Destiny knew in her head that it was really none of her damned business. If Fabio wanted to be played by some slick slut then by all means, he should have his way. However, Destiny’s womanly instinct didn’t quite agree. Fabio, for lack of better words, was hers. He was her best friend. Her family. Her club brother. And that bitch was just going to make his life hell and, by association, hers as well.
Well, fuck her. She started her night off in a bad place anyhow by mouthing off at Destiny. And if Anastasia said she was bad news, that was good enough for Destiny. So what, it may have been seven years since she’d seen her old friend? She trusted Anastasia’s personality judgment.
Destiny followed the sounds of giggles to the back and more private areas where fellows could get private dances for a higher price.
Sure enough, there was Fabio kissing on Kari’s neck, his hands roaming over her already bare skin.
“Fabio, come on now. We pay her to screw around with the guests. If you want the wares you have to pay at the front door like everyone else,” Destiny said by way of announcing her presence.
Fabio looked up at her and Kari spun around but stayed very close to him.
“Bitch, I don’t know who the hell you think you are!”
“Please, darlin’, you know damn good and well who I am. You work at a strip joint. Fucking your boss isn’t going to get you any promotions,” Destiny shot back and Kari started to lunge at her but Fabio caught her around the waist.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Fabio replied. “She’s busted me up more than one time. She’ll shred you.”
“Dyke!” Kari hissed as Fabio released her and walked away.
Destiny laughed. “I’ve been called worse.”
“You have to admit, you did choose a man’s path. Besides, I’ve seen some of the stuff that girl’s done on stage. She’s more dyke than you any day.”
“I don’t know if that’s disturbing or a compliment.”
“It’s a disturbing compliment. But the point of your temper tantrum?”
“That wasn’t a temper tantrum. Bosses shouldn’t screw the employee no matter the business we run. We have to keep some things ethical now. Besides, she’s a tramp.”
Fabio rolled his eyes. “Anastasia works here. What’s that make her?”
“That’s different.”
“You know, Destiny, if I didn’t know any better I’d say you were just jealous.”
Destiny glared at him. “Think all you want but if I were you I’d sleep with one eye open tonight, Ames.”
“Oh you love me and you know it,” Fabio said as he put his arm around her shoulder and led them back toward the main area.
5
“Don’t you dare touch that bacon!” Stella yelled at Vat, waving her serving spoon in the air.
Vat backed off with an innocent grin like he a little kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar. Innocence being something that was hard to portray on Vat and even harder to take serious.
Sunday brunch with the family. All thirty attendants were gathered around when Kristy nudged Alec. Catholic roots hadn’t betrayed Kristy at all, even if the path she choose was a little more sinister than most. That being said, all brunches started with heads bowed. You didn’t bow, you didn’t eat. Simple as that.
Grace out of the way, food was devoured. Glad to be home and in the folds of the family once more, Destiny sat at the outside patio with a plate of food before her, chatting with Bryant’s old lady Maggie and holding his two-year-old son, his later-in-life child after having two fair upper-middle-class children with his first wife who had long ago split.
“How did you handle having a newborn when Bryant was inside?” Destiny asked Maggie.
“Wasn’t easy,” Maggie started with a sigh. “It was only six months. It could have been a lot worse. A lot worse. I have an aunt in Tennessee, Baptist to the core, wanted me to split and take Jake there and move in with her. I thought about it.”
“But you stayed?”
“I’m twenty-six years old. Just got a year on you. I was barely twenty-three when I hooked up with Bryant. He’s got eleven years on me and been patched to this club ten years now, seven when I met him. He wasn’t going anywhere. After Valerie up and left him and took the kids, it tore him apart. Married some suit and tie guy. Don’t even know who their father is. That’s what drove him to patch.
“Still has a picture of them kids in his wallet. He hasn’t seen them in eight years. That’s half of Marty’s life and more than half of Quinn’s. Taking Jake and bailing wouldn’t have felt right. He’s a good dad, Bryant. Loves his kids, married me to do right by me, and loves me none the less, but he loves this club too. Six months I can handle. Much more and I don’t know.”
Jake picked a piece of scrambled egg off the plate and offered it to Destiny. She took it and ate it. Slobber from his hands and all.
“You want one?” Maggie asked her.
“One what?”
“A baby.”
Destiny laughed. “I’m not exactly mother material.”
“I didn’t think I was either till that pregnancy test said I didn’t have a choice.”
“You could have done another route.”
Maggie smiled at her son. “I didn’t want to. He was already a part of me. I loved him and I knew Bryant would too.”
“I guess it’s an easy decision when you’re forced with it.
But I never thought about it really. Kristy and Alec never had children and they’re content.”
“Maybe now. I know Kristy had said how hard they tried to get pregnant for years. Especially after Austin was born. But she said when they were given you and the boys, that all changed. They knew they didn’t have time to try and bring another life into this world. You three were a big enough handful. You were the light in Kristy’s eyes as if you were her own daughter.”
Destiny looked up at Kristy. A few photographs of her own mother remained but no real memories. Not even of the shooting. After all, she had only been three. Kristy had raised her from there on. Even years before her father died. Aunt Kristy was her mother figure. Stella too, but she had grown up in this very house.
Upstairs there was her childhood bedroom. Just down the hall from the large room her brothers had shared for the years gapping their mothers death until Austin finally left at nineteen and struck out on his own, which had mainly meant staying in the clubhouse apartments during his prospect.
“Don’t you think it would do Kristy good to have a grandchild? To bring life to this legacy once more? With just you and Houston left, and Houston being in the wind as much as he is, maybe it’s best you think about a different career path,” Maggie continued, breaking Destiny’s train of thought.
“I worked all my life to wear this cut. I served our country because I knew the fight in me was burning strong and that the military could put it to good use. I came out tougher and keener. I moved away from home again to prove I was good for this club. I love this club more than anything.”
“Sometimes I think my husband does too. Loves that damned patch more than he loves me, or Jake. Proved that when he went away. But he still loves us.”
“I’m the only woman to wear a patch in any MC that I know of. Especially a MC of our standing. To have a child would mean a year, at least, away from the table. Maybe more. I may have to step away completely. I don’t think I have much of a maternal bone in my body.
“Besides, all Callaghans do is live and die for this cut. My mother, father, Austin. It’s just a matter of time before it catches up to Houston and me. I wouldn’t trade this life for much anything else, as sick as that sounds. But the Bastards, when your entire family is as deep as mine, it can be poison. And it wouldn’t be fair to bring another child intentionally into that. Callaghan blood is lethal,” Destiny said with her voice trailing off. The Bastards were an addiction as much as they were a MC, a brotherhood, a family, or a lifestyle. You crave it and want it and it can kill you all at the same time.
Destiny had never known how her mother felt about the MC before the Black Pride assassinated her in cold blood. Maybe Breanna Callaghan had wanted her husband to leave. Maybe she had detested him for creating something so deadly out of something surely her father had intended to be much safer for his family than it really was.
But in all the stories, the pictures, everything that was left of Breanna, she was immortalized as a strong, fearless, and caring woman who protected her family and her club. Old lady till the end.
Till Death. Her mother had started the tattoo that all serious old ladies had inked somewhere on their bodies. Breanna Callaghan had it tattooed over her heart. It meant you would stand behind your husband and his club till your last breath. The ink had barely dried on Breanna’s tattoo before it became true.
Kristy, Stella, Maggie, and Destiny all sported tattoos with the saying, although only Destiny’s was in the same place as her mother’s had been. She wasn’t an old lady, it was just another ink to mark the fact that she was a Devil’s Bastard.
“This week needs to fly by!” Charlie said as he walked up to where Destiny was smoking an hour later.
“A little excited about the charity run?” Destiny replied with a smile.
“Hell yeah! I mean, Bikers for Babies is a good cause but still, everyone is coming in from outside charters, brother clubs, it’s going to be a good time!” Charlie continued.
“Mainly what he means is there will be plenty of fresh meat on the market,” Fabio said as he walked into the conversation and put Charlie in a headlock.
“Girls are not meat,” Destiny said with an eye roll, caving on her own argument before it had even begun. While the Bastards did treat women a far shot better than most outlaw MCs, they did bank on the perverted tendencies of men and the more casual actions of women.
“Well, why are you looking forward to it?” Charlie asked.
“Who said I was?” Destiny grinned. “Fort Worth is coming down. Everyone within reasonable riding distance will be here. Reunions are always a good time.”
Charlie and Fabio shifted uneasily. Austin died after a night following a reunion similar to what the upcoming weekend held. Outside of that, they both knew she was hoping most of the Nomads would ride in as most of them tended to do. It was clear Destiny was hoping to see her brother Houston. If he showed up. Which wasn’t likely.
****
Fabio, early riser as always, woke Destiny up a little after nine Wednesday morning.
“Rise and shine you devilish woman!” he bellowed out in a singsong voice as he pushed open her door to her apartment.
“Bite me!”
“Kinky!” Fabio leaned over and bit her bare shoulder gently. Destiny slapped him. “You better get up. Your high school husband is outside looking for you.”
“Trent?” Destiny asked, sitting up, but Fabio had already slipped out of the room.
“Shit!” Destiny jumped out of bed and dashed to the facilities, throwing on a bra and a women’s fitting Bastards T-shirt as she went. She combed her hair out quickly and put on some powder and eyeliner and pulled on some jeans and boots, all in five minutes’ time. She tried to tell herself she didn’t care how she looked for him. But after so long there was a slight possibility that she wanted to make a good impression.
As she walked out the door she threw on her cut and her hip holster sporting her only legal pistol.
This ought to be grand.
Destiny walked out of the clubhouse and onto the large porch to see a sheriff’s deputy lounging confidently in a chair. Like he belonged here. Like he didn’t have a care in the world.
What had once been long dark hair was cut short and aviators rested on his face. This wasn’t the Trent she left behind her after high school graduation. It was clear she didn’t know this man at all.
“Well, Dallas, it’s been awhile.”
Destiny looked him over and sat down on top of a table and pulled out a pack of Marlboro Reds. Trent never called her Destiny. It was always Dallas. His Dallas. His destiny.
“That it has been, Trent,” she said, hiding shock that he was a deputy in town. Seems like everyone in the family let that little fact slip their minds.
“When did you patch?”
“Over a year ago. You always knew I would.”
“I always knew you would prospect. Didn’t see Alec being thick headed enough to let you patch,” Trent said, still at total ease.
“Alec might be president of the mother chapter but he has little say on who Fort Worth patches,” Destiny replied and she offered Trent a smoke.
He waved it away. “I quit.”
“A lot has changed I see.”
“Some things have to, Dallas. Especially in seven years.”
Destiny looked over at her former high school sweetheart. It hadn’t felt like seven years.
“When did you start wearing a badge?”
“Been a few years now. Got a degree in criminal justice and then into the academy. I was in Dallas for a while. Just came back to Sweetwater fourteen months ago,” he told her.
“I assume this visit was more than just social,” Destiny said feeling the tension building up. Trent wasn’t the kind of man to hold a grudge. But when it came to her, it became a strong possibility. They hadn’t exactly ended things on the best of terms.
Hell, Kristy had been angry at her for running out on Trent. Stella hadn’t said much and Fabio had bid the boy good riddance. Her own brothers hadn’t given a damn about the situation. Not even enough to tell when she had been three months along.
“That it is. I wanted to welcome you back to Sweetwater personally. But I also need to relay a message. I don’t want anything illegal going on at this ride the Bastards are sponsoring. I know there’s a lot of out of town boys coming down, and it gives me cause to suspect trouble.”
“You can suspect all you want but this is a charity run the boys and I are doing out of the goodness of our hearts,” Destiny told him sternly, but sweetly as she could sell it. She had yet to discover what was really going on with the Apache or find out if there was anything planned for this weekend. She was useless to him anyhow.
“It is basic common knowledge that the Devil’s Bastards are criminals,” Trent started.
“What facts do you have with that?” Destiny asked.
“Dallas…”
“It’s Destiny to you!” she cut him off and he was silent for a beat.
“Half or more of the boys in any given charter have records.”
“I don’t,” Destiny shot back.
“One of the few.”
“That’s still little proof,” Destiny replied.
“But we both know how this club works. Don’t we, Destiny?”
“Is that it? Is that what this is really about? You’re going to use what a teenage boy remembers about his ex-old lady’s family against them? You know nothing about this club,” she hissed, standing up. Trent rose to meet her challenge.
“That’s not what I’m saying! What I’m saying is this is my town. I want no trouble, especially this weekend, do you understand me?” Trent shouted back.
“Do we have a problem?” Fabio asked, coming out of nowhere.
“We’re fine, Fabio. Go inside,” Destiny demanded, her eyes never leaving Trent. Fabio hesitated but reluctantly retreated back to the folds of the clubhouse.
“He has never liked me.”
“With good reason.” Destiny glared.
“There just needs to be a kept peace around here. I can deal with the club. Both the one here and the strip joint. But I need to know there won’t be trouble,” Trent warned.
“Take it up with Alec. He’s president. Besides I have no say-so and no vote in Sweetwater. I guess your little informant who told you I was back forgot to mention my initial transfer got voted down. I’m still out of Fort Worth.”
Trent nodded and then turned to go but paused. “Are the Nomads coming to town?”
“I know what you’r
e asking. And I have no idea if Houston will be here or not.” Destiny folded her arms.
“I don’t know what’s going on in your brother’s head about Austin’s death but it’s something that needs cleaned up soon. He’s got ideas…”
“What ideas?”
“He’s been asking a lot of questions about the legal investigation of Austin’s murder,” Trent told her.
“We know what happened. His second, Micky the Rat, turned traitor and sold him out to the Pride. He was burnt to death tied to a cross. My only regret is that Micky was picked up by the feds first and is locked away in protective custody.”
“Well I don’t think Houston believes Micky betrayed Austin. He’s been looking into a man who is powerful in the Mexican drug wars at a local level. Thinks he has ties to Austin’s burning,” Trent told her.
“How do you know this?”
“I have my ways.” Trent walked away. “Oh, and that gun better be legal, Dallas!”
Destiny stood seething after he left. Pissed at the thought of seeing Trent to start with, furious at the knowledge he now wore a badge, and enraged by the fact he seemed to know more about what was going on with Houston than she did.
Fabio was back at her side as Trent climbed into his Jeep with the county sheriff’s decal on the side.
“What the hubby want?”
“He’s just pushing his nose around. Trying to show how tough he is. Thinks he’s a badass that can just walk up to the outlaw’s lair. Trying to communicate to me that there will be no trouble at this ride, his orders.”
“Anything else?” Fabio gave her a suspicious look.
“Don’t even start with me. I haven’t even had my morning cup of coffee yet,” Destiny said, turning on her booted heels and walking back into the clubhouse. Whatever Fabio was thinking could wait. The shock of Trent had to wear off first.
****
“You almost married the boy,” Kristy said as she and Destiny did inventory in the back room of the store.
“I was seventeen and pregnant. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“You should have married him.”
“And been a cop’s wife?”
The Devils Bastards MC: Destiny Dallas Callaghan Page 4