chest but I’m not a fool, I know we’re going to have a lot of problems.”
“What makes you say that?”
“We don’t talk about it, but I’m aware she’s a Skull and I’m a Chaos. I know each time I talk about the future there’s a chance, a slim one, we can’t make it work. Even though our clubs work together, we’re different.”
Devil nodded his head. “You’re right. We’re different and knowing you’re aware of this gives me hope.”
Simon laughed. “Hope? Really?”
“Yes. It means you know that this thing with her is going to take some challenges. Tiny’s been open and honest with me. For a long time, he knew she didn’t want to be part of the club. It was only a few years ago that she embraced who she was, what she was. She could try to outrun the club, but there was no way she was going to leave this world behind. It sticks.”
“Her loyalty is to The Skulls, not to me.”
“You’re wrong there. She’s loyal to her club as is her right, but her loyalty is also to you. You’ve got something, and I tried to deny it. Figuring it was some kind of kid thing. You used her as a security blanket. Your childhoods, I tried to make yours as happy as could be but life, it was so fucked at times. When we managed to kill one evil, another came laughing in my face. There was no way I could keep it up. It’s why I made the change. I thought the one constant for you was Tabitha. But then there was also Miles, Anthony, the other Simon, Daisy even. A few of the other kids but their names escape me. You didn’t want to marry them or have their babies. You didn’t vow to be their old man, or them your old ladies. She’s special to you. I don’t always understand it at such a young age. I was out, screwing whatever threw themselves at me, but the moment I met Lexie, she was like fire. She gave me a reason to breathe. The club was always part of my life, but she made me realize exactly what I’d been missing and I would never give her up, not for the world.”
“Do you ever miss it?” Simon asked.
“Screwing random bitches?”
“No.” Simon shook his head. “Riding. Being out on the open road. I know you settled in Piston County as you felt the club needed a place to call its own, but do you ever miss just riding? Going from town to town?”
“Not anymore. The Nomad chapter is doing their stuff, you know. Remember Lucius?”
Simon nodded. “You haven’t heard from him in a long time, have you?”
“No, but I do keep an ear out. I guess since Roxy’s death, he’s been trying to deal, you know, the only way he can.”
Simon vaguely remembered the guy from the Chaos Bleeds Nomad chapter. Each of the clubs, even The Skulls, had a chapter that didn’t live in any one area. They traveled. Lucius had been part of it, and so had Roxy. She’d been a club whore, a dearly loved woman, but she’d died. Afterward, Lucius hadn’t been able to cope and had left. There was no sign of him, not even a dead body, unless Devil didn’t want to tell him what had happened.
“Is that why you don’t want to travel? What it would do to Mom?”
“No,” Devil said. “The reason I don’t want to travel is that I don’t need to. I’ve done it all. I was reminding you of the Nomads, in case that’s what you want to try. There’s something freeing about being on the open road. You learn a lot about yourself.”
Simon thought about it. “Right now, it’s not something I want.”
“Tabby?”
“I don’t feel the need to be away from her any longer than I have to. Unless she wants to go with me.”
Devil laughed. “I told your mom I’d give you the option. She was the one to tell me you wouldn’t take it. She’s right. Get some sleep, son. You’re going to need it. There’s no way you’re going into that place without all of your senses focused.” Devil got to his feet and escaped to the bathroom.
After kicking off his shoes and jeans, and removing his jacket and shirt, he lay down on the bed. He pulled out his cell phone and brought up the pictures. There were several Tabitha had sent him from Halloween. She looked so pretty