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

by Christine Michelle

  Glancing around Poppy’s kitchen, it quickly became obvious that I would either have to go to the store or make do with what she had there. Eggs and pancakes it was. She did at least have a little orange juice I could give little man as well. I set about making breakfast and sneaking Brant a few football shaped pancakes before I heard Poppy up and moving in the other room.

  “Poppy?” I called out, but she didn’t answer right away and I assumed she was using the bathroom. I quickly lost my train of thought where she was concerned though when I saw one of the pancake footballs fly through the air and land in Bubba’s mouth. Brant clapped furiously as the dog managed to catch the wobbly throw.

  “Little man, those are not the kinds of balls we throw. You eat them, the dog doesn’t.”

  “But he catched it.”

  “I saw that. Bubba’s good at catching, but we don’t throw food.”

  He huffed and stuffed another pancake football in his mouth before I heard the bathroom door open again. I didn’t bother calling out to her this time and just waited for her to come and join us.

  “Hey!” Her sleep roughened voice was sexy as fuck, but she wasn’t looking to great, despite the nearly 16 hours of sleep she managed to pack in.

  “Hey babe, we were just making pancakes for breakfast. Want some?”

  “Sure.”

  “You were out of pretty much every breakfast meat,” I explained to her as I held up the pan with the scrambled eggs in it. “I made eggs too though.”

  “I see that, thank you.” She turned away from me quickly and tried to find something else to talk about for some reason. I figured she was still pissed at me for dropping my responsibilities in her lap, or maybe for the fact that my ex had latched on to me at the funeral yesterday and caused such a scene that I hadn’t even been able to do what made me late in the first place. The necklace that had belonged to my mother was still in my pocket where I’d tucked it when I followed Poppy and Brant home yesterday.

  Unfortunately, I didn’t get to sit down and eat with her because about the time she started talking to Brant, my cell started ringing. I glanced over at Poppy feeling guilty as fuck, but knowing I needed to answer all the same. She gave me a wry smile and turned back to my nephew and humored him while I answered.

  “Yeah,” I called out to the phone. At first, I didn’t tune in to whoever was speaking because all I could hear was Poppy and Brantley talking.

  “Those are some pretty fancy looking pancakes you have, buddy,” Poppy said to Brant as she leaned in and placed a sweet kiss on his head.

  “Unc Moke telled me no frowing dez balls.”

  Her laughter was a balm to my soul even if it wasn’t directed toward me. “He’s right. That would make a mess, and Bubba might eat them.”

  “Bubbsba likes cancakes, Popwee.”

  “Yo! Smoke! I heard called out through the line. “Are you listening or what?”

  “Sorry, my mind’s elsewhere right now. What’s going on?”

  “We have something you might want to check out. Doc managed to get some information out of the girl, and Quickshot and his woman ran with it. They think they have something.”

  If they had something, I had no choice but to go and handle business. I knew it wouldn’t make Poppy happy. We needed to have a talk and I needed to not leave her with the kid I’d inherited. I felt bad and torn in so many different directions it physically hurt. I tuned back into my nephew and Poppy’s conversation because he turned toward me with an accusing look.

  “Because it’s not good for him,” Poppy was explaining as Brantley’s mouth dropped open, and all I saw was him pushing the pancakes out of his mouth with his tongue while he glared in my direction. Great, my nephew thought I was trying to poison him now.

  “Cancakes bad?”

  “Pancakes aren’t bad for little boys, just doggies,” she tried to explain.

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know why. They just are.”

  My nephew eyeballed the dog for a minute before turning back to Poppy and telling her how it really was. “He wikes dem.”

  “Are you still there? We’re meeting up in 15 at the clubhouse. Church for everyone in the know,” Hopper informed me.

  “I’ll be there,” I said as the line disconnected, and I stuffed the cell back in my pocket. “Hey babe,” I called out to Poppy and watched as her shoulders stiffened. She knew what was coming, and her reaction made me feel even worse.

  “You have to go?”

  “Yeah, I do. I want to talk with you, but it’s going to have to wait awhile. Are you okay with that?”

  She sighed deeply, and I couldn’t beat the feeling back that I might be doing irreparable harm to our relationship. “Yeah, go do what you have to do.”

  “Pop, I don’t want to go. This is important though.”

  “I get it, Smoke, really. Go; take care of your crap. We’ll be fine.”

  “I’ll send someone in a bit to grab Brant for a bit if I’m going to be too long. You need to be able to get your stuff done too, and I know that’s not easy with a little one running around.”

  “It’s fine. I’ll let you know if I ever need help.”

  “I’ll call you later and see how things are going.” I set a plate loaded down with pancakes and eggs in front of her before I leaned in and kissed the top of her head and then reached over and did the same to Brant. “I’ll be back later, lil man, you listen to Poppy, and be a good boy for me okay?”

  “Otay, Unc Moke. Bye” He waved his syrup-laden fingers at me, and I just barely managed to dodge out of his reach before he swiped them down my kutte.

  “Looks like you were right,” Ghost told me as I sat down in my seat next to our road captain, Wren.

  “Do I even want to know what I was right about?”

  “The tattoos on the man you guys caught with Shep’s family and the one on the thumb webbing of the digit you found at the barn fire are both Russian in nature. The second being the same thing that Gregor had on him when he used to hang around.”

  I nodded my head. “Have we found links between the dead guy and any specific group?”

  “We did, but it’s just a theory at this point. I have Quickshot checking into shit still, but we’re thinking the Stasevich Bratva is behind all of it.”

  “Never heard of them.” There were a slew of Russian mafia type groups as well as Irish, Italian, and just mutt crews of punks who took street gangs one step further.

  Ghost sighed deeply. “They’re very much known for trafficking women, and sometimes children. It’s all a matter of what brings in the most money for them.”

  “That’s not really a surprise since they were willing to take Tammy and Lindsay as payment for Chad’s debt,” I told him.

  “Don’t think they gave two shits about Tammy. Lindsay, on the other hand, was worth quite a bit to them. From what Quick has been able to dig up so far, they wanted her because virgins sell at a premium, and Chad assured them she’s a virgin.”

  “Fucking hell,” I hissed. “Are we able to pass any of this along to Shep? He needs to know that they won’t stop looking for her.” I pounded my fist into the table in front of me. “Better yet, has Quick managed to get an address? Any kind of fuckin’ location where we can get ahold of these bastards and end them?”

  “He’s still working on it, Smoke. You’ll know as soon he does, I promise you that.” He glanced around the table. “As for Shep and his family, you need to check in with him and see what he wants to do. You know we’d be glad to have him on board here with us, and if he makes that happen, it frees up a few places where our hands are tied. Family first. See if he’s willing to put in the time to prospect.”

  “He rides a rocket not a cruiser,” I mentioned and heard a few people snickering around the table.

  Ghost shrugged his shoulders. “I know some clubs give a shit about that, but I don’t. Riding is riding. He wants to be free in the wind on a fucking rice burner, then he can be.”

 
“I’ll check in with him and see what he wants to do.” I stood to leave before turning back. “If he declines, will that affect his family being able to stay with the women in S.H.E.?”

  “You know Angel Girl isn’t going to turn them out,” Ghost informed me. I didn’t think she would, especially not the girl. Tammy was a different story though since she could be a bit difficult. “I’ll keep you updated on their situation too so you can get word back to Shep.” We had Shep locked down from talking to his family for all of their safety. I tipped my chin at Ghost, but before I managed to get out the door, he was speaking again. “You have work?”

  “Nah, gotta take a leak,” I explained why I had been so eager to get out the fucking door.

  Ghost laughed. “Go take care of business, and then get back here. I’m going to put Angel Girl on and let you work shit out with how long the women will be down there, and what you think may need to happen with them from here on out.”

  “Sounds great.” It did, until I got a text from Chief.

  Chief: Might want to get to Poppy’s ASAP.

  Smoke: WTF?

  Chief: Julie is here. Heading in now.

  I ran back out to the large office area where we held church and ducked my head in. “Need to head to Poppy’s really quick. Julie’s there causing trouble. Be back when I get that shit sorted.”

  “Go!” Was all Ghost said, and I was on my fucking way to deal with the cunt that would not stop infecting my life with her bullshit.

  Seeing Julie standing there just shy of the front stoop of Poppy’s home pissed me off something fierce. I roared into the driveway, parking just to the rear and off to the right of Chief’s bike so that I wouldn’t be blocking him in. It was habit, because it sure as fuck wasn’t what was on my mind. “What in the hell are you doing at this house?”

  “Hey baby, I came by to pick up Brant. We talked about me taking care of him yesterday, remember.”

  “What the fuck kinds of drugs are you on? I told you my woman would be the one caring for Brant when you asked.”

  I watched as her head moved back and forth in a negative way as she smiled at me, eyes glazed over in a way I almost never saw from her when we were together. If I didn’t know better, I’d say it looked like she was in love with me, but that was ridiculous because I’d left her in Pittsburgh without any hesitation after finding out about her betrayal, and what it had been costing me with my brother.

  “Why are you here?” I snarled the words at her this time and watched as the hazy lovelorn look in her eyes finally started to clear.

  “You told me I would be taking care of him.”

  “I fuckin’ said my woman would be taking care of him.” I threw my hand out, my forefinger pointing directly at my woman. “Poppy being that woman.” I moved my hand back and forth between us, indicating who exactly I meant. “You and I haven’t been together in six months. Why in the hell would you be the one caring for him?”

  “You and Poppy?” She almost whispered in disbelief as she glanced between me and the woman she was just starting to understand meant something to me. “You’re with her?”

  “Yeah, like I told you yesterday.” The fact that I was even having this conversation wasn’t sitting well with me. Julie should have never been there at my sister’s funeral to begin with. She knew she wasn’t welcome around my siblings since she fucked with my relationship with Kent for years. I couldn’t fathom how she walked away from our conversation there thinking that I had somehow changed my mind.

  “I thought you just meant you had brought her with you to the cemetery, because she was caring for Brant temporarily. How is it possible you moved on so quickly?” Her voice took on that thick tone as if she were about to cry, but I couldn’t find it in me to care that she was hurting, because right now she was starting shit with the woman I planned to spend the rest of my life with. If she ruined this for me with her antics, I wouldn’t hesitate to put her in the fuckin’ ground, and that wasn’t something I took lightly.

  “Julie, I told you when it was over that I meant it. Hell, you knew I’d been with other women since.” I wasn’t stupid. We had a former club whore, turned old lady, who still hung around on occasion and she had remained friends with Julie. I was sure she was passing information back to her whenever she saw me with anyone over the past six months.

  “I thought Jewel was just telling me those things to make me jealous. I thought you just needed to get some things out of your system, because you were mad at me. You were supposed to come back to me. She said she’d help make sure you came back,” Julie cried out, and I didn’t miss the desperation in her voice. “Yesterday, I thought you were talking about…”

  “How the hell did you know where to find Brant?” Chief was apparently just as tired of this shit as I was, and decided to move things along for us by asking one of the questions I had neglected to get at.

  “I followed you here yesterday. At first, I thought you got a new house, but then I saw the car she got into yesterday too, and figured it was your babysitter’s house.” She spoke to me as if Chief hadn’t asked, and I had. I didn’t know if this part of her delusion, or if she just couldn’t take her focus off of me. Either way, it had moved beyond creepy as fuck.

  “Not my babysitter. She’s my woman. You hear me? You are nothing to me. We are history, and it’s a lesson I don’t miss. You need to get that through your head and move the hell on. I catch you near Poppy, Brantley, my work, home, the club, or anywhere else, I will be forced to take action. The club will take action, you feel what I’m telling you?”

  She was in the middle of a full-blown tear fest as I spoke the words in a scathing tone to her. “I’m s-sorry. I really thought, um…”

  “If I wanted you here, I would have fuckin told you where to go. I didn’t. You followed me like a stalker to get that information, and that’s concerning as hell.”

  She jerked back, wide-eyed, like I’d just slapped her with my hands instead of my words. “No! I’m not, I wasn’t. I just… I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.” She turned then, and damn near ran for the Mustang that was parked out by the road. I snapped a picture of it with my phone so that I had evidence of her being there, and what car she was driving now. None of her ordeal phased me, not her tears, watching her run away, or seeing her peel her high heels off of her feet after she tripped while running. I simply didn’t give a shit about her. At least, I didn’t until I turned back to see Poppy’s eyes dart from where Julie had finally made it inside her car and back to me. Then she glared at her brother too.

  “That was not okay.” Poppy turned and went back inside, slamming the door behind her as she did so. I turned to Smoke as the bastard began to chuckle and I growled out my response to him.

  “What the fuck am I supposed to do about that?” I hissed low so my voice wouldn’t carry as I pointed to the door that had just been slammed on the both of us.

  Chief being Chief moved over to his bike and grabbed two plastic grocery bags full of food out of the saddlebags. He held them up triumphantly. “Maybe food will be the way to her heart. I just happened to bring some with me. As if on cue, by the time he got back to the door, it opened. It only opened a sliver though so I couldn’t even get a look at Poppy on the other side.

  “You brought food?” She asked Chief.

  “You going to invite me in to eat with you guys or slam the door in my face again?” The door opened wider to admit him into the house. Just as I was stepping up to the stoop it slammed closed again. She slammed the damn door in my face. I couldn’t believe it. Stunned, I glanced back out to the street where the Mustang was now missing, and I shook my head. I could believe it. I’d be pissed as all hell if the situation were reversed and her ex-husband – husband actually – came walking up to the house making demands. Even if I knew it wasn’t her fault, it would still take me a while to process that fact. I sat on the stoop and decided to wait. I knew I still had club business to attend to with Ghost, and a call to make to Angel Gi
rl about Shep’s family, but right now, my woman was going to be my priority.

  It took a few minutes for the door to open again. When it did, I stood immediately and looked her in the eyes as I spoke. “You’re right to be mad. My shit hit your doorstep, and that is not okay. You have to understand that I agree with you. It is abso-fuckin-lutely not okay. I will deal with Julie to make sure this never happens again.”

  “I think you already did that,” she told me, and then just stood there for a few minutes watching me. Finally, I attempted to clear my throat so I could get out a better apology for shit I had absolutely no control over, but she beat me to it. “I’m sorry. I know you couldn’t help the fact that she just showed up with all of her assumptions. That doesn’t mean I don’t feel the things I do. I needed a moment to get myself together.”

  “I know,” I agreed. “I promise, we’ll get everything figured out and this won’t be an issue moving forward, ever. If someone comes to your doorstep claiming I sent them, I’m a phone call away or you call someone from the club immediately, okay?”

  She nodded her head in agreement, and when she didn’t say anything else, I figured I had to get the rest out of the way. “I don’t have long. I came running when Chief texted, but I’m still in the middle of shit.” I hated that I had to walk away again when what we really need to do was talk things out. At the same time, I had other people’s lives in my hands. I needed to let Shep know what was going on with his family and give him the option of stepping up and becoming part of the club now that he was knee deep in the worst of the shit we ever faced anyway.

  “Go, get back to what you’re doing. I’ve got Brant, and neither of us is going anywhere.” I didn’t even have anything good to say to that. I wanted to stay there with them, not walk away to handle other people’s shit. Then again, it wasn’t just other people’s shit anymore. The moment those Russian bastards killed my family, it became my problem completely.