Chapter Four

CHAPTER FOUR

Levee

Kylo was holding out a potato chip to Mackie, the club’s ornery macaw who had been cursing at him for the past five minutes.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck you, Benny.

“Better not let it get back to Remy that you’re feeding him junk food,” Eddie warned.

“Says the guy who slips him some of everything he cooks,” I shot back, having caught him giving the bird eggs and a piece of hash brown just that morning.

“Hey, he was giving me the sad eyes,” Eddie defended himself as he gathered some greens for the tortoise.

“He doesn’t have eyebrows,” Velle reasoned. “He can’t give the sad eyes.”

“The tort gives me sad eyes too,” Eddie insisted, shaking his head as he held out the plate of greens to Velle. “Can you bring these out to him? Toss a few of the hibiscus flowers on top too?” he asked. “What?” he asked at Velle’s bemused smile.

“Just didn’t imagine that being an arms-dealing biker would involve feeding exotic animals their lunch,” he admitted. “Kind of refreshing how everyone here has a soft side,” he added.

Velle was the club, for lack of a better way to put it, profiler. Or shrink. I dunno how to put it. But he had a knack for getting to people’s souls in just a few minutes. I figured Huck wanted him in the club to be able to help find appropriate new prospects as well as keep a finger on the pulse of the mental health of the current members. And, I imagined, to help with trying to make allies and shit like that.

“Speak for yourself,” Coast shot back at Velle.

More of the current resident loose cannon, Coast wore his crazy on his sleeve. Right there with all of his tattoos. Including one that, supposedly, was a tally of how many lives he’d taken so far.

I liked Coast.

Now that Cato was kind of wrapped up a lot with his girl, I would have felt kind of adrift if Coast hadn’t been around. Always ready to party or to hit the clubs. Anything that involved music, booze, and chicks.

“Please,” Velle shot back, shaking his head. “No one who is as good with kids as you are could be all hard,” he said before moving outside.

“Whatcha making?” I asked Eddie as he opened the fridge and started unloading a shitton of items onto the counter.

“Enchiladas and a chopped salad,” he said as he went into the pantry to get some more supplies. “If you give me an hour, I’ll have some to bring to your uncle,” he added.

I checked the clock, deciding it was no big deal to be later than usual. It wasn’t like the old man wanted me there anyway.

He’d been in rare form the week before. Sure, his back had been tweaking him, but he’d been almost intolerable. Spouting off shit about myself and both of my long-dead parents while I just tried to get him settled in his chair again.

I hadn’t bothered to try to do any cleaning up or shit like that, not wanting to listen to him for any longer.

I did manage to pass him the offer from Jade. That had gone about as I expected. Plus a few new inventive curse words for good measure.

I didn’t know how the man got one look at that woman and didn’t want her pretty up in his apartment as much as possible.

She was one of those chicks who was just naturally gorgeous. Long, wavy brown hair that the sun kissed at the ends, bleaching them almost blonde. Oval face with high cheekbones, pretty brown eyes, a slightly dimpled chin, and a generous mouth. And that smile? Fuck, that was easily her best feature. And she did it easily and fully, making little lines crease her lips on each side and showing off one charmingly pointy eye tooth.

Imperfectly perfect.

She hadn’t had a stitch of makeup on, either.

She had a long, lean body clad in one of those flowing floral sundresses that flirted with the floor and had a deep V down the chest. It didn’t actually show anything, but it hinted at how easily some of her assets could be seen.

She’d even been gorgeous as she’d been scolding me about not taking good enough care of my uncle.

Hotter still when I’d looked up from jotting down my number for her and found her eyes at half-mast, an unmistakable sign of desire.

If we hadn’t been in my uncle’s dingy-ass apartment, I would have pushed her back against the wall to taste that mouth of hers.

As it was, my sorry ass was kind of hoping to run into her in the hall again this week since she hadn’t used my number to invite me over.

And, yeah, some part of me had been hoping for that. Even checking my phone for that. As pathetic as that was. Especially considering how the club was always swarmed with lots of pretty girls.

“How’s your uncle doing?” York, one of the new prospects, asked.

York was tall and on the burly side. He looked like the kind of guy who belonged in flannel with an ax on his shoulder, not in a club down in Florida. But here he was, regardless. A little older than the rest of us. And quieter. But he was always down to spend some time with the club girls too. I wasn’t sure I ever saw him without a girl on his lap playing with his beard and likely making comments about all the interesting places they could get some beard burn if they took things up to a room.

He’d left his life in New York state hiding bodies for the mob to come down this way to take care of his ailing grandfather. So while he didn’t have to deal with the abuse that I did from my grandfather, and now my uncle, he understood the importance of putting in the work. And how mentally and emotionally draining it could be.

“He’s getting weaker,” I admitted. “Falling more. But he won’t hear about going out to, or having someone come in to, do physical therapy.

“Sorry to hear that,” York said, wrapping his hand around his cup of coffee. “All you can do is all you can do,” he added, shrugging. “Don’t beat yourself up about that.”

That was true.

I did have an order out for a custom electric wheelchair, though. He was going to bitch and moan about it when it showed up. But it wasn’t like he could drag the thing back out of his apartment anyway, so I figured I could just bring it in and leave it there. Eventually, his stubborn ass would start using it. And I would bite my ‘I told you so’s’ when I saw him buzzing around in the thing that would damn sure make his life easier as he lost more and more mobility.

“You can take my car if you want, man,” Kylo offered.

Kylo was the newest member of the club. He’d been the neighbor of Alaric’s new girl. A former party drug dealer who nearly died for that job before deciding it wasn’t the future he wanted. But people like that, they didn’t just go straight. And learning about the club made him see he had a way to stay in a less-than-legal profession, but have a bit less risk thanks to the protection of an entire club around him.

Kylo stood, stretching out his ridiculous six-four frame. Like Coast, he was heavily tattooed. But he was darker haired with dark eyes. Though just like Coast, he had that ‘bad news’ sign practically inked on his forehead.

He grabbed his keys out of the bowl and tossed them at me.

“You know the neighborhood I’m taking this to, right?” I asked.

“If they haven’t stripped Eddie or Che’s cars, they won’t fuck with mine,” he said, shrugging it off.

“You could get yourself a car, you know,” Coast said.

I could.

I made a nice income working for the club. And thanks to living at the clubhouse and having Eddie cook pretty much all of my meals, I had almost no expenses.

It was likely the added responsibility that had me pausing. What can I say? I liked life… easy. Shit was hard enough growing up. I just wanted to kind of coast through life as much as possible, soaking up all the good shit, and avoiding the bad as much as I could.

If I ended up needing to start doing shit like transport my uncle to visits or something, though, I’d have to invest. But not in anything as cool as the other club brothers’ cars. It would need to be practical enough to store a wheelchair in. And there was nothing fun about that.

“I wouldn’t be driving anything as nice as their cars, though,” I said, shrugging it off. “Besides, I liked to fuck with their saved radio stations,” I said, making Kylo shake his head as he headed toward the stairs.

I ended up helping Eddie with the salad to waste the time. Then I loaded up a small plastic container of the enchiladas and an even smaller one of the salad I knew he likely wasn’t going to eat, climbed in Kylo’s white Corvette, and made my way to my uncle’s building.

Was I practically buzzing with anticipation as I juggled the bags, tins of food, and a cardboard sleeve of my uncle’s diet soda? Yeah, yeah, I was.

And it was pretty ridiculous how disappointed I felt when I didn’t see Jade in the hallway.

On her whiteboard was a little drawing that was clearly done by two separate people, judging by the different styles. Jade’s contribution was a pretty, delicate bouquet of flowers. The second person’s addition was a fucking coffin that the flowers were sitting on. Morbid, sure, but Jade scribbled a little note regardless.

A little more shading & it’ll look more realistic.

Maybe I’d catch her on my way out, I decided, then made my way in to deal with my uncle.

He accepted the enchiladas, but told me to throw away the salad.

I decided to take it with me down to the laundry room to eat while I waited instead of staying in his apartment while his clothes washed. For both of our good, to be honest.

He was short of temper.

I was short on patience.

And it was right there in that dark hole of a room lined in ancient machines that rocked and knocked noisily, sitting on top of the empty table for folding laundry with a sketchpad on her lap, that I found Jade.

She was dressed in a flowing skirt in a pink and white floral pattern with a long slit up one thigh. She paired it with one of those crop tops that, when she stood, would show off a nice chunk of her midriff.

Her long brown hair was pulled up into a claw clip with just a few face-framing strands hanging down.

She was oblivious to my presence. Her warm brown eyes scrunched up as she eyed what she was working on, then quickly erased some part of the image before drawing it again.

As she drew, little gemstone rings on her long, thin fingers caught my eyes.

I waited until she lifted her pencil off the page so I didn’t make her screw something up before I cleared my throat to announce my presence.

“Oh,” she said after jumping slightly. Reaching up, she removed the one earbud she had in, tucking it back with its twin in the little white holder. “It’s you,” she added, shooting me that big, happy smile of hers. Like she was genuinely glad to see me.

“How you been, doll?” I asked, dropping the laundry basket on one machine. I moved the salad to the side, then dumped the laundry into the machine, added a pod, then put the change in the slots.

“I’ve been great, thanks. You?”

“Not bad. Any more incidents with my uncle?”

“Just pushed him up from the lobby the other day. He’s struggling with his chair.”

“Yeah. I got a custom electric one ordered that he’s going to claim he hates for a few weeks before he starts using it. Should only be another week or so.”

“Oh, that’ll be great for him. He could even go outside and get some sunshine. What?” she asked as I raised my brows.

“I don’t think my uncle has willingly gone outside in years,” I told her. “Which, honestly, might be better for the general population anyway. I got a salad here he turned his nose up at. Wanna share?” I asked, glad I’d decided to bring it.

“Are you a mindreader?” she asked, grabbing her big sack purse, and digging around in it. “I’m starving,” she added, producing a little case, then opening it to pull out a fork.

“That’s handy,” I said, moving over to the table with her, hopping up and saying a silent prayer that the old thing could hold our weight.

“I always bring a little kit with a fork, knife, spoon, and straw,” she admitted. “You’d be surprised how often you find yourself in need of them. Plus, you know, good for the environment,” she added as I pulled off the top of the salad.

I produced my own fork that I’d washed just a few moments before leaving with the laundry.

“Oh, that looks amazing,” she said as I held out the salad, letting her grab a forkful first.

“Eddie makes the best salads,” I agreed, nodding.

“Eddie. Is that your partner?” she asked, making me almost choke on my mouthful.

“No. No. I mean, if I swung that way, I might marry the fucker. But we’re both straight. He just likes to cook for the club.”

“What kind of club?” she asked, then let out a groan as she had a bite.

I went ahead and pretended that sound didn’t go straight to my dick.

“Bike club.”

“Oh, do you guys do competitions?” she asked.

“Competitions?” I asked.

“You know… races?”

“Oh, no, doll. Not that kind of bike,” I said, smiling. “Motorcycles,” I clarified.

“Interesting. What does a motorcycle club do?” she asked.

“Hang out mostly,” I admitted. “Throw parties.”

“Who doesn’t love a good party?” she asked. If I wasn’t mistaken, she was hinting at wanting an invitation.

“I can give you an address if you ever want to pop by for one.”

“But how would I know when one is going on?”

“Pick any night of the week and you’ll pick the right one,” I said. “But you also have my number. If you haven’t lost it.”

“I haven’t,” she said. “Maybe I’ll take you up on that offer. I’ve never been to a party at a motorcycle club. What does one wear to that sort of thing?”

In her case? As little as possible.

“This works,” I said, waving at her. “But you might want to wear a bathing suit under it.”

“What? I can’t swim nude?” she asked, tone serious, but her smile betrayed her.

“Baby, I doubt anyone would complain about you swimming nude,” I said, letting my gaze scan her.

“Oh, but I wouldn’t want to do it alone,” she said, laying the flirtatious tone on thick.

And I was eating it up.

“Doll, anytime you want me naked, I’m at your service,” I shot back, watching as her eyes warmed to golden honey.

Her lips parted to say… something.

When a mom with three enthusiastic kids rushed in, the older two gibbering about who was going to get to put the coins in the slots.

“Both of you. You can both put the coins in,” the mother placated them as she dragged two large trash bags behind her, and jiggled the baby in her carrier.

“Hey Lily,” Jade said, hopping off of the table and holding her hands out. “Come on. Give me my fix,” she demanded, making Lily pull the baby out of the carrier.

Jade pulled the baby to her chest and leaned down to press a kiss to her mostly bald head before she started to sway gently and hum.

Thanks to the older members of the club, I’d been around a shitton of babies in my life. And, yeah, they were cute and all.

But I’d never had quite the same kind of reaction to seeing any of the women with any of those babies as I did seeing Jade with this one.

It was a strange, I dunno, tightening sensation in my chest.

“How long have you lived here?” I found myself asking when she caught me staring at her with the baby.

“Just about a month,” she told me, grabbing the baby’s hand, and trying to remove the earring from her tiny fist before she pulled the earring free.

“Here,” I said, jumping up to held pull the earring free.

“Thanks. Why?” she asked.

“You seem to have acclimated really quickly,” I said, thinking about how I didn’t know any of my neighbors back before I moved into the clubhouse. The only reason I knew my neighbors at the clubhouse was because it was a club member and his wife.

“How can you see this sweet munchkin and not want to get to know her?” she asked as the baby just… made little bubbles around her mouth at her. Which, apparently, was adorable, because Jade cooed at her about it.

“No, give it,” one of the other kids grumbled, knocking his fists into the ancient vending machine that had forever been eating my money when I tried to grab a drink or snack while doing laundry.

“Here, let me show you the trick,” I said, moving away from Jade toward the machine. “See right here?” I said, pointing to the side of it, “if you hit it real hard, it usually,” I told him as I banged on the metal, making his chocolate bar fall down, “works,” I finished with a smile as he bent down to fish it out of the tray.

“Thanks!” he said, rushing away as he tore at the wrapper.

“Mom said to share!” his sister ran after him, face getting red already.

I stuck some more money into the machine to get her another bar as her brother tried frantically to shove the whole thing into his mouth.

“Here,” I said, handing it to her as she chased her brother around the laundry room for the second time as their mother grabbed both sides of the washing machine, head thrown back, eyes closed, clearly at her max.

Content with their candy, though, the older kids calmed down as Jade entertained the baby, giving the mom a few moments to focus on her task.

“Have you talked to Curtis?” Jade asked, genuine interest on her face.

Lily glanced back at the kids. Finding them content and not listening, she exhaled hard. “His lawyer thinks he should take the deal the DA offered.”

Jade’s gaze slid to the kids, then the baby. “Ten years?” Jade gasped.

Lily looked back at her older kids. “They’ll be grown,” she said, eyes watering. “And she won’t even know who he is,” she added, looking at the baby.

“Can you get a second opinion?”

“We can’t afford a lawyer,” Lily said, sounding hopeless.

“Could you just go to trial? Maybe the jury will be more understanding,” Jade suggested.

“Not around here,” I said, shaking my head. I didn’t want to squash their hopes, but if the DA was offering ten years, the jury could put him away for twice that depending on the crime and how enigmatic the prosecution was.

“You don’t know that,” Jade said, shaking her head.

“I do. I do know that. What was he accused of?” I asked, looking at Lily.

“Possession with intent,” Lily said, gaze sliding away, embarrassed on his behalf.

“So he’s facing fifteen. Ten isn’t a great deal. But with good behavior, he could be out in six, seven.”

I could feel Jade’s curious gaze on the side of my face, but I decided not to try to explain.

“He didn’t do it,” Lily insisted.

“I know no one wants to believe—“

“I’m very aware of his flaws,” Lily cut me off. “But he recently got a really solid job. A good job. We were saving up to get out of here. Into a better school district for the kids. He was on his way to getting into a union. He wouldn’t throw all of that away.”

“So what happened?”

“My best guess? He left his damn window open again…”

“And a scout said cops were around, so the dealer tossed the drugs into the car…”

“Yes,” Lily said, looking relieved that someone not only didn’t think she was nuts, but actually believed her.

“And the cops saw he has a history, and didn’t think there was any reason to delve deeper into it. And in a building like this, there’s no security cameras to confirm his story.”

“Yes, exactly.”

I wouldn’t say I was exactly a do-gooder. But I hated the idea of a dad finally turning his life around for his family and trying to build them all up, only to get fucked over by the system.

“You’re sure he’s innocent?” I asked.

“He cried,” Lily told me. “When he called, he cried. I’ve been with him since we were sixteen. I’ve never seen him cry.”

“Give me your number,” I said, passing her my phone. “I will have someone look into this,” I told her, thinking I could either fund it myself, or ask Teddy—the club’s friendly local billionaire—to have his lawyers get on it, see what they could do.

“Really?” Lily asked, suspicious but typing in her number anyway. “But we don’t even know you.”

“I grew up in this neighborhood, in this building.” My gaze slid to her kids, bickering over some characters from a show, then over to the baby, resting her head on Jade’s chest as she slept. “Back then, I wished my family had tried to get me out of here. Least I can do is put some feelers out.”

“Thank you,” Lily said, turning away to wipe tears off of her cheeks.

Thank you , Jade mouthed to me as I glanced at her.

Hey, I was just doing it to be nice. But if it scored me some brownie points with Jade, I wasn’t gonna be mad about that.

My washer started buzzing, prompting me to walk over to turn the clothes over into the dryer.

In the time that took, Lily took the baby back from Jade, and was trying to shush the other two, who were complaining that they were still hungry.

“Why don’t you take them upstairs to get some food?” Jade asked. “Levee and I can watch your machines.”

“Are you sure?” Lily asked.

“Of course,” Jade agreed, seemingly in a hurry to rush them along. “Right?” she asked, looking at me with eager eyes.

“Definitely. Take your time,” I added.

“Thank you. Thank you both,” Lily said, pretty blue eyes full of hope as she shuffled her two older kids toward the door.

When their voices trailed off, I turned back toward Jade.

“Now why do I get the feeling that you want to get me alone?” I asked, turning back toward Jade.

Just as she reached up, grabbed my face, pulled me down, and sealed her lips to mine.