20. 19 - Lost and Found

19 - Lost and Found

The prospects showed up shortly after I filled Ree in on the fact that her friend and my club brother were missing somewhere on the fire service roads with a crazy bitch and the Italian mafia out of Chicago gunning for them. The only good thing about it was that the Chicago thugs were used to the inner city and not many of them knew how to navigate the forests the way Trouble did.

I had no doubt that he would keep Trinity safe, but I was thankful to have everyone at the clubhouse where I could stay on top of everything that was going on. While we had been hiding out in the shop, the others had transformed the clubhouse. We were shown to what used to be Sweet’s rooms in the clubhouse. All of his personal belongings were gone and there were a couple cots set up in the space along with a couch that folded out.

“Thought maybe your woman could keep Diesel and Griff with her kids. You need the space more than Keys and I do.”

“It won’t be a problem, and we appreciate you getting us a spot with so much space.”

“Prospects already brought all your shit up from your room. Sorry to say, it was needed space for a few of the others, since we’re calling a lockdown until we get this mafia shit sorted.”

“Ghost still here?”

“Yeah, he sent Smoke and another of their men back with the women and children earlier today to get them out of the hotseat. Chief stayed behind with him. Hopper is here too, in case they need a chopper to fly in, but that fucker ain’t lookin’ too good. Steel is worried. He hadn’t seen his dad in a minute and it’s obvious that the old man has been keeping some health issues from his boy.”

“Fuck. Just what we need.”

“Yeah.”

“How are the girls holding up?”

“Not fucking well, man.” Quickshot slid his hand down his face and shook his head. We have MiMi and Angel Girl locked up downstairs until we can get them to talk.”

“What the fuck? Ghost okayed that?”

“Ghost fucking demanded it. Tash was taken out yesterday and we have two fucking people missing in action. We’re only getting spotty updates from Hollywood, and we still don’t know how deep the fucking Martinelli Family have dug in down here. Why don’t you go catch some shut eye. You look like you’ve been run off your feet.”

“I feel guilty for even thinking about sleep.”

“Yeah, well if we’re all a bunch of tired fucks, we can’t fucking fight these assholes who thought they could poach in our area.”

“You really think Angel Girl invited that trouble to our territory?”

“I think someone in their club did and Angel didn’t do shit-all about it. Not sure what the fuck has been going on with Jamie lately, but something ain’t right.” He shook off whatever thought he had but then turned around and spit it out anyway. “She’s not the same girl I grew up with or the woman who built a fucking biker chick empire.”

“When you figure it out, or hear from Trouble, come get me. That’s my woman’s best friend out there with him and she was doing a solid for the club by following that bat shit crazy bitch into the fucking forest service roads and letting us know. We need to bring her home safe and fucking sound.”

“Trying to, brother. Get some rest. I’ll send for you if anything major happens.”

I curled up behind Reesa who had Diesel tucked up to her front. Apparently, the kid had woken up at some point and she soothed him back to sleep. Fuck, but I didn’t envy Spike.

“Everything okay? Any updates?” Ree asked sleepily as I pushed in closer to her.

“Nothing new. Quickshot will send someone for me if things change.”

“Get some rest, honey. Tomorrow is going to be awful, no matter what.”

If she only knew the whole truth of that. I wondered what she would think if she knew that two of her former bosses were downstairs in what amounted to soundproofed prison cells. Then again, if the women of S.H.E. were responsible for bringing the mafia to town – the men who threatened her life and caused the chain reaction of events that took Tash’s life – I don’t think she’d give them the courtesy of taking them bread and water.

How did shit get so fucked up, so fucking quickly? That was the last conscious thought I had before sleep took me down.

“Mom,” someone whispered as the bed shook a little bit. “Mom!” The voice was louder than time. I peeked an eye open to find Josh Jr. poking at his mother’s shoulder. He leaned carefully over Diesel, so he didn’t wake him up. “Momma, I’m hungry.”

“Come on little man, let your mom sleep. She had a long day yesterday.” I got up out of bed and tossed a t-shirt on over my bare chest. I slept in jogging pants considering we had two teenagers and two preschoolers bunking in with us.

“Can I come too?” Ariel asked in a quiet voice. I turned to see that she had been watching her brother try to wake their mom.

“You let that happen?”

She shrugged. “I’m hungry too. I wasn’t able to eat much yesterday.”

“Come on, better wake your pillow too.” Under any other circumstances, I’d be pissed that my 15-year-old, soon-to-be stepdaughter was sleeping with her head on a 16-year-old boy’s chest. These just weren’t normal circumstances, and they were both fully clothed. “You know that shit won’t fly any other time, right?”

“I know.” Ariel blushed from the roots of the dirty blonde hair she had inherited from her mother right down to her damn toes.

“Everyone should be on their best behavior out there this morning, but if I tell you to shut your damn eyes, you do it without question, you got me?”

“Ew, what do you guys get up to here?”

“You don’t want to know,” Griffon told her as he patted her shoulder. “Hop up, Ariel. Need to get to the bathroom. The sweet little girl routine ended then and there as she jumped up and rushed off to the ensuite bathroom. “Me first. Boys dribble all over the seat.”

“I’m not a fucking preschooler.” Griff called out before he grumbled and left the room to go use one of the community bathrooms.

The door opened a minute later, and Griff popped his head inside. “Walker, man, you might want to get out here. A couple bikes just rolled up and everyone’s running out to greet them.”

“Thanks, kid. Be right there.”

“Go!” Reesa said. The kids and I will be right behind you.” She leaned in and gave Diesel a kiss on top of his head and then a gentle shake to wake him up. “Hey, buddy, we need to go get some food. You ready to eat again?”

Spike’s youngest son sleepily nodded his head as my woman got out of bed looking cute as fuck and rumpled all to hell. “When this shit is over, the first thing we’re going to do is put my mark on you, so everyone knows you’re mine.”

I wanted to get my ass out there to see who had come back, but there was no way I’d leave my family behind to navigate the clubhouse by themselves. “Hurry up, Ariel.” Reesa called out a warning to her daughter. “We don’t have time for you to make yourself pretty. Throw your hair up in a ponytail and let’s go.”

I rolled my eyes. “Jesus, is that what she was doing in there?”

“Most likely.” Ree muttered. “Welcome to the joys of having to share a bathroom with a teenage girl.”

Once everyone got ready, Reesa and I walked the kids out to the common area to find that Trouble and Hollywood were in the middle of what amounted to a group hug. “Oh my God! They’re back. Where is Trinity?”

The crowd parted and my woman’s friend hauled ass for her. She looked worse for the wear too. There were still a few twigs stuck in her hair and she looked like she had tried to camouflage herself in a mixture of river silt and Georgia, red clay mud.

My woman didn’t give a shit what her friend looked like. They threw themselves at one another and held on for dear life. “I was so worried about you,” Ree cried into her hair.

“Shit, Ree, you don’t even want to know what that crazy bitch tried.”

“Where is she?”

“Dead.”

“You killed her?” Reesa asked, shocked that her friend could take a life.

“Not for lack of trying, but no someone else got the pleasure.” Her eyes darted to Trouble who was unabashedly staring at the woman who he had been pushing away for so long, I didn’t think he even remembered why he started doing it. It seemed as though that was about to come to an end.

Trinity’s full attention immediately came back to Reesa. “I’m so sorry for everything you’ve been through. Why didn’t you call me?”

“I was afraid to.”

“Why?” She demanded.

“Tillie wouldn’t take us in, and I didn’t want to chance the fact that you and Shaina might get hurt. I called Walker because I knew he would keep us safe.”

My heart thudded in my chest at the conviction in her statement. Someone grabbed hold of my hand, and I nearly shook it off until I realized it was Ariel. “Thank you for taking care of us.”

“You don’t have to thank me for that shit.”

“Yeah, I do.” She let go of my hand and shocked the shit out of me by exchanging it for a hug. I wrapped my arm around Ree’s daughter and held on for dear life.

Diesel took charge of his new best friend and walked him over to a table where some of the old ladies were setting out food for everyone. “Let’s go get the boys handled and leave your mom to catch up with Trinity, okay?”

Ariel nodded her head, and I went to get a gaggle of kids sorted for breakfast while my club brothers were clumped around the clubhouse talking quietly about logistics for what was to come. The mafia still hadn’t been dealt with and as far as I knew, we also didn’t have answers for why the women’s club had gotten into bed with them.

Once I had the kids settled, I tracked down Snake. “Has anyone heard from Spike?”

“Quickshot put a prospect on him, but I’m pretty sure that Keys, JoJo, and Steel are over at his house with him. They’re sorting what needs to be done with…” Snake glanced away, and I could see the moisture in his eyes. “Fuck man. This shit is insane. Why didn’t we even know about the fucking mafia hanging around and giving out loans to begin with? Across the fucking border is less than an hour drive away. We’ve all been over there a time or three to the casino.”

“Don’t know but we’re going to find out and put a fucking end to it. They fucked up when they came after someone under club protection.”

“From what I hear, they thought they had their own club protection. Since when do the mafia get in bed with women, let alone a female motorcycle crew?”

“Not sure, but I damn sure want to find out, especially since they brought trouble into our area that took one of their own - one of our own and they were gunning for my fucking family to begin with.”

“Your family?” Snake was serious in asking it. I glanced back over my shoulder to where Reesa had parked her ass with Trinity and the kids.

“Yeah, that’s my family over there. Every damn one of them.”

“We’ll keep ‘em safe for you, brother.”