Chapter 3

~ Declan ~

What in the hell did you all manage to do to the sweetest girl I’ve ever known? She is a shell of the person I knew before I left. Sadness oozes out of her pores every time I see her, and you’re all here throwing parties and carrying on like you all aren’t responsible for completely breaking a member of this family.” I roared at everyone standing around me.

“Settle the fuck down, Deck. You weren’t here, and you don’t know what the hell went down,” my father snorted out as if what I’d just said was a joke.

“Oh, no you don’t!” My mom yelled at him. “I lost a daughter when you assholes pulled your bullshit, and all over some skank ass cheerleading slut – no better than a club whore in training – who lied about our girl!” My mom, who was normally a mild-mannered woman, laid into all of them without holding back. “You will stop downplaying this like it was nothing. That girl’s entire life got turned upside down because our son was thinking with his dick and the rest of you went right the hell along with it. Not once did any of you, besides Lucy, attempt to get her side of things. Not one single person here stood up for her, gave her support, or trusted in her. She didn’t do a damn thing to earn your distrust or your disloyalty over the years. Her mother’s mistakes are not hers. She is not her mother, and I don’t know how many more ways that child has to prove that fact to every person here. She shouldn’t have to prove anything. She was a child when she was brought here, and she was still a child when you all played a part in destroying everything good and sweet about her.” My mom was in full on tear mode now as she swiped angrily at her wet cheeks to brush them aside. “I’ve lost years with that precious girl, because she won’t come around anymore.”

“That’s on her!” My dad grumbled stubbornly.

“Really? Is it? Would you come around where you weren’t wanted? Hell, the first goddamn words out of your mouth were to tell her to leave if she had a low opinion of your brothers.” My mom huffed out a sarcastic laugh. “As if she could have anything else? As if that opinion ever had a hope in hell of being changed when none of you have bothered to live up to the amends you supposedly offered her? She was right. That whole ceremony was a sham to make all of you feel better about yourselves. The whole purpose of it was supposed to be to make the wronged person feel safe, comfortable, and loved in the brotherhood again. It’s to let them know YOU FAILED THEM, and that it will never happen again. But look around. You all have been failing that girl since she got here. You made your amends only to turn around and continue to fail her.

“You assholes have your own tattoo shop. Where is that girl apprenticing to be an artist? It certainly isn’t at Aces Ink. Why is that?” Both my father and hers cringed a bit at that. They certainly couldn’t deny the oversight. “Any other person affiliated with this club would have been given first priority at a spot there. Spotter’s cousin, Jared, is working there and he’s half the artist Ever is. Have any of you even seen her work? Did you even know she was an artist?”

There were a whole lot of guilty and confused faces looking back at my mom. These bastards didn’t even know basic things about the girl who should have been family to every one of them. How fucking sad was that? Jesus, how had I not known that things had gotten this bad? When I left Ever had been best friends with Jay, along with her brother Toby. I figured Jay and Ever would end up married one day, actually, and I think she did too. When the family had mentioned there had been a falling out with Jay and Ever I figured it had been over another girl, and my brother’s stupidity, but never in a million years did I think it was this bad. It wasn’t just a falling out between my brother and Ever, it had destroyed any link that girl had to this club and all its members, including her own blood family.

That brought my attention to T-Bone, or Toby as I’d known him most of his life, and I still didn’t understand his part in all of this. “You swore to her on the day she got here that you would always protect her. How the hell did you end up on the wrong side of this? Of everyone here you were the closest to her all those years before I left.”

T-Bone hung his head. “I’ve tried to make it right,” he mumbled. “She won’t let me.”

“Why the fuck weren’t you on her side from the beginning? Hell, even I’m smart enough to know that girl would have never purposely sabotaged anyone’s bullshit high school relationship. She was biding her time for my dumb ass brother to pull his head out of his ass and notice her as more than a friend,” I said turning my attention to my own little brother. “But she sure as fuck isn’t the kind of person who would force that to happen. If she had been, I’m pretty sure she would have done it a lot sooner. Think about the trail of skanks you paraded in front of her. Even I knew about the amounts of shit she put up with from your girlfriends who were threatened by her friendship with you. Hell, I’m surprised she even still wanted you back then considering some of the absolutely cringe-worthy shit she wrote me about. I’m not just talking about the bitches who were in her face saying worse things than what your ex-girlfriend accused her of either. I’m talking about her having to see you balls deep in bitches too.”

Jay snapped his head up, eyes meeting mine for the first time then, as if we hadn’t just discussed this the other day, but it occurred to me then that he hadn’t really been paying attention at the time. He’d been lost in his own thoughts, and trying to validate his actions instead of really listening to what I was saying. I laughed, and not a bit of that sound came from a good or happy place. “Seriously? You were that oblivious? I told you she used to write me letters? Hell, I think she used the letters to me as her own personal diary for a while there until they stopped coming completely. She’d let it slip that one of your bitches had been harassing her, but that she was staying strong and being your friend, because you had stood up for her in the very beginning when everyone else here made her feel unwanted and unwelcome.”

Jay’s eyes bulged a bit, nostrils flared, and I knew he was bulking up trying to get angry instead of feeling what he should have felt. Shame. Embarrassment. Guilt. “I still have the letters she sent me. Maybe you should read them and see for yourself what you put that girl through before you actually took the time to consciously break her. There’s a whole year’s worth from when I first left to when you fucked up, and in every single one there’s a tiny little complaint about how your bitches treated her horribly, and you did nothing. Granted, she said she didn’t think you knew, but really you can’t be that fucking blind, brother.” I glanced around at the assholes I shared a patch with since I’d turned 18, and I was actually ashamed to be associated with them today. “Then again, maybe you are that blind. Seems all of you are if no one here even knew where the girl worked, that she’s the most loyal person I know, and an amazing artist.” I pushed my forearm out in front of them.

The tattoo situated there was of an eagle mid-flight with an Ace of Hearts in its mouth and a rifle in its claws. She had sent it to me with a quick note to stay safe and to carry our family’s heart with me so I knew I had a reason to make it back. It’s so realistic. The tattoo artist wished he could take credit for it, but the details were in her drawing, he just inked over them.

“This tat that everyone’s admired so much since I got back? I couldn’t have her ink it, but I had a buddy of mine do it. She sent this to me on a piece of paper the year I joined the Army. I was blown away by it, still am. Every single one of you has been. This is Ever’s work. Her art. And I’m finding out you fuckers have been oblivious to the one thing she’s so passionate about? What the fuck happened to this family while I was away?” I took a moment to explain what her note had said, and how the Ace of Hearts encompassed all of them.

Honestly, I think a few of those fuckers choked up a bit when they realized how deep that girl’s loyalty ran and how horribly they’d all fucked up. “Every single time you look upon my ink, I want you all to remember the beautiful girl you ran out of here. Inside and out, she is stunning, and you all did your level best to ruin it while she was sending me your hearts to wear on my sleeve in the hopes that this family would bring me home safely. You assholes enjoy your fuckin’ party. I hope like hell it lifts your spirits so you can forget how goddamn disloyal you’ve been to your own family while accusing her of your own sins.” With that I left. There really wasn’t anything more to say to the bastards who couldn’t be trusted to be family when it was needed most. I pulled up just short of throwing my own patch down. I wouldn’t make a decision like that in the middle of a heated moment, but I would definitely be putting serious thought into it.

As I made it to my bike in the parking lot a feminine voice called out behind me. “Son!” I turned to see my mother racing to catch up to me. My father was in the doorway watching to see what she would do. “Can I get a ride with you? I don’t want to be here anymore either.”

“You sure about that?” I asked eyeing her carefully, knowing she’d never ridden on the back of another man’s bike – family or not – in her life, besides my father’s.

“I’m positive,” she confirmed. I handed her my helmet, but she refused and moved to my dad’s bike to grab hers off the handlebars where he’d left it. Once she had it on, she hopped on my bike, and we were pulling out of the lot. I did not miss the devastated look on my father’s face or the slump of his shoulders as we took off away from the club. My mom couldn’t have made a bigger statement for her discontent. Sadly, I think her statement came a little too late for it to matter for Ever, but at least it had happened.