Bubbles

by Candace Blevins

  I stared at the other text a while before deciding what to do. It was from Mama.

  who u recomend to give me tattoo

  Etta had told me our mama went into rehab and had come home clean, but I wasn’t expecting to hear from her. I started to call my sister, but changed my mind. I needed to put on my big girl panties and handle my own shit.

  What size? How complicated? How much do you want to spend?

  Instead of words, she responded with a picture. It was a ribbon run back and forth like for a corset, and the loose ribbon at the end twisted and turned at random. It was on the person’s arm, and I immediately understood Mama wanted to cover her needle tracks.

  I love you, Mama. I’ll call you after school’s out this afternoon with a time for you to come to the shop and talk to an artist.

  I texted Viper.

  Can you call me, please?

  A few minutes later, he did. I explained what Mama wanted, reminded him we’ve been estranged and she could possibly be up to something shitty, but told him I thought maybe this had something to do with the fact she’d lost control of her drug habit and might be trying to fix herself. I talked fast, but he understood every word.

  “If she’s up to something bad, that’s on her, not you, and we’ll deal with it. Let’s give her the benefit of the doubt. I can meet you at the shop after your last class, you can call her from there and set up a time that works for both her and me.”

  Instead of explaining it to Bubbles, I took screen shots, sent them to him, and then texted:

  I’ll run by the shop after school before coming to the clubhouse. Not sure how long I’ll be.

  Call me if you need to talk. Otherwise, I’ll expect you by 3:30. Let me know if you’ll need more time.

  Totally reasonable. I programmed my phone for three twenty, just in case I started talking and forgot.

  It’s funny, because at that moment, I was dreading the rest of my day, but everything turned out okay.

  I called my mother from the shop, set a time for her to come in the next day to talk to Viper, and she was nice. Well, as nice as she ever gets.

  I made it to the clubhouse by three fifteen, and Paco waved me to the back. “He went to take a shower. Said to tell you to go to his room if you get here before he’s back.”

  Bubbles often stops working early when I’m off, and works later when I’m scheduled, so we can spend more time together.

  He was fastening his jeans when I came into his room, and my insides heated at the sight of him without a shirt on. He’s a beautiful, beautiful man, and he’s all mine.

  “Bend over the bed and lift your skirt, Half-pint.”

  I wasn’t expecting him to bend me over and rub more stuff on my bottom, but I didn’t complain.

  However, when he pulled a plug out of a drawer, I shook my head.

  “Please don’t! I’m so horny, and that’ll just make it worse!”

  “It will, indeed.” He put his hand to his jeans, and I saw his hard cock through the denim.

  I sighed. “I know I can’t get off, but please let me help you.”

  “Nope. Not today. Turn around and open up, sweetheart.”

  I like to think I’m some kind of anal pro, like my sister, but the truth is that I still squeal and yelp like a newbie when he puts stuff in without stretching me first. I hate that initial stretch and burn, when it’s too much, and he knows it. Punishment is always that way, while he usually starts with a single finger and then works me up when it’s all about having fun.

  He’d taken my panties off to rub the cream into my bottom, and when he put the harness on me to hold the plug in, I knew I wasn’t getting my panties back.

  Usually, he slaps my right butt cheek when the plug is in and I can stand, but today he barely tapped it. Thank goodness.

  I stood, and he sat on the bed in front of me, so we were at eye level. “Special treat tonight. Mythic Beast is gonna play us some of their new stuff. They want feedback, and that means positive and negative. Ghost tells us it’s best if you know why you don’t like something, but even if you don’t know why, it’s important to tell them when a tune or lyrics or anything doesn’t work for you. Unless it’s something they were iffy on to start with, they probably won’t change it if only one person doesn’t like something, but more than one, and they go back to the drawing board to make it better.”

  “No way can I tell Mythic Beast I don’t like something.”

  He ran his hand through my hair so it was all on my left shoulder. “It isn’t so bad. It’s like they’re trusting us with their babies. We like all the band members, and especially Hailey, so we want to help them sound as excellent as possible. Just go with the flow. It’ll be okay.”

  Matty was upstairs with Micca when we arrived. I started to sit beside them on the sofa, and Matty grabbed a fluffy pillow and put it on the cushion before I could sit. I stared at it, unsure of how to react, and he said, “Personal experience. Trust me. That’s the softest pillow in the clubhouse.”

  It took a moment for me to realize he was telling me it was what he sat on when his butt was bruised, and somehow, it helped. Gonzo had mentioned spanking Connie, and now Matty was telling me Razor spanked him. I doubted every woman was spanked, because I couldn’t imagine Gen bending over for a spanking, but I certainly wasn’t the only one.

  Spence seemed to come out of nowhere, and he sat on a sofa in front of us. “Wolves have the ability to change and heal, but Abbott sometimes makes me stay in human form for days, so I remember every strike, every time I move.”

  Within an hour, the clubhouse was packed. Every brother, and possibly every person with clubhouse privileges, had come. I found out later it was for the brothers, their ol’ladies, and official friends of the club, and that was it.

  I fangirled so hard when I first met Will, I couldn’t speak, and then I tripped over which pronoun to use for Silver, but Matty jumped in and finished my sentence for me, thank goodness.

  Bubbles had been right about the feedback process. I clapped a lot when I liked a song, not so much when I didn’t, and I guess others did the same. Will would start asking questions based on the initial response, and it was a discussion about how to make it better, or where it had been good and where it could be improved. So even though there were so many people in the room, it felt more like a family conversation.

  And while I’d known this was my new family for a while, they somehow showed me all over again what family means. I’d dreaded facing them because I was embarrassed, and they showed me once again how much everyone has my back. More than one person tossed a pillow onto a chair for me, or gave me a wordless hug and admitted they got spanked sometimes too, or told me about how they spank their ol’lady because they care enough to make sure nothing fucks up their relationship.

  Long after the little concert had finished, I was sitting in a corner of the sofa with a blanket over me, and it was close to my bedtime, so when Bubbles came to me, I figured he was about to send me downstairs. Instead, he sat beside me, looped my legs over his, and put his hand under the blanket. I yelped and squeezed my legs together when his fat finger slid into my pussy.

  His mouth was so close to my ear, his breath tickled. “Don’t be bad. Open up. No one can see what I’m doin’ under the blanket, and you know I won’t make you come. Just take it.”

  I opened my eyes and glared at him, but then closed them when he added another finger and I was suddenly so close.

  But he pulled his fingers out and patted the side of my leg.

  “You have a choice. You can go to bed now and get up an hour before you need to in the mornin’ so we can play, or you can stay up an hour past your bedtime tonight and hang out in the clubhouse, but then it’ll be tomorrow night before you get an orgasm.”

  Without even thinking about it, I asked, “Can I stay up thirty minutes past my bedtime tonight, and wake up thirty minutes early in the morning to play?”

  He chuckled. “Yes, my beautiful little Blosso
m. You may.”

  41

  Lexi

  * * *

  I’m not sure what I expected from my mother, but she looked at least a decade older than the last time I’d seen her, and she’d lost way too much weight.

  She went into a consult room with Viper, and came out twenty minutes later. I wasn’t working, but I’d gone behind the counter to help, since I’d have just been sitting in the lobby waiting, and the shop was busier than usual.

  I went to Mama when she came out, though, and asked what they’d decided on. She showed me the rough drawing Viper had given her, and I smiled. It was beautiful.

  “I love it. Do you have time for dinner? My treat?”

  “I can pay for myself, girl.”

  There’s a barbecue place on MLK she loves, and when I mentioned it, she perked up.

  I didn’t see her car when we stepped outside. “Did you drive?”

  “Nah. Twernt too far to walk.”

  “Okay, I can drive us to eat, and then take you home.”

  She waited until we were in the car to start talking.

  “Jiminy hired a brother to replace me. Tole me I had to do the rehab if’n I wanna work for him again.”

  She looked out the side window, away from me. “Thirty damned days with people who think every word come out ya mouth means somethin’ besides what ya meant tah say.”

  I didn’t even want to imagine the grief my mother had probably given whoever tried to psychoanalyze her.

  “So, you’re clean?”

  “First time I be completely clean since I’z…” She shook her head. “Ten or twelve, probly.”

  Neither of us said anything, but she finally spoke again when I pulled into a parking space close to the restaurant. “You was right. I made you look white, and then I gave you shit for it. Ain’t never thought of it that way afore.”

  “I’m both, and neither, Mama. Took me a while to figure that out. I can’t be one or the other. I have to just be me — black inside and white outside.”

  She put her hand on mine. “And you’s doin’ okay, even with a fucked-to-shit-and-back Mama.”

  Thankfully, our conversation was lighter after that, because I honestly wasn’t sure how to talk to her about anything deep. She was right — she’d fucked up and been a terrible mother, but she was still my mama, and I was glad she was back in my life.

  Etta and I took turns sitting with her while she got her tattoo. It took several sessions, and I’m not sure why I didn’t realize the ribbon mirrored the colors in my hair at first, but one day, it hit me.

  I asked Viper about it when she wasn’t around, and he said, “She picked them out of the swatches I had, showing available colors. She didn’t explain why.”

  But I needed to know, so I invited her to dinner at my house, which is Bubbles’ house, but he makes me call it mine when I refer to it.

  Etta picked her up and brought her, so it was the four of us in the kitchen, eating steaks and potatoes.

  I didn’t know how to bring it up, so I just asked.

  “Why’d you choose those colors for your tattoo, Mama?”

  “’Cause those colors represent someone full of joy and love, who don’t let nobody push her down.”

  This was possibly the first true compliment I’d ever gotten from my mother that didn’t involve how well I handled product in the lab.

  I burst into tears, and Bubbles pulled me into his lap to hold me.

  “She needed to hear that,” Bubbles told my mama. “I’m glad ya’ll are talking again.”

  “You good for her, even if you is a white boy.”

  Etta laughed, Bubbles held me tighter, and I sat up straighter in his lap.

  “He’s my life, Mama. He gave me family when I was down to just Etta.”

  And then my Mama made me scared for her, because she told him shit she shouldn’t have, but I’ll be forever grateful to her for doing it.

  “El Atroz gon firebomb the fuck out of yo whorehouse and restaurant Friday night.”

  Bubbles froze under me, and then patted my leg. I’d stopped breathing, and his little pat reminded me to start again.

  “I appreciate you telling me, Miss Tamara. The club can offer protection to you, if you need it.”

  She shook her head. “Ain’t nobody know I know. I could keep my girls away by askin’ them to take me to Atlanta for a fambly session at the rehab, but…” She looked at Etta, me, and back to Etta. “I weren’t there for them like I shoulda been.” Mama met Bubbles’ gaze. “You love my girl. You doin’ right by her. You club doin’ right by my other girl.”

  “How’d you find out, Mama?” Etta’s voice was soft, emotional.

  Mama shook her head. “They know I never touch ice, so they send me to that lab to work, since I got out of the rehab.” She looked at Bubbles. “Big-assed white guards with beards thought they was talkin’ in code, but I ain’t no idiot.”

  Bubbles

  * * *

  Lexi’s mom was street smart and certainly wasn’t an idiot, but I still wondered if they’d meant for her to get the information.

  The El Atroz MC is made up of mostly Celrau vampires, half-demons, various reptiles, owls, and jaguars. Lexi and Etta knew about supernaturals, but they had no idea those on the dark side were forming in groups around Chattanooga. The RTMC hadn’t gone to Alabama to attack El Atroz only because Aaron Drake and The Abbott had promised we’d be part of getting rid of them when the time was right to strike. Still, we had our own plans, and we could implement them with a few hours’ notice, if necessary.

  Was this the El Atroz MC’s way of drawing us out before it was time, or had some intel got lost somewhere? We were assured Aaron had a handle on their communications, but Brain had been monitoring it as well. At least one of them should’ve picked up on it — unless they figured out how we were monitoring them.

  I looked across the table to the withered old woman sitting in my kitchen. “I believe you. Would you feel comfortable talking to Duke and Brain? I can invite them here.”

  She shook her head. “I’m tellin’ you. They got the rocket launcher things, to shoot bombs in. They gonna hit dat restaurant and whorehouse when they full Friday night. I don’t know nuttin’ else.”

  I kissed Lexi on top of the head, and she turned in my arms and wrapped her herself around me. “You need to go. I know. Be safe.”

  “Always, Half-pint.” I looked to the other two women. “I’d like both of you to stay here with Lexi. There’s a guest bedroom and two sofas, and you’re both welcome to whatever you need.”

  I walked to Duke’s, and texted him on the way. He met me outside his garage and went in with me. I told him what Lexi’s mom had said, and he texted Brain on the app. Ten minutes later, we were in Brain’s basement on a video call with Aaron Drake.

  “My instincts are that this is a red herring,” Aaron told us. “They’ve been trying to get you to attack for weeks, and we all know the odds of a patched member talking about those kinds of plans where they’d be overheard — I don’t see it.”

  “Agreed,” said Brain, “but we need to be sure.”

  “I don’t agree,” said Duke. “It’s possible they’re hoping to draw us out, but also possible their Plan B is to go through with it if we haven’t responded by then.”

  Abbott stepped into view. He lives next door to Aaron and I had no idea how he’d got there since it was still daylight, but I knew better than to ask.

  “What plan of action do you propose?” asked Abbott.

  “We have intel on their clubhouse, their pot fields, a few warehouses, and what we believe is their main factory and lab,” said Brain. “I’m inclined to go in tonight and take out every location we’re aware of, before they think we can organize.”

  “How would you accomplish this?” asked Aaron.

  “Not your concern.” Duke had crossed his arms and was without expression. None of us were positive of Abbott’s reach, and whether he could get into our heads this far away,
but we’d all practiced shielding our minds. It might not be enough, but it couldn’t hurt to try.

  Abbott’s response gave nothing away. “I’m not surprised you have plans. I can send two of my people with you.”

  “Not necessary,” said Duke.

  “I’m ready to hit some other locations,” said Aaron. “I’ve just been waiting for the right time.” He looked to Abbott and back to the camera. “If we hit tonight and we don’t talk to anyone, and lock communications down before we put the word out, the chances of someone talking go way down, and we might manage the element of surprise. I can do it tonight — it sounds as if you’re prepared as well?”

  “We have everything ready to go.”

  Aaron gave a single nod. “It’s a go, then. Let’s coordinate, so we all hit our targets within moments of each other.”

  Abbott touched Aaron’s arm and they both went statue still a few moments. Duke and Brain didn’t interrupt, so neither did I. Finally, Aaron said, “Abbott is prepared to make a few strikes as well. Can we all agree on, say, four-twenty? That gives us nearly ten hours to get into place.”

  Duke looked to Brain, who seemed to do a few seconds of math in his head before smiling. “Done. If you need to get someone already vetted into our compound for safety, get them to the restaurant before it closes — preferably without their car so we don’t have to move it offsite.”

  “If you can pull Zeke and Destiny in,” said Aaron, “we can take care of Bethany as well as Ghost’s mom. Anyone you’ll have problems helping?”

  “Assuring the safety of every workin’ girl might be enough to tip them off. Can you arrange for some outcalls to your people, Abbott? Just four to six will be enough to help us allay any suspicions.”