Family-Does-Matter- to load Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  DEDICATION

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  LOOK FOR…

  ABOUT K. J. DAHLEN

  Family Does Matter

  Prequel to

  Sin’s Bastards MC Next Generation

  K.J. Dahlen

  Copyright K.J. Dahlen, 2018

  DEDICATION

  For all the readers who have followed Satan’s Spawn MC Series & Sin’s Bastards MC Series.... Here is the beginning of the Next Generation for the Sin’s Bastards MC.

  Thank you for reading my stories

  K.J. Dahlen

  BOOK ONE NOW AT AMAZON

  Chapter One

  Five men sat around at a picnic table at Griffin Park in Troy, New York. It was a warm Saturday in October just before Halloween. Echoes of children’s laughter and squeals warmed their hearts. The scent of grilling meat and vegetables surrounded them and at this particular moment in time, life couldn’t get much better than it was.

  Sam Tory, Mountain Morgan, Leon Vincinti, Black Jack Moore and Dominic Marconi were all sitting together laughing and joking while sharing a beer, or in Leon and Dominic’s case… a bourbon.

  By all accounts, these men shouldn’t be sitting together, they shouldn’t even be together, let alone sharing anything. Mixing MC and Mafia had never been done before.

  MC and Mafia, a dangerous combination from both sides of the coin, yet somehow this one worked. These five men had seen a lot of life’s good and bad and had lived with both. They could be brutal men when the situation called for it but they were also fair men. None of the men sitting at this table had what the law likes to call ‘clean hands.’ They’d all done things they probably shouldn’t have done but all of them would do those same things again, in defense of their families. They wouldn’t hesitate for a moment to protect what and who they called family. That’s just the kind of men they were and always would be.

  But today they were simply dads, granddads and great granddads. For a brief moment in time, they could set aside that part of their everyday life.

  Dominic leaned back in his chair and announced, “Now this is what I consider the good life. One I never thought I’d ever have.” He sighed heavily and admitted, “After I lost my wife and the baby I didn’t think for one minute after all these years I’d ever find her back again. There was a hole in my soul I never thought would be filled again without her.” He chuckled and stared at his son in law. “It took one man on a mission backed by an MC to bring my daughter back to me. And I thank God every day that you had the courage to do so.”

  Mountain nodded but didn’t say anything. He just sipped his beer. In some ways, Dominic was an enemy but not here and not today. Today, he was just Izzy’s dad and Danny’s granddad. He tried very hard not to hold a grudge against the old man but sometimes, that was very hard to do. He kept trying to get Izzy to take the money he offered and she wouldn’t do it, now he’d set up a trust fund for Danny and Izzy didn’t want it. Hell, he didn’t want it. He could, and did take care of his family very well thank you very much. But Dominic just wouldn’t let it go. He kept pushing and pushing. Mountain was almost done with him altogether but for Izzy and Danny, he would keep the peace, or at least try to keep it.

  In his own way, Mountain knew exactly how Dominic felt. He hadn’t know about Melora most of her life either and when he did find her, she was already with Sam. He’d wanted to be the one to offer her the world. It had been a bitter pill to swallow that Sam was there to give her what she needed rather than him. But as her father, he kept an eye on their relationship, ever ready to step in if she ever needed him too. The way she grew up, she’d learned to be independent too soon and she still was to some extent. Much to both his and Sam’s displeasure.

  “You got that right, my friend,” Black Jack agreed. “I didn’t have time for this sort of thing when my boys were growing up. I was too busy trying to earn a living and put food on the table but now, I can sit back and watch my grandkids grow. There’s no greater feeling in the world than that.”

  Leon agreed with both of them. “After we lost Peaches I never thought I’d ever know anything like this.” He motioned toward where the children were playing. “All we could do was pray she was still alive and would someday come home to us. Somehow, even in the darkest of days, you never lose that sliver of hope.” He chuckled “We didn’t know then that all those missing years she had her own guardian angel with her, an angel named Cassie. Or that Cassie was trying to get her home the whole time.”

  Sam chuckled. “Yeah, that’s Cassie all right. She just wouldn’t stop until Peaches got back to her family. She was going to run away from the FBI’s protection detail that night, once they figured out what was going on. Cassie wasn’t no dummy. She knew the system better than anybody gave her credit for.”

  “She had to, didn’t she?” Leon reminded them quietly. “From what we’ve found out since then, the system has been used and abused by those in power.” He glanced over at Dominic. “You’ve seen it too haven’t you? Izzy went through hell along with Melora because of the system. The same system that was supposed to protect them, abused those kids time and time again. But I thank god every day our women are stronger than they appear. The system didn’t beat them. Instead, it gave them the strength and the smarts they needed to beat it.”

  “Amen to that.” Mountain growled under his breath. His eyes grew dark with rage when he heard the stories his family told about when they were growing up.

  “But that’s all in the past now,” Sam reminded all of them. “Our women are safe and happy now. No one will ever hurt them again. They have found a forever home and the men who will love them for the rest of their lives with the MC and we will protect them from any more harm.”

  “You’d better.” Leon growled. “If you let them down in any way, shape or form we’ll step in and keep them safe even from you.”

  Black Jack, Mountain and Sam froze in their places.

  Mountain glared at the two men who were the heads of organized crime in most parts of the world. “Now I hope I didn’t hear any kind of threat in that statement.” His voice went real low. Everyone that knew him knew what this tone meant.

  Leon smiled but the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Of course not. No threat at all. I was just making a statement of fact.”

  Tension grew between the five men but before it could get out of hand, a group of young children broke into fray.

  “Daddy,” called out two year old Daniel Morgan as he barged right into Mountain’s lap. He gave his dad a hug then went over to his grandpa Dominic and gave him a hug too.

  “Grandpa!” Screamed three year old twins Sam and Jemmia as they crowded around Sam.

  “G.G.” Three year old Jesse and two year old Elliot called out as they ran over to Leon.

  Seven year old Dusty came over quietly and hugged Black Jack.

  Black Jack hugged him back and kept his arm around the little guy for a while.

  Each man looked at the other then looked away again. No this group should have never come together but it did and for the sake of family it would stay together. The tension from earlier melted away like it never existed.

  Then as soon as they rushed into the group, the kids all took off to run and play again. With their seemingly amount of childish energy, the older men watching them almost cringed.

  “They need to bottle that kind of energy. Whoever did it would be a millionaire the second it hit the markets,” Sam commented drily.

  Leon chuckled. “That my friends, is what this thing called life is all about. Family. Sons, daughters, and grandkids. Without th
em, it doesn’t matter much what you do in life. Without someone to share it with you, it just doesn’t matter. All the money and power in the world is useless without someone to share it with.”

  “You got that right,” Mountain agreed. “I’d die for that little boy and his mother, even my grown daughter and it would be well worth it.”

  Dominic leaned back in his chair and just stared at him for a long moment. “You want to know something strange? The first time I met you in that restaurant in Chicago, I remember you said the same thing about your woman. I thought it was strange at the time. I flashed back to the only time in my life when I felt that same way about only one woman, that woman was my wife. Little did I know that your woman was my own daughter. But when you said that to me, I immediately thought that I hoped wherever she happened to be, that whoever she happened to be with at that very moment, my daughter would have someone like you to protect her.” Then he sat up and scowled. “Then I asked Stephen about the bet you told me about. You see I knew who had made that particular bet. Stephan had been riding a dangerous line for a couple of years by that time. When he told me what it was all about I decked him, when I really wanted to kill the little bastard. I knew that sort of thing happened but I never believed in using a child for something like that. When he made that bet, she would have been what, fifteen years old? It took everything I had not to grab a gun and kill him. Then when I came here and saw her for myself, I knew exactly who she was. I knew she was my long lost child. I really did want to kill the bastard then. I never needed that blood test to tell me what my heart already knew. The moment I first laid eyes on her, I knew she was the daughter who was stolen from me so long ago.” He shrugged, then admitted, “There was something inside me that connected with her and I knew who she was in that instant.”

  Mountain didn’t want to tell him but he knew he had to. He loved Izzy and his life just the way it was but the man did have the right to know. As much as he really didn’t want to, he told the other man, “Izzy told me she felt a connection to you too. When you first started coming around the main reason she wouldn’t do the blood test was because she didn’t want to have to choose between you and me. She told me that with me for the first time in her life she had something she’s never had before. Love, the kind of love she felt would last a lifetime. She said when she found that with me, it was something she never wanted to lose. Then she found you and that was something else she never had before, a real father. She said when she saw you for the first time, a tiny piece of her heart just clicked into place. It was like a piece she didn’t even know was broken was suddenly healed. She wanted to know you but she was afraid you would want to take her home with you. She wanted to stay with me but she also to know her father. She wanted to know what being part of a family was like.”

  Dominic hung his head. “I didn’t exactly make that easy for her did I?” He lifted his head and stared at Mountain with tears in his eyes. “I am so sorry I put her through that. I never wanted to hurt her. I was just so damn happy I found her after all that time. Nothing else mattered to me at that moment.”

  “I know that feeling,” Mountain told him. Then he shrugged. “I wouldn’t have let her go by that time, but there was nothing I could do. If she wanted to go with you I wouldn’t have been able to tell her not to.” He leaned forward and glared at the man. “But know this, old man. Even if she had gone home with you, I would have followed her all the way to Chicago if I had to, but I would have followed her to bring her back with me. She belonged to me by that time and I don’t give up what’s mine.”

  Dominic smiled slightly. “I figured that much out already. But I really don’t think you had anything to worry about. Even then, I knew she loved you. I wasn’t blind to that fact even if she wasn’t sure… I was. While I would have moved heaven and earth to take her with me, I would have been wrong to do so. You and your MC have stood behind her and protected her when she needed it. For that, I will always be grateful. Hell, I lost her before I ever knew she was mine.” He nodded at them all. “But if I had to lose her to another man, to another place I couldn’t have picked a better man or a better place.”

  “We do tend to take family serious around here,” Sam stated. “Whether it’s your daughter or mine or Leon’s granddaughter or even Mountain’s daughter, we protect what’s ours.”

  Dominic nodded. “When Mountain first told me he thought his organization was like family, I thought he was crazy. I thought there was no way an MC could be like the family. I mean we were much older and more established than any MC could be. We had traditions that went back several generations.” He shook his head. “Boy, was I wrong. When I came here, I could see just how wrong I really was. You and yours have stood strong against all the odds. You and your people have something here that very few people have the courage to even look for. Most people think of MC’s as outlaws, lawbreakers and dangerous men but that’s not this group.” He chuckled then added, “I don’t doubt that you’re dangerous men, if the reason is a good one but that’s the catch isn’t it? You would fight to protect what you consider your own but you would never fight without reason.” Then he looked around the table. “And that’s why this, all of us being here together probably has never happened before. An MC and the Family together united for the same cause? I’ve never seen the likes of it before.”

  Leon shrugged. “I don’t think it’s ever happened before either. At least not in my lifetime.” He glanced around. “The Family is a very close-knit group of people and closed off to most mere mortals. We’ve learned the hard way not to trust other people, only ourselves. I would imagine an MC is similar. Two groups that don’t trust anyone else, isn’t likely to trust each other either.”

  “Well fuck, maybe it should have happened before,” Sam argued. “Mountain was right in what he said. And us? We’re tied together by family. But family doesn’t only mean just blood, we’re brothers for a reason. Like you, loyalty means something to us too. Our family doesn’t mean just our kids but now by a second generation and in some cases a third generation. We might not have been there for our kids like we all wanted, but we will be for our grandkids. They matter.”

  “Damn right, they matter.” Black Jack glared. “Raising kids should require a manual sometimes. We did the best we could for our kids but sometimes our best wasn’t good enough. We made our share of mistakes but we did the only thing we knew how to do back then. Sometimes that was enough and sometimes it wasn’t. But what we couldn’t do for our children we can do for the grandkids.” He paused then added, “Maybe that’s what life is all about? We’re so busy raising a family that when the grandkids come along, we realize our mistakes with our own children, so we go out of our way to make the time to stop and play with our grandkids. Doesn’t mean we didn’t love our kids but the hustle and bustle of providing for them got in the way. By the time the grandkids come along life has slowed down enough so we can enjoy it.”

  “Some of us here have missed out of raising our own children,” Sam reminded them all. “So we have no choice but to take the time with the grandchildren. I watched my kids grow up from a distance and that hurt almost as much as if I never knew them.” When the others protested, he held up his hand, “Granted, that was my own damn fault, I chose to leave their mothers, but now I’ve got a woman who I can’t just walk away from. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t love my other kids’ mothers, I think I did in my own way, but with Melora, I feel more for her than I’ve ever felt for any woman before. I couldn’t walk away from her if I tried.”

  “You’d better not.” Mountain growled. “I’ll pound you into sand if that happens old man.”

  Sam chuckled despite the threat from the huge man. “I’m not so much worried about what you would do to me but more of what she would do to me. That’s what I’m worried about. That little girl of yours can be vicious.”

  Mountain didn’t say anything but he did smile slightly. He gave Sam a nod as if to say ‘Ain’t that the truth.’ “She ta
kes after me in that respect.”

  “But she’s also very loyal to her friends and I, for one, am grateful that she met and protected Isabelle for all those years,” Dominic said softly.

  “I know how you feel, my friend.” Leon nodded. “I thank the lord for Cassie every day too. Our daughters went through a hell we may never know about but he watched over and protected those girls and kept them all safe. I’m sure they have secrets that still haunt their dreams, secrets we’ll never know about.”

  “Now that my brothers are here, my family is complete now.” Mountain leaned back in his chair. “I got my brothers, my woman and now my daughter and a baby son.” He nodded his head. “Life just doesn’t get any better than this.”

  Black Jack agreed. “Yup, I have all my sons together and found a grandson along the way.” He grinned. “Not only that but now I was hoping for more grandkids on the way. I’m hoping that would happened sooner rather than later. Later, I’ll be too old to enjoy them.”

  “I think we can all be thankful for the women in our lives,” Leon commented.

  “Amen to that,” Mountain agreed.

  Just then, Deke Tory joined the picnic. He roared into the parking lot and shut down his bike. Then he strode over to the first group he saw. He greeted Cassie first. Everyone watched with a smile on their face when Deke practically bent her in half and kissed her. Then he said hello to his brothers watching over the kids. He smiled at little Sam and Jemma as he paused for a moment to watch them swing. Finally, he walked over to the table and faced the five men sitting there. When he didn’t say anything, it was up to his father to ask the question.

  Sam studied his son for a moment then asked, “What’s up?”

  “I’m not quite sure just yet,” Deke admitted worriedly.

  “What does that mean?” Leon asked.

  Deke shrugged. “That just it, I don’t know. I just feel something is going to happen and it isn’t gonna be a good thing.” Shaking his head he admitted, “I just don’t know where it’s coming from.” He hesitated then pushed forward, “Something happened today that set every nerve in my body on alert. I just don’t know what it all means.”