by Erin Osborne
I respond: Sounds like my old man. Thought I was gonna get lucky in the middle of the afternoon but instead, he came home, yelled at me, then left!
Cara responds: Sorry D, that’s probably my fault. My old man caught me on the site this morning before I could close it and got it out of me.
Jenalyn responds: Yeah, my ol’ man is a bit hot under the collar as well. What’s the big fucking deal? I mean, we’re all smart, right? Can’t we figure out whether or not we’re who we say we are? And anyhow, who would fuck with a biker’s old lady?
Trinity responds: I kind of understand their caution. Online, people can be whoever they want to be and sometimes, folks do stupid stuff.
Bristol responds: Well, I know my man is beyond alpha sometimes. He can be so damned protective it drives me nuts!
I hear the door open and the sound of the kids and quickly type out, ‘kids home, later ladies!’ before closing my laptop.
The afternoon drags on but not as much as I thought it would with Hatch aggravated at me. Snacks and homework take up the bulk of it, with Jasper helping Maysen on her site words while I start cooking.
“Can I help?” Talon asks me.
“Sure, honey. I was thinking about spaghetti and salad. Whatcha think?”
“Bread too?” I start laughing because he loves bread and we have some type of roll or biscuit with every meal.
“Homemade garlic.” He cheers and raises his hand so I give him a fist bump. If anyone had told me a year ago that I’d have a house full of kids and be married, I’d have driven them to the psych ward because I never thought that would be in the cards for me. Yet, look at me now. I’ve got a good man, even if his Neanderthal tendencies drive me crazy at times, and four children.
“So, I was wondering,” Talon starts off. “The dollar movie is playing Jumanji and I wanted to see if you’d take me and Claree to see it this weekend?” He’s still hesitant to ask for favors, so I know this must be important to him.
“This weekend, huh? Let me see what’s going on with the other kids and we’ll make arrangements. If I can’t take you for any reason, we’ll hit Trinity up. She’d love to play Malcolm in the middle,” I begin to giggle.
“That’s fine, as long as it isn’t Chief,” he states, causing me to bust my gut in laughter.
“And why not Chief?” I ask, even though I know the answer.
“Because that man wants my nuts delivered to him on a silver platter,” he mumbles under his breath. This causes my laughter to double me over, tears running down my face, and I’m holding my stomach because it hurts from the force coming out.
“Your balls are safe,” Hatch says, coming into the kitchen and joining us.
“If it comes down to it, I’ll take you personally so you don’t have to deal with his overbearing ass.”
“Chief’s not that bad, honey,” I tell him.
“Are you kidding me with that? He’s worse than a mother bear protecting her cub. He takes being a father to the extreme.”
“And you don’t?”
“Nah, not me,” he says.
“So, I can invite Jaxson over to help Ralynn with her project for school?”
“Woah, now wait a minute, that shit right there isn’t funny. My little girl has a crush the size of King Kong on his ass, and she’s a damn spitfire who could convince him she’s twenty instead of six!”
“Our daughter is not that bad!”
“The fuck she isn’t!” he shouts back. “And what project? I can help her,” he responds, and I swear his bottom lip is sticking out, pouting at the fact that we didn’t come to him about this.
“She has to build a display, out of wood, of our home. It’s for her art project, and it’s fifty-percent of her final grade for the six-weeks.”
“I can try,” he says.
“Honey, the last time you said that, you ended up hammering your finger. Remember, I had to kiss your boo-boo and ice it?”
“I wasn’t that bad,” he replies.
“Yes you were, it was hilarious,” Talon says.
“Besides, Jaxson knows woodworking. He wouldn’t have to help her per se, he could make the model and you could help her with the decorating and painting,” I tell him.
“I don’t like it; can’t we get Capone to help? He does carpentry work on the side.”
“He can help Jaxson. They can both help our girl; would that make you happy?” I ask him as I stir the sauce.
“We’ll see. What else needs to be done?” he asks. I’m wondering if he’s over his earlier snit when he leans in and says, “We still have some things to discuss. Don’t think I’ve forgotten.” Well fuck a duck.
And this is my life in all it’s fucked-up glory.
Chapter Five
Keira
I’m sitting at my desk, looking at the reviews I have so far on my first book. Some are amazing and show me that I’m doing the right thing with putting my stories out there. Other reviews are telling me to hang it up right now and forget about writing another book. Ever. From what I’ve heard from other authors through social media, I can’t let it get to me. I need to keep moving forward and follow my dream. My book sales continue to rise and I’m making money, so that’s all I’m going to worry about for the time being.
“Kitten, you in here?” I hear Blade ask.
“Yeah. What’s up, babe?” I ask, looking up as he enters my office with Kenyon in his arms.
“So, what’s goin’ on with all you girls?” he asks.
“It’s a secret. We’ll tell you all in a little while,” I tell him, putting my entire focus on him.
“No, I think we need to know now. All the guys are startin’ to wonder and we want to make sure you’re all safe.”
“Let me call the girls and we’ll get together,” I tell him, pulling my phone out and sending out a mass message. “You know that we’re not going to put ourselves in danger, right?”
“You never know who you’re truly talkin’ to online. Who’s to say that it’s not some fuckin’ pervert wantin’ to lure you girls away or somethin’ like that?”
“Once you hear what we’re doing, you’ll understand what we’re doing. And why,” I tell him, starting to let my sassy ass come out.
“Then set it up and let’s get this shit out in the open,” Blade practically orders.
I glare at him to let him know that I’m not happy with him thinking that he’s going to control my ass. He should know by now that I don’t get down with that. I’ll let him have so much control and that’s it. We’re not doing anything wrong with this site and talking to other old ladies, I’m not going to let them make this out to be something it’s not. We’ll be careful and watch what we’re doing, but that’s as far as I’m going to let them take it. Hell, I’m sure that Tank and Irish will be checking the site and other old ladies out before they let us continue with everything.
Blade leaves the room once we hear Cory start to cry, so I go to the site really quick and type out a post: I just want to give everyone a heads up that our men are about to find out what we’ve done. I’m sure they’re going to have one of the guys check the site out and probably those of you that we’ve already been talking to. I’m sorry it’s come to this, but I don’t want to shut the site down. I think we all need this!
I turn the computer off so I can go help my man with our kids. Just as I’m leaving the room, I get a message from Skylar saying that she’s going to start dinner and we should all be at her house in about forty-five minutes. This is one conversation that I’m not looking forward to.
Blade and I are the last two to arrive at Skylar’s house. We walk in to utter chaos with the kids all in one house. It’s nothing that we don’t see at the clubhouse though, so no one really pays attention to the kids running rampant down to the apartment Rage used to live in. They’re now turning it into a play area for all the kids.
“Hey everyone!” I call out.
“Hey!” is sent out in chorus from everyone around the upstair
s of the house.
Blade takes the kids and puts them in the living room. He won’t let them go down with the older kids just yet, protective Daddy and all that. Maddie and Melody sit down on the floor with them and I walk over to Skylar. Once again, I find myself taking off to the bathroom just from the amazing smells emanating out of the kitchen. I hear a discussion in the living room and I know it’s only a matter of time before someone is knocking on the door.
“Keira, you okay?” Bailey asks me.
“Yeah,” I answer, before turning my head back to the toilet.
Bailey makes her way inside and pulls my hair back. It’s not the same as Blade comforting me when I get sick, but I’ll take it. I can feel the questions running through Bailey and I wish I had answers for her. But, I’ve been too nervous to take a test. Blade and I haven’t talked about more kids. Especially with the twins being just over a year old. I’m pretty sure that I know what the test will say, but it’s the matter of seeing it in person and not just having an idea.
“Here, sweetie,” Bailey says, handing me a test. “I know you haven’t had the chance to take one yet. And it’s going to be better to know now instead of putting it off any longer.”
“Thank you,” I tell her, taking the test from her hands and wiping the back of my mouth with the washcloth she hands me.
Bailey leaves me alone in the bathroom so that I can take the test. So, I quickly do what I have to do and leave the test sitting on the back of the toilet on some toilet paper. It doesn’t take the full time before I see two pink lines showing up. Fuck! Now, I have more things to talk to my man about. Dread settles in my stomach and I know that tonight is going to be a long ass night.
“Everythin’ okay?” Blade asks, as I make my way out to the dining room.
“Yep,” I answer, avoiding eye contact.
I start helping make the kids’ plates with the rest of the girls. The guys start corralling them to the table for kids, and getting them settled in as we start laying the plates in front of them. Bailey keeps looking at me and I discreetly nod my head ‘yes.’ I can tell that she wants to squeal in delight, but she’s holding it in until I talk to my man. I’m grateful that she knows not to let anyone else know about what’s going on. You can always count on her to have your back when it’s needed most.
We’re finally all sitting down at the table and Grim wastes no time in jumping right into the conversation. “Alright ladies, we know you have somethin’ goin’ on. What’s up?”
“Well, I had an idea and we all thought it was a kick-ass one,” Skylar starts.
“What idea is that?” Cage asks, putting an arm around her.
“We want to have other old ladies to talk to about what we go through on a daily basis. Especially when your overbearing asses get to be too much for us,” I say, looking at everyone around the table. “So, we started a site for other old ladies to join so we can talk about our lives in this world. It will probably help the newer old ladies fit in and find their place in the world of you men.”
“Okay,” Joker begins. “But, how do you know that you’re truly talkin’ to other old ladies and not some random fuckwad? Or someone that wants to find out information on other clubs?”
“We created questions that they have to answer before they can be approved to join,” Bailey answers. “It’s things that old ladies will know and it’s not common knowledge to outsiders.”
“I get where you’re comin’ from, but I don’t like the idea of you talkin’ to random women from other clubs. What if they’re from a club we have problems with? Or one of the club girls that leaves pissed off and is tryin’ to fuck with the club?” Tank asks. “I’m doing a check on the site and the women that you have already been talkin’ to. You start talkin’ to anyone else, I’ll do a background on them too.”
“And just so you know,” Maddie pipes in. “We haven’t disclosed any information about the club you guys are in. They haven’t either.”
The guys leave the table and I know they’re going to find a laptop. Especially when Irish tells us to send him the link for the site. Might as well get this over with. So, I send him the link I have saved in my phone. Goose comes back out and grabs a few beers for the guys and quickly disappears again. I’m not sure how long this is going to take, but I settle in for the time being and finish eating what I can.
Skylar
I know that something is going on with Keira. I’m sure that she’s pregnant, she just hasn’t told any of us yet. Even though I want to push her to find out, I’m going to let her tell us when she’s ready. Blade should probably be the first one to know. I watched her the rest of the night while everyone was at the house to make sure she was going to be okay. Blade also kept his eagle eyes on her.
The good news is that the guys are letting us keep our site up. Obviously, they have some rules in place and I am on board with them. Bailey and Melody put up a fight about it, but we got our way in the end. Tank is going to be running a check on the site on a regular basis. He’s also going to be making sure that the women we’re talking to are who they say they are. I’m not sure how those women are going to feel about that, but I’ll make sure they know.
Before I can go in and make a post about it, Cage and Joker surround me. I can guess what they have going through their heads right now, but I don’t know if I’m ready to make things easy on them. They get to have all their secrets with club business and shit like that, we can’t have anything to ourselves. They might find themselves sleeping on the couch tonight.
“Baby girl, don’t be like this,” Cage starts, sensing me give them the cold shoulder.
“Be like what?” I ask, making sure my tone is laced with the attitude I have about this. “It’s not my fault that you guys can’t let us have anything to ourselves. One thing we were excited about and now you have to be all up in it. We all get that you want us, and the club, protected, but this is absurd. If we lose one person that has joined the site because of this, you two are in more than just the doghouse! I hope the couch is comfortable tonight for you both.”
“Baby, we’re not sleepin’ on the couch. We’ll be in bed, next to you, tonight and every night. This is about your safety, and the safety of all the women in the club. Don’t you remember everythin’ that has happened to us all?”
“Of course I do! Don’t act like we all haven’t been through some kind of tragedy in one form or another. We all have. This is our way to vent and get this shit out without talking to you guys. We need our own little support system, and this is how we’re doing it!”
I make my way up to the bedroom with the laptop in my hand. I’m going to get settled in bed and make the post about the guys in the club showing their asses yet again. Quickly going through my nightly routine, I climb in bed and open the laptop. It takes a minute for the site to come up and I can get in to do my thing. Once I’m in, I read the post that Keira made earlier about the men finding out what we were doing. So, it’s time to make my own post about the men.
We’ve had our meeting tonight and the men now know what we’re doing with the site. They have one of our guys doing a background check on the site and on each of the women we’re talking to on here. I don’t want to lose anyone from here, but I completely understand if you don’t want to go through this.
Instead of waiting for a response because I don’t know if anyone else is online right now, I close the laptop and pull out my tablet so I can read. I’ve found a new author and I’m diving into a book called Reese. I’m not anticipating the men coming upstairs anytime soon, so I plan on falling asleep with this book open on my tablet. Cage and Joker can kiss my ass and be with one another tonight!
Chapter Six
Bristol
“That’s it! I’m so freaking fed up with Ghost’s overprotective ass I could spit nails,” I tell Lizzie on the phone. “Their snooping knows no bounds! I mean, who the hell do they think they are anyways?” I practically shout out, in my annoyance.
“What happ
ened?” she asks me.
“He has Bomber tracking my social media account! Can you fucking believe that shit?”
“Actually, yes I can,” Lizzie replies. “I’m probably being tracked as well, I mean when does it end, Bristol? When does it become too much?”
“That’s what I want to know...I know I said for better or for worse, and death do us part, and all that bullshit, but the death part may be happening here shortly. His, not mine,” I inform her. She bursts out in laughter but I don’t see where any bit of this is funny in the least. “What are you laughing at?” I ask her.
“My sweet Bristol wouldn’t hurt a fly on the wall, but you’re going to take on a man that’s six feet three inches at least and two-hundred pounds! I love you, girl, but I really want to be there when you give him his.”
“Well,” I breathe out, “I’ve had enough, I need to get away. Maybe if I did leave for a little while he’d realize that he needs to back off!”
“One could only dream,” she states.
“He walked in the door earlier, demanding to know what I was up to and actually asked me if I’d lost my mind! I should’ve told him that yes, I had, he doesn’t give me space, and I need space. I’m in desperate need of time away from him, he’s driving me to insanity, Lizzie. What options do I have left to show him how I am feeling? Walking away from our relationship at this point would break my heart in half, but I don’t know that there’s much else I can do to prove my point.”
“A women’s getaway? I could use some separation as well. Not necessarily from Justice per se, I love that man with all of my heart. But always having to be around everyone, never having time to ourselves is becoming a little ridiculous.”
“Maybe, in a few weeks after all this dies down, we could plan a women’s getaway.”