Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 75833 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75833 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
“Tiny, not sir. Unless you’re in my bed, then I’m master sir.”
My heart stopped at his words and a bright smile crossed his face. “Just kiddin’. Calm down, kids.”
“Um, okay, Tiny,” I said stuttering through it.
“Braxton Neil Davis, you quit fussin’ with these girls. Give ‘em a chance, son.”
He looked at my cousin, looked at me, and laughed. “You know what, sure. Y’all get some rest, you want a job be down here at seven to start work. Ma will have uniforms laid out for you in the break room. I assume you ain’t got livin’ quarters, so we can sort room and board out of your pay at the end of the week. I won’t charge ya full price, but you ain’t fuckin’ me so you ain’t getting a free ride either.”
“Braxton,” his mom chastised.
“You’re right, ma. I don’t even let the bitches I fuck get a free stay or meal either.”
Then without another word, he strutted behind the counter to an office in the back while his mom, Nancy, did indeed hand us a room key and never once asked for a payment or a damn credit card.
“He’s a little rough around the edges. But most of his brothers are. You’ll see, you do good work, and stay outta trouble, you’ll like it here.”
Lyric asked, “brothers? How many kids do you have Ms. Nancy? You look amazing”
Ms. Nancy smiled, “I don’t know the Kings numbers, but I consider them all my boys because they are family. Kings of Anarchy is a motorcycle club. Local fellas. They keep things in order. They’re everything to Brax. After Neil died when Braxton was still a teenager, he was a bit wild. With the Kings he found order in his life. They saved my boy.”
The fatigue catching up to us both, we yawned and all other questions and thoughts of Kings were dismissed for the night.
I didn’t have a plan. But I wasn’t about to turn this gift away. I guessed someone was looking out for us and South Carolina could be home, at least for now.
3
THRASHER
The room was filled as was my pride. The gavel felt heavy in my hand, not because of the weight, but the authority behind it. I patched in to the Kings of Anarchy MC after my medical retirement from the Army eleven years ago. I had twelve years, just shy of thirteen in service, with a plan for the full twenty. Life doesn’t go according to plans, it was a lesson I learned that day for sure.
On deployment, we were ambushed. In the firefight, my head gear came off, without earplugs in, my hearing was damaged beyond anything medical intervention could fix. Bombs going off around me while shots were being fired in all directions didn’t leave me very focused on safety gear versus staying the fuck alive. I tried hearing aids, even did an implant. I couldn’t maintain the minimum hearing requirements to remain in active duty. It killed me to lose that part of who I was. Wandering soul was the only way to describe how I felt after learning I couldn’t finish out as planned.
Enlisting at eighteen, fresh out of high school, I was a boy. A child. The Army made me a man. One with integrity. It gave me the discipline and patience I lacked before signing up.
My girlfriend came to my boot camp graduation holding a pair of baby shoes and sporting a curve to her belly she didn’t have when I left. Stunned was the only word that came to mind. The kid who wanted the freedom to roam couldn’t imagine being tied down. But the Army afforded me a way to provide for them and still give me the opportunities outside of the small town in South Carolina I came from. It was a perfect match, me and the Army that was.
As for my girlfriend, that was doomed from the start. We never married. Providing benefits for my daughter and paying for her mother to be able to live at home comfortably and not work, that was easy. Keeping my dick in my pants … that simply didn’t happen. This left things complicated between us to put it mildly.
The greatest gift shared between us was Elaina. At twenty-three, she has her own life, but doesn’t hesitate to call and check in with her Pops on the regular. As for her mother, our lives didn’t align to see each other often, but when it happened we were good.
It wasn’t always like that, especially early in our breakup. Maturity came with age. In time, we found a way to co-parent and be friends. When I finally grew up enough to be a man Elaina’s mother could trust, it was too late. Another one filled that role.
At first it bothered me to think of my daughter calling another man daddy. After meeting him, though, and the way he never once excluded me from anything, I came to terms with he was actually the better man to fill my boots. There were times I wished I could go back and do things different for Elaina’s sake. Hindsight and all that business.