CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

-:- ROCK -:-

It seems everything is happening, but some things are still up in the air. Thankfully, the mess with the gang is done, well, our part of it, anyway. Forest has some court cases looming, but the judge isn’t happy with what's gone on, and yeah, we have finagled things so that our judge will be presiding. Death has it nailed down in Nevada, according to Axel, so we don’t have to travel over there to finish the job of clearing the trash.

I have traveled around each of the businesses that are closed until the brothers get back from their road trip. I would have enjoyed the time with them, but I’m content here with Red and Jessica. I’m about moved into her leased place at this point. Hammer is juggling work, woman, and child at this moment in time. But he at least has the second crew working. Ruger, Sting, and Brag have all gone on the trip and I don’t blame them. I’m just thankful that the other crew continued working on my cabin.

My phone rings and I check to see if it’s Pres, because he’s the only one and Red, of course, that I feel is my priority at the moment. Garrett, now that’s unusual.

“Yeah, what’s going on?” I quickly ask.

“Sorry to bother you, Rock, but I’m going to court in the morning. It seems I have a fair chance of this going away. If that happens I’m going to come for Jessica. I’m taking off with her, find somewhere nice to live, divorce the skank I married and get sole custody. That lawyer is already working on that for me. But I’ve got to tell Dest, and I know she’s going to be upset. This call is a heads up to be ready when Dest breaks.”

“Shit. Do you have to move right away? Can’t you get your stuff from the lock up organized? Find somewhere first, then take off? Give both Red and Jessica a chance to come to terms with it?” I have to admit I’m snarling somewhat because again this feels selfish and uncaring about how Red will feel.

“I can do that, but I’m thinking it would be best to get away from it all. Make a fresh start, and I have feelings for Dest that are best buried.”

“Yeah, you best bury them, ‘cause I’ll not let her go now. She’s mine, she’s wearing my patch, and she’s gonna be my wife.” Snarling down the phone, and if I could do the growl like Meat can, I would do it right now.

“The difference between the two sisters is phenomenal. Jerica, when I first knew her, was not as she is now. I don’t know what changed, or when. We were living a decent life, saving for our own place, and had Jessica. Most women would grab onto that and hold on tight.” Garrett sighs, and that’s when I realize he’s finding this more than a little hard.

“You know, she was leaving Jessica on her own while you were working. Had men around the house too. We found out a lot of shit that she was up to Garrett, and you don’t want to know, you really don’t. Get shot of her, move on, but don’t cut Red out of your life. She loves you and Jessica, you are her family, and she’s cut Jerica out of her life, so you are the only family she has. Well, I say that, but she has her MC family now, and there are plenty of us.” I chuckle at that because there are a lot of us now.

“I would never do that, Rock. She is special to me. I could never have wished for a better sister-in-law. She, along with Jessica, are the only family I have now. I’ve already asked the lawyer to get my divorce started, and someone at your club has provided a substantial amount of evidence to show she is an unfit mother. He doesn’t think the divorce will be a problem, or the sole custody.”

“That’s good, Garrett. If you need anything, anything at all, you ask and if it’s within my capability, I’ll help you.”

“Thanks, Rock. I’m going to contact Dest now. I’ve got a list of contacts I’m allowed this morning with the hearing tomorrow.”

“Okay. Good luck with that.” I cut the call and know that Red is going to be more than a little upset. I think Jessica will be too, but she’s young. She’ll bounce back quickly with her father in the picture again.

I don’t hang around. I make my way to Red. I want to get to her before she breaks down. Pushing my hog, I make it to her place in record time. Flicking the kickstand down and quickly heading to the door, I burst inside as I’m taking my helmet off. Red is just placing her phone on the kitchen table as I walk through the door.

“You okay, Red?” I ask, then think what a stupid fuckin’ question. Of course she’s not okay.

“I will be. That was Garrett. He’s going for his hearing tomorrow and has all hopes that he’ll be released. He wants to move away and take Jessica with him. I knew it was going to happen, but I didn’t know it would happen so soon. Jessica adores Garrett, and he is the best father. I don’t have any problem with her going with him. I’m just going to miss her so much.” That’s when the dam bursts and Red cries and sobs her heart out. I hold her to me, wrapping her tightly to my body, and I can feel every shudder she makes whilst sobbing. It really is heartbreaking to hear, but there is nothing I can do about it.

When she calms and only has the minor hiccups that happen after a good crying session, she looks up with wet cheeks and red eyes. “You know we can make our own little Jessicas anytime you want. I’m always up for it, you know, baby making.”

Giggling a little, Red kisses my jaw. “I know you’re always up for it, in more ways than one.”

Picking her up bridal style, I carry her to the bedroom. “Fuck work. They can manage for a while without me,” I tell Red as I kiss her silly before ravishing every inch of her body.

An hour later I close the door and straddle my hog, give Red a wave as she’s watching me leave from the bedroom window. She blows me a kiss and I catch it, just like I’ve seen Axel do and Red gives me the biggest and brightest smile. It was worth looking like an idiot catching kisses to see that.

Walking into Hot Hogs and Cages feels odd with Clay, Dice, Krylon and Fist on the road trip. Thankfully, we have Raw, Griff and Splash, or it would be more than a hell of a week.

Raw is working on hogs in the ‘Hogs’ side of the business, and Griff is working on the pickup truck for Grease. It’s nearly ready for the respray and I know Fist wanted to do it, but he’s not around, so if we get done today Splash is going to make a start on it tomorrow.

Splash and Siggy have finished the door, and it’s fuckin’ amazing. The top left side shows before and after images of Mikala’s Hog, with her signature below the after. Even looking at it now, the new improved Lucy-Loo looks totally amazing. Below that is the Raging Barons club logo. On the bottom is the before and after of the Shelby Cobra. I’m a bit confused, as I’m sure Fist said he was going to do some artwork on the bodywork of cobra snakes. The Shelby on the door is in blue with white Shelby stripes. It looks awesome, but not what he’d told us.

Glancing at Splash, he walks over. “I know. The Shelby. Well, Fist isn’t here and I’m sorry, but you can’t disrespect a vehicle with that kind of heritage. Siggy has mixed me the original color from the paperwork, so by the time Fist gets back, it will be done and sold. I know someone that has a car collection. I did some artwork in his garage, and he’s coming to take a look. I gave him the VIN number so he could do some research on it and he let slip that he thought it had done some racing. I’ll get Specs to check it out. If it has, that could double the price we can ask. But only if we keep it original.”

“If that’s correct, and it has a history that we can authenticate, I’ll back you against Fist. If we lose out on it, you can meet Fist in a cage fight.”

“Yeah, right! Like I’m gonna get in a ring of any kind with Fist. It would be the shortest fight in history. He’d hand me my ass in under thirty seconds.”

“You’re probably right about the thirty seconds. Anyway, back to this door. What’s happening with the after of the Apache? Oh, I get it. You can’t do the after until Grease has handed it over to Raven?”

The before image shows the Pickup truck in its current state, which, to be truthful, isn’t that bad. I’ve seen the renderings of how Grease wants it and they look stunning.

The day flies past, but if truth be told I’ve only done a half day. The cage I was working on is finished and the owner has picked it up. I glance through the pieces of paper on my desk that everyone leaves for me, and grin when I see Bren’s hours of work. She’s about doubled her time here and if this keeps up, I’m going to see if she wants to be a receptionist and do all the telephone and computer shit.

Looking at my watch, I see only an hour before it’s time to close up for the day. I can’t wait to get back to Red’s and make sure both she and Jessica are okay. I’m not sure if Red is going to say anything to Jessica now or wait until tomorrow’s hearing when we know for sure if he is getting out. I can’t see a problem with it, as we have our lawyer and judge onboard.

I need to stop at the clubhouse, grab some clean jeans and t-shirts. I’m getting low until I take my laundry for Heather or one of the others to wash.

Stopping my hog in the compound, out front of the clubhouse, I watch as Meat and Wings have a maze of some sort made up of bales of straw. What the fuck are they doing? You guessed I couldn’t resist looking. But what I don’t expect to see is the twins toddling through the bales, wearing what you can only describe as treasure hunter gear. Now Meat has to have found that clothing because I cannot see Mia putting the twins in those outfits.

“What are you doing?” Yeah, I asked.

“We are testing the boys, you know, to see how clever they are. They’ve worked out how to get to the end of the maze quickly, and I reckon they’re above average intelligence,” Wings states, folding his arms over his chest with an attitude showing.

“Well, that’s good to know.” What the fuck are you supposed to say to that shit? “Have you tested them any other way?” Fuck, I’m an idiot, no way do I want involving in this shit.

“They were good on the zipline, no problem at all. They did the jump from the walkaround on the treehouse with no hesitation. They just followed me over the edge, thought it was funny when they dangled in the air from the harnesses,” Wings continues, laughing at the memory, and also damn proud.

“WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY?”

Snapping around at the angry voice, I take steps backward and fast, I don’t want to get involved. Seeing the look on Mia’s face would have any grown man piss his pants. A momma bear in full fight mode is a damn scary thing and I’m not embarrassed to admit it.

“Mia, they were safe.” I watch as Meat tries to calm Mia, while Wings chases the twins through the maze, and they can run. Those little legs are like pistons when they don’t want to be caught.

I hightail it inside, and passing Axel, I give him a shake of the head. “No, Pres, you don’t want to be outside. If I were you I’d make myself busy.” Holding back the chuckle is difficult when Axel turns and walks back the way he’d come from, but at double time.

As I make my way out of the clubhouse to my hog, I steer clear of the argument that is still going on between Mia, Wings, and Meat. All three following the twins, who are thoroughly enjoying the maze.

We have a relaxed evening and I take all my cues from Red, which are few, as she is totally ignoring anything to do with Garrett or Jerica. Jessica has not asked about her mother once while in my company. She asks about her father and says how much she misses him. It shows that their relationship is good, and that she loves him.

A huge smile crosses my face when Jessica shocks both me and Red. “When you getting married? Can I be a flower girl? Will everyone be going to it? Will you have it at the compound? Oh, will Amelia, Bitty and Sybil come to it?”

“Wow, stop. Jessica, where the heck did that all come from?” Red asks.

“Well, you living like you are married. Rock lives here now, doesn’t he? I know he sleeps in your room with you.”

Red’s face pinks and I can see she’s struggling to answer, so I quickly step in. “We will get married, not sure when. Our cabin is still being built, but when it is maybe we’ll get married then.”

That seems to be enough of an answer, and Jessica turns back to the book she was drawing in. Looking at Red, she mouths, ‘Thank you,’ which has me smirking because damn, she’s so cute.

Friday morning and I’ve finished checking all the businesses, nothing to report, thankfully. It seems our name is enough to keep people from breaking in or messing with things.

Although the Furnishings shop is closed and Carrie is having the week off while living it up at the clubhouse, the young men of the Wood Supply are keeping their eye on things. Herb, the supply manager, has a key to the furnishings' place if he needs to get inside for any reason, and Chisel and Stu are on vacation too.

Chaos and Target have gone on the road trip, but Winter is running the shooting range and I just call in first thing to check she’s good. But let’s be honest, Winter is more than capable of running that place with her eyes closed and shooting anyone that messes with her.

TJs is running as normal, with Star and Mia in charge. Only Beer is missing at this point so it’s not made much difference with the staff continuing as usual.

Cora, Jig and Raven are working as normal. Now Jig has his eye on Siggy and didn’t go on the road trip because he’s doing his best to win Siggy over. Tempting her with meals, drinks, and has even taken flowers to her house. I hope he can win her over or find someone else because he’s so unlucky with women, it’s not even funny anymore.

The Tattoo shop, bike recovery, wine shop and swap shop are running as usual because there is enough staff to maintain without the relevant brother needing to be in attendance. Mind you, Reuse stayed at the tattoo shop as he has a lot of clients booked and didn’t want to mess with them.

I’ll be more than happy when this week is over. I love riding my hog, but I’m sick of riding around town checking on all the businesses. I know BS does a lot of checking things are running well, but how he does so without getting sick as a pig of it, I don’t know. Each to his own, I suppose. Anyway, I need to get back to work and keep busy so my mind doesn’t wander about what is happening with Garrett today.