Blade (Silver Shadows MC #1)

Chapter Twenty-Three

Beck

It’d been five days since I lost Grams. Five lonely days. Sure, Rachel and the girls had come by to check on me. Even the club girls stopped in to make sure I was ok. King and Jack and even the sheriff stopped by, making sure I was eating and taking care of myself.

But he hadn’t.

I didn’t know what King told him, but he’d kept his distance.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. When my grandfather died, he never left me.

I’d told him to leave. I’d told him he couldn’t stay. He wasn’t mine anymore, despite what was growing between us these last few days.

Blade, that’s who he was now, had stayed away.

I couldn’t help but resent who he was now, because I knew Micah wouldn’t have walked away.

Now I sat in a chair at the cemetery, my mother on my right side, my stepfather Chris on the other side of her, and my stepbrother next to me on my left. My mother swept in, like I knew she would, trying to take control of everything the moment she arrived.

Thank goodness for Matlock. He had everything documented for my grandmother’s wishes. The seating arrangements were the only thing my mother could take over, claiming the row of seats were for family only.

She never understood that I didn’t count her as family.

Hadn’t for a long time.

Rachel and Ryder were my family. Micah used to be until he died.

I looked up from my lap and observed my mother. Conifer Washington Sawyer. Connie is what she went by. She always hated her name, but with a mother like Willow, what had she expected?

I chuckled to myself when I thought about how Grams would always call her by her full name. ‘ I gave you that name for a reason Conifer, I intend to use it.’ That’s what she told her constantly.

She sat beside me, stiff as a board. No emotion, just like at my grandfather’s funeral. The woman would never need Botox because her face hadn’t shown any emotion to cause wrinkles. No laughing, no crying. There was anger and disappointment though, and I couldn’t forget judgement.

I heard the rumble of the bikes.

They led the hearse carrying Grams to her last resting place. The men climbed from their bikes and walked to the back of the long car.

I watched with unshed tears as the men my Grams so dearly loved carried her to the graveside.

King and Blade were in the front, followed by Gunner and Colt, then Ghost and Jingles, and Jack and Cash bringing up the rear. Matching dark jeans and black T-shirts, and their Silver Shadows cuts proudly displayed on their backs. All wearing sunglasses to hide the emotion I knew they were fighting.

They loved my Grams.

“I can’t believe you let them even attend her funeral, let alone be a part of it. What must the town think of this?” my mother sneered in my ear so only I could hear her.

“I didn’t let them do anything, Mother. Grams made all the arrangements herself and asked each of those men, whom she had the utmost respect for personally, if they would carry her home.”

I did not want to deal with her bullshit today.

Yup, apparently I cursed now.

Just another thing Micah broke in me.

My stepbrother Michael put his arm around me as the guys laid my grandmother above her plot. I loved Michael. I couldn’t love him more if he had been my biological brother. He was the one thing my mother had ever given me that meant something.

I leaned into him as the Shadows filed in to stand behind us after King laid something over her casket.

I heard the telltale growl and closed my eyes just before the words hit.

“If you want to keep that fucking arm, remove it from my woman.”

I sat up straight and turned to look at Blade over my shoulder.

“Not the time, brother.”

I smiled up at King and mouthed Thank you. He placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed. As much as I flipped back and forth when first meeting these men, I realized that they all held a special place in my life and in my heart, even the asshole glaring at me once again.

I turned around and tapped Michael’s thigh. The growl started again, and I told my stepbrother.

“Thank you, I love you, but I don’t want the neanderthal behind me to cause a scene.”

He smiled at me, then looked back at Blade. “I think I can take him.”

I heard Jack bark out a laugh.

Michael was a big guy, an inch or two shorter than Blade, but built like a linebacker. Women went crazy over him. He was insanely handsome.

Too bad for them.

They weren’t his type. Nope, not a single one of them. Blade didn’t know that though. He also didn’t know Michael was my brother.

My mother turned to glare at the eight large men that would terrify most women and chastised them, “Show some respect.”

Then turned back around, her shoulders stiff, like her personality, before they could say anything back.

As the minister began the service, I sat there numb. She was gone. Unlike Micah, she wouldn’t be coming back. Tears streamed down my face, and I reached for Michael’s hand.

I needed to hold on to someone, and my mother was not an option.

I felt Micah’s hands on my shoulders, and I cried harder.

He leaned over and whispered in my ear, “I’ve got you now, baby. I’m here, and I’m never leaving you again.”

Despite how angry I was at him, I lifted my other hand and placed it over his on my shoulder. I grabbed onto his words and held on to them as tight as I was holding his hand, hoping I could keep them and him.

King was right. I’d have to talk to him at some point. I just wasn’t ready yet. One thing at a time. I needed to get through Grams’ funeral and my mother being here first.

I couldn’t concentrate on anything else until then.

When I heard the minister say, “Amen,” I realized the funeral was over. I needed to make it through a few more hours than I could crawl into bed and stay there for a bit and hide away. I walked over to the casket and noticed the cut King laid on Grams’ casket. It read ‘Property of the Silver Shadows’ and I couldn’t stop the laugh that cut through the silence.

I turned to look at King. “She would have loved this. I’ll make sure it goes into the casket with her.”

“Rebecca, that is not going in there.” My mother scoffed.

“Oh, it sure is. She would want it, and she will have it.”

Before she could say more, Micah walked up behind me.

I knew it was him by the buzzing in my body. A familiar feeling that I thought I lost a decade ago.

“Hello, Mrs. Sawyer.”

“Hello, Micah,” my mother scorned.

I looked between the two of them.

“You knew?” I asked, and my mother had the decency to look guilty. “How long have you known?”

Before she could answer, Sheriff O’Rourke walked up, joining our small group.

“I am so sorry for your lo— Connie?”

My mother looked up at the sheriff wide-eyed.

“Declan? What are you doing here?”

“I’m the sheriff here in Diamond Creek. Quite a step up from a lowly beat cop, huh?” the sheriff said with contempt.

Looking between my mother and the sheriff, I asked, “Sheriff, how do you know my mother?”

He looked at me, confused. He turned to my mother, then back to me, searching my face for something. He focused on my mother and an anger like I had never seen enveloped his face.

“You fucking bitch!” He growled, taking a step forward.

My mother stepped back into her husband as Blade got between them, holding the Sheriff back.

“King!” Blade called out.

King came running. Seeing Blade trying to hold his brother back, he asked, “What the fuck is going on, big brother?”

I stood there and wondered the same thing.

The sheriff looked at King, seething.

“You remember Connie? She’s Willow’s daughter, and Beck’s mother ,” he told King, who looked at me, his eyes so wide they seemed to take over his face.

He looked at my mother, then back at the sheriff before landing on me again. My mother, who could never read the room and keep her mouth shut, made things worse.

“Why am I not surprised you would be in a motorcycle gang? I always knew you wouldn’t amount to anything; you or him,” she claimed, pointing at Micah.

“Fuck,” King muttered and yelled for Johnny, the prospect. “Take my brother to the clubhouse.”

The sheriff balked at that.

“I’m not going anywhere, King.”

King turned and walked his brother back a few steps.

“She’s been through enough the last few days. She doesn’t need this shit right now. Go back to the clubhouse, have a drink, and let me handle this.”

The sheriff glared at my mother again and walked away, followed by Johnny.

“Grace!” King called, “Get Rachel and the girls, all of them, including the club girls, and take Beck back to the house. No one,” he said, glaring at my mother, “comes in. Got it?”

“Got it.”

“I can take her home,” Blade offered, and King walked to him, bumping his chest.

“You stay the fuck away from her. You’re lucky I don’t take your fucking patch after what I just learned. Go back to the clubhouse and watch my brother. He’s a powder keg and I can’t have him going off.”

“What the fuck is going on, King?” Blade asked, confused as I was.

“That is my house. My mother left it to me. You can’t keep me out of it.” My mother huffed.

“That’s what you think, bitch. What the fuck did you think you were doing?” King asked, having a conversation with my mother that only the two of them understood.

“Protecting her from a dirty cop, apparently.”

“The only thing dirty here is your fucking cunt.”

“King.” I stepped in, tears still streaming down my face. Trying to diffuse the situation before it got worse. “What the hell is going on? This is Grams’ funeral.”

He gathered me in his arms.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I will explain everything soon. Go back to the house with Grace and the girls and stay there until I come get you. Ghost and Jingles will be outside watching over everything.”

Grace took my arm and led me out of the cemetery when I heard King tell everyone.

“I’m sorry, folks, there has been a slight change in plans. Please head to The Diner, order whatever you like and share your favorite memories of Willow. Joellen, The Silver Shadows will take care of the bill. Just send it over to Colt.”

Back at the house, I looked at my friends. Yes, I counted the club girls as friends, and asked, “Does anyone know what the hell just happened?”

Rachel grasped me in a tight hug. “We know as much as you do, honey.”

“How does my mother know the sheriff? Clearly there’s history there, but she grew up here and she met Chris not long after we left. They got married rather quickly. Other than Chris, she had two other brief husbands, but neither of them was the sheriff.”

“My parents and I moved here when the club did. We kind of followed Ace, and Declan moved here then too. I’ve never seen your mother here in all that time, so they would have had to meet before you left,” Lily added.

“But when?”

I wondered about their interaction while I waited for King to come get me and explain everything.