Let It Ride (Hell's Tribe MC Series) [Book 3]

Chapter 9: No Strings Attached

ONLY ONE CHAPTER LEFT! (and an epilogue of course) Hope you all enjoy.

xoxoxox

Song for this chapter: Start Me Up By: The Rolling Stones 

~Mick~     

Present Day

Ronnie's mouth was hanging open in shock. 

"Wait—" she interjected, holding up her hand. "You killed my grandpa?" 

I scowled, crossing my arms over my chest. "What? No, I didn't kill the fucking bastard, although sometimes I wished I did." 

Ronnie's eyes narrowed. "But you said you beat the shit out of him." 

I nodded. "That I definitely did. He was a worthless piece of shit, but I didn't kill him. I beat him to a pulp on his own front lawn and then I took your mother and brought her back to my place."

"Whoa," Ronnie mumbled. She looked like her head was spinning from all of this. Even I had to admit, it was a lot of shit to hear just before your wedding. 

"So then—" Ronnie began. "How did—but why?—" she rambled. 

"Listen, kid," I interjected, pulling her hand in mine. "We can talk about this any time, but today is your wedding, we shouldn't be wasting time on decades worth of old shit that doesn't even matter anymore." 

Ronnie's eyes narrowed. "It does matter. You said that you loved her more than anything, but you guys broke up and then you found Tawny. How am I supposed to go out there and marry Knox without understanding how you knew that she wasn't right for you but Tawny was?" 

I chuckled. "Ronnie, you're already married." 

"That's not the point!" she yelled. "I need to know how you knew my mom wasn't the one." 

I let out a breath, because not only was I ruining her wedding day by bringing up painful memories of her dead mother, I was also making her question if she should even re-marry the man she had two children with and loved endlessly.

"Val and I were not you and Knox," I explained. 

Ronnie crossed her arms over her chest. "How do you know?"

I let out a breath. "I loved Val, but I wasn't willing to follow her to Cedar City, and she didn't want to stay in Tooele. Before Knox accepted the President gig in Arizona, the first thing he said was that he needed to talk to you about it first. There was no way in hell I could have gotten that kid here if you hadn't agreed to go with him. There was also no way in hell you were gonna live in Tooele without him. Am I right?" I questioned. 

Ronnie nodded, with a knowing look. 

"That's because you two were meant for each other and neither one of you were willing to lose the other. You were both ready to fight anyone or anything that came in your way." 

"But you fought my grandpa to be with her, how did you just give up after all of that?" Ronnie questioned. 

I sighed. "It wasn't just her old man. There were so many signs that I ignored. I knew me and Val weren't right for each other, and that getting involved was a bad idea, but I just couldn't help it. I wanted to make it work so bad, we let it ride for a while, but I just couldn't hold her back from everything she wanted out of life. If I did, I'd be just as bad as her parents." 

___________________________

August 19th, 1989 

It had been two whole weeks since Val's eighteenth birthday.