Chapter Fifteen
Dani
The next couple days go by without anything happening. I was finally able to convince Anastasia to visit me at the club.
She brought by lunch from her favourite place, and a case of coolers.
“Day drinking?” I ask in amusement when she stops beside me.
“Well, as you know, I can’t handle hard alcohol very well. Plus, they never seem to stock any coolers here, which is what I prefer to drink,” she says while putting the twelve pack down and opening one.
She hands me one and I shake my head. “When I can spend more than a few hours off my pain meds, I will gladly girl it up with you on those,” I tell her. Hopefully, within the next couple weeks to a month, I will be fine. I have been very cautious to make sure I don’t do anything to slow down my healing.
“Are you feeling okay?” she asks me as she takes a container out and hands it to me before placing the other one in her lap.
“I’m getting better. The pain is decreasing every day, but I still don’t get to do much, which is basically causing me cabin fever. No one will let me do anything. Zane, my parents, Zeke; heck, his parents are even in on it,” I say while throwing my hands in the air in frustration.
“You make it sound like a conspiracy,” she says with a laugh.
“I know; I’m just bored. Everyone is gone most of the day. Whisky has been spending a lot of time in his room with the nurse, and we all know what they are doing, and N has been getting extra attention from a certain club whore. So, I sit here and ask random questions to whomever happens to walk by,” I tell her.
“I’m sure we can find something to do that doesn’t require much movement,” Anastasia says.
“There’s no point in hitting on me now; I’m too crazy about Zane,” I say with a wink.
“You would be so lucky,” she says throwing her hair over her shoulder.
I finally open my container, and my mouth waters at what’s inside.
Tacos. Oh my, I could live on these. They smell amazing.
“I think your chances just increased,” I whisper in awe.
She looks at the expression on my face and bursts out in laughter. “Seriously… Tacos make you want to put out?”
I nod my head, completely unashamed. “I would totally do you for a taco. Especially one that smells this amazing,” I whisper.
“Wow, I never had such an intriguing offer before. That’s good to know. If I ever want in your pants, I’ll show up with a bag of tacos and tell you to drop your pants,” she says dryly.
I choke on my food but, once I clear out my throat, I burst out in laughter.
“Well, now you have to tell me what kind of food you would drop your pants for,” I say before taking a bite and moaning loudly.
Her eyes widen and her cheeks turn pink. “Wow, that was pornographic,” she says with a chuckle.
“I can’t help it; they are as good as they smell,” I tell her with a shrug. “Now answer the question,” I say, raising an eyebrow at her.
She takes the time to think it over. “Well, I guess since I brought you my favourite food it would have to be these burritos. They are made with homemade tortillas. I eat there at least three times a week.”
“See? We were destined to be best friends. We have amazing taste in food,” I tell her with a smile.
My dad walks out from his office and sees the both of us sitting there giggling.
“What’s going on here?” he asks before taking a seat beside me.
“We are just having lunch. Talking about food,” I tell him, which causes both of us to laugh again.
“Ana, you know you don’t have to bring your own drinks. You can help yourself to whatever is at the bar,” he says while looking at the box by Ana’s feet.
“Oh, I know. I normally would, but you guys don’t carry coolers. Which I guess makes sense since it’s mostly the brothers drinking and there haven’t been many Old Ladies around in years,” she tells him with a shrug.
“We will have to change that. I have a feeling that things are going to change around here as far as Old Ladies go,” he says with a smile.
“Thank you,” Anastasia says with a small smile.
My dad gets up to leave, so Anastasia and I are alone again.
“Let’s play a game after we eat,” I say.
“What did you have in mind?” she asks warily.
“Nothing crazy,” I tell her.
That’s how we end up sitting on the couch and flinging hair ties at a stack of empty cans. Every time Anastasia finishes a drink, she places another one on the stack.
It’s not the craziest thing we could be doing, but I never realised how competitive Anastasia was until now.
Every time she gets one, she shouts and jumps up off the couch.
“Yes! I win again! You lose, sucker! Time to pay up!” she says with her fists in the air as she dances around in a circle.
“I don’t think I have ever seen Anastasia so excited,” mutters someone.
I freeze through my laughter and look at the doorway to see Tiny, Zane, Knuckles, and Viking standing there watching us.
“How long have you been standing there?” Ana asks them with an embarrassed expression.
“Enough to see you whoop some ass,” Knuckles says with a cheer.
“Well, it was all I could do since Dani isn’t well enough to put out for tacos,” she says with a sigh.
Their jaws all drop open. “I’m sorry, what?” Zane asks.
“Don’t listen to her; she’s drunk,” I say, waving off Anastasia.
“Rage, what’s with your woman always trying to take mine?” Viking asks, walking into the room and grabbing Anastasia to pull her onto his lap.
“I’m not trying anything! She brought me tacos, so that means she wants me to, what was it?” I say trying to remember.
“Drop your pants,” Anastasia slurs with a drunken smile.
“Right. That was the deal. If I want in hers, I have to bring her burritos with homemade tortillas and tell her to drop her pants,” I say.
“Can anyone get in on this kind of deal?” Knuckles says, looking pretty interested in the answer.
“Nope. That’s just Dani’s and my deal,” Anastasia states.
“I feel like this should be open to other people… I would buy you ladies all the tacos and burritos,” he says with a wink.
“Well, that’s not nice,” I say, giving him a fake frown.
“What do you mean?” he asks, looking confused. Everyone else asks looks at me in confusion as well.
“Don’t you think that would make Rock jealous?” I tease.
Everyone but Knuckles laughs. “Very funny,” he mocks.
I look back over to Anastasia who is now leaned back against Viking. She has her eyes closed and it looks like she has fallen asleep. When I look up, I see that Viking is staring down at her with a small frown.
I really hope those two can work out their issues.
I have a feeling it will break both of them if they can’t.
Zane
There never seems to be a dull moment between Dani and Anastasia. I’m glad they are having fun; even if I don’t understand half of the shit that comes out of their mouths.
Viking takes Ana back his room when it’s clear she fell asleep.
I look over when the door opens, and Zeke comes in hauling boxes of beer. Guess he’s on prospect duties right now. Stocking up the bar is one of the simpler jobs.
Everyone is talking amongst themselves. When I look back over at him, I see him carrying several boxes of coolers followed by a mini fridge.
“What’s with the coolers?” I shout.
“Prez wanted to have drinks the women would like and a place to put them,” he says and slaps a hand on the mini fridge.
We already have a couple mini fridges behind the bar with the different beers we like to drink. The doors are glass so everyone can see what is inside. There is room for a third one, so it seems to work perfectly to have one for coolers.
Above the bar is just your basics of whisky, vodka, tequila, and rum. I notice Zeke pulling out some different bottles once he has the fridge set up and ready to cool down.
“And those?” I ask, deciding to get up and walk over to him.
“Apparently Dani and Ana had talked to Prez about how the women had nothing to drink. I was already buying shit for the bar, so Prez requested I get coolers and any of the girly liquors that I think Dani and Ana would love,” Zeke says with a chuckle.
“That’s a good idea. We need to keep the Old Ladies happy,” I tell him.
“I have a feeling we are going to have more women around here,” I tell him.
“There doesn’t seem to be many Old Ladies. There are the older ones, sure; but, even then, there aren’t many of them,” he states.
“Well, there were more when I was growing up, but there had been a few deaths. Some natural and some at the hands of rival clubs. Sometimes shit happens. We can protect them as much as we want, but sometimes there are things that are out of our control,” I say.
“We can’t control what happens in life, but I know you will protect Dani as much as you can,” he says, looking at me with a serious expression.
“I’ll do whatever it takes to keep her safe,” I say without breaking eye contact so that he knows how serious I am.
I spend the rest of the afternoon with my brother and Dani. Thoughts of protecting her keep going through my head.
Tank comes in and sits next to me, signaling Zeke to hand him a beer. He does without question.
“How’s it going, brother?” I ask. He rarely comes out here. He has been spending lots of time trying to find his Old Lady.
“Alright. I just needed a break for a bit,” he says, but I raise an eyebrow at him, not believing him. He never just takes a break.
He looks at me and chuckles with a shake of his head. “Mama said she would wreck all my monitors and any device I used if I didn’t take a break.”
I nod my head in understanding. “Yeah, that sounds like Mama.”
“Any luck finding her?” I ask him.
He shakes his head. “No, I don’t have much to go on, but I just can’t stop myself from trying,” he admits.
“If you ever need help, just let me know, brother,” I say.
“Will do,” Tank says with a sigh.
Everyone hopes that Tank will find his Old Lady but, with each week that passes, you can see his disappointment increase.
“I think you will find her in time. Especially with how determined you are,” I tell him.
“I don’t know what the fuck it is about that woman. I know she saved me. She’s the one who found me and stuck around because she wanted to make sure that I recovered,” he says with a sigh.
“Sometimes when you find the one, you just know. Fuck that’s what it was about Dani. I knew the second I laid eyes on her that she was mine, and that I would do anything to claim her,” I say.
“You are right about that. I wish I would have gotten her name before she took off,” he mutters.
I have a feeling that he will find her eventually, but only when the time is right. I hope that it’s sooner rather than later though, since I can see how much it’s breaking him apart.
Everything happens for a reason. I wasn’t sure I believed that until I met Dani. I look over to her with Zeke.
They were two club kids who were taken away from the club for two different reasons and, yet, somehow, they found each other before they came back home.
We started looking into the adoptive agency that Zeke’s adoptive parents had gotten him from. Whizz has spent time looking into their files and, so far, each one looks legit.
The one thing I can think of is that the brother who betrayed the club had paid someone higher up to push through and get Zeke into it. Everyone else we found was through a different system, and that has to be why we were only able to find them and not Zeke. He made it impossible for us to track where Zeke went, since we were spending time looking through human trafficking and the dark web instead of legitimate adoptive agencies.
We just need to find out which person was paid off to take Zeke and adopt him out.
I have no worries. I think we will find whomever they are, and they will pay for everything they have done.
No one will get away with this.