by M. Merin
“Anyone who’s authorized to vote, speak now. Otherwise, shut the fuck up,” Jasper rephrases his previous statement and Diamond flies across the room towards him.
“Frank ain’t here, he wouldn’t stand for this bullshit!” she roars, only stopping when Vice grabs her around her waist before she can reach Jasper.
“You keep this up and you’ll lose clubhouse privileges before he gets back, Diamond,” Vice tells her. Jasper is pretending to ignore her but I don’t doubt she’d be tossed out on her ass if she’d gotten close enough to strike him. “Where is the old coot, anyway?”
“He had a friend who needed some help. He’s gone for a few days,” she replies, getting a snort from Shade. She turns on him next.
“What’s your problem? You’re not really backing this bullshit, are you? I’ve always been real good to you.”
“Heard Frank’s been getting texts from Deb, maybe that’s the friend he’s helping?” Shade replies loudly from the corner. He ignores Diamond as she starts cursing him out. “Russian, man, you take good care of Betsy. Betsy, you let me know if he ain’t. I’ll get him sorted,” he grins and nods at me.
Since Russian pretty much confirmed Shade’s (possible) psychopath status, his statement gets a tighter smile from me than I’d usually give him. Russian pulls me in tighter to his side. Every eye in the room is moving between Russian, Vice, and me. I’ve known these guys for years but can’t deal with being the center of attention so I press my body even closer into Russian’s side.
“Alright now. Congrats, Betsy. Russian,” Jas nods at us before crossing to the hallway leading back to his office. “Shade, let’s have a chat.”
Chapter 6
Betsy
Riley and Charlie are quick to hug me and I focus on their faces, ignoring Vice as he crosses over to us, his eyes boring into me with every footstep closer.
Vice extends his hand to Russian and leans in to say he wants to talk to him later. This gets a near growl from Russian before Vice follows Jasper and Shade down the hall. I finally pull my eyes away from the other Ol’ Ladies to take in Russian’s face, trying to figure out what he’s thinking.
He must see the concern in my eyes because his hand wraps around the back of my head and he brings my mouth to his for a quick kiss.
“Riley?” he says, never breaking eye contact with me. “It just occurred to me that Betsy orders all the cuts and patches around here. Is it a total dick move if I have her order her own Property cut?”
This gets a laugh from the three of us and I lean in to kiss him again. “I hadn’t thought of that!” I wink at him.
“I’d offer to help but I’d have to get the number of the place from Betsy anyway,” Riley replies, shrugging her shoulder as Charlie crosses back over to Connal.
“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it in the morning,” I squeeze her arm as she before we continue to catch up on all the news I missed.
We both turn when Gunner stands and calls out, “Riley, we gotta go.”
“What’s up?” she asks him, giving me a half hug before walking toward him.
“Grocery store,” he mumbles.
“It’s already closed, I’ll go tomorrow,” she tries to get him to sit back down.
“Sweetheart, can’t you just take a hint?” he growls before swinging her up in his arms, nuzzling her neck as he walks to the door. “Remember what I did after I claimed you?”
I still can’t believe the man I’ve known the past several years has turned into such a teddy bear for Riley. Well, a possessive caveman, too, but that part wasn’t a big stretch. I blew him once or twice when I first started staying here, but his brand of roughness, matched with quickly pushing me away once he came didn’t do it for me, and I started carefully avoiding him.
Russian crosses over to Connal and Charlie while I head back to my old room to start packing some things to move into Russian’s room. I shake my head, thinking about the balancing act I danced around when this became home. By then I knew I was supposed to openly fuck anyone who asked for me but that wasn’t what I wanted and no amount of booze or blow was going to make that better for me. Luckily my work around here helped keep me in place, even if it did cause issues with the other Girlies sometimes.
Russian
Crossing over to Connal he stands and slaps me on the shoulder. “Congrats, Brother. Surprised that didn’t happen sooner.”
“Needed to make sure she was over Vice first. Wanted to be sure I wasn’t the fall back,” I shrug.
“You’ll be better for her, not that you need my opinion.”
“You and Jake going next?” I ask, flicking my eyes quickly to Charlie before looking to where he’s reaching for her hand, nearly imitating Gunner’s eagerness to get his woman home. “Let me know, I’ll be here. Diamond’ll really lose her shit then,” I call after them.
And, hell, that’s another thing I need to work on. A place to live. Vice’s room is on the other side of Shade’s and I don’t want to run into him every time Betsy and I are leaving my room. I start to head upstairs until I realize Betsy was going to pack, so I turn back to head that way.
“No! I don’t want you coming in here,” Betsy’s panicked voice carries down the hallway and I nearly run, turning the last corner to see Vice with his foot wedged in her door.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” he growls, trying to push the door open further. “I know you were pissed about that necklace but this is bulls…” I grab him by the back of the neck and slam him face first into the door frame.
“Artem!” she squeals.
“Close the door, Little Bit, this won’t take long.” My eyes flash over to her face when she doesn’t obey me at first. The fact that she’s studying my face and ignoring Vice as he tries to break my hold calms me.
“Getting your fucking hand off me.” Vice changes tactic on me and tries to swing his head back to head butt me, with our height difference it just bounces off of my shoulder. Once she closes her door, I flip him around and step back. “Wanna try that when I can see you coming?”
“Betsy’s my Ol’ Lady, Vice. You don’t look at her, you don’t touch her, and you sure as fuck don’t try to force yourself into her room. You got off easy today but...”
“Betsy’s been mine since I picked her ass up at a roadside diner,” he interrupts and it’s only the sound of Jasper’s voice that stops me from throat punching him.
“Brothers, my office.”
I look over to see Jasper ten feet away, with Flint behind him. And I turn away from Vice, showing him my back – and that I don’t think for a minute he could hurt me – as I walk towards Jas and Flint. I smile when I sit down, and can almost feel the rage pouring off of him.
“Vice,” both of our heads turn when it’s Flint who starts talking and not Jasper. “Why the fuck do I have to remind you, you never harass an Ol’ Lady? I think we all got better things to do with our day.”
“I just wanted to fucking talk to her. We have a history and I didn’t see this coming,” Vice blurts out.
“Unless I’m mistaken, Russian and she have been exclusive since, what? January?” Jasper looks at me.
“New Year’s Eve,” I confirm.
“She just started talking to me again last month, I figured I’d talk her back around,” Vice starts and I swear I’m going to kick his ass.
“Enough!” I holler instead. “Betsy and me had an understanding before this, now it’s settled.”
“He’s right and considering you just had your dick in someone else, why don’t we drop it. I’ll expect you to stay away from Betsy.” Jasper finishes in what we all recognize as his annoyed tone of voice and turns from Vice to me. “Russian, do you happen to know what her plans are as far as running this place?”
“She wants to keep working. Betsy won’t be cleaning rooms for extra cash anymore but as far as party planning, inventory, and meals, she’ll keep all that covered.”
“Thank Christ,” he breathes a sigh of relief.
“I’m gonna help her move her things into my room, that’ll make more space for the probies who are bunking together. Then we’ll look into a place of our own.”
“Ahhh, all the kids are growing up and leaving the nest,” Flint chuckles. “Talk to Connal and Jake. They’re moving into a house they’re doing some work on but they’re staying at Bree’s old apartment. That might work for you two.”
“Yeah? Thanks, Boss. I’ll just check with Betsy first.”
Jasper waves me off in dismissal but Vice stays behind sulking. Heading back to Betsy’s old room, I scoop up the piles she’s left out and carry her stuff up to my room. Entering it and seeing the state she’s in, I quickly drop everything onto my dresser.
“No crying, Little Bit,” I gather her in my arms and hold her tight as I sit on my bed. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
“He just looked so mad, and then you…” her next words are muffles by her sniffles. “What did Jasper and Flint say?”
“You’re mine, they backed me and he’ll be leaving you alone.” I pause, not sure of how to phrase my next request without sounding like a jealous ass. “You know I trust you, right?”
She nods her head and looks into my eyes, cupping my face. “I’ll stay away from him, Artem. I’ll tell you if there’s anything, I don’t want you thinking I’d ever go behind your back.”
My deep sigh tells her those were the words I needed and she smiles before kissing me.
“Before I forget, Connal, Jake, and Charlie are all living at Bree’s old apartment. Flint thinks they’ll be moving out in a few weeks, do you want me to talk to her about renting it? That’ll give us time to find a real home.” I laugh as she kisses me in between each sentence.
“A real home,” Betsy sighs in between kisses. “I want to paint every room. No more white walls.”
I can’t help but laugh at that request. “You can pick out colors and I’ll have Mick do the painting. Don’t forget, you might already be pregnant and I don’t want you breathing that shit in.”
“Love you, Artem,” she twists so she can straddle my lap.
“Yeah? Did you get all sweaty moving things up here?”
“I showered for you this morning!” laughter erupts from her, her tears forgotten.
“That was hours ago,” I pout, as I carry her to the bathroom. “This shower sucks but we’ll make it work. Bree’s place has a big shower and you can be certain I’ll build a fucking huge one for you someday. A full bench, surround sound, edible body wash…”
“Excuse me, are you building a strip club or a shower?” she looked more impressed over paint.
“Good idea, Little Bit. I’ll try to work a pole in!”
“Drawing the line there, Russian. This is the only pole in your fancy-as-fuck shower,” Betsy squeezes my dick and tries to pull me under the water with her. I sit on the toilet across from her and smile to myself, tugging on my rapidly hardening cock as she softly sings to herself and carefully soaps up nearly every each of her body for me.
“Get my back?” she finally asks. Kicking my boots off, I walk into the small shower dressed except for how my dick is sticking out of my unzipped jeans.
Betsy
I knock on Jasper’s door and wait to hear him yell out.
“Am I interrupting?”
“Nothing that can’t wait, sit down,” he motions. “Russian said you’re not going to bail on me.”
“That’s what I wanted to talk about. Artem’s going to find us a place to move to but I wanted to talk to you about how things might work.”
Jasper’s always been more than fair with me, so I lay out my idea about breakfast casseroles that the guys can easily reheat. From there we talk about how I’ll balance my time as an employee versus being an Ol’ Lady who should have down time here also.
“Sounds good. I’ll give you a raise. Been a while since I did and without supplying a room for you anymore, I think that makes sense.”
I burst out crying.
“Shut that shit down, Betsy,” he grunts with a half grin lightening his words. “I got enough crying kids at home. You’ve made my job easier and I don’t want to lose you, got it? I’m gonna have Mick and Madda clean out one of the storage rooms and get a desk in there for you, that should be done by the time you two move out.”
“Yes, Boss.”
“Good, now Emma sends you her best and wants to throw you a party. It’ll be at our house so you won’t have to do any work. She’ll be reaching out to you soon.”
“You two don’t need to do that, really,” I mumble, but he waves a hand in the air as I get to work.
I have my hands full getting the clubhouse in order after weeks away and am grabbing money from Jasper to hit the grocery store when Russian finally makes an appearance.
“Got a shift tonight,” he says to Jasper once he’s released my lips. “Everything settled with the state troopers?”
“Yeah,” Jasper responds. “It’s the other thing that’s bothering me.”
“Maybe they don’t care anymore?” I offer and Jasper’s eyebrows fly up, he turns in silent question to Russian.
“They’re Bratva, Little Bit. They’re always going to care.” Russian’s words turn my stomach. “Wanted her to know to be watchful,” he tells Jasper.
“Which hotel are you going to?” I ask Russian as he walks me to a truck.
“Big Bear. Two to ten shift. I’ll text you when I’m leaving,” he lifts me into the jacked up truck, getting a laugh from me. “Did you get your cut ordered?”
“Yeah, it’ll be ready next week.”
“I’ll get you a card on my account. I left you some cash, also,” Russian says and I gasp, shaking my head. He quickly catches my cheeks between his large hands. “You’re my woman now, Betsy. Me taking care of you is no different than Wrench taking care of Amy, so not a word. Get a nap in, so we can hang out when I get home. Want my Brothers getting used to seeing you as an Ol’ Lady and not a Girlie.”
He kisses me again before walking over to his bike, leaving me with a big smile on my face. I pinch myself, unable to believe my luck has finally changed.
Chapter 7
Betsy
Monday nights at the clubhouse can be a little quiet but I have plenty to do since there’ll be a party and guests here tomorrow night. Part of the Colorado chapter of the Grizzlies will be rolling through. As I’m working on food that can be reheated, Shade sneaks up behind me.
“Where’s Russian?”
“Fuck!” I scream and drop to much salt into a mixing bowl. “I swear I’m putting a goddamn bell on you, asshole.”
“Funny.”
“He’s working, should be here around eleven. I’ll tell him you’re looking for him,” I say, slapping his hand away from some bacon I have set aside to add to the mix. “Keep your fingers out of the food.”
“You happy, Betsy?” he smiles over at me and I nod, trying to keep the little grin off of my face.
“I met this girl when I was on the road,” Shade starts and my eyes move down to the new tattoo I had noticed on his hand. “She was real different than anyone I’d been with. Sent her on her way though and I can’t think of how to find her again.” He starts rubbing at the name on his hand, from the looks of it, he’s been doing that a lot.
Rosy. Whoever she is, she left a mark on him in more ways than one.
“Can Wrench help?” I ask and he quickly shakes her head.
“Didn’t get her last name, just know she was moving west but I didn’t ask where to.”
“I’m sorry, Shade. What’s that thing? Serendipity? Maybe you’ll run into her again when you aren’t expecting to,” I offer.
“Didn’t give her any reason to care if we did, Betsy.” He shrugs and turns away. “You two hold on tight.”
I finish making the casseroles for tomorrow but I can’t shake the sadness I feel for Shade. He’s always been decent to me and maybe it’s the glow of my new status, but I hope he gets a chance with eith
er the girl he met or someone who’ll care for him right. The rest of the night goes quickly and quietly, which is more that can be said for the next night.
In the midst of the party with the Colorado chapter, Jake and Connal claim Charlie. This instantly turns into a fight when one of the other guys makes a comment about her boobs. Honestly, I just think it’s been too long without bloodshed around here so everyone jumped in for fun.
Russian makes sure I’m safe in a corner before he dives in the fray. Diamond is close to me but doesn’t say a word, only gives me a dirty look as we wait for the fight to die down and let them all throw back shots together.
With a bloody lip, Russian comes for me and we head over to see the newest Ol’ Lady. Sitting near Emma and Charlie, the three of us get talking about Emma’s huge stomach, houses, and of course, our men.
I look up when I hear Jake bark out, “Perfect timing,” laughing loudly and looking at Russian before turning his eyes from me to Emma’s heavily extended stomach.
“There’ll be an empty two bedroom on the market next year, y’know, in case you need a second bedroom for any reason, Russian?” Connal picks up on what Jake was hinting at and I turn crimson.
“Da fuck do I know about kids?” Russian asks, and his words instantly twist my stomach into a knot. Emma hears it also and gently extends her elbow to rub her arm against mine in an unexpected show of support.
“You’re so good with my twins, you’ll show him how to do it when the time comes,” she murmurs. “Of course, you’ll also be so flipping organized you’ll stage a takeover of the PTA when your baby’s in pre-school.”
I give Emma a small smile to thank her for her words, but I still want to talk to Artem about his comment. I know he’s had a few drinks tonight but the thought of him not being on board terrifies me. Waiting for the men’s conversation to die down, I say goodnight to Emma and Charlie. Whispering in Artem’s ear, I lure him away from the party.