Rough Riders

by Silver, Jordan

  “I’ve been hearing some things last night and this morning.”

  “Oh yeah, what’s that?” He gave me what I like to call the shark grin, and fixed his jacket.

  “Heard you had a little run-in with the Potter boy and they’re out for blood.” Now why the fuck would that make you happy asshole?

  “Heard that did you? Well what the fuck does that have to do with you and I?” I know what his deal was; he thought that because I was flying solo today that he could play the role with me. He had no idea that more often than not, my men were there to keep me cool. He wasn’t looking so cocky now since I’d paired the question with my signature death glare.

  “Now since you want to be so fucking smart I’ve decided to take ten grand off the agreed upon price.”

  “What? You can’t do that we had a deal.”

  Fucker wanted to get huffy. “Keep talking and I’ll take off five-thousand dollar increments, don’t fuck with me asshole. And tell whoever the fuck is feeding you info that the Mallorys aren’t afraid of the Potters, never were, never will be. So if you were thinking of backing that horse you’re fucked. Now give me the deed to my shit so I can get the fuck outta here.”

  He couldn’t get into his desk fast enough, stupid fuck; he’d just cost himself ten grand for being an ass. Did he know Wayne Potter had fucked with what’s mine? He’s lucky I didn’t beat the shit outta him for bringing that shit up to me, the fuck.

  I took the signed papers and passed him the envelope; just then my phone went off. I was surprised to see Lydia’s number pop up on the screen. I’d bought her this new top of the line shit with all the bells and whistles that had set me back a cool hundred grand. She guarded that shit like it was the holy-grail, so I knew it could only be her calling, which sent me into a tailspin. She was supposed to be in class at this hour.

  “Babe what’s up?” I walked out of his office without a backward glance.

  “Travis hurry, please hurry.”

  “What the fuck, where are you?” I could barely understand her through the hiccoughing tears, but from what little I could gather, she was hiding out in the girl’s bathroom because some shit had gone down and her father was there.

  “Babe I can’t get to you, I’m calling dad and Jimmy, hold on okay, just stay where you are.” Star fucking timing; I put her on hold and called dad’s private line.

  “Son?”

  “Dad I can’t talk, I need a solid, something’s going on with my girl at school and I’m now leaving Jarvis. I need you to get there like now…” I rattled that shit off in one breath.

  “On it.” He hung up before I could finish.

  “Babe, dad’s coming just hang tight. I’ll probably be right behind him.” She was crying hysterically and freaking me the fuck out. “Just calm down baby. I’m going to hang up now so I can come to you faster. I love you okay, whatever this is we’ll handle it no problem.” I could afford to make that promise because it was true. No matter what, I will always take care of her.

  Chapter 7

  I hopped on my ride and sped out of the parking lot. There was always some shit going down in this fucking town. It was taking me the better part of a month to clean up the school and get rid of Slim and his shit. Hopefully after this morning’s visit from my crew he wouldn’t be too much of a problem anymore, but there was still whoever the fuck had bankrolled him to deal with. I was thinking of getting dad on that, since he had more connections.

  Now I have her father and his bullshit and Potter the asshole; who knew what this new bullshit was about. Her father was always trying to find ways to get her back, even though he’d all but disowned her. I’ve been pretty much ignoring his ass since I’d gone and got her out of his house, so I don’t know what the fuck the idiot was up to now. But if he fucked with her I’m gonna have to lay his ass out.

  I called her as soon as I pulled into the school parking lot. I saw dad’s car so I breathed a little easier. She wasn’t crying as hard now, just down to sniffles; and I could hear my dad’s voice in the background reaming somebody out. “Where are you?”

  “The principal’s office, this is so embarrassing.” I hot footed it in there and followed the arrows and shit, not to mention the raised voices, until I found them. My brother Jimmy was standing in the doorway with his arms folded and a sour look on his face. Lydia was sitting on a chair against the wall with dad standing protectively in front of her, while her father tried getting in his face. Fucker must be ready to die.

  The principal, it appeared, was trying to keep the two men apart. I ignored all of them and went to her. “Hey baby come here.” I pulled her out of the chair and into my arms, burying her face in my chest. The men had stopped yelling when I walked in. “What happened sweetheart?” I whispered the words in her ear and ran my hand up and down her back soothingly.

  “Get your hands off my kid, you’ve done enough.” I barely spared him a glance as she started to explain.

  “The school called him, they think you’re abusing me because of the black eye. No matter how much I tried to explain they wouldn’t listen, so they called the cops and he came.”

  “Lydia I want you to stop this nonsense at once and come home with me.”

  “She’s already told you what happened, but since that’s not enough for you, or more to the point, since it doesn’t fit your agenda you’ve decided to embarrass her you fuck. She’s not coming anywhere with you, get that through your head. And you.” I turned to the principal. “If she told you what the fuck happened to her why would you put her through this shit?”

  He hemmed and hawed all over his face while keeping a wary eye on dad and Jimmy, who was looking deceptively bored.

  “How do we know she’s telling the truth?” Her dad persisted with his shit. Had he been a decent father to begin with, I would’ve cut him some slack, but because I knew he was using this as an excuse I really didn’t give a fuck.

  “Let’s get out of here baby you got your stuff?”

  “But I still have to take my last test, I can’t miss it.”

  Shit, I can’t hang around here all day and I wasn’t about to leave her here alone. “Fine.” I pulled my phone and called my boys to get over there. They’ll stand watch until I got back from doing what I had to do. I gave her dad one last glare before walking her out the door and taking her back to her class.

  My boys showed up twenty minutes later and two of them stood outside the classroom door where she was taking her test. I kissed her long and hard to the delight of her nosy ass classmates and the disgruntlement of the teacher. I give a fuck. At least she wasn’t embarrassed anymore.

  “I’ll be back for you later, love you baby.”

  “I love you too.” I kissed her hair and bounced. It never entered my mind to worry about whether or not it was okay for my boys to hang out in the school corridor, I’m sure if there were any problems my dad would take care of them. After a quick word with my dad I was off again. I had to go see what Nate had for me after his bout with Slim.

  I got to the warehouse just when the fun was coming to an end, it’s a good thing the place was so isolated, one of dad’s old buildings, because the screaming was coming through the broken windowpanes. Nate had only taken a few guys with him and they were all scattered around the room watching the show. I guess Nate had worked him over a little before breaking his legs because he was bruised from head to toe. I had no sympathy for the fuck, that’s what you get for fucking around with kids in my neck of the woods.

  His eyes were damn near shut as he squinted around in my direction when my boots scraped against the cement floor. His legs were at a fucked up angle and he’d puked all over himself, intense pain will do that to ya. “He talk yet?”

  “Yep, but you’re not gonna like it.” I gave Nate the ‘what the fuck’ was there ever any doubt that I was not gonna like the answer one way or the other? I pretty much thought that was a given.

  “It’s Potter.”

  Okay, I wasn’t expect
ing that. I didn’t see Wayne Potter having the brains for something like this, so yeah, that one threw me.

  “The father?”

  “Nope, the son. I took the liberty of recording for later because I don’t think he’s in any condition to talk anymore. What do you want me to do with him?”

  “How did he become involved with Potter?”

  “Potter approached him, apparently he was a client before he became his backer or whatever the fuck he thinks he is.”

  “Huh! Drop him off in front of emergency. And you, as soon as they’re finished patching you up, get the fuck outta here, if you ever see my face again it’ll be the last thing you see. He tell you if there’re any other assholes running around here?”

  “Just him and the kids he recruited.”

  “Fine then, get him outta here.”

  Nate passed me the little recording device he’d used and I left the same way I came. The school kids had already been rounded up and dealt with in one way or the other. I’d got Sam, the ringleader suspended for a couple weeks, not so much because of the drug thing, though that was bad enough, but he was a kid so I was willing to give him a second chance. No I went after him because he’d been giving my girl a hard time before I came on the scene. The little fuck was lucky I didn’t break his neck. Now all I had to do was deal with Wayne, kill two birds with one stone.

  He wasn’t on the street, and neither were his boys. I checked the wharf first but that place was ghost. I guess the ass was still hiding out at his house like a little girl with a broken arm. He lived at home still so that might be a little tricky. I totally expected him to show up later with my money though, so I’ll give it some time.

  It was almost time for school to be out by the time I was through combing the streets looking for his ass. My guys were still where I left them, only the ones outside were surrounded by teenage girls and looking like they had flop sweat. Ever since Lydia and I had hooked up, her little friends had become groupies.

  I wasn’t getting involved in that shit one way or the other, the men could fend for themselves, though they looked scared out their fucking minds. They knew what my girl was like, so they probably wanted to avoid that fucking headache. They’ve had to be there when I was putting out her fires here of late, so they knew teenage girls could get into more than their fair share of shit.

  “Anything happen while I was gone?” I approached Scottie who was closest to the door.

  “Nah boss, the others are still inside, I think your old man squared it with the principal because no one said anything to us.”

  “What about her old man, he give you guys any shit?”

  “Nope, your old man took care of that too.”

  “Huh!”

  I headed in to go get her just as she was coming out of the room with the rest of the hoodlums. She wasn’t looking too hot and I thought her eye must be giving her trouble. She barely gave me a lift of her lips when she saw me, which wasn’t like my girl at all.

  “What’s the matter baby, you sick?”

  “It’s nothing Travis let’s just go home I need to lay down.”

  “Is it your eye?”

  “Uh-uh I just need to get some sleep that’s all.” Why was she acting all shy and shit?

  I didn’t question her any farther since she didn’t seem like she wanted to talk. On the way back she was clingy and her body felt warm. If she got sick from that fucker socking her in the eye he was a dead man.

  I took her home and she ran up stairs and straight to the shower. I didn’t think anything of it, just shrugged the shit off. I had some things to take care of in my home office anyway since I’d spent most of the day dealing with her shit. When she still hadn’t come back down half an hour later I went in search of her. She never did too well after dealing with her old man, so I was thinking that might be what was wrong with her.

  My heart almost stopped when I heard her crying and rolling around on the bed. “Baby, what the fuck?”

  “No don’t touch me Travis I’ll be good in a little bit, just let me rest for a minute.”

  What the fuck, don’t touch me? I ignored her and kicked off my shoes so I could lay down behind her and pull her into my arms. Her body was hot to the touch and she was groaning like she’d been shot. I asked her what the fuck was wrong but she kept giving me shit until I yelled at her. I was gonna need reinforcements for this shit, this was totally out of my league.

  Chapter 8

  "Ma, do something." She rolled her eyes at me as I sat on the bed next to a groaning Lydia.

  "Travis she has cramps she's not dying."

  "I called you over here to help you're not helping."

  "Boy if you can't handle a little cramping I hope you two never plan on having kids or you'll be a basket case."

  "I don't care about that she's in pain, make it stop."

  "Give the pills some time to take effect, here hold this Lydia."

  "Gimme that." I took the hot water bottle she'd picked up from the pharmacy on her way over, and placed it on my baby's stomach. This shit was scaring the piss out of me, but I was man enough to hide that shit.

  When I’d finally forced the truth out of her and she told me she was having her period I’d called in the master, ma always knows what to do. I was clueless as fuck when it came to that shit.

  The only thing I knew about a pussy was how to eat it, finger it or fuck it. This shit was way over my head, but there was no way I could leave her like this. I held the bottle against her tummy while mom moved around the room cleaning up the mess I’d made while trying to take care of her until mom arrived. I have to talk to her about throwing shit at me when she was feeling better.

  At least she’d stopped that groaning shit that was freaking me the fuck out. “Travis I have to get back to the house, your dad is on a tear about something and I have to go make sure he doesn’t tear the town down brick by brick.” If my girl wasn’t acting like she was at death’s door I would’ve found that shit funny. It was true that mom was the only one who could calm dad down when he went into one of his moods. Who knows what had set him off this time. Lydia seemed to be dosing off now anyway so I guess the crisis was over.

  "Travis stop glaring, I said I was fine."

  "You sure? because ten minutes ago you were acting like you were about to die."

  "I'm fine now I promise." I got in the bed with her, being careful not to shake it too much and upset her poor little tummy; ma had left me with a million instructions before heading back home.

  "So what did it the pills or the hot water bottle?" I needed to know this shit for the next time she decided to give me a heart attack.

  "Both, thank you for taking such good care of me; before, I just used to wait it out because nothing helped."

  I put my hand over her lower stomach and she sighed.

  "That feels just as good as the hot water bottle." Her eyes were drooping; poor thing had tired herself out.

  "Go to sleep sweet baby I'll stay in here with you okay." She's turned me into a real sap in just a few short weeks, even the kid at the store had shook his head at me when I checked out the box of tampons earlier; it's almost as if he was thinking look how the mighty have fallen. If I were thinking I would’ve let mom pick that shit up, but Lydia said she needed them right then and there so I had to go do what I had to. Never a fucking gain!

  I was pretty much a hostage in my own house because there was no way I was leaving her like this, so everything had to be put on hold. I had the guys patrolling her town just in case there was any backlash from the whole Slim thing. I wasn’t sure what the repercussions were of going cold turkey from that drug he was dishing the kids, so I had the men keep an eye out for anyone who looked like they were about to lose their fucking minds and start eating people or trying to off themselves.

  I needed to listen to Nate’s recording and see what information had been given up, so I would know if I needed to get the law involved. If it was just Wayne I could handle the shit myself
, but if there were other unknowns involved, then it might make more sense to get them on the ball.

  I held her until she finally fell asleep and then eased out of the bed. Mom had said to give her soup so I got some started while I made the rounds on the phone.

  Everything seemed quiet on all fronts so I told the guys to go do their own thing, since I had nothing else for them that night. Usually we would make the rounds of my clubs and make sure shit was going as it should, but with me out of commission I figured I could give some of them the rest of the night, while the others were on duty.

  I spent the rest of that night and the next taking care of her. I’d never seen her sick before, and it was a sure bet that I wasn’t a fan. I spent two days carting her around and spoiling her, because she was weepy and needy as fuck. Every little thing set her off and she cried if I even looked at her wrong.

  By the time she was back to normal, I was ready to shoot myself. “You feeling human again?” She’d rolled out of bed all smiles and bouncing around, so I guess the evil entity that had taken possession of her for the past three days was gone.

  “Yes, I feel great; oh we need to do something tonight I’ve been cooped up in this house for three days I want out.” She stretched her arms above her head before leaning over me and pecking me on the lips. Get the fuck outta here; that is some scary shit.

  I watched her twitch her ass into the bathroom and looked down at my cock. I hadn’t had her in three days and it felt like a lifetime had gone by. Somehow I couldn’t just go jump on her now though, she’d been really sick, so I figured I’d give her until tonight at least before acting like the animal that I am.