Judge (Blackwings MC - Devil Springs Book 2)

by Teagan Brooks

  Walking up to her from behind, I slid my arm around her waist and pulled her back against my chest. “It’s getting late, so we should probably get going.”

  “Oh, yeah, I guess you’re right. I didn’t realize how late it’d gotten.”

  “Are you guys heading back to Croftridge tonight?” I asked Phoenix while River was saying goodbye to Dash.

  “Yeah, gotta get back to Annabelle and the babies,” he said with a proud smile. “Tina should be able to take care of everything from here on out, but don’t hesitate to call if you need me. Shaker’s always looking for an excuse to put that chopper in the air.”

  “Thanks, Prez,” I said sincerely and turned back to River. “You ready?”

  “Yep,” she said with a smile and returned to my side.

  I extended my hand to Dash. “Catch ya later, brother,” I said causing him to laugh.

  With that, we climbed on my bike and I took my girl home.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  River

  I woke to an empty bed. And when I glanced at the time on my phone, I knew why I was alone; it was almost noon. Even though I’d slept for close to thirteen hours, I felt groggy and sluggish, but I forced myself to get out of bed.

  I stumbled to the kitchen and clumsily made myself a cup of coffee. “I was wondering when you were going to wake up,” Jonah said from behind me causing me to scream and spill what was left in my mug.

  “Holy shit,” I gasped.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said apologetically.

  “Why’d you let me sleep so long?”

  He shrugged. “I figured you probably didn’t get much sleep the night before and needed it.”

  “Shit! Tina said she’d call me today,” I said and moved to retrieve my phone from the bedroom, but Jonah stopped me.

  “I’ve already talked to her this morning,” he said and grimaced causing my heart to sink.

  “Just tell me,” I said and braced as best I could for whatever he was going to say.

  “She just said there’d been a new development and things might take a little longer than she’d originally thought, but not to worry.”

  I scoffed. “Yeah, right.” A new unknown, at least to me, development that was going to make clearing my name take longer was most certainly something that was going to make me worry.

  “I know it’s easier said than done, and she does, too. She said she’d call this evening with an update.”

  I looked at him curiously. “Why aren’t you at work?”

  He slid his thumbs into his belt loops and rocked back on his heels. “Because I’m the boss,” he said cockily.

  I sighed. “I don’t want my mess to disrupt your life any more than it already has.”

  “I know, but I didn’t want to leave you here alone all day. I can’t do it every day, but I can occasionally work from home,” he said and then his face lit up. “This is completely up to you, but I could use some help at the office. It’s nothing much, just answering phones and helping with invoices, maybe ordering some equipment, but it’d give you something to do during the day, and I’d pay you.”

  I quickly mulled it over. It wouldn’t be a bad idea for me to generate some income. After all was said and done, there was no guarantee that I’d be allowed to resume working at the hospital to complete my contract with the agency. “I’ll do it on one condition; you’ll pay me whatever you’d pay anyone else to do this job.”

  He held out his hand for me to shake. “Deal,” he said with a small smile. “Do you want to start this afternoon or wait until tomorrow?”

  I knew he was trying to keep me busy so I wouldn’t have time to dwell on the new development or the whole situation in general. “Tomorrow. I need to make some phone calls, which I’m sure will result in more phone calls,” I explained.

  “You don’t need to do anything. Tina will take care of anything you need.”

  “I know, but I want to call the agency and speak to my manager myself. I’ve worked for them for almost four years, and I think they deserve to hear from me. Plus, I need to find out exactly who to notify since I’m licensed in one state, the agency is in another state, and the arrest occurred in this state.”

  “Why do you need to report anything? You’ve only been charged with a crime, not convicted.”

  “Most states require a nurse to report criminal charges to the board so they can begin their own investigation.”

  “That doesn’t seem right. How would they’re investigation be any different from a criminal investigation?”

  “I can’t think of an example off the top of my head, but not being convicted of the crime you were charged with doesn’t automatically mean you didn’t violate another law or regulation pertaining to your license,” I explained.

  He nodded. “Well, I’ll leave you to it. I’ll be in the office if you need anything,” he said and kissed my forehead.

  I was grateful for the privacy he gave me because I had no idea what I was going to say. I didn’t want him watching me fumble over my words while I begged and pleaded for my job.

  By the time I finished my last phone call, I was emotionally exhausted and felt like I didn’t get anything accomplished. If I was being honest, I was a little hurt, too. When I spoke to my manager with the agency, she informed me she was already aware of the situation and was in the middle of completing my termination paperwork. She also told me she would mail everything to my attorney, including the final amount of penalties owed.

  “You okay?” Jonah asked as he entered the kitchen.

  I sighed and sagged in my chair. “Yeah, I’m fine, I guess. Things didn’t go as well as I’d hoped.”

  “What happened?” he asked and took a seat beside me.

  I shook my head. “The agency terminated my contract,” I said and exhaled slowly. “Please don’t take offense to this, but I really don’t want to talk about it right now.”

  “Okay, we won’t talk about it,” he assured me before getting up and rummaging through the cabinets.

  When he continued loading the countertops with what looked like baking supplies, I asked, “What are you doing?”

  He winked at me over his shoulder. “We’re going to bake shit that’s really bad for us while we have a movie marathon.”

  “Jonah,” I breathed on the verge of tears. For the entirety of my adult life, no one had taken care of me except for me. I couldn’t even begin to find the words to describe how much it meant to me to have someone like him by my side.

  “You have five minutes to decide what we’re watching. If I don’t have it, order it or whatever, but your chance to pick expires in exactly five minutes,” he said and glanced at his watch, “starting…now.”

  I bolted from the kitchen and grabbed the remote. I already knew what I was going to choose, so I made my selection and returned to the kitchen with two minutes to spare.

  “You want to start with cookies or brownies?”

  “Brownies, please.”

  Once the brownies were in the oven and the timer was set, we curled up together on the sofa and I started the movie. I thought he’d figure it out right away, but he didn’t until the title was displayed and his reaction was not what I expected.

  “If this is what you want to watch, baby, I won’t complain, but I will spank your bare ass if you tell anybody I watched a movie about sparkly vampires with you.”

  I laughed. “No, this isn’t what I want to watch. I mean, they are good movies, but I picked something I thought we’d both enjoy,” I said and selected the movie I did want to watch.

  Jonah kissed my cheek. “Good choice. I’ve only seen the first one and it’s been a while. Wait, do you actually want to see this or do you just want to gawk at Paul Walker?”

  I grinned. “I want to see it, and I want to gawk at Vin Diesel.”

  In between movies, we put a batch of goodies in the oven. Jonah would get up when the timer went off and return to the living room with a plate of warm goodie
s and a fresh glass of milk. I’m not sure if it was due to sugar overload or sheer exhaustion, but I fell asleep not long after the third movie started.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Judge

  When I noticed River had fallen asleep, I fully intended to move her to the bedroom, but I’d fallen asleep as well and was startled awake by my phone blaring close to midnight.

  “Yeah,” I answered groggily.

  “Need you to come to the clubhouse. Grant’s coming to stay with River,” Copper said.

  “Fuck,” I grumbled. “I’ll be right there.”

  I normally didn’t mind being woken up and called to the clubhouse in the middle of the night, but normally, I could’ve brought my girl with me and let her sleep in my room while we dealt with club business. Since her bail stipulations included a curfew, taking her with me wasn’t an option.

  “What’s going on?” River asked sleepily.

  I scooped her into my arms and carried her to my bedroom. “Copper needs me at the clubhouse, but he didn’t say why. Grant will be outside while I’m gone, and I’ll be back as soon as I can,” I said and softly kissed her lips.

  “Be careful. I love you,” she said with a yawn.

  “I love you, too,” I said and kissed her one more time. “I’ll see you soon.”

  Grant pulled into my driveway as I was backing my bike out of the garage, but I didn’t stop for pleasantries. I gave him a chin lift as I passed and headed for the clubhouse wondering what kind of hell was awaiting me.

  I walked into Church and went straight to my seat before looking around the room. When my eyes landed on two somewhat familiar faces, I sucked in a sharp breath. Why in the hell was Oliver’s stepsister at the clubhouse with her baby in the middle of the night? And was her cheek red and swollen?

  Splint, Spazz, and Tiny entered the room moments later and took their seats without a word. Copper snorted and shook his head, but didn’t call them out.

  “Sorry for the late-night call. This is Mackenzie Moore and her daughter, Brinkley,” Copper introduced. “She’s Oliver’s stepsister and Roy’s stepdaughter, but more importantly, she came to the clubhouse to ask for protection for herself and her daughter.”

  That had us all straightening and leaning forward on our elbows. “From what?” I asked.

  Copper gave Mackenzie an appraising look as he rubbed his chin. “She won’t say until we’ve agreed to help her. Now, y’all know how I feel about helping damsels in distress, but I thought this warranted a club vote.”

  He said it like he despised helping women, when we all knew good and damn well it was the opposite, so he either knew something we didn’t or he was trying to see if she’d cave.

  She didn’t cave, not exactly. She sniffed and took in a shaky breath. “It doesn’t have to be both of us, but it has to be Brinkley. I can’t let anything happen to her.”

  “Does this have anything to do with Oliver?” I asked and slapped my palm on the table causing her to flinch. The baby stirred in her arms, but thankfully, didn’t wake. I held my hands up in surrender. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “It’s okay,” she said softly. “I’m still a bit jumpy.”

  I glared at Copper who was leaning back in his seat with an unreadable expression on his face. He glanced around the room and asked, “Well? What’s it going to be, brothers?”

  “You fucking serious, Prez?” Batta blurted and made no attempt to hide his disdain.

  “Hold on a minute,” I said and tried to keep my voice neutral. “You never answered my question.”

  I watched her carefully as she shifted in her seat and glanced down at the bundle of pink in her arms. One lone tear slid down her cheek while she chewed on her bottom lip. Whatever it was, it was enough to make her fear for her child’s life, as well as her own.

  “She’s got my vote,” I announced. The vote moved around the table and unsurprisingly, every brother voted to help the girl and her baby.

  “Protection granted,” Copper said. “Now, who are we protecting you from?”

  “I’m not sure,” she whispered.

  I pinched the bridge of my nose in a weak attempt to keep my frustration to myself. Copper sighed loudly while the rest of the brothers looked on in confusion.

  Bronze leaned forward and met her eyes. “Listen, sweet cheeks, we’re here in the middle of the night and we’re willing to help you. But, if you don’t start talking, that offer will expire in about two minutes.”

  Her eyes narrowed and her lips pursed. “My name is Mackenzie. Not ‘sweet cheeks’.”

  “Noted, sweet Mackenzie. Talk,” Bronze returned.

  She huffed and rearranged the little girl still peacefully sleeping in her arms. “I try to keep to myself and stay away from my family because most of them are into drugs and other stuff, and I want no part of that. But I’ve always been a sucker when it comes to my younger brother, Tristan. His dad just died, and he asked if he could stay with me for a couple of days. Him and Mom haven’t always gotten along, and I figured things were probably pretty bad over there, so I let him stay. Then, my stepbrother, Oliver, was arrested. I guess Mom told him Tristan was staying with me and gave him my phone number because he called my house. I didn’t know it was him at first, because Tristan answered the phone, but I thought it was strange when he kept talking because no one should’ve been calling my house to speak to him. So, I listened to his end of the conversation and I think I heard something I wasn’t supposed to hear. Tristan knows I overheard it, but I don’t know what any of it means.”

  “What makes you think you weren’t supposed to hear it? If Oliver called from jail, that conversation would’ve been recorded and anyone could hear it,” Copper told her.

  “Because he said, ‘You really should’ve minded your own business,’ before he slapped me a few times and shoved me into Brinkley’s room so hard I fell. I got up and went for the door, but he did something to it so I couldn’t get out. He said he’d deal with me when he got back. When I heard him leave, I climbed out the window with Brinkley and started making my way here,” she explained.

  “Why’d you come to us?” Copper asked.

  “Because I’m not stupid. I’ve lived in this town long enough to know the Blackwings aren’t the bad guys. Plus, you guys were looking for Oliver, and it sounded like Tristan was involved in whatever got Oliver arrested.”

  “Tell us what you heard,” I said trying to sound calm.

  “He was really mad about something Oliver lost. He kept saying asshole and slamming his fist on the counter. Then, something about not being able to finish the job he was paid for and that someone, I think his boss, was going to be pissed when she found out.”

  “I see,” Copper said. “And where does Tristan work?”

  She shook her head. “He doesn’t. He hasn’t worked in months. That’s one of the things him and Mom fight about.”

  “All right, this is what we’re going to do. You and Brinkley are going to spend the night here at the clubhouse in one of the empty bedrooms. We have one of those pop-up baby beds we’ll get set up for you. Do you have everything else you need for her for tonight?”

  She nodded quickly. “Y-yes, I do.”

  “Is there anything you need from your house?”

  Her eyes widened, but she shook her head.

  “You sure? Because we’re going over there to get your brother and we can grab a few things for you.”

  “Uh, my purse and keys should be hanging by the front door. If you happen to see my cell phone laying around, it’d be nice to have it. And, um, a pair of shoes if that’s not asking too much.”

  “Not a problem. Brothers, we’re riding out in five. Mackenzie, come with me; my woman, Layla, will get you and Brinkley settled into a room for the night. Don’t leave the clubhouse for any reason whatsoever until one of the men in this room has told you it’s okay,” Copper said and led her from the room.

  I glanced around at my brothers. “What in th
e actual fuck do you think this is about?”

  Batta shrugged and tried to hide his grin. “Don’t know, but I bet we’ll find out soon.”

  When Copper returned, we headed out to the forecourt. He pointed to one of the Suburbans Phoenix had given to the club and we all groaned. “Quit being bitches and get in. We can’t roll up on seven bikes in the middle of the night and catch him by surprise.”

  When we pulled up to the house, there was a car parked in the driveway and a few lights were on. I walked around to the back of the house and noted that all windows were closed, meaning he’d been back to the house and was probably still in there. Using one of the stupidest tricks in the book, we lightly knocked on the front door.

  The front door swung open. “Knew you’d be back, bitch.”

  “Damn. I was hoping to surprise you,” I said as I wrapped my hand around his throat and stepped into the house.

  He gasped and flailed, but we quickly had his arms and legs bound and a gag in his mouth. As soon as we gathered the few items requested by Mackenzie, Batta hoisted Tristan over his shoulder and tossed him in the backseat.

  “Are we just that good or are these fuckers getting dumber?” Batta asked. “Because that shit was too easy.”

  I laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. “I think it’s a little of both, brother.”

  Batta studied Tristan for a few moments. “Do you know what we did to your brother?”

  Tristan’s eyes widened comically and he started shouting something behind his gag. Batta laughed. “Sorry, I didn’t catch that. Oh, you want to know why they call me Batta. It’s simple, really. I like breaking bones with my bat.” Tristan’s muffled cries became louder as he thrashed on the seat. “Calm down, boy. I’m not the one you need to be worried about. See this fucker right here. We call him Judge. Want to know why?”

  Tristan shook his head frantically and yelled into his gag. Batta chuckled darkly. “Because he’s a good judge of character. He can tell anything about a person—if they’re lying, if they’ve reached their limit,” he paused and lowered his voice to almost a whisper, “by the sound of their screams.”