Rambler (Brothers of Chaos)

Thunder went completely white. For a moment, he couldn’t even breathe. Finally, he seemed to remember to take a breath. “Burr? Are you sure she said Burr?”

Rambler nodded. “She said Mac tried to stop Burr from forcing them into a car at gunpoint. She told me he said he was there to take her back to where she belonged.”

Thunder brought both fists down on the table in front of him and almost broke the table in half.

When his large fists hit the table, the others jumped back.

“That sonofabitch! I’m gonna hunt that little prick down and kill him with my bare hands.”

Bearcat was the first to recover from the table pounding. “You know this bastard boss?”

Thunder nodded. “Yeah, I fucking know him.” He turned his glare to Rambler. “What else did she say?”

Rambler shook his head and sipped his coffee. “Nothing. She just asked me to let her go. She watched you stop at the door and say nothing. You couldn’t even look at her. Instead, you just turned and walked away.”

“Fucking hell man.” Thunder shook his head. “I took one look at that room and thought the worst of both of you.”

“Yup, you sure did.” Rambler snapped. “You didn’t even give her the benefit of the doubt, did you?”

The door to the kitchen opened and Misty walked into the main room with a pan of scrambled eggs. She was one of the women that worked the kitchen. As soon as she came into the room, she could feel the tension and she looked over at Thunder.

Everyone in the club knew she had feelings for the president. She had been here for a long time and she always wanted Thunder. But Thunder didn’t want her. He never had, for him it had always been Shelby. Then Shelby left and he still pined for her.

When Misty heard Rambler’s words, the tray in her hand hit the serving table with a clatter. The men all looked her way and for a moment she blushed. Then she turned away and ran for the kitchen.

They all paused at this. But no one said anything.

“So, who is this prick boss?” Hunter wanted to know, getting everyone’s attention. As the club’s enforcer, he needed to know about any threats against the club.

“He works for the Blood Vikings MC out of San Antonio. He also happens to be Odin’s blood brother.”

“And he’s the bastard you took Shelby away from isn’t he?” Hunter asked.

Thunder shook his head. “I didn’t take her away from him, she never wanted him in the first place. I just got her out of a situation she didn’t want to be in. Odin didn’t like the fact that she came with me willingly.”

Snowman came over to the table with his own cup of coffee. He’d been with the club almost as long as Thunder. “I remember the day you brought her home with you. You were in sorry shape my friend.”

Thunder shrugged. “I had to fight to claim her. He’s a big blonde asshole, supposedly a damned Viking descendant. His men’s names all reflect that Norse crap too. The name Burr is a son of a Nordic god or some shit. It should have been a fair fight but Odin had to cheat. He lost anyway but it pissed me off when he cheated to try and win.” He looked over at the other man and nodded. “I didn’t know it then but Odin ended up knifing Shelby in the fight. She got me the hell out of there and didn’t tell me she was hurt until she collapsed on me when we got back home. That bastard broke three of my ribs, gave me a concussion and a broken nose that blackened both my eyes. I could barely see let alone ride back, I was in so much pain, and Shelby never said a word about being stabbed.”

“That girl loved you even then,” Snowman told him with tightened lips. “How you could think she killed Mac, I never understood. You should have given her the benefit of the doubt at the very least.”

“I know old man.” Thunder hung his head. “But Mac was dead and they were just gone, what was I supposed to think?”

Snowman let out a sigh. “You should have had more faith in your woman son. You really should have trusted her more than you did.” Snowman got to his feet and moved to another table.

Rambler got up and walked over to the serving table to get some food. He fixed two plates and poured another cup of coffee after refilling his own cup. Then he picked up his load and moved to the hall.

“Where are you going?” Thunder asked.

“I’m going to see if I can get Phoenix to eat something. She skipped supper last night,” he replied without turning to face him.

“Is she all right?” Thunder finally asked.

“Would you be? After all that girl has been through, would you be?” Rambler asked before he continued down the hall to her room. He wanted to tell his prez to talk to her. Get this out in the open. It could go a long way, but seeing as the man seemed like a steel trap when it came to emotions, he doubted it would do much good.

Rambler pushed through the door then set the food down on the table and looked around the room.

Phoenix wasn’t in the bed where he’d left her.

Instead, she was sitting in the chair at the window. She didn’t look at him as she stared outside.

“You couldn’t sleep?” he asked her.

She shook her head but didn’t say a word.

He offered her a cup of coffee.

She took it, but didn’t drink it right away.

“I brought you some breakfast.”

“I’m not hungry,” she muttered.

He let out a sigh. “You need to eat. You didn’t eat last night, you have to be hungry.”

She shuddered. “I think the mere thought of food is making me sick to my stomach right now. I’ll be fine.”

He walked over to join her. He sat down on the floor and stared at her for a moment. Sipping his coffee he finally asked her, “You said you remembered what happened that day. Can you tell me about it?”

“I don’t know… it’s gonna be hard to say it out loud but I suppose you should know about it. Mac was your brother.” Phoenix took a small sip of her coffee and frowned at the taste. She set it over on the windowsill. Then still looking outside she began to tell him what she remembered about the day his brother died. Her words were often broken and barely loud enough for him to hear but she went through it all without crying.

He felt her pain, not only the heartbreak of watching Mac get shot but when she had been shot then Burr ripped her from her mother’s arms, dragged her into the desert and wrapped a fucking rope around her neck.

When she finally went silent, Rambler couldn’t say anything. There was nothing left to say. She looked pale and like she was about to break. He didn’t think she could take much more and they hadn’t even had time to talk about what happened when she came around again, after the rope. He had a feeling that was its own story. The fact she had survived something like this at all, spoke volumes.

She reached out, took his hand. Raising it to the side of her head, she pushed his finger through her hair to the ridge left as a reminder of the bullet that skimmed her head that day.

Rambler’s fingers trembled as he felt the scar her hair hid. It was several inches long and must have bled like a son of a bitch at the time. Then she moved his fingers down to her neck. Touching the scars left by the rope only reminded him of what she had endured.

“These aren’t my only scars but they’re the only ones most people can see. The biggest scar I have is the one where my heart should be. Burr tore that out of my chest the day he took my mother away from me. I don’t know where she’s been all these years or if she’s still looking for me right now.”

“You think she’s looking for you?” Rambler asked.

She turned her head to look at him. “I know she is. The last thing she told me was to survive and someday, she would find me. She said it might take her awhile but she would find me and together, we would come home again. She promised me and she’s never broken her promise to me. She begged me to never give up on her and I never have.”

“Sweet girl, she might be dead, you do know that don’t you? Burr might have killed her years ago,” he reminded her.

Phoenix shook her head. “She’s not dead.”

“How do you know?”

“Well, she wasn’t a month ago.”

He went still at this. “What do you mean? A month ago?”

“She found a way to contact me. I didn’t see it at first but I found it about nine years ago. She’s been moving around a lot but I think that’s to mess with Burr.”

“You have been in contact with your mother?”

Phoenix nodded. “We have to be careful what we say but I think so.”

“Thunder needs to know about this.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. When she resisted him, he turned to stare at her. “What’s wrong? Your father needs to know about this.”

“Why?” she asked him softly. “He’ll never believe me anyway.” She shook her head and scoffed. “He thinks so little of her that he thinks she shot Mac to get away from him. Not that I blame her any.” She paused and stared at him. “Tell me something, did he ever give her the benefit of the doubt or did he always believe she killed Mac?”

Rambler just stood there. Hell, he didn’t know. The few times his pres spoke about it, he’d said very little. In the main room just now, he had admitted to believing this. Rambler just did not have the heart to tell her though.

His silence seemed to give her the answer to her question. Phoenix sat down and turned to stare out the window again.