Lifting my head, I’m surprised to see Ruthie awake again. “One day when you’re ready a woman is going to come into your life.She’ll be your second chance. I want you to take it and live life to the fullest.”
I’m shocked if not a little horrified. I couldn’t imagine having another woman in my life. Ruthie was it for me.
“WHAT?! No,” I protest.
Ruthie smiles and grips my hand harder. “Deck Ivor, you listen to me. I don’t want you alone and miserable. When she comes into your life you’ll know and you have my blessing. Promise me that you’ll take it.”
“Ruthie….”
“Promise me, Deck.”
My Ruthie, she’s a stubborn one, and I can see she’s getting agitated, so I nod my head. “I promise, sweetheart.”
She smiles and tugs weakly on my hand as if she’d used up all her strength getting me to agree to a promise I likely wasn’t going to keep.
“Good. Now get up here and kiss me.”
Chuckling softly at her bossiness, I stand up and do as she bids. It’s the last kiss we share. Not an hour later she’s gone, and I’m left with a hollow feeling that eats a hole in me, and I know I’m half the man I was without her in my life.
But life wasn’t done kicking me in the teeth and taking from me, as not even eighteen months later I was standing in the same graveyard this time watching my eldest son, Chains’ coffin being lowered into the ground next to his mother.
I wasn’t sure how I stayed standing, but I did because I had one more son, Maestro, and a daughter, Lizzie, plus my grandkids that needed me.
And an MC that was depending on its president to make decisions. Although I’m not sure that they were going to like the changes I was going to implement, I wasn’t prepared to lose any more family members and brothers if I could help it.
Making the decision to get the MC clean was a hard one, but I got it started and then passed the baton to Maestro, who finished it. I wish I’d done it years ago. Not living with constant tension and worry about Feds being constantly up our asses was fucking amazing.
Life settled down, and Maestro and Stacey finally found their way to each other, doubling our family in the blink of an eye.
I hated to admit it, but Maestro made a far better president than Chains ever would have.
And with Stacey at his side, they’d take the club places that I could only ever dream of.
CHAPTER 1
2015
RED
The need to ride out with Maestro, Cash, Kyle and Buck rode me until I couldn’t ignore it anymore. I’d lost my love of riding when Ruthie and Chains had passed. The only time I got on my sled now was if we were doing a charity or club run.
This time, though, this was different. Ruthie had insisted.‘Time to ride, lover.’She whispered in a breeze.
It wasn’t the first time I’d thought that I’d heard her voice, but it was the first time she’d been so insistent. I’d got on my sled and done as she’d told me.
I’m sure there would be some who thought I was nuts if they knew that I spoke to my deceased wife on a regular basis. Not that I cared much about what anyone thought. If it gave me comfort, who were they to say anything?
We rode into the trailer park on the other side of town. It was run down, and while a few trailers looked like they had tried to keep things tidy, the rest looked broken down and on the edge of falling apart; the one we were looking for was one of the worst in the park.
Stopping our sleds, I waited as Maestro and Cash got off their sleds and took a look around. I’m sure that Maestro and I would be on the same page given what this boy had done for Rosie. There was no way we’d be leaving the kid here. We’d make other plans. He was sixteen, so he was old enough to make up his own mind.
Dismounting from my sled, I leaned against it and waited as Maestro knocked on the trailer door. You could have knocked me over with a feather when I got a look at the boy in the doorway. It was like looking at my boys when they were that age. From the eyes to the olive skin, and the same black hair that all the men in my family had. I knew he wasn’t mine, and I was pretty sure he wasn’t Maestro’s, which only left Chains. I didn’t care whose he was; he was one of mine, and he’d be coming home with us today, no matter what.
Pushing away from my sled, I walk up to where Maestro and the boy were talking and introduced myself. Holding out my hand to the shaken, slightly agitated boy, “Ford. My name's Red.”
Ford shakes my hand and says to Maestro, “There’s nothing I’d like more than to get out of here, but I can’t. It’s not just me.”
He’s no sooner finished speaking than a baby started crying from within the trailer.‘Well fuck me, looks like I’m going to be a great-grandfather.’
