Dex: Great Wolves MC - California Chapter, #1

Chapter One

Dex

For thirteen years, I’ve done nothing but dream about a day like this. The roar of my Harley ran through my body, heated my blood and seemed to work its way into my soul. A light, late summer rain started to fall, filling my nostrils with a whiff of ozone and wet asphalt as I rounded the curve toward home.

Thirteen years of only seeing the horizon over coiled razor wire and watch towers.

Now, a thin fog settled over the jutting peaks of Mount Shasta. The road before me stretched for miles. For a moment, I thought about simply staying on it. Everyone that mattered already knew how to live without me. It hurt like hell, but I knew how to live without them now too. The pain of the loss had scabbed over and hardened over the years. Going back to Green Bluff could rip it all open again. The easy thing to do would be to leave them in peace. Find somewhere else to settle. Start over.

Except I’ve never been a man to choose the easiest path.

Charlie’s engine revved behind me as if he could sense where my thoughts headed. He pulled up alongside me, his curly gray hair flying straight behind him, his cut flapping wildly. He lifted his chin and smiled at me. I could see my own face in his mirrored shades. God, I looked cold and hard. How could I think I belonged back in the light?

But when Charlie veered off toward the exit to Green Bluff, I followed. On the back roads into town, nothing had changed much. We passed the same cattle pastures and rolling hills that had always been there. In that way, the years seemed like they passed in a minute. They hadn’t though, and I knew the greatest challenge of my life wasn’t behind me, but ahead. It was time to find out what was left of Dex McLain. How much of that man could still be in there after all those years of hard time and rage I’d had to swallow. Only I would ever know what it had taken to survive. I couldn’t let myself think about what I’d lost. Not yet. Not without giving into the darkness that had put me away. That could wait.

I followed Charlie. He let the throttle out and picked up speed as we hit the straightaway toward town. There was still nothing out here but cattle and dust, with the mountains in the distance. I knew that Green Bluff itself was nothing like I’d left it. I’d spend the next few days seeing just how much. For now though, we were headed for familiar ground and the place I used to call home.

I realized I had no idea where I would even lay my head tonight. The club would provide, I knew this. Since I stepped foot outside the gates of Marion Penitentiary six weeks ago, the members of the Great Wolves M.C. had made sure I had a place to crash on my journey from Chicago all the way to northern Cali. But now it was time to step back into the arms of my own chapter. The men I’d called brothers were calling me home. Charlie and I turned one final time and headed for the clubhouse.

The Wolf Den started out as a converted barn. My father, his cousin Blackie Murphy, Charlie, and the rest of the Great Wolves originals had built the bar and clubhouse from the ground up. When we pulled into the parking lot, I got my first taste of the changes to come. The old barn was gone. In its place was a large two-story brick and stone building. The black silhouette of a howling wolf’s head was inlaid on the roof. The same symbol was inked on my back, just like it was for every member of the Great Wolves M.C. Thirty or more Harleys were parked around the building. Charlie cut his engine and I pulled in next to him and cut mine.

Looks like the welcoming committee’s all here, Charlie said. He threw his head back and laughed. His eyes shone with mirth and it did my heart good to see some of the pain gone from his eyes. Every other month for the last thirteen years, I’d watched him age with the torment of seeing me behind bars. In some ways I thought it was harder on him than it was on me. Since my Da passed, and Uncle Blackie after him, Charlie was the last of the old guard. That last of the Great Wolves originals.

I can see that, I said. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I had been hoping for a quiet reunion with some of the club members I’d been closest to. I didn’t know probably more than half of the new members in there.

Relax. Charlie slapped my back with the force of a damn grizzly bear. Hell, he looked like one with his round belly, full beard and steel gray hair that curled in ringlets halfway down his back. This is your family, Dex. I’ll take you through the back to the table. It’ll just be Sly and Billy back there. They’re waiting for you.

I looked back at Charlie. His eyes glistened with fresh tears. For as gruff as he was, he was also a big sap.

Take it easy. No more blubbering, Charlotte. I wrapped my arm around his shoulders. No easy feat. What Charlie lacked in height, he made up for in width. He was solid as a tree trunk but for his wobbling gait. He needed a hip replacement that he’d been putting off because he didn’t want to give up smoking for the time he’d be in the hospital.

We walked into the back of the Wolf Den together. Charlie gave me another fat-fingered slap on the back before he reached out and pulled open the heavy steel service door. I walked in behind him, my heart heavy in my chest, unsure of the reception that awaited me.

It was just as Charlie said. A red banner with the Great Wolves emblem in black hung from the far wall. Only two men sat at the great oak conference table. At its head sat the closest person I had to a brother. Hell, he was my brother in everything but blood. And we’d shed enough of that with and for each other too.

Dex. Sly rose slowly and came around the table to me. We stood before each other for a moment. We hadn’t seen each other in over ten years. Sly was nearly as tall as me. His blond hair had dulled somewhat, but he still kept it smoothed down to combat a wild cowlick he had in the back that made him look like Dennis the Menace when we were kids. Girls always went for him because of his boyish face with deep-set blue eyes, wide smile and a permanent dimple in his cheek. He looked the same though his features had hardened a little. Lines creased his brow and shades of silver peppered his temples and the stubble of his chin, just like they did mine.

Sly grabbed me then, pulling me into a brotherly embrace, and the last decade seemed to wash away, if only for a moment. We slapped each other and squeezed hard. Sly’s hand came around and clasped mine. We broke, still clenching each other’s fists. Sly’s eyes glinted as they locked with mine, searching for answers he knew wouldn’t come from my words. I answered with a quick nod.

I’m okay. I’m whole.

Sly let go of my hand, slapped my arm and finally let his face split into the devilish grin that got him out of trouble with most of the women in his life, including my own mother. They were suckers for it and Sly milked every drop he got.

Billy came around the table and embraced me next. Billy Kincaid had just patched in when I went inside. In fact, my yes vote had been the last act I’d done as a free man in the club. Billy was a distant cousin of Sly’s on his mother’s side and I remembered him then as a skinny nineteen-year-old. The man who stood before me had changed more dramatically than either Sly or myself. Billy was tall, a solid wall of muscle, and he’d shaved off his wiry, brown hair in exchange for a gleaming, tanned bald head. He looked a little dangerous with a pointed goatee.

Shit, Billy, I said. Glad to see your balls finally dropped.

Billy smiled and stiffened. His chest puffed out a little as if I needed any help seeing the patch sewn into the breast pocket of his leather cut. Vice President. Then the air in the room seemed to grow a little thicker as Charlie, Sly and Billy stiffened. Billy now wore the patch I’d been given two months before I got arrested.

Billy cleared his throat. Dex, I—

I put a hand up. It looks good on you, I said and Billy’s shoulders relaxed. And it was good.

Billy, Charlie barked. Why don’t you go and see about the new beer shipments and let these two lovebirds get reacquainted?

Billy smiled and nodded, then he and Charlie went out the six-paneled door toward the front of the building. When they opened the door, the rising sound of laughter and clinking glasses hit my ears then fell to silence when it closed behind them. The walls were soundproof and that door was likely bulletproof too.

Whew, I whistled low. You’ve put some serious money into this place. I took a seat toward the center of the conference table. I wouldn’t sit near the head of it. It was going to take some time for all of us to figure out where I fit and I had no desire to force anything yet. Prison teaches a man a hell of a lot of situational awareness.

Sly took his seat at the head of the table. Through Charlie, I’d known he’d been elected chapter president eight years ago. To protect the club, I’d been kept out of the loop on specific club politics or business. It chaffed me, but I understood it. It’s also why we all decided Sly should stay far away from me. Hell, it’s what I would have wanted too if he had been at Marion instead of me. Protect the club. Protect each other.

It’s good to see you, man, Sly said. He thumped his fist against the table.

It’s good to be back.

You know you’ve got quite a party going on out there. Sly lifted his chin toward the door Charlie and Billy had just exited. I can keep you back here for a while but pretty soon they’re gonna break that damn door down.

Thanks. For that and for this. I ran my hand against the polished oak of the table. I was hoping we’d have a little bit of time to talk. I plan on getting good and plastered out there in a few minutes.

Sly gave a strong, hearty laugh and it was impossible for me not to join in. God, I’d missed him.

I’m sorry about Blackie, I said when we both recovered a little. Blackie Murphy had been the club founder and past president. He was also Sly’s uncle on his mother’s side. Sly had gone to live with him when he was ten. Blackie had been a right bastard and after seeing Sly one too many times with black eyes and cigarette burns on his arms, my mother brought him to stay with us from the time when we were about twelve years old on. I knew Blackie had finally succumbed to lung cancer.

Sly shook his head. Thanks. But you and I both know it was time for Blackie to go.

And it had been. Not long after that, the membership had voted Sly in as president. What would have happened if I hadn’t been locked up during all of it was the question that hung between us now. But I knew that wallowing in the what-ifs would sink me just as I’d finally started to feel like maybe I could breathe again.

You’re all right, Sly said and it was a question as much as it was a statement. It’s behind you.

I knew what he meant. The feds have dropped all charges against me. There isn’t going to be a new trial.

Sly shook his head and blew out hard. Someday you’re going to have to fill me in on all the details about how that went down. When Charlie blew out of here to get you, he said Tora had a hand in it.

I pressed my thumb against the table, wiping hard at a spot that wasn’t there. My gut clenched at the mention of Tora. She was my daughter. One more person I’d been forced to leave behind when I’d been framed for federal drug trafficking. She was only ten years old when I went in. Twenty-three now, she’d grown into a beautiful, strong woman, just like my mother. And all of it without me. Now she had a life of her own but she was safe and whole. She was going to be okay. No thanks to me. She never gave up on me. She found a way to get me out even when I told her to forget about me. Just like I’d told the other woman in my life to forget about me.

Most of it isn’t my story to tell, Sly. It’s Tora’s. But yes, she was pretty much the key to finding evidence to get me out of that hell hole once and for all. I looked back down at the phantom smudge on the table. I didn’t want to say anymore. Knowing what Tora did to find the evidence to free me was one more burden I had to carry. But just as I told Sly, that was Tora’s story to tell, not mine.

Sly smiled. She grew up to be something, didn’t she? She’s just like your mother.

I nodded. That’s the blessing in all of this, I guess. Mum and Da were gone long before I got locked up. It would have killed her anyway.

There was something else we needed to talk about but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Not then. And it wasn’t lost on me that Sly hadn’t asked. I didn’t know what that meant just then but it unsettled me. While my daughter managed to get me out of prison, the man responsible for putting me in was still out there drawing breath.

George Pagano. He was the head of one of the largest organized crime families still around. During Blackie’s time, we drew a large part of our income from our association with them. But those days were gone now. Pagano wasn’t. But today wasn’t about that.

Sly sat back in his chair and looked off to a point on the wall. They’d have known you were innocent, but yeah. I suppose that is some small blessing.

I ran a hand through my hair. God. Enough of this sad shit. Tell me something good, Sly. Tell me about all of this. I waved my hand in a circular motion around the table.

Sly raised a brow, his lip curved into a broad smile. "We got there, Dex. Just about, anyway. All of the crap you and I dreamed of, it’s happening. We have a stake in some real, legitimate businesses. It’s taken me almost every day since Blackie died, but we have a future now. And I want you to be part of it. You are part of it."

I shook my head. I never would have believed Sly could shake off the specter of Blackie Murphy and the club’s outlaw days in less than a decade. But it seemed he had.

There’s the bar, Sly went on. The Wolf Den is a small chain. We’ve got ’em here, in Vegas, near Detroit. There’s some merchandising that goes along with it. But the main thing is the gym. Some of the guys are going to take you out to GWG tomorrow if you’re up for it. I want you to see what we’ve got set up.

Shit, Sly. I whistled. Don’t tell me you’ve gone corporate.

He threw his head back and laughed. We’ve always been corporate, Dex. It’s just a matter of doing things that won’t land us under law enforcement radar anymore.

His smile dropped. I knew he hadn’t meant to bring the conversation down that fast and he really hadn’t. I raised a brow and smiled to let him know it was all right.

Come on then, already, Sly said, rising from the table. Those guys are going to start tearing the place apart if you don’t get out there and throw a few back with them. It’s time to celebrate.

Yeah. I know. I didn’t move from my seat. There was one last thing I needed to know and it was the thing I’d dreaded asking from the moment I lit out of Illinois and headed west.

I need you to tell me about Ava, Sly. I need to hear it from you.

Her name seemed to hang in the air between us. In the two thousand miles between here and Chicago, her name had been on my lips. It had been thirteen years but I remembered every single detail about her. The sweet smell of her hair, the feel of her lips when she kissed me. The curve of her hips when I pulled her close to me. Pain seared my palms and I realized I’d dug my nails into the flesh there. I had to know, but I almost didn’t want to hear it.

She’s okay, Dex, Sly said. It tore her up pretty bad when you went away. But you knew that. She’s strong. Except for the train wreck that was Tora’s mother, you made a habit of surrounding yourself with strong women. Ava was one of them. She’s doing all right. You told her not to wait for you and she didn’t. She made a life for herself.

While one weight lifted from my shoulders, it seemed another settled in its place. She made a life for herself. Good. It’s what I wanted. It tore my guts out when I told her to forget about me. I told her I’d do the same. It was the biggest lie I’d ever told. But now I had to live with it. I remembered her face, the tears she cried when she came to see me at Marion. I’d been cruel. I’d been definite. I didn’t want her