Page 1 of Kobra's Opal

A year in prison is meant to change you. But the only thing that changed was the date and time. As I paced in a cell—waiting for freedom again. Frozen and forced to wait a sentence before I could make it up to her. I left her at a time where she needed me. Nah, fuck that. She didn’t need me—that is an understatement. Her life as she knew it depended on me being beside her. Instead, I left her at the train station, with half a million in a black bag and a ticket out of our hometown.

Opal Lopez.

She was the girl that I didn’t just love; she consumed me. Every decision I made since I was sixteen, she stood by me. She never judged me. Even though I was the son of the most feared man in Australia. Having a father that carried the name Hades, and with his notorious reputation—made me feel like I had to prove myself as a man. I was trying to craft my own reputation, in the shadows of a father that struck fear not just within the underworld but the entire country.

Every man that rode with a Satan’s Bastards leather cut, wanted one thing—to have a purpose, other than the brotherhood to keep living. Opal Lopez gave me that purpose, and I royally fucked up.

I felt the vile build up in my throat as I brought my fist to her wooden door. The rain was belting down; the wind was blowing the rain in; it whipping across my body.

I spent a year in prison. Only saw my old man once. Nearly killed my mom, me not letting her see me. I could tell from her letters. My sisters struggled with the separation. Yet, I didn’t go home and I know Dad knows I’m a free man today. Instead, I walked to the nearest train station. Caught a train into the capital, and here I was. On Opal’s front door, banging my fist on it for her to home.

Looking back now, I couldn’t believe how stupid I had been.

It was a summer. I was putting off telling Opal that I had chargers pending. They had set a court date for a trial. Before I could tell her, she tells me that she was pregnant. I fucking panicked. I was looking at time. How long I would be going in for wasn’t determined. All I knew was, it wasn’t going to be months. Opal was sitting in the passenger seat—crying. Telling me she needed me. And what did I do?

I had half a million in the boot of the car from the rent and street taxes I collected early that day. There was bad blood boiling with Winston’s—an enemy family to our club. I couldn’t let Opal be pregnant, unprotected. I needed her to leave town.

So I drove to the train station. Got her a ticket and gave her a black bag. Told her to leave town. I never explained I was facing time, or the threats from the Winston’s. I just told her to leave.

She got out of the car, and the last time I saw her was in my revision mirror—as I drove back into town.

The sad part? It took me a month into my sentence before I realized my fuck up. I should have fucking told her about the threats every Kincaid was riding with on their back. I should have explained that I was facing time and didn’t want her getting hurt. Instead, I acted like my father would. Even though I swore I was nothing like him. That night, I acted exactly like Hades Kincaid would have.

A whole year, I spent locked up. I couldn’t reach out to her. Because I didn’t know if she got on the train or not. I had no fucking idea where she was, and that was all on me. I sat down with my old man six months into my sentence, after my soul had been eaten alive with the same questions. Was she okay? Did she keep our baby? I told Hades about Opal being pregnant and my reaction. I came clean, like he was a priest, not my president or father.

Hades told me I was fucking stupid. But I already knew that. He went on to tell, he would have kept her safe. But I couldn’t undo what I had done. I reacted in the moment. I asked him to find her down. Dad came through, just as my sentence was ending. I got mail. A report that couldn’t be read to a non-member. Who couldn’t read the code words. Basically, bikers, mainly each club, have their own codes and way of speaking through prison letters.

To the inspector they didn’t censor any of the letter out. Cause they didn’t understand it. But I did. I knew her address from that report.

Which led me here.

I banged on the door again. The porch lights flicked on.

I felt a cold panic as the front door opened. I lost my breath for a second. A solid year. I lived with the last image of her within my mind, blurry from a rear-view mirror.

Now she was standing in front of me.

“Kobra—”

I cut her words off. Moving like the snake I’m named after and kissing her before she could tell me to fuck off. I kissed her like she was still mine. I kissed her as if it would make up for what I did. It was desperate. But the depression didn’t hit me, till I felt she didn’t kiss me back.

Her hands on my chest pushed me back. And I see the tears in her eyes.

Her breathing is sharp, she’s angry, I can feel it.

“Why are you here?” She gritted out, and her eyes ran over me. As if she wanted to make sure I was okay. “Is something wrong?”

Something wrong? I went a year without seeing her! I disappeared from her life while she was pregnant, and that’s when I heard it. A baby cry.

My expression dropped, and Opal’s eyes go glassy when I don’t speak.

“It’s my nephew Kobra,” Opal said and then titled her head back, staring up at me. “I’m his aunt, understand?”

I frowned, “So.. .”

“You need to leave.” She spoke over. “You told me to get on that train and leave your life. I did. I might not have got on the train but hear me when I say this. I left your life Kobra.”

Slowly the pieces of a puzzle, I didn’t want to solve, clicked into place.

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