Jace

by Jessie Cooke

  Jace looked at Brenda. He didn’t know what to say and she looked like she didn’t either. The good thing was that Tank was already grumbling about something else and by the time he set their plates down in front of them, he seemed to have worn himself out. Taking off his barbecue apron and hanging it on a hook by the wall he barked, “Clean your dishes,” before leaving the room. Once he was gone, Brenda looked at Jace and laughed.

  “What the hell was that?”

  Jace had to laugh too. “I guess even crazy old bikers love their kids. Hell if I know. So how long have you worked at Precious Hearts?”

  “Two years.”

  “Two years, really? So, you started right after I got out of the hospital.”

  “Um…yeah.” Her eyes went to his scar…it was not even quite a year old. Rosie would be seventeen in two months and that was his scar’s anniversary as well. Unable to play games any longer he said:

  “Why are you lying? What are you really doing here?”

  Brenda tried to look shocked, or innocent, or whatever, but all she looked like to Jace was guilty. Her green eyes were wide and her bottom lip was actually quivering. “Why are you calling me a liar?”

  “Because before you came here, either you or whoever sent you didn’t do your homework very well. Now tell me who you really are before I get Dax involved.” That was enough to cause her to shiver and her eyes to grow wide with fear.

  “No, please. I’m sorry. Please don’t be mad. I do work at the home, and I do know Rosie. I saw you once on your way in but I was leaving and it was only in passing.”

  “So why are you here, and why are you lying to me?”

  “I’m really here because my sister Callie invited me. You can ask her. As far as you…shit, I’m really sorry…”

  “Sorry about what?” Jace could feel himself getting pissed and mentally he was practicing all of the things he’d learned in anger management. He didn’t want to cause a scene on the night Dax patched him in. He thought he was doing pretty well, so far.

  “Rosie’s Aunt Carly found out that Callie lives here. I’m not sure how.” Jace felt the rage boiling up inside of his chest. Knowing fucking Carly, she did a background check on them all, just trying to find one she could use.

  “And? What does she want? What did she tell you to do?”

  The girl looked down at the table in front of her, and then back up at Jace and said, “She said she’s worried about Rosie. She doesn’t think you being her guardian is a good thing. She’s planning on taking you to court and asking for guardianship of Rosie, and she wanted proof…”

  “Proof of what?”

  “Pictures and documentation of what you did here, on the ranch.”

  “And you agreed to come onto the Southside Skulls ranch, and spy? Are you a little bit crazy? Do you have any idea what Dax will do to you when he finds out?”

  Her eyes filled with tears. “Please,” she whispered. “Please don’t tell him.”

  “Why shouldn’t I? You’re working for this bitch that wants to take my sister away from me. Why wouldn’t I tell him?”

  “I just really needed the money. She told me you were a bad guy and I thought I would actually be helping Rosie…”

  “Bullshit!” Jace said, unable to contain his anger sitting down any longer. “You thought you would be helping yourself. Is your sister in on this? Does Callie know why you’re here?” Her eyes widened again as she shook her head.

  “No. She’d kill me faster than Dax. Please, Jace…I’ll do anything. Please don’t tell.”

  “Get the fuck out of here.”

  She stood up, slowly. “Are you going to tell Callie, and Dax?”

  Jace narrowed his eyes and lowered his voice. He knew that on an ordinary day with a smile on his face, he was scary. He’d never used it to purposely intimidate a woman, except maybe Carly the night she’d almost gotten Rosie raped and him killed. But he was using it now and he could see the fear on Brenda’s face as he said, “Get. The. Fuck. Out.” She turned and scurried out of the kitchen like a rat and Jace dropped down to the chair he was sitting in and put his head in his hands. He was going to have to deal with Carly once and for all or she was never going to leave them alone. The worst part was that, short of killing her, he didn’t know how to do that.

  23

  Jace hadn’t been able to think about anything other than Carly since the night before when he sent Brenda packing. He wasn’t going to do anything to her, and he wasn’t going to tell Dax, as long as nothing else came of it. Dax had enough problems and as far as Jace was concerned, Brenda wasn’t a threat…but Carly was. When he got out of bed at last on Friday after a long night of trying to figure out what to do, he called Rosie’s home and asked to speak to the director.

  “Jace, it’s good to hear from you.” Vivian, the director of the home, had always been good to Rosie, and Jace. She’d been one of the first ones to volunteer to write a character reference for him to the judge when he got into trouble.

  “Hi, Vivian, how are you?”

  “I’m doing well. But, I know you don’t call me unless it’s important, so what’s going on?”

  “Can I stop someone from visiting Rosie?”

  “Of course. You’re her primary guardian. But the only other visitor she’s ever had, that I know of anyway, is her Aunt Carly. Rosie gets really happy when she comes, and Carly always brings her a gift. If she’s the person we’re talking about, I have to tell you it will be hard on your sister.”

  Fuck. Bitch was setting him up all the way around. “She wants to sue me for guardianship.”

  “What? No. That would never happen. I mean, she might try, but they’d never take Rosie from you.”

  “I would like to think so. But you don’t know Carly. It’s all about money to her. She’s been trying to figure out how to become my father’s heir for a while. She wanted guardianship of her sister so she could take her off life support and cash in on her life insurance and the money she got from my dad in the divorce. When that didn’t work, she turned to Rosie. Trust me, Vivian, when I tell you that there is no genuine love in her for Rosie. She’s got some angle here…I’m not exactly sure what it is, but she’s as smart as she is evil.”

  “Would she have access to your father’s money if she was Rosie’s guardian?”

  “If he died…then she’d get it from both directions.”

  “Oh, Jace, you poor thing. It’s always something isn’t it?”

  “Always,” he said, disgusted enough that he wasn’t even able to pretend like he normally did. “I’m sorry, Vivian. You know how I hate to upset Rosie. For now, though, I need you to keep Carly away from her.”

  “Okay, of course we’ll do whatever we can for you. And if she’s not being genuine with Rosie then in the long run it’s the best thing for her.” Jace thanked Vivian, ended the call, and stared at his phone, for a long time. At last he pressed the number he hoped he’d never have to call again. On the third ring, just about the time he was going to hang up, he heard the old man’s raspy voice.

  “Yeah?”

  “It’s Jace.”

  “Yeah, and…?”

  Fucker. “I need to talk to you. It’s about Carly.”

  “I don’t want anything to do with that bitch.”

  “Neither do I, but she’s circling like a vulture. She wants to be in charge of Myrna and you know why; now she’s trying to get custody of Rosie as well.”

  “Fuck that, I’ll stop paying the bills if the bitch does that.”

  “Jesus, do you hear yourself? You’ll stop paying your autistic daughter’s bills? We need to do something that ensures no matter what happens that she won’t get a penny. That’s what it’s going to take to get her out of our lives.”

  “Yeah? What the fuck is it going to take to get you out of my life?”

  “This, motherfucker.”

  “Watch your mouth. Remember who you’re talking to.”

  That was the problem. Jace knew full well who
he was talking to. “Do you want Carly living it up on your money when you die? Think about that, and when you realize I’m right, you have my number.” Jace ended the call. He couldn’t deal with the old man for more than five minutes at a time without losing any grasp he had on his temper. Carly was the only person on earth he despised more than the old man. He was still staring at the phone, trying to calm himself down, when there was a knock at his door. “Jace?”

  “Yeah?”

  “It’s Monte. Dax wants everyone in the great room, now.”

  “Okay, man, I’ll be right there.” Jace threw a pair of jeans and t-shirt and boots on and went downstairs. As soon as he got there, he could see by the look on Dax’s and Handsome’s faces, whatever they had to tell them was not good. He took a seat, and when the room was packed and it looked like most everyone on the ranch, minus the children, was there, Dax said:

  “Scar is dead.”

  A rumble ran through the crowd. Scar was kind of an asshole, but he had been a part of the club for a long time, and he was a loyal––and to his brothers and their families––harmless asshole. “How?” someone in the front of the crowd asked.

  “He was shanked on the yard by a guy named Leon Bartron. Bartron was one of the Sinners’ newest recruits. He’d barely gotten his feet wet when he was arrested in Boston for assault. He was in County, waiting for his trial…supposedly.”

  “Motherfucker was arrested the day after Scar and Franklin were arrested. This whole thing was a setup,” Handsome growled. Dax was nodding. The mood of the crowd was subdued and a few of the girls were crying.

  “I hate this shit,” Dax said. “I promise you all that as soon as we take care of this job today, every fucking ounce of energy we have and every fucking dollar will be put toward wiping the Sinners, and especially Grant Benning…fucking Hawk…off the face of the earth.”

  Jace sat in between two cars on a side street a few blocks away from the Baptist Church where the funeral was about to wrap up. He had been told to stay with Bobby, a tough, cocky, smartass biker who had been with the club for quite a few years. The guys jokingly called him “Casanova” because of his way with the ladies. Today however, he was straight-faced and serious, ready for whatever came his way.

  Jace on the other hand was anxious, but the anxiety wasn’t being afraid of getting hurt. It came from the fear that he would somehow fail at what he was supposed to do, and because of that, someone else would get hurt. He was also anxious about the bullshit with Carly. He’d gone into this with the idea that if something did happen to him, guardianship of Rosie would transfer to the old man. That was bad in that Rosie would never see him and wouldn’t understand what had happened to Jace. But he knew the old man would pay the bills at least. If Carly got custody, whatever money there was would be spent on herself and Rosie would be left to fend for herself. He tried to think of something else as they waited, anything else. He knew that he couldn’t afford to be distracted, especially since they were fully expecting the Sinners to show up. Dax hadn’t come right out and said so, but the murmurs around the ranch were that someone was feeding information to Hawk. If that was the case, Jace would hate to be that someone when Dax found them.

  Bobby had a radio; Jace heard a crackle and Handsome’s voice saying, “Miller is picking up the bag now.” Jace didn’t know anything about Miller other than that he owned a limousine service and he was the guy they were providing security for. He didn’t know what was in the bag, and he didn’t care.

  It was several long minutes later when he heard the radio come alive again. It was Handsome’s voice once again. “The family has just been dropped off and Dax and I are moving.”

  “Motherfuckers,” Bobby said then. He pushed a button on the radio and said, “Who’s watching Garfield?”

  “Big Lou and Pretty Ricky. I think Turbo’s roving down there, why?” was Handsome’s reply. “Fucking cops. Unmarked sedan moving down 10th towards Garfield.”

  Jace had seen the car roll by but hadn’t thought anything of it. It made sense when Bobby said, “Same fucking car that was at the warehouse the day we got robbed…” Static suddenly burst out of the radio. “Hand?” Nothing but static. “Fuck! Hand! Come in!” Still nothing. Bobby pulled out his phone and pressed in a number. “Turbo. Fucking pigs coming your way…” The sound of Bobby’s voice faded as gunfire broke out up the street. Bobby’s gun was in his hand, even as his Harley began to roll. Jace followed him, adrenaline coursing through his veins as they raced down the street at 100 mph.

  Before they even got to the car Jace could see all hell breaking loose. The unmarked car had stopped and the cops were out of the car. They had the doors open and their arms leveled on top of them with their guns pointing toward the bikers. Clay had his phone in his hand and Big Lou was on the bike next to him with a gun in his. It was more or less a standoff until Turbo suddenly blew up from behind the cops and opened fire. Bobby waved Jace off at the last second and they turned and flew down an alley. Jace followed Bobby, through backyards and around houses, until they came up to an intersection and Bobby stopped at a red light. He looked at Jace and said, “Go somewhere and wait to hear from Dax. He or Hand will put out a call when it’s all clear. Do not go back to the ranch unless they tell you to.”

  Jace wasn’t usually one to ask a lot of questions, but he didn’t like the idea of leaving Bobby alone. “Where are you going?”

  “I’m going back to check on the guys. There’s no reason for us to both go. Drive away from here, sit in a fucking bar, whatever, just go.” Bobby was done talking. Jace watched him take off in one direction and he took off in the other. He wouldn’t find out the details of everything that happened until much later, and none of it was good.

  24

  Jace drove about fifteen miles and parked his bike in the parking lot of a busy mall. He took off his vest and put it in his saddlebag and then walked across the street and waited in a little coffee shop until he got a text that said, “Spirits, twenty minutes. Make sure you’re not followed. Park the bike inside the barn at the end of the road.” He was at least thirty minutes away, but he broke as many speed laws as he could and ended up making it in twenty-five. He left his bike in the barn along with eight others and walked the half a mile to the bar. A taxi drove up as he was headed across the deserted lot, and Mikey, the bartender, passed him with a drunk under each arm and put them into the cab. Jace went inside; the place was as quiet and subdued as a funeral. He took a seat and for the next ten minutes, they all sat in silence. Dax had his back to them all, staring at the bottles on the wall, and Handsome was in the corner on his phone. When he came back over and slid onto the stool next to Dax he said, “Any word from the ranch yet?” Dax shook his head and said:

  “Do we know anything about the other guys yet?”

  “I got a text from Vaughn. He said he got a call from Bobby telling him that he needed to get down to County. They were taking Turbo in. He shot a cop. The cop died.” A knot formed in Jace’s stomach. That was the scene that had been unfolding when Bobby ran him in the other direction. Bobby probably saved his ass from being in prison right then, or dead.

  “Fuck!” Dax picked up his glass and threw it. It hit one of the colorful bottles of liquor and knocked it off the shelf, where the sticky liquid slowly seeped across the floor. Jace jumped, but no one said a word. After a few minutes of silence, Dax turned on his stool and looked around at the men in the room, taking in each face one by one. Then, frowning, he looked at Jace and said:

  “Where is Bobby?” Jace opened his mouth––to say what, he wasn’t sure. Thankfully Handsome answered the question for him:

  “He’s in the hospital. He shot a cop too. His didn’t die. The cop did some fancy driving shit and Bobby went down. The bike skidded underneath the car. Vaughn said he called from ER. I don’t know how because I’m sure they’ve got cops on him. Probably talked some nurse into using her phone or some shit. You know what a Casanova he is.”

  “Shit. A Ca
sanova who’s going to do some hard time now. Fuck! What the hell happened? Where did they all come from? How the hell did they know about this?” Dax was livid, and Jace didn’t blame him. Dead cops were enough to bring every agency in town down on top of them.

  “I don’t know, man. I wish I did,” Handsome said.

  “Fuck!” Dax said again. “I spent so much time worrying that fucking Hawk was going to show up. Dan said Hawk was pissed because Dan has used the Sinners in the past, but he had problems with a few of them, so he was going with us this time. You don’t think one of those assholes, maybe Hawk himself, called the cops?”

  Handsome shook his head slowly. “The Sinners feel the same as we do about the cops…if not more strongly. Dax…whoever tipped them off knew where we’d be, all of us. They were behind us at every turn. Someone knew the plan.”

  Dax shook his head. “No one knew except us. Dan didn’t even know the exact plan, but like I said, there’s no way he would have told anyone. Surely you’re not suggesting that one of us called the cops?” Dax looked around at his men again and then back at Handsome, angrily. Handsome took a drink of the whiskey in front of him. He was staring straight ahead, not looking at Dax. Finally through gritted teeth Dax said, “Tell me straight, Hand. What the fuck are you suggesting?” Handsome looked around the room like he wasn’t sure if he should say what he had to say in front of everyone, but it was obvious Dax didn’t have much patience left. When Handsome did speak, Jace probably wasn’t the only one that was shocked.