Page 71 of Pirate

And then the club got to watch Fletcher begging with the lawyer to not tell his daddy about any of it, including the fact that he’d purchased the motorcycle. The video ended with Fletcher driving his Tomahawk.

Pirate wasn’t the only member who nearly pissed their pants laughing so hard. Sophia was nearly on the floor unable to hold herself up from her uncontrollable laughter. Keys promised to make everyone a copy and send it to them.

Pirate tookhis seat Friday afternoon in the club’s Chapel. The plan was a quick meeting and then everyone would be leaving for the steakhouse. The trip to the restaurant was not a club run and there were no plans for everyone to ride together. Several members had to still get their families gathered up and some, like Bear and Bulldog, had to pick up family members on their way.

Soon after Steel called the meeting to order, Jumper stood to address the club. All nineteen members were present, leaving only one seat empty on the large conference table. Before Viktor and/or Darrin joined them as patched members, the club was going to need to make a decision about additional seating.

Jumper was not one to normally address the room and was not particularly comfortable with public speaking. So when he stood up, it forced the room into silence.

“I have to share some news about the wedding on Sunday.”

“Did Jasmine finally come to her senses and is dumping you for me?” Ghost asked in a lighthearted tone.

Others laughed and Pirate was grateful to Ghost for helping to loosen his brother’s tension.

Jumper glared at his third groomsman. “No, thank fuck. It’s about who is attending the wedding.” When Jumper’s eyes landed on Pirate and Starbucks sitting down the table from him and then to Bear sitting next to him, Pirate’s confusion increased. Why was his brother looking at them three like he was about to break some terrible news? As best man, Pirate thought he knew all of the guests attending. “As some of you might know, there was a man in town last August who was looking for me while I was in the hospital following my brain surgery. However,he was using my former call sign from the military so Carlos did not know he was asking about me. By the time he located me, I was in recovery.”

Grumpy wrapped his fingers on the wood table. “I didn’t know you had a former call sign.”

Jumper nodded. “I did and I have my reasons for changing it when I joined the club. Only a few people here,” Jumper looked to Pirate and Ghost, “would even know about it. So it’s understandable the man was unable to track me down right away.”

“He didn’t have your legal name?” Cage asked from across the table.

“When was the last time someone called you by your legal name and someone else recognized it?” Bulldog drawled from the other side of Jumper.

Cage conceded, “Fair point.”

“Who was looking for you?” Pirate asked. And why had his brother kept it a secret from him?

Jumper looked to Steel. The President nodded once. When Jumper spoke again, he was looking directly at Starbucks and Pirate. “Were either of you aware that Lionheart had a twin?”

Star and Pirate exchanged a glance. Star answered, “Yeah. He was KIA overseas, though. It was one of the reasons Conner joined up with us. He was looking for that camaraderie that he had in the military again after losing his twin brother.”

“He did lose his twin,” Jumper confirmed. “But not to death. Owen’s still alive.”

Pirate blinked. “I don’t understand. Why would Lionheart lie?”

“There’s some speculations about that,” Steel interjected. “From what we can gather, Lionheart did know his twin was alive but the two rarely had contact. The most recent reason was to help Zoe escape from her abusive husband.”

Everyone knew that there was a connection to Zoe and Lionheart, or Conner. But it wasn’t common knowledge how the two had known each other or Zoe’s background. The club was only informed that Zoe would be staying with them for the foreseeable future. After a year under their protection, she met Carlos and the rest, as they say, was history.

Pirate looked to his brother. “Owen’s history aside, why was he looking for you?” Because it could have only been Owen who had tracked Jumper down. Jumper wouldn’t have brought it up otherwise.

“All of you are aware that I’m a former SEAL and that I have PTSD. What you don’t know is why. My last mission, over a decade ago, my SEAL team was given bad intel and were led into a trap. The building we were in exploded and collapsed on us.” Jumper took a deep breath, visibly shaken by sharing his history. “I was trapped underground for three days. Three of my teammates, my brothers, were killed instantly. Two others and I managed to survive. A Delta team in the area defied orders and managed to fight off the surrounding insurgents while digging us up.” Jumper’s voice cracked. “One of my brothers whom they brought up alive succumbed to his injuries while being EVAC-ed out. The other, his name is Smeagol. He’ll also be attending the wedding with his family.”

Pirate, who knew his brother’s history, was not shocked like many of the others at the table and able to ask rather quickly, “What does what happened to you have to do with Owen and Lionheart? Both would have been teenagers at the time.”

“Because one of my teammates who died in the initial explosion was their uncle.”

NowPirate was shocked into silence.

“Lionheart wouldn’t have connected you to his uncle because you changed your call sign,” Star muttered, his voice barely loud enough to be heard throughout the room.

Jumper nodded. “The files about what happened to my team were also so heavily redacted that it took time for Owen to go through them all and gather information on what happened to his uncle.”

“I know that Lionheart’s parents died when he and his brother were very young,” Pirate added. “They were raised by their grandparents. I don’t recall him ever mentioning an uncle.”

“According to Owen, their uncle, my teammate, was from the other side of the family and was much younger than their father. After their parents died, their paternal grandparents wanted nothing to do with the twins. They were raised by their maternal grandparents. However, their uncle stayed in contact with them and he’s the reason both of the twins ended up in the military. They wanted to follow in their uncle’s footsteps.”

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