Chapter Twenty-Two
ILEFT THE SHOP early and headed to the club, leaving Rocket to lock up.
He was using a spare ride I had there, a backup of my own I’d been modding slowly over time, just as a fun project.
He was already suggesting all kinds of spray jobs for it, but I knew I’d probably let him.
For now, I was glad it gave him two wheels to use while we repaired the fucked engine, after he dropped a valve.
“Oh there he is. Casanova himself,” Micro joked as he watched me head toward the office building to see him.
“At least I’ve still got it,” I snarked back as I joined him, accepting a bro hug and breath-stealing back slap from the fucker.
“Jesus,” I gasped out as he released me, “What do you do to people you don’t like?” He sobered for a moment, and I felt like such a prick. I knew I’d just reminded him of his former misdeeds, and that hadn’t been my intention, had it?
“Sorry, I didn’t think.”
He shrugged, scratching at the back of his neck as he headed down the hall to his office.
“So… Rocket said his engine exploded or some shit?”
I snorted. “He’s so dramatic. He only fucked up his whole engine... It’ll be fixed soon enough. I needed to get a replacement ordered in. He’s got my spare ride for now.”
Micro sat behind his desk as I closed the door and took the opposite seat.
“It’s one of the things I’m thinking we need to consider actually.”
“Breaking Rocket’s ride?”
He smirked, getting up to grab two black coffees, sliding one over to me.
“Backup rides. The other Phoenix chapter has them, and we should too. Not just for this, but for covert shit. I’m thinking we get in five or six, and you trick them out? We’ll go black, incognito, and store them in this funky shed you’re gonna organise. How’s that going, by the way?”
Yeah. I’d kinda dropped the ball there, while I’d been… Jesus, don’t make some glib references to my balls, and Caroline.
“My uh… friend… will help with drawing up plans. She’s finishing a project tomorrow, so I’ll see about getting her here after that, to see the site, and talk through what I’m considering.”
His lips twitched every time I mentioned her, but he nodded.
“The plan’s still to raze the place to the ground, and start from scratch?”
I nodded. “We’d bring in some temporary housing and stuff, so we can continue on with everything. I can store some stuff at my shop too, and my flat, so there’s room to manoeuvre.”
Micro picked up his tablet and fiddled with it.
“Thinking I’d like a proper kitchen and eating area here. It’ll be easier for when some of us are staying, so it’s more social than all fucking off to rooms. We need more socialising going on. This club still feels like a bunch of pissed off guys who don’t wanna hang together.”
He wasn’t wrong, but then I wasn’t sure how long it took for a club to come together as a family after being decimated, half of them murdered, and being patched over by force.
“Reacher got any advice for ya? This isn’t his first rodeo, right?”
Micro opened his mouth, and then groaned as someone pounded obnoxiously on the door.
“Fucking Grease. I can tell it’s him from the knock.”
“Shall we pretend we’re not here?” I suggested, smirking at him.
“I can hear you fuckers, you know.”
He opened the door and pushed it closed, dragging the spare chair up to the desk.
“This is a meeting with my VP, man.”
He shrugged. “I had some info, but if you don’t want it, I can just fuck off and go do my old lady.”
“Speaking of which, when are you making that official?” I asked, because if we were off topic, why not go wayyyy off topic.
He rolled his eyes, slouching back in his chair, and propping his boots up on the desk. As I could have predicted, that led to a fierce glare from Micro, just before he slapped his feet away from the desk.
“Every. Fucking. Time,” he gritted out, as Grease grinned at him.
“You’re so easy, man.”
“You wish.”
“And on the old lady subject, Jay is being a stubborn little minx, and honestly, I don’t want that prick, Rocket, inking either of us, so yeah. We’re nowhere with that right now.”
“He’s good people, man, and his ink work is impeccable.”
“So’s his spraying,” I added, and Grease shrugged.
“I’m still not liking the cunt, so it is what it is, right?”
Micro cursed, getting up and pacing. “This is what I’m talking about though! Nobody’s fucking gelling together here. It’s like a bunch of individuals, who mostly don’t seem to like each other, and I don’t know how to fix that.”
I glared at Grease as he opened his mouth, and spoke before he could come out with some snarky comment.
“I think the rebuild will help with this, Pres. We’ll have to come together as a community to facilitate it.
A demo party will give us an occasion to work together, and then we’ll have the rebuild work.
I’ve been going through some of the guys’ details, and I can see we have pretty much every trade covered.
If they can’t do the work, they’ll have contacts we can hire in. ”
Grease frowned at me. “You’re doing the legwork? That’s my job. I was already fucking doing it.”
Micro slammed a palm against the desk and glared at both of us. What now? What’d I do?
“If even you two are arguing, what fucking chance do I have of making this work? I swear, the longer I’m here, the more impossible this fucking seems!”
He dropped heavily into his seat and grabbed his head in his hands.
“Okay, Pres, just breathe. I swear, we’re just fucking around.
It’s cool if Harley wants to bogart my job.
I have plenty of other stuff I can get done.
On the subject of that, it’ll be best if we plan out the new camera positions and things on the new buildings when we’re at the design stage.
Then we can route all the cabling through inside the walls and shit. ”
Micro groaned and rested his forehead against the desk with a soft thud, and I exchanged a worried frown with Grease.
“What’s going on, Pres. You’re usually pretty uh… well, not like this, I mean,” I fumbled for the right words, but it wasn’t easy to ask without sounding like a nosy prick, “Uh… is Soph okay?”
He sighed heavily, sitting up again, rubbing his forehead lightly.
“She’s good. I’m the fucking waste of space here. I can’t bring together a bunch of adults, so how the fuck am I supposed to not mess up the kid? I mean, my dad was a fucking monster, so how do I not end up like him?”
Grease and I eyed each other again, and I nodded at him, taking point for the moment.
“Have you talked over this with Lissa? I know she’s helping you with stuff, and uh…
this sounds like something you need to talk out with someone who’ll know how to help.
I mean, I don’t see why you think you’re failing with the club.
Sure, we’re not tight like the other chapter yet, but we’ll get there.
I bet the other club took a while too, right? ”
Micro shrugged. “It was tight by the time I was there, so I don’t know.”
“Okay, well, I’m sure if there were concerns from Reacher and Stitch, about how long it’s taking, they’d have said. And you know what? The fact that you’re worried about messing up the dad thing tells me you’re gonna do the best fucking job you can.”
He stared at his hands. “Maybe. You can’t know that though. I mean, I’m just a fucking mess.”
I glanced at both of them, and sighed heavily. “Okay, I’m about to tell you guys something, and just like the secrets you’ve both shared with me, this is fucking top secret, and doesn’t go on the record anywhere, got it?”
They both fixed wide eyed stares on me, but I waited until they both nodded their agreement.
“Jesus. Okay, as a father myself, I can tell you, how good a dad you are is completely in your control. And the fact that you’re worried sick just means you’re going to do your best. The dads that don’t care at this stage? They’re the ones who fuck up.”
They both stared at me open-mouthed, and I rolled my eyes, sighing again.
“Yeah, I’m a dad. I have a daughter, and if that information leaves this room, I’ll know one of you let it slip. The only guy in the club who knows is Rocket, and he has way too much to lose to tell anyone.”
“How old is she?”
I couldn’t help glaring at Micro, even though I knew, KNEW, that he wasn’t asking so he could hit on her.
“She’s seventeen, and she’s not coming anywhere near the fucking club. Rocket only knows because she popped in to see me at the shop.”
They both still looked stunned.
“I was sixteen and stupid, okay? I learned from my mistake, I’m not with her mother, never really have been, but I’ve been in her life. I’ve been a dad. So I know. I know it’s terrifying. Try doing it at sixteen, for fuck’s sake.”
“Damn,” Grease murmured, side-eyeing Micro, “I get why you didn’t tell them in the old club, but this is a very different place, man. You can trust us, and maybe in time, you’ll trust the others. Your secret’s safe with us though.”
Micro nodded. “And I’m so going to be picking your brain about dad stuff now, thanks.” I groaned. What did I just let myself in for?
“So back to the matter at hand. Caroline’s going to help me sketch out the plans for this place. I’ll need to bring her by at some point, so I want the place as empty and quiet as possible. She’s not good with noise, or mouthy asshole men.”
“She picked you though,” Grease said with a shit-eating grin.
“You know what she’s like, man.”
He nodded. “Actually, there’s that toy drive in two days, right? Most of us will be offsite for that.”
Shit. I’d wanted to take part in that myself, but he was right.
It’d free the place up for her to stop by.
The local children’s hospice ward was about to receive a mass of toys from a mass of costumed up bikers, because they were having an early Christmas celebration, and we were trying to get the club a better name, plus it was a really worthwhile, and fun thing to do as a club.
“You’ll miss this one, but we’re doing the main hospital the week before Christmas, Harls. You can be there for that one.”
I nodded, but had to address the nickname. “Call me that again, and I’ll tattoo my proper name on your forehead.”
Micro laughed. “He’s threatening his President already. I thought it’d take longer.”
“With you as his Pres? Sure.”
“Eat shit.”
My phone had buzzed a few times in my pocket while they’d been shooting the shit, so I pulled it out and checked it. Caroline had sent me the message, as promised, to say she was there safely, which I actually really loved. This one was from her too.
Caroline: I’m going to be stuck here all night. V’s a mess. I’m sorry. I miss you way more than I thought I would.
Huh. Suddenly my night was wide open, and for once, I hated it instantly.
“Looks like I’m free tonight now. What do you want me working on?”