Spawn Chapter 11

Knowing Claudia wanted to meet a real biker as she called me, I rode the bike I’d rented rather than riding with Kimera in her car. I wanted to be close to her, but I hated being in a cage, too. I made sure to stick close. It only took maybe twenty minutes to make it to the small community where her friends, I guess you’d call them, lived. The street was quiet as we pulled into the driveway of a small red brick house. It was two stories. The lawn was neat and there were plants in flower beds, although this time of year, they were rather dead-looking. It screamed young family home to me for some reason. I pulled in beside her.

As I got off the bike and removed my helmet, I heard a woman chattering as she came around the corner from the front door. There was a man right behind her. Toro bounded past them and up to Kimera, who dropped to her knees to pet him and get his kisses. When he saw me, his tail, I swear, wagged faster, and he gave her one final doggie kiss and then came to greet me. I scratched his head between his ears. He closed his eyes, and I swear he groaned.

“Hey boy, I’ve missed you. Have you been taking care of your mama? I bet you’ve been loving people making over you, haven’t you?” I gave him a final scratch, then a pat on his side. Straightening, I walked over to Kimera and put an arm around her. I could tell she was nervous. I squeezed her closer to me. I wanted, no, actually needed, her touching me. I was happy when she put one of her arms around me in return. I smiled at the man and woman standing before us. I held out my hand to him first. The husband was sizing me up like I was him.

“Hi, I’m Spawn. Nice to meet you. Thanks for agreeing to let me come over and help.”

“Hello, I’m Sonny, and this is my crazy wife, Claudia. If she gets too personal, just tell her no. She’s been bouncing like a ball since she talked to Kimera. Come on in,” he invited. Before he could turn to lead the way, his wife broke away from him and came to stand in front of me. She looked up with awe on her face.

“God, you’re so tall. He’s a giant, Kimmy. You can climb him like a tree. And look at those muscles. Can I see your leather vest and your bike? Do you ride one all winter? Isn’t that cold? How long have you been in a biker gang?”

“Honey, let the man get in the house and something to drink before you go crazy asking your million questions,” Sonny said with a tolerant smirk on his face.

“Oh, sorry. Yes, let’s go inside. It’s nice to meet you, Spawn. I need to check on the kids anyway. They’re napping. Come,” she ordered before heading back the way she came. Kimera smiled indulgently after her.

I bent down to whisper in Kimera’s ear as we followed them. “Bet you’re smiling because you’re imagining climbing me like a tree. Go ahead, admit it. I don’t mind. You can do it anytime, She-Wolf.” I winked when I was done teasing her, although it wasn’t really teasing.

A vision of her arms and legs wrapped around me as I held her against a wall and pounded into her or me holding her while standing in the middle of the room with her riding up and down on my cock came to mind. I began to harden and had to think of something else. I knew after what she confessed about her past and the incident with the Gusevs that she wouldn’t be open to a man doing something like that to her any time soon, but God, when she was, I planned to pleasure her until she begged me to stop and I couldn’t keep going.

Walking into the house, I took in the decor. It was nicely done and felt homey. There was as much pride in their home on the inside as on the outside from what I could see. The small entry opened directly into the living room. Off to the right was the kitchen. We followed them there. I could smell wonderful things cooking. Sonny indicated the stools at the bar, so I hauled one out for Kimera. As soon as she was seated, I took a seat next to her. The first few minutes were spent giving our drink orders and getting them. Sonny did it while his wife went to check on their kids. Once we had our drinks, she was back.

“The kids are still asleep. I’ll let them be until it’s almost time to eat. If I don’t, they’ll be cranky and want to eat as soon as they wake up. So, Spawn, I’ve got to ask how you got your name and what your real one is. And what about the questions I asked outside? Oh, and why’re you here when yesterday you were in Virginia and never said you were coming?” She fired them off one right after the other.

Sonny sighed and gave me a sympathetic look. I grinned. “Well, let’s see. This isn’t a vest. It’s called a cut. On the back is my club’s emblem and name, and you can see here that my road name is on it, which is what Spawn is. I pretty much wear it all the time unless I’m somewhere it’ll offend another club. It just so happens that our VP knows someone in the Dom club in your area, which is the dominant club, and they gave approval for me to be here and to wear my colors while I am. I’m called Spawn because when provoked, I can become like the devil. As for my real name, sorry, but only special people in my life, like Kimera, know and use it. I do ride most of the winter unless it’s very snowy or icy. It’s cold as hell, but you get used to it. I’m in a club, not a gang, and it’s been ten years since I joined the Punishers as a prospect. I became a member nine years ago.”

“And how did you end up here? I thought Kimera said she didn’t tell anyone in Bristol where she was or what she was doing. Did she tell you?” She asked much more seriously.

“Claudia, maybe we should save this until after dinner. Let Spawn get to know us, and we get to know him. I need to put the steaks on the grill anyway if we want to eat soon. Spawn, you wanna come hang with me? We’ll do the manly grill work and leave the women to talk about how great we are.”

“Sure, sounds good.”

As he took the plate with the steaks out of the fridge, I felt Claudia studying me. I didn’t mind. Before going outside, I went up to Kimera and kissed her mouth lightly. She gave me a surprised look. I wanted to get her used to my touch a little at a time, and this seemed like one way to do it. “If you need me, just holler, baby. Okay?” I told her.

She smiled. “I’ll be fine. I promise not to tell Claudia any of your secrets. Go cook my steak. I like mine medium. I’m starving.”

“Bossy thing,” I teased as I left. Her laughter followed me. Once we got outside and Sonny put the steaks on the grill, the real interrogation started. He faced me and crossed his arms as he frowned.

“Tell me, what the hell brings you here? I know for a fact Kimera was adamant that your club not be asked to help us. I want to know what she told you and what you plan to do about it, if anything. We’re not fooling around with our intentions.”

“First, tell me what she told you about my club and me, and then I’ll answer your questions to a point,” I countered.

If he thought he could intimidate me, he was wrong. Sure, he was a big guy. I would say six foot two and two hundred pounds. He was fit, too, but he would be no match for me. I calmly waited and let him see I wasn’t scared of him and could out wait him. As we stared at each other, I saw his unease and worry. He was truly concerned about his wife, at least, if not Kimera, too. I respected him for protecting his wife. It was my job to protect Kimera.

“She just said that she has a friend who’s dating a man in a motorcycle club. The club is very protective of them both. His club helped her friend out of a tough situation. Listen, I don’t want us to get involved in anything to do with your businesses. I just want help with this for my wife.”

“What do you think we do for businesses? Drugs? Guns? Extortion? Kidnapping and murder for hire?” I rattled off.

He grew tenser as I named them. I hated that those things were automatically the ideas people had about us just because we were in an MC. It was true. We might’ve dabbled in less than legal and nice things in the past, but never kidnapping, murder, or extortion. Sure, guns and selling weed had been part of it, among other things, but that was long behind the club.

“I don’t want to know,” he said abruptly.

“I can assure you, we’re not involved in any of those things. We do have several businesses, but they’re all legal. Hell, I oversee a storage unit facility. I can promise you, those units aren’t full of dead bodies, illegal guns, or drugs,” I said, chuckling. Part of the reason I laughed was that I thought of the places we actually did have the bodies, but he didn’t need to know that.

“Really? A storage facility? Wow, okay, I feel stupid for making assumptions. Okay, tell me how you plan to help and what brought you here?”

“I’m here because I was worried about Kimera and why she abruptly left town and wouldn’t say why, where she was, or anything. The whole club is concerned. After two weeks, enough was enough, and I tracked her down. I have skills with computers and finding people, among other things. If I can’t do it, I have friends who can. She told me what happened years ago and that the man responsible was sighted by your wife in town. I plan to find him and make sure he never hurts anyone again.”

“And by not hurting anyone, what do you mean? Put him in jail? Beat his ass and threaten him? Kill him?”

“What do you want to do to him for raping your wife repeatedly as a child?” I countered gruffly. I wouldn’t outright admit anything to him. I had to protect myself and the club.

He clenched his fists and stared off into space for several heartbeats before he looked at me and answered. “Jail is too good for the fucker. I want him to hurt and never be able to do it again or for her to run the risk of laying eyes on the fucker.”

I read between the lines. He wanted him dead. I gave him a single nod. “Then we agree, and I don’t see us having any issues.”

“Good, so tell me how you ended up running a storage unit,” he asked with a grin. Chuckling, I told him why. It left me with a lot of time to devote to other things for the club. It didn’t take long for the steaks to cook, and then we were back with the ladies. They had the rest of the food on the table. It was somewhat chaotic because while we were outside, the kids got up.

Their three-year-old son, Brent, was running around in excitement and playing with his cars and Toro. Their one-year-old daughter, Brie, was toddling unsteadily around, grabbing everything she could get her hands on, which at times was Toro. It was a full-time job watching and making sure they didn’t get into anything they shouldn’t.

Just like she was at the compound, Kimera was hands-on with them. She smiled a lot. I could see her being the same and more with our kids. God, I had to get her to see we were perfect for each other. I wanted this—quiet nights at home with our kids, maybe some friends over for dinner, and then time alone together at night.

Dinner ended up being really good, and I enjoyed it. As we ate, we kept the conversation to general topics. They told me what they did for work. I told them about what I did in general for the club, nothing too heavy. After we were done, it was time for the kids to play a bit, then get a bath and go to bed. It was a while before the house settled down. With the kids in bed, Toro was laid out on the floor in front of their fireplace. It was cool, so they’d turned it on. He was dozing.

“Sorry for that. They would’ve interrupted us the whole time if we’d tried to talk while they were awake,” Claudia apologized.

“You don’t have to feel bad for me. I understand. We don’t have that many kids in our club family yet, but the ones we do are the same. We have a one-year-old, another who is close to a year and a half, and then a five-and-half-year-old. They run us ragged. I could sleep for a whole day after watching one of them,” I admitted.

I saw stunned expressions on all three faces. It was Kimera who broke it. “You babysit them? On your own? I knew you guys paid attention to them at gatherings and such, but not that you did more.”

“Yep, so you see, I’m quite the catch, babe. I know how to change diapers and feed and bathe babies and kids. I’m ready for ours. Remember, you promised to marry me if I won the bet,” I said with a wink.

She blushed. Claudia jumped on my remark. “What’s this? You didn’t say anything about you getting married and having kids, Kimera. Where’s your ring? You’re keeping secrets.”

Kimera hastily answered her. “We’re not getting married. Spawn is teasing me about a bet Troian and I made with him and his club brother, Lash. They ended up winning it, and part of it consisted of him teasing me about us having kids. He didn’t say anything about marriage though.”

“Tell us the bet,” Claudia urged.

Seeing Kimera squirm, I decided to tell them for her, so I quickly recounted the basics of the bet and how we won. When I was done, Claudia was sitting there with her mouth hanging open, and Sonny was grinning.

“Oh my God, you watched a bunch of bikers fight? Tell me, were they all the size of him and covered in tattoos? If so, I need to see a rematch,” she said.

“Hey, none of that shit. You ogling men on the covers of those books you read is one thing, but I draw the line at live ones,” Sonny objected half-teasingly. It was obvious from the way they acted, they were in love with each other.

“Honey, you know I only love you,” she cooed before kissing him.

As they did, I addressed what Kimera said before. “Baby, I asked you to be my old lady. Did you forget? In my world, that’s more serious than an actual wedding, but that part was implied. I want you to have my last name, too. Once we get this shit with this bastard Paden settled, we’ll plan it.”

“Spawn, stop kidding around like that, or Sonny and Claudia will think you’re serious. If you don’t, I’ll say yes, and then what’ll you do?” she asked with a smirk.

I leaned closer to her. “I’ll run home and get your ring and be back here as fast as I can to place it on your finger and get you to set our wedding date. I don’t want a long engagement. The old ladies will help you plan it. Hell, the ladies at the two Warriors’ compounds are experts at it. They’ll be more than happy to help, too. We need to do our part to help the Punishers catch up on kids. I think Dublin Falls alone has fifty kids now.”

“Fifty? Are you kidding me?” she gasped.

“Nope, and they have, I think, at least twenty over in Hunters Creek. You said six kids, right? We may have to up that number,” I teased further.

I loved the flush it brought to her skin, but it also made what appeared to be desire peek through on her face. If she was totally uninterested in me, she wouldn’t react like that. It gave me hope. I leaned in the rest of the way and kissed her softly on the lips. I wanted to devour them, but this wasn’t the time or place for it.

“More than six? Oh no, I’m not doing that,” she weakly protested when I drew away from her.

“You don’t have to have all of them. I’m willing to adopt or foster, remember? However, we should talk about it later. We have some less pleasant stuff to talk about first.”

A dark cloud came over her expression. I hated to do it, but I needed that information so I could get started on finding the bastard and ridding her of him. Claudia’s smile fell away. Sonny curled up his top lip and took his wife’s hand. I took Kimera’s hand.

“I’m sorry, babe. I know this is hard for you ladies, but we need to know about him so I can find him. Also, I have to get the club mobilized.”

“Mobilized? Why?” Claudia asked in confusion.

“Because we’ll have to make sure he doesn’t get away and keep doing this to other women, girls. I don’t believe he’s stopped doing it all these years, do you?”

“I hoped I was the only one. It was that thought that kept me from losing my mind all these years, but when I found out he did the same thing to Claudia, I knew I just fooled myself. I have no doubt he’s done it to more girls. Whether he does it to grown women, who knows,” Kimera said quietly.

We were sitting on the couch together. I tugged her closer to me when I saw her shiver. I knew it wasn’t because she was cold. “Babe, I hate to say it, but it would be extremely unlikely you’re the only two. Men like him are predators, and they keep doing shit like he did until someone puts a stop to them. I have a question. Do you have any idea how many young girls his family fostered before you two? What about afterward?” I was trying to gauge how many he hurt just in his parents’ home. The chances of even more outside of it were high as well.

“I have no idea of either,” Claudia said.

“I was told by the parents when I came they started taking in foster kids when he was fourteen. He was six years older than me, which would make him thirty-one now. They had pictures they showed me one time when I asked about their past kids. There were five girls and two boys. I have no idea how many they might’ve raised after I left. Claudia said his parents moved a few years ago. She has no idea where,” Kimera added.

“Okay, I can find out the names from the foster system’s records. What I need is anything you remember about him. Obviously, his name, although that too I can get from the system. Who were his friends growing up? Were there places he liked to hang out or things he did for fun? Hobbies? I understand you ran into him, Claudia, and that’s how you knew he was in town and why you contacted Kimera. I need to know what he said to you and how you found Kimera. She said she lost track of you. The smallest detail can help more than you imagine,” I explained.

“I can do that. Well, let me start with how I found her. Since her name isn’t exactly common, I went online and did one of those things where you pay for someone to get you an address and phone number. I didn’t know which state she was in, but I knew it would be highly unlikely that there’d be another Kimera Jordan, or if there was, not many. I was right, and it only came back with one.”

As she talked, I took out my phone and opened the notes section so I could jot down anything I needed to remember. I had a good memory but you could never be too careful. “That’s the easiest way to do it if you’re willing to pay and the name isn’t common. What about your run-in with him? Where was it, and what did he say?”

“I was in town running errands. I literally bumped into him on the street outside the post office. At first, I thought I was seeing things when I looked up and saw his face. It wasn’t until he opened his mouth that I knew it was him. I’d never forget his voice,” Claudia said with a shiver.

“Is there something unique about it?” I asked.

“It’s deep, but it was always the way he said his words, and he’d make these funny humming sounds. When he first came home to live with his parents, we thought he was just a bit weird, but after you got to know him, it’s like he has this uncontrollable noise he makes. It’s a half moan and half hum.”

“Does he do it all the time?”

“No, when he was talking with his friends or parents, he wouldn’t, but if he was talking to us or we were in the room, it would happen on and off. It’s not very loud, so I think most people don’t realize he does it,” Kimera added.

“Got it. Keep going. What did he say to you?” I prompted Claudia.

“He got this big smile on his face, which made me sick, and called me by name. Said it was so good to see me and that he’d thought about me a lot over the years. He saw my wedding rings and asked me who the man was and if he appreciated the skills I had when we met. I told him to go to hell and tried to walk off, but he grabbed my arm. He leaned close to me and told me he couldn’t wait to see Kimera and we should have a reunion to relive old times. He made me so sick to my stomach. I don’t know how I kept from puking on him.”

She paused and took a shaky breath and a gulp of her drink. Sonny was rubbing her back with one hand while holding the other hand in his opposite hand. She had a sick expression on her face just from retelling her story. I hated to make her do it, but I needed all the information I could get.

“Take your time,” I told her. She gave me a faint smile and nod before launching back into it.

“I jerked my arm loose and began to walk off. As I did, I told him to never speak to me again and to stay away from me. I also told him that he didn’t need to worry about seeing Kimera because she didn’t live here anymore. He laughed and called out that he’d have to find her so we could have that reunion. He’d show us the time of our lives, and he knew we missed him. His last parting remark was he’d be seeing me really soon. I got around the corner and took off, practically running.”

“She called me on her way home, crying hysterically. I had to have her pull over the car and not drive. I went to pick her up. My parents watch the kids while we work. They were with them, thank God. She’d used her lunch break to run to the post office. I had her call her office to tell them she wouldn’t be back and that she had gotten sick. I let my boss know I had a family emergency and stayed with her. When she calmed down a bit, she told me what happened,” Sonny added.

“Did you already know her history with him, or was that the first you’d heard about it?”

“I knew about it. When we first met, she had some reservations about men. When I didn’t give up trying to convince her to date me, she explained what happened. That cocksucker has caused her years of pain and fear. Even though it happened a decade ago, she would still occasionally have a nightmare about it, or a smell or sight would trigger her to recall it. Since she saw him, she’s rarely slept a whole night. I despised the bastard when she originally told me, but now, I hate his guts even more and want him gone. This is my chance. Before, we didn’t know where he was or have a way to find him, although I guess we could have done what we did to find Kimera, but that could’ve been a fluke in her case. That’s why I want us to find him as fast as possible before he leaves town. I don’t know if he lives here or was visiting.”

“It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t live here. I can find him. No matter where he does live, we can get him. Do any of his friends still live here? If so, what are their names?”

“He didn’t hang out with many people that we knew of other than two guys who he said he’d been friends with since they were young kids. One was Asa Ledger and the other Linden Faris. They were the only ones I ever really heard him mention by name, and they’d come around to the house sometimes to pick him up. I don’t know if they still live here,” Kimera offered.

“Asa did the last I knew, but Linden moved not long after Paden went back to school,” Claudia supplied.

“Did either of them ever try anything with you ladies or say anything to make you think they knew what he was doing to you?” I asked next.

“They’d make teasing comments about how pretty I was becoming but never touched me. What about you, Kimera?”

She didn’t say anything at first. She was staring off into space. My gut clenched. Jesus, please don’t tell me either of them had done something to her, too. If so, how would I ever make her trust me? “Baby, look at me. What did they say or do?”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to space out on you. They never raped me like he did, but when you asked, it made me remember that Asa one time touched my breasts and another time my ass. I thought they were purely by accident, but thinking back and then remembering him snickering to Paden about how he didn’t know how he could stand to leave the house, maybe he did. I don’t know, honestly. I found every way I could to escape whenever he was in the house. I wish I could tell you for sure if either did.”

“You have nothing to apologize for. Okay, what’s Paden’s last name? The parents no longer live here, as far as you know, but are there any other family members in town?”

“None I ever met. As for his last name, it’s Gallagher. His parents are Beck and Dorothy,” Kimera said.

From there, I had them tell me anything they could recall about his hobbies, sports, or places in town he liked to go. Since he’d been an adult, they didn’t know much about what he did when he was away from the house. Mainly, he seemed to talk about partying a lot and bragged about the girls who chased him. I could tell my questions were wearing on them, so I didn’t ask more after they finished telling me that much. It was Sonny who started to ask me questions.

“You said you can find him and would make sure he can’t do this to anyone again. How? It’ll be their word against his. The cops might not be able to prove it. Won’t they question why it’s taken this long for them to come forward? And we don’t know if there’s a statute of limitations on it. We thought about asking a lawyer but haven’t. If there’s a limitation or they can’t prove it, then he still gets to walk free and keep doing it.”

“Let me answer your questions. Before we left the hotel to come here, I asked a friend to do some digging on this for us because I thought it might come up. Here’s what he said. In this state, it’s considered a felony if someone seventeen or older has carnal knowledge of someone thirteen to seventeen years old when the defendant is more than four years older than the child, which would be the case with Kimera and Claudia. If he was closer to their ages, it would be a misdemeanor. Since they weren’t younger than thirteen, it’s considered second-degree or forcible rape. He prevented them from resisting by using both force and threats of physical violence. If convicted, he could be sentenced anywhere from five to forty years imprisonment with hard labor. The more counts would most likely add to the years given. They’re nowhere close to the statute of limitations. Of course, the biggest risk is proving he did it.”

“So they could go through all this, and he still gets away with it,” Sonny snarled.

“Yes, it’s a possibility. There’s no physical evidence to support their claims, so it would all fall to circumstantial. I won’t lie and say it would be easy or a guarantee of conviction. You asked how I could make sure he never does it again and that he pays for what he did. All you need to know is I can. He’ll never darken their lives. That’s all I’m gonna say on that. I believe he’s done this with more than them, but I might be wrong. It doesn’t matter. I’ll find him regardless of whether he lives here or in Timbuktu. He can run and hide, but eventually, he’ll be found.” As I explained the last part, I made sure to stare hard at each of them. I knew Kimera understood what I meant. She knew what we did to Troian’s attackers. There was no way in hell I’d do less for her.

“You’ll kill him,” Claudia said softly. I didn’t respond. “Okay, I get it. What do you want us to do next? How can we help you?” she asked.

“You tell me anything you might remember that could help us find him. Leave the rest up to me and my club. If we need more boots on the ground or help, we have friends who can do it. If you run into him again, don’t confront him or indicate in any way he’s on anyone’s radar.”

“We can do that,” Sonny said.

“Good. That’s all I can think of at the moment. We’ll be around, so I know we’ll be seeing you,” I told them.

“Yes, we will. Now, it’s getting late and you both have to work in the morning. We’re gonna let you get to bed. Thank you for dinner,” Kimera told them.

We spent the next few minutes saying goodbye and thank you for having us, and then we left. On the ride back to the hotel, I thought through what I wanted to talk to her about as well as the research I’d start tonight. I wouldn’t be able to rest much without being with her, and that wasn’t something I saw her doing. Before I went to her room earlier, I’d gotten a room next to hers even though I wanted to be in her room and hold her. I knew it was too soon to do that.