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“So where do we go first, and how are we doing this? Are you looking for TV or podcasts?” Jack questioned.

“Podcasts and I hope we get a following,” I replied.

“How are we doing this? An overnighter? Three days or a week?” Phil asked.

“Great question. I think we need to take it as it comes. If it’s a big haunting, a week, if a simple haunting, maybe two days, and we can judge the rest. It depends on the information and how detailed it is,” I responded.

“That could make for some good episodes. I’ve started creating a buzz on social media already. Tell me you have a plan,” Phil said.

“We have four large houses lined up to start with. All famous, but with little evidence ever being filmed. We’ve been given a week to stay in each,” I announced, and they all grinned.

“I have to ask. Who’s funding this?” Harry inquired.

“I am and covering all your expenses and giving you a salary. You’ll all, including Callie, be employed by the Dixon Paranormal Investigation Company. There are contracts in front of you. They are basic and easy to understand, but if you wish to consult a lawyer, please do,” Maylene stated.

I had taken Maylene’s, my Grandma, surname in the last few months, dumping the one I’d been given when abandoned. And I certainly wasn’t taking my parents’, who’d given in to my other set of grandparents and deserted their children. I was glad they never had another child; they hadn’t deserved one.

I’d been to visit my parents’ grave and not felt anything.

They’d been strangers to me, and honestly, I spat on their grave; their selfishness and self-centredness disgusted me.

Clio and I had been helpless against what life threw at us, and we’d suffered.

We both had feelings of emptiness and of not being worthy of affection.

Although Clio was a lot better than me, as Chance had really boosted her confidence.

“Sweetheart?” Maylene murmured, and I jolted.

“Sorry, I got lost in my thoughts,” I said with a smile. “Let me tell you about our projects.”

Sunny – December 2019

It was time. He stared at his re-enlistment papers and put them down.

Cherry gazed at him, and Sunny frowned. Sunny had given his country fifteen years and had been placed in zones that no man should go.

But he’d done it and somehow survived. Liv needed him home more, and his last tour of duty had been painful for her.

His beautiful baby girl was now sixteen and a totally amazing kid.

She’d not turned into an army brat, and Cherry had reassured him that Liv didn’t do the usual teenage stuff.

Which was surprising, considering the shit he’d got into at her age.

Cherry swore Liv was a good girl and focused on her studies, which relieved Sunny to no end.

He could sign up, but he knew Liv missed him.

“What are you thinking?” Cherry asked softly.

Sunny told her.

“You either do or don’t, son. I’ll support you no matter what,” Cherry said.

“We’ll have to move, we can’t stay on base,” Sunny drawled his mind elsewhere.

Cherry stared at him shrewdly. “You want to go home.”

“There’s unfinished business there, Mom. I deserve to know what happened. Chance thinks the club is clean, you and I know different. Bullet ain’t resting easy,” Sunny murmured.

“Don’t you tell me, boy, what Bullet is doing. My man rests peacefully because he did his best. Never forget that. What you actually mean is it’s bothering you because you know something doesn’t add up,” Cherry argued.

“No, it does not, Mom. We both know that Zeus shot me, but I was only at that place because I received a text from someone in our group. There’s a backstabber in Hellfire MC. I am fuckin’ owed justice. My sperm donor was a brother; my father was VP. I’m a legacy twice over.”

“You think I need telling? If this is something you need to do, then do it, but don’t wrap it up in pretty bows. You want vengeance,” Cherry snapped.

“Yeah, I do.”

“So this,” Cherry tapped a finger on his re-enlistment papers, “has an answer. File it, and let’s hunt for a house. And son, I want a nice one in a good area with a swimming pool,” Cherry demanded.

Sunny began laughing. “Sure thing, Mom.”

“I mean it. If we’re going back to that place… it needs to be worth my time!”

A pang hit Sunny, and self-doubts momentarily surfaced. “If you feel that strong, look for a house elsewhere. I’ll handle business in Spearfish and then join you.”

Cherry paused before shaking her head. “Nope. Someone in Chance’s MC betrayed you.

They got you to meet with them and never turned up.

Worse, they stole your phone after so nobody could check it.

That’s premeditated, Sunny. They went after you to weaken Chance.

I also believe that the same person warned Zeus about the meeting at Chaser’s that day, which is why you walked in on their bodies. God bless them all.”

Sunny startled. “You’ve never mentioned that before.”

“Why would you think that?”

“You told me, son, that meeting had been planned to make moves. Then they end up dead. Zeus was so whacked out at the time he’d no idea what he was doing. Someone wanted Hellfire to stay on the path they were. Sure, we now know that Fury and Stingray were pulling the strings. But…”

“Wait up, Mom, what do you mean Stingray was managing Zeus?” Sunny exclaimed.

“Sunny. Didn’t you work it out? Stingray was the one who brought Zeus in, he supported every decision Zeus made. Bullet, Big Al, and Slash went against Zeus. So, Zeus made a power move. Did you really believe Zeus had the brains to carry out what he did alone?”

“But Stingray?” Sunny muttered, stunned.

“He was buddies with Fury, cousins in fact, they were inbred that family. It was obvious Stingray was managing events to suit himself. But then I heard Zeus one night. He was laughing with Grinder, chortling over Bullet, Stingray, and Slash’s deaths.

Zeus asked Grinder if he’d have placed money on Cutter killing his own father,” Cherry recalled.

Sunny was horrified. “That shocked us all.”

“More shocking was that Cutter did it for a packet of coke and heroin. That kid was a smacked-out waste of space. No matter what Slash did to clean him up, Cutter was just born bad. Grinder began laughing in return. He asked Zeus if Stingray had realised that when he’d ordered all founders be killed, and that he should have clarified: not himself. They roared with laughter at that.”

“You’re kidding me? Stingray gave the order for them to die and forgot to omit himself, so Cutter thought Stingray meant for Cutter to kill him too?” Sunny exclaimed.

“Yes. Exactly that. Big Al was lucky. I just wish they’d reached Bullet in time,” Cherry said softly.

“You’ve never taken another man,” Sunny replied, taking Cherry’s hand.

“Nope.”

“You’re young enough.”

“Oh, Sunny. That might be so. I was seventeen when you were born. I’m sixty-five now. There was only ever going to be one Bullet, and he is hard to replace,” Cherry responded with a faraway expression.

“Mom, Bullet wouldn’t have wanted you to be alone,” Sunny insisted.

“I wasn’t. I had Liv and you. Bullet’s waiting for me, and we’ll be together again. That’s my belief, even though I’m no churchgoer.”

“You deserve happiness,” Sunny pushed.

Cherry had given up a lot for him and Liv. He was just coming to that selfish realisation. Cherry had never complained when Sunny moved them to Florida and signed up. She was more Liv’s parent than he was, considering his time away on tours.

“Listen to me. Forget what I said, what do you want to do, Mom?” he asked. Sunny couldn’t ask Cherry to give up more.

“I want you to find peace, and you don’t have that. Someone played you, Chance, Bear, and the rest for a fool. Get them and make them pay for nearly stealing Liv’s daddy from her,” Cherry answered emphatically.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, because we have lived with the threat of Hellfire finding out you are alive for the last fifteen years. Even here, we’ve had to watch our backs.

Especially with the Venomous Fangs so close.

Fury could have recognised you if he’d crossed your path.

Those tours abroad were a blessing in disguise.

It’s time to get the truth, no matter what the consequences are.

And while you’re doing that, I’ll be planning our escape route,” Cherry stated.

Sunny threw back his head and laughed. Sure as fuck, Cherry would do that.