Especially not while I have a man locked up somewhere in Boston getting tortured every night and starving to death.
There are still problems. Thirty days of bliss with Gabby haven’t brought me any more calm, although she certainly seems to think the worst of things have died down. It’s only because she doesn’t know about any of the developments with Scum – or my ex-wife.
Odhran Murray under absolutely no circumstances wants to let this go, and I don’t blame him. Not only do the ex-DHS bikers run a risk to our entire operation, they are part of the problem. They support the tyrants making it more difficult for the Murrays and everyone else to do business around here. Nobody wants to do the jobs the immigrants want to do and now that they’re terrified to leave their houses, we’re down to just about nobody taking crates off the wharf.
It’s nothing new in America that immigrants do most of the dirty work. You can view it as a rite of passage if you’d like, to the potential riches this country has to offer. I see no reason why we should deny anybody who wants to do that backbreaking work the right to do it. But I don’t understand politics very much, I just know that Scum is a massive problem.
And he fucked my wife – which he’s been more than happy to describe.
I would have killed him by now and felt nothing about it, but Wyatt doesn’t want to do that until he gets his sister back from this gang of scumbags she’s shacking up with.
We all know she’s there voluntarily, which only makes this situation even more difficult and fucked up to deal with. There’s only one bright side to have come out of the other end of this past thirty days.
Tylee signed the divorce papers and gave me full custody. I picked them up from my mother’s house.
Wyatt sent me the news in the mail, along with the details of our settlement and custody agreement. In exchange for sparing the life of her dearest lover, Scum, Tylee has given me full custody of our children and promised not to come after any of my assets or alimony. Her brothers, Wyatt, Ethan, and Owen have agreed to pay a divorce support settlement to the tune of $80,000 and to give Tylee the deed to a small cottage in Big Sky, Montana – an old hunting lodge owned by their grandfather.
The only thing is, she has to come back to claim the keys to the lodge – the only home she’ll have since I sold our family home close to the Sinclair and Shaw family in the Midwest. Wyatt has the keys, which she knows, but he doesn’t think she’ll show up.
I think she might in another month during our next quarterly meeting.
I think we might have to use that quarterly meeting to prepare for war.
But I could just be paranoid. Everything is going so well with Gabby, and after all the shit I’ve been through, I can’t believe that it could go so well with this woman after the absolute screw ups I’ve had with Tylee.
As for my agreement to spare Scum’s life.
That was simply her only chance at saving him. His life isn’t entirely in my hands and I can’t control the actions of the Irish mobsters who may want to hold him accountable for crimes he has committed against their own. I promised what I could but truthfully, his fate might be entirely out of my hands.
I haven’t actually told Gabby yet that my divorce has been finalized. She’s out handling her new student orientation down in Cambridge. Dating a woman at Harvard feels like I’m dating way out of my league, so I feel like getting my shit together right now is extra important.
She might not be ready right away, but after six months, maybe? I can’t imagine waiting any longer than that to ask Gabby to marry me. I know what I want out of my life and it’s her. I just have to show her what a life with me could be like.
Zeb sends a text message before Gabby is due to arrive home.
Zebulon: Scum broke.
Fucking finally.
Thirty days of torture and we finally have the information we need – the location of the Iron Frontier MC unofficial headquarters. Gabby sends me a text message right after.
Gabby: At the door!
My heart swells. Soon, the last of our problems will be well out of our way and I look forward to the way that feels…
Chapter Twenty-Six
Gabby
Two Weeks Later
Isaac and I are more serious now. I can feel it. The night he told me about his divorce, we made love seemingly every fifteen minutes until we both fell asleep, intertwined like ropes around each other. I thought everything would be perfect after that, but now I realize Isaac was saving the bad news for later. He might be divorced from Tylee and she may have granted him custody, but the big secret of where he’s been going every night has finally come between us.
Isaac still won’t tell me all the details and considering how hard it is for me to get to sleep still, I don’t need to know more than I already do. I suspect they have a prisoner or they’re planning something. I don’t really know. What Isaac has told me at the very least promises a shift in the dynamic, and I don’t know if this could possibly be good for us.
I’m going to Texas.
It’s not a question. I want to ask about the kids, but he fills in the blanks.