she'd seen a ghost. She turned towards me, and I thought I had seen a ghost too. I wasn't the brightest kid growing up, but I never forgot a face, especially when that face was sat on the fireplace in the club presidents house until I was twelve.
Renee Higginbotham. The resemblance was uncanny, except the more I looked the more I could see Charlie too.
Emmett backed up, noticing the girls silence.
Damn right your dad had a car just like that.
She stepped out the car and the first thing I saw were long creamy white legs, barely covered by a short one-piece thing that was clearly too small. I wasn't complaining. Long brown hair fell over the perkiest… yeah, I was being a perv… three long years, sue me. As she met my eyes, she flushed a pretty pink all over, I winked.
"Where'd you get the car Legs?" I asked, nodding towards the wheels.
"Legs?" She looked incredulously back at me.
"Seriously, where'd you get it?"
"What is it to you?" She sneered. OK, not as timid as she looked.
"What's your problem Edward?" Emmett asked. Always a sucker for a damsel in distress.
"Because Emmett, I've seen it before. About twenty-five years ago." I turned to her again, daring her to contradict me.
"Weren't you like six then?"
"Yep, why don't you ask her who her mother is?"
Emmett, Jasper and Waylen turned to her; I'd almost forgot anyone else was out here. The sounds of the bar behind me drowned out to nothing as Emmett asked the question and she responded, confirming my fears.
"Renee Higginbotham." She said, unyielding to the four giant tattooed bikers who surrounded her.
The guys spat out curses, each coming to the same conclusion. How the fuck was this possible? She hadn't done enough damage by up and leaving her family? Not her asshole family, but us… the club. She had Charlie's secret fucking kid too?
Charlie… shit.
Before anyone could say another word, she was speeding around the corner and out of sight.
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The first time I met Charlie, I was six years old. I'd been taken in by my aunt Esme and her husband Carlisle after my mom had died in a drunk driving accident with her asshole boyfriend.
The accident was his fault.
Esme wasn't technically part of the club, but her father was, so she had grown up around Charlie her whole life. She went off to college, one of the few who did and came back years later with Carlisle to look after me.
They didn't resent having to come back to this town. I was lucky Esme has always liked it here, and Carlisle had no desire to work in some big city hospital… or any issues with Esme family being on the wrong side of the law. Although he had never officially joined the Devils, he was respected by the brothers.
I loved them, but Charlie was the one who took me under his wing when I was acting up and gave me direction. It was inevitable that I'd join the club when I was old enough.
Renee was around a lot, for a little while anyway. She was kind and fun and made Charlie the same. But what I remember the most was how broken he was when she left.
"What the fuck, man." Emmett said who was still staring off at the empty road. "I need a drink." He stormed into the bar, and we all followed.
Waylen pulled me to the side, "I gotta go have a word my wife." He nodded towards Esther, his old lady behind the bar.
"You think she knew?" I asked, doubtful.
"Unlikely, but I know she's kept up with Renee every now and then." He said, heading over to her.
Ten minutes later, sat around a table in a dark corner of the bar, Emmett was finally ready to speak.
"What the fuck." Maybe not.
Waylen parked himself next to me in a huff. "She didn't know, but she's pissed. Renee might have left us in the lurch, but she down right lied to Esther for years."
"She's gotta be what, a year older than you?" Jasper questioned Emmett.
"'Round about, Charlie knocked up my ma' not long after she left." A one-night stand with a civilian.
"Speaking of," I said, "what are we going to tell him?"
"Should we tell him?" Emmett asked, "With everything going on with Rose and the Reapers, not exactly a good time be digging up old feuds."
"I'm sure we'd have no problem scaring her off." I said, smirking as I remembered her Bambi in headlights look. But even as I said it, I knew it wasn't an option.
Waylen paled, "Look… me and Charlie, we grew up together in this place, he's never let me down. I can't keep a secret like this, I have to tell him."
"Tell me what?"
Shit.
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Thanks for reading x