13. Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

Aleko

T he day started out so fucking great. Cherry’s taste is still on my lips when we roll into the hospital parking lot and cut off our bike engines. I add to her delicious taste with a sucker, pushing it to the side of my cheek as we head inside.

Rocks Off is getting the final polish, which means we can open up and start earning back our lost money tonight. As soon as we finished up there, Prez told me we were going to check on the race chief to make sure the Irish threats were just that…empty threats. It’s only the two of us, leaving our prospect, Jonesy, with Bear, Sledge, and Shade to finish up.

Cherry: Bash is taking me into town with Grinder and Boner. I have to pick something up from the shop. Promise we’ll go there and come straight back.

The ping from my phone brings a goofy ass smile to my face when I see who it is. Except, as soon as I read her message, my entire body goes rock hard rigid. My first reaction is fear and worry with a high dose of controlling until I remember what happens when I try to bottle my Cherry up and keep her safe. She obliterates my plans to the point of putting herself in the thick of trouble. By her own admission, she’s learned her lesson, but…one can never be sure, right?

So, instead of being overprotective, I opt for a higher dose of humor and pray it all works out.

Me: Don’t leave their side. They’re troublemakers ;)

There's no further response to my text but I can picture her jumping on her tiptoes and clapping her hands in victory. Fuck, her leaving the compound makes me sick with post traumatic stress.

Me : If anything happens to my girl, I will tear your balls off…slowly.

Boner : Ouch man. Fuck, what I ever do to you?

Me : Nothing. Keep it that way.

Boner : You’re fucking psychotic.

Me : Thanks.

Boner : Not a compliment.

“Everything alright?” Prez’s question is hesitant, like he really doesn’t want to know if there’s another problem.

“All good, Prez. Just having fun with Boner.”

“Between you and Grinder, that kid is going to regret joining the Sons one day.” He ain’t wrong.

Chuckling, I put my phone in my back pocket just as we reach the nurse. I have a feeling I’m going to need all my charm for this task.

Movement at my side has me scanning the room. That’s when I see a familiar man and his face brings me back to the worst memory of my life. He looks different, his eyes are sunken in with purple circles like warning bells on his skin. Something’s off about him, and that’s saying something since the last time I saw him the love of my life was lying on his morgue table and I was about to slice his throat open for daring to take a scalpel to her body.

“Can I help…” The nurse, interrupting my trip down memory lane, raises her head and stutters when she sees us on the other side of her desk. “You?” It’s not every day two big bikers who’ve been cleaning all day and probably look like hard core criminals stand here with big, hopefully harmless, grins on their faces. I pull the sucker from my mouth, savoring the flavor and rest my arms against the desk.

“Yes, we’re looking for the chief? Johnston?” It occurs to me that I don’t know his first name. We always either called him Chief or Johnston.

“Kenny.” Prez looks at me and shrugs, and I get it…it’s probably an age thing. “Kenny Johnston.” With his eyes fixed on the nurse while she checks the computer, he whispers, “We went to high school together.” Right, it’s an age thing.

“Not judging, Prez.” I can’t help the snicker that escapes.

“Shut the fuck up.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, sir. Mr. Johnston is no longer with us.” The nurse looks ill at ease and it makes every fucking hair rise on my arms.

“That’s great. When did he go home?” Clearly, Prez and I did not get the same vibe.

“No, sir. He’s gone as in, he passed two nights ago.” Fuck. I hate being right for shit like this. Crunching the sucker between my teeth, I sigh heavily.

Prez doesn’t say anything, just stares at her like he can will a different outcome from her.

“Thank you.” I’m pushing Prez away before she calls security, thanking her a couple of times more for good measure.

“I can say this.” We both swivel our head back to her and freeze. “He was doing fine, healing even. The doctor was about to let him go home but then his heart just…gave out, I guess.” She guesses?

“You guess?” Yeah, that!

“We didn’t find anything wrong with his heart, but I guess the strain of the bullet and the surgery was greater than we ever imagined.” When she’s finished, she shrugs then goes back to her job just as the phone rings.

Dismissed.

“Prez.”

“Yeah, I agree. It’s as fishy as a fucking oyster cult.” Frowning, I swing my head around to look at him.

“Huh?”

“Like the band?” Yeah, I know Blue Oyster Cult but why would it…you know what? Forget it.

“The Irish, then?”

“No doubt.” His answer is not exactly surprising, given that our conversation two days ago is the very reason we’re here today. These fuckers need to get the fuck out of here. Or maybe their deaths would be good for the rest of the American population.

My ass vibrates with an incoming text. Normally, I’d ignore that shit during a conversation with Prez, but Cherry is out there in the real world and if something happens and I’m not looking at messages, I would fucking lose my shit.

Except it’s not about Cherry. Not this time, at least.

Kincaid : Beaufort’s dad.

Following her text, there’s a picture of a distinguished man in a dark suit. It’s not a frontal picture, but it’s not profile either. More like three quarters. If I had to be objective, I’d say the guy’s good looking enough, clean cut for damn sure; the epitome of a suit.

Kincaid : Fuck, we’ve been spotted.

By “we,” she means her and Flower, who went on a stake out with her to try and get a visual on the pharma guy. Thankfully, their tech genius, Glitch, is here with us, so he can deep dive into Beaufort’s life. Something ain’t adding up in this town and he’s the root of it all.

Me : We’re good, get the fuck outta there.

Kincaid : Flower just shot the guy. We’re leaving now.

Well, fuck. That escalated quickly.

“Uh, Prez?”

“I do not like that tone, Psycho. That tone says you’re about to give me bad news, and since we’ve just lost a cushy amount of earnings, I’m not happy about more shit going down.” We’re walking back to our bikes when Prez stops me and I show him the texts.

“Fuck.” With his hands on his hips and his head down, he looks tired. Like the weight of this life is beating him down. I get it. With Cherry by my side, I can understand that this way of living has some hardcore negative sides to it. “Let’s go. We’ll deal with the repercussions when they come to us.”

Cherry : Home safe and sound.

Thank fuck for small favors.

Back at the compound, I’m greeted with fifty shades of trouble.

Boner is so concentrated on his phone that I think he might get swallowed up by it. Meanwhile, Grinder looks like he’s going to explode with his eyes bulging and his lips pressing tightly together.

“Where’s Cherry?” I don’t mean to growl but…here we are.

“She’ll be right back.” The only person with big enough balls to answer me, ironically, is Violet.

“The fuck is wrong with you two?” My gaze darts from one to the other, and my suspicion that shit’s about to hit the fan just keeps on growing.

“Hey, baby.” At the sound of Cherry’s sing-song voice—also suspicious—I swing around, forgetting everything when I see her.

Fuck, she’s perfect. Her jeans show off every sexy part of her while her midnight-blue sweater hangs off one shoulder, exposing silky skin I want to see tatted one day.

“As much as I love seeing you like this, Cherry Pie, my trouble radar is going off like a motherfucker.” If I thought I was wary about whatever this is before, her acting coy with her hands behind her back just sends me over the edge. “What the fuck is going on?”

Cherry rolls her eyes. Like, overly so, just in case I’d miss it. “Can’t a girl try to surprise her man?”

It occurs to me that using the “girl” and “man” when talking about us now annoys me.

“Soon to be husband.” And just like that…I’ve announced our engagement to the whole fucking club. Okay, so it’s only Grinder and Boner, but same shit. Those two are worse than ninety-year-old grandmas sitting on a bench at the retirement home.

Cherry brings one hand from behind her back, Ninja crawling up her arm and sitting on her shoulder. There’s nothing wrong with that, for sure. Except, Ninja always comes to see me when I get home from club business. Right now, though, he’s looking over Cherry’s shoulder and not at me.

With his little butt in the air, he’s bent over and looking behind her back.

Yeah, something’s up, no doubt.

“Surprise!” I’d be annoyed at the high pitch screaming from the four of them but I’m too shocked by the thing in Cherry’s hand.

It’s all white and tiny. Like, smaller than the inside of her palm. Blinking once, twice, I come to the conclusion that I’m not, in fact, hallucinating.

“Meet Bandit.” Cherry’s excitement is intoxicating and contagious and she’s so fucking cute, I can’t stand it.

“You got me a baby rat?” Bending over her hand, I don’t disrupt the tiny creature, which is looking at me like I’m the monster from under the bed.

“It’s called a pup.” Right. I remember that now. It’s been a few years since Ninja was a pup and now he’s practically an adult. As if he can hear my thoughts, my excited boy runs down Cherry’s arm, sniffs at the pup without jostling him too much, then jumps onto my shoulder and nuzzles into my neck.

“Bandit, huh?”

“Yes, he’s all white with that black circle around his eye. It just fits.” Raising a brow at Cherry, I grin, knowing I’m about to rile her up.

“Except bandits would have both their eyes covered with a mask.” And I’m not disappointed with her reaction.

“Don’t piss me off, Aleko, or else he’ll just be mine and you can suck it.” There’s no venom in her words and she doesn’t miss my reaction when she talks about sucking…she knows I’ll suck her anytime, anywhere, she only needs to say the word.

“Psycho!” Prez’s holler gets everyone’s attention.

“Be right back.” Leaning in, I kiss her hard and fast and make sure I leave her wanting for later.

With Ninja still on my shoulder, I jog to the next room where Prez is on the phone.

“Yeah, hold on, I’ll put you on speaker.” I’m the last one here. Shade and Hoops are leaning against the back wall while Flower and the big guy from last night are sprawled out on the couch. Bear is sitting on the desk, his head down, but I don’t miss how his gaze keeps going back to Flower.

Interesting .

I nod my hellos to everyone before giving my undivided attention to the phone call.

“S’up, guys? Name’s Glitch, or Tech Dude for Flower.” Bear snorts but doesn’t say anything as Glitch continues his report. “I just did a deep dive into Harrison Beaufort here and in New York. At first, I was just looking for activity, sketchy employees, his rapey son—sorry, there are like a dozen lawsuits that have been snuffed out by his father—and his business.” In the background, the unmistakable sound of fingers tapping against a keyboard fills in the silence while he does whatever he’s doing. “Now, in New York, they had a rise in drug busts, specifically a new form of LSD ravaging the upper crust of the Financial District. Oddly enough, just about the same time as the smiley faces started killing young kids over here, Beaufort was making himself nice and cozy within the high society of Rockford Beach. Coincidence? Yeah, I don’t believe in those. I believe in stats and graphs and fucking math.”

“Hey, Techy, do we know the difference between the drugs here and the ones in Manhattan?” Flower is sitting cross legged, her hands resting on either knee.

“Wasn’t he here last night? Why are we talking to him on the phone?” I’m so fucking confused, like people are keeping shit from me.

“He’s got his set-up in the room that has the best service for his tech shit.” Frowning at Bear’s explanation, I still don’t get it. The compound is not that big, he could give us a report face to face.

“Glitch doesn’t do people. Besides, he needs his equipment to bring up information and graphs and be able to answer any of our questions.” Flower smiles like she’s proud to give us all the information we need. “Hey, so…are you more grizzly or teddy?”

Bear and I both frown at her question because…what the actual fuck does that even mean?

“He’s definitely teddy in the body of a grizzly.” Everyone, and I mean every-fucking-one in this room, turns to Shade when he answers Flower.

“Right on.” Flower’s answer is like a fist bump and Shade’s slight blush is just…shocking.

“Brother, I think you’ve got competition.” Yes, I love fucking with my best friend.

“Shut your fucking mouth.” Bear is not amused, and if I’m understanding the ribbing, the teddy bear side has lost big time to the grizzly side of him.

“Hellooo, I’m still here. So, to answer Flower, the shit in New York was straight up laced LSD, but the pills here are some kind of mixture that’s supposed to be a sort of hyped up Ritalin. Ha! That’s funny.” It’s not. Not even a little bit. Our youth are fucking dying.

Python lost his life to this shit, it’s not making me laugh in the least.

“Sorry, I forget that other people aren’t as awkward as me.”

“All right, thanks, Glitch. We’ll let you know if we need anything else.”

Prez hangs up and we all sit in silence for a bit until I take my phone out and pull up the picture Kincaid sent.

Something niggles at the corners of my mind and I can’t seem to shake it.

“Does he look familiar to you at all?”

Bear stares at the picture of Beaufort for a minute before shaking his head.

“Nah, he looks like any other rich, white, douchebag.”

Fair point. But…

I’m still staring at the picture when I walk back into the rec room, trying to put the pieces together when I sit on the couch and pull Cherry to my side with Ninja sleeping in my hoodie.

“Oh, I think Bandit should sleep with Ninja. I want them to be besties.” Cherry gets to her knees, and with care and love, places Bandit inside my hoodie. I don’t miss her sigh of contentment and it makes me so fucking happy that she’s okay.

She’ll be okay. We’ll be okay. More than that…we’ll be fucking perfect.

Then she gasps, her fingers curling around the shoulder of my hoodie, her entire body tense enough that I can feel it.

“Why the fuck do you have a picture of Jake on your phone?”