Chapter 9 Label
LABEL
POPPY
Septicemia. That was the diagnosis. Any number of things could have caused it.
But mainly, it was the byproduct of a filthy environment.
Lily almost died because she felt she couldn’t come home.
Because Austin’s brother pretended to be him, it put a wedge between us that nearly killed my baby sister.
I know I wasn’t being fair. Or even rational.
And it certainly wasn’t all Andrew’s fault.
Most of the fault was with Jewel for not providing a suitable home for her child.
But that was something we’d dealt with before.
Any time there wasn’t food in the house, any time the electricity got turned off, any time Jewel had “guests” Lily was to come home.
Home. Where she didn’t go when she really needed to because Andrew was a douche bag.
Worse? Once the Destroyers’ mechanic got a chance to check Lily’s car, we found out why it wouldn’t start at the motel.
The battery cable on her car was stripped of the connection for the battery.
Andrew’s M.O. whenever he got his hands on young girls.
Disable the car, play white knight, take care of them, and then…
ugh, fool the willing ones into a cheap relationship.
That wasn’t as awful as what he did to the ones who weren’t willing.
While I sat with Lily in the hospital and waited for the antibiotics to work, my sister and I listened to Austin explain why he went to jail so many years ago.
“He detached the battery terminal clamp while Brenda was at work. She came out and couldn’t start her car.
Andrew offered her a ride home, pretending he was me.
Of course she took it. Even if she knew the difference, why wouldn’t she accept?
” He turned Lily’s hand over to inspect the hoses keeping her alive.
“Then he raped her. She broke up with me but wouldn’t tell me why.
And I was too busy with the club to fucking ask. ” He shook his head.
Lily nodded. “When I wanted to leave, the car wouldn’t start. Eventually, I got a ride from the guy at the desk. I went to school with him. That way I didn’t have to ride with Andrew. No offense, but your brother is kind of a freak. And not in a good way.”
She barely talked over a whisper. The close call made her weak.
“Poppy?”
I hovered, waiting for Lily to say what she wanted to say, but knowing whatever it was, she needed my support and unconditional love. “Yeah baby-sis?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know he had an evil twin, and even if he didn’t, I’m not mad you hit that. Austin is an okay dude, for you. He’s a bit too serious for me. So? You and me? Are we cool?”
“Absolutely. I only want you to get better now.”
“Okay, mamasistah.”
This time, I didn’t mind the label at all.
Austin drove the truck when we went back to my house so he could retrieve his bike. I stood in the driveway as he shrugged on his coat and helmet.
“Promise me you will not go to Andrew’s with Sprout.”
He winced. “One of these days, I’m going to have to go on one of those raids. It’s part of being a Destroyer, you know that don’t you?”
“I know that they’ll have your back unless you do something stupid. So, don’t.”
Austin smiled. “I’ll be at Sprout’s if you need me.”
I was tempted to drag him inside and never let him leave. “Before you go, are we cool?”
His smile got bigger. “I think we are. Dinner next week? I get paid.”
“Why not eat here? This week.”
“I could do that. Friday?”
I nodded. Lily was getting out on Thursday. That gave my sister a day to settle in before springing Austin on her again. He rode off with a dip of the head and a low wave as he circled the end of the subdivision and passed the house on the way out.
In the quiet, I cleaned and put away Lily’s things.
It was almost eleven at night when a set of headlights blinded me from the driveway. I peeked out the window at the black SUV idling next to my truck. It didn’t look like any of the club’s vehicles. I dialed the junkyard.
“Yo, if you’re a babe, what the fuck are you doing there? Get your ass here. And if you’re a dude, fuck off.”
I didn’t recognize the prospect speaking. “It’s Poppy, Pinner’s girl, are any of the officers there?”
“Who’s Pinner? Ow!”
Jackson’s growl came over the line. “What’s up, Pops?”
“There’s a black SUV in my driveway. Did you send someone?”
“Fuck no.”
“Okay.” I hung up the phone and grabbed a heavy frying pan from the kitchen. I snuck out the back door and worked around the house until I arrived on the other side of the driveway.
Austin had the hood of my truck popped. His sleeves were rolled up, and I glanced at the bare skin there.
Bare, as in, no tattoos.
“What the fuck are you doing to my car?”
“Oh, Poppy, I didn’t see you come out.” He smiled like he knew me. Intimately.
But the cut over one eye and the slightly bruised swelling around it told me the truth. “Nice try, Andrew.”
He opened his mouth and tried to continue his farce. “Austin.”
That was a dumb thing to do. I traded the frying pad for the baseball bat I’d forgotten to put back in my truck. “How did you know where I live?”
His smile dropped and the face he wore now wasn’t pretty. “Jewel said Lily’s here. Send her out.”
Even if she were here, there would be no way I’d do anything this jerk asked for. I lifted the bat.
“What are you doing?” Andrew edged away from my truck.
“That’s my line, and your nice SUV is going to look like shit once I use this baseball bat on it. Won’t it? But that’s better than your face, right? Which will it be? Broken glass or broken face?”
Damn, I sounded just like my dad, and it was awesome. Too bad no one else got to hear me being all bad ass.
“Nice try. Put the bat down. Let’s talk.” He took a step closer. His grin was too plastic. I preferred Austin’s crooked one.
“No. You’re trespassing.”
He took another step closer.
I swung at the closest taillight. Andrew rushed me, and I used the back swing to clock him in the gut. Then I backed up into the street where I’d have more maneuvering room. A rumble of bikes, plural, broke the night’s silence.
Soon, over ten bikers rolled up on the scene.
Andrew had recovered from the air being knocked out of him and was bitching to anyone who’d listen.
Which was an audience of exactly zero. My neighbors saw me, saw the bikers, the guns they carried, and locked themselves inside before pulling their curtains shut.
“What do you want to do, Poppy?” Jackson straddled his bike. His sergeant at arms, a man aptly nicknamed “Bear,” aimed a gun at Andrew’s head. Austin wasn’t with them and neither was Sprout.
“I wanna fuck him up.”
“Please no, it was only a simple misunderstanding. You’re mad at the wrong guy. I’m not like my brother. He’s the bad guy.” Andrew eyed the bikers and cringed.
“Shut up. That won’t work on me. See, I can tell the difference in you two.” I pointed the bat at him. “My daddy didn’t raise a fool.” I swung at the unmolested taillight, and the resulting thunk and tinkle of debris sounded so good.
Andrew swallowed. “But you’re only Lily’s half-sister…”
Someone snickered behind me.
“Do I look like Jewel?” I asked.
His eyes grew a little wider.
“That’s right, I don’t. I look like my mother.
Who is the crazy woman who married Pinner Albert.
You remember him, right? He sliced some guy to pieces, literal pieces, because they fucked with Lily.
” I held his eyes and continued. “You fucked with Lily.” Then, I smashed the bat into the rear fender.
“Now, come closer, so I can do this to your head. Please?” I wiggled my fingers, inviting him to try my patience.
A dark stain spread across Andrew’s crotch and crept down his leg as the piss leaked out.
“Fucking coward,” Jackson muttered. “Good thing the gene pool dumped the garbage into this one, not Smoke.” He dismounted, pulling his own gun. “You are going to stay away from all of ours. That includes Poppy here. Understand? Poppy Albert.” He stressed my father’s last name.
A rumble from more bikes sounded in the distance, and soon the entire subdivision filled with motorcycles.
Austin dismounted and took a spot at my side. “Are you okay?”
“Yup.”
He eyed the dents in Andrew’s SUV. “Those aren’t going to buff out.”
“Nope.” I tapped the bat on the cement, deciding if I wanted to make another dent or not.
“Any witnesses?”
“Hell no. Right boys?” Jackson checked with his men. Each one of them shook their heads.
Murmurs of “Didn’t see a thing,” to “He did it himself,” were the most common phrases. There were a couple of “Poppy is a bad ass,” in there as well.
Austin walked over to my truck, where the hood was propped open. He picked up the disconnected wire and tightened the ends, then re-attached it to the battery. As he did that, I got a good look at them both.
Andrew was thinner in the shoulders, broader in the middle.
He was also an inch shorter. Maybe that could be attributed to the difference in shoes.
Austin wore heavy work boots, and Andrew had fancy tennis shoes on.
But I also noticed that the whorl of hair on Austin’s head swung high and to the left, while Andrew’s was flatter, and curled to the right.
Austin’s chin was more defined, not as soft.
In the dark, under a split-second decision, I might not be able to tell them apart, but under my garage’s flood light, it was easy.
“Here’s how it’s going to go, brother. You go home.” Austin sounded resigned.
“I can’t. Someone sent photos from the motel camera to my wife.”
“That’s a damn shame, ain’t it, boys.” Jackson chuckled.
Austin’s fist clenched. I had to jump in before he did something that would hurt his freedom. “While you’re looking for a new place to live, you might consider doing that elsewhere. See, I’m visiting Daddy tomorrow to let him know how Lily is doing, and I might just mention your name.”
Andrew paled. “You wouldn’t.”
“You might want to mention the bit about pretending to be a Destroyer, too. Least that’s the story Jewel’s claiming.
Ain’t that right, Andrew?” Jackson glared at him like he was a bug.
“Or are you going to say one of our hookers lied? See, like it or not, Jewel is ours, too, and either way, you’re in deep shit right now.
Which is it? Were you pretending to be one of us or are you calling one of ours a liar? ”
There was a gleam of maniacal joy in Jackson’s eyes.
“I never said I was a Destroyer.”
I handed Jackson my bat handle first. “For the women.” It’s a damn shame Jackson was too busy being president of the MC, his batting form was much better than mine.
When the mess was cleaned up and the bikes gone, one lingered. Austin double-checked all the windows and locks before settling next to me on my couch. His arm stretched out to drape over me. Only when it landed on my shoulder did he let out a sigh of relief. “You scared me.”
“I didn’t mean to.”
He eyed the bat sitting in the corner. The aluminum gleamed in the low light of the kitchen nightlight. “When are you planning to build?”
I turned to check him for a head wound or something that would explain the sudden shift in conversation. “Maybe a year. I don’t know. I haven’t found the right plan yet. And how would you know about that?”
“Sprout pointed out your lot from his back porch.”
I smiled. It would be so peaceful on the lake.
No nosy neighbors or street lights. And a gated driveway to deter assholes from sneaking onto someone’s property.
But the way things were going, it was so far away it seemed like a fantasy.
“Maybe more than a year from now. I don’t know.
I can’t seem to afford a place big enough.
I want one big enough for family.” My family, bikers and all.
“What if you had two incomes?”
I snorted. Even in my wildest dreams, I never included Lily in the equation. “You mean Lily? Now who’s fooling themselves?”
“I mean me. I like Sprout’s, but it would be nice to have a place that isn’t his.”
I replayed the conversations over sandwiches. “You were fishing.”
His head dipped. “When we get up tomorrow, I’m going to grab the plans I sketched up. You can look at them on the ride and let me know what you think after we visit your father.”
“You’re coming with me?” How would that work? He’d never get through the security point without prior clearance.
“Jackson sent word to Pinner to put me on the list.”
“Really? Why?”
He cleared his throat. “I need to ask his permission.”
“For?”
Austin slipped off the couch and down to one knee. “You.”
Me? As in…? “Really?”
He nodded slowly. “I want you, Poppy. More than want you. I need you. I need your sweetness, I need your vibrance, I need you like oxygen. Like the night sky needs stars. I’m not complete without you… you, the kindest, strongest, fiercest woman I ever met.”
“Fierce? I liked the sound of that.”
“I don’t, but that’s because I don’t ever want you hurt.” He picked up my fingers and kissed each one. “You’re my home. My family. And, I know that being with you means dealing with Lily. I’m ready for that. She’s going to need more than just you to keep her safe. I thought she…” He trailed off.
“Thought she what?”
There was a shrug and a shake of his head before he tried to explain. “Every time Pinner described her, I always pictured this little girl with pigtails. Never some goth chick with a chip on her shoulder. Please don’t hold that against me.” He squinted his eyes, bracing himself for a tirade.
“People aren’t always what you think they are. Look at you and your brother. He’s you, with a desk gut and questionable habits, and you can’t be more different. One look and you might not see the decency and the strong convictions you have, but they are there. And I like that man. The one you are.”
His smile grew slowly, and it was beautiful.