Evelyn's dream of securing a scholarship to America's top ballet school shattered when her mother was brutally murdered during her teenage years. Determined to make a difference, she became a detective, ready to take on the world. Assigned to invest...
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On the calm MC territory by the coast, one of the inner circle members was in full action, cooking a delicious meal for the brothers he had come to love since joining the club. Jeremiah stood in the kitchen with steam rising into his face, low background music playing as the cheerful biker hummed softly. Many of the members had traveled away to celebrate Christmas in different places, so it was mostly the inner circle still working on the territory. With skilled, practiced moves, Jeremiah navigated the kitchen like a pro, a satisfied smile on his lips.
"Morning, J," Wyatt said as he came down the stairs, rubbing his eyes with a big yawn. The doctor of the club, previously military trained and now one of Jeremiahs closest friends. He settled at one of the counters and watched Jeremiah, the head of the kitchen and bar, moving effortlessly around. Wyatt was also an inner circle member. Wyatt took his roll as the MC doctor very seriously. The biker glanced around the kitchen chaos as if a bomb had exploded there.
"How do you find things in this mess?" Wyatt asked, smirking as Jeremiah tasted the soup he was preparing.
"It's organized chaos. Makes it easier to get all of you to leave me alone," Jeremiah joked, savoring the soup. Wyatt cracked a smile, hurried over to the stove, took a quick taste, and was promptly met with a playful jab in the ribs. With a groan, he walked away humming something while rubbing his side.
Jeremiah loved to cook. When Jax had asked him to be head of the kitchen and bar, it was an easy yes. Ever since he was a kid, he'd loved standing in the kitchen because his mom was often there. Cooking time was sacred for them, and even when Jeremiah's dad had been at his worst, the two found comfort in the kitchen together.
The thought of his father made Jeremiah grit his teeth, his jaw tight with a simmering anger that never seemed to fade. He knew there was nothing he could do about it now, but in the quiet corners of his mind, he had wished a thousand times that he could travel back in time, just for one chance to go a round with the man who had scarred his childhood. If only for his moms sake. Since Jeremiah was little, his father's fists had found both him and his mother countless of times. When J turned twelve, his mom had finally gathered enough courage to sneak them out in the dead of night and seek help. It must have taken every shred of bravery she had, because the abuse had been their shadow for so long. Jeremiah knew how much she still had loved his dad, how much she wanted to change him, make him love them enough not to hurt them. Back then J didn't know how much love could hurt, how it made people act and how it made other stay in hope for something better. He had spoken to enough woman being caught up in hurtful love since joining the MC not to feel with everyone of them.
From the moment he and his mom left, it had been just the two of them, mother and son against the world until the MC came in to the picture. Jeremiah had kept tabs on the man who had made his early life a battlefield and knew he'd be rotting in prison for years to come. There was a grim satisfaction in that thought, though it never erased the past. It had been over a decade since that escape, and life had changed in ways Jeremiah could never have predicted. Now it was his turn to take care of his mother. Since the day she'd been diagnosed with cancer, he'd been by her side, doing everything in his power to help. The news had broken him and it had broken the MC's heart too, but Jeremiah had made a promise to himself that she would never face this alone.
