Redemption Duet (Aces High MC - Cedar Falls Book 0)

by Christine Michelle

  Chapter 5

  The hockey game had gone a long way toward winning Poppy’s good graces back. None of us had heard anything down the wire about what happened with Shep’s family either, which was a fucking miracle, and left us all feeling a bit on edge at the same time. There was no way, if this had been mafia related as we had originally assumed, that they would leave it. We all knew that war was a possibility on our horizon, and still, we were all determined to go about living our lives as if there was nothing any different brewing somewhere in the background. Sure, we were all a little more vigilant, but it wasn’t stopping us from living. I was in the process of living and working my latest shift at CFFRD when I glanced down at my new cell phone and saw a message there from my sister, Soph.

  Soph: What are you bringing tomorrow?

  Me: ?

  I had no clue what she was on about now. I was probably supposed to babysit Brantley again and forgot or something.

  Soph: Please, tell me you’re not coming with the tramp from Georgia!

  Me: Whoa! What the fuck, Soph?

  Soph: After Julie, that’s really what you want to hook yourself to? An already married woman?

  Me: Soph? What the hell is going on, and where do you expect I’ll be tomorrow?

  Soph: Club cook out tomorrow, idiot.

  Me: Shit, I forgot all about that.

  Sophie: No shit, Sherlock!

  Me: I guess I’ll be stopping by.

  Sophie: Without a guest, right?

  Me: This is the only warning you will get, little sister. Check your attitude! My decisions are just that. Mine!

  Soph: Fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you when it all blows up in your face and she runs back to Georgia with her ex. That’s how club bitches roll, and you know it. They find out he’s cheating, they leave. Then they miss club life, and go right back. All forgiven.

  Me: You seriously have no clue what you’re talking about, so stop.

  I couldn’t believe my sister had the nerve to talk about Poppy like that. Normally, Soph didn’t have a mean bone in her body so I didn’t know what the hell was wrong with her. Just to be sure I wouldn’t have any trouble out of her, I sent a text to her man, my club brother.

  Me: You need to put your woman on a short leash tomorrow. The shit she just had to say about Poppy – Chief’s sister – was completely vile.

  Bender: Shit. I’ll have a talk with her.

  Me: Good luck with that. She gets in Poppy’s face tomorrow though, there will be problems. The woman is club even if she isn’t with me or her ex. She’s club because Chief would never allow her to be tossed aside.

  Bender: I know it. I’ll make sure your sister behaves.

  I shook my head as I glanced down at his message. I didn’t know when exactly my world had flipped upside down, but having to sic my sister’s old man on her was something completely new. I didn’t get much time to contemplate that though because we were up, and I had to get to my engine and roll out.

  “Two alarm,” someone called out as I rushed into my gear. Shit, that meant we were probably looking at a long call. Two alarms were rare in our area since everything was so spread out, but when we got them, they went one of two ways. Either the extra units were barely necessary, or we were quickly upgraded to a three alarm because of proximity to other buildings or the size of the original fire. It was obvious by the time we rolled up to the scene that this fire would fall into the latter category. I pulled in a deep breath and prepared myself for a long night just before I jumped into the action.

  When I finally got to knock off of my shift, I was already 52 minutes into my day off. We got slammed back to back with the two-alarm fire that became a three alarm before we even started, then there was a traffic accident followed by an overturned chemical truck we had to be on standby for. We had just rolled in from yet another accident where we had to use the jaws to get the driver out. I was beat, my muscles ached, and honestly all I wanted to do was ride out to Poppy’s place and wrap myself around her for a little while.

  Then I remembered I needed to check in with Gray since I was finally done with the damn shift from hell. He had texted me about needing to celebrate while I was in Pittsburgh with Poppy. I figured I better do it before I left work because once I got my woman back in my arms, I wasn’t about to let her go. I had the next two days off and nothing on the horizon with club business that would need to be handled. That meant I was going to be all hers for two whole days. I just hoped she was ready for that since we were still blurring the ‘just friends’ and ‘friends with benefits’ line a bit.

  If she wasn’t still married and dealing with all the shit her ex-asshole had put her through, I would have already claimed her properly. The fact of the matter was that going at her pace didn’t seem to be the easy task it should have been. I wanted more, and I was selfish enough to want it all right the fuck now. I shook the thought off, knowing it couldn’t happen that way, and I texted Gray.

  Me: What’s up with the need to celebrate? Just got off shift and want to spend the next two days off with Poppy, but if you need me, I’ll see if we can block out some time for you.

  It took about twenty minutes for Gray to respond.

  Gray: Fuck! Those bathrooms are nasty down the back hall, dude.

  I couldn’t help the laugh that forced its way out of my exhausted body. I remembered the days when I was a prospect. At least I had been much younger back then. Gray was a full-grown man and having to clean up after clubhouse rancidness was not something full grown men easily stooped to. That’s why those shit details showed a man’s mettle.

  Me: Remember those days – not fondly. What’s going on?

  Gray: Asked Ghost – the club – to help me with a poker run to raise some cash for Beth and Abby. Ghost said absul-fuckin-lutely. It’s on, already been planning.

  Me: Outstanding. Let me know what we can do to help.

  Gray: Can Poppy bake or cook? I want to get a bake sale type thing going at some of the stops along the run to help with raising more funds. Thinking about having the old ladies set up a swap meet style booth or table too towards the end. Then an auction.

  Me: Damn, man, you’re going all in. Sure, you don’t see more in Beth than just a man trying to help?

  Gray: Nah. She’s a sweet lady, her daughter is a cutie, but I think of her more as a sister that needs help since half her family just died.

  Me: Headed to Poppy now. I’ll give her your number. Sure, she’d be glad to help out.

  Gray: Thanks, dude.

  I chuckled at the last text. He just couldn’t help himself. Poor asshole was going to get landed with the Surfer moniker whether he liked it or not, and it was his own damn fault.

  That was all the thought I was willing to give Gray though. It was amazing what he was doing for a woman and her child that he only met because he was part of the emergency crew that showed up after the accident she was involved in. I had been there too, but in a different capacity. I’m not sure I wouldn’t have reacted the same way if I had been in his shoes, and in such close proximity to the woman’s heartache. She had lost her husband and two older children in that wreck. Both fire and rescue were trained that we were not supposed to get involved with the victims once we were relieved from our duties. Sometimes, that just wasn’t possible.

  In Gray’s case, he had been there with his hands on the woman, trying to stabilize her when she’d become conscious again. The first thing she saw was one of the dead children, then her husband, and she had lost her shit. Gray had talked her down and he stuck with her and the baby that survived through the whole ordeal. Then, he went a step beyond and started going to check in on her and the baby, knowing they didn’t have anyone, and that it was impossible with Beth’s injuries for her to take care of certain things. Gray was one of the good ones. Even so, I was chucking him to the back of my mind, because the only thing I wanted more than the air that kept me alive was to be in Poppy’s arms. I wish I could play it cool and pretend I didn�
��t have intense feelings toward her from the very start, but I did. It was also unlike anything I’d ever experienced before and that was a revelation in and of itself considering how long I attached myself to my ex. How had I allowed myself to be lulled into the tedium of relationship that could be described that way? Hell, how had my family ever thought I was happy in that existence? More importantly, how the hell was I going to get Poppy to go along with the game plan of her and I being together for the long haul? Doubt niggled at my mind making me wonder if she’d even let me crawl into bed and curl up with her once I got to her house. I had just been heading there because of this desire I had to wrap my body around hers and take comfort from the warmth she gave so freely without even realizing she was doing it. It never dawned on me until I was pulling in her driveway that she might not feel the same.

  I’d just have to convince her to allow me to stay there. Her ex had done a number on her, and I was afraid that us meeting so soon after would have repercussions I wasn’t going to be happy with. The texts my sister had sent me earlier came to mind. While I was angry at Soph for the way she chose to deliver her message, it wasn’t honestly anything I hadn’t already considered. What if Poppy ended up back in Georgia? What if her ex won her over somehow? I wasn’t sure how I would handle that, because I was already well and truly attached to the woman. Even though I had my own concerns I thought Soph was wrong this time, but what did I know? My last woman had come on to my brother, offering to ‘trade up’ to him because she thought he was the better choice, and because he never told me about it I stayed with her for four more years. I shook my head. I just didn’t see Poppy being that type of person. It turned out that all my doubts were for nothing. She had no problem with me coming in and getting comfortable with her for a while. I’d take what I could get. For now.

  Putting Poppy on the back of my bike again the next day just felt right. I never had an easy ride with Julie in the beginning because she wouldn’t listen to me about how to lean with me through curves or to hang on and not bounce around when she saw something that excited her. Maybe, it wasn’t fair to compare the two because Poppy had years of riding bitch with another man. I didn’t like to think about it, but it was true. Before that, she also had a biker brother, and from what Chief told me, their father had always had a bike when they were growing up too, even though he’d never been part of a club. Poppy was born and raised for this life in her own way. Julie never had been. It was only in the few months before we split that my rides with Julie on the back were smooth and unlike the headache they had been in the beginning.

  Part of that might have been that she had come to terms with being an old lady, even though I’d never made that official. She’d just decided that it wasn’t such a bad life and I wasn’t so much the runner-up anymore. Not for the first time, I wondered what I had been thinking sticking it out so long with a woman I wouldn’t even consider calling my old lady. Now that I found someone, I wanted to do that with, it wasn’t possible. Even thought he’d been a dick, cheated on her, and whatever else, Poppy’s ex was still a club brother and still legally married to the woman I wanted. I could think about claiming her for myself, but that’s all it could ever be until things were settled between them. Even then, I wasn’t sure how the club would react if Walker put up an argument that she was to be off limits to club brothers.

  Truth be told, if this were any other situation, I would stand to lose my kutte for going after Poppy when things weren’t settled with her previous old man. Actually, even if they were. I’d only ever heard of a club brother picking up what another had scraped off and still remaining in the club one other time. That was with our man Hopper when he got rid of his son’s mom because she was too much to handle. They hadn’t ever been married though. Iceman, the Dakotas Chapter President, had picked her up and married the woman. He didn’t having Hopper’s son around as his step son, but if rumors were true, the man regretted his decision to get involved with Hopper’s ex immensely.

  With Poppy’s situation, it helped that Chief was also in the club and he made it known to our chapter that he’d put his sister’s happiness up against our brother from another chapter who fucked around on her. If I was the reason for her happiness he wasn’t going to complain.

  No sooner did we get there and Poppy was hopping off my bike, than Heavy was calling out to me. “Thought you didn’t let bitches ride on your bike anymore, man?” The asshole was about to eat his own words, and maybe a few teeth talking about her like that though.

  “Call her a bitch again and we’ll be talkin’ out back in the shed,” I answered back. He nodded, and I could see from the inquiring look on his face that he wanted to know what was up with that, but I was just ticked enough with him to not want to answer. It didn’t matter that it was Chief’s sister, or the woman I planned to claim as soon as it was possible, he had no right to start a woman’s day out making her feel like shit. Calling a woman, that a brother brought by, a ‘bitch’ while comparing her to others was not an easy start to a day that you want to go smooth. Still, I tipped my head to Poppy and we both moved toward where Heavy was standing with Hold ‘Em and Crutch.

  “This is Poppy,” I introduced.

  “Poppy?” Crutch asked before turning his full attention to the woman in question. “You’re Chief’s sister, right?”

  “That I am,” she answered him with one of her beautiful smiles.

  “Oh!” Heavy chimed in. “Chief asked you to bring her by? I’m assuming that means he’s bringing one of his bitches then?” Fucking Christ, someone needed to put their foot up Heavy’s ass. Pretty sure I growled out my response, but I couldn’t honestly tell you, because I was that pissed off with the man.

  “Poppy’s with me because she’s mine!” I glared at each man standing there, even though it had only been Heavy who pissed me off. “Don’t know what Chief’s up to or if he’s bringing anyone,” I clarified just before I noticed Hold ‘Em grinning big at my woman.

  “Oh, hey!” Poppy called out excitedly.

  “Hey Poppy,” he answered back. “How’s that monster of yours?”

  Her sweet as fuck laugh made all my anger drain away as I just took her in while she talked to my future brother. There was no doubt our prospect would be moved up in the ranks to full member, and soon.

  “He’s good, although he didn’t seem too happy to be left behind today,” she told him.

  It hit me then that Hold ‘Em was a prospect and Poppy was new to town, not having been to visit Cedar Falls in quite a while before she came to live here. “You know Hold ‘Em?” The minute the words were out of my mouth I remembered the fact that Hold ‘Em had been the one to check on her when Chief and I were busy helping Shep.

  “Yeah, Chief brought him by when he got back from the run the other day and realized he’d left me without a way to communicate with anyone.”

  “Take it you met Bubba?” I asked him, which caused the man to sputter out a nervous sounding laugh. “Damn near pissed my pants meeting Bubba, thought he was gonna fuckin’ tear my leg off,” he admitted. I turned to Poppy for an explanation.

  She shrugged her shoulders. “There was a strange man on my front porch, and it made me nervous. I’m sure Bubba felt that and was feeding off my energy.”

  “Like that Bubba was doing his job, honey,” I told her.

  “You two know each other before Poppy moved here?” Heavy asked.

  “Nope,” I answered the nosy bastard knowing exactly what he was getting at. I had just claimed another brother’s woman in front of him and he wanted to know if I was part of the reason she was here instead of there working shit out with him. I was sure rumors would start flying, if they hadn’t already, but I didn’t really want to stand there and hash it all out while Poppy had to deal with it. I just wanted to spend a good day with my woman. “I’ll catch up with you guys later. We need to go deliver these cookies Poppy made.”

  “I’ll grab the door for you.” Crutch moved to do just that. The guy ha
d been patched over long before I moved from Sierra High to Cedar Falls, but I swear I don’t know how he earned it. The man was all manners and proper speaking. He rarely used what I’m sure his mom would consider foul language. He loved bikes though, and he had a great head for business which was honestly the reason I think he was patched in. We needed well-rounded riders to keep the club successful, even if they didn’t always fit the mold.

  “Thanks, man,” I tipped my chin up to him as we passed through the door and then I heard it. It was as if he’d been waiting and watching for me to show. “Unc Moke!” I grinned at my nephew as he ran up and clung to my lower leg. I moved my arm from around Poppy’s shoulders where I had used it to guide her through the door with me, and I patted his head. As usual, Brantley wrapped himself completely around my leg, signaling he was coming along for the ride whether I liked it or not. I moved toward the bar so we could stash the goodies Poppy had made and pretended that I didn’t even know I had extra weight I was carrying around all of a sudden.

  Then I took Poppy’s bag from her and tossed it on the counter too before I snagged my nephew up and tossed him in the air declaring, “No free rides!” Then I proceeded to introduce my nephew to my girl, and shit you not, the little fucker was hitting on my woman telling me how pretty she was.

  Before the little brat could start asking her out on a date for milk and cookies, I cut in. “Brantley,” I addressed him so that Poppy would know his actual name and not the bastardized version of it that Brant said since he couldn’t pronounce it right yet. “Where’s your mom?” He pointed and my eyes followed the direction to see my sister was with her husband across the room. “Why don’t you go ask your mom if you can have a cookie. I think Poppy made a special one just for you, bud.”