I couldn’t understand why she nearly scratched my eyes out and called me a bad father when I questioned her going to the bar on Max’s birthday. I shouldn’t be surprised when Wyatt takes me aside after everything with just Hunter, so I know it’s serious, and he tells me what they suspect.
“We didn’t want to reveal this publicly,” Hunter says. “But I did my own independent research after what Tamiya said… and…”
Wyatt is far too impatient to let Hunter ease me into the bad news.
“Tylee might be stepping out on you with some biker in St. Louis. We don’t know his club affiliation or anything like that.”
Hunter gives Wyatt a look that suggests “I’ll handle it”. They might not share blood, but Hunter and Wyatt are just as much brothers as Hunter and his identical twin, Ryder are. They can be eerily aware of each other’s thoughts without saying much. I wouldn’t feel uneasy with it if this weren’t already such heavy, unpleasant news.
She ran off with my kids and for all I know they’re holed up in some motel with her and some pedophile biker bastard. Mychest hurts. It takes everything to hold back a violent outburst or an impulsive escape on the back of my bike to spray bullets through every biker club I can find between here and Chicago.
“We’re looking into him,” Hunter offers reassuringly. “Her having help would explain a lot, and it might mean that she’ll want to… put the kids somewhere safe.”
Like where? Everybody in this room knows that Deborah Hollingsworth Shaw remains fiercely loyal to the Rebel Barbarians, especially since her son Wyatt took the reins from Harlan Shaw as the club president a few years ago. Her and Tylee are pretty close, but she would put the kids and the club over her daughter’s schemes any day of the week. Most of their fights end up being about Deb taking either Wyatt or Ethan’s side too much.
“I don’t understand how she hasn’t turned up yet.”
“If she has a gang of bikers covering for her, it adds up,” Hunter says.
“Do you seriously think your sister brought my children into a den of criminal bikers?” I growl, my teeth clenching. It’s one thing for me to bring my children near Barbarian headquarters, which I’ve never been stupid enough to do in the first place, but at least I could protect them. Tylee might think she’s all-fucking-powerful, but if any of our enemies find out that they could use our children as leverage…
“He doesn’t look so good,” Wyatt says. “Listen. Isaac. I promise, I won’t let my sister hurt my nephewsormy niece. They’re babies. Our family’s babies. I promise we’ll find her and fix this.”
“What if they’re already gone?”
I can only muster up the courage to express my deepest fears out loud because enough liquor runs through my body to destroy every sensible urge I have to bury these horrific thoughts of my own children. Dead.
“Get him some whiskey,” Hunter says. “Knock those worries right out of him.”
Wyatt nods, patting all the pockets of his cut until he turns up a white flask that doesn’t look all used up and grease-stained.
“Haven’t cracked into this one yet,” he says. “Spiced Hollingsworth bourbon.”
I wouldn’t care if it was rubbing alcohol at this point.
The ruse Wyatt and Hunter used to steal us some alone time comes to a close and the rest of the men return with enough fuel for us to have a basement rager that lasts well into the morning.
“If Anna knew I was doing this, she wouldn’t like it,” Wyatt says. “But… anybody up for a hand of poker? No real gambling.”
“It’s less fun without real gambling,” Ryder says. “But I understand.”
I’m too drunk to protest and I want to get even more drunk. None of this is good news, especially not the news of Tylee having an affair with some biker.
Winning a hand of poker could really boost my spirits. “I’m in.”
“Let’s do it then,” Hunter says. “But if you fall off the wagon, I’m telling Anna it was your fault.”
“I’ll be fine,” Wyatt says. “We have plenty of bullshit ahead. We’ll be better off getting drunk and blowing off steam now while we can.”
It’s hard logic to argue with, especially with this much alcohol in my bloodstream.
“Let’s fucking go. Woo!” I cheer drunkenly and let the night take my worries as everything fades to black.
It’s late when I get to bed. I miss the kids. Wyatt wants me to go out to Boston soon, but I don’t know how he can expect me to turn around and head East without the kids and with Tylee on the run. Wyatt thinks the kids will be safer if Tylee thinks I’ve fucked off and left town, but I can’t bear being more than a few hours away from them and not knowing how they’re doing.
Tylee and I have had our ups and downs. She’s done some things to me that have made me question if I really know this woman at all, but I always told myself that she was family in a way that no other woman could be to me. We grew up together. We made memories on the road that affected the man I became today.
But the longer this goes on, with her kidnapping the kids and all of the lies she’s told… I feel as if I have to face something deeply troubling. It’s over between me and the mother of my children. Things will never be the same as they were and there’s no new relationship that either of us could make out of the dust to change the ways we’ve torn each other apart.
