Chapter 12 The Claim
Baffle
The next day, when I stood up and faced my brothers in church, I was still angry about how everything went down.
It wasn’t just the women at fault, though Nell probably thought that was the case.
I glared at the men in the room, the ones who were supposed to be my club brothers.
Some of those bastards wouldn’t even look me in the eye.
Clock, Folly, and Tick were all newer, but the rest had no fucking excuse for not stepping in for my woman.
Crutch had been busy dealing with the other side of my drama, so he wasn’t there to rein in his wife.
That didn’t mean he wouldn’t hear from me, too.
His woman had been an ol’ lady for a long time and she knew better.
Shit could roll downhill as far as I was concerned because whether Tilly was my surrogate mom or not, I was too angry to deal with her in person.
It would get ugly and things might be said that could never be taken back.
“I didn’t even get to fuck my wife in my home for the first time last night because she almost froze to death out there.” I pointed a finger toward the wall, but they knew what I meant.
“Didn’t even know you had a woman until I heard about the drama this morning,” Dime said.
I nodded because I knew some of them hadn’t been aware and others were not sure what the fuck was going on.
I glanced toward Crutch and Punchy. The latter was already working himself up to some shit while Crutch hung his head and let me know he had my back.
“I’m going to talk to Tilly about the shit that happened.
Didn’t realize she was a part of the continued drama until Brady enlightened me this morning. ”
So, the woman who was supposed to be like a mother to me hadn’t come clean to her old man.
I wanted to throw shit. Despite how angry I was with Tilly, I could never physically harm her.
“I have a few things to clarify this morning and we have a new potential lead that can get us to the Mojave Devil’s most frequented haunts.
Bigfoot’s gone with his new wife on their honeymoon.
I want this shit cleared up before they get back.
They’ve had enough fucking drama to last a lifetime, especially where the Devils are concerned. ”
I ignored the look Crutch gave me. He knew I was newly married as well and sure as fuck wasn’t getting a honeymoon. Since his son’s nuptials had been planned and mine were fucking impromptu as hell, I’d have to deal with running the club while he was gone.
“While some of us were in Vegas recently, I stumbled upon a situation.” I explained how everything went down with Nell, her old roommate, that prick Johnny Culver who called himself Slicer, and then started putting the rest of the pieces together for them.
“Nell is my wife now. I’m claiming her as my ol’ lady.
I know what some of you are thinking, that I’m doing this for her protection and then I’ll let her go when she’s safe.
You’re fucking wrong.” I turned my focus on Crutch then.
“I knew the minute I laid eyes on her.” The man who had been my father-figure since my own dad went to prison, cracked a grin that continued to spread wider as he gave me a nod of acknowledgement.
He might have more to say, but knew to wait it out until the meeting was over.
“So this woman you met days ago is serious, ol’ lady material, but my little girl you’ve known your whole life and stuck your filthy dick in isn’t?
” Punchy stood and shouted. He knew the score and had disowned his daughter the night before.
I wasn’t sure why he was speaking up again like he didn’t know, but my guess would be his ol’ lady was in his ear telling him it was a misunderstanding.
That thought made me angrier than his outburst.
“Sit the fuck down before I break your fucking legs and make you.”
“Baffle!” Knuckles called me out. He was the club’s Sgt.
at Arms, and it was his job to head off violence amidst members, but he didn’t know everything just yet.
I shook my head at him and he gave me a nod that he was going to allow some leeway until I was done.
He moved over to where Punchy stood and guided the chubby bastard’s ass back into his seat.
“You will respect your VP and listen to what he has to say before you run your mouth about your daughter again. She’s not involved in the problems we have with the Devils and that’s the more important matter for the club. ”
“Fuck it, I’m going to address the Roxy problem first. I didn’t fucking want to do this.
Bigfoot has known all along, and I had hoped to keep it between the three of us for the rest of our lives, but thanks to Roxy’s bullshit, that can’t happen.
” I took a minute to look every motherfucker in the eye before my gaze settled on Punchy.
“Roxy has never been and never will be a fuck buddy of mine. She was never anything more than a friend and even that’s been in question for years.
Her behavior last night cost her any ground we’d made at repairing our friendship. ”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Punchy growled.
For a minute, I wondered if he had been so drunk that he simply didn’t remember our conversation, but then I noticed the way his eyes shifted around to everyone else in the room and I understood.
He needed them to know, to feel his anger, so disowning his daughter wasn’t something everyone would think less of him for.
Apparently, the asshole didn’t care about throwing my privacy under the bus to do it.
“Three years ago, just before Roxy went away, I had Rosa wait in my room for me. It was a night I got particularly fucked up. Roxy had gotten in my shit that night. She bitched about me using Rosa to satisfy my needs instead of starting something real with her. I explained to her that night that I saw her as nothing more than a friend. Up until that point, I only ever thought of her as a little sister.” I nodded as Punchy blanched.
“Yeah, keep that in mind as I tell you the rest.”
Several of the men in the room squirmed in their seats and I could tell that some of them had already jumped ahead and put two-and-two together.
“I went to my room sloshed, saw a brunette, and thought Rosa had waited for me as she was told to. I was too drunk to know the difference when I fucked her. When I woke up in the morning, it wasn’t Rosa there in bed with me.
I woke up to Roxy playing with my dick trying to get me hard again.
” Punchy flinched. I wasn’t about to shade over the details to spare his feelings since he didn’t give two fucks about mine.
“Rox claimed Rosa left and she slipped in, but that’s not what happened.
When I confronted Rosa about why she hadn’t been in my bed that night, she said Roxy came in and sent her away because I changed my mind.
Rox took her place. On top of that fuckery, I don’t know who the hell was responsible, but that was the same day we had to do a purge of all the condoms in the clubhouse because holes had been poked in a bunch of them.
Most of those were the ones in my room.”
“You’re saying you never consented to the one time you fucked Rox?” Knuckles asked. His face was pulled tight in anger and I could see how badly he wanted to handle that situation - and Roxy.
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. She was given a morning after pill, sent away for a while, and supposedly received therapy to get over whatever fucking delusion she had built up in her head about us.
Bigfoot was the only one who knew what went down that night because he heard us arguing that morning and came into my room to see what the fuck was going on.
As president at the time, he agreed with what I wanted to happen because he didn’t want to take any other choices from me that night.
” I wanted to throw up from having to admit that to my brothers.
“Why wasn’t she banned permanently?” Grunt barked the question into the room.
His face was red with anger and his fists were balled up on top of the table like he was gearing up for a brawl.
As our Enforcer, it was his right to question the decision, as my friend, I could see his anger was on my behalf and not because he had been kept in the dark.
“Between my mother, hers, and even Tilly, Roxy has had them drilling it in her head that she would end up married to me one day. I didn’t realize until then just how relentlessly they had hammered that narrative into her, but I took that into consideration when I made my decision.”
“What about the condoms, though?” Grunt wasn’t one to let that go because he’d had a club girl accuse him of being her baby’s daddy a while back.
It hadn’t been true but it took a DNA test to prove it, and she made him wait until the baby was born to get that test. In the meantime, it cost him the woman he was in love with.
“Bigfoot and I discussed that back then. We didn’t know who sabotaged the birth control. Could have been Roxy or any other patch chaser who had access to the bedrooms that were unlocked.”
“Could have been Rosa, too,” Knuckles added. “She’s always been ready to jump on your jock.”
“Could have been any number of club girls back then. We didn’t know and had no way to prove it, so we replaced the stock and told everyone to keep watch.
That was the best solution without having to purge every single club girl and start with a fresh batch.
Plus, we were hoping for a repeated attempt to show who it was. ”
“That didn’t happen, though.” Again, Knuckles clocked all the angles.
There was never another attempt. Whether it had been Rosa, and she was scared to try again, or Roxy, and with her gone there were no more attempts, we had no way of knowing.
My money was on Rox, since she was desperate enough to do what she did.
That was the only reason Rosa was still with the club.
It wasn’t something I was going to come out and say, and Knuckles knew that because he gave a quick nod and dropped it.
“I remove any protections from Roxy. She no longer has my support or claim to me as family,” Punchy said in such a low tone that some of the men across the room turned and asked him to repeat himself.
I wasn’t going to make him do that. Despite him showing his ass moments ago, I felt for the man.
That was his daughter, his only child, and he was cutting all ties to her.
“Punchy has removed protection from Roxy and does not claim her as his child any longer,” I reiterated for those who missed it. He got up and looked at me briefly. “I need to…” He walked to the door, knowing full well he hadn’t been dismissed because our meeting wasn’t over. I gave a nod anyway.
“Someone can fill you in later.” Once he was out the door, I turned to our former president.
“Need you to go look after Nell for me. She’s probably up by now and I don’t want anyone else in her face.
” He nodded and took off immediately. I’d already filled Crutch in via text on what was happening with the upcoming run to Arizona anyway.
I needed him to step up to cover the club while I took off to deal with Nell’s shit in Flagstaff since our current president was off on his honeymoon.
“Now, back to my wife,” I couldn’t hide the grin on my face as I called her that again in front of my brothers.
“Nell has an art studio in Flagstaff. I need to go grab all her stuff for her before it ends up destroyed. I fully expect that there will be eyes on the place unless this Johnny - Slicer asshole is a complete moron. Either way, we need to go clear it out for her and potentially put someone in place to tail the fucker to see if he heads back to report in to the Devils.”
“How many bodies do you need?”
This was going to be the fun part. I glanced at Knuckles as I ticked off the specific things I needed that would determine who we brought with us.
“I need at least four plus whoever we have as a tail for the dick. We also need a rig that can haul something the size of a car plus some other shit, someone who can operate a forklift, and…”
“What the fuck?” Grunt asked. “What kind of shit is your woman into?”
I laughed. “Beats the fuck out of me. She is an artist and works with metal. That’s all I know. Nell said I should just see it for myself without her spoiling the fun.”
“I can operate a forklift, so I guess I’m going. Besides, I want to see what your new woman is up to.” Grunt tipped his chin at me and I nodded to confirm.
“I’m going, too. We should take Grease with us just in case, since her specifications were something the size of a car,” Knuckles suggested.
“You good with that, Grease?” I asked.
“Whatever you need, brother.”
“Squeak how do you feel about sticking around there to tail Johnny, if he shows up?” Squeak, otherwise known as Joey Tipton, was one of the last members that had been patched over about a year after the bullshit went down with Nell.
A few of the brothers were still on the fence about him because he was a bit skittish or timid at times.
I thought he made up for that with the fact that he was loyal to the damn bone.
“Got nothing going on, so I’m good to hang in Flagstaff for a bit,” he confirmed.
“One last thing, we use that motherfucker until he gives us everything we can possibly gain about the Devils, but after that, he’s mine.” When no one disagreed or had any other business, I called church to a close and we all dispersed.