8. Chapter Eight
Chapter Eight
J ustice pulled his bike into the compound and followed the small road around to where his house was. His Aunt Charlie had offered to watch Ian while Justice went to meet with a potential client.
In the week since he’d been falsely arrested, he’d seen Detective Stanza following him or being at the same place Justice was at least once a day, sometimes more.
He’d clocked Detective Stanza in his brown sedan parked outside the clubhouse across the street.
The building across the street was currently vacant, but the club had purchased it along with four more on that side of the street.
Pit wanted to control who was allowed close to their clubhouse and Pit’s family.
Justice could understand Pit’s fears because Justice had them about his kid, too.
Because their clubhouse was toward the edge of the city, there were some farms and farmhouses nearby. The club was friendly with all of them just to be neighborly but also to ensure they called the club first if they were interested in selling.
He pulled his bike inside his garage and headed into the house. A note on the kitchen counter caught his eye. His Aunt Charlie was at the clubhouse. Justice decided he’d change out of his suit then head to the clubhouse. He was hungry and in a horrible mood after dealing with the detective today .
He quickly changed, then grabbed his tablet. Adley had said they’d be sending an update and to call her if he had questions after reading it. It hadn’t been there last time he checked, but he was anticipating it this weekend.
“Hey, Justice, where’s my little man?” Tack asked as he joined Justice on the short walk to the clubhouse.
“Aunt Charlie kept him when I ran to meet with a client. You’ll have to pry him away from whoever has him,” Justice said, knowing Tack had joined him thinking he’d get to hold the baby first. Justice adored that his tough brothers, who he had fought beside, could turn into the biggest softies when Ian was around.
“You know sometimes we want to spend time with you. Stain still following you around?” Tack asked. The guys had all gotten a kick out of Adley’s name for him and were using it frequently.
“Yes, he was parked out front when I rolled in,” Justice replied.
Tack chuckled, then patted Justice’s shoulder. “Oh, I got this. You’re going to love this,” Tack said as they walked into the clubhouse.
Pretty much all his brothers who weren’t working were in the clubhouse.
“Hey, Nita, you should do that thing we talked about. He’s across the street in a brown sedan,” Tack said, smirking.
Nita, who was one of their new Sirens, nodded.
Justice thought about how his mom and aunt had changed the Sirens’ jobs.
Originally, back in his dad and uncle’s day, the Sirens had gotten room and board for having sex with the guys and sometimes cleaning the clubhouse.
They were club girls, but his mom and aunt said there were a lot of the women who just wanted to be an Old Lady, so there was a lot of infighting.
When the majority of the club brothers were lost and his mom and aunt held them together, they also rewrote the Sirens’ job.
Sirens could only be a Siren if they had another outside job or were attending college or trade school to have another job.
The club would help them with college costs, etc.
The Sirens were in charge of cleaning and helping at club functions, along with having sex with who they wanted.
One of the things that his mom and aunt had required was that the girls had the right to say no.
Nita was a Siren because she wanted a safe place to live for herself and her little brother while she finished her apprenticeship as a stylist. She had one night a month when she’d cut hair for the brothers to make extra money.
Justice wondered what his little brother had set up with Nita when he saw her grab a burner phone.
“I’d like to report someone for indecent exposure. I was running and went by a brown sedan. The driver had his dick out and was jerking it to beat the band. Now, I’m all for a little self-love but not in broad daylight on a city street.”
Justice chuckled. Oh man, he wished he could hear what Stain would say when a police car showed up.
“He’s parked near the Saint’s Outlaws Clubhouse.
I was running by when I saw him. I’m just so glad I wasn’t running with my kids in the stroller like I do sometimes.
Well, ma’am, you need to get someone out there fast because my husband’s due home in a little bit.
I can guarantee he’ll go teach that man a lesson if the man is still there. Thank you,” she said, hanging up.
Laughter and applause rang out. Nita leaned over, taking a bow and smiling.
Pit motioned, and Crux put the camera that faced the street on the big screen.
“Shall we see how long this takes?” Pit asked.
“Yes, but let’s eat. I have a feeling seeing Stain’s face might put me off my food,” Aunt Charlie said.
Justice walked over to where Pit was sitting by Ariel while she held his son.
“He’s just perfect, Justice. I can’t wait for ours to be here so they can grow up together,” Ariel said, dropping a kiss on Ian’s forehead before handing him to Justice.
“Me too, Ariel. How are you feeling?” he asked. Knowing what Ariel was going through with her pregnancy made him feel horrible he wasn’t there for Gina. He’d not liked her, but he never would have made her go through it all alone.
“Good, but ready to get this over with. I want to see my feet again and not wake up every hour to pee during the night,” she said, grumbling. “Of course, after keeping Ian, I know I’ll just exchange getting up to pee for getting up to feed our little guy,” she said.
“True, baby, but I’ll get up and change him and bring him back to bed to you,” Pit said, leaning close and brushing a kiss across Ariel’s forehead.
Justice watched with envy. He loved his little guy and his family helping him, but if he could choose, he’d be raising Ian with a woman he could call his own .
He tamped down his need for that woman to be Adley.
He definitely should not dive in deep with Adley while she was his lawyer.
He could, but if he screwed it up, he didn’t want to end up in jail because Adley hated him.
Though he honestly couldn’t see the woman allowing her feelings to keep her from doing her best for someone she believed innocent.
Justice sat down with Ian in his arms while he pulled up his email. He opened the one from Adley and started reading.
What he read concerned him. Detective Stanza came to the Kansas City Police Department eight years ago.
He’d moved from patrol officer to detective six months after joining the department, which was outside of the guidelines to become a detective.
But after hopscotching over the time required for detective, he’d spent the next seven and a half years without moving up.
It begged the question for Justice of why?
Justice watched the police car pull up beside Detective Stanza’s car. The officers didn’t even get out of their car; they just pulled up alongside, spoke to him for a minute, then drove off. Less than a minute later, the detective left.
Once he had both arms free and could type, he’d send Adley his thoughts because something was off with the detective.
He just couldn’t figure out what. He read what she had on Gina’s murder and was more confused.
No witnesses, and the big red flag for Justice was that Gina had no defensive wounds.
Which meant she knew her assailant, was drugged, or wasn’t expecting to be attacked and was incapacitated before she could fight back.
He looked to see if there was a toxicology report from Adley, and there wasn’t.
He had a lot of questions to send to Adley.
After supper was plenty soon enough to deal with this.
He was going to cuddle his son and forget about the detective for a while.
A grunt, then a splash of water against the floor near him, had him looking up. Pit had his arms around Ariel. His eyes were closed.
“Please tell me that your water didn’t just run down my jeans,” Pit said, shuddering.
“Your son is obviously coming a week early, and you’re whining about a little fluid on your jeans.
I’m sure you’ll have plenty of your son’s fluids getting on you this year.
Now call my brothers and parents to let them know we’re heading to the hospital.
Tack, would you drive us to the hospital?
Charlie, can you grab my bag from our house?
” Ariel directed before pausing to breathe through what Justice was guessing was another contraction.
“I’ve got to grab Ian’s bag from my house and my pickup. Aunt Charlie, I’ll get the bag so you can head to the hospital,” Justice said. “Looks like you’re getting your cousin tonight,” Justice murmured to Ian.
Guess anything about the detective would have to wait. The Saint’s Outlaws had a baby being born.