Page 14 of Redemption

“If it protects my son, you bet your ass I’ll do whatever it takes. Any mother in this club would. You may have put the club before your family, but I haven’t. And I never will. They are my life, and it’s my job to protect them at all costs. I just never thought you’d be someone I need to protect them from.”

“Lex-”

“Colt, let’s just let them go. Calla needs medicine, and this isn’t getting you anywhere. You’re not in the right frame of mind to have this conversation,” Ky says.

He allows his best friend to pull him aside, but the angry glare doesn’t get missed by her. She leads Noah out of the clinic, her entire body aching. That isn’t the man she married, and this isn’t what she expected of them. But this is the new reality, and she needs to learn how to move forward for her babies. No matter how much it feels like she’s dying inside.

Chapter 6

Griffin’s Beach

Karmen

Karmen sits outside the Deranged Drifters clubhouse, her heart pounding. This used to be a sanctuary, but since her affair with Rush Gable, she’s been persona non grata unless something terrible happens. She and TK rarely speak anymore unless it has to do with Klaire, and even then, they speak as little as possible.

Seeing his bike in the parking lot, she takes a few deep breaths to calm herself. He hates her, and she can’t blame him. Her desperate attempts at attention followed by trying to hurt him cost them something they never expected. The loss of her youngest son, Noah. He’s never forgiven her, and she doesn’t want him to. She hasn’t forgiven herself, either, and she never will.

But regardless of how he feels about her, they need to talk about this situation with Colt and Lex. Their marriage crumbled, but the two of them are destined for each other. The same way she and TK were before she screwed everything up. On top of that, their two grandchildren are the ones who will feel it most. They owe it to their grandbabies to do everything in their power to help.

She steps out of the car and walks to the clubhouse, taking one last breath to calm her nerves, and opens the front door. Nothing much has changed since she last stepped foot inside years ago, but it feels more like a lifetime ago.

“Karmen?” Jennings asks, the surprise evident in his voice. His hair still hangs just below his shoulders in dark brown strands, but the color at his temples has grayed while his hairline recedes slightly. They’re all getting older it seems. One day they woke up and bam! Age caught up with them.

“Hey, Jennings. Is TK around?”

He looks back towards the apartments. “I think he’s back there, but I’m not sure if he’s alone. Is everything okay?”

“I just really need to talk to him.”

The thought of him with another woman, or women based on what she’s been told, still stings, but she knows she has no right to feel anything resembling anger. She’s the reason they’re in the situation they are. Regardless of her intentions, what she did with Rush was intentional and malicious, and she knew better.

Even though Rush knew what he was doing when he got involved with her, she took the brunt of the consequences. He just really wanted to give TK a giant “fuck you” because of the hatred he had. She never understood why, and he never offered a reason. As far as she knew, the two had once been friends.

Her stupid actions took the most precious thing from her. Her son. She still remembers getting the call about Noah. Rushing to the hospital, she prayed it wasn’t as bad as it sounded. That he’d need surgery or a lengthy recovery time, but she knew he’d make it. When she showed up to find him hooked up to machines, she fell apart. She was alone, and her youngest son laid in a hospital bed relying on machines to live all because she wanted to hurt her husband.

The tests came back and proved her worst fear. He’d never wake up. Without the machines, he wouldn’t live. He broke his neck so severely, the damage was unfixable, and he had severe bleeding in his brain they couldn’t get under control. There was no coming back from this injury, and she’s never felt this type of pain in her life.

Karmen knew she didn’t deserve it, but TK was there for her when they pulled the plug on their boy. He was vulnerable for the first time in years. They’d both lost their son that night, and the two put their differences aside as he went home with her and Klaire.

No one knows they spent the night together. Both consumed with grief, they found comfort the only way they could provide each other. It was the first time in so long, and she almost let herself believe they could come back from everything bad that happened. That they could find their way back to each other in face of grief.

By the next morning, TK was gone, and he never came back. She wasn’t surprised, but it hurt. This was the man she’d been in love with since she was sixteen, and she will never stop loving him. He stopped loving her, though, and she can’t blame him. She stopped loving herself, too.

“Karmen?” TK asks, his footsteps heavy as he hurries over to her. Concern fills his voice, and for a single moment, she pretends it’s out of concern for her. Just one moment.

“Klaire’s okay,” she assures him. “But we need to talk.”

His bushy brows furrow as he leads her into the Chapel. They rarely speak, and she knows showing up at the clubhouse would put him on edge. The last time she was in this room, though, was with Rush when Colt and Lex caught them, and she suppresses the urge to vomit. The only saving grace is the scent of TK’s familiar cologne filling the small space near her.

“What’s wrong?”

“We need to talk about Colt and Lex.”

Dumbfounded. It’s the only way to describe the look he gives her as he sits down. “What about them?”

She sits down in the seat next to him on his right. “We need to do something. Well, you need to do something.”

“What the hell am I supposed to do?”

---