Wanted: An Outlaw Anthology

by Lane Hart

  “What are you doing here?” I ask him, because he never visits the clubhouse during nighttime hours unless we’re having a party or family get together.

  “Got a call that you were over here drowning in your thoughts. Wanted to come by and see if there’s anything you need to talk about.”

  “When did we grow pussies and need to talk about our feelings and shit?” I know I sound like a dick right now, but honestly, I was looking forward to some alone time.

  “When you started sitting here getting lost in your thoughts like a damn woman.” His sentence causes me to break out in a full belly laugh.

  “What the fuck ever, asshole.”

  “Seriously, what’s going on with you?”

  “Miracle’s pregnant,” I inform him.

  “Fuck,” he mumbles.

  “Exactly,” I respond.

  He claps me on the back, and states, “It will be alright man, we’ll all stand behind you and help keep your woman safe.”

  “You all have your own families to worry about.”

  “Your family is our family and vice versa.” He makes a good point.

  “True ‘nuff.”

  “I think this is a good enough reason for a few shots and to get shit faced,” he announces.

  “Yes, it is.” I find myself drinking, and partying, with my brothers, and all thoughts of impending fatherhood is drowned out by the alcohol. When the room begins to spin, I stumble to my office and unlock the door. I lock it back behind me as I flop down on my couch. It’s lights out before I have a chance to take my boots off and get comfortable.

  I wake up to a pounding headache. My stomach turns some and I go to my liquor cabinet and decide that the hair of the dog is my best bet to get past this hangover. Today’s the day I’ve decided to make the call to Lorenzo, and I need to be on my A-game.

  I send a text to my old lady asking if she can bring me a change of clothes so I can hop in the shower that is connected to my office. I get in touch with a couple of our surrounding MC’s who are allies of ours to give them the heads up on Valdez’s dealings and the offer they brought to me. Needless to say, those friends were less than thrilled and are already siding with us on this impending war. Most of them are fathers and they don’t take the stealing and selling of children well. Most humans wouldn’t, if they had any decency left in their bones, that is. I have six surrounding MCs lined up with us, now it’s time to make the phone call that I’ve been purposely putting off. This is the hard part of the job, but it’s one that can’t be dismissed.

  The phone rings several times before it’s finally answered on the other end. “Jasper, my friend. What did you and your guys decide?” Lorenzo asks me.

  Taking a deep breath, I reply to his question, “I’m sorry, Lorenzo, the club voted unanimously against getting into business with your operation.”

  “That’s a shame, can you tell me why?”

  “Here’s the deal, Lorenzo. Most of us are fathers, and have an issue with selling children who are unwilling victims of the trade. The only reason I’m telling you this, is because I’m sure you’ve done your homework and know we have children of our own. It shouldn’t come off as a surprise that we’re not willing to step into that pile of shit.”

  “Ah, but see, this is where our points of view are different. I also am a father, but it’s not our children who are affected by this business. Your children will all be safe as long as you’re working with us.”

  “Are you telling me that by us not agreeing to work with you, our children are no longer safe from you?” I angrily question him.

  “Wouldn’t you prefer that I not answer that, and just ensure your family's safety by working with us?”

  “Is that your final answer?”

  “I think that’s what I’d like to stick with, yes.”

  “You don’t want an impending war with my club, Lorenzo. I think you should think this through further before issuing threats.”

  “We are not scared of you, we outnumber you by hundreds.”

  “Keep telling yourself that,” I emphatically respond. We were already anticipating taking them out, but these threats just make the taste of blood that much sweeter. No one threatens my club, family or children. Nobody!

  “Then we must end this conversation now, I’m afraid. We’ll let the cards lie where they land, yes?”

  “Be ready, Lorenzo. And be very careful of what decisions y’all make. I’m not someone to be messed with.” The line goes dead, and I get up and begin pacing my office. I go over to the wall next to the door and begin pounding on it. My anger takes over, no rational thoughts are floating in my mind. All I can think about are the threats made and the need for retaliation for the words alone.

  Fuck. Him.

  I’m fixing to fuck his world up beyond recognition.

  I send a mass text out to Knuckles, Reaper and Blaze to meet me in my office in thirty minutes. That should give them enough time to get here if they’re at their houses.

  Anger and frustration take hold and I swipe my arm across my desk and everything crashes around me. I take several deep breaths and look around at the mess I’ve created. Oh well, gives the prospects something to do later.

  My door is flung open and I see Knuckles and Reaper standing in the doorway with their guns drawn. They look like they’re ready to take on any threat. They both wear looks of malice upon their faces.

  I guess my temper tantrum wasn’t quiet, and was heard throughout the clubhouse, because I hear the sound of many loud boots pounding down the hallway. It sounds like a herd of elephants making their way here.

  “The fuck, Jasper?” Knuckles yells out. “What the ever-loving fuck is wrong with you?”

  “I’m more than a little pissed off right now, and let my temper get the best of me. Everyone out except for those I summoned!” Just like that, the men scamper away like a bunch of scolded children.

  “Wanna tell us what has you so wound up?” Blaze asks me with a concerned look on his face. I attempt to calm down by getting up and grabbing myself the bottle of whiskey from my bar as well as four glasses. They’re going to need it as much as I do, once I give them the details of my conversation with Lorenzo.

  I make us all two fingers full of the needed alcohol, then sit down and gulp mine down in one shot. Then I refill it, then fill them in on the conversation I had. I watch as their faces turn red in anger.

  “He threatened our families?” Reaper screams.

  “He’s a dead motherfucker walking!” Blaze hollers out.

  I look over at Knuckles and see that he’s holding his glass so hard that his knuckles are white, and I fear that his glass may shatter in his hand. “We need to take them out before they can get a plan to hurt ours,” he calmly states, but I can see by his actions that he really isn't. This is when he’s at his most dangerous, his calm facade is anything but.

  “Agreed, church in one hour brothers. We beat them at their own game and take out theirs before they get a chance to touch ours!” I can feel my temper rising again, but the thought of one of mine being hurt brings out a side of me that can’t be contained.

  We’ve just filled the brothers in on the latest development.

  “It’s time to fuck them up!” Machete bellows.

  “I say we take out not only their warehouses, but we take out their homes as well. Let’s take away everything that means anything to them,” Cobra says, while cleaning underneath his fingernails with his knife. I can see the contemplation on his features. He does this when he’s lost in thought of the best way to take down his enemies. He’s lethal, quick, and his bite is full of venom.

  “We still sticking to the no hurting women and children thing?” Dawg asks. His family means everything to him.

  “It’s our code, brother,” I remind him, because we do have some morals. I know it’s his anger talking, because he’s a protector by nature, he’d never harm a hair on the head of any woman nor child, regardless of how pissed off he is at the time
.

  “I say we stop talking about it and make some plans to chop them off at the knees,” Reaper gripes. He’s not one for talking shit out, he’s more of a doer.

  “Truth,” Kong responds to Reaper’s statement.

  “We’ve already voted for war, now we need to implement that action immediately. Let’s call in our favors, and get those who’ve agreed to stand with us here. Start making calls, Knuckles. Get them here yesterday so we can have church with them, and come up with a fool-proof plan. It’s time to walk the crossroad, brothers!” I say this every time we need to settle something physically.

  Fists bang on the table, and feet stomp on the ground. I can hear and feel the vibrations in the room and let them settle that beast that’s trying to come out in me.

  Then they begin to chant, and I can’t help but join. “The crossroad has been breached, it’s time to soldier on and stand together! Loud and proud, we fight till the death!”

  “Fuck yeah!” Bowie jumps up from his chair, knocking it over in the process, and the proud Native American in him comes out. He begins to chant in his mother tongue, we never know what he’s saying, but we are all mesmerized by it when it happens. His fists raise in the air, and ours go up in unity. We may not know what he’s saying, but we have his back in his culture, the way he does us in ours. “The Gods will give us strength, and wisdom through this trying time. We have their blessings,” he says, and for some odd reason, this brings comfort to me.

  I bang my gavel on the table, and announce, “Church is adjourned, you know what you need to do, do it and we’ll meet again once everyone is here.”

  I leave the anger and resentment behind as I head out of the room we conduct church in, and walk down the hall to my office. I have a lot of thinking to do today, and security measures to implement. Today will be a long as fuck day, but they usually are when you lead so many men with different personalities. I can’t think straight when I’m pissed, so I sit down and let the needs of my club overtake my individual ones.

  No use in crying over spilled beer, time to get this situation under control and get everything resolved. It may take some time for my head to be fully wrapped around all that I’ve learned, but time is not on my side, if Lorenzo’s threats are to be taken seriously, which I am. It’s only a matter of time before they strike first and we need to be prepared for any obstacles they may throw our way.

  These threats against our MC club and our families are unquestionably, one-hundred-percent unforgivable, and I need to squash them like they are an annoying cockroach, crawling for sanctuary underneath my boot.

  If I only had my men to worry about, this would be easy because they are all trained, but innocent women and children have been threatened. They are not able to protect themselves the way my brothers are capable of doing.

  Now it’s time to strategize, and come up with the best way to protect my family, while taking them out. A feat I know we can accomplish, but my fear of the ramifications regarding our families? It weighs heavily on my chest.

  “Get out of your head, asshole, and fix this,” I murmur to myself. Nothing like a good, old fashioned self-talking to, to get me motivated. No one can scold me better than myself, other than Miracle that is.

  Chapter Five

  Mirace

  He’s been locked up in his office for hours now. I know when the meeting ended because it was my day to make lunch and I was in the kitchen preparing that afternoon’s meal. Morgan, Reaper’s old lady was in there helping me when he stormed in, whispered something in her ear and carted her away. I know something is going down in the club, because the men are wired, more than what’s normal for them to be.

  Dawg comes in the kitchen and corners me, “Seen my old lady? She’s not answering her phone and I don’t like it.”

  “She had a client early this morning, you know she doesn't like to have her phone on when she’s giving a massage. It takes scheduled time away from her clients, and they pay her for that time,” I remind him.

  “Don’t like her being out of contact with me,” he states, sitting down at the table, pouting like an insolent child.

  “I can understand that,” I say, making him a mug of coffee. He’s always unsettled until he has a cup or two. Getting it made, I take it over to him and set down in front of him. He takes it, blows on it due to the steam, then takes a big gulp. As if blowing on it would make the burn any less from a cup freshly made.

  “I need to know she’s alright,” he says, staring off into never-never-land, lost in his own thoughts. Now, I’m worried, are us old ladies in danger? Surely, the guys would tell us about it, right? Who the fuck am I kidding, club business is just that—club business, and us old ladies are kept in the dark, for a specific reason. Not only to keep us safe, from knowing the inner workings, but this way, everyone knows we’re not valuable to take since we can’t give out information regarding the club.

  “Text her, she’ll reply as soon as she can.”

  “I hate texting,” he mumbles. They all do, but necessary things need to be done, regardless if we like them or not.

  “She’s a good old lady, she’ll call you back once she sees the message.”

  A smile lights up his face at the mention of Carson being a good old lady, because she is. We all try not to make our men unnecessarily worry about us, since they have so much on their minds. “That she is, the best.”

  The room explodes in men needing nourishment. I spend the next two hours serving up plates, doing dishes, and refilling coffee. There is never an end to old lady’s good deeds. I’m just thankful that there’s a summer program going on at the school, this way my children aren’t underfoot while I’m taming these beasts and their appetites.

  The kids get relentlessly bored, and sometimes there’s no making them happy, when we have jobs to do, and can’t constantly keep our eyes peeled and on them. Once I’m satisfied that everything is in order, I slip out of the kitchen undetected and walk down the hall that leads to my husband’s office. I rap my knuckles on the door softly, in three rapid successions so he knows it’s me.

  “Come on in, Miracle,” he calls out. I walk through the door and can see the lack of sleep around his eyes. They’re dark, and sullen looking. “C’mere,” he says, pushing his chair back from his desk and patting on his leg. I walk over and flop down on his legs, causing him to grunt.

  “Missed you,” I lean over and whisper in his ear. I see his body do a full shiver and smile at the fact that even after all of these years I still have the ability to affect him the way I do.

  “You shouldn’t plop down so hard, I’m not a young man anymore,” he says to me, while pushing my hair behind my right ear.

  “I like you old and wise,” I say, laying my head down on his shoulder.

  “Oh yeah,” he states. “I’m nowhere close to pushing up daisies,” he teases me. He isn’t, his hair is still dark as night, no gray in there, but the lines of life wear heavily on his features.

  “You’re still the most handsome man I know,” I purr. He growls, and satisfaction beams from me. “You need sleep, baby. Come home for a couple of hours and rest your eyes,” I say, standing up and grabbing his hand and attempting to pull him up from his seat. He’s heavy so it’s not as easy to get him to comply as I’d like.

  “I have so much to do,” he tells me, holding his ground.

  “And, it will still be here, waiting for you after you get some shut-eye,” I implore.

  “Woman, you drive me crazy.”

  “All I wanna do is take care of you. Now come on you old grizzly bear, follow me or I’m going to sit here and pester you.”

  “Fine,” he grumbles, finally allowing me to pull him behind me. “But only an hour, two tops.”

  “I’ll set the alarm for you, Jasper.”

  “You’re too good to me, Miracle.” I turn around and wink at him over my shoulder. I know if he doesn’t get some rest, he’ll be no good to anyone. And from what I’m seeing around here, we’re goin
g to need him to be on his toes. If anyone can fix this, it’s him. I have complete faith in my man.

  Jasper

  I know this woman of mine will do nothing but nag at me until I do what she wants. Do I have time for a nap? No, I don’t, but I trust my VP and the men to hold down the fort for a couple of hours.

  Miracle’s had an easy time of this pregnancy so far. No morning sickness, and she was constantly sick with the first two—morning, noon, and night. I always hated coming home and seeing her laying on the bathroom floor because she didn’t have the energy to make it to the bed. With this one however, she’s full of energy and spunk.

  She drags me to the car and I oblige. I don’t want to put any stress or pressure on her in her delicate time. I’ve tried to compose myself to the best of my ability so she doesn't notice things are as bad as they are.

  “How ya doing, mama?”

  “I’m hanging in there, Jasper,” she replies.

  “Good, I’m going to be in the office more than I’m home. I need you to hold down the home front for me while I’m doing this. I’ll try to spend as much time with y’all as I can, but there’s no guarantee.” I just want to prepare her for spending a lot of time alone with the kids.

  “Not my first rodeo, Jasper,” she says, driving up our driveway.

  “I know that, darlin’. Still want you to remember that just because I’m not here physically, doesn’t mean my heart isn’t.”

  “I know how much you love us, Jasper. We can feel it with every touch, the way you talk to us, and the way you treat us as equals at the house. What we have to say, is never taken with a deaf ear.” Damn, this woman should’ve been a writer or a poet, her words always have a way of hitting me right in the solar plexus. She’s a damn good woman, and I’m lucky she chose me to be her man.

  “You and our babies are my world, nothing would be worth living day to day without you three in my life.”

  “We know that too, Jasper. Now come on, you need to rest, and I’ll get a good meal cooked, and ready for you, once you wake up.”