CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
-:- MAV -:-
It’s only the middle of the morning and I’m on my way to kindergarten with Mia because the twins have been acting up. I knew it was a bad idea to send these two. I told Axel and Mia to have a private tutor for them so they could be at the house and not amongst other kids, causing chaos.
“I’m sorry, Mav, I know you said it was a bad idea, but they need to mix with other children. They can’t spend all their lives within the compound.”
Mia must have felt my annoyance at having to come to school because the two hooligans have caused chaos in the classroom. But I’m not one to say I told you so, so I keep my mouth firmly closed. After all, Mia is the First Lady of the club. I give a customary grunt because I have to respond in some way and I can’t find any words to say how annoying this is without blowing up.
Walking into the school, I stay one step behind Mia, keeping my eyes peeled for any kind of trouble. I’m not sure why because come on, we’re at kindergarten, what could happen? A bite on the ankle, kick in the shins, or some other minor thing?
The teacher from the twins' class greets Mia and gives me a small nod of the head, along with a smile as she leads us into a classroom where the twins are sitting near the window. They give a cheerful wave and laugh between themselves. Little fuckers, I’m thinking! But I notice they are covered in paint, bright purple paint at that. I give the teacher another look-over and shit, that’s when I see the little bastards have thrown paint on the woman. I hadn’t noticed as I’d not seen the back of her. But now, as she’s explaining to Mia what happened, she turns and here is the evidence.
“Oh, my goodness. I’m so sorry. I’ll speak to their father and get him to do something.” I give Mia a look of surprise because what the fuck is Axel going to do? Nothing, that’s what. He’ll laugh his ass off at the image I’m going to relay to him. But it’s the very careful and calculated way Mia is speaking to the woman that has me mesmerized. Anyone would think she is well-to-do, and she’s obviously been learning more shit from Star.
“We cannot have the twins causing trouble in the classroom. But they are young and boisterous, so I know it’s hard to keep them well-behaved all the time. I don’t mind them running around, but I can’t have them throwing paint on other children.”
“What?” Mia asked in a shocked voice, and I look at the twins out of the corner of my eye and those two hooligans are giggling between themselves.
The teacher relays all that happened, which basically is the twins threw paint on another kid, as he was bullying one of the girls in class when the teacher wasn’t looking. Yeah, sneaky little shit is what he is. So, the twins took it in hand and poured cans of paint on his head.
The door bursts open and a woman storms into the room shouting about having the twins thrown out of school because they are not good children, and need educating how to mix with other children. Now, I fold my arms over my chest and think where’s the popcorn, because Mia is a hurricane when it comes to protecting her kids, and this is going to be something to watch. In fact, thinking that I take out my phone and hit record.
“Shut your mouth about my children! Your child is a bully and if he wasn’t bullying a little girl, my boys wouldn’t have had to stand up for her. My boys were being little gentlemen and I’m sure proud of them,” Mia shouts back at her.
The teacher is looking from one to the other, then glances at the twins who have opened their backpacks and taken out their small packed lunch that Amelia made for them, and sit eating as though this is a normal day at school.
“My son is not a bully!”
"Mrs. Granger, the truth is, Simon was bullying Abigail, but the twins put a stop to it." Calmly, the teacher addressed Mrs. Granger with an unreadable expression.
“Boys, come on, we’re going home,” Mia and I both watch as the twins pack up and walk towards her, both with huge smiles on their faces. Neither has said a word throughout this fiasco.
“I want them out of this school.”
The woman persists, but I keep recording the incident and give the teacher a wink when she looks over at me. Turning back to the irate parent, the teacher, who I now see has a name tag, is called Mrs. Evelyn Brownlee, states firmly, “Children are children, and you need to take Simon home, clean him up and teach him about bullying. We have an anti-bullying policy at the school and it doesn’t matter what age someone becomes a bully, it means they still are one. Now, if you want him to grow into a well-rounded and sensitive adult, you need to teach him that bullying is not something that is tolerated.”
“Mav, come on, we are going home. I need to clean up the boys and speak to Axel.” Mia stomps out of the classroom, shoulder hitting the other parent as she passes, and the twins are right behind her. But behind Mia’s back, they both kick the parent in the shin, laugh and run up beside Mia, grabbing a hand on either side of her. Yeah, I got that recorded too.
We leave the screeching parent and amused teacher behind as we head outside to the SUV and head back to the compound. I look over at Mia and she’s chewing her bottom lip. I know that’s a sign she’s thinking about what’s happened and what she should do next. Me! I keep my thoughts to myself but if it wasn’t a risk to my health, I’d high-five the hooligans and give them a chocolate treat.
Back at the compound, I make my way to the clubhouse kitchen after watching Mia take the boys home. I bet they are going in the bath before Mia reports what happened to Axel.
Now, speaking of Axel as I take a seat in the kitchen with a mug of coffee and a handful of cookies I nabbed from the large cookie tin, I watch as my president saunters in and takes a seat next to me. He’s giving me the ‘what happened’ look, and I hand over my phone with the recording so he can see for himself.
“I know they are terrors, but they did right protecting a little girl from a bully. I’m not going to punish them for that. There are far worse things they could have done. As future president and VP of the club, they have to have morals, guts and be able to make good decisions. To me, this is a good decision.” Axel slaps my shoulder as he stands, hands me my phone back, and walks out the back door. I’m not sure how he’ll handle this with Mia, but he’s not going to be hard on the twins, and he’s right. I’m sure those two little fuckers will get into far worse than tipping paint on someone.
As I’m getting ready to leave the kitchen Colton walks in and seeing me, he steps over, taking a seat and clasps his hands on the table in front of him.
“You have to do some extra training, ready for the fight. I’ve arranged for you to fight with Garth. You don’t know how he fights, so he will be a good unknown to get your mind set ready. He’s a good fighter and I think you’ll get a lot out of training with him before we have the fight night.”
As I agree with an extra session or two before the fight I’m preparing for, I can see the sense in what he’s saying. Taking Colton by surprise, I nod and simply state, “Okay. Let me know when.”
Picking up my mug, I take it to the sink, rinse it out and place it in the dishwasher. Meat gives me a nod and I walk out of the kitchen right into seeing Bitty and Sybil arguing in the common room over who is going to be looking after Summer for the afternoon.
Buzz shouts for me to follow him and I stride out of the common room and out the front door, where Forest is entering the compound in his cruiser. “Forest needs to speak to you about Sharon. He is here for something concerning Pres, but he wants to speak to you too.” Buzz leans against the wall of the clubhouse and I wait for Forest to step out of his cruiser and over to us.
“I need to know if you want me to continue the charges on Sharon? She’s more than likely going to leave town, but if not, she’ll be on my fucking watch list,” Forest quickly states.
“Okay, drop the charges if you like. It was only a kiss and all this shit will have scared the piss outta her, I would imagine. I’m just sick of her following me around and I’m trying to get Blake to give me a chance, so I don’t want this happening again.”
“I’ll be speaking to Judge Allcott and see if he can rip some strips off her. Then maybe she’ll stay away or move towns,” Forest rubs his chin in thought as he thinks, and shakes his head with whatever decision he came to, then asks, “Where’s Axel? I need to speak to him about men I’ve heard are walking around town. I’ve been cruising the streets but not seen anything suspicious as such. But, saying that, there are unfamiliar faces out there.”
Buzz responds with a massive grin, rubbing his hands together, “I can’t wait to get my hands on those assholes. Axel is at his house sorting out an issue with the twins, so give him half an hour, then go over.”
“Okay. I’ll grab a drink while I’m here.” Forest walks into the clubhouse while he and Buzz talk, and I stay where I am thinking about the bastards that have come to town, and how they need to be buried deep.
Later in the afternoon, Axel has given orders that we all be ready to roll into town as soon as the evening hits. We need the cover of darkness to get to the fuckers and if need be, take them out, or overpower them ready to take to Nell’s. I heard Graham, Tank and Richie are ready and have the cells all prepared. Drag has been updating everyone, as information has been coming in from his street informants. Target and Wings informants have also given us an idea of what is going on at the old gas station, and that’s where we will concentrate on starting our assault.
Sitting at the bar in the common room chilling ready for the evening, I turn my head when Axel sits beside me. “All okay, Pres?”
“Yeah, everything is fine. I calmed Mia about the boys and asked her would she rather them sit back and watch something bad happen or stand up and be men?” Axel chuckles, “She said they are not men yet.”
“Honestly, women, sometimes I just don’t understand them,” I honestly think they are a different species at times. I watch the Ol’ Ladies when they get together and they can only be described as feral at times. They are, however, very loyal to each other and yeah, they argue at times, but it never causes a problem between them. They agree to disagree.
“No, me either, Mav, but it’s fun trying to work it out.” Axel slaps my shoulder before walking away, whistling, and that spring in his step tells me he’s going to pester Mia for a while.
Later that evening we are all slowly making our way to the gas station on foot as we’ve left our hogs a mile away so the engine noise doesn’t alert these fuckers we are onto them, and about to take them out one way or another.
I look over at Buzz, who is buzzing to get into a fight, and Axel is smirking, so I think he’s on the same wavelength. We hunker down, behind the wall that is positioned around the three sides of the station. Which only leaves the front of the station open for vehicles to drive in and out.
Axel gives a signal for us all to hang back when we hear vehicles, and they are coming in hot. The black Escalades slam to a halt in the forecourt of the station. Men all dressed in black suits pour out of the vehicles.
“You motherfucker…”
Swinging to look at Axel who’s on his feet and storming toward the wall where he’s about to climb and tear into none other than Vitale. Oh, fuck, now we are in for some fun, I’m thinking. Drag and Buzz are right behind Axel, with Wings and Chaos behind them. I get over the wall easily and Knuckles along with Colton, Target and Beer head to the station where we burst through the door, and find Vitale’s men already have probably twelve men on the ground. Either knocked out or pissing themselves with fear.
“Aw, for fuck’s sake, that means we are not going to have any fun at all,” Colton snarls, then kicks the nearest man kneeling in the gut.
Hearing someone mumble, “Fuck, you seen them going at it?” we turn and head back outside where Axel and Vitale are swinging at each other.
“Go for it, Pres,” Colton hoots, stomping his foot. I give him a what the fuck look before looking back at Pres.
Vitale snaps a punch which hits Axel on the chin, but it only has him taking one step backward before he surges forward with his own set of punches. One-two, one-two, smack… Yeah, that’s a nice combination, Pres, I’m thinking.
Vitale shoots a leg out to sweep Axel down, but we work this all the time in training and Axel hops over the leg and stamps on it, causing Vitale to swear as he gets to his feet and limps a little.
Target is making bets with Chaos on who is going to win, and I am not getting involved in any of that, either. Colton now has his phone out and recording the fight. I think this has turned into one hell of a shit show.
Vitale’s men are standing on one side of the forecourt. Well, the men that are not restraining the fuckers inside, that is. But they are not attempting to step into the fight. We watch as it’s more than obvious Axel and Vitale are well matched, and they are doing damage to each other. Both have a bleeding nose and split lip.
“That’s enough.” Drag steps forward, giving Vitale’s lead man a look to step in as well. “Come on, Pres. The fuckers are restrained. They will go to Nell’s. Either way, it’s a done deal. Let’s go home and leave Vitale to clean up the mess.”
“It’s our territory, Drag,” Axel snarls, wiping the blood from his nose and leaving a streak across his cheek. “The next time you come into my territory, I’m declaring war. We both care about Nell, but that will not be a reason to stay on friendly terms from this moment forward. You get me Vitale? You overstepped the fuckin’ mark.”
Vitale looks like he wants to spit nails, but he also knows he is in our territory, and he has overstepped. He gives a nod to Axel, then walks into the station, giving orders to his men.
We haul ass back to our hogs and the clubhouse. Not sure what the fuck Mia is going to say about Axel’s black eye and split lip, mind you, but I’m staying well out of it. I like my balls just where they are and not in Mia’s purse, where Axel keeps his, I don’t want to know or care.