Chapter 5

5

Acid – Age Twenty-Four

“Hey, Perrie, can you work tonight’s shift? Lola called in sick.”

I look up from where I’m sitting at the end of the counter with the diner’s accounting books in front of me to see Steal trying to get Perrie to talk to him, and I swallow hard at the cold look she gives him.

Fuck, even he flinches.

“Nope, I have plans,” is all she says.

She goes to walk away, but Steal, being the idiot that he is, gently grabs her arm, and she glares at him. His throat bobs as he ignores it and says, “Perrie, when is this going to stop? It’s been four years.”

I wince…. Ah fuck, he shouldn’t have said anything. I told him I’d speak to her about working tonight.

She hadn’t said fuck all to him in four years since showing up at the club and telling him he was dead to her, and that he was pathetic and should put brothers on Faith to guard her before she killed her.

The scary thing is she looked like she meant it.

Perrie tilts her head. “It has, hasn’t it?” she confirms, and he nods but soon takes a small step back when she sneers, “Four whole years without a single phone call from my big sister all because you decided to put a gun to her head without getting the full story first, believing your old ‘fuck buddy,’ who I do believe you still keep around.”

Fuck, even I want to flinch when she curses that way.

Perrie curls her lip at him and sneers, “As far as I’m concerned, Steal, you don’t exist until my big sister comes home where she belongs, and the only reason I’m still here is because of your dad.” She looks him up and down. "Why don’t you give Faith a call? I’m sure she’s probably waiting for it. She can cover, right?”

That said, she turns and grabs her notepad before going over to the table of five that’s just walked in, and Steal stands there shocked.

I sigh. “Prez….”

He blinks and then blinks again before walking to me, taking a seat as he runs a hand through his hair.

“The cameras were cut.” That is all he says, and I nod, already conversing with him several times about this.

The fucker’s head is all over the place, and the fact he hasn’t gotten over Cass hasn’t helped.

“I know. It looks suspicious; it looks fucking bad. Cass was covered in blood, and Brute was dead, but you know Cass, so why did you side with Faith so quickly when we both know you two just fucked once in a while, that she didn’t mean jack to you, while Cass was your future? Fuck, you ordered her cut, Steal, yet you held a gun to her head, and fuck, even before that, you made Cass make the effort in your relationship; it’s like you checked out as soon as she gave you the green light.”

He blinks, staring off into space, taking in my words, knowing the truth in them. He loved Cass, there’s no doubt about it. Her cut is in his office, but he had Faith in his ear throughout their relationship.

Cassidy would disappear a few evenings a week and wouldn’t explain where she went, which helped Faith manipulate him, using his fears.

He looks to where Perrie is delivering food to a couple, and his shoulders drop in defeat. He knows she means every word she says, just like she did four years ago, and her giving him hell is getting to him. She’s no longer the girl who would run to give him a hug or lean on him when she needed help.

“Cass was shaking that day after I found her in the kitchen,” he mumbles.

I nod, and agree, "She was, and instead of taking notice then and there, assessing the situation like you have done several times over the past four years, you saw what you wanted to see, believing Faith. And now Cass is gone, and Perrie, she’s on the warpath.”

He sighs, running a hand through his slowly graying, dark hair, Cass’s name clear as day on his ring finger. “I tried calling Cass to get the full story a week later, after fucking convincing you not to leave the club, but her phone was disconnected, and no one has heard or seen from her since she left,” he admits.

I swallow hard. “Piston taught her everything she needed to know; not even he can find her.”

He nods. “And I want to kick his ass for doing so, because I fucking miss her, but I’m also torn because of Brute. He was brother and she—or someone —stabbed him in the chest.”

I look around him and watch Perrie. She gives the family she’s just served a fake smile, causing my stomach to tighten with unease, before she goes back to the counter to grab a cloth.

“I think Cass did stab him,” I offer, and he looks at me sharply. We make eye contact, and I state, “Her hands and chest were covered in blood, a few splatters on her face, and she was in shock, the kind you get after killing someone. But there must have been a reason. Cassidy was soft and caring. She wanted to be a doctor; she wanted to heal people, and Brute was fucking massive. Something doesn’t seem right, and you’re not going to get the answers you want from Faith, but you’re also not going to get them from Cass. If she hasn’t been in contact after four years, I don’t think she will ever be. I think you lost her, Steal, fuck you lost her beforehand because you kept siding with Faith, the letter you found was proof of that. And by ensuring Cass left town, you also lost Perrie.”

The moment he told Faith they couldn’t fuck anymore, she changed; she became devious. She realized she wasn’t getting his patch and decided on a new tactic. Suddenly, she was happy being his “friend”, continuously around him, inserting herself in his life, all while trying to set Cass up to fail, which worked in her favor, by the looks of things.

He should have banned her from the club.

“So, what do I do?” he asks with pain, and I sigh, picking up my pen.

“I don’t know,” I admit, “but how I see it, Perrie will hate you until her sister returns, and as for the old Perrie, she died when her dad did.”

And she did.

She doesn’t laugh, make jokes, or even smile my way anymore, while Halliwell’s Gym has been boarded up, meaning she doesn’t even go there anymore.

So many fucking happy memories in that place, the only memories that help me forget my past for just a few hours a day.

“Gotcha,” I state as I wrap my arms around Perrie from behind, sweat dripping from my body.

Perrie squeals when she feels my shirt clinging to her, and I laugh before I grunt as I’m forced forward, then flipped. I’m suddenly on my back on the ring floor, her foot on my chest as her dad laughs from the ringside.

That little ? —

“You were saying?” she asks cockily, and I narrow my eyes playfully before I knock her other leg, and she falls backward, landing with a thump .

Perrie groans as John’s laughter doubles, and I breathe heavily. “I said, gotcha….”

“Hey, baby….”

I blink and look up to see Andrea, Perrie’s, well, supposed to be best friend, looking down my body as she bites her bottom lip, twirling her bottle-blonde hair in her finger, and I cringe, suddenly feeling fucking dirtier than normal.

Steal notices my discomfort and snaps, “We’re in a meeting,” causing Andrea to jump back in shock, clearly not seeing him standing there. She tries to smile before turning and heading in the direction of where Perrie is currently filling up two glasses, knowing she won’t get through my prez.

The woman’s been trying to get my attention for years. Never going to happen….

“What kind of fucking friend does that? She knows you and Perrie have history,” Steal snaps, but I furrow my brows, watching as Perrie’s body tightens.

I nod towards them. “Is it just me, or does Perrie look ready to deck her?”

He looks over just as we hear Perrie’s, “No, I don’t have time to take off. Some of us have to work, Andrea,” before she walks away from her “friend”, who scowls, and I narrow my eyes.

“Now, what in the fuck is going on with Perrie, and I don’t mean just because her dad died? I know that was tough on her; I mean, she and Cass split his ashes without allowing their mom any. Cass had spread her half under Brooklyn Bridge where he used to take them for picnics, she mourned, but Perrie, she’s been, I don’t know…. Even before Cass left, she’s been harder, maybe?”

Andrea storms past us, and we watch as she stomps out of the diner, slamming the glass door before I admit, “Perrie kissed me at the funeral, and I pushed her back. She hasn’t been the same since, and then Cassidy left, and it was like she was a different person.” I look at Steal, who winces.

“I can understand why you knocked her back, with your past and her being sixteen at the time, but that doesn’t explain the coldness.”

I shrug, looking her way again. I murmur, “I know, but I just can’t figure out what happened between us. I know I miss her, and I also know she won’t come out of her hard shell until Cassidy returns or until she at least hears from her.”

“She won’t come back, though, will she, because I threatened to kill her,” Steal whispers, then curses, realizing he’s the reason for the cold silence between the two sisters who lost a big part of themselves with their father dying so suddenly.

I nod. “If you can threaten to kill the woman you claimed to love, what’s stopping you from threatening her family you claimed as your own?”

Steal groans, dropping his head, and I sigh, going back to the books, allowing him to, yet again, silently beat himself for not getting the whole story.

“Hey gorgeous, you clocking off for your break?” I hear a few minutes later, and both Steal and I look over to the over side of the counter, and I see fucking red.

I go to stand, seeing the guy standing way too fucking close to Perrie, but freeze when she smirks at him and gently grips his tie, because, of course, the fucker is in a suit.

Perrie bites her lip seductively as she replies, “Actually, I just started by break…” before she drags him to the back as his eyes eat her up.

I go to follow because, like fuck am I allowing her to fuck some guy in the back of the fucking diner, but Steal grabs my arm, and I glare at him.

He winces. “I’m sorry, brother, but this isn’t the first time this guy has come into the diner, and they’ve disappeared, before he leaves looking happy. Piston looked into him, his name is Coby Richards, and he’s currently in law school, working part-time at Tim’s law office.” My body shakes with fury, and I go to move again, needing to kill the fucker, but Steal’s grip tightens, and he murmurs, “You knocked her back, you fuck the whores. Don’t be a hypocrite, Oliver. You have made it clear a commitment is not on the cards for you.” I grit my teeth as he stands and picks up my folders before stating, “Let’s ride….”

I watch the hallway for a few more minutes before I storm out of the diner, the glass cracking in the door when I slam it, but I ignore it as Steal curses.

Climbing on my Harley, the first thing I bought with the wages I got from the club, I grab my shades. I fight the urge to smash up the diner before revving my bike, and speeding off.

Hours later, I’m barely listening as a meeting is going on around me.

“Yeah, so the security is ready for the run; Acid and I spent a few hours checking everything. He planned the route while I went through the cameras on the road, ensuring nothing can go wrong,” Piston says, in Treasurer mode, as he reads from his notes, but I ignore him and everyone while eyeing the sword in the tree carved into the oval table in church.

I should be paying attention. I’m Road Captain now, which means I need to stay en pointe , but all I can think of is Perrie in that back room at the diner with that fucker’s hands all over her.

Steal and I rode for about three hours before we came back to the compound for church, and it still didn’t help my rage, my fucking jealousy, knowing he gets to have her when I can’t.

“Good, I’ll give Snake a call and ensure the Devils are all ready to meet halfway,” Steal states, and the brothers murmur in agreement.

Snake is the president of the Devil’s MC, a club we affiliate with, along with the Untamed Hell Fire’s MC, whose old ladies are fucking crazy, and the Rebels.

We run ammo and guns, earning big bucks while also participating in fun runs to raise money for local hospitals, women's shelters, and anyone needing help.

Club life isn’t dull, that’s for sure.

“Acid, have you chosen who will be going on this run?” Steal questions, and I blink, looking at him.

He gives me a sympathetic nod, and I clear my throat and state, “Anchor, Bulldozer, and the two prospects, Kaz and Andrews.” Everyone nods just as an idea hits, and without blinking, I demand, “I also want to put it up for a vote that fucking in the diner is banned. If caught, you lose your job; it’s a place for families and food, not women screaming in the back.”

Steal smirks but rubs his hand over his mouth to hide it, while the brothers look at me, confused.

“All in favor?” Steal asks without bothering to go into detail. The brothers shrug but agree, and he bangs his gavel on the table. “Alright, we’ll inform the employees at the next staff meeting in two days.”

I nod, trying not to sigh in relief, but Steal sees the look on my face and snorts, coughing to cover it. I rub my cheek with my middle finger. Piston raises a brow, catching our exchange, but I just act nonchalant.

The door to church opens. Steal glares at the prospect, Paul, who doesn’t look to be getting his brother cut any time soon, and demands, “Since when do prospects barge into fucking church!?”

Paul winces, rubbing his tatted hand over his bald head before stating, “Viking called. The twins Austin and Franky both have been stabbed….”

I furrow my brows. “Must be from someone strong because those two fuckers, thick maybe, but they can fight.”

Paul clears his throat. “They were stabbed in their dicks. The Rebels need Piston’s help. Their tech guy, Leads, can’t find any footage; the cameras had been cut, and they just want to make sure it’s a one-off and not a rampage in The Fight.”

Steal nods to Piston. “Go ahead.”

Piston nods back, knocking on the table before standing and leaving, his wedding ring in full view. I try to hide my cocky grin.

The fucker, who is in denial, may believe his wife forced the marriage on him for his cut, but at least he’s wearing his ring and committing to her.

Natalie, a sweetheart, was his regular “fling” in college, when, in hindsight, she was the love of his life and the only woman he slept with after he met her, but growing up with Aiden twists your way of thinking. He believes he’s going to hurt her physically when I know differently.

He fell for Natalie, and I know she fell for him, but she was willing to back away when he finished college, as they agreed. But things happened, and he married her three weeks after graduation and gave her his cut. Now, though, he blames her, his fear right on the surface, but I know he’ll open his eyes. I just hope it’s sooner rather than later.

Before he loses her….

“Who in the fuck would stab the twins in their cocks?” Cannon, our sergeant-at-arms, questions, his brown eyes laced with confusion.

I snort and state, “Probably a scorned lover. Those guys are pigs.”

The brothers murmur in agreement, chuckling, and my mind goes back to Perrie as Steal closes church, banging his gavel on the table once more.

Does douche in a suit make her smile?

Does he hold her close and inhale her strawberry scent?

Does she love him?

Fuck!