Page 114 of Girth (Marked Skulls MC 1)
“Syd. What happened when the agent found you?”
“She… she, uh… um…”
I could tell she was panicking and I wasn’t there to hold her. I just knew her little hands were shaking. Her delicate hands that had seen so much blood spilled onto them. I could hear Emery in the background lightly snoring, and I knew-- at least for now-- that she was all right.
“Sydney. Peel yourself from Emery, go sit in the bathroom, and take some deep breaths.”
I switched the call to the bluetooth set in my helmet as I cranked up my bike. I got on the road, merging onto the highway at top speeds as I tried to make up as much time as I could. If I stopped once for gas and nothing else, I could get there around three in the morning.
Which meant I could hold Syd for the rest of the night if I had to.
“Okay,” she said breathlessly. “I’m here.”
“I’m on the highway now. With one stop, I’ll be there around three in the morning.”
“Hawk you can’t-”
“Damn it, Syd, where are you!?”
“The Monterey Inn! The one that… that sits right off the main road as you come into town.”
“I know where that is. I’m headed for you now. What did the DEA agent say to you?”
“She… she said that they didn’t have enough evidence on me.”
“That’s a good thing. Means they can’t legally get you into court or nail you with anything,” I said.
“She said they’ve got footage of me joyriding up the Iron Souls trade routes, but that they had no solid evidence that I knew what I was riding.”
“Did you know? Wait, don’t answer that. Did they threaten Emery?” I asked.
“Not… exactly,” she said.
“Tell me what they said. Stop making me pry it from you.”
“She called me a bad mother.”
I could hear Syd’s sobs as I kicked up the speed on my bike. My blood was boiling, and my heart was hammering. What kind of fucking agent would do that to someone?
“Emery was swimming in the pool and-... and I was in the hot tub. She got in with me and told me not to kick up a fuss because she knew I didn’t want Emery to see. She-... she said she’d tell you what a bad mother I was for leaving Emery with my mom at home during the evenings so I could go… go-”
“Go what, Syd?” I asked.
“Joyriding,” she said, sobbing.
“Syd, that doesn’t make you a bad mother. Was Emery taken care of?”
“I pumped breastmilk and left it in the-... the fridge in bottles for Mom,” she said.
“Was Emery safe?”
“Mom knew… knew self-defense… a-a-and she kept a gun in the house. Locked away safe and out of reach, I swear, Hawk. I swear she was safe. I just… Emery was a colicky baby, and she would just scream and cry for hours, and I felt like I was going crazy and my hair was falling out-”
“Ssshhh sh sh sh sh. Sweetheart. You are nowhere in the realm of a bad mother, all right? That agent was trying to intimidate you. Get you to cave so you would talk. She knows who I am?”
“Worse. I think the DEA is listening in on our conversations somewhere.”
That statement made me freeze.
“Did they mention my name specifically?” I asked.
“No, she just said that I would hate it if the father of my child knew what a bad mother I was. They said they couldn’t tie me to anything, but once they could, they were coming for me. But as she was walking away, she called me ‘Syd.’”
“Did anyone in the Iron Souls call you that? Did your mother call you that?”
“Mom hated that name. Said it made me sound like a guy. And the Iron Souls didn’t even call me by my name. I was the newest outsider that came in, so they called me ‘Red’ because of my hair color. You can’t come here, Hawk. She knows that nickname because it’s what you call me, and that means-”
“It’s all right. Look, we’re handling everything on our end. Everything’s gonna be all right. I’m coming for you, and then I’m gonna get you and Emery somewhere safe. Somewhere with people I trust, okay? I can’t talk about it more because with what you’ve just told me I don’t know where they’re getting their information.”
“Oh-... okay,” she said.
“I want you to hang tight. Watch some television. Try to get some sleep. When I’m at the hotel, I’ll call you, okay?”
“Hawk?” she asked.
“Yeah?”
“I’m so fucking sorry.”
I could hear the hurt in her voice. The years of guilt she spent agonizing over while she tried to do the right thing by the circumstances that had been thrust upon her. I heard the tears, all the years of building up walls to try and be strong. I heard it all crumbling down within those four words, and I wanted with all my might to reach through the phone and hold her close to my body.
But I was still five and a half hours from doing that.
“Stay safe. I’m five hours out,” I said.
“Okay.”
I hung up the call and cranked up the speed as I rode the highway all the way into California. I stopped once for gas, looking around to see if anyone was following me. By the time I pulled up into the hotel, it was around two-thirty, and I called Sydney’s phone to see if she would pick up.
And the phone clicked before the first ring was over.
“Are you here?”
“What room are you in?” I asked.
“301,” she said.
I circled around and found her van hiding out in the shadows. I parked my bike beside hers and rushed inside, heading straight for the elevator as I took it up to the third floor. My hands shook with anxious nerves, wanting nothing more than to hold my two girls close and keep them safe. If I ever came across the fucking DEA agent that thought she could make Syd feel like a bad mother, I’d bash her fucking skull in with my own damn fist.
I didn’t even knock on the door before it flew open.
“Mr. Hawk!”
A flurry of auburn hair clung to my leg as I dipped down and lifted Emery into my arms. I buried my face into her face, swallowing back my own tears of joy as I walked her back into the hotel room. Sydney was holding the door open for us, watching as I sniffed the scent of my daughter in deep. The television was going lowly in the background, and I smelled coffee percolating in the small pot above the microwave.
The bags already forming underneath Syd’s eyes gave away just how worried she had been for the past few hours.
“Come here,” I said.
I wrapped my arm around her and held my two girls close. My heart was surging in my chest as the blood rushed through my ears. There was only one place I could take them where I knew they would be safe. One person whose blood was icier than mine when it came to protected their own. She was the sweetest woman I’d ever known until you messed with her family, then the accuracy of the guns she shot, the blades she threw, and the punches she landed would take you to the ground and leave you there bleeding.
And that woman was my mother.
“I have a plan, okay?” I asked. “Here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna all climb into bed and get some rest. We’re gonna have fun at the hotel tomorrow, then once night falls, we’re gonna head to my mothers.”
“Your… your mom’s. No, no, no. She’s gotta hate me, right?” Syd asked.
“Not when she sees this precious girl I’m holding, she won’t,” I said as I kissed the top of her head.
“You’ll be safe there until we can figure out our next move,” I said.
And we did just that. I held both of my girls at my side. Sydney snuggled underneath the crook of my neck while Emery’s head laid gently on my chest. Never in my life did I think I could love two people the way I loved Sydney and Emery, but the more I looked down upon their sleeping features, the bigger my heart grew with love for them.
We spent the day eating snacks, swimming in the pool, and sleeping in the massive bed until nightfall happened. We gather
ed up their things and snuck out the back door, not bothering to check out. If the DEA was keeping an eye on her expenses, it would look like she was still at the hotel. If they didn’t come poking around again, that would give us a few days to get ahead of them before they realized Syd wasn’t at the hotel anymore.
Which meant I could get them safe.
“All right, I want you guys to follow me. We’re taking back roads all the way there, so even if it looks sketchy, just keep behind me.”
“I can do that,” Syd said.
“Mommy? I’m thirsty,” Emery said.
