Jump looks mildly annoyed as he looks between all of the men filling the room, closing the matter out.
“Crew’s eight strong this run. We don’t usually go in so heavy, but this asshole has something up his sleeve. We’ve just got no clue what. Him changing the location, time, meeting with Boss himself, all unprecedented. You all know we deal with Marco. Have been for longer than most of us have been sitting at this table. Got word no one’s seen or heard from him since the night before Boss’s meet with Vasquez. That in and of itself is cause for concern, but add the rest of this shit and it means we’ve got to proceed with caution. Extreme caution.”
“Any chance you’ll need to revise that number, brother?” Fury volleys.
Shaking his head, Jump arches an amused eyebrow.
“Not a chance. I’ll get with you and go over the details, but the way I see it, we go in too strong it’ll raise suspicions. Cartel motherfuckers are paranoid enough without us feeding it.”
“The boys will be hooked up before the drop,” Sly adds. “Gage’s been on armory inventory the last few days. Everyone’s loaded down with a primary, secondary piece on their person, and a backup on their bike. They’ve all been checked and tested.”
“Right, that’s done,” I declare resolutely. “I want ears to the ground because Hells Riders don’t have the stamina to hold out for long after this patch over. Anyone got any new business to bring to the table?”
I wait for a few beats, however, when no one speaks up, I raise the gavel bringing it down signaling the conclusion of Church.
Catching Diesel before he can blend in with the mass exodus, I clap a hand on his shoulder letting him know I want him to hang back.
“I’m heading out in fifteen. Jay’s meeting us at Hounds as soon as he can close up,” glancing down at my watch, I note, “which is right about now. You planning on coming with?”
“Yeah, I’m ready to ride whenever you are. I don’t know about you, but I could use a fucking drink or ten,” he suggests drolly.
Striding into the main room, I bellow,
“Hounds. Ten minutes. Anyone who heading that way be ready to ride or you’re staying behind to help the deep-clean the bathrooms.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
~ Beth ~
Friends; the family you choose.
- A fact of life
The hellacious task of unpacking a two-bedroom apartment into one with the same number of rooms but half the size done, I was left to enjoy the remainder of my first week in Furnace. What little time I had unaccounted for that is.
Jonas had taken advantage of my arrival, booking me open till close every day. Aside from this afternoon, when I left out early so I’d have enough time to get ready to go out tonight, I hadn’t ventured out of the shop other than to stop at the diner once.
On Wednesday, when Jonas graciously allowed me to take my allotted lunch hour, I headed over to the restaurant closest to Wicked Skin. Jonas had told me his Mom and youngest sister co-owned a diner in town, but seeing as there were three and he didn’t call it anything other than ‘the diner,’ I had no idea which one was there’s. Not that I was intentionally seeking them out, but after everything I’d heard about his family over the years, I couldn’t help but be curious.
As luck would have it although I probably should have guessed since Jonas is so protective of the people he loves, my first foray into the gourmet dining set of Furnace was met with success.
Jangles – don’t ask, Jonas’s Mom thought it was cute that she Brangelina’d her and Jessica’s names – was exactly what you’d expect of a small-town diner. Cozy booths line the two side walls whereas the center space was littered with square, Formica four-top tables. Apparently, Angie loved décor inspired by the 1950’s, and she’d achieved that on a budget without making it appear cheap and tacky. Something a lot of others failed in doing.
A jukebox butts up against the far wall, the neon lights around its outside matching the red padded stools sitting at the U-shaped counter. Angie’s vintage cash register was functioning, huge, and looked as if it had been repurposed from a salvage yard it was that beat up.
There weren’t flat-screen TV’s mounted on the walls, diners engrossed in what was on the idiot box instead of talking to the people they were eating with. Orders were taken by hand, using, gasp, a pen, and notepad. Even more shockingly, I didn’t see a cell phone surgically attached to someone’s ear the entire time I was there. In fact, I didn’t spot a cell phone at all.
On walking in, it took me less than a second to recognize the female members of Jonas’s family. The three women are carbon copies of him.
Jessica, ten years younger than her brother, wears her hair cut short, pixie short, as does his Mom. But where Angie’s is all the one color, a rich brown, naturally highlighted by the sun, Jess’s is tipped black on the ends. Bella, on the other hand, wears hers long and flowing down her back, reaching her waist in a riotous mass of wild waves. All three of them were slim, petite at maybe five-foot-four, with beautiful bright blue eyes. Bella had more curves than her Mom and sister but not in a way that didn’t work for her. As in, really work for her.
Bella, is Jonas’s middle sister, a stereotype I learned from Jess she lived up to almost as if it was her personal creed. She was the rule breaker of the family. Bella tested limits, went out of her way to make sure she was seen as an individual, not just one of the Williams trio.
Even though my lunch break was short, I learned a lot about Jonas’s Mom and sisters in the forty-five minutes I spent with them They were open, surprisingly so being that I am a virtual stranger, and made me feel more at home than I’d ever felt anywhere. It was a strange feeling. One I didn’t know how to react to. The only people who had ever welcomed me with open arms, like this, so completely, were Kevin and Bec. They took me in, looked out for me, and accepted me without reservation. In a way, Jonas did too. But it took us time to get to the place we were at now. I’d needed time to feel like I could trust him. Be myself around him. It wasn’t immediate.
While Jess and Angie worked, Bella kept me company at the counter where I had claimed a stool. Sliding a slice of Huckleberry pie in front of me, topping off my now nearly empty coffee cup, she asked,
“How are you liking it working with big brother? Is he driving you batshit crazy yet?”
“Not yet, but I can feel the crazy creeping in some days,” I replied around a bite of pie. Swallowing, putting my fork down, I turn to face her. “The way you talk about Jonas tells me you’re close. Not brother-sister close, but closer.”
Rolling her eyes, Bella releases a laugh. If I weren't apt at reading people, it would have looked like she found the very idea of her intense bond with her brother ridiculous, but I saw through that. Easily. The was Bella’s eyes brightened and the small smile gracing her mouth told me she cared deeply for him.
“We are, close I mean,” she admits. “Jonas has always been there for all of us, Mom especially. It was rough on her, my Dad being the way he was and she blamed herself for the way he treated us for a long time after he left. It didn’t matter how many times we told her that was on him, not her, she couldn’t get over it. She’s doing better now, though. It isn’t often that she lets it get the better of her, but for years after he left she wasn’t the woman she is now. I hated that he broke her. I hated it more that Jonas felt like he had to step up and be the man of the house.”
“I don’t know much about what happened with your Dad, but I’m sorry it did,” I say sincerely. “All I know is that Jonas turned out to be an amazing guy. Whether that’s because he had to grow up too fast, I don’t know. But I can tell you now, he doesn’t begrudge a minute of the time he spent helping your Mom.”
“And that’s why I love him,” she sighs. “I didn’t make it easy for him to love me back. I went out of my way to make it difficult for him. Not consciously, but I think part of me was testing him; wanting to see if I fucked up badly enough if he’d still be there for me. It was a sh
itty thing to do, I see that now. But back then, I was terrified Jay would turn out just like our Dad. Not because he’d ever acted anything like him, but because it was all he’d ever known.”
Letting out a self-depreciating chuckle, Bella adds,
“When he didn’t run for the hills the first five hundred times I acted out, I figured it was safe to tone it down a little.” Grinning at me, she confesses, “Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t turn into Little Miss Perfect, that was never going to happen, but I stopped being as much of a pain in his ass. Most of the time anyway. I still rile him up plenty, I like keeping him on his toes, but I only do it for sport these days.”
“Yes, you most certainly do. And if your brother has a stroke or we have to commit him to a nice facility with padded rooms and locked door, everyone will know why,” Angie jokes good-naturedly.
Bella mutters something under her breath I don’t catch, but doesn’t look put out by her Mom’s dig. Pushing herself out of her seat, Bella kisses her Mom on the cheek, yells a goodbye to Jess, and asks,
“Lunch tomorrow? I’ll bring something to the shop so you don’t have to try and convince big brother eating is a right, not a privilege.”
On a giggle, apparently she does know her brother well.
“Sounds great.”
Over lunch, I learned a lot more about Bella and everything I learned only affirmed that she and I would end up being great friends.
Asking me to go for a girl’s night out with her on Friday, tomorrow, I readily agreed. I hadn’t been out at night since I hit town, and while I didn’t do it often in L.A., Bec and I tried to make a habit out of going out at least once or twice a month. Bec said it was to keep me from turning into the local, crazy cat lady; but I knew better. She wanted me to meet someone. Whether it was for a hook-up or a possible relationship, Bec wanted me to live a little. This being one of the reasons I didn’t think twice about accepting Bella’s invitation. I was finally in a place where I felt ready to open myself up to the possibility of finding someone to spend time with. Not a relationship per se, but something in between casual sex and a boyfriend.
Aside from her telling me she had just turned thirty-one and was a qualified nurse, I learned that she works two jobs to keep her in shoes and food. Both very important causes. Unfortunately, she was still waiting for a position to open up in the maternity ward at, Grand Lakes Hospital so she wasn’t currently nursing, something I could see upset her greatly. I didn’t ask why she didn’t apply elsewhere because it was easy to see that Bella had no intention of picking up and moving away from her family. Not for a job. So, she did what she had to. She held down two jobs, worked long hours, and sacrificed her passion for nursing so that she could remain close the people who meant the most to her.
Bella works at Hounds Monday to Thursday, occasionally picking up shifts on the busier nights of the week if she has to. Apparently, she prefers the quieter ones, though. I didn’t understand why when I took into account her personality, but ten minutes later, after her confession, I absolutely got why she avoided Hounds like the plague on Fridays and Saturdays.
Like it was torn from her, Bella admitted sheepishly that she has an unrequited crush on, Dirty. When I heard her admission, I nearly laughed myself sick much to her horror. I didn’t do this because there was anything wrong with Dirty, because there definitely wasn’t. In fact, if I hadn’t seen Jackson I would go as far as to say he’s one of the most attractive men I’ve ever met. So no, I didn’t laugh because I couldn’t see them together. My humor was purely summoned by how she described her attraction to him and how her brother would take it if he knew. And she wasn’t wrong. I was almost positive Jonas would lose his ever loving mind if he found out the biker who was anything but his namesake had captured his sister’s attention.
Clean shaven, not even a hint of stubble gracing his strong square jaw, Dirty’s black hair is just long enough to be pulled back in a permanent ponytail at the base of his neck. Along with his stunning aquamarine eyes, six-foot-two height, and leanly muscled physique, I could see why Bella was so taken with him. From what Bella has told me, Dirty wasn’t hurting for company. Not that I thought he would be with his looks, but her hesitant confirmation that he’s a serial flirt and excellent with the ladies proved what I already knew. Jonas would not be condoning Bella’s interest in the sexy, young biker. If anything, I honestly believe he’d do everything in his power to deter her at all costs.
I couldn’t help but find it interesting that in the middle of nowhere, in a smallish Colorado mountain town, you can find more than a handful of magazine worthy men. Jesus, I’d lived in L.A. for years, and I’d never came across such a concentration of biker badass hot guys. None of the men I’d laid eyes on over the years had even come close to the rugged good looks of the men I’d met or heard of in my first week in Furnace.
However, after I controlled myself long enough to explain that I hadn’t been laughing at her infatuation, I reassured Bella she should go for it if he were, in fact, who she wanted. In fact, if it made my new friend happy, I vowed I would help her in any way I could. Whether that was with Jonas, keeping him out of the way, or with helping her set up ways to spend time with Dirty, I would do anything I could to make sure she had the chance she so obviously wanted with him.
Discussing our night out, Bella assured me that Hounds was a laid back biker bar, the dress code casual. I didn’t know what that meant, I had never been to a biker bar, but I assumed jeans would be acceptable. However, looking at what Bella was wearing when she picked me up tonight, I felt underdressed, to say the least.
I’m not sure how to describe her style other than to say, it’s a mix between rocker chick and country hoedown. For example, tonight she’s wearing black cowboy boots with dark gray skulls stitched down the sides, a short, and I mean short, red, black and gray pleated skirt. It was so short that I had no idea what Bella would do if she dropped anything because there was no way she could bend over in that without advertising what she’d had for breakfast.
Her top, though? Well, that was a work of art. From the front, it appeared to be a plain black tank. Sure, it was tight, fitting snuggly across her ample bust, but still a black tank. What set it apart was the back. Multiple tears that looked like Freddy Kruger had spent time with the piece of fabric before she bought it, almost entirely exposed her back, which is covered by the most phenomenal eagle tattoo I’ve ever seen.
Done in black and gray only, I knew the second I saw it that it had to be Jonas’s work. The attention to detail is incredible. The Eagles tail ending just below the waistband of her skirt, the wings rising, outstretched to her shoulders and the very top of her biceps, its head rests at the top of her spine. It took up the entirety of her back, not unlike my own piece, and although we had very different designs, I couldn’t help but admire hers.
When she saw me staring at it, Bella told me that Jay had tattooed it for her on her twenty-first birthday, He’d told her that if she wanted something that large, she would have to wait until she was absolutely sure she’d never change her mind. I didn’t tell her I agreed, having seen the aftermath of people making poorly informed decisions, but I definitely understood his logic nonetheless. However, he hadn’t made her wait for the other tattoo he had done for her. That he relented to doing the day she turned eighteen.
According to Bella, Jonas wasn’t particularly happy with the placement or design, but he hadn’t put up too much of a fight. Two hot pink bows, heavily outlined in black rested on the back of each of her thighs about three-quarters the way up their length. They might not have been my choice in design, but even I had to admit they suited her personality and looked kickass with her choice of clothing.
There was a moment before we left that I felt woefully inadequate standing next to Bella. I hated to admit it, and as soon as I did I chastised myself for it. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t internally comparing our differences. Something Bec would kick my ass for if she were here. Loud, outgoing, confid
ent Bella has a huge personality and is happy to drag whoever she’s with along with her for the ride. All of which I liked. And part of that was because I wished I was more like her myself. That wasn’t me, though, and it wouldn’t be. I could only be who I was, who I’m meant to be. And I’m finally okay with that.
Dressing in a pair of distressed skinny jeans and an off-the-shoulder shirt, with a gauzy drape that exposes some cleavage, but not too much to be indecent, I had just slipped on my brand-new, emerald green, four-inch, peep-toe Louboutin’s before Bella knocked on the door.
Staring at my feet, I shook my head at my ridiculous choice of footwear. Not because the heels weren’t stunning, they were, but because I knew my adoration of fantastic footwear was going to be the death of me. I would no doubt be cursing myself in about half an hour, or less when I end up with blisters upon blisters. But there was nothing for it. They were perfect and I was wearing them no matter the cost to my poor soon-to-be-abused feet.
Vengeance MC Box Set - Volume 1: Call Me...Vengeance ~ Fury ~ Jonas Page 13