Forever Faith: A Biker Romance Read online

  Forever Faith

  A.M. Rivera

  This is a work of fiction.

  Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the authors imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblances to actual persons, living or dead, or events is purely coincidental.

  Copyright 2015 A.M. Rivera

  All rights reserved.

  faithfāTH/noun

  1.complete trust or confidence in someone or something.

  Synonyms trust, belief, confidence, conviction, optimism, hopefulness, hope

  “The reason birds can fly and we can't is simply because they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings.”

  ― J.M. Barrie

  The Little White Bird

  Contents

  Prologue

  Four Years Ago

  Present Day

  Faith

  Liam

  Faith

  Liam

  Faith

  Liam

  Faith

  Liam

  Faith

  Liam

  Faith

  Liam

  Faith

  Liam

  Faith

  Liam

  Faith

  Liam

  Faith

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgement

  Prologue

  Faith

  My small town is different from most small towns. It‘s true we have a mayor, a town council, a police department, and everything other towns have, but in our town none of those people have the real power. Our town has basically two groups of people: a large religious sect called “The Family”, and an outlaw biker gang, The Iron Horsemen. The leaders of these two groups hold all of the real power in our town, even though they are polar opposites in their views. The authorities look the other way and do their best to live and let live.

  We have a quaint square that is full of mom-and-pop businesses, medical offices, cafes, city government offices, including the courthouse, all of the usual things you would expect to see in an old-fashioned little town in the middle of nowhere. You can park your car and walk the circuit in only a few minutes. Everything we need is in the square. Friendly merchants that call us by our names, no parking meters, no traffic, no rush.

  A few miles outside of the city limits, we have a Walmart and a couple of fast food places. But before you get there, on the large corner where the two main highways cross, is the headquarters of the Horsemen. They have a huge building that looks almost like a Cracker Barrel Restaurant. All wooden with a long porch full of wooden benches, chairs and even rockers to sit on. No black and skulls décor, but wood and rustic to match the town. The building holds a bar-slash-café, and a large repair shop with several outdoor bays for auto and motorcycle repairs. The club headquarters and rooms for its members are in the back half of the building with no public access. I think the building was originally an old rooming house or hotel. This is the most active place in town—the only place with a liquor license, the only place where people are actually awake after ten at night. Everyone in town kind of speculates and gossips about what goes on out there. Are they selling drugs? Are there strippers? Are they selling weapons? Do they have prostitutes? Just gossip. Honestly, the club is mostly respectful of their neighbors. They help people when needed and provide protection for our town when needed. So like I said, the authorities look the other way.

  On the opposite side of town, Burlap Road leads to the area where the Family resides. There are around twenty homes in the compound plus a large plain church building. the Family are fundamentalist Christians that believe in a simple life. They keep to themselves and don’t interact with outsiders. Most of the members are farmers or carpenters. Of course, the women don’t work; they stay pregnant and busy raising their children. The group tries to be totally self-sufficient and rely on nothing from non-members. They have their own school up through the eighth grade then their kids go to school with all the other kids in town for high school. Most of them drop out as soon as they turn sixteen. Education is not important. Going to college is unnecessary. They have a strict code of behavior and dole out plenty of discipline for members that stray from that code. Doctors and modern medicine are used as a last resort. Having faith and God will play a big part in everything that happens to “the Family”. They do not believe in plural marriage but if you are one of them, arrangements will be made to assure you marry within “the Family” to someone the elders feel is suitable. There is no falling in love. No free will so to speak. No choice. It is just mindless obedience and self-discipline. I should know. My Father is David Holmes, the leader of “the Family”.

  Four Years Ago

  The Family is having one of its rare fun days of picnicking and games. The baseball game seems to be going on forever with my little brother, the star pitcher. I see my chance to get away for a minute alone and take it. I tell my mom I have a headache and maybe cramps coming on and with my father’s permission, I am allowed to walk home and lay down. This is very rare. As a fourteen-year-old female Family member, I am never allowed to go anywhere alone and unaccompanied. I never get a minute of privacy. I guess this is their way of making certain me and my thoughts remain pure. I know this privacy won’t last long, so I hurry home to enjoy it. Our house is never quiet. My every action is observed and questioned. Stay busy and keep your head down or there will be sermons and punishment for a vain girl, or a lazy girl, or an ungrateful girl. I don’t want to get into sin; I just want to be on my own once in a while.

  Even this carefree, fun field day everyone is enjoying will be followed by severity and penance for taking time out from work and worship. The sermon at tonight’s meeting will be extra-long, and extra harsh.

  I let my hair loose as I enter the house. Another pleasure denied me in others’ presence. No locks on the doors here, but I wish I could enjoy having a lock on my bedroom door, or the bathroom door, for that matter.

  I am through the kitchen and into the living room when a noise to my left coming from the dining room startles me. A huge bear of a man stands up from the table and says, “It’s ok, honey. I am here to see your dad. He’s a friend of mine.”

  “You are lying. He wouldn’t be friends with someone like you,” I say, and it is like a calm conversation. I am not screaming or panicking.

  He laughs at my comment, and I have never seen such a beautiful white smile. His entire demeanor changes with that smile. He is the most handsome man I have ever seen. He is obviously one of the bikers from The Iron Horseman. He is clean, though, and I heard they were all dirty. His voice, his smell, everything about this giant of a man is perfection. I have never felt so enthralled with the way someone looked before. I just continue to stare at him, probably with my mouth gaping. He is staring right back.

  “My God, darlin’, you are the most beautiful little thing I have ever seen. I bet you are your daddy’s favorite.”

  Now it’s my turn to laugh. “Ha. Hardly.”

  “Well, you are going to kill ‘em all in about five or ten years. If you can get out of here that is. I bet they already have someone lined up for you, don’t they?” he says while shaking his head.

  “Who am I going to kill? Why would I?” I ask, not understanding him.

  “Men, baby. Men. You are a knockout now. I can’t imagine you at twenty or thirty,” he explains, making me super uncomfortable. I have felt so many unfamiliar things in his presence.

  “What do you want?” I ask.

  “I need to speak to your dad. Where is he?”

  “At the field. At a ballgame. He should be back here in a few minutes. If he catches me here alone with you—”

&nbs
p; “Shouldn’t that be my worry? If he catches me here alone with you?”

  “Not in this house. You are expected to be evil. But I am a member of the Family. I am expected to behave a certain way or face punishment. And also, maybe go to hell.”

  He looks angry now, and it is frightening. His eyes darken and his nostrils flare. “He punishes you? Physically?”

  I lower my head, not sure what to say. We don’t talk to outsiders. Especially about this.

  He comes close to me and tips my chin up to meet his eyes. “If I had a beautiful little girl like you, she would be my princess and I would never hurt her. You don’t deserve this life.”

  “Do you have a little girl?” For some reason I don’t want him to say yes. I am not sure, but I think I don’t want him to look at me like a little girl. Like I could be his daughter. That isn’t what I want. But this all feels new to me and I am not sure what I want.

  “No. No kids for me. I am a bachelor for life.”

  I like his answer but I don’t like that he took his hand away from me. His touch felt so good.

  We are staring at each other again when he breaks the ice.“Let me get out of here before he finds out we were here alone. I will walk down towards the field.”

  “Okay, then.” I want to spend more time with him.

  “It was very nice meeting you. What is your name, beautiful?”

  “Faith.”

  “Of course. What else would it be?”

  I shrug because I don’t know if that was good or bad.“What is your name?”

  “Liam.”

  “Nice to meet you, too, Liam.”

  “I will always remember the day I met the most beautiful little girl I ever saw.”And with that, he is out the door.

  I run to my room and lie down across my bed, replaying the entire scene in my mind. The first of a million times I would do it over the years. Some of the young girls in the Family have snuck magazines in and they sort of crush on the guys photos in those magazines. I honestly never got it. I never had any sort of a crush, or imagined about boys at all. Until now.

  Handsome Liam, man of all of my dreams. I wonder if I will ever see him again. I can’t wait to start going to the high school in town. I want friends outside the Family. I want to learn how to talk to people. How to know what to say. I want to be witty and smart when I talk to Liam again.

  The Present Day

  Liam

  “Hey Prez! Jury’s kid and a couple of her little girlfriends are here to see you. I think they want to be club whores or something. They asked for a meeting with you in private. Looks like some jailbait shit to me. Can I send ‘em back?” Devlin asks me, trying to be a gatekeeper, but failing miserably, because he can never say no to anyone.

  Jury’s kid just graduated high school and she is a handful. Always trouble. Fighting in school. Staying out past curfew. I don’t know how Jury hasn’t killed her already. But, she was raised up in the club and you can’t expect too much when all your kid’s mentors and aunts and uncles are Iron Horsemen and their old ladies.

  “Send ‘em back,” I say. It is well known that I grunt more than I speak. I am a man of very few words. A hmm from me has a million different meanings and my guys have learned to interpret them. I don’t really want to spend time listening to some teeny bopper drama.

  I hear whispering and nervous giggles and shushing as the girls enter my office. When they settle themselves down, I finally look up with squinted eyes and there she is. My little beauty all grown up. Well, a little grown up. And fuck me if she isn’t more beautiful than ever. Fuck.

  I say nothing and show no reaction. I let Jury’s kid start speaking.

  “Uncle Liam, these are my friends from school, Megan and Faith. Megan wants to move in and be a club whore. She has been messing with Kyle for over a year and her mom is a drugged-out, drunk bitch that wants her out of the house. So can she stay here, or what?”

  Kyle is a Horseman and a good guy. He is, like, late twenties and this girl can only be eighteen, having just got out of school. The whole conversation is normal around here, but I feel a cringing embarrassment to talk this way in front of my beauty. She is way too good for this life.

  “You need ID, little girl, to make sure your of age. You. Jury’s kid. Have your mom settle her in and talk to her about everything. If Kyle doesn’t claim her as his old lady, she may not like what the other guys expect from her.” I try to explain it as decently as possible in front of her. My mind is racing with thoughts that she wants to be a whore also, or that she has been fucking someone. I am holding on to my temper by a thin thread.

  The new girl, Megan, hands me her driver’s license and high school diploma like she is applying for a job. She is almost nineteen and it all seems legit. I wave them off and pray that Beauty just came along for the heck of it. I don’t want to hear what I think I am going to hear, because I will probably kill one of my brothers myself.

  Bursting with glee, Jury’s kid continues, “Okay. Good. Now, this is Faith and her problem is way more complicated, Uncle Liam.”

  Oh, fuck, I think. She’s fucking pregnant. Someone has fucked that beautiful, perfect body of my angel. I tip my chin for her to continue.

  “Faith is from the Family, but she has been my best friend for four years. She had to fight and beg every day to stay in school through graduation. Her dad is the nut job leader out there. She has stalled and delayed them all she can. Now they are going to force her to marry this gross old man. Eighteen and not married and pregnant is like some gigantic sin to them, or something. She doesn’t even know the guy but she has seen him, and he is like forty or something, and a bigger dick than her dad is. They keep talking about taking her in hand and making her be a good, obedient wife and shit. It is cray-cray and we have to help her!”

  “Hmmm,” I say and the girl has been looking at her folded hands in her lap the entire time. I see her blush, and feel sorry she is embarrassed for something that isn’t her fault.

  “Leave us,” I tell Jury’s kid.

  “My name is Gypsy, Uncle Liam in case you forgot.”

  I nod.

  “Don’t you be mean to Faith. She is shy and quiet, but very smart. She never made anything but straight A’s throughout school. She’s just old fashioned. She can’t help it.”

  I wave her out. My patience shot. Faith still won’t look me in the eye.

  “What do you need, exactly?” I ask her once we are alone.

  “I have left home. I never want to go back there. You know what will happen to me if I do. I was hoping you could give me a job cooking and cleaning. I can save up and go to college. I can pay you back someday. I promise.”

  “Hmm. Well I don’t hire someone for all of that. It is all taken care of by wives and old ladies,” I explain.

  “Well could I be your wife or old lady?” she asks innocently, and I am disturbed by my instant hard on. I don’t do young girls. Unlike most of the guys around here, I am not attracted to young stuff. I like a woman who knows what she’s doing and doesn’t have ideas about love and marriage.

  “No, I am not in the market for either one right now.”

  “I am a really good cook and there is nothing I wouldn’t do. I am not afraid of hard work.”

  “I’m sorry, darlin’. I don’t think I can help you. The last thing we need is your old man and his clan starting a war over me hiding his daughter. Go home and get married and make the best of it. Isn’t that what all you people do?”

  “Please don’t send me away! I have nowhere else to go. I can’t go back there. You know I can’t. I will just live on the streets before going back there.” Her big, beautiful eyes are pooled with tears.

  Neither of us speak. She slowly sits back down and composes herself. She sits up a little straighter, and I have nothing but respect for her; I just stare. I know what I am going to do. I know it’s wrong. I know I will regret it. But I have no choice.

  “Alright, then. We will try it. You are not allowed i
n the club or at any parties. These guys would eat you alive. You do what I tell you and don’t let “Gypsy” or anyone else lead you into trouble. I want you out of sight until we see how your old man reacts. You keep to my room for now. We may move out to my house when it’s safe.”

  “You have a house?” she asks.

  “Of course I have a house. You think I live here all of the time? I have a room here but I only use it when I… once in a while.” I slip a little and almost say that I use my room when I fuck.

  “Oh. I get it. Here is my diploma and my ID. I don’t have a license.”