I hit the bedroom, and came to an abrupt and chilling stop.  Mandy was in the bedroom with a gun trained on J.  My heart started beating hard and fast.  My mouth went dry, and my legs felt weak.

Fuck!

She was ranting crap at him.  I could hardly make out her words; she was in a crazy state.  Oh my god, our lives were in her psychotic hands.

As soon as she saw me, she turned and pointed the gun at me.

“You’re gonna die, bitch!” she screamed at me.

“Let J go, and I’m all yours,” I said.  I needed to know he would be safe; I couldn’t bear to think he would die because of me.

“Madi - ” he started to say, but she cut him off.

Swinging to look at him, she yelled, “Shut the fuck up!” and then she swung back to me, her gun slashing through the air every time she moved, “And, no, he’s not fucking leaving!”

“Okay.  Mandy - ” I began, and now she cut me off.  Turns out the bitch wasn’t interested in anything we had to say.

“You fucking took my brother away from me,” she jabbed the gun in my direction, and I prayed it didn’t go off, while mentally filing through options to get us out of this shit.  “He loved you, and you broke his fucking heart.”

What the fuck?  Nix didn’t love anyone.  He just liked to control them.

Suddenly there was another presence in the room.  I looked around, and came face to face with the spitting image of my father.

Blade.

The air whooshed out of my lungs, and I felt unstable.  This was not how I pictured meeting him for the first time.  He must have noticed because he reached out to steady me.

His eyes left mine, and focused on Mandy.  “You need to put the fucking gun down, and step over here,” he spoke, his voice cold and harsh.

It was like he had a hypnotic effect on her, because she instantly calmed down, and I saw doubt shadow her face.  Her hand that was holding her gun began to lower.  Just when I thought we had her, J lunged at her, and she turned to him.  Time slowed right down for the next few seconds.  It was one of those instances where you know what is going to happen, and although you need to stop it, there just isn’t time.

The gun went off, and J dropped to the ground, blood everywhere.

“No!” I screamed, and fell to my knees, scrambling to get to him.

Blade tackled Mandy, and another gunshot sounded.  I had no idea who shot who, or what happened; I was totally focused on J and the blood that was soaking through his shirt.

Time passed in a blur.

Sirens sounded.

People came into the room, and took J away.

My father turned up.

Scott arrived.

People spoke to me.

I don’t remember any of it.

J was gone.

Chapter 28

Madison

Four months later

“So, sis, tell me who all these people are,” Blade said, as he handed me a barbequed sausage on bread.

I angled my head to look at him.  He was a tall guy, and well built.  His eyes were the same colour as our fathers; a gorgeous green.  He had also inherited the olive skin and dark hair that my father had.  I hadn’t met his mother, and I wondered what he had been blessed with from her.

We had been spending time getting to know each other since J and Mandy were shot.  I hadn’t wanted to, but he had pushed the point.  And Blade wasn’t a man who didn’t get his way.  I was slowly learning that.  Why did I have to be surrounded by men like that?  Why couldn’t I have just one man in my life that I could boss around?

I pointed out a couple of the guys and told him a little about each one.  He surprised me with his desire to know me, and to be a part of my life.  Scott was distant to him, and Blade didn’t try to force a relationship there.  Perhaps it would come one day.  Who fucking knew what was in store for any of us?  That was something I had really learnt this year.

“You okay?  Coping with today, without him here?” he asked, watching me intently.

“I’ll be okay.  Don’t worry about me,” I said.

He slowly nodded his head, still watching me, taking it all in.  He was an intense man; sometimes I didn’t know what to make of it.

“Honey, can you help me with the soft drinks for the kids?” my mother called.

I nodded.  “I’ll meet you in the kitchen in a minute.”

Today was a club family barbeque.  Storm had been through a lot this year, and this was a get together to help bring everyone back together; to help the healing process and strengthen club ties.  The fallout from what I liked to call the ‘Mandy Incident’ was bad.  A lot of the boys hadn’t supported Dad and Scott in their desire to back off on her, and there was some lingering resentment from that.  It turned out that J wasn’t the only one who had wanted her dealt with.

Time was slowly healing the wounds, and I had no doubt that the boys would work it out eventually.  What I had had some doubt about was letting Blade into the fold.  He had been spending time at the clubhouse, meeting some of the boys.  I hadn’t been so sure they would welcome him, but they had.  Blade just seemed to have that effect on you.

I left him and wandered into the kitchen to find my Mum.  She seemed to be doing okay these days.  She and Dad were working on their marriage.  Well, I took her word for it because I hadn’t spent time with them together since discovering his infidelity and tendency to hit her.  I hadn’t spent any time at all with my father, and I wasn’t sure when I would be able to bring myself to do that.  I didn’t hate him, but I was still really angry at him.  And I was pretty sure that would take a long time to go away.