Chapter 13 Rock
ROCK
“Start from the beginning, and don’t leave anything out,” Brewer said.
I tossed back my shot and chased it with a beer before I settled into the couch.
“I came by after church to fill you in on shit, then I went for a ride,” I said. “I just… needed a damn ride to clear my head. None of my bars were open and I wasn’t hungry, so I stuck to my back roads and took off.”
“Sounds like you. Where did you end up?” he asked.
“On the north end of town. I followed the secondary highway up and found myself in a deserted spot I didn’t even know to exist.”
“A deserted spot in a woods town. Nice.”
“I came around a sharp corner and there it was. Some dumbass car in my lane. Lights blaring. Tires roaring down the asphalt. I figured they were drunk or texting or some shit, so I swerved. And they fucking swerved with me.”
“So, you think they intentionally tried to run you down.”
“I fucking know they did, Brewer. No tires squealed like someone tried to slam on the brakes. No horns honked like someone was trying to get my attention. Just the revving of the pathetic car engine before I ran off the damn road and tumbled into a fucking ditch.”
“Are you okay? Have you seen a doctor yet?”
“Just listen,” I said. “When I fucking woke up, I was in a house.”
“Did you get kidnapped in this story, too?”
“Cut it out, asshole. Remember the son part of all this?” I asked.
“Trust me, I’m not forgetting it.”
“You remember Piper?”
My eyes hooked with Brewer’s as he tipped back the rest of his beer.
“You good?” I asked.
“I’m going to need another one for this conversation,” he said.
“Then get me one, too.”
“Are you fucking telling me you ran into Piper?” he asked as he walked to the fridge.
“I’m telling you that she was the one who pulled me out of the ditch, fixed my fucking bike, and patched me up. She’s an E.R. doctor at the hospital in downtown.”
“She’s not,” he said.
“She really is. Told me I didn’t have a concussion, but she did stitch up a couple of places on my body. Got some stitches on the inside of my leg and on my bicep,” I said.
Brewer popped the tops off the bottles of beer before he came and sat back down.
“So, Piper’s in town, and it sounds like she’s in town for a while. What happened?”
“I thought I was dreaming. Or fucking dead. She reassured me I was neither, and we got to talking for a little bit. Found out about her job. How she moved back. Then this little boy around five years old comes running into the room with a dog and he looks just like me, Brewer.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“No. I’m not. Gray eyes. Thick blonde hair. Tall as fuck for a five-year old. He’s even got my one fucking dimple, Brewer. On his left cheek like I do.”
“Holy shit. You have a kid,” Brewer said.
“I have a son, man. I have a family. I had a family before any of you other assholes had a family.”
“Then why the hell are you here? Why aren’t you with them?”
“Because Diesel called telling me he came over here and he wanted me to come check on you. Plus, I’m sure he’s gonna call some fucking church soon anyway.”
“When do you see your son next?”
“I haven’t worked that shit out yet. Piper doesn’t think I can protect them or take care of them. She doesn't want me around Gavin because I’m still associated with the club.”
“Gavin? Is that--?”
“My son, yes,” I said.
Brewer sat back into his chair as I grabbed my beer.
I chugged it back, allowing the alcohol to slip down effortlessly.
The burn didn’t erase my memory like I thought it would.
Instead, it brought them back. Memories of going out with Piper and fucking her until she begged for mercy.
Memories of drinking her under the table before parting her delicious thighs and chasing my alcohol down with the taste of her arousal.
Memories of her wrapping her arms around my waist and pressing her massive tits into my back while we cruised through the woods.
“Do you want to be in your son’s life?” Brewer asked.
“Hell yeah, I do. I want to be an influence on him. You should’ve heard how pissed off he was when I had to leave. He kept going on and on about how Piper always shoved good guys away instead of letting them stay. He yelled at his mother to make me stay and not make me go.”
“He what now?”
“Yeah. And the guilt in Piper’s face made me want to step up as his father and tell him to respect his mother’s wishes. I’d already done it once. I wanted to do it again.”
“You what now?” he asked.
“Piper cooked lunch for us. Stir fry. Apparently, it’s my son’s favorite.”
“Holy shit, he is your son. You’re eating that damn meal every time I come see you.”
I chuckled and shook my head as I twirled the empty beer bottle in my fingers.
“I told him I fixed cars for a living and he said he wanted to learn how to do it, too. Which swelled me with a pride I’ve never experienced before.”
“I can only imagine,” he said.
“Yeah. Piper said she would think about it and Gavin got snippy with her. Saying things like ‘that always means no’ and shit like that. So, I took his hand and told him that moms always had a reason for everything they did and said, so he needed to respect his mother’s opinion and apologize.”
“Sounds like you slip into a fatherly role easier than you thought.”
“Wipe that fucking grin off your face.”
“Not a chance,” Brewer said.
“It burned my blood to know that Piper had dated. To know that other men had been around my son, but not me. But I get it.”
“Get what?”
“Why she doesn’t want me around Gavin. Just because I have a kid I didn’t know about doesn’t change the life I lead.
Especially with someone trying to run me off the fucking road?
And you being attacked in your own home?
Having to fight for your damn life? Having a rat in the club?
It’s a dangerous time to be us, and our families are going to reap the consequences of that.
Gavin and Piper included. I can’t blame her for not wanting me around him. But I want to be, eventually.”
“Can we rewind to that car shit for a second?” he asked.
“Yep.”
“You intentionally got run off the road. We need to tell Diesel about that. But privately.”
“What the hell were the two of you talking about when he came over here? He didn’t sound very happy when he called.”
“I told him about my insistence on a rat, but I didn’t tell him who,” he said.
“With his knee-jerk reaction, I didn’t know if he could handle the idea that it was Mick.
Diesel is finally coming to terms that there’s a rat, but this is hurting him a lot more than it’s hurting any of us.
He takes shit like this personally, but his emotions are getting the best of him. ”
“Doesn’t shock me. Diesel’s analytical, but he’s more sensitive than the rest of us. There’s a reason he chooses diplomatic approaches rather than going in guns blazing like Grave or Knox,” I said.
“We need to tell him about your incident, though,” Brewer said. “Privately.”
“I agree with that. Bringing it up at church around Mick will only tip those fuckers off that we suspect foul play. But why not clue in Knox and Grave?”
“Honestly? I’m paranoid as fuck right now.
I don’t know their personal relationship with Mick outside of the club, so I don’t want to take chances.
I don’t talk to him much outside of the group and I know you don’t talk to him at all outside of the group.
So as far as I’m concerned, you and Diesel are the only two I trust right now with the conclusions I’ve come to. ”
“Fair enough. We’ll talk to Diesel in private about it, then.”
“Are you going to tell him about Gavin and Piper?” he asked.
I threw back the last of my second beer before I let out a heavy sigh.
“I think I’m gonna have to.”
“Good, because I think you should. We need to get a plan in place to protect them if something does happen. I don’t think they’re in danger right now, but I know if you want to keep in contact with them, it’s wise to have something in place. Diesel can help with that.”
“I’m never gonna hear the end of this from the fucking guys.”
“With how hard you’ve ragged on us for having families? Oh, hell no,” Brewer said with a grin.
I sat with my friend for a little while longer before I embraced him and left.
I headed back to my rundown apartment and parked my bike out of view, and the first thing I did was take pictures of my bike.
I wanted to document all this shit in case we needed it for something.
I took pictures of the bent handlebars. The dents with the paint in them.
The scratches on the outer surface of my bike.
Then I picked off the green flakes of paint and put them in a baggie to keep in case I needed to reference the color of the damn car.
I walked inside and tossed everything onto the kitchen counter.
I slid my cut off and tossed it over a chair, then went straight for my computer.
I wanted to talk to Piper again, but it was too risky going back to her place.
After the uproar with Gavin, I didn't want to upset him anymore.
Nor did I want to upset her. So, I sat down at my computer, cracked my fingers, and got to work.
Ten minutes later, after cracking into databases I had no business being in, I had Piper’s cell number in my possession.
I cleared my history and shut down my equipment, putting everything through a hard reboot like I did every fucking time I fished around for something.
I sat back in the chair as it groaned underneath my weight and looked at the number I’d punched into my phone.
Then I pressed the ‘call’ button and held it to my ear.
“Hello?”
That sweet, innocent, luxurious voice.
“Hey, Piper.”
The beat of silence was deafening before I heard her sigh.
“Hi, Rock.”
“Don’t sound too happy at my expense,” I said.
“How did you get my number?”
“Do you remember that little about me?”
“What is it?”
“You sound like you just woke up.”
“That’s because I did. I decided to get a nap in while Gavin’s sleeping,” she said.
“Didn’t mean to wake you.”
“Yes, you did.”
“I meant to get in touch with you. Not wake you up. I didn’t know you were sleeping. Had I known, I would’ve let you sleep.”
“Thanks,” she said. “Now what is it?”
“I want to talk with you. Just the two of us. One on one. Is that something we can arrange?”
“I’m not sure,” she said. “What do you want to talk about?”
“Everything,” I said. “About Gavin. About how you’ve been. About how we can possibly work this out. I meant what I said when I left this afternoon. I want to prove to you that I deserve to be in Gavin’s life.”
“In my life?” she asked.
It was a question I hadn’t expected her to ask with such fervor in her voice.
“Do you want to be in my life?”
The silence kept me on the edge of my chair as I leaned forward and rested my forearm on top of my desk.
“I don’t know,” Piper said. “I’m not really sure of anything at the moment.”
“Which is why we should get together and talk.”
“That statement had a very different connotation a few years ago.”
“It doesn't have that connotation now,” I said. “I really do want to talk. Converse. Like two adults who have a child together.”
“Rock, this happened very fast--”
“You’re telling me,” I said.
“I need some time to think.”
“Then you can think out loud to me. If I promise not to try and change your mind about anything right now, will you meet with me?”
“Is that a promise you can make?” she asked.
“It is now, yes.”
“Rock?”
“Yes, Piper?”
“Did you ever love me?”
The mere fact that she could ask me such a fucking question punched me so hard in my gut I saw stars.
“It’s the one thing I ask myself. I look at Gavin some nights while he’s sleeping and I wonder if he was conceived out of love.”
“I think that’s a question I should answer while looking in your eyes, Piper.”
I heard her sniffle and it made me bristle. She was crying. And no one was there with her. That was bullshit. No woman should cry alone, especially one who had dealt with the shitty fucking hand that life had handed Piper.
“Okay,” she said. “Let’s get together and talk.”