After I was done cleaning off the counter, I took some orange juice from the fridge and poured a glass to take to the table. Blackjack’s eyes went from his son to me as he watched me take a seat with the two of them. When his attention returned to his son, even he noticed the apparent eagerness in his expression when his father was less than a third done with his coffee.
“And how is school by chance?” Blackjack asks, putting aside his skepticism.
Dex shrugs, “Same as usual. Mrs. Dixie is driving me nuts.”
“She liked me too kiddo, best to stay on that good side of hers.”
“Whatever you say, Dad,” Dex smirks before displacing his eyes down to the kitchen table.
Blackjack’s brows furrowed in confusion as he looks from me to his son. “Am I missing something here? Did something happen when I was gone?”
Dex shakes his head, “Not really. And if it did, you’d know.”
“Something’s happened and you two haven’t told me,” Blackjack growls.
I could tell the Dex was just about ready to laugh his ass off at the irony in the morning. Hell, even I didn’t know if I could stand it for much longer. As soon as Blackjack raised his coffee cup to take another sip, I could feel my own heart trying to jump out of its chest.
He took his sip with closed eyes, surely because he was tired of the trip. When he put the cup down, he hadn’t even bothered to look down much to my disappointment.
Instead of waiting around for him to notice, I placed my hand up to his wrist.
“Would you like another coffee, dear?” I ask playfully.
“We won’t be takin’ that nap now, babe. But yeah, pour me another”
In that moment, he looks down to his empty cup and grows confused by what he finds inside. Seconds passed between us in silence until his eyes widened and the table was abruptly shifted when he got out of his seat with a start. He couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t even believe it as I saw the corners of his lips rip into the biggest smile I’ve ever seen.
“Seriously?”
I nodded quickly, tears of joy practically ready to burst from the corners of my eyes. He pulls me out of the chair at once and into his arms, giving me what felt like the warmest embrace I had ever felt in my life. I held him in my arms, my own smile determined not to falter as I saw Dex look up at us with the same boyish smirk.
Blackjack pulls back from his hug and looks down at me with what I could describe as pure happiness. He takes my face in his hands and kisses me hard, filling up my heart with a weightless relief until the only thing I could do was accept it. We laughed in that moment. All of us.
At the bottom of that little blue cup was a single phrase that made everything from here on out okay: “You’re going to be a Dad!”
Chapter 17
Blackjack
Finding out that Ashley was pregnant was the best news I’d ever heard. It may not mean a lot to some men, but to me it meant everything. This was a second chance for me to do right be her. A year ago, no one could have told me that I would’ve ended up having a child with the one that got away, yet here she was, standing right before me.
Another month flashed by in the blink of an eye, it was still too soon to know the gender, but we decided to decorate the room on a neutral color scheme––mint green.
Ashley was keen on betting that it was going to be a rumbustious boy, but I stuck with my guns in saying we were probably going to end up with a beautiful girl. Dex didn’t care either way. Whether he ended up with a brother or sister, he was happy for the two of us.
We waited to tell Fist for a few weeks. Ash had been so worried about something going wrong with the pregnancy and I wasn’t about to argue with her.
“Hot damn! You’re not pulling my legs, are you?” The old man looks us both dead in the eye.
“No, Sir,” I respond, squeezing Ashley’s hand as she winds her arm around mine. “We wouldn’t joke about something like this.”
He looks from me to his daughter before taking her spare hand. “Is this true, sweetheart?”
I watched Ashley nod, biting her bottom lip before her mouth slip into an eager grin. “We’re having a baby, Daddy.”
The man squeezes her hand and the smile we’d been waiting for the entire day had finally emerged from his stoic expression. A laugh escapes him, and he stands up to open his arms, grateful for the news that walked into his living room. The two of us were pulled into his hug while Ashley cried her eyes out into her father’s chest. I patted the man’s shoulders, feeling closer to him than ever before.
“This is good news,” the man laughs before releasing us to wipe a tear from the corner of his eye, “I needed to hear this after the shit that went down last night.”
“Last night?” I ask.
Fist shakes his head and lifts his arm up to take my shoulder.
“It’s good you told me about this now. I just hope that what I have to say won’t spoil your happiness in this moment.”
“What’s going on, Daddy?” Ashley looks up at him with an expression mixed in confusion.
The man closes his hands down on his belt, looking down to the floor sternly. “This has gone on long enough. I’ve finally made a decision regarding our issue.”
“What issue?” She blinks.
I cross my arms over my chest, “The Bears?”
“Correct.” The man finally looks up at me, somber as could be. “It’s unforgivable what your ex-husband did to you, Ashley.”
Ashley stepped back, her eyes more alert than before. I couldn’t pull my eyes from Fist with the way he ended that sentence.
“Now, I know we’re blessed that you’re able to be with child––,” Fist continues, scratching the back of his head, “but this man cost you your first baby. On top of that, he nearly cost you the possibility of bearing children at all.”
“That’s none of your business, Daddy,” she says as she shakes her head, her voice growing sharper than her old man’s razor. “I thought we were done with this. I don’t want to see that son of a bitch’s face in this town again.”
“Which is why we have to seek compensation,” her father emphasizes, opening his hands up. “It’s one thing to get a restraining order. It’s another thing to make him accountable and punish him in a way that he truly deserves”
“Dad,” she says lowly, warning him.
I take her arm in mine, giving it a soft squeeze before she could look up to me. With an assuring glance, I calm Fist down as much as I can, while still giving us the ability to go after Harry.
“We don’t know what could happen if we make demands from the Bears,” I say to Fist, “This is a personal conflict that could result into a war between us and the Bears. We’ve only just started getting back up on our own two feet after the drugs, shit, we had to use cash out of the reserves to fix alla that”
“With the rate we’re at, we can take them, Son,” he reaffirms confidently.
“There’s going to be casualties,” I point out.
Ashley’s arm tenses at the sound of that. Fist looks down to his daughter, taking a moment of thought to consider the fallback of this proposition. When his eyes came back to me, I knew it wasn’t enough for him to stand down.
“I know this. After everything Harry Vale has done to our girl he deserves what’s coming to him. My only regret is that I didn’t act sooner”
I looked down at Ashley but deep in her eyes, she already knew. No matter what we told him, Fist insisted that this was the way to go. I wanted to argue with the old man, but I couldn’t – I wanted to hurt Vale just as bad as he did.
***
Fist called an emergency meeting in church. By the looks of it, he had our men ready to rip at Grizzly himself and send the son of a bitch’s hide to his loved ones.
“Blackjack. Blackjack!” Fist called out to me from the head of the table. My eyes lit up from where I sat, and I saw that everyone was looking at me. Every single man in this church was looking for answers.
/> I blinked, “Yes, sir?”
Fist’s expression grew harder. “I asked what your thoughts are on the meeting being set into the middle of next week.”
“That’s too soon, Fist,” I thought to myself but dismissed it stubbornly before saying aloud, “How long ago did Ashley come to us?”
His heavy brows furrowed, and I didn’t know as to whether he was unsure or disappointed in my response.
“Why does it matter?” He asks at last.
Slowly, I crossed my arms over my chest as the men watched me in silence. I didn’t want to rush any assumptions and put a witch hunt for information out in the club. But, I couldn’t stay quiet about it either.
“It matters.” I look up at him, recognizing my affirmation. “Because I’m pretty sure things didn’t start getting better around here until she came around.”
“Save your sweet talking for the bedroom,” Booger scoffs under his breath.
The brothers chuckled lowly after the joke. I narrowed my eyes at him, but Fist was the one to cut him short while he was still laughing.
“Boog, you cut him off again and I’ll cut off your whoring pecker,” the old man threatens before acknowledging me again. “Elaborate, Blackjack. If you, please.”
I nodded, swallowing down the lump in my throat.
“If I’m correct, we were going downhill with our supply records. It wasn’t until Ashley came home that we started doing something about it. We became more alert with who was messing around with not only your daughter but––”
“With us,” Fist agrees. “Ashley came here mid-April. We had our meeting in early May to talk about what we were going to do about the missing product.”
“But when did we notice those shortages in the first place?” I stood up, asking the men around me, “Who was keeping records with what was going on in our ammunition shed? Or the arms rack?” It was only discovered recently when Kade and Zane went through our supply that we weren’t just missing drugs. Our arms supplies had been impacted too, and greatly at that.
Dixon’s voice came up automatically, “I oversaw ammunition and arms until New Years before the holidays.”
“And after?” I throw my hands up, everyone recognizing my frustration.
“We didn’t find anything significant missing until February,” Fist drifted off, his eyes looking down to the table of men before his hand slammed down on the wood. “Damn it! Who the hell is keeping our records!”
That’s when it hit me. Who was the one person who had been metaphorically sitting on the sidelines while the rest of us were out doing the runs.
They didn’t have access to records but that couldn’t stop them from getting their hands in the cookie jar. Records, records, record… recording!
“Prez!” The old man’s surprised expression landed on me and I could feel the words slipping out. “I think we may have a rat and I’m pretty fucking sure I know who it is.”
“Who?” He snaps out.
“We’re gonna need some insect repellant”
Chapter 18
Blackjack
After trial and error, we had finally caught on to what was going on right under our noses. We had to go back to the beginning and there we found out that not only were our supplies stolen, but so was information about our drug routes, and warehouses. I should’ve recognized this sooner, that our problem had to lay within our club. Out of anything, I never expected it to be one of my brothers.
“That fucking son of a bitch!” Fist roared, his anger rolling through him.
Zane and Kade were already out of their seats, ready to hold their father back. “Easy, pops.” Zane tries to coax.
Kade already had his hand on his old man’s shoulder, the weight of it making Fist breath slow and easy. Booger couldn’t keep his fucking mouth shut and cursed something awful behind me. Even Dixon was staring up at me without a word, speechless – something he never was. I looked back to him and shook my head, understanding his feeling. It was hard to imagine that anyone would stoop so low to betray their own.
“I want that man in chains,” Fist’s voice rumbled, his hands clenched till the knuckles were white. “I want that miserable excuse of shit chained down to the floor until he can pick up the dead talking!”
“We need him alive,” I insisted, coaxing the hot-headed bull in front of me.
Fist looks down at me, his steel blue eyes cutting through the air like a hot knife in butter.
“He’s the only proof we have that there’s been foul play in the club. Without him, you have no case.” I try to reason with him.
“I honestly don’t know who I want to kill more,” he curses hotly, pulling his shoulder away from his son. “That useless son of a bitch Harry or this miserable piece of fuck.”
He points to me, “If you think we’re going to abide by ancient as fuck bylaws you’ve lost your damn mind. This is our family; our fucking club and I’ll be damned if both Harry and that lowlife scum aren’t six feet under”
“You’ll get your chance, Fist,” I nod, agreeing with him more. “But if we do this, we have to do this right.”
Without a doubt, this was going to be the make or break moment. We had the man pinned to death’s door and all we had to do was present the results. It wasn’t going to be easy to have him come along for the ride without it sounding suspicious. We were going to catch him off guard, and my god, we’d stand up to our name.
Reapers.
***
Three days had passed and each day I had to worry that one of the guys would fuck up our plan. I made sure Fist didn’t encounter our fuckin’ rat and for that very reason, we let Dixon do the talking. The man was so smooth he could practically glide on water if he put the right amount of hair gel on. It was no surprise that he got the job done on top of making it look like it was going to be some road trip to boot.
Ashley had been arguing on and off with me about going to do this, but it was my job – to stand beside my brothers in life and in death.
“Do you have to go?” Ashley asks me as I hoisted my overnight bag over my shoulder. When I finally had my hands free for a moment, I looked back down to her and took her face with a smile.
“Your old man’s right, Ash. We’ve let this issue go on for way too long. It’s time we handle it, and we’re gonna do just that.”
“I don’t,” she mutters softly, “I don’t know what to expect from you anymore.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask, a slowing halt to my aggression.
Her baby blue eyes lift from the floor to see me for the first time. What felt like the first time since this morning at least. Had I been avoiding her this entire time?
“You. My father. All of you making plans without me,” she spat out.
“This has nothing to do with you, Ashley.” I lean forward and her eyes flash with anger.
“This has everything to do with me!”
I quickly shut my mouth and she gives me a hard look from across the foyer. The look on her face makes me drop my hands, giving up all at once.
“You’re right,” I respond simply before taking another step to her. The beautiful woman blinks for a moment, no longer retreating from me. Taking her face, I pull her close to my chest and wrap my arm around her body with a defeated kiss to her temple.
“You shouldn’t have to deal with this though,” I admit in a whisper. “And that’s why we have to take precautions.”
Her hand rises to my chest, closing her fingers down to my chest, “You’re expecting me to just wait for you to come back with all of the information as you tell me nothing and leave me here wondering?”
“Do you trust me enough to come back?” I ask her.
“Of course, I do.” She looks up at me, almost offended. “You better come back without a scratch!”
“I’ll try my best, Monroe,” I say, taking her hand from my shirt and kiss the knuckle. “Just stay home and don’t worry. This’ll be over soon.”
That’s what I told
her before I left the house with a heavy weight on my heart. How could I tell her that there were no guarantees with playing a game like this one? If I had confessed to my girl that this was most likely going to be a shootout she would have chained me to the house.
As I rode my Harley through the dark crease of the forest, I could feel the sunset tuck into the trees before I was greeted by an uncertain night. The pathway was sober without a barbecue in sight. It became clear that the club alerted the brothers to keep their wives and children indoors and away from the club tonight.
A low sigh escaped me as I pulled up to the entrance of the gates with the brothers and their bikes humming patiently. Fist was at the very head of the group, grinding his gears forward as soon as he saw me coming. Beside him was pickup truck as red as the devil’s tongue with a shitload of supplies in the back. A man from the group had just tucked something underneath its tarp like mass before giving the bumper of the truck a slap. The truck heard it and gave out three consecutive honks which signaled Spider, one of our newest and most trustworthy prospects, to open the gates and let the Reapers out for our highly anticipated hunt.
After riding for miles upon miles the abandoned warehouse was finally in view, our men slowed their bikes down to surround Fist as we moved with caution.
I reduced my speed as I grew closer to them, my eyes examining the roof of the building for us. The men dispersed left and right to allow me to push through to the head of the crowd where Fist waited for me.
As I rolled in to his side, he turned his head to acknowledge me. I met his eyes before we averted our stare to the opening doors of the warehouse; a welcoming nightmare. I couldn’t help but hide a small smirk.
Fist had noticed the humor in my eyes, growing serious. “What’s got you all amused”
With a shake of my head, I closed my eyes. “I just can’t wait to get back home.”
He scoffs but I swear I could hear him restraining to chuckle. “You, silly boy,” the old man says at last. “How’s our man looking?”
Havoc- Reapers MC Boxset Page 31