Outlaw flicked his lighter again and winked at her. “Word to the fuckin’ wise, Bailey. This club full of fuckin’ lechs. Next time, cover the fuck up.”
“Okay, although Lucas didn’t stop me.”
Dragging on his cigarette, Outlaw smirked and pulled out his phone, sending another text message. He glanced at his watch, sharing an inside joke with the other men. “You been here ‘bout fourteen minutes. Give him a fuckin’ minute or two more—”
“Bailey, what the fuck you doing in here with all of them, dressed in nothing?”
Lucas’s voice rose behind her and Outlaw nodded, laughing, surprising Bailey.
“Bailey, you fucking heard me?”
“I heard you, Lucas. I’m just ignoring you.” She faced him and planted her hands on her hips. “You watched me walk away.”
“Not to be leered at by a bunch of horny motherfuckers,” he gritted.
She rolled her eyes and pointed to her belly. “I’m pregnant.”
“So? You still fucking gorgeous.” He gave her a sour look. “The baby just making you prettier.”
She lowered her lashes, hiding the pleasure she got from his words. He was a little stingy with his compliments. She wasn’t so vain where she needed to have him extol, on a daily basis, how pretty he thought she was. Still, she wanted his approval, especially now when she felt like a stuffed Butterball turkey. His words boosted her confidence.
“That’s not the damn point. You can’t walk the fuck around here like that.”
Behind her, Outlaw and the other three snickered like juveniles. Lucas glowered at her.
“You ran out the room so fucking fast, I didn’t get a chance to tell you to put something else on.”
“That’s why you came behind me, right?”
“You want to play games now?” he asked in outrage. “You walked out, hoping I’d follow you? Tip my hand?”
“You just did, motherfucker,” Outlaw inserted.
Bailey ignored him. “I wasn’t thinking or trying to make you jealous. I was trying to get away from you.”
“Just so you know, you fucking didn’t, man.” Although he was talking to her, he was glaring over her head to the men behind her. “I’m not jealous.”
He was such an idiot, wanting to impress them and not caring how his words came across. She’d had to accept the terms of his stupid bet because she didn’t have the power to change it. Now, she did. “Okay. Fine. It’s already established keeping your money is more important than claiming me.”
“I didn’t say that shit, Bailey. You putting words in my mouth.”
Bailey studied her husband and thought of the money in her dad’s closet. She knew Lucas wanted to win. He was competitive and proud. To him, losing wasn’t in his vocabulary. However, if she handed over the money so he could pay the guys, that would take away some of the sting of defeat.
“Thinking of some other wrong shit to throw at me?"
She waved Lucas’s words off with impatience. “If I give you the twenty thousand dollars to pay off your debt, will it make a difference?”
His eyes widened and he stared at her. For the briefest moment, tenderness softened his features. Hope surging in her, Bailey smiled. They’d finally be a family. Everyone would see the man she knew. He’d want her and love her and cherish her openly and without reserve.
“Where you get that type of dollars from?”
She’d wanted to discuss this with Lucas in private. That’s why she hadn’t told Outlaw about the money, but she’d opened this can of worms. “Dad,” she croaked. “In the letters. He said he’d pay the bet for you and—”
If the idea had appealed to him before, it didn’t now. His jaw clenched and he stiffened. He glanced again to the men.
“See? I’m not sweating her. She’s sweating me. Even willing to pay to get me. Which means I’m not addicted to her young pussy.”
She bit the inside of her cheek to keep her look neutral. “Of course you aren’t,” she said quietly.
But she was done. After pretending the fact he’d been out all night and returned without explaining his whereabouts was unimportant, his statement pushed her over the edge and removed all hope that they had a future together.
“There’s nothing left to say.”
She put the words out there, as if that would make a difference to him, when nothing else had.
Who had she been kidding? He treated her with callous disregard most of the time. How could she expect different? Pointing it out to him, time and again, hadn’t mattered. He only seemed to reject her more. And he’d never let her live down the actions that had led to them sleeping together in the first place.
She’d dropped her robe the day he’d visited and shown him her nude body and swore she knew it was only that day between them.
“I can’t do this anymore. You’re never going to let what she did to you go.” She touched his face, his hard expression deepening her despair and burgeoning loss.
Nothing had changed between now and the first time they’d made love except her feelings. Without another word, she walked past him, determined not to look back.
Absolute silence surrounded Mortician in the wake of Bailey’s departure, but he felt the heat of Outlaw’s stare the most. He glared at him. In return, Outlaw got that wild warning in his eyes that always meant motherfuckers would bleed.
“First things first. You assfucks get your fuckin’ shit together so we can discuss K-P letters.” He focused on Stretch. “Talk to Bailey and ask her to don’t leave. Val, camera duty. Mort, meet me in the fuckin’ conference room.”
Ten minutes later, Outlaw sauntered in, a bemused look on his face. It was odd, since Mortician couldn’t remember the last time something puzzled the man. Unless it had to do with Meggie.
Throwing a fresh pack of cigarettes on the table, he grabbed a bottle of tequila and a bottle of vodka from the cabinet, then sat across from Mort instead of in his usual seat at the head.
“Bailey left.”
Mortician shrugged, not giving anything away. Everything was up in the air, but he just didn’t know how to talk to her. Once, they’d been friends. That’s why he’d sought her out the day things had been going to shit. He just wanted normalcy and he knew she could give him that.
Then he’d fucked her and felt lower than dirt because she’d trusted him to be her first, but giving into his feelings for Bailey made him vulnerable. If he paid the money—if she paid the money—then what? Beyond the bet, if he opened himself up again, he’d expose his heart once more.
“That fuckin’ it?” Outlaw questioning, opening his tequila.
“Bailey not cut out for this life, man.”
“You think Megan or Johnnie fuckin’ bitch is?”
“No. Meggie girl just adapting because she love you and Red walked the fuck away.”
“That cunt’ll be back. Johnnie love her.”
“Meggie love you.”
Outlaw slid the bottle of vodka across the table. “Bailey don’t love you?”
“Yes. I know she does.” Mortician snatched the vodka, wishing Meggie would do some more of her Skittle vodka for him, but he supposed Prez wouldn’t allow her to do much for the next few months. He halted the bottle near his lips, thinking of Bailey. Her pretty smile. Her gorgeous eyes. “If I give in, I’m just a weak ass bitch.”
“No, motherfucker. Not givin’ in makin’ you a weak ass bitch. It also makin’ you look like a mean fuckhead. Bailey never did shit to you. You fuckin’ did it all to her, includin’ gettin’ her pregnant.”
Scowling, Mortician tipped the bottle back. “That was an accident.”
“Yeah, well, assfuck, your fuckin’ accident gonna be born in a few months. Why the fuck think of it as a accident? Why the fuck not a gift?”
“That’s the way you saw it when Meggie said she was pregnant?”
Studying him, Outlaw cocked his head to the side. “Megan ain’t told me the first time. John Boy did.” He left it at that when they
both knew this last time a few days ago, Prez hadn’t seen Meggie’s new pregnancy as a gift.
Mortician nodded, not commenting, since he hadn’t known that. “Ever felt trapped?”
“Like she got a fuckin’ baby to keep me?”
“Yeah.”
“I knew what the fuck I was doin’, Mortician,” Outlaw admitted with a shrug. “If any-fuckin-body did the trappin’, I did it to her.”
“Fuck. For real?”
Outlaw guzzled from the bottle again. “For fuckin’ real, Mort. Gettin’ a baby in her wasn’t no guarantee I’d keep her. After Ma was killed and Megan found out ‘bout Big Joe, I was lettin’ her go. Couldn’t, though. Think this shit easy? It ain’t. It’s some scary shit, knowin’ a young bitch holdin’ my heart in her fuckin’ hands.” He tasted more of his tequila. “But, fuck, it’s scary knowin’ any bitch holdin’ your fuckin’ heart.”
“Meggie love you. The way you was treatin’ her broke her heart.”
He grabbed the pack of cigarettes. “She talk to you ‘bout it?”
He sounded surprised but Mort didn’t see a reason to lie. The man asked a direct question, so he deserved a direct answer. “Yeah, Prez.”
A light went off in his eyes and he gave Mortician a half-smile. “You put her up to that bullshit, didn’t you? When I ain’t wanted her at the fuckin’ party and she came anyway.”
Mortician shrugged. “Maybe. Don’t fucking matter if it was me or her that came up with the idea. It got through to you. Why didn’t you want her there?”
“The same reason Johnnie spent the day with her when I took off for the motel,” Outlaw admitted with a sigh. “To get a fuckin’ break and feel like me without hurtin’ deep in my heart for my girl.”
“And your son. I understand.”
“No, Mort, you ain’t hearin’ me. I’m sorry my girl lost our second kid. I helped make him. But he gone. I ain’t gettin’ him back and I ain’t ever met him, other than to tell him bye and he was already dead. I buried Ma. I dealt with Boss. I let my kid go. What’s fuckin’ done ain’t ever gettin’ the fuck undone.” He finally lit the cigarette he’d been holding onto for a while. “I had my Megan, though. I ain’t ever able to explain to no-fuckin-body what it felt like seein’ Megan in fuckin’ shock, flatlinin’.”
Even now, he looked as if he’d come unhinged. He drank again and wiped the excess alcohol from his mouth.
“I tell my-fuckin-self I woulda stuck the fuck around for CJ, but who the fuck I’m foolin’. I wouldna been able to go on without her. That shit made me realize how fuckin’ far gone I was into her. It pissed me the fuck off and I think I hated her a little bit. ‘Specially when I couldn’t get fuckin’ through to her. She was just drownin’ in fuckin’ grief. And I hate fuckin’ Kendall with every-fuckin-thing in me.”
“Red lost a lot too, Prez,” Mortician said, reaching for the pack of cigarettes and lighting one of his own.
“She shoulda stayed the fuck in this motherfucker and ain’t no-fuckin-body woulda loss shit.”
Although that was true, he decided to play Devil’s advocate. He was just fucking happy they’d gotten off the topic of Bailey. “Meggie didn’t have to go.”
Too late, he realized those words would probably get his mouth shot off, but Outlaw surprised him and shook his head.
“Say she had fuckin’ stayed and Kendall still went. How you motherfuckers would be lookin’ at her now? I know she wasn’t thinkin’ ‘bout how she woulda looked to the club. She was just thinkin’ ‘bout bein’ there for Kendall at the time. She think ‘bout it now, though, and it got me to fuckin’ thinkin’, too. I woulda had to kill motherfucker after motherfucker for bad-mouthin’ Megan over that fuckin’ cunt.”
Mortician winced. As pissed as he was with Red, she was his friend. Or had been. “Red and Meggie friends now. They workin’ shit out—”
“Kendall a lyin’, deceitful bitch. Her and Dinah? They both fuckin’ belong in straightjackets.”
“Prez—”
He pointed to his shoulder. “Don’t. I saved that cunt’s life.”
He’d known Outlaw had gotten shot but he hadn’t known saving Kendall had been the reason.
“Fuck, man.” He leaned forward and pulled the ashtray close to him, tamping out the cigarette. “You still telling Meggie?”
“No, not with her havin’ two babies in her. I’m glad Kendall fuckin’ gone cuz I ain’t trusting that bitch not to come here and open her fuckin’ mouth.”
“She just afraid of losing Johnnie. She been through a lot and she trying to think of ways to make him…” What, he wasn’t exactly sure. John Boy loved the bitch. Mortician knew that. He was just an odd motherfucker and had a different way of showing his feelings than Prez did. “Kendall a gorgeous chick. You ain’t even consider gettin’ in her shit a little bit? Your dick even got hard for that Bob—”
“I never fuckin’ thought ‘bout gettin’ pussy from Kendall one fuckin’ time. Have you, bug fuck?”
“Fuck, yeah. But I backed the fuck away when I saw how much John Boy wanted her.”
“Good for fuckin’ you. And you know? My dick do work. That Bob bitch had just got through suckin’ dick and was fuckin’ naked in front of me. So my dick got hard. Ain’t meant I wanted her.”
“You was about to ruin your marriage to Meggie. You were going to fuck one of those girls that night.”
Outlaw clunked his half-empty bottle on the table. “No, I wasn’t.”
“You just said you wanted to feel like the old you.”
Thrusting his fingers through his hair, Outlaw sighed. “Maybe, you ain’t lovin’ on Bailey like I think. If you was, you would fuckin’ understand. Any-fuckin-way, if Megan wasn’t gettin’ through to my fuckin’ ass, I was gettin’ through to her. I got her fuckin’ attention that night, ain’t I? Whether you talked to her or not, she snapped the fuck out of it.”
“Fuck, man, being in love sound like going to fucking war. Always strategizing shit.”
“Mort, I do what I gotta do. Every motherfucker far and wide know Megan mine. I ain’t givin’ a fuck who it is, I’d blow them the fuck away to save her, to keep her, to protect her.”
Mortician supposed everyone did know who Meggie belonged to. Prez said it often enough. They knew almost as much about her pussy as Outlaw, as much as he talked about it.
“Come fuckin’ again?”
Fuck. He’d said that bullshit out loud. “Look, Prez—”
“Ain’t stoppin’ no time soon. Not ‘til Megan make me stop. That shit another one of my ways of showin’ the world she belong to me.” He rubbed his forehead. “I ain’t sayin’ the way I love Megan the right way, but it’s my way. It’s the only fuckin’ way I know how to fuckin’ do it. Johnnie love that fuckin’ bitch, but he gonna have to fuckin’ learn to compromise and she need to open her fuckin’ mouth. She pretend she satisfied with givin’ the basics and he ain’t ever been a motherfucker big on small details so much so he blind like a motherfucker to that stupid bitch needin’ the little details. Kendall bein’ fuckin’ Kendall ain’t admittin’ she wanna know everything. Zoann and Megan ain’t hidin’ the fact that they two nosy bitches and gotta know what the fuck goin’ on. Megan accepted she ain’t knowin’ every-fuckin-thing ‘bout the club. Bitsy, too, but at least me and Val know.”
“Bailey used to talk to me,” Mortician admitted quietly, unable to stop the words. “I mattered to her. Just like you matter to Meggie.”
They all loved their women differently and that was fine. They were different motherfuckers, but the hardest of them all—Outlaw—was the one who loved the deepest.
Did he love Bailey like that? Because, fuck it all, he did love her. He covered his face, realizing how Bailey had been right on the fringes of his mind every time Outlaw talked about his relationship with Meggie.
“You and Meggie been through a lot.”
“I’m sure we’ll go through more, but we just love each other more. We end up closer and stronger.”
He scrubbed his hand over his two day growth of hair covering his cheeks. “Okay, Prez. I give in. Bailey win. I’ll pay the fuckin’ money.”
“Call her and tell her, then get a couple hours sleep, clean yourself the fuck up and go get your girl, motherfucker.” Outlaw got to his feet. “Oh yeah, shove your 5Gs up you dick. Ain’t takin’ your fuckin’ money. I just wanted you to fuckin’ admit to me you fuckin’ lost.” Smirking, he tipped his bottle to Mortician. “Wait fuckin’ here. I’m goin’ scoop up those fuckin’ letters and call the other motherfuckers in so we can figure this bullshit out.”
Part Four: The Baby
Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Big Easy
Her back hurting, Bailey leaned into her mother’s embrace. Though comforted by Roxanne’s presence, she felt tense and exposed, as if someone watched her. Suppose they’d followed her from the club? That couldn’t be, could it? Wouldn’t she have detected someone before now? Although she’d wanted to see her siblings, it almost relieved her they were all away, visiting their respective grandparents.
Uneasy, Bailey stepped away from her mom and glanced around, trying to see…something…someone out of place. Impossible. MSY or Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans bustled with activity. Passengers coming and going. Notes of a saxophone just loud enough above the din. A souvenir shop held a display of Café DuMonde Beignet mix and French Market Coffee.
It had been two days since she’d stood in Outlaw’s room listening to Lucas. She’d called Fin and told him she needed a place to stay for a couple days until she could get a flight home. He’d offered to pick her up, but she’d declined, so Meggie ordered Stretch to escort Bailey to Fin’s house.
Bailey called her mom and explained everything to her and Roxy demanded she come home for a few days. Lost and alone, Bailey hadn’t been able to resist. Lucas had called her and texted her, but she’d ignored each attempt he made to get in touch with her.
Eventually, everyone reached the breaking point and concluded enough was enough. She’d reached hers. She would’ve thought he was happy. He had won his bet. After so many months of fighting, she’d finally given him what he wanted.
Death Dwellers Motorcycle Club:: Fifteen Bad Boy Biker Books Page 201