Chapter Ten
Lilly
Mindy and I are on one side of the bed, Lucy and Carrie are on another and Raven and Ryan are on the other.
We’d separated into teams to play Disney trivial pursuit and Mindy and I are kicking ass.
I’m not one to go up against when it comes to Disney movies.
I’ve seen every last one of them and can basically recite most of them word for word.
After an hour of trivia, and losing to me, they finally all quit.
“I’m done,” Ryan put her hands up, surrendering.
“Us too,” Carrie agreed.
“Alright, alright. It was fun while it lasted.” My smug grin doesn’t go unnoticed.
“That’s ‘cause you kicked our ass. No one should know that much about kids’ movies!” Lucy throws her hands up, laughing.
Mindy grins and nudges me with her elbow. “My best friend had a lot of time on her hands before she met Cass.”
I roll my eyes, but can’t disagree. I didn’t have anything to occupy my time prior to him. A few guy friends here and there, but nothing serious. And I prefer to watch Disney over horror since I lived alone for so long.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” I dismiss Mindy’s statement but smile at her. Mindy knew how things were for me before Cass. It was crazy to think of a life before him. One that he didn’t exist in. It was such a foreign thought.
“I still can’t believe he bought you a fucking house!” Mindy squeals, admiring the large bedroom.
“Lucky bitch,” Carrie smiles.
“In all fairness, when he asked me to move in with him, I thought he meant move into a house that was already his. I didn’t know he was buying one for us to make a home out of. It is pretty fucking cool, though, isn’t it?”
“It’s beyond that. It’s amazing. I’m so damn happy for you.” Mindy leans her head on my shoulder and I run my fingers lightly over Mindy’s head.
“Oooh, yeah. Keep doing that,” she leans more of her weight onto me, relaxing while I play in her hair.
I laugh at Mindy but can’t stop. Mindy has been through so much and if this one simple gesture is going to comfort her, then damn it, I’ll play with her hair for the next ten hours.
As I’m playing in Mindy’s hair, Raven and Ryan are yapping back and forth about the beach trip she missed out on and Carrie and Lucy are talking about Leo and Shorty’s family.
I had learned that Leo and Shorty were actually half-brothers, which I think is cool since they are brothers in the club, too.
One of the prospects from Nashville come in, disrupting the vibe in the room and drawing our attention toward the door where he stood. He is in his mid-thirties, heavy set but stocky, with strawberry blond hair and a clean-shaven face.
“Cass is looking for Gater. Which one of you is his ol’ lady?” he asks, his voice soft.
“I am.” Ryan raises her hand like a schoolgirl while wearing a “why the fuck are you asking” look on her face.
“Have you heard from him?” he asks.
She shook her head back and forth. “No, not since we left the house this morning.”
“Damn. Okay, I’ll let Cass know.” He leaves the room and closes the door behind him.
Everyone looks at Ryan silently, wanting to ask but no one being brave enough to do so. She picks up her phone and begins typing viciously into it before tossing it onto the bed away from her. She looks around at all the eyes on her.
“What?” she asks, looking at each one of us, an eyebrow raised as if to ask why the hell we were staring at her.
“Nothing,” Lucy mutters. A pining grin crosses Carrie’s face as she clears her throat, gaining her the attention of the room.
“I’ve got something we could do, now that we’re done with that,” Carrie says, lifting her purse from the floor on side of the bed.
She pulls out a small baggie that’s filled with a small green nugget of weed and a multicolored pipe.
She opens it and the strong aroma hits me like a sucker punch.
I haven’t smoked since we were on the beach in Mississippi, seeing as it wasn’t a regular thing for me, but it sounded pretty damn good.
“Let’s walk outside. The patio is beautiful, and it needs to be smoked in, anyway.” I smile and open the sliding glass door that leads to the pool. Beside the pool is an outside bar underneath an open patio complete with brick arches and a beautiful patio furniture set.
Cushioned chairs and a loveseat are amongst the iron table and chairs that are scattered beneath the patio.
Mindy and I pile on the loveseat, while Carrie, Lucy, Ryan, and Raven pull up the cushioned chairs, forming a half circle.
Carrie takes the first two hits then passes it around, everyone hitting it but Ryan.
“I can’t. I just got a new job, and I’m scared they’re going to drug test me.” Ryan passes the pipe to Raven who hits it a few times then passes it.
When it got to Mindy, she took two huge hits and nearly died coughing up her lungs after she blows the second one out. She almost drops the pipe, which I somehow manage to catch. I take a few hits and give it back to Carrie.
“Easy, Min. You just survived a car crash, try not to kill yourself.”
Mindy laughs. “Never has there been an overdose on weed.’”
“You’re right. Go ahead and hit that pipe some more.”
That’s exactly what she does, too. “I just want to smoke this shit instead of taking those funky ass pain meds they gave me. That shit makes me jittery. Who the hell gets addicted to that feeling?”
“I don’t have a clue. That feeling isn’t addictive, though, that’s for damn sure!” I agree.
“Anyone else’s husband…or boyfriend…been acting strange and hardly coming home lately?” Lucy asks, hitting the pipe again.
Ryan speaks first. “Gater’s been gone a lot, but I just thought he was out doing club shit as usual. Now I’m not so sure,” she sighs.
“He probably is.” I try my best to reassure her.
“I don’t know. He tells me everything, club or not. He hasn’t said a word about where he’s been or what he’s been doing the past few days. He’s just been gone. Didn’t even come home until last night.”
“They get like that, though, you know? Shit’s been getting real out there.”
“Yeah, Leo hasn’t been home in a few days other than to shower and sleep.
Not even to eat or fuck, and it’s bad when he hasn’t been home to fuck.
” Carrie sighs, shrugging her shoulders almost in defeat.
From what I know of Carrie and Leo, they were sex fiends.
I’ve heard that he was still a prospect because he was late for an event once because the two of them had pulled over and he fucked her on his bike on side of the road and he didn’t check in or answer his phone when they had called.
That was only one of the reasons he was the longest running prospect in the Hounds.
“Damn. Now that’s bad,” Lucy says.
Raven lifts her hand up slowly and leans forward. “Mine’s been home and not acting strange.”
I can feel the high beginning to kick in, because what Raven says, I find absolutely fucking hilarious. I start giggling so hard my stomach clenches up and I’m doubled over. Why that was funny, I have no idea. I’m laughing so hard I’m crying, and I can’t stop.
“Of course he hasn’t,” I say through the tears that are streaming down my face mid-laugh.
Raven starts giggling with me, and soon so do Carrie and Lucy. We’re all laughing so damn hard, we can’t think straight.
I finally catch my breath and take a few deep breaths in and look around at the group of women around me. Everyone is trying to catch their breath except for Ryan. She isn’t sitting with us anymore and I don’t see her anywhere.
“Where’s Ryan?” I ask, looking around the patio toward the house.
“I don’t know.” Raven turns her head sideways, looking at me first then around.
“Something’s up. Did y’all see anyone standing outside when we came out here?” I stand up, fully on guard now. At least as on guard as I can be, since I’m high as fuck on that good ass weed Carrie had. If I would’ve known shit was going to get sketchy, I wouldn’t have gotten stoned.
“No, I didn’t see anyone anywhere. I don’t even remember the last time I heard someone other than us.” Carrie’s brows are knitted tightly, concern etched on her face.
“Where the hell are the guys?” Lucy is now standing, followed by Raven and Carrie. They’re all looking around, semi-panicked. I dig into my pocket and pull a cigarette out, not feeling as stoned as I was a few minutes ago.
I light it and enjoy it as much as I can because I know that whatever happens in the next few minutes is not going to be relaxing in the least.
“We need to get inside, quietly. And turn some of these damn lights out.” Raven flips the light switch for the outside lights off and I make a mental note to ask her how in the hell she knew that damn switch was there. I didn’t even know that switch was there, and it was my house.
I see Raven’s hand slide beneath her shirt, knowing she’s grabbing the piece she’d shown me earlier.
Pistol in hand, Raven leads the way inside while we trail behind her quietly.
We creep inside through the same door we’d come out of.
Once we’re all safely back inside, Mindy, Carrie, and Lucy sit on the bed while Raven and I make our way through the bedroom and into the small hallway on high alert.
I hear chatter coming from the kitchen, men’s voices.
Then, the sound of a gun wracking has the hairs on the back of my neck standing straight up.
Raven’s frigid stance says that she isn’t feeling very welcome at the moment, either.
Nonetheless, we continue moving throughout the house, sneaking behind the staircase and around the other side to a vantage point where we can see into the kitchen.
As we near the sound of the chatter, my stomach does a somersault.
Around the bar, Ryan, Linc, Gater, Digger, Brock and three other guys are gathered. Guns galore are spread out on the counter. I exhale a breath of relief and tap Raven’s shoulder, signaling that everything is okay. I walk past a confused Raven into the kitchen.
“Hey guys,” I chirp, approaching the bar. I stare at the array of guns on my counter. There is everything from nine millimeters to full on assault weapons. I can only assume that the duffle bag at Gater’s feet is filled with more, too.
“Hey, Lil,” Linc says as the rest of the guys fall back into their conversation, Ryan merely standing by and listening.
“Y’all scared the shit out of us. I thought y’all were supposed to be posted at every damn entrance, since there’s only four of ‘em.” Lilly eyes him curiously, but it was Brock that speaks up.
“We were, then you ladies were getting loaded and Gater showed up. So, we came in here, leaving you out there to enjoy your high. Y’all were in your own little world, anyway. You didn’t even notice me standing at the corner of the house when you went outside your bedroom door.”
My face reddens as his words sink in. We were oblivious and paranoid for no reason. Had we been paying closer attention we would’ve noticed Brock standing there and probably wouldn’t have been so freaked out.
“Oh…I guess that’s a good point. What the hell are you doing here, anyway? And why’d you bring enough guns for the first infantry?” I ask Gater.
He looks up from the gun he was showing Digger. “I brought them for the guys in case they needed them. Shit’s getting crazy with those Moccasins.”
“You need to give Cass a call. Straighten that shit out,” Brock says, his tone flat as he spoke directly to Gater.
Whatever is going on, there seems to be confusion and tension.
I hope for Gater’s sake that he got it straight because Cass isn’t in the best mood with all the bullshit going on, I’d hate to see Cass get his hands on Gater ‘cause it wouldn’t be pretty.
“I’m about to walk outside and do that now. I realized my actions didn’t reflect well on me, considering the war that we’re in the midst of.” Gater exits the kitchen and I hear the front door shut behind him.
Raven is still standing quietly behind me. “You wanna let Carrie, Lucy, and Mindy know that everything’s okay?” I whisper over my shoulder.
“Yeah,” Raven turns on her heel and disappears toward the bedroom.
I’ve gotten a feel for Brock and how he is lately, and I feel like he will be more open with me than any of the other guys, mostly because he’s older and more laid back.
Oh, and he’s had a patch for the last God knows how many years.
I make my way closer to where he stands, a few feet away from everyone else who’s admiring the calvary of weapons, deep in conversation about the better caliber gun.
“Anyone ever tell ya you worry too much?” Brock asks.
I sigh. “Every day. I can’t help it. I had this gut feeling and it hasn’t gone away. It feels like something is wrong.”
“Baby girl, that’s ‘cause it is. The man you love is leading the damn cavalry into war. I don’t know how much more wrong it can get than that.”
“I guess you’re right.” I smile halfheartedly. That isn’t anything to smile about. If anything, it made me want to scream. Rip my hair out. Rip their hair out. Something. Instead, I’m stuck here while people are out there likely dying for their club. At least their deaths would be honorable.
Brock wraps an arm around me, pulling me into his side. I lean into him, finding comfort in the father-like man standing next to me.
“It’s all gonna work out. Don’t you worry.” He pats my upper arm where his hand lay in a reassuring gesture.
If only it were that easy…