Page 23 of Rodeo (Marked Skulls MC 2)
“I want you to find that man and I want you to kill him,” I said. I was trying to sound as confident as possible. I had squared my shoulders and stuck my chin up in the air. I wanted Rodeo to know how serious I was about what I was saying.
He seemed surprised by what I just said. This was exactly what he had been declaring since I first met him—that he wanted to kill the man who had killed Fred. He just wasn’t expecting to hear it from me.
“I want you to kill him for me,” I added, looking fiercely into Rodeo’s eyes as he stared back at me.
“Jordan…” he said my name in a whisper and I shook my head, stopping him from saying another word.
“You don’t have to sugarcoat it anymore. I know what I’m asking you to do. I know this is the most violent thing I have ever thought about doing, but this is what I want. I don’t want you to kill that man for you, I want you to do it for me. He took the life of my father. He took away the possibility for me to ever get to know him,” I continued and my voice was shaking as I spoke.
I couldn’t believe the words that were coming out of my mouth, but I meant every one of them. I wasn’t going to be able to move on with my life till I knew that man was dead.
“I will,” Rodeo replied, nodding his head slowly. It felt like finally, our lives had collided; like Rodeo and I were on the same path.
Chapter 19
Rodeo
I took Jordan along with me to T Bone. I’d already sent a message out to Lewis and the boys that I needed to talk to them together, and Church had been called.
This time around, Jordan didn’t seem hesitant to go to the bar. It was almost like she was excited to go. We rode on my bike, with her arms around me and she was quick to jump off and head out towards the bar doors when we reached.
When we walked in, we saw that everyone had already assembled for Church. Lila and Girth were there too, and both of them were looking nervous.
“What did you find at Fred’s place? These two are refusing to tell us!” Lewis said, the moment we walked in. Lila and Girth had clearly not filled them in on what I’d found.
Jordan stood behind me as I faced the rest of my Club.
“Girth was right. Fred had a personal history with the Hell’s Drifters which he never told us about,” I replied.
Lewis jumped off his stool, flinging his can of beer to the floor.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“I found letters and notes, all the evidence I needed to find out the truth. Fred had borrowed money from them to start a business, and he spent the rest of his life trying to repay that loan,” I explained.
There was silence in the bar as I stood in the middle of my brothers. Lewis was glaring at me, like I’d just insulted him.
“What kind of business?” I heard Abe’s voice behind me.
“I’m not sure, it doesn’t matter. It was thirty years ago. All I know is that the business failed and Fred never made the kind of money he was hoping to,” I continued.
“Thirty years ago? That would be before he and I became friends, long before the formation of the Marked Skulls,” Lewis mumbled and I nodded my head in agreement.
“Why didn’t he ask me for the money, later?” he growled and Lila stepped in this time.
“Daddy, you knew Fred. You knew how he was. He would have done that to protect us, he didn’t want our MC to get involved in his problems,” Lila said but Lewis was shaking his head.
“I thought he used to tell me everything. He should have told me that he was in trouble with the Hell’s Drifters. I would have given him the money no questions asked, he knew that too!” Lewis was raging. He was going through the same emotions that I had when I first found out the truth.
“It wouldn’t have mattered. Fred managed to pay the money back to them in full many years ago. They wanted more. He was a slave to them for life—their own personal money making machine,” I said. My brothers were staring at me in shock. They didn’t know whether to believe what I was saying about their beloved Fred. None of us had a clue that he was being hounded by the Hell’s Drifters. He hadn’t given us any indication of it.
“What happened?” Marcus asked, despite the fact that all of us knew exactly what took place. It wasn’t so hard to connect the dots anymore.
“He decided to stop paying them and they came after him. That’s what happened,” Lewis filled in the silence and everyone went quiet. We were all imagining the moment that Fred got shot, again. We were all thinking about how we could have helped him, saved him; if he would only have come to us, if we knew what was going on in his life.
“He wanted to keep our MC out of it. He didn’t want us involved in this, daddy. He was hoping that if they killed him, the debt would die along with him,” Lila was saying in a shaky voice. Even though she had some time for the news to sink in; I could sense that she had still not gotten over it. Neither had I.
Lewis’ face was red with anger, he had his fists curled up like he was ready to punch something.
“I don’t give a shit if they think that Fred’s debt is paid now. I want him dead. I want that whole MC destroyed for what they did to my friend. They fucking ruined his life!” Lewis growled.
I heard Jordan whimper behind me. All this talk was affecting her too.
“That isn’t all,” I said and the others looked at me again. I hadn
’t told Lila and Girth this either, and now Lila had her brows crossed as she stared at me.
“That’s not all? What more could there be?” Lewis growled through gritted teeth.
“Fred was determined to not let his problems affect the people in his life. Just like he didn’t tell us what was going on to protect us, he did the same with his family,” I said, watching all of their faces. Everyone in the bar was in shock.
“His family? You’re fucking making this up. Fred didn’t have a family. I knew him for fucking twenty years!” Lewis was angry again. His shoulders were heaving as he stood in front of me. If he could, he would breathe fire from his nostrils in fury.
I clenched my jaws and stared at him.
“Fred was in a relationship with a woman called Sarah Avery, during the time that he was trying to get his business up and running. He was trying to find the means to provide for a family,” I explained.
Lila gasped and her hands were clasped over her mouth again.
“Fred was in love?” she mumbled and her father threw her a threatening look.
“I think I would have known if he was sweet on some chick!” he roared and I shook my head.
“They couldn’t be in a relationship for very long. His business tanked around the time that Sarah got pregnant. Fred knew that the Hell’s Drifters were going to come after him for the money once they got word that his business had failed and that he had no means of paying them back,” I continued, against the looks that the others were giving me.
None of them could comprehend that there was so much about Fred that we didn’t know.
“Fred had a kid?” Lewis murmured in sheer disbelief.
“Fred had a daughter,” I said and stepped aside, so that Lewis now had a clear line of vision to Jordan. He stared at her for a second, before his eyes grew wide. His mouth hung open as he looked at Jordan.
Jordan was beautiful, and now her cheeks were flushed under the steady gaze of Lewis and everyone else in the room.
