Page 24 of Creed

“Creed came from an affluent family in DC. He fronted the money and he’s also our President.” He wouldn’t look at me as he stared out to the road.

I rolled my eyes. “You know that’s hard to believe, Josh. I think there’s a lot more happening behind those gates than you’re willing to admit.”

He lifted his shoulders to shrug. “You can think whatever you want to think, Morgan.”

I could still feel the anger and humiliation at the surface. “I don’t seek him out. He approaches me and treats me like trash. Everything he says and does to me is not because I asked for anything from him.”

He glanced at me. “Like I said, we all have our demons. That’s the only answer I have for you.”

The bell rang and I looked up to see Mrs. Hoffman bring out our lunches. She was smiling as wide as always. She sat our sandwiches in front of us then put her hand on my shoulder. “Maybe it’s time we retire those old posters. I’m sorry about that, Morgan. We’re all just so darn proud of you.”

I could actually feel my heart warm at her offer, but I didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t ashamed of the movies I made. Actually, I was proud of them, but it was Creed and the way he treated me.

“Please don’t, Mrs. Hoffman. They were a gift from me to you and it’s fine. Most people are mature enough to see it as art, but there’s always one or two bad eggs.” My statement made me feel like the bigger person. “If you take them down it’ll just mean they win.”

She patted my shoulder. “Alright, dear. Whatever makes you feel the most comfortable. Is there anything else I can get you?”

I shook my head gently back and forth. “This looks great, Mrs. Hoffman, thank you.” She turned to walk back inside but I had an idea. “Mrs. Hoffman?”

She turned and looked at me curiously. “Please charge everyone’s lunches to my card. I’d like to provide lunch today.”

She gave me a wink and a smile. “Sure thing, Morgan.” She stepped inside and I smiled.

“Kill him with kindness?” Josh asked.

“Yep.” I took a bite of my sandwich.

Guilt Or Lack There Of

Creed

It was the beginning of the spring semester of my senior year of high school when I met her. Our school had just became co-ed so it was exciting for all of us guys to say the least. She had gorgeous chocolate hair and bright blue eyes. Everything about her was soft and gentle. I first spotted her in AP Physics my senior year, and the moment our eyes met she took my breath away. I had never seen her before, and I was shocked to say the least. When I introduced myself her cheeks blushed, and I thought she was adorably shy. She had just moved to DC from New York, and I was pretty much the first person she met on her first day.

It took me two weeks to get the confidence to ask her out. She was so damn beautiful and innocent. She accepted and I took her out that next weekend. For months we laughed and enjoyed ourselves by doing the smallest things. We went for ice cream, hung out at a diner, and we even played football in my yard. I really fell for that girl, actually I was crazy about her. She was everything the other girls weren’t, and we were perfect together. Her dad was a newly elected congressman, and her parents loved me. My dad even had dinner with her parents and then we went to prom together.

I was excited, thinking we would have sex that night and even rented a hotel room. We went to that hotel room and when she excused herself to the bathroom a text came through on her phone. It was some guy from back in New York. Of course it was a breach of privacy, but when I saw their history of texts back and forth I lost my mind. For months she acted sweet and innocent. Like she didn’t care that my father was wealthy beyond her understanding. I thought she was interested in me for the right reasons, but I was wrong.

As it turned out, she wasn’t the girl she led me to believe. It turned out the guy in New York was her real boyfriend and her parents encouraged a relationship with me to get my father’s endorsement and support. Then to top it off, my stepfather was mentioned in their texts. She never once mentioned to me that she wanted to be an actress. She used me to get to my dad for her parents and the stepfather I never met to help jump start her career. I put the phone back on the table and walked out of that hotel without saying a word. I felt like a fool and the next day was when I visited the recruiters office and signed my life away.

Addison was one hell of an actress, and she was worse than the high society girls I grew up knowing. At least the other girls showed me exactly who they were, but Addison was nothing but a liar. She grew up to become exactly what she should have been, an actress. In fact, I was looking at her face standing behind Morgan in one of her movie posters hanging on the wall. Morgan played an up and coming country music singer and Addison played her best friend. To top it off, the son of a bitch that directed the film was none other than my step father. Jonathan Powers was the man my mom left my dad for, and they were still married. In fact, she gave him two kids and she stayed for them. I was never good enough for that stuck up bitch. It was the night she left when I overheard my parents fighting. All Iremember was her saying she was happy with Jonathan, and she wasn’t cut out to be my mom. She felt like being my mom was suffocating, and Jonathan didn’t have children. When the front door slammed shut that night, it was the last time I saw her and it changed my dad. He was heartbroken, depressed, and weak.

I often wondered what she told people when they asked where she came from. She probably could have hid the fact that she was from a small town in Indiana if it weren’t for her brother, Kenny. I never knew the guy, but he was who introduced my dad to my mom. It was after Kenny married an actress that became my mom’s best friend when she left my dad. It was that woman who introduced my mom to Jonathan. To top it all off, it was my cousin Jake that Morgan was involved with back in Hollywood. According to the media she had been fucking my cousin for years.

When I was growing up mom would rarely call and I definitely never saw her, then dad died, and she stepped up a little. She called once a year onherbirthday and again on mine. On my birthday she would call to remind me that it wasourspecial day and how she was responsible for giving me life. On her birthday she only called to ask if I sent her gift yet. Then she would once again remind me that she was the reason I was ever born. She did try to get me to visit her, but I had no reason to see the bitch. I knew all she cared about was dad's estate. There were a few calls here and there, but it was always because she wanted something. She had the nerve to ask me to invest in the movies my step dad was making, and sure as shit Morgan was in some of those movies. If it wasn’t Morgan it was Addison. I wasn’t good enough to be Nicole’s son, but I was perfect to ask, no demand, an investment from. Hollywood was where all the fake people went to live, and I never wanted any part of it.

Morgan wasn’t much different than Addison. She put on a sweet and innocent façade but had no problem undressing for the camera. For her to mention Felicity and the girls and act like they were below her was bullshit. The girls weren’t paid whores, and they were more real than Morgan could ever have been. Yes, there were girls that lived at Creed’s Lake. Yes, they had sex with my men, but that did not mean she was better than them. Most of those girls had traumatic histories and they were safe with us. It was a part of club life to have girls around. At least they weren’t fake or hypocrites like Morgan Rossi.

The thing that really pissed me off the most about Morgan was how good she was at faking it. I watched her change that tire today, and the way she was with that little girl at the benefit. She seemed almost domestic when she talked about baking pies. She fit in so well with the other people in town, and she was getting under my skin. I got lost in those insanely gorgeous eyes more than once. The way my heart raced, and palms sweat around her just pissed me off. Then there was the way I knew she was in a room before I even saw her. It was like I could sense her without even laying my eyes on her. Morgan was the poster child for one of the many things I hated about the world. It made no sense why I wanted to beat the life out of that Tristan asshole when he held her in his arms. It made no sense that I wouldn’t just leave her on the side of the road to change her own tire. It also made no sense why I felt so damn guilty when she walked outside the store. I upset her, or at least she acted like I upset her.

Morgan Rossi was very close to the family that never wanted anything to do with me. She was my cousin’s little play toy, and it did nothing but piss me off. I met Jake one time and that was when we were both very young. I was a few years older than him so he probably wouldn’t remember. It was rightbefore my mom left us and I never heard from my mom or Uncle again for many years. Not until my father’s funeral and my uncle and his wife tried to apologize, but it was too late. Not even my grandparents ever reached out and I had very few memories of them. I don’t know, maybe the whole family thing was why I was okay with settling down in Cold Springs. I guess I felt like I had roots in Indiana, but I wasn’t sure if any of my family knew where I was living. My mother never asked, and likely presumed I was still in the military. She always had a lot to say about her life when she called, but never asked about mine.

I met my fair share of actors in my lifetime. Not only have we custom built bikes for them, but they came around to some swanky parties my father forced me to attend in high school. He also took me along on business trips to LA as a kid. We visited some studios and movie sets. It wasn’t to invest in movies, it was to make deals for the equipment used to make movies. My dad had his hands in almost everything from pharmaceuticals, to hotels, technology, and even the government. His favorite thing to do was invest in people. He loved new ideas and when he was presented with new ideas he would jump on it.

I fully expected my father to hate me when I signed up for the Army. We did have the big blow up as I predicted, but my dad was a forgiving man. I didn’t have many regrets until the day he died. I should have been a better son. I should have stayed with him and ran his company alongside him. Then the biggest regret came when I was captured in Afghanistan. I sold everything off that my dad built and when it came time for me to face what I thought would be my own death, that regret hit me hard. My dad was the reason Creed MC existed. He liked helping people, so I used some of his money to help people in my own way. I survived what I thought would have been my certaindeath, so I felt compelled to give back. It wasn’t just the people our missions saved, it was to help my fellow soldiers. The ones that needed to separate from the military but couldn’t let go of the purpose the military gave them. Every prospect that lived on Creed’s Lake was there by invite only. Many of our prospects were lost souls that needed us more than we needed them.

I didn’t miss the look Magnus gave me when he went outside after Morgan. He thought I was a real dickhead, but he didn’t know Morgan was in tight with the family that abandoned me and my dad. Hell, she was probably even friends with my mother. The woman who stupidly signed a prenuptial agreement when she married my dad. In it, there was an adultery clause. If he cheated, she got half of everything. If she cheated, she got twenty five percent of what was built after their wedding date. She got enough to call herself wealthy, but it wouldn’t last forever. That was why she decided tomend thingswith me after dad died. She thought she could get her claws on what I inherited. The joke was on her. She would never see a dime from me.

Axton pulled a chair out and took a seat next to me. He didn’t say a thing but looked at me like my dad would at times.

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