Chapter 14
Jules
I could have a heart attack at any moment, with how fast my heart is beating. I’ve tried breathing and clenching my toes, fists and thighs before slowly releasing, in hopes that would help and so far it’s done fuck all. The ride to the diner may be short, but it’s a hell of a long time knowing that Vi and Juno are missing. Gus screeches to a stop, all us Tombs including Pops piling out, while the roar of motorcycle pipes drown out any other sounds. I walk through the door, the bells jingling, not even stopping to acknowledge the teenage server wanting to seat us. I storm through the seating area, heading for the bathrooms where the trackers are going off. Bypassing the mens and womens, I slow when I get to the mothers and baby bathroom, the door slightly ajar.
“Vi?” I call quietly, so as not to startle anyone.
I push the door open gently, slowly revealing an empty room. Walking into the room I turn to see Juno’s car seat and diaper bag are lying on the floor in the corner behind the door. My heart beats so hard and fast I can hear my pulse, the noise of it drowning out anything else. I take a shaky breath, then another and another, clenching and unclenching my fists. I control my body. It doesn’t control me. I am in control. My legs give out and someone grabs for me as I slide down the wall behind me, landing in a heap on the floor, my legs askew, eyes burning and throat tight.
Gus and Tav are squatting in front of me but I can’t understand what they’re saying, it’s like we’re all underwater. Gus grabs at my shirt and starts unbuttoning the top few buttons and it feels like I can breathe a little easier. Still can’t understand anything they’re saying but I feel less like I’m choking.
Pops shoves my brothers out of the way. “Ah, shit kid, not doing well are ya?”
He stands over me and then my head jerks to the side, a warm burn spreading over my cheek, bringing everything back into focus.
“My daughter, where the fuck is my daughter?” My voice sounds breathless and strained to my ears, but I don’t give a shit. I need to find my baby.
My eyes and throat burn, and I feel like my heart has been pulled from my chest. Marx steps into the bathroom, grabbing my shirt in his giant fists, pulling me to standing. I get my legs underneath me, Marx holding me until I’m steady. His resolute stare burns into mine and I’m hit in the gut by the revelation that what Dayz said is right. I need people, and yet I push them away thinking that I don’t deserve this. That I’m not built for it. That I’m broken. Yet each and every one of these people - the DRMC brothers, Ol Ladies, my family, they’re all like me. Not broken, just a little bent.
Marx gives me a little shake, slapping me on the shoulder once he sees I’m steady. “We’ll find her, brother.”
I nod, turning to look at everyone who rode out, for me, for my daughter and for Vi. “Please, find my baby.” My eyes flick to Moss Davies and his family. “And my woman.”
“Bout damn time. Sheesh,” Dayz says, shoving past me to walk through the doorway, headed to god knows where.
She stops abruptly, spine stiff, waving a hand at everyone clogging up the hall. “Shhhh, can you hear that?”
I strain to hear anything other than my own heartbeat. Everyone else shrugging. Dayz walks down the hall, and then back again, before heading through a door.
“Well, what the fuck are you all waiting for? Let’s go,” Pops says, following Dayz, me hot on his heels.
I come to a stop behind Pops. Dayz is standing in front of a wooden door, a cupboard or some shit. And that’s when I hear it. A snuffling sound. It can’t be, can it? Dayz holds a finger to her lips. The DRMC brothers moving silently behind me, along with the Davies. Dayz holds up three fingers, then two, yanking the door open on the last one.
“Piss off!” A tubby ginger kid hisses, curling himself tighter into a ball, angling himself further into the cupboard.
“Rodney! Is that how we speak to people?” Vi’s sister Jazz steps forward, pushing her way through a wall of Tombs to stare at the kid.
“Ms. Davies! There was this bad guy and Pirate told me to run and protect the baby!” He turns his body around and there in his arms is Juno, brows pinched into a scowl and I’ve never seen anything more beautiful in my life.
I drop to my knees and hold my hands out to this Rodney kid.
His eyes narrow at me, “How do I know you’re not some type of weirdo? ”
“Rodney! This is Jules, he’s Juno’s dad,” Jazz scolds.
Rodney takes one look at my face, then looks down at Juno, then back to me. “Yeah, that makes sense.” He holds her out and I snatch her from him, wrapping her in my arms, her little face nuzzling into my neck. She lets out a sigh and relaxes into my arms.
“It’s OK, Juno, Daddy’s got you.” I whisper in her hair, smelling faintly of her baby shampoo, Vi, and Playdoh, which I’m guessing is Rodney.
A hand lands on my shoulder, “Fucking knew you had it in you, kid. Didn’t think it’d take your baby being kidnapped before you pulled your head outta your ass, but you’re a stubborn bastard so I should have known.” Pops gives me a grin and a nod before sliding his hands in between me and Juno. “Now give me my grandbaby.” He gently tries to pry Juno away, but her little fists grab onto my shirt as she tries to burrow closer to me. “Well, shit,” Pops huffs. “Looks like the feeling is mutual.”
“You’re a daddy’s girl, huh?” I coo, holding her a little too tight, but fuck me. I’m sure today’s events have taken about ten years off my life.
“I’m glad you have your nina, but where’s mine?” Flora asks, her eyes glistening with tears as she watches me with Juno.
“I promise you, I will find her,” I vow.
“And when you do, I want to look them in the eye.” Flora answers, her tear filled eyes switching to pure unfiltered rage. Mr. Davies doesn’t look any better, his expression mirroring Moss’s.
“So, where’s my hot glue gun?” Rodney says, standing in the middle of all the adults.
“Huh?” Gus grunts .
“Pirate said if I did what she told me to do she would give me a hot glue gun. Not a crappy one either. A cordless one. So, where is it?”
“Tell me exactly what happened and my brother Tav will take you to Hobby Lobby and get you one.” Tav glares at me but I don’t give a shit. I need information.
“Some dude wanted to know if I played video games, and then told me to follow him into the toilets. Pirate -”
“Why do you call her Pirate?” Dayz asks.
“Cos that’s her name?” Rodney answers as if Dayz is simple.
“I’m not sure I like you,” she replies, stepping back, leaning into Rhodie.
“Anyways, like I was sayin’, Pirate came out and told him to piss off but then he pulled out a gun. He made us go out the back and walk to his truck and then Pirate told me to run so I did,” he finishes off.
“Tav, take the kid to Hobby Lobby. Dayz, get Remy and Wire onto surveillance from two hours ago, coming and going from here. DRMC and Tombs, I need you at the clubhouse to go over this shit,” Marx orders.
“I’ll be fucked if you freeze me out of this. That’s my sister out there.” Moss stands toe to toe with Marx and I’m seeing the man in a new light. So is my sister who murmurs “interesting” under her breath.
Marx’s eyes narrow, before he nods. “Fine. But you gotta know what we’re going to do may not be totally above board.”
“You mean like that boat that sat at the back of your property covered in flies for months? Or that explosion Mary Carpenter complained about when she was sure she saw a foot on the clubhouse roof?”
“What?! Foot? No way,” Dayz says in an overly chipper voice while aggressively staring at Moss.
“I think I’m good,” he says, nodding.
“Oh, we’re good too, aren’t we my love? Our lips are sealed.” Flora mimes zipping her lips, locking and throwing away the key.
“Fuck, fine. Everyone roll out,” Marx orders then stomps toward the door.
Everyone files out, but not before clapping me on the shoulder and giving Juno’s thick head of hair a rub on the way past.
“Come on, brother. Let’s go find your woman,” Fox says, on his way out the door.
“I cannot fucking wait until that woman finds out you claimed her,” Gus chortles.
I can only hope she lets me keep my balls. I have a whole lot of making up to do.
Jules
“Tell me what you know,” Marx’s voice booms through the common room.
Dayz, Wire and Remy all tap away at their computers, bringing all manner of things up on the full screen so we can all follow along. Everyone is congregated in the room, my whole family, all the MC brothers and their Ol Ladies, and the Davies family, sitting in a row on the couch. Well, Vi’s sisters and parents. Moss is standing with his hands on his hips between Marx and Gus .
“We went back through the footage from this morning until half an hour ago,” Wire says, tapping a few things on his keyboard. “Watch the trucks.”
The screen enlarges and we watch a truck come down Main Street, then pull around the back of the diner. The cameras switch to the diner lot, and Trucker No. 1, our original target, waits in his cab, talking to his passenger. Remy speeds up the footage until another truck comes into view, pulling in next to the first.
“That’s the one we got out back, with the animals.” Rhodie points out.
Wire nods, then the footage speeds up, showing Trucker 1 meeting up with Trucker 2, walking around the front of the diner, and entering. He speeds through around twenty minutes more footage when a third truck arrives. It tucks itself on the far side and is smaller than the other two large haulers. This one looks more like a smaller food delivery truck. I remember Dex updating us that it was there, but as no one saw anyone come or go from it and we were a little preoccupied with a change in our operation, well, it was overlooked. We watch the screen as I knock out Trucker 2, throw him in the back and then all disappear from the area.
“Now, watch,” Remy says, and we sit, eyes glued to the screen.
The back door to the diner bursts open and out come Rodney and Vi, a man at their back holding a gun to them. He shoves Vi roughly, and I can see how hard he’s pressing the gun to her head, her head drooping forward as she walks. He pushes them toward the back of his truck, stopping to answer a phone call. Vi shoves Rodney and the kid takes off.
“Shit, tubby little fucker is faster than I expected,” Pops remarks, getting the death stare from Jazz.
“That’s one of my kids, thank you,” she says, eyes narrowed.
“And he’s faster than I thought,” Pops replies, a shit-eating grin on his face.
I try to hide my smirk by burying my face in Juno’s soft hair. I take a deep inhale, breathing in her baby scent wondering how the fuck it took me so long to realize what everybody else did. That I’m a dumbass and I love this little girl. I mean, I knew that I would kill for her. She’s a defenseless baby. I’m the person charged with keeping her safe. But over the three months she’s been with me, she’s wormed her way into my heart and soul but I never realized it until it was close to being gone.
A soft hand lands on my forearm. Mama Debs leaning her curly head against my bicep as she’s not tall enough to reach my shoulder.
“It finally clicked, huh tama ?” she says gently, running a finger along Juno’s fist, the fist still holding tight to my shirt.
“Yeah,” I nod.
“I knew all along what a good papa you would be. You just needed to believe it yourself,” she whispers.
“I don’t think that was it. I just,” I swallow. “I-”
“Are deserving of everything good in the world, Jules.”
“But I’m not like the others. I’m broke-”
Mama Debs stops me with a glare. “Don’t you dare say it, Jules Tombs. I know you and Chewy share similarities. Anyone can see it. But where she embraces hers as a superpower, you’re terrified. Do you know why that is?” I shake my head. “It’s because where Chewy struggles with empathy, you have the opposite. Why do you think you push people away? Put up your walls? Sleep with multiple women at a time?” she raises her brow at me, “It’s because if you let them in, really let them in, the feelings would be too much.”
I stare down at her, her dark eyes boring into mine.
“How do I fix it?”
“Can’t fix something that ain’t broke, tama. ” I watch her as she shuffles off back into the kitchen, leaving me with a shit ton to think about.
“She’s right, you know.” Gus murmurs, leaning against the bar beside me. “When you were a kid you’d cry all the time. Over bruised fruit or having to only choose one teddy to take places, sad the others would feel left out. Elderly people in the street, worms on a dry pavement. Then one day you came home from school and just…turned it off.” His hand lands on my shoulder. “Turn it back on, brother. It’ll do you good. Besides, we think Dayz and her sense of justice is scary? Imagine what would happen when you actually feel things for the people we help.”
My eyes narrow. “Are you trying to weaponize autism?”
He grins at me and turns back to the common room, the images still on the screen showing the back of the small truck, Vi climbing in. But it’s what’s behind her that sends rage pulsing through me. There, huddled in the corner, are children.
“Can you zoom in any closer?” Savage asks, the women gasping as the kids in the still become clearer.
“That son of a bitch!” Sniper rages, hands fisted.
“It’s a shell game,” my sister says, brows pinched before she looks around the room. “Three trucks pass through the docks at the same time. Two have live cargo, dogs, goats, whatever, the last has children.”
“The FBI uses heat signatures to decide which cargo to track. Animals that size, especially when sedated are around the same size as human children. They choose the larger truck, the one most likely to be shipping something illegal, leaving the smaller, less suspicious truck to carry the cargo,” Gus adds.
“Well, it worked. The FBI searched the first truck and we nabbed the second,” Rhodie’s gruff voice breaks through.
Dayz pinches her bottom lip before her eyes flick to Marx. “What did you and Lovely find out?”
“Not a lot. Candice Rogers is a smarmy bitch who offers childless couples the world. She runs a tight ship. Employees seem to love her, she has pictures of happy families plastered all over the walls.” Marx says, running a hand down his face. “Said me and Lovely would make wonderful candidates.”
“We asked how long it would take to match us with the right child, she told us that she could have the match and contract done in a week,” Lovely adds.
“Fuck, a week?” Flack asks, appalled.
“She’s kid farming,” Dex growls.
We look around the room and the rage I was feeling is just growing. Juno whimpers and I loosen my hold. “Sorry, little miss,” I whisper to her. She lets out a sigh and relaxes her body.
“She did say something a little weird,” Lovely looks at Marx who looks confused at her words. “She said something like ‘you know, if you were happy to wait a year, I’ll have a dark haired little one on my books by then.”
Recognition dawns on Marx’s face. “Fuck, you’re right.”
Lovely nods, “I wrote it off as a weird comment, but if she’s kid farming, is there a chance she could be baby farming or whatever it’s called?”
“And now she has Vi!” Moss grumbles, drawing a gasp from his father and sisters and a wail from his mother who recovers quickly and starts cursing in Spanish.
Marx’s whistle splits the air, silencing the room, everyone’s attention on the Pres. “Jules, tell me she had a tracker?”
I shake my head, fucking kicking myself that I didn’t think to tag something, anything that she may have on her.
Moss slumps, shaking his head. “I can get the station on to it, but, fuck, Sheriff Kelson only gives a damn about being seen at galas and shit. He won’t place a priority on this.”
“Not to mention he has a problem with Lettie,” Vi’s father says. We all stare at him, waiting for the story. “He waited two days to take his kid to the emergency room with a broken arm. Vi threatened to run him over the next time she saw him so he could feel the pain his kid was in.”
I snort. That sounds a lot like my Vi. She’s a fucking firecracker. Which makes my cock thicken, but also has my heart racing with fear. While there is no better protector for those kids in the truck than Vi, I also know she’ll put herself in harm’s way to protect them. It’s the right thing to do, but I selfishly want her back here, at home with me and Juno.
“Who cares what this so-called Sheriff says? We have to get Vi back. Screw her having to birth babies so that bitch Candice can profit from them,” Blanche growls.
She stands and starts waddling toward the door, calling for the Ol Ladies to follow her, saying they’re on a hunting mission. Tav catches up quickly, takes her by the elbow and uses her momentum to steer her back to her seat.
“Settle down, babe. We’ll find her,” he soothes.
“And how the fuck are we going to do that? Do we have anything on the truck? The driver? Happy Value’s businesses?” Moss demands.
Wire lets out a sigh. “None of the businesses were able to be raided after Agent Dansen pulled rank and opened the back of truck number 1. Happy Values lawyers came in and barred the FBI from searching.”
“We have nothing on the truck, or the driver, either,” Remy adds in her quiet voice, looking heartbroken.
Blanche is now crying., Mira is teary eyed. Nat and Ana look pissed and Chewy is frowning, squishing her lip.
I step forward. “We may know someone who can help.”
Pops let’s out a long groan behind me. “Not the Manwitch, that fucker is creepy as all get out.” I stare him down. “Ugh, fine! But I’m not going anywhere near that big, creepy bastard. Nope, not doing it. Get him here to find Vi, and then tell him to piss off immediately after.”
Rider gives me a funny look and I know he’s going to somehow use this against Pops for the foreseeable future.
“Hey Jules, tell me more about this Manwitch?”