“Don’t be a moron, he’s breathing,” Hatch points at Axe.
About this time, Axe begins coming around. “Why in the fuck are your hands on me?” he roars out.
“He made me do it!” Smokey sends an accusing finger in my direction.
“Well stop it!” he commands.
“Would you like to hold your daughter?” Paisley asks him quietly. Not too quietly since we all heard her.
“You’re damn right I would,” he quietly responds.
Paisley directs him to the couch, and I walk over. Placing a kiss on Lily’s forehead and breathing in her sweet baby scent, I hesitantly hand her over. “You’re not going to pass out again, are you?” I ask, worried about her safety.
“Go away,” he gives me a look that I can decipher, one promising to rip my balls off if I don’t let him be. Lily begins blowing raspberries and we all go in for a look. She’s sound asleep in her father’s arms and as happy as a newborn kitten.
“What happened with Daria?” he asks Paisley.
“Are you sure you want us to continue, sweetie?” Paisley questions Lily.
“Yes, please. I know it’s not a fairytale story, but I’m enjoying hearing about when you guys first started all of this,” she replies, waving her hands around the clubhouse. “Because it sounds like y’all had a lot of good times.”
“We did. Even during the lean times, we were all in together and made it work somehow,” Twisted tells her.
I look at my wife and nod. Now that we’re home for good, no reason for him not to know. She sighs and then says, “After y’alls last leave, she came to me about six weeks later and said she was pregnant. I got her in with my doctor so the baby would be healthy. Either me or Nan went to her appointments with her as well. She...well, she wasn’t happy to be pregnant, that’s for sure, and that’s one of the reasons we didn’t tell you, Axe. She threatened to terminate the pregnancy if I told you and I couldn’t risk that. So, I made a deal with her, thinking that once she saw the baby, she’d change her mind.”
“What deal?” Axe growls out.
Paisley
“That she’d leave once the baby was born, and I’d take care of her until you guys came home,” I whisper. The glare he’s wearing would have all of us who knew dead. “I’m so sorry for keeping it from you. But I couldn’t risk a baby, especially not when you weren’t aware you were going to be a father. Please forgive me.” By now I’m crying, and Travis pulls me into his arms.
“I knew she wasn’t the staying kind but fuck, what kind of woman abandons her own child? One she’s carried for nine months?”
“Seven,” I murmur. “Lily was a tad bit early. Some kind of complication or something.”
He looks down at the bundle in his arms. “So, she’s tiny because she was premature? Is she healthy? Do we need to do anything?”
“She’s fine, Axe. She was on an apnea machine at first but now her lungs are fully developed and she’s growing. Still a bit on the smaller side, but the doctor is pleased with her progress. Your mom has been a lifesaver, too.”
“That doesn’t surprise me,” he states. “She’s always come to my rescue, even when I didn’t realize I needed it.”
“We’ve got pictures for you too, Axe. Lots of pictures and a baby book,” I tell him. “We didn’t want you to miss anything.”
“My baby!” Tig says, marching up to Axe. “Her is mine!”
The men chuckle at my boy’s proclamation. He may only be three, but when Lily came into the house, he assumed a protective role over her that’s only gotten stronger.
“Have you been helping your mom and Nan take care of her?” Axe gently asks as Tig takes a tiny hand in his.
“Yes! Her is mine. Mine to takes care of!” he states.
“Tig, Axe is Lily’s daddy. Now that they’re home, he’s gonna take care of her,” Travis tells our son.
“No! Mine!” He stomps his foot, working up towards a temper tantrum.
I look at Travis, my eyebrow raised. Tig has been throwing tantrums lately, and quite frankly, I’m glad he’s home and can deal with the tiny tyrant.
“Wait, you’re saying I wasn’t the perfect child?” Tig inquires.
“Not by a long shot, Son,” Travis replies. “Hell, you’ve never had a problem getting into things.”
“That’s the truth,” I state. “Remember when he tried to fix his own breakfast? He couldn’t reach the bowls, so he made cereal. On the floor. And was so proud of himself that I couldn’t get mad, even though it was a mess that I didn’t have time to clean up.”
“There’s no way I ate off the floor, Mom,” Tig utters. “No fucking way.”
“I’ve got pictures,” I divulge to him. “Keeping them for that wedding video montage.”
“Wedding! Who the hell says I’m ever getting married? I’m happy with how things are right now, thank you very much.”
“Yeah, Trojan appreciates the business too, I’m sure,” Smokey replies. This has Lily gagging, and all the mom’s faces are as white as a sheet. We don't like to think of our kids and sex in the same thought.
“What the fuck ever. Anyhow, continue.” Tig makes a motion with his hands that has me rolling my eyes. There are times that his sarcastic side comes out and I guess this is one of them.
“Well, little girl, looks like it’s you and I,” Axe murmurs to a sleeping Lily. “Guess we’re not gonna be able to stay here, though.” He looks around at the crowded apartment. I have a toddler bed for Tig in a corner and a bassinet next to my bed. When he glances at me, I gulp, somewhat afraid of what he’s going to say. “Paisley, there are no words that can thank you enough for taking care of my girl. None.”
“You’re welcome. She’s a sweet baby.” Yeah, once we got past the initial hurdles, it was definitely easy. Initially, Nan and I slept in shifts because she required so much attention.
“Law’s got some paperwork waiting on you to sign. It’s so he can officially file her birth certificate, custody paperwork and other bullshit I don’t understand. He and Chief are going to meet us for breakfast.”
“I don’t have a home to take her to,” he whispers, stroking Lily’s face with the back of his hand.
“Tonight, you stay here. Tomorrow we worry about the rest,” Travis says to him. I glance at my husband and realize that our own homecoming celebration will be delayed.
7
Twisted
The next morning, we find ourselves at the local diner with Chief and Law. “I don’t even know what to say,” Axe tells them.
“Nothing to say, you’ve always been there for us, it was time we returned the favor,” Chief tells him.
“Yeah, what he said,” Law smirks.
“So, now that everyone’s out, what are your plans?” Chief asks us.
“We were thinking of opening up some businesses. But not here in Vegas, it’s too competitive to start a business here. We know the trucking and shipping business is in high demand right now.”
“This is true, where are you thinking of going?”
“Texas,” Paisley tosses in.
“What, babe?” I ask her.
“If you want to go into shipping, your best place to start is Texas,” she repeats.
“You think?” Axe asks her.
“Yes, when Travis initially brought this to my attention, I started researching. There’s actually a warehouse that’s going out of business. They’re selling all of their equipment, trucks and the warehouse at a steal. It’s in a small town called Corinth.”
“Do you have any logistics on it?” Law asks her.
“I do,” she pulls out an envelope from Tig’s bag, and I am in awe of her. “In fact, there’s information on several places that are available for purchase, including a townhouse complex and an old schoolhouse.”
“What would we use the schoolhouse for?” Axe questions.
“Well, y’all all like to ride so maybe you could do something with that,” Paisley responds.
“I
like that idea, our own club. What would we call it?” Smokey questions.
“Y’all are my own version of Rebels without a cause...I’m thinking you should build from that,” she winks at me.
“We’re also known as the Guardians in our platoon,” Hatch adds.
“Yes!” Paisley excitedly jumps up and down in her seat. “The Rebel Guardians!”
“Is this really happening?” Axe mutters in shock. We’ve discussed the topic about opening up businesses before, but that’s all it was...talk.
“Yes, it is! We can do so much for that community too. A lot of businesses closed down but if we come in and open up a trucking company, we’ll bring jobs to the town.”
“Law, can you look into it for us? Make sure we’re getting a good deal?” Axe asks. “And we need to find out what we’ve got to do to start our own club as well. I’m sure there are rules or some shit.”
“I’ve got that, too,” Paisley states, reaching into Tig’s bag again. “How to start a club, how to set up bylaws, all that stuff.”
My grin widens as I glance at my wife. She took one comment I made in a letter and researched the hell out of it. I can’t wait to get her alone to show my appreciation of her efforts.
“Tell ya what, I’ll do this pro-bono as long as you make me the club’s lawyer and let me join.”
“Was it even a question that you’d be going with us, brother?” Axe inquires. “You too, Chief. Better put in for the department out there, cause we don’t leave a brother behind.” It’s an order.
“I can see who's going to be our president,” I laugh.
“Oh yay, officer votes!” Paisley pulls out a pad and pen. She’s ready for business, makes me wonder what else she has in there. Is she Mary Poppins or some shit? Fuck! Now I have that stupid as fuck song stuck in my head. Chim chimney, chim chim...fucking hell!
“Twisted for vice president then,” Hatch states, glancing around the table.
“Hatch for enforcer,” Smokey puts in.
“Bandit for the electronic shit,” Axe says.
“That’s known as IT,” Paisley says, correcting Axe.
“Smokey....” he holds his hand up stopping me.
“I don’t want that responsibility. Plus, I’m going to check into forestry, I won’t have the time needed to dedicate. I’m good being a patched member,” he responds.
“Well, too bad. You’re good with numbers and we need a number man,” Axe declares. “Smokey for secretary, that’s final.”
“Wouldn’t that be a treasurer?” Smokey retorts.
“Don’t push it,” Axe growls.
“Chief could be the SAA,” Hatchet cuts off the feud before it begins.
“I could get down with that,” he proudly informs us.
“Well, that just leaves your road captain...and miscellaneous officers,” Paisley says, tapping the pen on her chin. She’s really put a lot of time and effort into her research.
“Wait, when did Capone come along?” Bridget questions.
“It took us two years to get everything up and going. We didn’t officially move to Corinth until Lily was almost five. But we had the offices and building renovated. We spent every weekend down here working. We slowly integrated ourselves into town. I couldn’t leave Nevada until everything had been filed, gone through the courts and Lily was officially mine. I had to go through investigations and bullshit. The list goes on and on, it took a lot longer than we thought it would. We ended up renting and started our move. I met Capone the first time I was in town, I think,” Axe states, “he started helping us renovate things and became a good friend to us. We asked him to join the year before we ‘officially’ moved. Because of what he used to do while in the military, we gave him the road captain position, which was a good thing because Bandit kept getting us lost.”
“What the fuck ever! None of you assholes know how to read a map,” Bandit says. “I would print out the directions and sure enough, one or more of them would get lost somehow.”
“It took four years to get everything in check to where you could move?” DJ asks, dumbfounded. “If we’d been around, we’d have helped Paisley get things squared away and you’d have been moved in six months,” she hastily adds.
“There were a lot of things that came up that we weren’t prepared for,” Paisley tells her.
“Like what?” Cara asks.
“Well, when you start a new MC, you have to go through the proper channels and get approval. Since we knew we didn’t want to be a one percenter, we had to safely maneuver through the proper channels. We had to befriend a lot of low lives and convince them we weren’t going to be going after their pipelines and mess with their money,” Axe says.
“Which is how we ended up meeting the Nelson’s,” I add.
“That was a shitstorm,” Capone adds.
“Sure was, they were just out of the military themselves. They were hired to basically stalk us,” I tell everyone.
“Until Hatchet ended up in a fight with Jonas. That was fucking hilarious! You look at Jonas and think he’s not as fucking hard core as his brothers, but that’s a mistake none of us will ever make again. Just because he’s the brains of their operation, doesn’t mean he’s a slouch in the ring.” Bandit informs the women.
“I was not expecting him to take me down the way he did,” Hatch expresses.
“Why would anyone be stupid enough to take one of them on?” Tig wonders out loud.
“Because I got sick of being spied on. Couldn’t even get my dick wet without it being reported,” Hatch huffs in annoyance.
“What was that?” DJ asks him. “Care to repeat that?”
“Not really,” he says, getting up and sprinting for another beer.
“Chicken shit!” she calls out. His reply is to make a bunch of chicken sounds causing us all to laugh. “So, my husband got his ass handed to him by a Nelson brother, huh?”
“Sure did, he whined for days afterwards,” Smokey is balled over, laughing so hard tears are spilling down his face.
“I wouldn’t say I got my ass handed to me,” Hatch declares, “more of an ‘I didn’t expect that from him’...he shocked me, so I wasn't prepared.”
“I would never want to cross one of them,” Lily does a full body shudder.
“No, you wouldn’t. But they’ve become great allies over the years,” Paisley informs her.
“How would you know?” I ask her.
“I pay attention. Do you honestly think that after all of these years I don’t know the comings and goings of the MC?” she gives me a deadpanned look. Well, fuck me, I had no clue she was paying that close of attention to us guys.
“She’s got a point, brother,” Axe replies.
“I’ve got one helluva woman here,” I say, placing a kiss on the nape of her neck.
“We all got lucky in that department,” Bandit states, pulling Hannah away from Smokey and into his lap.
“Fucker, I saw her first,” Smokey pouts, crossing his arms over his chest.
“I chose you both,” Hannah murmurs, causing both of them to stop their posturing and grin at her.
“Helluva good head on your shoulders for that decision,” Bandit tells her.
“Well, if nothing else she’s stuck around this long,” Hatchet fucks with the twins.
“And she’ll be around until I draw my last breath,” Smokey replies. It’s hard to take him seriously sometimes considering he’s a prankster and jokester ninety percent of the time.
“So how did the town take it when a motorcycle club moved in?” Talon questions. He’s been mostly silent, listening to the banter and the stories.
“By the time we were fully here, they’d accepted the fact that anything they’d read or even seen on tv was mostly bullshit,” I state. “We brought a lot of jobs to a dying town, and then slowly added as we saw the need. We’ve done charity runs during holidays, and also whenever we hear of someone who has to have a little bit of help.”
“And you helped me and
Jasper,” he whispers, looking over at Hatch and DJ.
“Best fucking decision we ever made,” Hatch gruffly responds. “Never been prouder than when you decided to prospect for the club.”
“It wasn’t a hard decision. This is my family’s business, it may be a little outside of the norm, but it isn’t to me.” Talon clears his throat when he finishes.
“Same,” Tig inputs. “I never even thought of doing anything else.”
“Well, I’m a girl, so that just sucks ass,” Lily adds.
“Ditto, sister,” Claree puts her two cents in.
“We take care of the men,” Nan states, but all of the women and girls roll their eyes at her proclamation. “It’s a dirty job, but if we don’t do it, these guys would live like pigs.”
“Here, here!” DJ shouts, raising her glass.
“We’d be richer if you weren’t involved as much,” Axe tells his mom.
“Gotta take care of our family,” Nan harrumphs. “Lord knows if we waited around for you boys to do it, my great-grandchildren would be graduated from college with families of their own.”
“Mom, you renovated the fucking clubhouse in less than a week, for fuck’s sake!” Yeah, that was funny as hell and the memory of Axe’s face when he came home from his fun has me chuckling.
“Your...your face that day,” Hatch roars out.
“He’s worn that look well over the years,” Cara replies.
“I didn’t raise a cheapskate, it’s not my fault I have to go in backhandedly,” Nan gives Axe a disapproving look.
“It’s a miracle I have any hair left at this point,” Axe mutters. “All of you are pains in my ass. Except the girls.”
Lily beams at her dad’s words. “We’re not unimportant just because we aren’t patched members,” she says. “We do a lot for the club in our own way.”
A Twisted Kind Of Love: Rebel Guardians MC Page 6