“Right,” Zane says while lookin’ right at me. He knows I’m bullshittin’ him right now, but he won’t call me out for it and I appreciate that.
Zane taps his fingers on the table over and over again. Silence fills the room and no one dares to try and speak. We all must get the memo that our Prez has some serious shit on his mind. Zane hardly ever grows quiet, but something is makin’ him quiet as a mouse, though it’s obvious whatever it is . . . it’s surely weighin’ on his mind.
He takes in a deep breath and presses his fingers against his temples. I don’t know what to think. Zane is never like this. “You all know I’m about to be a dad any day now, and . . . to say a lot of shit has been heavy on my mind as of late is an understatement. With the exception of Blackjack, Ashley, and Kade I need to make you all aware of something. First off, let me apologize for keeping it from you but I had my own shit to deal with and since my son is going to be here at any damn moment, I wanna do things right. I don’t want him to be born into a place where there are lies about him, or confusion, and before I tell you all about him, I need to first tell you about me.”
What?
Oh fuck.
I wonder if Zane is thinkin’ about tellin’ them he’s bisexual . . . fuck. I don’t know that our club would be very accepting of a bisexual man being Prez, but then again, Zane has been born and bred for this position.
“I found out a while back that my biological father was Cracker.” Zane states, causing everyone in the room to either inhale deeply, or look like their eyes are about to burst straight from their sockets.
“What?” Bull’s the first one to speak, though it isn’t surprising given the fact he and Cracker were very close. Bull was essentially the old man’s son, bringing him under his wing and getting him to join the Reapers. If you ask me, the only thing that saved Bull was joining the club. Rumor has it before he did, he was a depressed guy.
“But everyone thought your dad was—” Dracus starts to say, though Zane puts up his hand in an order of silence.
“I know who everyone thought was not only my, but Kade’s father. The truth is he wasn’t, and Cracker was. The reality is I was raised by my uncle, but to me Fist will always be my father because he’s the person who helped shape me into the man I am today. I’m gonna be transparent as fuck with you all. The only reason I found out is because Kade told me. I won’t tell you all the details, but it was confirmed with a DNA test when Kade and I were kids, unbeknownst to us.”
“Shit. They kept this from Roxy too.” Bolt speaks up.
“Holy hell.” Tex murmurs, shaking his head in shock.
“When did you find this out?” Bull questions. I know firsthand how Cracker shared a lot of shit with him, though it’s obvious he didn’t share this.
“After Amara was taken, so a little over a year and something ago.” Zane answers truthfully. He clears his throat before continuing, “For a long time I didn’t know why my father kept things from us, but that was something I had to sort out for myself. I had a lot of theories but none of them gave me the truth I needed to know, that is, until last week. Apparently, my dad had given his estate lawyer a couple of letters. One for me, Ashley, and Kade. The stipulation upon us receiving them is that the lawyer needed to know we were made aware of our paternity. Ashley, being the fixer of the family, decided to call him up and see if there was anything. She told him everything, every single thing we found out and later that day we had a personal visit. We even called Kade through a video messaging system. I’ll get straight to the point. He didn’t want Kade or I to feel ‘less than’ by being constantly around our biological father, but never in his life. Truth is, Cracker wasn’t the type to be a father. He was too selfish, didn’t like any sort of responsibility and . . . he didn’t want to be our father. He was used to being our uncle. We had a small letter written back by Cracker included in the letter Dad left us. It gave us every answer we needed and then some, but it’ll never take away the pain we have now that they’re both gone. The point is, I’m tellin’ you all this because I’m not gonna keep any secrets from you. Not about me, and not about my kid.”
I furrow my brows for a moment, not understanding what Zane’s saying.
“I’m not the man any of you think I am, alright? Everyone here knows I have the best fuckin’ wife there is and I love her more than I could ever say. She’s far too good for me. Fuck, sometimes I think if it wasn’t for the damn contract, she would’ve left my ass by now.”
“Probably,” Blackjack pokes fun at him.
Zane chuckles, as does the rest of the club. “I don’t expect all of you to accept this about me, but I’m gonna lay it out straight for you. I fuckin’ love pussy, but I love cock just as much.”
The entire room’s laughter stops immediately and the room grows eerily silent. “Now, I’m not askin’ for permission or any of that. I’m simply lettin’ the group of you know I swing both ways and I’m not gonna keep hidin’ that fact.” Jesus Christ. I can’t believe he’s telling them this.
“Now, I will say I’m not gonna get shit on by any of you for my tastes, and neither will any of you for your sexual preferences either, if you float the other way. Know what I’m sayin’? Anyway, there’s been a couple people who know firsthand about how I jump in with other couples. I did it before I was married to Octavia, and I won’t go in depth about her and my sex life . . . but I’ll make it real clear with you, ‘cause I don’t want the same shit happening to my son. Before Octavia and I came back from Los Angeles, we had propositioned someone she had been with before to join us as a third, as a man for us both. That night we all had sex, and he is the biological father of my son, but my son is exactly that— mine. Do you all understand?”
While I’m sure everyone here is in the craziest state of shock in their life, everyone either nods along or gives him an ‘mhm’.
“Good. ‘Cause if any of you ever disrespect me, my wife, or my kid, I’ll throw you out of this club and tear your patch off like you were never even one of us. I don’t give a flying fuck.”
Hot damn. Zane isn’t playing around.
“Am I still on board to help Octavia with her shoot later this evenin’?” I question, changing the subject for everyone’s sake.
Zane nods. “As far as I know. She’s shooting one of the new women for her website. She might even be coming on board as a new clubwhore for some of you single fellas.” Zane gives me a smirk, knowin’ how much gettin’ my dick wet takes the edge off.
“Sweet. Hopefully she’s got some black hair. I’m a sucker for them dark, lookin’ evil like bitches.”
“That explains a lot.” Axel says, causing the entire room to bust out into laughter. Leave it to my brother to be the clown of the bunch.
Chapter Three
I want to taste you again, like a secret or like a sin
~ Unknown
Grim
“So, why is it you always want me to be luggin’ around all your shit? I am still recovering from a motorcycle accident you know.”
“Uh-huh, the same accident you keep telling everyone that you’re perfectly fine from?” Octavia questions, raising both her brows.
Oh, I see. She’s trying to push me into a corner. “I’m fine, O’.” I call her the nickname we all do these days.
She rolls her eyes. “Tell that to that awful limp you have, which you keep trying to hide by the way. I can tell.” She states it so matter-of-factly. I have been aching a little more than I care to admit, but I don’t let anyone ever see I’m feelin’ like shit. It’s none of their damn business anyway.
“You gonna answer my question? I’m startin’ to think you have a crush on me or somethin’.” I tease her.
After hearin’ what Zane said to the club earlier, it makes me wonder if I’d be a good fit to romp around in the sack with those two. I swing both ways and I know how Zane can make a man feel. We did fuck right before he went to go meet Octavia for the last time. I just never knew she was so accepting of his
other side. Damn, he did hit the fuckin’ jackpot when it came to her.
“You really don’t know?” She stops walking and turns toward me.
“Know what?” Obviously, I don’t know, lady. Jesus. I’m not a mind reader. The one thing I’ve never been fond about when it comes to women is how they’re always so quick to make us men think about shit. It’s like they want us to dig for the answers, when in reality it would take much less time if they cut to the chase. I’ll never understand them, that’s for sure.
“You were the first person I ever met besides Zane that was part of this club, and . . .” She goes quiet for a few moments. “You didn’t make me feel unwelcome, Grim. You watched out for me, even from the very first time I met you, when you knew nothing about me. You immediately had my back and it made me feel . . . safe. Made me feel like I had a friend.” She admits, biting her bottom lip and I watch this little tyke start bawlin’ her damn eyes out.
“Jesus. O’. Stop that. Cut that shit out. Zane finds out I made you cry and he’ll cut my balls off and hang ‘em up as a trophy.”
“I’m s-sorry, o-okay? It’s these f-fucking h-hormones.” She rubs under her eyes but I can’t just let the woman cry like this in front of me. I set her gear on the ground and go up to her, wrapping one of the strongest women I’ve ever met tightly in my arms and rub her back.
I’ll hold her close to me as long as I need to. “Dunno if you realize this, but I would have your back regardless. You were gonna be our first lady, you know? It’s all of our jobs to make sure you’re protected. Plus, your pops really pissed me off that first day I met him.”
“Ugh, he was such a jackass, wasn’t he?” Octavia agrees.
“I wanted to beat his face in right there. His and that pretty boy brother of yours.”
“He isn’t that bad.” Octavia always defends her family when one of us says something critical about them.
“We’ll agree to disagree. Now, c’mon, I don’t want you to catch a chill and this new girl is waiting for you a little ways up, right?” I drove Octavia up on the ATV. We’re a little ways in the back of the woods against some beautiful wooded scenery. O’ wanted to get the colors of the leaves before it gets too cold and they all start shriveling up and turning brown.
“Yep. We probably could’ve just driven all the way up I suppose . . . but Zane isn’t letting me do hardly anything and I wanted to go for a walk so bad.”
“Hey, I don’t care. When I’m helpin’ you out, you’re the boss.” I tell her, a bit confused ‘cause Ashley starts swellin’ up like a prune and doesn’t wanna do jack shit around this stage in her pregnancy. I guess every woman is different.
O’ laughs a bit and I release her from our embrace and go grab her gear. “So, this girl is really lovely. She has this beautiful auburn hair, but the tone is almost a deep copper. Her skin is a light ivory and she just looks so pretty. I can’t wait to shoot her for the website. It was something super last minute too! She’d sent some images in ages ago but we couldn’t meet up due to her scheduling conflicts. She was coming across this way and we decided she’d come in for a shoot. I’m so excited, Grim!” O’ is beaming so I can damn well tell she’s tellin’ me nothin’ but the truth.
I walk alongside her for about five minutes over a dirt road. The snow from my accident the other day has finally melted, and by the time we get to her shoot location my body is screaming. I feel like I’ve gotten hit over and over again with a wooden bat on every limb.
“Oh, look! There she is!” I set the gear down and open up O’s camera bag, handing it to her and she tells me to get her shorter wide-angle lens because she’s planning on shooting this girl very specifically. She also asks me for two different filters and I hand those off to her as well.
I stick close to her and can tell this woman has a very thin like frame, though she is curvy. Skinny but curvy, and her hair is exactly as Octavia described it a couple minutes ago. I spot an ATV off to the side and figure one of the girls from the Vixens’ house must’ve brought her up here. I think O’ has shot a couple of the girls in this location, but so much of this area looks the same it’s hard to tell.
Rosa comes up from the side and Octavia heads over to the new girl. I’m a good ways off, so I can’t see her face from here, but they’ve chatted so I don’t need to be hoverin’ over O’.
“Surprised you’re up and walking around.” Rosa says clear as day. She’s the type of woman who never, ever apologizes for the shit that comes out of her mouth. I dig that about her. She’s real. Everything is real about her except the color of her hair. It’s this deep emerald green and she’s always wearing some sort of plum colored lipstick. She always has a black bandana holding her hair up on top of her head, and wears glasses like one of those geeky girls.
“Yeah, well not even an itty-bitty accident could keep me down.”
Rosa punches my arm and I about cry out from the pain. “Fuck, you really had to do that?”
“If you’re gonna talk the talk, you’d better be walkin’ the walk.”
“Your daddy teach you that?” I tease.
“Fuck you.”
“How about I fuck you, later?”
I watch as a smirk starts to pull at her lips. Rosa’s a lot of things, but damn is she mischievous. She’s not like the other Vixens. They’ve got different hair, sure, but Rosa doesn’t doll herself up the way they do. She . . . likes being different, or at least I think she does.
Don’t get me wrong, she’s fucking gorgeous . . . but she doesn’t have to try as much as the others? Hell, I don’t even know if I’m makin’ any sense.
“Do you think you can? I mean, have you even tried? Your tool might not work anymore.” Rosa jokes, licking her bottom lip. Like I said, mischievous . . . but sexy as hell.
“I dunno. Why don’t you tell me?” I grab her by the back of the neck and pull her to me, taking her other hand in mine and force it over my hardening cock. She rubs her hand up and down it, squeezing my shaft through my pants while her deep hazel eyes sparkle with sin as she does so.
“Feels like it still works,” She mutters, her tone showing me she’s not convinced in the least bit.
Shoving my lips against her ear, I whisper. “I will show you just how well it works when I shove my fat cock into your tight ass tonight.”
She inhales sharply, liking what I’m saying. I feel her nipples growing harder against my chest and shift my lips in front of hers. “What do you want, Rosa?” I say her name the way she taught me, accentuating the s.
Rosa looks at me and sometimes the way she does makes me feel like she’s lookin’ into my soul. There have been many nights spent over drinks, sitting up and starin’ at the moon between us. Whenever she wants to watch a horror movie with someone, she calls me and I’ll sit there while she needs someone to snuggle up beside.
She’s a Vixen, and she’s a clubwhore . . . but I’m not makin’ the same mistakes, like I did with Shiloh. No way in hell am I gonna get hurt like that again.
She mutters something under her breath and I can’t make it out. “What did you say?”
Her smile falls, “Nothing, Grim.”
I know somethin’ is wrong, but I won’t go diggin’ for shit that doesn’t concern me. I will try to make her feel a bit better, so I press my lips onto hers and dart my tongue into her mouth. She pulls away abruptly and starts walkin’ off toward O’ and this new chick. She picks up her pace and I’m a good thirty feet behind her.
“Rosa, what’s go—” I come to a complete halt as soon as I see this new woman, because she isn’t just any new girl. It’s my fuckin’ baby sister, leanin’ back on a log with her tits out.
I can’t contain the bile in my throat. It rushes out and I’m forced to hold onto a tree for dear life while my entire stomach contents empty.
“Grim?” Rosa says my name in a concerned tone.
“Ruby.” I mutter, spitting the disgusting taste out of my mouth.
“Ruby?” She repeats, soundin
g confused. Rosa comes around in front of me and I damn well feel like I could keep vomiting.
“That’s Ruby.” I repeat, pointing to the girl.
Not everyone knows about my little sister, but Rosa is one of the few.
“Oh my fucking God!” Rosa screams, finally getting it. “I had no idea. I’m so sorry. I didn’t have any clue this was the same Ruby, if it was, I would’ve kept you away or—” I put a finger over Rosa’s lips.
“Baby, there isn’t anything you could’ve done. Zane told me to be here, so I had to be.”
I only wonder if Axel knew about this, and if he did, why he fuckin’ didn’t tell me. He’s always gotta be the shit stirrer. I sink down onto the ground, even though my back feels like it’s on fire, and stare away from the shoot. No way I’m gonna watch this.
Chapter Four
You alone are responsible for what you do, don’t do, or how you respond to what’s done to you
~ Darren Hardy
Grim
I called Zane and told him to get his ass over here ‘cause I needed to leave. Never in my life have I spoken to a Prez like that, but I couldn’t act like everythin’ was fine. It sure as hell still isn’t and right now, I’m on my way to the clubhouse. Axel must’ve known somethin’ about Ruby showin’ up like this. There’s no way he couldn’t have known.
Luckily for me after I explained what was goin’ on Zane was understandin’. I park the ATV right next to the double doors that lead into our new clubhouse, exit the vehicle, and immediately barge through the doors. I don’t even bother to say a word to anyone inside. I go straight, head up the stairs, and make the first right into Axel’s room.
I shove his door open and find Madame, one of the other Vixens, in his room with him. They’re both naked, but I could give two fucks. “Get out. My brother and I have some shit to talk about.” I grit, glaring at my brother.
Mayhem: A Reapers MC Boxset Page 43