by EA Hunt
“I can’t wait to meet her,” she replied, standing on tiptoes. “She sounds adorable.”
“She is, but she has nothing on you,” he told her, bending his head.
“You always know what to say to a girl,” Celise replied while placing her lips on his.
She could hear the clawfoot tub at Bash’s, calling her name. Question was, did she want to drive the twenty minutes to his house to get in that tub or did she want to use the tub that was upstairs in the apartment she paid for? Wiping down the last of the tables, Celise thought about the decision she needed to make. If she went upstairs, she could make the girls, who she’d just picked up from school an hour ago, a quick dinner, tell them a story and put them to bed. Or she could go to Bash’s, make dinner as Melly played in the backyard and Willa played in the playpen the club had gifted her and sit before a fire with a glass of wine. Wine… she sighed. She could use a drink right about now. Maisie hadn’t appreciated being fired but Celise hadn’t cared. The woman was terrible at her job. Straightening, she rubbed her back. Yeah, she was going to Bash’s. And while the girls slept, she was going to soak in his tub and try not to think about the fact he was gone for a few days.
Turning away from the tables, she looked at Melly. She was sitting in the Kids’ Corner, coloring and making adorable faces. Next to Melly was Willa in the baby chair, kicking her legs and sucking her fingers. Her girls were adorable. “Melly, I’m going to go help Auntie Gigi in the kitchen, you watch Willa for me.”
“Ok, Momma,” Melly replied.
Celise stilled. Melly had never called her Momma. Walking the short distance over to the little girl, she crouched before her. “Who told you to call me ‘Momma’?”
“I did,” Melly replied. “Willa is my sister and at school, sisters share the same Momma, right?”
“Right, baby,” Celise replied, kissing the girl’s forehead. “Auntie Gigi and I will be out soon. You stay here,” she kissed her once more before standing. Celise was about to take a step when the bell above the door rang. She faced the person who’d entered. They looked familiar, but she couldn’t place them. “Can I help you?” She asked the woman standing in the doorway.
“Doubt it. You couldn’t help me before, I’m not sure you can help me now,” she replied.
Celise stepped before her girls. The woman was looking at Melly like she wanted to harm her. “We don’t have much left, but you can come back to tomorrow and I’m sure you –”
“I’m only here because of her,” she jerked her chin towards Melly. “First time I’ve been able to get this close to her. They keep her pretty insulated.”
“Claire?” Celise said, shocked. Bash had told her that Claire was no longer in Melly’s life. He’d also told her that if the woman did happen to show up back in town, she should call Danish or Trigger right away. The woman before her didn’t look like the Claire she remembered. She was thinner and her hair wasn’t the same color – but people changed in five years.
“That bitch left town and me,” the woman spat.
“My daughter doesn’t need to hear that type of language and if you’re not here to buy anything, then I would appreciate it if you would leave,” Celise advised.
“‘I would appreciate it if you would leave,’” the woman mocked. “I would have appreciated it if you would have never shown up,” she said. “Claire would have had Bash and I would have had Trigger. But then you showed, and Bash wanted you and Claire was determined to have him. I went along with it because I wanted my friend to be happy. And once she was happy maybe I could be too.”
“Happiness is what you make of it. It’s not up to anyone else to make you happy,” Celise replied. Seeing Trigger walking past her bakery window was the best thing Celise had ever seen in her life.
“Try that bullshit on someone else because I’m not having it.”
“You’re the woman from the bathroom. The one who warned me about Bash,” Celise said, suddenly remembering.
“Fat lot of good that did. You still screwed him and left a mark he wasn’t able or willing to get rid of,” she screeched. “He’ll get rid of you now if you let something happen to his kid!”
“You’re obviously out of your mind,” Celise said as Trigger opened the door, quietly reaching up to stop the bell from jingling. “If you think for one minute, I’ll allow you anywhere near my daughter –”
“Your daughter? Ha! If I have that brat, I can get Claire to contact me. To come back to me!” the woman said, pounding on her chest. “She’ll see I was able to get what she wanted, and she’ll come to me!”
“You sound like a jealous lover,” Celise told her. If this woman thought she was going to let her anywhere near Melly, she was more delusional than Celise had first thought.
“Claire was mine,” she smiled. “But I was willing to share. To have a foursome. But –”
The woman’s statement was cut off by Trigger covering her mouth and nose with his hand. He held on until she passed out.
“He’s only been gone a few hours and here you are, getting into fights with crazies like Scottie here,” Trigger said, laying the woman on the floor. He turned his head towards the picture window when he heard a bike rushing towards them.
“I called Danish,” Gigi said as she rushed out of the kitchen. “As soon as Scottie walked in the door!”
“Thanks, Gigi,” Celise replied, smiling at the other woman. She looked at Melly. The little girl was sitting beside Willa, holding onto her. “It’s all right, baby,” Celise told the little girl, crouching before her and Willa. She wrapped her arms around them just as Danish rushed into the store.
“We need to call Bash,” Trigger said.
“Don’t!” Celise said, hoping to calm the men. The last thing she needed was Bash coming back here before whatever he was doing was over. She released her girls then looked at Gigi over her shoulder. “Can you please take the girls to the apartment upstairs?” She turned back to Melly. “Go with Auntie Gigi. Momma will be there soon,” she said lifting Willa and taking Melly’s hand. She straightened, faced Gigi, handing her the baby and Melly. With the girls on their way to safety, she faced Trigger and Danish. “We’re not calling Bash.”
“Celise,” Danish warned. “He is going to be pissed if we don’t tell him. And the last thing, I want to deal with is a pissed off Bash.” He ran a hand through his hair. “When you left, he lost himself. He was more of an asshole and his temper was shorter. If it wasn’t for Melly…” he shook his head.
“I can only imagine. Since he was already an ass when I met him,” Celise chuckled. “But I won’t call him about this. We’ll deal with it, then tell him when he gets back,” she assured.
“He’s going to shit bricks when he finds out,” Trigger replied, reaching down to pick up Scottie from the floor.
“Possibly, but we’ll deal with it when it comes,” Celise told the men.
Danish shook his head. He wasn’t sure this was the best course of action. It was only recently that Bash was done being pissed at them for not telling him about the Celise and Claire incident. “Let’s get you and the girls’ home.”
“Are you…” Celise sighed. “Are either of you going to stay with us?” After this little incident, she didn’t want to be alone.
“I’m going to drop the trash off at the club,” Trigger answered. “While Danish drops you and the girls off at the house and rakes Gigi home. Once that’s done, I’m going to come to the house and sit with you.”
“Thank you,” Celise replied as she turned and headed towards the kitchen. She was walking through the door when she heard Trigger say, “She dug her own grave, literally.” Celise shivered at his tone of voice, grateful both men would always have her back
Chapter Eight
Standing in the middle of the field, one state and two hundred miles from home, Bash, with Ace on his left and Deuce on his right, watched as Pierre’s buyer giddily checked the merchandise they were purchasing. He couldn’t believe the men were a
cting like children. Running their hands over the guns, picking them up and pointing them sideways like they were in a video game. He shook his head, internally. Men like these were the ones who got people hurt. The reason that people like him would get caught and put behind bars. He couldn’t wait until this deal was over. The faster he got away from these men, the better off both he and his club would be.
“Pierre is a man of his word. Everything looks good here.”
Bash didn’t respond to the man before him. He was obviously the leader with his light-brown khakis, dark-blue shirt and olive-tanned skin. His jet-black hair was slicked back on his head and his left and right hand had pinky rings on them. The man looked like he belonged in Vegas, not in the middle of the woods. Keeping stoic and silent, a tactic he’d learned a long time ago from a former commanding officer when he was first deployed. His commanding officer had always said, ‘Stay silent and nervous people will always fill that silence and offer information that they shouldn’t.’ His commander had also believed in coming to a meeting with informants dressed as one of his own soldiers. Never would the man wear his rank. And when people would talk, they didn’t know who to talk to because everyone would look the same and you didn’t know who the leader was. When that happened, the informant would give more and more information until they told on themselves and admitted it was a setup to get to the commanding officer. From there, orders were followed and his men would come out alive with the informants either arrested or dead.
So now with each run, they would all come in wearing leather vests with nothing on them. No one knew who they were or where they had come from. Even their mode of transportation wasn’t what you would have expected from an MC. They drove an old pickup truck with the product in the back, under a tarp, and a rusted motorcycle which looked like it didn’t run properly, even though Danish kept it in great shape. That’s how they got in and out of the meeting place. Two brothers were always in the truck cab and one on the bike. Their transportation matched any number of vehicles running around the back roads of America, making it hard to pick them out against anyone else’s.
“Strong, silent. I like that.”
Bash could give a shit what the man liked. All he wanted was for this transaction to end so he and his brothers could be on their way. He’d been away from his woman for two days. Two days of sleeping on the ground at a campground they’d rented through one of their dummy companies. Two days of not having his woman lying beside him in their bed or his children sleeping down the hall, safe in the knowledge their father was there to protect them.
“Silence is key,” the man continued, turning to his associate and taking two bags from the other man, after the guns were loaded in their vehicle. “I get it. If you don’t talk, then transactions run smooth because there’s no idle chit chat,” he turned back to Bash. “As promised,” he said, holding out the bags.
Ace and Deuce stepped forward at the same time, taking the bags from the man then placing them at their feet. At no time did they examine the bags’ contents.
“Let Pierre know we’ll be in touch,” the man gave them a little salute as he followed his men to the oversized black SUV they’d arrived in.
Five minutes after the men departed and their SUV turned right on the main two-lane highway, Bash turned to his men. “Let’s take a look.” He watched as the brothers lifted the bags, placed them on their shoulders, then opened them. The money was plastic-wrapped with the amount designated on the side. He looked from one man to the other. “Let’s hit it.”
Ace and Deuce nodded as they closed the bags and tossed them in the back of the truck, covering them with the tarp. With a nod, both men walked over to the bike. Deuce got on then Ace slid in behind him. “See ya, P,” Ace said as Deuce started the machine and the men pulled off, going to their right on the main road from the entrance.
Bash nodded. The boys would head to a small fifties-style diner about an hour away from the meet point – the diner was paid quite a bit to store the bike and keep their mouths shut. There they would retrieve their actual bikes and cuts before heading back to the campsite, half an hour away. He would head in the opposite direction of Ace and Deuce, taking the truck to a warehouse in a medium-sized town, forty-five minutes from the meet point. There, he would leave the truck, count the club’s share and leave Pierre’s share, since it was his warehouse and there was always a guard there. He would then depart the warehouse on foot, with a bag full of money and his gun at the ready. He’d walk the three blocks to his bike and head back to the campsite. Walking to the driver’s side of the truck, Bash opened the door and removed the no-name cut and placed his own cut over his shoulders. Sighing at the familiarity of it, he slid into the driver’s seat and started the engine, turning the truck towards the entrance of the field.
Once this run was done, he and the truck would head to a new location. There was no need to leave the truck at Pierre’s warehouse. His business was done with the man. Maybe he would sell the truck. Place it in an abandoned parking lot, with a ‘For Sale’ sign on the windshield. Or maybe a ‘Free’ sign. This truck had served him well and it deserved to rest or be given to someone who could use it. He’d seen one of those places advertising for vehicle donations. He would call that place once this was finished and tell them what parking lot he’d abandoned it in so they could come and get it. Then he could express mail them the title. Plan made, Bash leaned back in the driver’s seat and turned on the radio. He flicked through stations until he found what he was looking for. Listening to a man on the radio singing about how his past was behind him and he had everything he needed with the woman he had, Bash pictured slow-dancing with his Babygirl on the club’s dance floor as this song played. He smirked. No one knew he could dance. His mother had shown him when he was younger. Teaching him how to move a woman across the floor, how to be the lead. He was sure his mother hadn’t thought Bash would have his Babygirl’s body pressed up against his as he moved them slowly across the floor as foreplay. But he would, just as soon as he got back to her.
Looking in the side mirror, Bash saw a car coming up behind him. He was about to pay it no attention when he saw how fast the car was approaching. Keeping his speed the same, as if he hadn’t seen the car advancing on him, he watched as the car slowed as it got within two car lengths of him. What the fuck was this about? Pressing the accelerator lightly, he watched as the car… no SUV… did the same. Was this Pierre’s buyer wanting their money and the guns too? Had they been lying in wait, watching the field’s entrance? When they’d seen Ace and Deuce depart without the bags, had they figured out that he had them? Maybe they’d waited, like he had, then followed, hoping to catch him off guard. Which was something he never was because if he didn’t keep up his guard, his family could pay.
Seeing a turn coming and two eighteen-wheelers coming the opposite way, he sped up, cutting in front of the first truck, three feet before it crossed the turnoff, preventing the SUV, who’d also sped up, from following him until both the trucks had passed. Finding a small overgrown drive, Bash slid the truck inside, about twenty yards in, hoping the overgrown trees covered the truck’s entrance. Shutting off the engine, he hopped out of the truck, pulling his gun from his back holster. He crept towards the entrance he’d used and saw the SUV entering the road. He watched as it continued down the path, not once seeing him or the entrance his truck had created. Creeping back to the truck, he pulled his phone out, texting Ace and Deuce to tell them to keep to the plan but don’t wait for him at the campsite. Then he texted Trigger and Danish, telling them if they didn’t hear from him in an hour to end Pierre.
With that done, he walked down an overgrown path, following the SUV as it moved along. He stopped when he heard the SUV stop. Staying in the shadows of the woods, he watched as the SUV doors opened and three men exited along with…
“Where the fuck is he?!” Pierre screamed at the men. “We set this shit up perfectly. Donal completed his deal. We were supposed to wait for that damn truck of
Bash’s to make an appearance and run it off the road, killing Bash in the process! Everyone would think it was Donal who’d killed him – wanting not only his guns but his money!”
“Bitch,” Bash grumbled. He should have known Pierre wasn’t going to let them go. The man liked working with them. They didn’t ask too many questions and didn’t make too many demands.
“Find his ass!” Pierre told his men, pointing towards the rundown house before them and the surrounding area. “I need that asshole dead! The club will want revenge and I will be the only one who can give it to them. Putting them back under my thumb…”
Turning away from the scene before him, Bash moved back to the truck. Sliding behind the wheel, he turned the truck over gunning the engine and backing the truck up. Turning it swiftly, he was back on the road before Pierre and his men knew what was going on.
Feeling the dip behind her, Celise smiled as she was pulled into arms that were so very familiar. She turned and buried her nose in Bash’s chest before kissing it. She hadn’t realized she missed him as much as she did. Even with Trigger, Rene and Danish keeping her company at the house or the bakery, she had still missed the man whose chest she was now licking. She laid kisses where she licked as she moved up his body to his neck, where she nipped his skin, soothing it with her tongue.
“Damnit, Babygirl, I was just going to come in here and hold you,” he pulled away slightly before bending his head and taking her lips with his. Bash gently pushed until she was on her back and he was above her. He lifted his head, the lust and desire in her eyes made his dick even harder than it already was.
“I haven’t had you in my arms in three days. And I haven’t had you in my body in five years. I want you Bastion. I need you,” she told him, placing a hand on the back of his head and bringing his lips to hers.