Page 3 of Roughstock
Animal and Jaggar offered to stay, and Cheyenne and the rest of the club mounted our bikes to ride out to the clubhouse near our farm. As the line of bikes rolled down the road, commanding attention, I vowed to find out who thought they could target my father and the Royal Bastards and get away with it.
I just wished I would have had a clue about what was going to unfold so I could have been prepared. No one was ever ready to lose their only parent.
Chapter 1
Roughstock
2024
Walking across the green grass, maneuvering around the granite, I found Pops’s headstone waiting like it had for the last three years. Kneeling in front of it, I placed my hand over his name and closed my eyes, feeling the same anger and sadness fill me that had every moment of every day since I lost Pops.
We’d been at the clubhouse for less than two hours when my phone rang, telling me Pops had had a massive heart attack and was gone. The rage that overtook me was something I never wanted to revisit. I picked up my beer bottle and threw it against the wall, watching the liquid and glass rain down onto the floor.
The next few minutes were hazy as I stomped chairs, broke pool sticks, and screamed at the injustice of it all. Not only did I lose my father, but my club lost its leader. Phantom was the first to grab hold of me, wrestling me to the ground as Cheyenne cried against the side of the wall at my outburst.
Within a day, the club voted for me to remain President of the Rapid City Chapter of the Royal Bastards, and from that moment, I’d done everything in my power to make Pops proud. But no matter what I’d done, who I’d threatened, or where I’d searched, we were no closer to discovering who killed him, and that really pissed me off.
I was failing the one person who had never failed me, and if it took my life to avenge his, I was willing to make that trade.
Sighing, I settled my ass onto the soft grass and plucked a piece from the ground as I spoke to the headstone, somehow imagining the answers I needed would miraculously appear.
“I’m no closer to finding who did this to you and I’m lost without your guidance,” I admitted, knowing no one could hear the words I was speaking. “The farm is doing really good. I hired a boss to oversee the day-to-day operations, but I’m still taking care of the sales end of things. I’m breeding Bonaire for five grand a pop, and he struts around like he’s king.” I chuckled, adding, “So, you were right about him and his potential.”
Shaking my head, I looked across the small cemetery tucked on the edge Rapid City, close to the farm. Pops loved the farm, and since I couldn’t bury him there, I found the next best thing. Visiting him as often as I can, I find talking to him gives me peace, and some days, these few minutes are all I can find.
“Cheyenne’s been taking classes and she said she wants to go to nursing school. I think she’d be a great nurse, and she’d get plenty of practice with the brothers. Someone’s always hurting themselves, mostly from fighting.” Shaking my head, I explained, “The club isn’t what it was when you were in charge, and I know it’s because of me. I’m not the leader they need, and some days, I think I should step down.”
I’d never said that out loud, but as more time passed and the club got wilder and crazier, I thought it more and more. Admitting it, even if no one heard me, made me feel slightly better.
“I really don’t know what to do.”
“You do what you have to do to avenge Nitro, even if it means starting over,” someone said from behind me. I jumped up and spun around to see who had snuck up on me.
Cheyenne was standing there with her bare feet in the grass and her hand blocking the sun from her eyes. I walked to her and pulled her into a gripping hug, whispering, “I didn’t think I’d see you until tonight.”
She leaned back and pecked me on the lips before she said, “My study group couldn’t meet this evening, and I saw your bike parked outside when I drove by. I didn’t mean to intrude.”
“You being here isn’t intruding. And there’s nothing I say here that I can’t say to you. It’s just . . .”
“You’ve got a lot of pressure on you, and the expectations you’re carrying aren’t fair, Trent.” She never called me by my real name anymore, and it was nice to hear it from her soft, kissable lips. “And you beat yourself up every day about your pops when it wasn’t your fault.”
“I should’ve been able to find whoever did this to him by now, and the longer it takes, the further the club slides. Hell, I don’t even like you coming to the clubhouse on the weekends with as rowdy as it’s been getting.”
She smiled and wrapped her arms around my neck as she replied, “I was born into the Bastards, and there isn’t anything that happens at the clubhouse that I can’t handle.”
I relax into our embrace. “I feel like the club is spiraling out of control and I don’t know how to fix it.”
“There’s nothing to fix, baby. You guys are outlaw bikers, you live by your own rules and sometimes things get crazy. It doesn’t mean it will always be that way, but for the time being, it’s how it is.”
“So, what should I do?” I inquired, and she smiled and gave me a quick kiss.
“You do what you do best . . . you lead,” she reasoned and lowered her arms from my shoulders. “I’m going to leave you two alone, but I’ll see you at the house tonight.”
Cheyenne turned and walked away with a sway to her hips, and I adjusted my semi-hard dick in my jeans before turning back to Pops’s headstone.
“I made her my ol’ lady, Pops, and I’m gonna give her all the babies she wants.” I sat quietly for another few minutes before standing up and wiping my jeans off. “I’ll see you in a few days,” I said to the granite and tapped it twice with my knuckles before walking out of the cemetery.
My bike was under the tree near the entrance, and as I mounted the machine and turned over the engine, listening to the rumble, I let my mind wander for a moment. There had been something scratching at the back of my brain since we lost Pops, and on impulse, I turned the bike toward Rapid City. There was one brother who may be able to help me, and I made a direct beeline to his office.
