by A. Lynn
“Have them put together a list of stuff they need and I will send out a few prospects,” Gunner agrees.
“Do we know about how long it will take before he is released?” I ask.
“I would say between three and five days,” Trigger answers. “There shouldn’t be a need for investigation, seeing that it was natural causes and all.”
“Do we know about how long we are going to be on lockdown?” Creed asks.
“I don’t know, guys,” Gunner shrugs. “We’ve never done this before. I just want to make sure that the rest of our families are safe.”
“I know that the lockdown doesn’t apply to us, but should we reach out to Cash and Dec? They’re still family.”
“Fuck that! They chose to walk away!” Axle roars.
“I kno—”
“And,” Axle interrupts, “We still don’t know Dec’s role in the assault on Stamped.”
“Ax, be reasonable. I have known them my whole life, there is no way he was involved in that.”
“I have known him his whole life, too, Moose, but he still had a hand in drugging me,” I reason. “None of us know him as well as we thought we did. Unless you knew he was giving the drugs to Cleo and just don’t want to fess up to it.”
“I would never go along with something like that.”
“Then he has been keeping secrets from all of us. And to me, that makes him untrustworthy.”
“I agree,” Gunner says.
Moose sighs. “Okay. Just wanted to put it out there.”
“Any other things we need to discuss before we make a plan to bring Harley home?” Gunner asks.
“Stella won’t close the salon, so I think we need to set up a schedule for brothers to be present at the businesses that are King owned,” Colt suggests. “That way the cash flow doesn’t stall.”
“Any ideas?” Gunner asks.
“When I was talking about it with Reagan it was purely speculative, but I suggested appointments only and no walk-ins. Possibly three brothers there at all times, too. I want to know that my family is safe, I don’t want them to feel like they are prisoners.
“That seems reasonable,” Pop agrees.
“Thinking about it right now, appointments can only be with those who have been regulars for years. No chance for someone to get the slip on the women. Too many of our women and club sluts work there.”
“Okay, we can do three brothers in the salon at all times.”
“Thanks, Gunner. Having Ma there is bad enough, but factor in a pregnant Reagan, and I will lose my mind.”
“What do we do about Skylar?” Axle asks. “Do we think she will be safe at the hospital?”
“I think that she will be the safest there,” I assure him.
“How can you be positive? There are shit loads of people coming in and out of there day and night.”
I cock my head to the side, trying to get a read on him. “There is security and cops there, too, Ax.”
“I know that, dick! But that doesn’t guarantee that she will be safe. We have no way of controlling the people that come in contact with her the way we can with your woman!”
“What are you getting at, Ax? You saying Skylar’s your woman?”
“What? No! I didn’t say that shit. I just want to know how we are going to keep her safe!”
I glance at Pop and see the same look of confusion on his face. Is there something going on between the two of them? I know she has always had a thing for Axle, but surely he wouldn’t go behind my back.
“I think you and I need to talk, Axle,” I state.
“For what?”
“I think you know.”
“I am sure I don’t.”
“Then it’s a good thing we are going to have a chat then, huh?”
“Whatever, Crow.”
Gunner smacks the gavel on the table, bringing the meeting back to order. “We can’t control who goes into the hospital, but we can escort her in and out. It’s only three days a week, right? I think that is the best that we are going to be able to do. She needs to help as much as possible right now.”
“I’ll talk to her,” Pop states.
“There’s one more thing that I promised Reagan I would bring up. Jordan going to school. I don’t think that it is required by law or anything, but she wants him to continue living his life the way he always has. It would give me peace of mind for him to be here constantly, but he needs to continue like nothing has changed.”
“Does Waverly go to school, too, Shadow?” Gunner asks.
“She does, but it is in another town. I don’t want to spread our resources too thin.”
“Where does Jordan go, Crow?”
“Apple Core. She said that she would call and verify if it was alright to have a man on him. Do you want to see if Waverly can go there, too, Shadow?”
“That could be good. Let me say something to Marin and see what she thinks.”
“You got it.”
“How many do you need on your son?”
“One should be fine, Gunner. Perhaps Killy? He’s the least imposing-looking, but extremely capable. That may be best for him to be hanging around with a bunch of little kids.”
“I think you may be right about that,” Gunner agrees. “Okay, now on to the rescue mission for Harley. Any ideas?”
“We should go in guns blazing and kill every one of those motherfuckers!” Axle says, slamming his fist on the table.
“I don’t disagree, but we need a plan,” Gunner states. “And that starts with a little surveillance. Crow, Moose, Rhys, Smooth, Bob, Unit, Rock, Creed, and Tex, you are with me. We will ride out to where they have been staying and gather what information we can.”
“I’m going.”
“No, you’re not, Ax.”
“Dammit, Gunner! You can’t bench me right now!”
“I can and I will.”
“My sister needs me!”
“So does your mother!”
The wind goes out of his sails a bit at that revelation. “I need to do something, Gun.”
“Not this. Stay here and keep on Einstein’s ass. We need the most up-to-date information possible. We’ll wear cams so you can see what we see, but the last thing you need right now is to be there.”
“Then what, Gun? We sit on our hands and make a plan while they are doing god knows what to my baby sister? That’s not right, man, and you know it.”
“I don’t know what else to do here. You don’t think it will fuck me—I mean the rest of us up to sit idle? We’re all family here.”
Axle shoots to his feet, getting in Gunner’s face. “You better not fuck this up!” He demands before storming out of the room.
“Meeting adjourned. Be ready to ride out in an hour.”
“Hey, Gunner, you got an extra key to my room?”
“Yeah. Follow me to the office and I will get it.”
“Good looking.”
He doesn’t say anything else, just nods and walks out of the chapel, heading in the direction of his office.
When I walk into the office he already has the key in hand and is handing it to me. “This is the only spare that I have. I’m going to need you to get a copy made so I can have this one back.”
“I’ll take care of it when we get back from Growler.”
“Sounds good,” he says sitting behind his desk.
“Can I ask you something, Gun?”
“What’s up?”
“What was that with Axle in there?”
He sighs. “I’m not entirely sure, Crow, and even if I did, it’s not my place to say something.”
I rub the back of my neck, trying to relieve some of the tension. “I get that. I wouldn’t even be mad if something was between them. We’re all adults here.”
“Then what is this about, Crow?”
“It has always been him for her and I want my sister to be happy, but I don’t want to feel like he is going behind my back though. I don’t know, man. I just want the same respect t
hat he would expect when it comes to Harley.”
“That’s understandable.”
“And I might lose my shit if she gets treated like a club slut.”
“Just talk to him, Crow. He can give you more answers than I can.”
“Alright. I’m going to go see Reagan and Jordan before we head out.”
“How’s that going?”
“He asked if he could call me daddy,” I say with a shit-eating grin on my face.
“Good for you, man. Now get out of here.”
I salute him and walk into the bar area in search of Dub. I find him sitting on one of the couches with Lexi rubbing her tits all over his face.
“Prospect,” I say when I get closer.
I must have startled him because he damn near throws Lexi on the floor in his efforts to get on his feet. “Sir?”
“You need to leave for work early so you can let your boss into Reagan’s house,” I say handing him the keys.
“You got it.”
“I’m counting on you to make sure everything goes smooth until the work is finished. Don’t let me down. If anything goes sideways outside of the construction, let me know ASAP.”
“I won’t let you down.”
“I know you won’t,” I say before heading towards the stairs.
Walking into our room, I find Reagan curled up on the couch with little man partially sleeping on her chest. I feel my heart swell to max capacity in my chest and hope that every day with them is like this. Minus the whole lockdown thing, though, because this is only going to get worse before it gets better.
I crouch down beside them and run my fingers through Reagan’s hair, marveling that this glorious creature is mine. Her eyes begin to open, and when she notices me beside her, the sweetest smile overtakes her face. I can’t help but lay my lips on hers.
“Hi, baby,” I whisper.
“Hi.”
“Can we move him so we can talk for a minute?”
She nods and wraps her arms around him, clutching his little body to hers, and begins to roll over on top of him so it is a smooth transition. File that one away for another day.
“I hope there is a learning curve on this parenting thing,” I say nervously.
“Just love them, Kane. The rest will work itself out. There will be times when you aren’t a hundred percent sure about something, but that’s why there are two of us. It’s not hard being a parent. It’s hard not sleeping or making them eat healthily, but loving them is as easy as breathing.”
“You make it look easy.”
“I have three years of practice,” she says. “By the time this one is born, you will have almost a year under your belt, too.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“You think I would let you be a bad daddy?”
“No.”
“Then what are you worried about?”
“That I might not be enough.”
“J already loves you and so will this one,” she says as she lays her hands on her still flat stomach. “If you show them love, they will love you. It’s that simple.”
“Loving them isn’t the issue, it’s about being a good dad or not.”
“Was Colt a good dad?”
“The best.”
“Then do what he would do. And you can always pick his brain on things that you are uncertain about. Everyone does it differently, honey, but you had awesome role models. So don’t worry too much about it.”
“I’ll try, I just don’t want to let anyone down.”
She waves my last comment off and asks, “Is this what you wanted to talk about?”
“No. I was coming to tell you that we are riding out shortly.”
“Where are you going?”
“All I can say right now is we’re going to get some information on the Harley situation.”
“Okay.”
“Did you let the contractor know that Dub was going to have your keys?”
“I did. I wrote a check for Dub to give to Asher, too. Can you get it to him?”
“What are you paying him for now?”
“He is taking the existing alarm out today and I want him to put it in Sasha’s house after they are finished at our house.”
“Our house, huh?”
“Shut it. You don’t have to live there if you don’t want to.”
“Of course I’m going to live there. That’s what was decided before and I don’t see a reason to change that. If anything, there is more of a reason to now.”
“I know, but that was a while ago.”
“But nothing has changed, babe.”
“Okay,” she says, looking anywhere but at me.
“I think it is a good idea to put a system in Sasha’s house. I wouldn’t want Jordan to go over there without some sort of security in place. And speaking of security, Gunner approved for Killy to shadow Jordan to school. He is the least imposing-looking, but he is lethal. So anywhere Jordan goes, Killy goes. Even to Sasha’s.”
“Okay.”
“You need to be cautious about what you tell them at his school. They are not to know club business.”
“I won’t say anything.”
I nod. “Shadow has a daughter—Waverly—that is little man’s age. She goes to school, too, but it is normally in another town. He wants to talk to Marin first, but will you see if they have another opening that she can slide into? The club will pay for it.”
“Okay, honey, I make some calls and have some answers for you when I see you later.”
“Okay. I got to go, baby,” I say and pull her into my body.
“Be careful, my love.”
I open my mouth to respond when I feel little arms wrap around my thigh and a sleepy little voice say, “You’s weaving, Daddy?”
I pull back from Reagan just enough to wrap my arm around his waist and bring him up to eye level. “Yeah, buddy, but I’ll be back as soon as I can. Take care of your Moma for me.”
“I’s gots dis,” he says, making me chuckle.
“I know you do. Love you, little man.”
His face splits with a smile. “Woves you’s, daddy.”
I grip the back of Reagan’s neck and bring her mouth to mine for a kiss that is far too brief for my liking. “Love you, baby.”
“Love you.”
******
We have been sitting in the cover of darkness provided by the dense cropping of trees for the past three hours without one sign of life inside or out of the old Madison Bed and Breakfast that the Rippers’ purchased a while back.
“Where is everyone?” Moose asks.
“I don’t know, but I’m not getting a good feeling about this,” Gunner states.
“You think that they already shipped them off to Guerrero?” Creed suggests.
“I don’t think so,” I say.
Gunner’s head whips in my direction. “Why not?”
“I don’t know, it just seems like what was done to Reagan and now Harley and Ellery seems too personal for them to send them away immediately. They seem to want to dig the knife in as deep as possible.”
“That makes sense,” Gunner agrees. “Especially when you take into consideration that they taunted us again about Reagan.”
“Yeah,” Rhys says, “the arrangement they have with Guerrero is strictly professional and wouldn’t afford them the time they would want to spend on them either.”
“Guerrero probably wouldn’t be too happy about them beating the shit out of the girls either,” I say.
“How do you think they found out about Reagan being pregnant?” Tex throws out.
“I have no idea,” I say. “The only people that knew were Skylar, Ma, Pop, and Sasha. None of the brothers knew until Pop let it slip. Marley probably knows, too, since she is Ma’s best friend. But outside of those five people, I’m drawing a blank.”
“Does Dec know?” Unit asks.
“I don’t know. Maybe. Pop has been team Dec since that shit went down with Cleo.”
“It’s
pretty shitty that he sided with him after Dec admitted his involvement,” Unit follows up.
“He’s just defending his son, but that kind of stopped now.”
“You told him?” Gunner demands.
“I had to, Gunner. Pop was going out of his mind. He’s going to keep it to himself.”
“He better or it’s your ass.”
“Understood.”
“Keeping secrets from the brothers?” Bob demands.
“Only because we don’t know what it means,” Gunner defends, glaring at me.
“Maybe if you shared it with the rest of the class, we could figure it out together,” Rhys states.
“Maybe, but not right now. Crow, Ax, and I will discuss it later and decide what to do. There are other things a little more important than Dec’s spoiled, crybaby-ass right now.”
“You’re right,” Rhys says, “but I’m not going to let this go. We all deserve to know what is going on in our clubhouse.”
“I know,” Gunner replies.
“Yeah! And secrets don’t make friends!” Tex says before doubling over laughing.
“Would you keep it down, asshole!” Gunner scolds. “If they didn’t know we were in there before, they do after that fucking cackling you were doing.”
“Fuck you, Gunner! My laugh is sexy!”
“Said no woman ever,” I jab.
“Lynna loves my laugh, dick,” he defends.
“Where is Lynna? I didn’t see her at the clubhouse.”
“She wouldn’t come.”
“Did you explain what’s happening to her?” Gunner asks.
“I did, but she won’t be run out of her house.”
“Did you tell her that this was what happened to Reagan?” I follow up.
“I didn’t know if that was telling her too much. You and Gunner never said if telling her about Reagan was off-limits or not.”
“You want me to get Reagan to talk to her?”
“That would be great.”
“I’ll talk to her when we get back to the clubhouse.”
“Thanks, man.”
“Since we are done holding hands and putting our purses down, how about a couple of us get a closer look?” Rock asks Gunner.
“Alright. Who wants to go?”
“I will,” comes from Rock.
“Me, too,” comes from Unit.
“Alright, you two,” Gunner starts, “stay low and alert. If you think you hear anything inside, come back to us and we will revisit and revise.”