by Kacee Kupser
The gates opened directly after my honk and I drove through, parking in front of the doors, noting that the bikes of all of my brothers were already here.
Brenna waited for me to help her out, which I appreciated. I didn’t know what, if anything, was going to go down, but I wanted her between me and the clubhouse. I opened her door and helped her out of the truck, putting her in front of me with my hands on her shoulders, making sure to keep myself at her back at all times.
Opening the door, none of the brothers were in the common area, obviously they were already in church waiting for me. Brenna pulled away from me and started walking over towards the couch where Everly was already seated. I grabbed her hand and pulled her back into me. “You okay out here?”
Brenna grabbed my face between her hands and leaned up to give me a peck on the lips. “I’ll be fine. Everly is here and we were planning on seeing each other in a couple of days anyway so we’ll just catch up. You do whatever you need to do.”
She turned away and wandered over to Everly. I watched her until she sat down before heading into church. All of my brothers were sitting there talking, but as soon as I walked into the room and shut the doors behind me, they shut up and turned to me. I sat down at my chair at the head of the table and looked around at everyone. When I got to Joker, who was sitting right beside me, he had a look of pure rage on his face. The garage is his baby, he takes great pride in running it and it has such a huge following across the country for our work with custom builds.
“So, break it down for me. What are we looking at?”
Joker takes a deep breath and turns to face me fully. “Well, the damage is severe. All of the cars in the bays are destroyed and will have to be taken to the scrap yard. We will have to wait to see if we will be able to fix the building or if the engineer says the whole thing is a wash and we will have to tear it down and start from scratch.”
“Okay, have we heard anything from the fire inspector?”
At this point Techy chimed in. “The preliminary report shows that it was arson. Our electrical was all up to code and there was evidence of an accelerant. They will be testing it to get some more information about it, but if what I’m suspecting is right, they aren’t going to figure out who did it.”
“So what are we thinking?”
Tiny, as the club enforcer, took this opportunity to voice his opinion. “Well, I’m thinking that whoever gave us the warning at The Black Angel is stepping up their game. There’s no evidence, but with it being a case of arson, it’s a strong possibility.”
Son of bitch! We are no closer to figuring out who was trying to mess with us and they are becoming bolder with their targeting of our businesses. The Black Angel may have been their first move, but this most recent episode is not the second time something has happened. Some of the brothers have been experiencing acts of vandalism against their personal property as well.
“All right. Any information coming in off the streets? I’m finding myself getting more and more pissed off with our lack of leads.”
Looking around the table, my brothers are all looking around at each other, none of them seeming to have any answers.
“From now on, no one goes anywhere by themselves. All of the women and children are to continue to have someone on them and we are going to pull all of the families in for a soft lock down. They can still go to work and school, but no outings that are not 100% necessary. Irish, Tiny, I want you to get together and set up a schedule for brothers to go out and scour the streets to get some information. As well, all brothers will be helping out the prospects with security.
I’d like the officers to stay behind, but the rest of you are free to go. Stay close, Tiny and Irish will have your shifts set out and given to you soon.”
I took my gavel and hit it on the table, officially ending church. Once all of the brothers left, I turned to address my officers. “I’m sick and tired of the bullshit. We need to figure out who is doing this, and I mean now. They are getting bolder every time they act.”
“I’m not sure what else we can do, Pres. We’ve got feelers out around town, you’ve got both Knight and Axel seeing what they can find out. Until they make a mistake, we are shit out of luck” Joker responded.
I knew he was right, but that didn’t ease my mind. If anything, it pissed me off even more. We ran this town and the fact that someone or ones were getting away with messing with us, did not look good.
“All right, Irish and Tiny, I’ll leave you boys to get the schedule done up. Reaper, set the prospects to getting this place ready for the families to come in. They’ll need to do a grocery shop and an alcohol run. We want enough to last us the next two weeks.”
The men got up to leave, with Joker remaining behind. He was my best friend and my sounding board so I wasn’t surprised that he decided to speak to me privately.
“You got something you need to say to me?”
Joker took a minute before answering. “Not anything I need to say, just wanting to make sure everything is good with you. I know you’ve got a lot on your plate, what with Brenna and the baby on the way. How’s she handling it?”
“She’s being a trooper. She’s not giving me shit about not going anywhere alone and as soon as she heard me on the phone this morning she was dressed and ready to go before I even hung up the phone. We are supposed to be going to her parent’s tonight for dinner, not sure that’s a good idea with everything going on.”
“You need to go man. We’ll have a prospect follow you guys out there and sit on the house while you’re inside and then he’ll follow you back.”
It was a risk, but I think Joker was right and we’d be okay. “Okay. I’ll double check with Bren that she’s still wanting to go and then I’ll pull one of the boys to follow us out.”
Chapter 26 – Brenna
As soon as I sat down Everly was on me with questions. “So, how are things going with you and Beast? I’m guessing by us being called in here we aren’t likely to be able to go out for our girl’s night, so we might as well do some gossiping while they’re in their meeting.”
“Sounds good to me. How are things going with you and Joker? You about ready to start planning the wedding?”
Everly just gave me a look. She knew I was avoiding talking about me and Beast. I wasn’t one to talk about my feelings much, but she always pulled it out of me. Obviously giving me the out she responded, “things are going fantastic. You and I already booked the venue. The next thing we need to do is go dress shopping. I’ve called around to a couple of shops and made a couple of appointments, but I wanted to double check with you what days worked best for you since I know that your schedule is always different.”
Everly took out her phone and pulled up her calendar app. I pulled mine out as well and we found a couple of dates that worked. Over the next hour we set up appointments to look at dresses and went on Pinterest, searching out different ideas of what she would want and what I would wear as her maid of honour.
The doors to the meeting room opened and some of the club members came out, but Joker and Beast weren’t among them.
“I wonder why not all of the guys came out of the meeting room” Brenna speculated.
I looked to see who was missing and it seemed to be the officers. “How much has Joker told you about how the club works?”
“We haven’t really talked much about the club. Why, am I missing something?”
“Well, during one of our conversations I asked Beast for a bit more information about how the club works. All of the full-fledged members are what are called fully patched members. Of those patched members some of them are what are called officers.”
“I knew about the fully patched members and that Joker is the Vice President and Beast the President, but I didn’t know that there were other members with titles,” Everly responded.
“Yeah, I’m not sure what all of the titles are, but if I understood correctly, they are the ones who run the club, making sure everyone is safe
and that things run smoothly.”
A few minutes later, more members came out of the meeting room, but Beast and Joker were still in there.
Everly got up from the couch and walked over to one of the guys who had just come out. “Hey, Irish, what’s going on?”
The man that Everly called Irish was a very good looking man, had to be over six feet tall with tattoos running up both of his arms and bright red ginger hair. He stopped talking to another member upon hearing Everly speak to him and turned to us.
“Hey Ev, we’re going to be on a soft lock down for now. I’m just getting together with Tiny to get a schedule made up of guard duty shifts. Reaper is sending the prospects on a run to the store for supplies.”
I spoke up at this point, “is there anything we can do to help?”
Irish turned to fully face me and god his eyes were mesmerizing. They were bright green and just shone in his face. “You must be Brenna,” he said, while sticking his hand out for me to shake.
“I’m sorry, where are my manners. Irish, this is Brenna. Brenna, this is Irish.”
I grasped his hand and gave it a shake. “Nice to meet you, Irish. Like I said, is there anything we can do to help? Just sitting around here is not my style, so anything you need us to do, just ask.”
He looked at me speculatively before answering. “As a matter of fact, there probably is something you guys can help me with.”
He stopped speaking and looked over our heads as if searching someone out. Suddenly he let out a shrill whistle and yelled “Nick, get your ass over here!”
I turned to look behind me and saw a young man coming towards us. He was obviously younger than the rest of the guys, I wonder if he is one of the prospects.
Moments later my question was answered. “Brenna, this is Nick. He’s a prospect and he’s going to show you around the kitchen and storage area. We need to get a list made up of any kind of supplies you think we might need for the next two weeks. We don’t want to have to go shopping again if we don’t have to in that time.”
With that, Irish turned his back on us and walked over to the bar and sat beside another member who was leaning over a piece of paper, jotting things down on it.
Turning to Nick, he was waiting patiently at our side. I turned to Everly, “what do you think? You ready to get into things and help out?”
“Sounds good to me. Nick, let’s start with the kitchen.”
Nick smiled at us and started walking towards the back of the clubhouse. He came to a set of double doors that seemed to swing both ways, just like you would see in a restaurant. When we walked through the doors, I stopped in my tracks. This kitchen was definitely not what I was expecting.
First of all, it was huge! There was a ton of storage, what seemed to be a sub-zero fridge and a stove with eight burners, two ovens, and a grill in the middle of the cook top. “Holy shit, this is the kitchen to end all kitchens.”
Everly laughed at me and stepped around me, moving further into the kitchen. While I slowly wandered around the kitchen checking things out, she took charge. “Okay Nick, I will need a couple of pens and some paper so that we can go through the fridge, freezer and cupboards and figure out what we may need. Before we start though, I have a quick question. Are there any dietary restrictions we have to take into consideration?”
“Dietary restrictions? No, all the guys love meat and as far as I am aware there are no food allergies.”
Coming up to the doors of what I assume is the pantry, I heard the doors to the kitchen open and close, I assume the sound of Nick leaving to grab the supplies Everly requested. When I opened the doors, it turned out I was right and it was the pantry, and a walk in one to boot. The shelves weren’t bare, but they definitely needed restocking.
Everly came up beside me, “you going to stop drooling over this kitchen any time soon?”
I turned to look at her and she was looking at me with a smirk on her face. “Oh shut up. I know I don’t have a lot of time to cook, but I do enjoy it and this is a kitchen that dreams are made of.”
We both went into the pantry, that really needed reorganizing, and started to sort things so that we could figure out what would be needed and what kinds of foods they seemed to like.
Nick came back in to the kitchen and handed over the pens and paper we requested. “If you ladies don’t need me right now, I’m going to head back out to the bar area and see if the brothers need anything else. Just let me know if you need anything and when you are ready to move on to the storage room.”
We turned back to the task at hand, talking and laughing as we went along.
When we were finished in the pantry, we came out and sitting at the island just staring at us were Beast and Joker. “How long have you been sitting there staring at us?”
Beast got up off of his stool and walked over to me, grabbing me by the hips and pulling me into him. I looked up at him, seeing Everly walk past me towards Joker, and went up on my toes to give him a kiss.
“We’ve only been here a couple of minutes. Thank you for pitching in. It means a lot.”
Looking into his eyes, I could see his sincerity. “Of course I’m helping out. Irish said we were going to be having a soft lock down. I’m not sure what that is, but I assumed it meant that it was important so Ev and I wanted to help out and make things easier any way we could.”
Beast grabbed my ass and pulled me even closer into him, leaning his head down and taking my lips with his. He pushed his tongue into my mouth starting to take the kiss deeper when we heard the clearing of a throat behind us.
I reluctantly stepped away and to the side. Everly and Joker were still in the room with Ev tucked under Joker’s arm just smiling at us.
“Hey Brenna. How’s it going?” Joker asked with a knowing grin on his face.
I walked towards them and stopped in front of Joker, my cheeks reddening as I looked up at him. “Hey Joker. Things are great thanks.”
Beast came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me, resting his chin on the top of my head. It always made me feel so comforted and protected when he did this. He was so much bigger than me that it was like being wrapped in a cocoon.
Chapter 27 – Beast
When Joker and I were finished in church we came out to the bar and didn’t see our women anywhere. Nick saw us looking and came over to let us know that the ladies were pitching in and were presently in the kitchen.
Walking into the kitchen, we could hear the ladies laughing in the pantry. Instead of letting them know we were here, we both sat down at the island and turned to watch them.
I never thought I’d want to just sit and watch a woman when she wasn’t doing anything provocative. Just sitting here watching Brenna have a good time with her best friend, while doing something for my club, has me just sitting here smiling at her.
After sitting in silence for a couple of minutes, the girls came out of the pantry and stopped at the entrance when they noticed us.
“How long have you been sitting there staring at us?” Brenna asked.
I got up off of my stool and walked up to her, holding on to her hips and pulling her into me. Brenna and I needed to have a talk soon about taking things further in our relationship. I know most people would think that we were already pretty far in a relationship since we were having a baby together, but I would want to be a part of her life even without the baby being in the picture.
“We’ve only been here a couple of minutes. Thank you for pitching in. It means a lot.”
I leaned down and started kissing her. I was really getting into it, forgetting that we weren’t alone in the kitchen until I heard Joker clearing his throat behind us.
When Brenna walked over to Joker to say a few words to him, I walked up behind her and wrapped my arms around her, resting my chin on the top of her head.
The four of us wandered out to the main area of the clubhouse, heading to the couches to have a seat. Joker and I sat beside each other, pulling our women down into our lap
s.
Brenna turned sideways and looked at me. “What’s on your mind, Baby Girl?”
“Just wanting to make sure you’re all right.”
“I’m okay, Bren. We are still trying to figure things out. We are going to be staying here at the clubhouse every night for the foreseeable future. I just want to make sure we are all safe.”
Brenna leaned forward and gave me a peck on the lips. “Beast, I’m okay with that. Whatever it takes for you to feel comfortable and that we are safe I’m okay with. Am I still able to go to work?”
“Yeah, you can still go to work. I’m still going to take you there and back, but we’ll have one of the brothers or a prospect following us just as an extra precaution.”