Chapter 4
I could feel Charlie’s eyes on me, but I refused to give her any attention because I didn’t do that soft shit.
Izzy was famous for embarrassing herself, but this time, she had crossed the line. My blood was boiling, and having Charlie witness Izzy’s meltdown only added fuel to the fire. Charlie’s presence had Izzy in her feelings, and I couldn’t understand why.
Charlie and Hendrix’s arrival caused us to speak more than we had in the last few months.
“Come take a walk with me.”
I stood up, turned, and held out my hand to Charlie.
“A walk where?” Her brows dipped, and I bit my lip so I wouldn’t smile.
“Outside. Now come on.”
Charlie looked at my hand for a long while, then placed her hand in mine.
When she was on her feet, she tried to snatch it back, but I held on. I led her to the door, but she pulled back again, and I stopped walking to look down at her. Charlie’s eyes were on Boss and Hendrix, and I nodded, even though she wasn’t looking at me. I pulled my cell phone from my jacket pocket and FaceTimed my brother.
He looked at his phone, then looked up, so I raised my hand.
“What you callin’ me for?”
Charlie looked at me and rolled her eyes.
“Charlie and I are about to walk around the block. She knows Hendrix is good with us. She just wanted to have an excuse why she couldn’t join me, and I eliminated it.”
“You’re an asshole, you know that?” She huffed.
I shrugged and tugged her toward the door.
Several of the guys looked but tried to act like they were busy. Charlie squeezed my hand like she was hurting me and that time, I couldn’t keep my laugh to myself. Her only response was to suck her teeth. When we were outside, I stopped right at the entrance and stared into her eyes. She smoothed a piece of her hair behind her ear and looked to the left.
I gripped her chin and brought her face back toward me.
“Is there a reason you dragged me out here? It’s cold?—”
I removed my leather jacket from my shoulders and tossed it across hers.
“I needed a second to escape the noise.” I swiped a hand down my beard and sighed. “Sorry about Izzy. She really does way too much too often. The fact that Boss had to call her father just for her to get off my back is embarrassing, especially since she’s ten years older than me.”
“No need to apologize for her behavior. She’s in complete control of her actions. What’s the deal with you two?”
That was such a loaded question.
There was a point in time when Izzy was my old lady, and she was the only thing I could see. Boss hated her, and my father loved her, so that should have been the first red flag I listened to. However, it took me five years to see that I was just a pawn in a game I didn’t know I was playing.
It was too much to unpack, so I shrugged.
“It’s complicated.”
“Well, uncomplicate it. She’s acting as if you’re treating her the way you do for no reason.”
I looked Charlie over, then said, “I’ll tell you what’s up with me and Izzy if you tell me your real name.”
I smirked, and Charlie turned on her heels and walked toward the direction of my shop.
Laughing, I followed behind her as she marched on. I wasn’t sure what she was looking for, but it couldn’t have been for me to give her all my business when she had yet to be honest since she was found on the side of the road. Actually, she had been telling the truth about needing to get out of Rushin Mills and Hendrix’s name. It was cool, because I had Tech looking into her. However, I wanted to hear the details come from her mouth.
Either way, I would solve the mystery of who her husband was.
“Why do they call you Arrow?
“If I tell you, I’ll have to kill you.”
“You are impossible.” She blew out a breath.
I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and ushered Charlie to the locked doors.
There was a keypad to the right of the door, and I made a big show of turning her away and entering the code. Charlie giggled and scoffed. The code recycled every seventy-two hours, but I figured if I made a fuss, it’d add to my mystery. As soon as we crossed the threshold, I flipped the lights on, and Charlie gasped. The showroom floor had a bike, sedan, and truck that were wrapped in different colors.
Charlie walked around each vehicle and lightly brushed her fingertips against them.
“You did all this?”
“These, yes, but I have a team with me. I’m mostly on paperwork now, keeping up with orders.”
“I’ve always wanted to design jewelry. I love working with my hands.”
I nodded because I agreed.
Working with your hands was a different type of art. I wanted to ask her why she never got into her passion, but I knew the answer. Charlie’s husband—even though I didn’t know him—was the type that kept focus on him to feel important.
Charlie enjoying something that didn’t serve him wouldn’t be accepted.
“Really? Like a jeweler, or them pieces that your kid makes you with string and macaroni?”
A snort followed by laughter flew from Charlie’s mouth, and she covered it with her hand.
“You’re annoying.” She wiped the corners of her eyes. “Not like a jeweler, but the same concept of a macaroni necklace.” She giggled. “It’ll be handmade jewelry with different beads, stones, and fun things.”
“Shit sounds legit. Maybe now you can look into it and step into your purpose.”
She cocked her head to the left and squinted as she stared at me.
Instead of making our space awkward, I grabbed her hand and led her over to Buck’s bike. Snoopy was in the process of removing the current wrap, and the new wrap was on the work bench. Charlie started to climb onto his bike, but I lifted her in the air and set her on the empty space on the work bench. If she were to ever get on somebody’s bike, it would be mine.
She looked surprised but didn’t comment, probably afraid of the answer.
“Tell me why they call you Arrow? I know that can’t be your real name. I’ll tell you my real name when you tell me why they call you Arrow.”
The reason wasn’t some big secret, but I let her think it was because she wasn’t ready to come completely clean.
“You really want to know?”
She nodded and jumped off the table.
“Yup. You at least owe me that for the whole kidnapping thing.”
I hiked my left eyebrow and folded my arms over my chest.
Charlie mocked my movements, and we stared at one another for what felt like five minutes. I admitted to wanting to kill her husband, but showing this stranger what made me… me seemed like the wrong move. However, the longer I looked into her eyes, I questioned if I just didn’t want to show her the real me because I didn’t want her to be afraid. Charlie was the first person to look at me like she could take me if I stepped to her wrong instead of being afraid of my size and permanent scowl. She was about to give in, and that gave me the push I needed to let her in.
I stood to my full height and used my head to point behind me toward the back of the building where my shed was.
“Now, when we go in here, don’t touch nothing. Doc is off for the next two days, and I would hate for you to bleed out on my clean floors.”
“Whatever. If you’re trying to scare me, it’s not going to work. I’m learning that you’re mostly all talk. Well, unless it’s Boss or Izzy.”
I snorted a laugh.
“Maybe I just feel sorry for you, so I’m acting out of character.”
“Uh-huh.”
She didn’t have to believe me, but the Arrow she was getting wasn’t one that existed for a long time.
I took my keys out of my pocket, picked up the silver lock, slid the key inside, and twisted it. I removed the lock and slid both the lock and keys into my pocket. My movements must have been too slow for Charlie because she pushed the door open and stopped in her tracks with her mouth hanging wide open.
She turned toward me, and it wasn’t hard to read the look in her eyes.
“You’re not surprised?”
She laughed and shook her head.
“Sir, your name is literally arrow. It was kind of self-explanatory, but I was looking for more of the story behind it. However, I can see that your love for arrows may be borderline obsessive because, why are there so many bows and arrows?”
I shrugged. “What can I say? The story isn’t really all that interesting.” I lied.
The truth was, long before I understood what being a part of the Riding Rebels meant, I vowed to never use a gun.
It was easy for me to spot certain things in Charlie because I’d seen them in my mother. My father had a hands problem, and my mother was always on the receiving end of his problem. One day, his hands were replaced by his pistol, and my mother was taken away from me forever. At a young age, I realized that guns didn’t kill people but people with guns did, but there was something about pulling a trigger I didn’t like.
Boss understood, so he made sure everyone in our club did too.
“Well, tell me anyway.”
Charlie walked away from me and ventured deeper into the shed, looking at my babies in awe.
“When I was nine, I watched archery on the Olympics and told Boss that it was something I wanted to do. My brother hates to admit it because he’s a bitch, but whatever I want, he can’t deny me. So, one day he takes me up the road to Annapolis where all the white people be?—”
Charlie’s eyes grew, and she folded her lips inward and shook her head.
“Arrow, please just tell the story.”
“Anyway. He took me to Annapolis, and I got lessons. I fell in love immediately. The more and more I practiced, the better I got. I couldn’t compete, but Boss made sure to perfect my skills in different ways.”
I looked in Charlie’s eyes, saying what I couldn’t out loud, and she nodded.
She didn’t know club business, but baby girl wasn’t stupid. My attraction to her went up a few notches, and it burned my chest. Charlie wanted out, and I didn’t want to pull her into my world. What woman would accept a violent mate after leaving one? I was trying to convince myself to let this woman be, but I knew God made her for me.
Now I just had to decide how to turn this temporary situation into a permanent one.
“Sorry to cut into the love fest, but I think my nephew just blew up the clubhouse. Come handle this, or he’ll be sitting outside waiting for y’all.”
I forgot Boss had been on the phone. He must have had me on mute the whole time.
“Crybaby, we’re on the way back.”
“Hurry up, bitch.”
The three beeps sounded, and I took my cell phone out of the pocket on my vest.
It was cold out here, but since Charlie had my jacket, I would have to suffer through. We left the shed, and I locked up. The walk back inside the shop was quiet, and I reveled in the space of silence.
I was looking down at my cell phone when I ran into the back of Charlie.
“My bad. You good?”
“I have a question.” I inclined my head, and she said, “Arrows aren’t common. If you have to use one, how is it not easily traced back to you? Aren’t you worried that someone will put your name with the crime?”
I chuckled and used my hand to push her forward slightly.
“Assuming that I use my choice of weapon in crimes… I would never shit where I sleep. Now, let’s go because, from experience, Boss is ignorant enough to sit the baby outside.”
He wouldn’t, actually, but I needed her to beat her feet.
Charlie didn’t need to be asking questions like that, so there was no point in entertaining it. Since the clubhouse was only a few doors away from my shop, it took us no time to get back. Charlie opened the door, and before she could even blink, Hendrix was back in her arms. Once his body landed against hers, I turned my nose up because, how was it possible for a baby to smell like that.
Since knowing them, Charlie had been exclusively breastfeeding, so whatever she ate wasn’t agreeing with him.
“Ooh, somebody needs a bath?—”
“Or an enema.”
The way Charlie’s mouth turned down, I could tell she didn’t want to laugh, but it happened anyway.
“See, asshole. Come on, papa. Let’s get away from your haters.”
I watched her walk away, and Boss hit me upside the head.
When I turned to face him, his face was blank. Without him opening his mouth, I knew he would be on some bull, and I didn’t want to hear it. No matter Boss’s role in the Riding Rebels, he would always be my big brother first. He wanted to talk, so I followed him back outside. Boss leaned up against the side of the building, pulled out his medicine and lighter, then fired up.
I didn’t like my reality distorted, so I never indulged, but I didn’t judge those who did.
“Why you playin’?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I looked off toward the road before I looked back at Boss. “I’m not playing. I just want to give her something I can tell she ain’t had in a while if ever. We all deserve peace at least once in our lives. I will get him, but right now, she’s existing in a world free of turmoil. I ain’t ready to snatch that shit up yet. But you know when it’s time, we up.”
“Oh, for sure. My sis-in-law won’t ever have to look over her shoulder again.”
I waved him off because he was trying to get me to admit that Charlie was here for more than information on her husband.
Any other time, I would have been breathing down a shorty’s neck because I hated repeating myself, but for Charlie, I let her make it. Tech hadn’t popped up with new information, so I figured I had more time to pretend. Honestly, it was better for everyone if things continued at its current pace.
Boss ashed his blunt and stood up straight.
“You out?” I asked as I dapped him up.
“Yeah. I need to ride out early to see if Billings been running off at the mouth about Buck. His bitch said her husband called the police talkin’ ’bout filing a complaint saying he witnessed Buck assaulting his wife?—”
“Aww, damn. That’s really all that man needs to come back around harassing us. I should kick Buck’s ass.”
“Nah, let me put some ears to the ground, because it’s sounding like ol’ boy want to meet Jesus.”
A bark of laughter slipped out, and I had to walk away from Boss.
When I made it inside, there were only a few guys left, so I let them know the clubhouse was shutting down and to move the excitement to the bar. Usually, they could stay for however long, but with Charlie and Hendrix there, they needed to take their rowdy asses elsewhere. I would only have to make the request once, so I left them to shut the place down. In the room, Hendrix was asleep in the middle of the bed, and I heard the shower going.
I stripped down to my basketball shorts and wife beater, climbed into the bed, and picked Hendrix up to lay him on my chest, dozing off.
“And just when I thought I got rid of you.”
I stirred at the sound of Charlie’s voice and scoffed.
“Ain’t no way you thought that.” I rubbed Hendrix’s back then looked at his mother. “You smell good.”
“Why thank you. Are you staying here again?”
She knew I was, so I didn’t bother to answer her.
I had a home I could go to, but like last night, this was where I wanted to end up. None of this made sense, but the more I fought it, the closer I wanted to be to her and this baby. Kids had never been on my radar, but this curly-haired boy was mine. Boss knew it like I did, and that was why he called Hendrix nephew and Charlie sis-in-law. They’d grown on us in no time, so yeah… I’d be here tonight and every night until they were ready to permanently be in my home.
There was only one way out of Rushin Mills, and I stood by that.
“Yeah. Now get yo’ fine ass in the bed so I can go to sleep.”
She looked at me with her hands on her hips, and my response was to turn on the television.
“He can’t sleep like that?—”
“Hendrix and I are good. Bed, now.” I smiled because I could tell Charlie wanted to reach over and pop me in the mouth.
Baby girl was feisty, and I couldn’t help but wonder how she was with her husband. Charlie wasn’t the lie there and take it type. Two days told me that, so who was the man that managed to break her?
I wouldn’t settle until I knew the whole truth.