Chapter 8

Static

”I”m so sorry,” Gwen whispered for the tenth time as we carried the kids up the stairs.

”Sugar.”

She paused on the stairs, her daughter”s head resting on her shoulder as she slept. Her deep blue eyes held worry and hope. The clashing emotions were written all over her face as well. She didn”t need to say it out loud for me to know that if this had happened in her ex-husband”s car he would have been pissed. And probably taken it out on her and the kids. As if he wasn”t the damn father to these children. He may have donated the sperm, but that piece of shit wasn”t a dad. It was easy to see.

”Stop apologizing,” I told her in a low voice so I didn”t wake the sick boy I was holding. ”It wasn”t your fault. Or theirs,” I added. I should have thought to give Sean a bucket or something in case he felt like he was going to puke on the way home. There”d been no way for me to know Grace was going to end up spewing the contents of her stomach all over me from the backseat, like some twisted version of a horror movie. I stunk. Badly.

But there was no way I was going to make any of them feel as though they”d done something wrong. Pulling the car over and putting my vomit covered cut into the trunk had been an act of self-preservation, but consoling the crying kids had come just as naturally. Once they were calm and had fallen back asleep, I”d had to comfort Gwen. I wanted to pull over again, pull her into my lap, and give her a huge hug. She looked miserable seeing how sick her babies were. But I wasn”t stopping that car even if the fucking apocalypse happened. I wanted to get them home and in bed as quickly as I could.

We managed to make it back without any more puke. I was breathing solely through my mouth at this point. I”d seen some pretty disgusting things in the military and I had a steel trap of a stomach. Didn”t mean I wanted to smell myself at the moment. I silently helped Gwen get the kids inside the apartment, holding the door open as Auron padded in behind us. He always seemed to know when one of the kids wasn”t feeling well and stuck close. I wasn”t sure where Jecht was, but I made a mental note to text Seek to let her know Auron was with us. Gwen bathed the kids, and once they were dressed in their clean pajamas I helped put them to bed.

Auron hopped up and settled on the end of Grace”s bed, curling up for a nap. Gwen closed the door to her daughter”s room and turned to look at me. She cringed. ”You have throw up in your hair.”

That was hot. ”I know,” I told her with an amused chuckle.

She looked at me in disbelief as a smile appeared on her face. ”How are you not angry right now?”

”Why would I be? Kids get sick. Not like I haven”t been exactly here with Toxic, who is basically a child.” I”d dragged him to his bed more times than I could count at this point.

She shook her head and continued to not say the words. I appreciated her not bringing up her shithead ex again. She was going to see that I wasn”t like him. Every step of the way I planned to show her. As soon as I saw her walking out of that police station, I realized I was a fucking clown. I didn”t want her to be with anyone but me.

She was skittish. So I was going to have to go slow so I didn”t scare her away, but I could do that. She was worth whatever effort it took.

”Let me have your keys.”

She looked around for where she”d dropped her purse and dug in it. Finally, her hand emerged with her key ring.

”I”ll have some of the guys go pick your car up,” I told her.

”Thank you again,” she said, walking me toward the door. ”Umm... about earlier-”

”Don”t worry about it,” I said. I didn”t touch her, not only because she had that wary look in her eyes now that we were alone again, but also because of the vomit. ”We can talk later.” I planned to do a whole lot more than talking, but it would have to be planned out. The kids kind of ensured that. Not that I minded. Plans and schedules were kind of my life now thanks to being a lawyer.

I walked away, leaving her leaning against the doorway. As much as I wanted to stay, she needed time to come to terms with what happened between us, and what was going to happen again if I had anything to say about it. I went down the hall and knocked on a door a few feet down from mine.

”Oh, what the fuck?” Toxic asked, retching halfway through the exclamation. ”What happened to you?”

”How do you have such a weak stomach?” I asked, arching a brow.

”Not my fault you smell like-” He broke off and gagged again.

Sighing, I held out the keys. ”Can you and Butcher go grab Gwen”s car for me?”

”Sure, where is it?” He grabbed the keys, careful not to touch my skin in any way.

I gave him the address. ”Thanks,” I told him. ”Knock softly when you bring her keys back. Both the kids are sick.”

”That explains the smell,” Butcher commented as he walked toward us.

It was like he could be summoned just by saying his name. I swore those two were somehow telepathically attuned to one another. If you said their name three times in front of a mirror…nevermind. Some nightmares didn”t need to be explored.

”You realize you have shit in your hair...right?” Toxic asked.

”It”s puke,” I informed him, grinning when the gagging started up again.

I went into my room and didn”t do more than kick off my boots before walking, fully clothed, into the shower. The vomit had slid down the back of my seat and puddled under my ass. How a five-year-old could produce so much was completely beyond my knowledge. But now I had one car that was basically totaled and another that was going to stink to high heaven by the time I got out there to clean it. It didn”t matter that it was late-January, it was still warm enough that my upholstery was going to need some serious elbow grease. If not outright replacing. I was not having a good week with my cars.

”What happened here?”Idaho asked, with an amused look on his face as he walked up. He was like me, rock solid stomach. I wasn”t at all surprised to see him eating a sandwich as he stood there watching me wash puke off my seats. He didn”t hesitate at all and took another large bite.

The first thing I”d done, after I showered and changed, was wash off my cut. It was none the worse for wear, thankfully. Couldn”t say the same for my seats.

”Kid puke.”

”Looks like it,” he said, surveying the damage. He pointed with his sandwich. ”Missed a spot.”

”Fuck off.”

”Can”t. Strict orders.”

Sighing, I tossed the scrub brush into a bucket of sudsy water and stood. I stretched my back out as I did. I was nearly done. It had taken four buckets of water and a borrowed upholstery cleaner—of which I now owed Jenny a new one—but my car was almost clean. I”d have to leave the windows open for a while for it to finish airing out.

”What orders?”

”From Lock,” he said.

”I know your mother taught you not to talk with your damn mouth full,” I muttered.

He chuckled. ”Puke in your car. Enforcing table manners.” He nodded. ”You”re ready.”

”For what?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. I was going to need another shower after this.

”To be a dad,” he informed me. He raised his brows. ”You change your mind yet?”

I glowered at him.

His mouth dropped open, displaying the half chewed sub inside. ”You have,” he crowed. He coughed as he sucked a bit down his windpipe, then he finally swallowed.

”It didn”t take you long to go from suits and boardrooms to being as disgusting as some of these guys,” I informed him.

He chuckled and shrugged. ”When in Rome. And don”t change the subject. What happened?”

I grunted as he slung his arm around me, the one with the hand not holding the sandwich thankfully. He started dragging me back toward the clubhouse. ”Caught her with another guy.”

Idaho stopped, released me, and let out a low whistle. ”Do we have another body to hide?” He took another bite of the sandwich. ”At least Krier isn”t going to get lonely down there in that mine shaft.”

”He”s alive,” I told him, ”for now.”

He laughed and shook his head. ”But you did change your mind? You”re going to claim her?”

”What did Lockout want?” I asked, trying to distract him. I”d just come to grips with it all myself, I wasn”t ready to talk about it yet.

”Oh, yeah. Church.”

”Shit. Why didn”t you say that earlier?”

He tilted his head. ”Didn”t I?”

”No, dickhead, you didn”t. Let”s go.” It wasn”t often we were invited to church, so this had to be about Fremont.

We walked into the meeting room and Idaho just shot his brother a wide smile when Lock gave him a disapproving look. I wasn”t sure if it was because he had food in here, or if it was because we were late. As long as I wasn”t yelled at, I didn”t give a shit.

”No. Nope,” Toxic said, shaking his head. ”You still fucking stink. Go sit over there next to the shit pumper, Prospect.”

Hellfire looked up at that and flipped his middle finger at the man. But he pulled out the empty seat next to him in invitation.

”I swear your sense of smell has been burned away,” Toxic told Hellfire. ”At least you have a good excuse.” His eyes met mine. ”What”s yours?”

”What”s yours for being a fucking pansy ass moth-”

”Knock it the fuck off,” Lock barked.

We fell silent, but Toxic gave me a malicious grin. He”d find some way to make me pay for calling him a pansy ass motherfucker, even though I didn”t get it all out. I bit back the grin. Despite all the shit talking I liked the asshole. He kept things fun around here. Especially in times like this when shit was already tense.

Lockout waited a beat before he started. ”I had an idea on how to draw out Fremont.”

Now everyone was laser focused on him.

”We hit him where it hurts.”

”The dick,” Toxic offered.

Lock just shook his head. ”Money.”

”Oh. Yeah, that, too,” Toxic muttered.

”We already took out the mafia,” Hush said.

”And that made him lay low for a bit,” Lock replied, ”but it wasn”t enough. It didn”t hurt him or he would have come after us sooner.”

”Man like that has multiple layers of where he launders his money,” I said.

”Agreed,” Idaho said. He”d finally finished the fucking sandwich. ”It would be stupid to trust one organization with all of it. I wouldn”t.”

”He probably has a few different businesses that take care of it for him,” I added. ”We already found the laundromats the mafia was using.”

”And the Expo Center,” Priest added.

”Exactly,” Lock said. ”We need to find who else he”s using and put some fucking pressure on them. Force them to stop helping him. We fuck with his money, we fuck with him.”

”I can look into that,” Rip offered. ”Dash and I will see if we can find who he might feel comfortable enough to leave it with.”

”Good,” Lock said.

”Once we find the places, what then?” Ricochet asked.

”Yeah, they”re not going to stop helping him just because we ask,” Smoke pointed out.

”I can make them stop,” Butcher offered, a dark glint in his eyes.

”We have to do this clean,” Lock warned, giving him a hard look. ”We can”t leave a pile of dead bodies around the city or we”re all going to end up in fucking prison. The whole point is to take Fremont out in a way where we can”t be touched.”

”That”s askin” a lot,” Hush muttered.

”It is. So, ideas?” He looked around. ”How do we force his associates to stop working with him?”

His eyes landed on me and I groaned out loud. ”I have an idea.” But I really fucking didn”t like it.