Page 24
Story: Property of Bigfoot (Kings of Anarchy MC: New Mexico #1)
24. FAMILY DYNAMICS
SAMMY
Over the next two weeks, we uncovered a lot of disturbing things while I kept my brother at the clubhouse with me. Dad and my two uncles went back home and worked together to clear everything of Colleen’s out of his house and mine. He also filed a criminal complaint with the new sheriff, Todd Wilburn. Colleen had been keeping a lot of secrets. Some of them were uncovered by Glitch, who couldn’t let things go when he tried to figure out how she was related to the man she called her uncle.
As it turned out, her real name was Sabrina Ginger Graham. My dad married a woman named Colleen Sabrina Carlson. Since she didn’t exist, technically my father had never remarried anyone. Still, he filed a complaint with the sheriff that she had stolen all the money from his checking and savings account, the furniture from my house, and she had abandoned her son with him.
As some of the items stolen were mine, I had to go with my father to file the complaints. “I’m sorry, Mr. Morton, but there’s nothing we can do about the joint checking and savings.”
“Why the hell not?”
“You were married. She had every right to take those things.”
“No, she didn’t,” I argued. “She committed fraud when she married my father using a fake name and under false pretenses. She clearly had a plan to financially decimate my family. Since they were never married, the draining of those accounts was a criminal act, as well.”
“They had joint accounts, whether the marriage was legal or not,” Sheriff Wilburn argued with me.
“She used her fake identity on those joint accounts, which is a crime, Sheriff. I shouldn’t have to tell you how the law works.”
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before letting it out. Then he pulled his hat from his head and set it on his desk before he looked me in the eye again. “You’re right. It would appear that everything this woman did was based on an act of fraud, and it all falls in the realm of criminality. We can’t even begin to compile charges until we have all the facts lined up. Once we do, we will go before the judge, obtain a warrant, and put out a BOLO on Colleen, Sabrina, or whatever in the hell her real name is.”
“We need that in writing for insurance purposes,” I demanded. Sheriff Wilburn placed his hat back on his head and gave me a curt nod. “Our administrative assistant will have the information for you to pick up within the next two days.”
Two days later, Sheriff Wilburn called Dad and told him they needed to have an in-person conversation. Once again, I was there as the sheriff explained what Glitch had already uncovered. My father’s fake wife had a lengthy string of aliases and an even longer string of men who she had swindled out of their money and property over the years. One significant source of note was a wealthy businessman near Snowflake, Arizona who offed himself after he lost fifteen acres of his land and his entire savings account to the bitch. That wasn’t the worst of the insult, or the reason he supposedly ate a bullet, though. That piece of property quickly turned into the compound where the Mojave Devils built their clubhouse.
My father, having wised up in the past few weeks, finally used his head to point suspicion in the direction of their motorcycle club. “You don’t think they took her, do you? What if she was being forced to do those things?” Dad actually shed a few tears as he asked the sheriff. “Oh God! What if she needed help to escape them and I didn’t even notice? I’ll admit, I married her because she got pregnant, and I was lonely after Joy passed away. I wasn’t the most attentive husband. What if she tried to… I don’t know…”
Sheriff Wilburn must have felt sorry for my dad’s stellar act. “Mr. Morton, whatever you do now, I don’t think blaming yourself is the right road to travel down. If this woman wanted to get help, she had plenty of opportunities. As much as it pains me to admit this, we have every reason to believe she was working with former Sheriff Estes. They disappeared around the same time, but some evidence has come to light that suggested they may have been involved in a romantic relationship. His bank accounts were also cleaned out, but it was done by him, and he did not appear to be under duress.”
Later that evening, after my father was tucked away in his house, and I had come back to the clubhouse to check on the boys, I ran into Melissa. “Were you here to pick up Hawk?” I asked her.
“No. Josh was needed for something. I’m waiting for him to finish whatever super-secret quest the club has him on.”
“Oh, okay. Well…” The polite part of me thought I should say something like, “It was good to see you.” The other part of me just left the words hanging at “Well…” I knew eventually, I’d have to try to do better with Melissa for Hawk and Uncle Josh’s sake. I had tried, but I was still pissed that she lied to ruin things between Bigfoot and me preemptively. And her only reasoning was selfish bullshit. It was hard to forgive that and impossible to forget.
As we stood there with that singular word hanging in the air between us, Tilly made her way to us. She was headed toward me, so she didn’t realize who I was talking to when she invited me, Ryan, Hawk, and Bigfoot to a family dinner. I accepted and when Tilly leaned in to hug me, she finally realized who was standing there.
“Oh, Melissa.” Her tone was almost cringey in its awkwardness. “I didn’t realize you were standing there. I suppose I could extend the invite to you and Josh, as well.”
“I appreciate the immense amount of thought you put into our invite, Tilly, but we’ll have to decline as we have dinner plans of our own.”
Tilly simply nodded and Melissa looked from me to Bigfoot’s mom and back a couple times before she simply walked away. Tilly let out a breath I didn’t realize she was holding. Then laughter burst free from her, and I realized she hadn’t been holding her breath, she had been trying not to laugh in the face of her grandson’s mother.
“Thank God!” she wheezed. “I did not have the strength to share a meal with that insufferable woman today.”
I laughed along with her. “She can’t be that bad. I mean, she was a bitch when I first met her, but I understood her reasons. Sort of.”
Tilly rolled her eyes at my feigned diplomacy. “That woman is a handful and a half. Should have seen her when she was pregnant with Hawk. Lord, but you would have thought she was the only person in the history of the Earth to ever be pregnant or have to give birth. Your poor uncle is in for it if he sticks it out with her.”
“He seems happy with her, but then again, Uncle Josh can be a challenge, too.”
“Ah, a match made in heaven - or would it be hell?” Tilly pondered as she got the ingredients together from the club’s pantry for whatever she was making for dinner.
I laughed at her. “Shop here often?”
Tilly grinned and swatted me away playfully. “Just you wait and see how many extra people come to sit at your table when you start hosting dinners. You’ll shop at the clubhouse pantry too, if you’re smart. Let these boys pay for their own food. They certainly will eat enough of it.”
After dinner, when everyone sat around the table, full, happy, and pleasantly surrounded by family, Bigfoot got up and reached into his pocket before he got down on one knee in front of me. “Samantha Morton, my sweet angel, my beautiful, sassy avenging angel,” he corrected with a laugh as everyone followed suit. “You have been mine since I crashed into your life.” I chuckled along with everyone else at that. “We’re going to have our stag and hen parties in Vegas next week because the weekend after, we’re getting married at the clubhouse.” After he got that mouthful of an order out, he shoved a beautiful ring onto my finger, leaned forward and kissed it, then grinned up at me with that wide, knowing smile of his.
Yeah, that gorgeous face of his could get away with a lot. Since he hadn’t asked a question, I didn’t bother to answer him. I simply asked, “Isn’t it a bit too soon?”
He wasn’t the one who responded to me. His mother did. “Oh, honey! When the Cardwell men decide they’ve found the one, they don’t leave anything to chance. I’m honestly surprised you’re not already married. Crutch had a minister preside over our wedding while I was still passed out cold and couldn’t say no to him. That was two weeks after we met.”
When I say my jaw dropped, I mean the damn thing literally touched the table. “I’m going to need a story time about that later, Tilly.”
Tilly waved me off again as if I was being silly. “Another day, maybe. This is your day! Congratulations, my sweet girl, and welcome to the family. We’re so proud to have you as one of our own.”
Ryan hopped up and down in his seat as he tapped Hawk on the shoulder repeatedly. “Are we budders now?”
Hawk looked to his dad for an answer because he was obviously confused by the question too. “That’s a complicated answer, now isn’t it?” My new fiancé teased me. All of the adults started to laugh until Hawk spoke up.
“If I’m your brother, then Sammy is my sister,” Hawk mused.
“Fuck!” Bigfoot hissed as I threw my head back and laughed at the situation Melissa had been so afraid of.
“Lord help these children to one day understand,” Tilly prayed.