Page 30 of Paladin's Hell

Chapter 11

Hellfire

I need to get back to the clubhouse. Once he’s digested the news he should never have stumbled across, Demon will want to speak to me. Go head to head with me. I know my son. He won’t take it out on his mother—she did nothing wrong. She was the victim as much as he was. No, it will be me he challenges, me he comes for. And the place for the confrontation will be the scene of the crime.

Moira’s tears are slowing, but I don’t take it to mean she’s feeling easier in her mind, she’s all cried out and exhausted. Gently pulling her to her feet, I lead her into the lounge, encouraging her onto the couch. I pour a vodka, and leave it beside her.

Going into my study, I take out my phone.

“Bomber? Need your help, Brother.” I pick up the glass I’d filled with whisky for myself, while knowing a stiff drink won’t make this any easier.

“You got it, Prez. Anything you need.” Bomber’s deep voice vibrates through the earpiece as he doesn’t hesitate to give me assistance without asking for details.

I pause, struggling to get the words out. “Demon, is he at the club?” I doubt it, but thought it worth a shot.

“Haven’t seen him. Last I knew he was going to your place. He wanted to check something or other.”

I swallow a sip of whisky, resisting the urge to throw it back in one, then take another and drink myself into oblivion. But I didn’t gain my rank, and have held it for so long, by escaping into a bottle. “He was delving deep into the old club records, Bomber. Too fucking deep. Thirty-six years to be precise.” I pause, then dive in, “He knows, Bomb. He fuckin’ knows. About Blackie, and Moira.”

There’s a sharp inhaled breath. “Prez…”

“Moira’s in pieces, Demon took off. Fuck knows where or for how long. He’ll be coming for me, Bomb. He’ll want to confront me, want to know why I hid the truth all these years.”

“What can I do, Prez?”

“I need to be at the club. That’s where he’ll be comin’. Can Jeannie come here? I don’t want Mo to be on her own.” I know Jeannie and Mo have been distant lately, but she’s the only person who my old lady can talk to about this. No one else knows, and she wouldn’t want them to.

“Of fuckin’ course. No question about it. Where do you want me, Prez?”

Bomber and Rusty are the only two members who were in the club at the time Blackie pulled his last stunt, no one else knows the dirty secret or even suspects. Blackie’s death, a stain on the club, isn’t discussed. Today’s the first time I’ve let down my guard and all but confirmed Demon’s heritage to Bomber, from his reaction, however, offering no questions, he’s known all along. Was it that obvious? Or had Jeannie told him?

“At the club, Brother. Demon might want answers from you.”

“I’ll fuckin’ give them to him. Still remember that fuckin’ night, Prez. You had no choice but to kill him.”

Yeah. Not only had I lied to Demon about our true relationship, I’d killed his real father too, taking away the chance for him to know him. Heck of a lot to lay on the boy—right now, I can’t even think of him as a fully grown man. He’s my little kid, and he’s hurting. Too fucking much. Quickly I wonder if it would have been better to have told him while he was growing up, but dismiss it. There would never have been a good time to explain about the man who’d provided the sperm that made him. I only wish it was a secret that could have been buried along with me.

“I did what I had to, Brother. No choice about it. No heavy conscience and no regrets.”

“But Demon might see it differently.”

He might. Fuck knows what he’s thinking right now, or whether he’s even capable of rational thought.

“I’ll explain to Jeannie, bring her over. You were right to call me, Prez. Jeannie was there, she knows everything about Mo. Might not know why or how Blackie disappeared, but she’ll settle Mo. Mo did right, you stepped up. Made a fuckin’ good go of it too. You and the club’s first lady? Set a fuckin’ good example for everyone else these three-and-a-half decades.”

“You too, Bomb. You and Jeannie.”

He huffs a quick laugh. “Not that we haven’t had our ups and downs, but we’re good, Prez. We’re good.”

Can I say the same thing about me and Moira? Not sure what we are at the present, but need to put our problems aside until Demon resurfaces, and we know where his head’s at. Our eldest child takes priority right now.

Bomber’s quick to arrive, Jeannie riding bitch behind him. Her face is taut as she enters, that he’s already explained the situation is clear. She nods at me tersely, then rushes over to Moira. Seeing her friend, Mo starts crying all over again, and the way she reaches for her shows me I was right to call Jeannie in. All differences between them swept away, at least for the moment.

I grab my keys, then side by side with one of my oldest friends, ride to the clubhouse.

Entering, I stand at the door, my hand holding onto the frame as I peruse the assembled brothers, hoping, but not seeing, the man I wanted to most. I hadn’t expected it to be that easy, but in my mind had summoned up my son, my brother, as usual, holding court around the bar, a beer in his hand acting like nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

Wishful thinking.

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