Page 115 of Girth (Marked Skulls MC 1)
“Want some apple juice?” she asked.
“Yes, please.”
Sydney dug the apple juice out of her bag and mindlessly handed it to me. It took me a second before I realized she wanted me to give it to Emery, and I smiled as I opened it and handed it to my daughter. She took it with a smile on her face, chugging it back as her eyes got sleepy.
“Emery always has to have it before she falls asleep,” Syd said, smiling.
“Funny, I know someone else who used to be the same way,” I said, grinning.
Once we got ourselves settled and we knew we weren’t being watched, we got out onto the road. We stayed on the backroads all the way to Ferndale, a six-hour haul that would easily take us eight since we stayed away from the highway. I saw the van weave a couple of times, no doubt from Sydney being so tired, and I pulled us over for a spell just so she could get a quick catnap.
Then, we were back on the road until we hit my mother’s house. After my father had died, my mother had decided to leave Nevada. She had tried for years to stay, but it had gotten too hard on her. There were too many memories there. I was old enough to be on my own, and while the club wanted to keep her safe, they understood she needed to go back to where she grew up. It helped that there was another charter of The Road Rebels in the area to watch over her.
By the time we arrived, the sun was just beginning to crest the ocean waters. The sea breeze was blowing as we pulled into her driveway, and she instantly stepped out onto the porch. I got off my bike and hugged her, planting a long kiss on her cheek as Sydney slowly crawled out of the van.
Sydney’s eyes connected with my mother’s and I could see the surprise wash over her face.
“My heavens, is that Sydney?” she asked.
“It’s is, Mom. And they need your help,” I said.
“‘They’?” she asked.
I pointed as Sydney pulled Emery from her car seat. Their auburn hair got kicked up in the sea breeze, and for a split second, I watched Syd stop. She breathed in deep, allowing the peacefulness of the ocean hitting the waves to wash over her body.
The wind was just powerful enough to wake up Emery, and the moment my daughter lifted her eyes to my mother, I heard her gasp.
“Oh, my gosh,” she said breathlessly.
“Miss Maria,” Sydney said. “It’s been a long time.”
“Oh, Sydney. You look beautiful as ever.”
I could see the shock in Sydney’s eyes as my mother embraced her. She hugged her back, tears cresting her eyes as she buried her face into my mother’s neck. Emery was trying to wiggle away, so I came around and took her from her mother’s arms as Sydney lost herself in the memories this place was bringing back.
The memories my mother was bringing back.
“I’m so sorry,” Sydney said.
“Hush now, child. It’s all right. I’m just glad you and Hawk found one another again.”
“We’re in trouble, Miss Maria. We’re in so much trouble.”
“Then why don’t you come on inside where it’s safe?” my mother asked.
My mother ushered all of us inside as Emery continued to yawn. My mother walked down the hallway, opening up one of the guest bedroom doors to lay the little girl down. I could see the shock of her being a grandmother washing over her face, but my mother had always been in control of her emotions. The initial shock was all the emotion she would show us towards the situation, and the moment she came back down the hallway, she embraced Sydney yet again.
“She’s beautiful,” my mother said.
“She looks just like her father,” Sydney said.
“How about this? It feels like you and Hawk have a great deal to talk about. The little one is sleeping-”
“Emery,” I said. “Your granddaughter’s name is Emery.”
I saw her eyes light up with joy as my mother took both my hand and Sydney’s.
“Emery’s fast asleep, and when she wakes up I think she’ll enjoy a bit of ice cream for breakfast.”
“Already being spoiled, huh?” Sydney asked.
“We’ll have a wonderful time. Right now, you and Hawk should take some time to talk. If you want to talk here, I’ll put on a pot of coffee and make myself scarce. If you want to find a place on the beach to speak, I’ll have lunch here when you come back.”
“Mom, Emery doesn’t know yet. About me, and now you.”
“I figured as much. Just know I already love that little girl, and when you two are ready to tell her, I’ll be right there cheering you on.”
I could see the tears trickling down Syd’s face as she embraced my mother once again. She sobbed into her shoulder, allowing the past few days to come tumbling out. My mother calmed her down, soothing her lowly in her ear as I stood by the door. The fight we had before Sydney left came wafting back to my memory. How I’d yelled at her and grabbed her harder than I’d ever intended. How I had blamed her for all the havoc that was being rained down on us without giving a second thought as to what this was doing to her.
I’d never heard Sydney cry so hard she started to hiccup until that very moment.
“Emery is safe with me, I promise. Go. Take a walk. Get it all out. Make Hawk talk to you. And come back with a clear head ready to formulate a plan.”
“Yes… Miss.. Maria…” Sydney said through her hiccups.
I held out my hand and held Syd tight as we left out through the back. My mother lived right on the ocean, a quaint little beach house with its own private view. No one really came up this far to enjoy the beach because there were hardly any bars in Ferndale. It was a small town of retirees that wanted to enjoy the waters during the late stages of their lives.
The sand crunched beneath our feet as Sydney held onto me tighter than I’d ever felt her before.
“Did anything else happen with the agent?” I asked.
“That was the gist of it. They don’t have anything that connects me to their routes other than the joyrides we took, so they can’t do anything. They’re still looking, I’m apparently a shit mother, they’ve picked up my nickname recently from my conversations with you, and now we’re here.”
“Well, it’s mandatory if something like this happens for our houses to be swept for bugs. Mac, our current President, knows where my spare key is. If the house is bugged, I’ll know within the next day or so,” I said.
“I’m so sorry. I’m sorry I brought the DEA to you. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Emery. I’m sorry I fucking left, and I’m sorry we now have to run. I’m just… I’m such a fuck up, and I’m so sorry. Please forgive me.”
“Hey, hey, hey. Stop that. Look at me.”
I stopped us walked as Sydney’s beautiful blue eyes turned up to me. They were the exact color of the ocean, stormy and dark. Her mind was plagued with so many different things, and all I wanted to do was settle her eyes back into the pale blue I’d fallen in love with all those years ago.
“Everything’s all right. Things on my end will be just fine, and if they go as planned, I think you’re gonna be fine with how it turns out,” I said, grinning.
“I never thought they would follow me to you. I don’t even understand why I’m a person of interest. I swear I don’t know anything. I’m not a connection.”
“Then they’ll figure that out soon enough. They’re on a witch hunt, and you couldn’t have known that,” I said.
“I wasn’t involved with anyone in the
club. Not romantically anyway. None of them stopped by the house or saw me outside of their compound. Hell, I was never patched as someone’s property. I was just one of the outsiders that enjoyed hanging out with them. At the bar and stuff. They…”
I cupped my hand over her cheek and watched her skin flush underneath my touch.
“They what?” I asked.
“They reminded me of you guys,” she said breathlessly. “I-... loved the feeling of family.”
“Oh, Syd.”
“I didn’t feel like I was with family when I was with my mother. I thought I would, with all the letters we wrote back and forth. But I didn’t. I gravitated towards the Iron Souls because they felt more like family than she did. Hell, when I complained about not having enough money to finish out the rest of my vocational schooling, they gave me a job at their bar so I could save up for the rest of my classes. Mom babysat during my hours-- which were usually during the evenings-- then I’d be home just in time to take care of Emery while she went to the hospital.
“When the hell did you sleep?” I asked.
“When Emery napped,” she said.
I was looking at one of the strongest women I’d ever known. The shit she dealt with raising Emery for the first six years of her life… I never could’ve imagined going through it myself. I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her deep into me as the waves roared in the background. The sun was rising in the sky as the wind blew around us, kicking up sand as Sydney buried herself deeper and deeper into my body.
“Please don’t be angry with me anymore,” she said, whispering.
“I could never be angry at you for long. It was wrong of me to be angry in the first place,” I said.
She looked up at me with those piercing blue eyes, the storm slowly fading as they returned to their vibrant, sparkling state. My arms drew her up to me, bringing her lips painfully close to mine as I ghosted them over her own. I heard her sigh, her hands rushing up my arms and hanging onto my shoulders.
It was then I spotted a rundown shack, abandoned and worn down by years of storms as a grin crossed my face.
“Follow me,” I said as I took Sydney’s hand.
“Where’re we going.”
I whipped around to her and pulled her into me. Our lips crashed into one another’s, her back bowing as I followed to taste her lips upon mine. Her hands flew to my hair, raking her fingernails over my scalp as I groaned into her mouth. I felt her smile on me, her tits rising to painful peaks I could feel even through the bra she was wearing.
