by Jamie Begley
“The mayo one or the mustard one?” Jo asked with interest. “Rider loves potato salad. Which one do you prefer, Rider?”
“Whichever one that isn’t burnt,” he answered. “I can run to the store for you to save time. It seems you have plenty of help lifting the heavy stuff.”
Jessie lost track of what they were talking about when the handsome biker turned his smile on her.
“Jessie?”
“Hmm …?” Smiling back at Rider, she was unaware that the other women around her were doing the same.
“Jessie.”
Jessie was brought back from the shiny glare of Rider’s teeth at Dustin snapping his fingers in front of her face. Mentally, it took a second to shake off the effects of Rider’s good looks to register that Dustin had moved up beside her.
“Sorry. Rider was just offering to go to the store for me.”
“Was he? That’s nice.”
Jessie wasn’t so enraptured with Rider that she didn’t miss the threatening gleam in Dustin’s eyes directed toward Rider.
“Let me know when you make a list for him. There’re a couple of things he can pick up for me, too.”
“Like what? KFC?” she asked, still stung that Dustin thought she couldn’t cook.
“No, condoms. You made me use the last five I had last night, and I wouldn’t want to get you knocked up before you’re ready.”
One second, Jessie was standing on the steps with her mouth flopping open and closed like a fish out of water. The next, Dustin was fighting Asher and Holt to keep from being tossed over the handrail.
Unconcerned, Rachel took her hand as the women ran up the steps to get out of the way as Greer and Tate knocked Bud out of the way to help Dustin. By the time they were at the top, they were surrounded by men trying to break up the fight or trying to get their own punches in.
Jessie leaned over the handrail to tell them to stop. She couldn’t even see Dustin anymore. She thought he was underneath Bubba, but she couldn’t be sure.
“Let’s go,” Lily said. “By the time we get started on packing, they will be ready to carry the boxes down.”
“Aren’t you worried about Shade?” That the gentle woman didn’t show concern over her husband being in the middle of the men shocked her.
“Of course not. He’s just breaking it up. No one will hit him.”
Jessie let herself be led away by women who were just as unconcerned as Lily.
Unable to resist a last glance downward, she started to tell her that Shade didn’t appear to be trying to break it up when she saw him plant a right hook on the side of Pastor Dean’s jaw. The only one who wasn’t getting their ass kicked was Rider, who was tagging along after the women.
“Get Jo to give you my number so you can text me what you want from the store. I’ll drive it over to your house, so they’ll be there when you get home,” he said, leaning over the handrail to get a good look for himself.
“You’re not going to break them up?”
“Uh … no. Dustin looked like he wanted to break my nose, and I’m attached to it just the way it is.”
She couldn’t blame him. She was kind of partial to it, too.
“We keep a spare key under the frog statue on the porch. How are you going to get down there without getting dragged into the fight?”
“Easy.” Rider walked a couple of steps farther along the landing before hooking a leg over the landrail. Once his foot was over, he brought his other foot over, then jumped down to the bed of Greer’s truck.
“Damn. He’s something else.” Jessie gave a low whistle of admiration at his dexterity as he jumped from the truck to land beside his car.
“Yes, he is,” Jo sighed.
“Are you sure you want to give me his number?”
“Sure. Besides, you have your own hunk.”
Jessie flushed. She had never been connected with any man in town. That Jo believed she and Dustin were an item had her beaming until she saw Dustin toppling down the steps to land on his ass.
Jessie gave a loud sigh. “He’s no Rider.”
Jo gave a commiserating pat on her back as they went into her apartment. “Sorry, there’s only one Rider. But if I ever decide to break up with him, you can have dibs on him.”
“You know, I don’t understand how we haven’t become better friends,” Jessie said, taking a closer look at the woman.
“I don’t either.”
“I only got one question for my new BFF.”
Jo laughed. “What is it?”
“Does Rider come with the car?”
24
“Hell no! I ain’t going to do it.”
“You’ll do it,” Dustin promised Greer. “Or the next time you want me to babysit Rosie so you can have a quickie with Holly, you’re going to be shit out of luck.”
“I hate peanut butter,” Greer complained.
“I eat Holly’s food without complaining.”
“That’s because you’re too lazy to fix your own.”
Dustin took another chicken breast from the bucket that Bliss and Drake had brought, putting it on his plate. Then he took another breast from the one Winter and Viper had brought.
“You going to town on that chicken, aren’t you, brah?”
“One’s original, one’s extra crispy.”
“You’re going to be a lard-ass if you keep eating like that. How you going to eat all those peanut butter and jelly sandwiches after eating it all? It’s your third plate.”
“That’s what I have you for, brah.” Unconcerned about his weight, Dustin scooped a generous portion of green beans, and then an even bigger portion of macaroni and cheese onto his plate. Finding a seat at the end of a picnic table that Greer had borrowed from Viper, he dug into his plate as if he hadn’t just eaten three plates of the same size.
Seeing Tate standing at the ice chest that Greer had borrowed from the convenience store, he wiggled his empty can that he wanted another beer.
Tate excused himself from Drake, bringing him the beer.
“Too full to get it yourself?” he asked, setting it down.
“Nope, just wanted to see if you would bring it to me.” He gave his brother a questioning look. “A little crabby tonight, ain’t you? Don’t tell me you’re not still drinking because Sutton can’t.”
“It’s called being sensitive.”
“I call it stupid.”
“I’ll remember that when you get married and have another kid.”
Dustin’s appetite vanished at Tate’s comment. Shoving his plate away, he popped the top off his beer and took a large swallow.
When he lowered the can, he saw Tate had sat down on the other side of the picnic table.
“Greer told me that you told Jessie you didn’t want to get married. You want to tell me why you told her that? Out of all of us, you were the one who wanted a big family. What changed your mind?”
“Do you know how much it costs to raise a child nowadays? I can barely afford Logan; another one would put me in the poorhouse.”
“Bullshit, you couldn’t care less about money. You never take your share of the money we make selling weed. The only reason we grew this last batch is because you wanted to. You wouldn’t stop pestering until we gave in. What’s up? What aren’t you telling us?”
He dismally took another drink of his beer before saying, “I need a favor of you, Tate. I’m going to do it, whatever you say, but I need a favor from you before I do.”
“Depends on the favor.”
“Promise me first.”
Tate’s eyes bore into his. “I promise.”
Dustin gave a sigh of relief before finishing his beer, setting the can down on the table. “I’m going to kill the man who kidnapped Jessie.”
“Do you know who it is?”
“I do.”
Dustin could see Tate’s conflicting emotions written across his face.
“Let Holt have him.”
“I can’t do that. If you had been given the cha
nce to kill Sutton’s ex, would you have done it?”
Tate didn’t answer. They both knew the answer.
“Tell me when you plan to do it. We can do it so that you won’t get caught.”
“I’m not going to tell you or Greer either. I’ll be damned if either of you are going to spend the rest of your lives behind bars instead of raising your children.”
“What about Logan? You can’t raise him if you’re behind bars.”
“That’s the favor I want from you. I can’t take him away from Holly. She’s his mother in every way except biological. What I need from you is to make sure Greer doesn’t make him a big jackass like him.”
Dustin was relieved that Tate didn’t laugh. He was serious.
Logan already idolized his uncle. With Greer in full control, Logan would become his little mini-me. A little of Greer went a long way. The world didn’t need two of them.
“When you going to do it?”
“Not until I’m sure I can get away with it. I’d rather raise Logan myself, but if I can’t, I want my bases covered.”
“Let me and Greer then—”
“Not this time, Tate. Sometimes, there are certain things a man has to do for himself, and this is one of them.”
“You love her that much?”
“Yes.”
“At least answer one question. Will I hear the death bells before you kill him?”
Dustin cocked an eyebrow at him. “Why? So you’ll know when to start watching my every move?”
“What do you think?”
“I think you’ll try to stop it. Tate, we both know you can’t stop the inevitable from happening. I’ll tell you what. I’ll wait until you hear the death bells, and when you do, if I need yours and Greer’s help, I’ll ask for it, okay?”
“If that’s as good as I’m going to get, then yes, I guess that’s going to have to do.”
Dustin didn’t believe for a fucking second that Tate wouldn’t tell Greer. Then both his brothers would watch him like a hawk.
Tate stood up. “You want another beer?”
“No, two’s my limit.”
“I know. I thought you would want it for your eye. That’s a hell of a shiner.”
“Asher got lucky.”
“You’re the one who got lucky. They wanted to beat you to death.” He raised an eyebrow. “Jessie still coming? She didn’t say anything before she left.”
“She’s a little perturbed at how I acted.”
“She actually say that?” Tate laughed.
“That was one of the nicer things she texted me.”
“What’d you say back to her?”
“That she was going to be really fucking perturbed if I saw her staring at Rider that way again.”
“That isn’t jealousy I hear in your voice, is it, little brother?”
“Me? Jealous of Rider? Be for real.” Hunching his shoulders as if he couldn’t care less, he crushed the beer can and threw it into the plastic trash can that was leaning against a tree.
“You be real. I didn’t think I’d see the day you’d get jealous over a woman. You didn’t give a horse’s ass when you’d see Sam riding around with The Last Riders. Jessie gives Rider googly eyes, and you took a beating from her cousins just to get her to stop looking at him.”
“She looks at him that way again, pretty boy isn’t going to be so pretty, not when I’m done with him.”
“You have to catch him first.” Tate tilted his head to the side. “Your woman is here, and she looks good. I wonder if she’s expecting Rider to be here?”
Tate took off when Dustin rose to walk to the long table that Holly had set out for everyone to place their food.
She was carrying a covered casserole dish that she sat down on the table. Then she turned and took a large kettle from Asher, who gave her a glower. It took her two attempts to take it from him before he released it. She shot him a dirty look before he went to the ice chest to get a beer.
Holt wasn’t any happier to hand over the pretty cake carrier. His look would have killed Dustin on the spot if it were a loaded gun.
Asher was already holding a beer for him as Jessie finickily adjusted her food.
Dustin’s stomach rolled at the thought of how many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches he would have to eat. Mentally, he started counting how many sandwiches he was going to be able to get Tate and Drake to eat. He could also guilt Bliss into one. Logan was always hungry. The boy was going to eat two, whether he ….
A gust of wind blew past as Jessie opened the casserole dish. Gaping, he took a step toward the table at the sight of the perfectly brown biscuits as she removed the top of the kettle, showing the golden-crusted chicken breasts sitting on top. It was so fucking beautiful it looked like it had a little halo hovering on top. When she took the chocolate cake out, he wanted to snatch it off the table and run inside before anyone could cut it.
He wanted to fill another three plates, but he had been to too many potlucks to be fooled by the way food looked. No, this country boy was no one’s fool. He would take a small taste plate, then come back for more if it was good.
“It looks good.”
“Thank you. Your eye looks like it’s even more swollen.”
“It’s fine,” he said absently, his attention on the food.
Taking a plate, Dustin took the breast on top. Like he said, he was no fool. He had fucked pretty girls who had the brain of a pea; that didn’t mean he didn’t enjoy it. And that chicken breast was too pretty to pass up.
Picking one of the biscuits, he surreptitiously took a quick bite when she turned to greet Holly and Greer. As soon it hit his tongue, he put four more on his plate.
Raising his shoulder, he blocked Greer from trying to look over to see what Jessie brought.
Taking a knife that Jessie had lain down by the cake, he took a small slice, nearly dropping his plate when Greer muscled his way next to him.
Dustin sneakily grabbed a plastic fork to take a bite of the cake as Greer started loading his own plate.
“Those biscuits canned or homemade?” Greer asked rudely.
“Hmm …?” Jessie was texting someone on her phone. “They’re from scratch.”
Dustin took the chance to take a bite of the chicken while she was staring down at her phone. He had died and gone to fucking heaven.
While Greer was picking a chicken breast out of the kettle, Dustin moved to the cake pan, cutting himself a bigger slice and putting it on his plate. When he was about to cut another slice, Greer tried to take the knife from him.
“Save some for me.”
Dustin wouldn’t give up easily. “It isn’t good. Save your calories.”
“I’ll be the judge of that.”
Dustin sheepishly gave it up when Jessie held her imperious hand out. He had to watch mulishly as Greer unashamedly grabbed a fork and stabbed a bite from his plate.
“Goddamn, woman! What kind of cake is this?”
“I really don’t have a name for it. It’s kinda like a hillbilly upside down cake.”
“It sure as shit rocks my world,” Greer said, taking another bite. “I thought you said it wasn’t any good.”
Dustin could feel Jessie giving him a mocking face. He would make it up to her once he had the cake locked inside. “I was just trying to save Logan a piece. I knew you wouldn’t share.”
“You’re the one who doesn’t want to share. You want Logan to have a piece, give him that big honking piece of yours.”
Dustin decided to try the same look on Jessie that worked for Logan. Pouting, he tried to turn her sympathy to his plight. “I only lied because Greer has eaten four platefuls. All that food isn’t good for him. Knox told him he has to go on a diet.”
“You fucki—”
Greer’s hat went sailing off at the smack that Holly landed on the back of his head.
“I told you to watch your mouth when there are kids near.”
“You see any kids standing near here?” His brot
her was smart enough to take his plate and go to the picnic table.
Dustin was smart enough to follow him when he saw Jessie was debating on doing the same thing to him.
“Asshole,” Greer mumbled around a mouthful of chicken.
“Dickhead,” Dustin said, shoving a biscuit into his mouth.
Five minutes later, the picnic table was full, and so was the one next to it. Those who couldn’t fit at the table found a spot to sit on the porch. Dustin had been saving a seat for Jessie, but she was still making small talk.
When she looked at her phone again, he had a nagging suspicion who she was texting.
“Save my seats,” he told Greer, standing up.
“Yeah, right.”
Making sure Holly wasn’t watching, he flipped him off, threw his dirty plate away, and got another one. Leaning over the kettle of chicken, he saw it was empty.
“Who you texting?”
Jessie lowered her phone, then shoved it into her jacket pocket. “Bubba, Bud, and BoDean. They were supposed to be right behind us, but Bubba said he needed to go to the restroom. Now none of them are answering my texts. They’re bringing the rest of the food, and the chicken is gone.”
“They’re bringing more chicken?”
“Yes, and the sweet cornbread.”
“Is the cornbread as good as your biscuits?”
“Better.”
“Then you’re wasting your time texting them. They ain’t coming,” he said morosely.
“I’ve come to the same conclusion myself.” She unhappily reached for a piece out of the still-full KFC bucket. “How was the food?”
The woman might appear disinterested in his opinion, but his mama hadn’t raised no fool.
“Rachel and Sutton aren’t going to be happy.”
“Why?” Her hazel eyes had a light he hadn’t seen since the day he’d watched her at the daycare with the children.
“Because you usurped those two queen positions.”
Taking the last slice of cake, he walked alongside Jessie as they headed to the table, where Holly was squished between Greer and Sutton. Everyone sitting at the table gave him accusing glances when they saw the cake on his plate as he and Jessie sat down. He was about to take a bite of it when Sutton reached across the table and slid it in front of her.