Chapter 5MarxLovely #2
“Babe? Sniper has to get his thoughts in order, so maybe ask him later, OK?”
Chewy stares at Rhodie, then at everyone else in the room before throwing her hands up, “Fiiiine. But he’s going to answer my questions,” she ends on a threat.
“I’m sure he’d be glad to,” I add. “What else have you got?” I ask, eager to get things moving so we can formulate a plan.
Wire looks up from his screen, “Serpiente, or Tito Caram, is a contractor. Cartels hire him to do anything from extortion to hired kills, but it’s mainly to look after their businesses. In this case, he’s been investing cartel money into his Adopt-a-Kid scam.”
This jogs my memory a little as to what Chewy told us before Tav and Blanche had their little girl. “Chewy, you said that Tito had more than just Candice Rogers working for him?”
She claps her hands, accidentally flinging her pen at Rhodie.
“Yes! So, it turns out that while Candice may have been the largest supplier of children to needy, infertile parents, she wasn’t the only one.
During her, um, interview, she mentioned at least three others running operations in different states along the I-10 corridor. ”
“Any idea who these women may be?” Judge asks, brow raised.
“Rem, you’re up.” Chewy says, never moving her eyes from her computer screen.
We all turn our eyes toward Remy who almost shrinks at the attention. She may be one of the Girl Gang and a badass in her own right, but she’s still the shy woman who landed at our clubhouse from the Death Riders MC a year or so ago.
Wire pats her thigh, giving it a quick squeeze in support.
She grins at him, pulls her shoulders back, full of confidence.
A thought crosses my mind that this is what I want with Lovely, but then it’s squashed almost as quickly as it came.
Lovely has built herself up from the ground up.
Yes, like Remy she may still be a little on the quieter side and not as confident as some of the other women, but she’s gone out there and grabbed life by the balls.
She put herself through a computing course so she could work at Devil’s Big Tow.
She deals with people day in, day out and with her quiet strength has managed to call in all outstanding debts to the company.
She regularly is around the men and can joke around or mother them.
This woman doesn’t need me to protect her from the world, she can do that herself. She knows she can.
I look down at her, sitting in the wheelchair in front of me. She must feel my gaze because she turns to me, her dark eyes staring up at me, a soft smile on her face. My cock thickens as I imagine her in this position in a different moment, on her knees, gazing up at me.
Her brows pinch slightly before her brow smooths. “It’ll be alright, you know? The DRMC will find out who did this. Don’t worry.” She reaches a hand over her shoulder and pats mine, still holding the wheelchair handle.
This woman, the one who saved my life by risking hers, is now comforting me. Fucking hell. I do not deserve someone so pure and kind, but dammit, I ain’t giving her up.
My head snaps back to attention when Remy clears her throat.
“So, from our time in the Rev Room we know Tito told Candice to move the children. The only way to do that, while keeping Tito’s operation running, is to move them to one of the other women he has working for him.
There are eight states along the I-10 corridor, and we know that Candice had Texas, New Mexico and Arizona on lock.
I’ve found two other states that have businesses with the same model as Candice’s, but only one has put out a statement recently looking for couples wanting to complete their families. ”
“They make it so easy,” Mira says, shaking her head in disgust while scribbling in her notepad. Nat rolls her eyes with a smirk and Tank shakes his head at his woman, pressing a kiss to her temple.
Remy taps a few keys and a picture of a dark-haired woman with a friendly, open face fills the screen. “Meet Renae Sullivan. Owner of Bayou Haven Family Services.”
“Fucking hell,” Rider says, running a hand down his face. “What is up with the names of these places?”
“Again, they make it sooooo easy,” Mira mutters.
“So am I right in thinking that this whole thing happened because we saved Laney, shut down Candice, fucked up Serpiente’s operation he was heading up for two cartel families and the town Sheriff, and messed with their lucrative kiddy trafficking?” Pops asks.
“Yup.”
“Fucking hell, Imma need to stock up on shit.”
Lovely
I think it’s the pain meds I’m filled up with, but Pops’ comment has me snorting and then giggling and then grimacing.
I have to stop because laughing hurts my chest but what he said is just so funny.
The MC is being targeted by two crime families AND law enforcement and all Pops is worried about is whether he has enough “supplies” to go around.
I snort again and another round of giggles breaks out.
Bee must also think it’s funny because she stares at me for a moment, then throws her head back and lets out the fakest laugh I’ve ever heard, causing the whole room to break out into chuckles with her.
“Well, I’m glad Bee thinks that this whole situation is laughable,” Mad Dog says. “I leave for one year and I come back to absolute chaos. You lot sure know how to spice things up.”
The large living room is full of grumbles and chuckles and I’m glad to be home.
I know I was knocked out for a lot of my hospital stay, but the times I was awake were so lonely.
It was the first real time that I’ve ever been on my own.
Well, kinda. Marx was there on and off, making sure I had everything, and when he wasn’t there I knew TumTum and Chef were on the door outside, but since birth I’ve always been a part of something larger than myself.
The Keep, for all its faults, was a good place to grow up.
I had my mom and a slew of aunts that looked after us, brothers and sisters and cousins and friends to play with.
As I grew older I made close friends and worked in the laundry rooms with other girls my age.
Then when I was sixteen that all came tumbling down.
I remember the day as if it was yesterday.
Aunt Charity visited me. She brushed my hair and instead of the loose braid us girls wore our hair in, she left it long and wavy down my back.
When she told me I looked beautiful, I was taken aback.
We were good servants of God, there was no room for vanity in our lifestyle.
She cupped my face and told me I’d make my husband a happy man.
That was all the warning I was given. Half an hour later I was married to my uncle, my father’s brother.
A man forty years older than my 16 years, with a cruel streak a mile wide.
Weight lands on my shoulder, making me jerk, pain lancing through my chest. “Shit, are you OK? Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. Fuck!” Marx’s rough voice works its way through my foggy mind, still stuck between memory and present.
“It’s OK, I must have been away with the fairies for a moment,” I smile at him over my shoulder.
He stares down at me, eyes as black as night, before giving me a nod. “I was, ah, just checking on you.”
My brows pinch at Marx’s concern, but I guess it’s par for the course. He’s a good Pres, always worried about his people. In some ways he’s similar to my father, always worried about his flock. Although that is where the similarities end.
“I’m good.” I nod once and turn back to focus on Chewy and whatever her plan for us may be.
I marvel at how she can command a room. She’s front and center, working through all the threads of information to come up with a plan.
What she says goes, that’s how high in esteem the MC holds her.
But she’s not the only one. Each and every Ol Lady here brings skills.
Nat, Blanche and Ana all bring sass and the ability to speak their minds and go to war for their men if needed.
Chewy and Remy beaver away in the background, feeding us with intel and all the things we need to keep ourselves safe.
Mira and Vi, while new at this Ol Lady thing, have the ability to bring out the best in their men, while helping keep a rein on the Girl Gang.
I used to think that I would never fit in, but since our little fun in the Rev Room I’ve learned that perhaps I straddle the space between the women.
I’m brave and ballsy in my own way, and like Mama Debs, Vi and Mira I like to nurture and care for those around me.
I’m not quite the woman who left the Keep all those months ago, scared to enter the wide world around me.
I’m out here holding on with both hands to make my life, and the life of my daughter so much richer, and I have all these people to thank for that.
“So, what’s the plan?” Nitro asks, over the big screen where his face is showing in a little square in the corner.
It’s quiet except for the rasping coming from behind me.
I know without looking that Marx is running his big, tattooed hand down his beard, tugging on it while he thinks.
There was a time where all I could think about was what those hands would feel like on me.
Would they be rough to the touch? Would they be gentle hands or would they grip and massage me firmly?
I could never decide. Although the one thing I knew deep in my soul, was that those hands would never hurt me.
Not when his words could do that on their own.
I swallow the lump in my throat, remembering what he said, that I was just his MC brother’s sister-in-law.
It hurt at the time, but thinking deeper I get it.
He is a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders, and to him I’ll always be the woman who needed saving.
Even though I’m stronger than he’ll ever know, I also know that I’m quite naive when it comes to men.
My attraction to Marx is just a silly school girl crush.
An attraction to a man so completely opposite to my husband, so handsome and caring and gruff, instead of the slick, smarminess of Royal.
His words popped the bubble and I see that at this moment, at this time, Marx is not the man for me, and that’s OK.
I believe that love, the right love, will find me when it’s ready, and when it does I’ll grab on with both hands.
I smile to myself as I nuzzle my face into Little Bee’s hair as she rests on me, her legs straddling mine, her arms hanging loosely at her sides as she rests against my chest, her body plastered against me.
Her little breaths puff out of her plump lips and I feel dampness where I’m sure she is drooling on me.
“These men came into my town, and tried to wipe out my MC, my family. ” Marx pauses, as if weighing his words.
“I can’t make the decision alone. Whatever we decide, we decide as a collective, as this affects all of us.
Some of you have Ol Ladies, children, babies-” Marx rests his hand gently on Bee’s back, stroking her gently before pulling back to stand.
“We need to make the decision based on this, and not just revenge. I say we think about it for the rest of the day. I’ll be coming to talk to each and every one of you.
I want your thoughts, fears, anything that you think is important.
We’ll then make a decision after dinner.
” The tension that had been hanging in the room lessens as everyone nods at Marx.
Nat and Savage have their heads together, as do Gus and Ana, whispering to each other.
The couples with children all look thoughtful, but so do the single brothers.
Everyone wants to make the right decision for our family, and I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of this.
“Roman and his crew will be arriving in an hour or so. Rhodie, I want you with me to rep the MC, Gus, you’ll rep the Tombs and Vic, if you could rep the Landrys. ”
The men all nod in agreement. “I’ll be there, I may not be MC, but you’re still my Pres,” Gus answers seriously, Vic nodding in agreement.
“Good. OK, Church dismissed, I’m going to get Lovely settled and then I’ll be doing my rounds. Stick together, watch each other’s backs,” he looks toward where Chewy and Pops are having a conversation, “and don’t do dumb shit.”
With that he twirls my chair around until we’re pointing in the direction of the doorway, where he pushes me at a fast clip out of the room and away from Pops’ complaining.