“So, does that mean you aren’t getting any new tattoos since you aren’t pushing out any babies for me?” King asked Meg.
She flipped him off and shook her head. “You knew a long time ago that my baby making factory is closed. You want a baby, you’re going to have to find a new wife, and I’ll just buy my own tattoos,” she smarted off.
“I think I’ll stick with you, and Remy is good enough for me.”
“Smart man,” she mumbled.
“Next Friday, I’ll stay with Micha, and you go out with the girls. Tattoo party,” Rigid suggested.
“Really?” Cyn squealed. “Did you make us appointments?”
“No, but I figured you can go to Meg’s chick. She can get you all in.” Rigid nodded at Meg, and she gave him a thumbs up.
“Aye, aye, captain,” she said with a salute.
“You say girls, who do you all mean?” Gwen asked.
“Every chick here, plus Ethel if she wants to go with you guys. King is going to have to go with you guys, though. Make sure you stay out of trouble,” Rigid replied.
King sighed. “Meg is going, trouble will definitely be present.”
“I promise to only give you what you can handle,” she purred to King and blew him a kiss and winked.
“I’m gonna need another brother with,” he chuckled.
“I’ll go with you,” Gambler offered.
King and Gambler bumped fists, and Gwen rolled her eyes.
“It’s funny you two think you can handle us.” Gwen smirked. “This is going to be fun.”
“You in?” Cyn asked me.
I looked around and wondered when I became one of the girls. Never in my life had I been to a girls’ night out.
“She’s in,” Slider called. “I need to get some shit done around the shop on Friday, and if King is going, I don’t mind if she does.”
I crossed my arms and glared at Slider. I was going to say yes, but Slider saying yes for me pissed me off. Since I was eighteen years old, I have been making my own decisions. Slider thinking he could decide for me was not going to go over well.
“Sweet.” Cyn clapped her hands together. “Now I need to figure out which ones I wanted.”
“I’ll have to call Darby and see if we can book the whole night.” Meg pulled her phone out of her pocket.
“Tell her she’ll be tipped generously for dealing with you six.” King popped the top to his beer. “I know Mom will want to go with y’all. She was telling me the other day that she missed hanging out.”
“I just messaged her, but she texted back ‘huh.’” Meg squinted at her phone and laughed. “Probably because I texted ‘Friday tattoo girls night your ass.’”
Cyn spit out the water she had been drinking and laughed hysterically. “She probably thought you want to tattoo her ass.”
“Use more words,” Paige advised.
King grabbed Meg’s phone out of her hand. “I’ll take care of the texting and calling tonight. I’m surprised Gravel hasn’t called me wondering what in the hell is going on.”
Rigid pulled his phone out of his pocket and held it up to King. “That would be because he texted me and not you.”
“Crazy,” King said, shaking his head.
“We’re gonna head home,” Slider announced. “It’s only one PM and you guys managed to get rip-roaring drunk. I think if we stay the rest of the day, it’ll be all downhill from here.”
Taking a nap was high on my list of thing I wanted to do, so going home sounded like a solid plan.
“Oh, I’m taking your son,” Meg said, pointing at me. “Remy asked if he could hang out with Marco tonight. I said yes as long as they stay at the clubhouse. My house is not big enough for four people, even if Remy and Marco stay in his room. I hope that’s okay.”
I shrugged. I wasn’t about to say no. I knew Marco had the same problem I did. He never really had any friends who were truly his friends and not just nice to him because they knew who his uncle was.
Slider stood behind me and rubbed my back. “We’ll pick him up in the morning”
King nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”
“Oh, you just like it because that means you don’t have to put your hand over my mouth when we have sex tonight,” Meg said, rolling her eyes.
King nodded. “This is true.”
“You wanna say bye to Marco?” Slider asked me.
I gave him a thumbs up and downed the rest of my water. Slider grabbed my hand and pulled me down the hallway and turned left. “They are in Roam’s room. Remy stays in here when Roam is out of town.”
I tilted my head and looked at Slider. Why would Roam be out of town all the time?
“Roam is a nomad. The guy can’t seem to stay in one place for too long. He hasn’t been around much lately, so I’m sure he’ll be turning up soon.” Slider stopped in front of third door on the left and raised his hand to knock.
“Come in,” Remy called.
Slider pushed open the door and pulled me in behind him.
“Hey, Mom. Did Meg tell you she said it was okay for me to spend the night?”
I nodded and examined the room. The only items in the room were a queen size bed and a huge-ass TV on the wall. Remy was lying on the large throw rug on the floor on his stomach playing a video game, while Marco was sprawled out on the bed.
“Your mom and I are going to head back to the house. You want me to run back with some clothes for you?” Slider asked Marco.
“Nah, I’ll be good. Remy said he had some clothes I can borrow.”
“Slider,” I said, looking up at him. Shit, I couldn’t say what I wanted to. I had left my pad of paper on the bar, and now I was going to have to play charades. I pointed to the floor and shook my head.
Slider tilted his head at me, and I knew this was going to be more difficult than I thought. “Stay?”
I nodded and pointed at the door, then again shook my finger.
“Don’t leave?”
Hell yes. This was easier than I thought it was going to be.
“Don’t leave unless you have someone from the club with you,” Slider told Marco. “Your mom and I will pick you up tomorrow.”
“Sounds good,” Marco mumbled.
I rolled my eyes and knew Marco was barely listening to Slider. I stomped my foot and pointed at Marco to get his attention. I pointed at my ear and then to Slider.
“Um, I think she wants you to listen to her,” Remy laughed. He had paused his game so he could watch the show I was putting on.
“Yeah, I got that when she stomped her foot at me,” Marco muttered.
“Look, just stay together, don’t leave the clubhouse, and don’t get in trouble. Shouldn’t be hard at all,” Slider replied.
Marco saluted him and Remy unpaused his game. They were both glued to the TV, and I knew they had listened as much as they were going to.
Slider grabbed my hand and pulled me out the door. “He’ll be fine, Firecracker. Remy is a good kid.”
We headed back down the hallway, skirted around the bar where everyone had paired up, and ducked out the front door.
Rain pelted us as we sprinted to the truck. Slider held the door open for me to leap in, then he rounded the truck and slipped in, drenched.
“Hell, I thought is wasn’t supposed to rain until tonight,” he muttered before he ran his hand through his hair and stuck the key in the ignition.
I hadn’t known it was supposed to rain at all. I really was out of touch with everything going on. My wet hair was matted to my forehead and the grey long-sleeve shirt I had tossed on this morning was now molded to my body.
Slider cranked up the truck. “You okay?”
I nodded. We had left my pad of paper on the bar, so I was left with head nods and lame sign language.
We pulled out of the parking lot. “You need something to eat?”
We had been munching on chips and salsa while the guys had been in their meeting, but my stomach rumbled, letting me know chips wasn’t
a good enough lunch.
“Wanna hit the Kwik Trip on the way back? We can pick up a pizza to bake up at home,” Slider suggested.
I shrugged. Gas station pizza wasn’t really what I was hungry for. I waved my hand at him. He glanced over at me, and I pretended to act like I was writing.
He shook his head and pointed to the glove box. “There should be a napkin and a pen in there you can use. We’re going to have to stock up on notepads and stash them everywhere,” he said, laughing.
I popped open the glovebox and searched for the paper and pen.
“If you don’t want pizza, what do you want?”
I finally found the pen and grabbed a blue, paper, heavy-duty towel. Grocery store. I held up the paper for him to read.
“Really? The store doesn’t have easy food that we can just throw together.”
I want good, not easy.
“All right, all right. The store it is. You got any plans on what you wanna make?”
We’ll see. I’m just tired of eating out.
“No problem, Firecracker.”
I wadded up the paper and tossed it on the floor. The sky was ominous, like it was going to rain all day, and I couldn’t think of a better way to spend the time than cooking and just relaxing.
Now, hopefully Slider kept his distance, because I didn’t think I would have much restraint if he didn't.
********
Chapter 20
Slider
“Holy hell.” I took another bite and moaned. “This is insane,” I mumbled.
Fayth smirked and took a sip of her wine.
“Why the hell didn’t I know that you can cook like this?” I grabbed my beer and washed down the delicious taste of fried pork chop and mashed potatoes.
Fayth shrugged.
I couldn’t tell you how many times I had groaned and wished I had a second stomach. “Firecracker, you sure are one big surprise.”
She grabbed the pad of paper she had set next to her plate. I like to cook.
“Obviously, Fay. I think what you just did was way more than cooking.”
She rolled her eyes. Are you drunk?
I laughed. “No, Firecracker. You got to be the drunk one today.” After we had wandered around the store collecting all of the ingredients Fayth wanted, we had gone home where Fayth had helped unload everything then passed out for two hours.
After her cat-nap, she had woken bright-eyed and attacked all of the food we had bought. Two hours later, delicious smells were coming out of the oven, and my stomach was growling for whatever she had made.
It was all Meg’s fault.
“It normally is, Firecracker. That woman is a loon and a half.”
But I like her.
“We all do, Fay. It’d be pretty bad if we didn’t like the prez’s ol’ lady.” I finished the rest of my beer and set the empty bottle next to my plate. “So, what did you want to do tonight?”
Fayth shrugged and pushed her food around on her plate.
“Movie? Video games? Pool?”
She tilted her head and mouthed the word “pool.”
“Yeah, down in the basement.”
Her eyes bugged out. She grabbed her pad of paper and frantically wrote. Like water? She held the notepad up, and I busted out laughing.
I shook my head. “Firecracker, you really think there is a pool in my basement?”
She glared at me and tossed the notepad on the table.
“It’s a pool table,” I chuckled.
She crossed her arms over her chest and huffed a breath out.
“Come downstairs and I’ll show you. I guess you really haven’t had time to wander around and see everything.” I grabbed my dirty dishes and stacked them in the sink. Fayth stayed at the table, glaring at me as I grabbed her dishes and set them in the sink. I walked back over to the table and held my hand out. “Come on, Firecracker. I promise not to beat you too bad,” I said with a wink.
She growled low and batted my hand away. Pushing past me, she stomped over to the fridge, grabbed the second bottle of wine then looked around. She held up the bottle and acted like she was trying to open it.
I grabbed the corkscrew out of the drawer and two glasses out of the cabinet. Wine glasses were one of the many things I didn’t have, so old fashioned glasses were going to have to do for tonight. “Come on, Firecracker. I promise not to laugh anymore.”
She rolled her eyes.
“You know, if you keep rolling your eyes at me, I’m going to develop a complex.” I moved toward the door that lead to the garage and looked over my shoulder. “Don’t forget your paper, Firecracker,” I called.
I heard her growl again, and I had to assume she was shooting daggers at me with her eyes as I turned left and opened the door that led to the basement. Her soft footsteps followed me down the stairs, and I flipped on the lights and waited at the bottom of the landing for her.
The basement was the one place in the house I had spent time making complete, but I still didn’t spend a lot of time down here. There was a pool table at the far end of the room, a foosball table closest to us, a dart board on one wall, and a fifty-inch flat screen TV on the other wall. On one side of the pool table was a small bar I had stocked with various types of booze and there were eight barstools randomly placed around the perimeter of the room. It was a perfect man cave.
“Slider,” she gasped and took it all in.
“I fucking love when you say that,” I mumbled. I couldn’t lie. My name being the first word Fayth spoke after the shooting made me want to puff my chest out and howl at the moon.
“Ass,” she laughed.
“My second favorite word you say.” I winked at her before I grabbed her hand and tugged her over to the bar where I took the wine from her. “Go rack ‘em up, and I’ll open the wine.”
She wandered over to the rack where all the pool cues were and grabbed the triangle.
I popped open the cork, filled two glasses half full, and watched Fayth corral the balls into the triangle.
“You played before?” I asked, surprised she correctly placed each ball.
She shrugged and lifted the triangle off of the table. She hung it on the corner of the rack and looked over the pool cues.
“Here’s your wine, Firecracker.” She chose a cue and rubbed it between her hands. Something about the way she chose the correct pool cue, and the way she held it, made me think this was most definitely not the first time she had played. Part of me felt I was dealing with a pool shark in sheep's clothing.
She grabbed the glass out of my hand and paced back and forth, never taking her eyes from the table.
I grabbed my cue. “You wanna break?”
An innocent smile spread across her lips, and she slightly nodded. She lined up her shot, and I watch as all of the balls scattered, and she managed to sink a stripe and a solid.
“Impressive.”
Fayth smirked and pointed to a solid.
“All right, Firecracker. You’re solids, I’m stripes. Game on.”
Fayth lined up her next shot and sunk another ball.
I grabbed my drink and watched her circle the table, looking for her next shot. I sat down on a stool next to the bar and waited.
I had a feeling it was going to be a bit before I had a chance to play, but I definitely had some good scenery until it was my turn.
Fayth bending over the table, presenting her ass to me, wiggling back and forth while she lined up her shot was a sight I gladly welcomed.
Pool was fastly becoming my favorite past time.
********
Chapter 21
Fayth
“Cheater.”
I rolled my eyes and grabbed the triangle to rack the balls again.
“You didn’t even give me a chance to go,” Slider whined, leaning against his pool cue.
I hadn’t, but that was because I kicked ass at pool. I had spent many nights in pool halls in Chicago during college, mainly because it drove Leo up the wall. He thought
his innocent little sister shouldn’t be spending her time with the dirty lowlifes of the city.
My nights at the pool hall were my chance to feel like a normal person and not like Leo Banachi’s sister who no one wanted to talk to in fear they would piss him off.
“How in the hell did you learn to play pool like that?”
I finished racking the balls and grabbed the glass of wine Slider had poured me. It was actually my fourth glass of wine, and I was well on my way to being drunk for the second time today.
I grabbed my pen and tapped it against my chin. Should I tell him the truth, that I was a rebellious teenager who did anything to piss off my brother? I like pool. I couldn’t help but smile as I held it up to him. Slider didn’t need to know everything about me.
“There’s more to that than what you’re saying,” he laughed. “I bet you did it to piss off your brother, and every time you went out, he sent his goons after you to bring you home.”
Hmm. Now that was the truth. I could count on one hand how many times I had gone out without one of Leo’s men lurking in the crowd, keeping an eye on me. I took another sip of my wine and decided he was just going to have to use his imagination.
“Hold up there, Firecracker,” he called as I made my way over to the end of the pool table. “I know I should be a gentleman and let you go first, but I know if I do that, I’ll never get a chance.”
I motioned for him to go and leaned against my pool cue. I would get my turn, and then I would win, just like I had last time.
Slider broke, the balls scattering everywhere, and he managed to sink a solid. “Now, it’s your turn to stand there and watch how it’s done.” He smirked. He lined up his next shot, and I couldn’t help but notice how his black t-shirt stretched across his shoulders, and the sleeves of his shirt inched up, giving me a better view of his tattoos.
He managed to sink another solid, but the white ball followed behind, right into the pocket.
“Son of a bitch,” he mumbled. He grabbed it and handed it to me. “Be gentle, Firecracker.”
I rolled my eyes and set the white ball down. I had grown up with Leo Banachi, whose philosophy was take no prisoners. Slider was going down again.
Unraveling Fayth (Devil's Knights Book 8) Page 11