by CM Genovese
No Royal Bastards were seated behind me.
“Tay?” Cubby said, making her name a question, meaning he needed an answer and he needed one quickly.
“Cubby,” I said, but stopped talking when he held a finger up in my direction.
“Tay,” he repeated.
“Daddy,” she said, “can we go back into your office and talk?”
He glanced at me again and the silence was fucking fragile. He was about to lose his shit. Cubby’s chest rose with a heavy breath.
Maggie grabbed hold of her dad’s shoulders and turned him toward his office. “In there, Dad.”
Cubby followed her advice. Maggie looked at us both and said, “Looks like you’ve got your audience. Good luck in there.”
Tayla looked at me, closed her eyes to steady her nerves, and then smiled as she opened them. “We’ve got this. Come on. Let me do the talking.”
I swallowed hard, snatched up the drink Maggie had been in the middle of making – something with rum in it – and gulped it down.
“Dammit, Pipe,” Maggie complained as she swatted me across my shoulder. “Now I have to make another one.”
“Sorry,” I said as I followed Tayla into the office, “but I needed a drink.”
“I’ll have some more for you when you get out,” Maggie replied with a laugh.
Cubby was seated behind his desk when we entered. I closed the door behind me, and he lifted one of his gigantic arms and held an open palm out, his hand pointed toward the two chairs on the other side of the desk.
“Have a seat,” he said.
We sat down and endured a long moment of silence. Cubby had his hands pressed together, as if in prayer, his fingertips at the bridge of his nose. I imagined he was praying for guidance. Asking God to help him control his temper and minimize his rage. I was praying for the same damn thing.
“Anyone care to explain what y’all are doin’ here together?” Cubby asked.
Another moment of silence. I would have explained, but Tayla had asked me to let her do the talking. Now was the perfect time for her to get those words out before her dad exploded and blew me right through the motherfucking door. When he turned his gaze on me, I thought fire might shoot out of his eyes like that little girl in Stephen King’s Firestarter.
“Daddy, I’m going to tell you some things, and I need you to listen,” Tayla started.
The jaw muscles in Cubby’s cheeks flexed.
“First, you know John cheated on me. He has at least a couple of times I know about. Now, I don’t want you to react to this. I know how you are, and I appreciate that side of you more than you’ll ever know, but John has also hit me. He beat me a few times.”
“Tayla!” Cubby shouted as he slammed his open hands down on his desk. “I’ll fucking kill him!”
“Pipe took care of that for me,” she said quickly. “I mean he didn’t kill him, but he defended me. He beat him up in my kitchen. John hasn’t touched me since.”
Cubby looked my way and nodded. That was as close to a thank you as I was going to get in this situation, and I was glad I was scoring points because he wasn’t going to like the rest of the news he received any more than that last part. Before she could go on, her dad seemed to catch on.
“Wait a minute,” he said, “what were you doing in her fuckin’ kitchen, Pipe?”
I bit my lip and prepared to answer when she jumped in, “That’s the other part. Daddy, you remember that night I was here at the bar and you asked Pipe to give me a ride home? That was the first time I found out John was cheating on me. He was out of the country and was sleeping with some woman while he was gone. I was pretty shaken up and, well…”
Cubby stood up from his seat, kicking over his chair, and reached for me. “You son of a bitch!”
I backed up against the wall before he could grab hold of my kutte.
“Calm the fuck down,” I told him.
“Oh, you want me to calm the fuck down, boy? I’ll fucking kill you!”
This time, there was no escaping him. The wall was behind me when his fist came from out of nowhere and slammed into my jaw. I felt the drywall cave in behind my head.
“Daddy, no!” Tayla screamed, grabbing hold of his massive bicep.
Cubby reached through the broken portion of the wall, grabbed my neck, and yanked me out, where he threw me onto his desk. I wanted to fight back. I needed to before this fucking grizzly killed me, but it was Tayla’s dad.
“Cubby,” I squeaked out through desperate breaths as he choked me on top of his desk.
He wasn’t letting go, even with Tayla screaming at him, so I brought my right knee up and drove it into his gut. It didn’t faze him, so I did it again.
“Cubby,” I said, this time feeling like I might pass out.
If I didn’t hit him hard, he’d fucking kill me. I threw a punch at him, but he moved his head and I barely skimmed his cheek. My energy was fleeing me. I’d held on too long before fighting back and now I didn’t have the strength.
“Dad!” I heard Maggie’s voice. She’d apparently run in. It sounded like she was slapping at her father.
Through watery eyes I saw both women trying to pull him off me.
“Daddy, he’s Caleb’s father,” Tayla said.
I barely heard the words. My vision was blurred. Frantically reaching over my head for some kind of weapon, my right hand found something solid. I grabbed it and brought it around. Now, I don’t know what kind of person would keep a cowbell on their desk. Whatever its use, it was there, and it’s all I had to stop Cubby from murdering me. I smashed that thing against his jaw so hard I heard the “dong” sound it made.
Cubby finally let go of me, and I rolled off the desk. On my hands and knees, I fought to catch my breath.
“What did you say?” Cubby asked.
“I said he’s Caleb’s father,” Tayla repeated. “John knows it but didn’t want to give up the boy, so he’s just treated him like shit all these years and kept me captive. I love Pipe, Daddy. I love him. He’s helped me all this time. For six years he’s given me money on the side, he’s visited Caleb at the park, and he’s been my best friend. We’ve told each other everything.”
Cubby’s voice sounded strained, like he was holding back tears. “Tayla, no. Please. Not him.”
“It’s always been him,” she replied.
I heard Cubby collapse into his chair and felt it might be the time to finally get back to my feet. Rubbing my jaw and neck, I stood up and saw Tayla and Maggie both standing near the door.
“Pipe, sit down,” Cubby said.
As much as I wanted to walk out of the office and tell him to go fuck himself, I knew the worst part of the storm was over. The bad news had been delivered. I sat down across from him.
“That was a freebie,” I told him. “You ever fucking hit me again and I’ll put you through that fucking wall and out into the bar.”
“What did you fucking say to me?” he shouted as he stood up again. I stood and faced him.
“Think about it, old man,” I warned him. “The last time I didn’t hit back. You ever known me to not hit back?”
“Daddy,” Tayla said.
“Dad,” Maggie followed suit.
“Pipe,” Tayla added. “Can you two please tuck away your testosterone so we can talk like adults?”
“Yeah,” Maggie chimed in, “we all know you’re two of the baddest motherfuckers in town. But you’ve always been on the same team. Do you really want to be enemies over this?”
Cubby’s heavy chest continued to rise and fall in an aggressive manner. I wasn’t going to sit down first. I didn’t trust the asshole to not leap over the desk and choke the life out of me again.
“Can we all sit down and behave?” Maggie asked.
Cubby turned his head to look at her and it seemed she held some sort of magic power over him. She smiled at him and laughed. He chuckled, looked back at me, and shook his head.
“You okay, man?” he asked me.
> “You hit like a girl,” I said.
Everyone in the room laughed. Cubby put his hand out for me to shake and I accepted it. We shook hands, then he bent down and picked something up off the floor.
“You bent my cowbell,” he complained.
“It was kind of a life or death situation,” I replied.
Again, everyone laughed.
We all sat and continued our conversation. In the end, Cubby wasn’t happy about us dating. He gave me the father talk, making sure I understood that I better respect his daughter and never hurt her or the next time he would kill me. The kids were the most important thing. He was worried about Caleb learning the truth about me and how I would treat Myra. They were both his grandkids whether or not she was my daughter. He wasn’t okay with Tayla or the kids staying at the MC… ever. That was something we’d have to discuss another time. We ended the conversation with another handshake.
On the way out of the bar, I massaged my jaw while telling Tayla, “That whole honesty thing was a great idea, wasn’t it?”
“Don’t be a baby,” she said. “At least it’s out of the way. Now, let’s go to that pub and meet the chick you’ve got living at the MC.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I asked.
“Nope.”
We pulled up in front of the pub, and the place was looking fantastic. The sun had set, and the sign was lit up, looking a lot more modern than it had before. It still read: Paddy’s. But instead of the old, faded green letters with a static four-leaf clover in place of the apostrophe, it was now bright green with yellow highlights, a green top hat rested on one of the Ds and the shamrock danced back and forth.
“Paddy’s,” Tayla said. “You guys part owners or something?”
“Nah, just providing security. I didn’t want her to get in that deep.”
“Sounds like you care about her.”
I wrapped her up in a hug and kissed her forehead. “You sound jealous.”
“I am not jealous,” she said as she walked toward the door. “Why? Do I have a reason to be?”
“Not even a little bit.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“Is this what I get for telling you everything over the years?”
“I told you some pretty secret stuff too,” she reminded me.
“How many times you had to use your vibrator isn’t exactly top secret.”
Tayla rolled her eyes and yanked the door open. The bell over the door was still in place and chimed as we entered.
Inside, Carla was on the phone, taking an order when she saw us. She froze for a second, her eyes on Tayla, and then she snapped out of it and waved us over.
The place was empty since there was still work in progress. Only some of her staff was around. With the construction going on, the front of the house was off limits to guests. In the back, the chef would be whipping up to-go orders for the time being. The only MC brother hanging around at the moment was Nugget. He was seated at a booth in the back. When he saw me, he passed me a wave.
“That’ll be $35.57, hun,” Carla said into the receiver. “Give us about a half hour.”
She hung up the phone and said, “Hey… is this…?
“Tayla,” I said, “yes, the one I told you about.”
“So, you’ve been talking about me?” Tayla asked.
“Always,” I said.
She shook Carla’s hand. “Yeah, I’m Tayla. His… uh… baby mama.”
Carla laughed. “I wasn’t going to say it like that.”
“We’ve decided today’s a day of honesty,” I informed her, rubbing my sore cheek. “It’s been rough.”
Carla reached out and touched my cheek, lifting my chin the way a mother does when she wants to check out her child. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Tayla’s expression change and I was worried she might flip out.
“What happened to your face?” Carla asked.
“My dad,” Tayla said as she reached over and removed Carla’s hand from my face. “He’s told me all about you. I’m trying to not be jealous, but you know…”
Carla nodded. “No hands on your man. Got it. I don’t blame you. Sorry. It’s more of a motherly love kind of thing with him.”
“Told you,” I said.
“Gotta help Kale out for a second,” Carla said. “Be right back.”
“Motherly love?” Tayla asked. “I guess you are kind of a motherfucker.”
“Hardy har har,” I replied.
Tayla winked at me and blew me a kiss. “I guess she’s not so bad. If she can keep her damn paws off you.”
“I think she learned her lesson,” I said, my voice trailing off as I noticed movement outside the large glass window.
The van rolling by looked uncomfortably familiar. When the side door slid open, it was already too late. Moonlight shone off gun barrels, and all I had time to do was tackle Tayla to the ground and belt out, “Get down! Shooter! Hit the floor!”
Glass shattered from the right of me where the entire window blew inward with the barrage of machinegun fire. Bullets pinged off of metal and plunged through drywall. Seat cushions exploded in puffs of cotton dust. Screams erupted. Nugget echoed my command to duck.
The entire attack probably lasted only a minute, but it felt like it went on forever.
Bodies fell to the carpet, and I couldn’t tell whether they were alive or dead.
Carla went down. Nugget had fallen over Kale. The two Irishmen, Tommy and Finn, dropped to the floor.
Glass showered us all and bullets continued to pummel the pub.
Tires screeched outside. Nugget was up first, had his pistol drawn, and fired off a few rounds that only hit the empty warehouse across the street. The van was gone.
“Are you okay?” I asked Tayla.
“Yeah,” she said. “What the fuck is going on, Pipe?”
I didn’t have time to answer her. I climbed to my feet and walked through the pub. Tommy and Finn were fine. Nugget was okay. Kale was crawling across the floor saying, “Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God.”
A pool of blood was spreading, and it was coming from Carla.
18
“She’s going to live.”
The doctor’s words kept playing through my mind. Carla was going to live, but she wasn’t in the best shape. The bullet entered her side, grazed her rib, and exited out the back. She wouldn’t feel like waiting tables for a while, but she’d survive.
It was the worst end to a date ever. Here I was trying to convince Tayla I could give her a life different from the one she experienced with her father, and as far as I knew, he’d never had to cover her body in the middle of a drive-by. She didn’t complain as much as expected, but I was giving myself enough grief for the both of us.
What if you didn’t see that van and nobody ducked in time?
What if one of those bullets struck Tayla in the head?
What if Caleb and Myra had been with us?
What if you’d been sitting, sharing a fucking banana split, when the bullets flew?
What if Cubby is right and you’re not right for her?
Cubby didn’t want her at the MC, but I didn’t have much of a choice. I wasn’t going to take her home after she’d told her asshole husband she wanted a divorce. I couldn’t take her to the VFW because Cubby would flip out if he found out I’d put her life in danger minutes after leaving his bar.
These pussies had to be dealt with tonight, and the only place I could take her, the only safe place, was the clubhouse.
“You don’t have to do anything,” she said as I took her to my room. “Let it go.”
“This is the third time they’ve pointed a gun at me, and they just shot Carla.”
“Carla,” she said. “You’re worried about her.”
“Fuckin-A right I’m worried about her, Tay. She just got shot. All jealousy aside, she’s a good person. Yeah, we fucked. I’m sorry, but it happened once, we knew it wasn’t worth doing again, and it’s over. But she is a friend, and she just took
a bullet right in front of my fucking eyes. More importantly, you were almost killed.”
She stood and wrapped her arms around me. “Calm down. I’m okay. You’re okay. Carla will be okay.”
“Until the next time we’re sitting down to have dinner and they decide to drive by and let bullets fly.”
“Pipe.”
“I know there are times it’s best to walk away,” I said. “I’ve tried, Tay. They robbed the pub, they threw me through a window and tried to kill me once before, and now this… this bullshit with the pub.”
Footsteps came clomping down the hallway and suddenly BP was standing in the doorway.
“Y’all okay?” he asked.
“We’re good,” I replied. “You heard about Carla though?”
“Yeah, and on our watch. She’s paying us to provide security and these motherfuckers just shit all over that.”
When BP was angry, only one thing would calm him. Making things right. Rain appeared in the doorway, behind him, and Slitz came in next. Of all my brothers, the most vicious were right here.
BPs phone rang. He walked away to answer it.
“Tayla, you all right?” Rain asked over my shoulder.
I moved over so he could see her better.
“She could have been hit, man,” I told him.
“They shot up my fucking bar,” Slitz complained. “I did all that work for nothin’.”
“We’ll fix it,” I assured him. “I’m sure we can buff out the bullet holes… or leave ‘em. It’s an Irish pub. Might look cooler with the bullet holes in the bar.”
Slitz thought about it for a second and shrugged. “Maybe. But I don’t care. We find these fuckers and we make ‘em pay.”
“Why can’t y’all just let it go?” Tayla asked.
Slitz scrunched up his face like he didn’t understand the question. “Let this go?”
“You know we can’t do that,” Rain said. “Come on, Tayla. You should come hang out with Cassie. She’s not happy about any of this either, but some things have to be done. You can’t let shit like this slide.”