Page 85 of Pirate

Fletcher claimed that he did not even remember reaching for the deputy’s gun. That he’d been so enraged by Sophia’s defiance that he’d wanted to kill her but hadn’t meant to actually kill her.

“I just wanted her to see me! But the spoiled bitch thought she was too good for me. Always had! I just needed her tosee me!”

Some information did come to light through Carlos’s investigation into the jailbreak. Turns out that Fletcher’s father cut him off months ago. While he’d been honorably discharged, it had only been through his father’s interference. Fletcher had been arrested and charged with raping a civilian secretary on the base where he worked. The military had swept the situation under the rug, the secretary’s silence paid for with a very fat check, and Fletcher had been discharged.

Then his father had said enough was enough and cut Fletcher loose.

Fletcher’s trust fund would not last him forever and so Fletcher hatched a plan to get at the Grovetons’ money by datingand then marrying Sophia. But Sophia wouldn’t even give him a moment’s notice.

Remembering from their high school days that Sophia liked the ‘bad boys’, Fletcher had tried to prospect for the VDMC, believing they were like other less reputable motorcycle clubs and having that cut would get her attention. He had not expected her to already be with a man in a cut, throwing a wrench in his plans. The lawyer that had shown up with Montague to get his motorcycle back had not known that Fletcher had been cut off from his father’s resources.

A week passed and then two. The club had to make the devastating decision to stop searching.

Tessa went into labor and had her baby girl, but not even the arrival of a new club kid could brighten the mood. Upon learning Scar’s birth name was Julian, Tessa and Bear named their second daughter Julia. It tugged at the heartstrings to see so many of the club trying to be happy for Bear and Tessa while also mourning the loss of their friend.

Bulldog would not stop searching. He didn’t care that Steel had ordered him to stop. Every day since the search had been called off, he would be found knee-deep in the muddy bank trying to find something,anything, that would let him to believe Scar was still alive.

It wasn’t until Abby made her way down into the muddy bank after her husband that Bulldog ceased his frantic searching. As much as he loved his friend, he loved Abby beyond measure. Her statement that if he continued to search, she would be right alongside him, helping, seemed to snap Bulldog out of his frantic need for answers.

The truth of the matter was evident, but the lack of a body made it difficult to believe. No onewantedto believe.

But everyone eventually had to.

Jasmine and Jumperwere not getting married. At least, not right away. While no funeral or service was being planned for Scar—many of the club wanted to but Bulldog wouldn’t let them—it didn’t feel right to either Jasmine or Jumper to plan another wedding immediately. They were, however, still taking their six week honeymoon trip. They postponed it to help in the search for Scar but were still planning on taking it.

It was just going to be a pre-wedding trip versus a honeymoon.

They lost out on some non-refundable deposits and the catering company still delivered all the food as that couldn’t be returned. The clubhouse kitchen was stocked a while after that.

The veterinarian who would be taking over Jazz’s practice during their wedding weekend and through their honeymoon was sympathetic to her plight when Jasmine told him about the death in the family. He not only continued to cover for Jasmine while she was helping the club out during the search, but also agreed to come back over the summer.

Jasmine liked the other vet. She’d confided in Sophia one night that she might consider offering him a partnership when she got back from her honeymoon.

Sophia was busy trying to help Jazz cancel everything between her wedding and her original honeymoon and then reschedule everything for their pre-wedding trip. She was also trying to help Pirate. The guilt Pirate felt for letting go of Scar’s hand and not being able to pull him up to safety was immense. Despite knowing that Scar was shot in the chest, Pirate got more insistent with each passing day that he could have saved Scar’s life if he’d only been stronger and faster. Pirate blamed himselffor his leg having to be amputated four years ago, which led to him being too slow to save Scar. Round and round he went, unable to let go of the guilt.

In between helping the club search, Pirate was training like he was trying out for an Ironman Marathon. He rarely wore his walking prosthetic anymore and was always in his running blade. She also took note of the fact that he was always armed now. Pirate became extremely clingy and the two were rarely apart. Not that Sophia minded, per se, but she knew it wasn’t healthy. He wouldn’t allow her to go anywhere without him and he even quit his job at the high school so he didn’t have to go to work without her. The only times he left her was when she was in the apartment with Jasmine and Jumper to go do something he wouldn’t tell her about with Bulldog.

She couldn’t prove it, and wasn’t trying to, but she had a feeling that the club had something to do with Fletcher’s miraculous prison break.

It got to the point where Sophia called Dr. Rutenberg, Jumper’s therapist and her former therapist, to see if there was anything either Dr. Rutenberg or Sophia could do to help Pirate.

Dr. Rutenberg asked for Pirate to come in to see him. Pirate agreed—but only if Sophia could come with him. She wasn’t sure if that was because he didn’t want to be away from her or if he wanted to be as open and honest with her as he could. Either way, it got him in to see Dr. Rutenberg, so she agreed.

It was during their second session that Dr. Rutenberg tried hypnosis with Pirate. Dr. Rutenberg was concerned that Pirate kept using the phrase “I let go of Scar’s hand.” The doctor clearly picked up something in that phrasing that Sophia didn’t, or maybe it was Pirate’s tone of voice. She wasn’t sure.

During the hypnosis, Dr. Rutenberg had instructed that Sophia needed to be extremely quiet and to not interfere, even to correct Pirate on something he believed or thought he saw. Itwas so weird to hear Pirate speak in such a relaxed and low voice as he slipped into the trance Dr. Rutenberg guided him to.

She was sitting in the doctor’s usual chair while he sat closer with Pirate on the couch. It was difficult for her to hear Pirate’s side of that night, but it was also cathartic in a way. She might have been the one Fletcher pointed the gun at, but Pirate was the one who’d been too far away to help her.

She didn’t know who Scar was. She knew the name, sure, and vaguely recalled him standing stoically by the door atDemon’sover the years, but she didn’tknowhim. Her own guilt for him saving her life was conflicted. It almost didn’t feel real in a way, like a bad dream she couldn’t shake. She couldn’t fathom the strength it took to put yourself between an oncoming bullet and a stranger.

Because Scar would not have known her either. She hadn’t been anyone to him, neither friend nor enemy.

It was…hard for her to wrap her mind around it, but her concern for Pirate overshadowed her own trauma. Dr. Rutenberg was working on it with her too, but privately over the phone during the rare times that Pirate left her at the apartment with Jumper and Jasmine.

Pirate’s recollection of that night was so vivid. Sophia felt like she was back on that damn bridge. If it wasn’t for the fact that that bridge was the only way out of town without taking the mountain route that would add hours onto any trip, Sophia was pretty sure she’d never drive over or step foot onto that bridge again.

Her father and the family’s foundation was providing the money to help restructure the bridge and make it safer. Accidents could always happen, but that bridge was an old design with low hanging rails. The idea was to make larger barricades between the road and the edge of the bridge.

---