Chapter 37 #3
“I know, I can’t get over how fast and furious they come on.” Suddenly her lips curve. “As we’re going to be stuck here for a while, why don’t we talk about Ace’s birthday. It’s in, what, two weeks now? Have you got any plans?”
“Not really,” I admit. “Freak’s getting him a car, he’s going to surprise him.” I bite my lip. “I did ask Ace about his friends from school, just casually, in a kind of wanting to get to know him way.” As she eagerly sits forward, I shrug. “Seems like he hasn’t got any.”
Sharp as a tack, she asks, “Is he bullied?”
I move my head side to side. “I was worried about that, but it appears not. It seems the other boys are in awe of his gaming skills and ask him about cheats.” Then I grin. “And the girls are, in his words, always trying to get in his pants.”
She outright laughs, much the same as I did when he’d disclosed that little tidbit. “He’s a good-looking kid, takes after his father. And he has that air of mystery about him.”
My mouth twists. “His autism? It makes him different.”
“He’s composed, doesn’t get fazed, and is content to just do his own thing.
He probably seems so much more mature than the other kids.
I can see why the girls like him.” She chuckles, “In time I suspect he’ll appreciate the female attention he attracts.
I take it, then, there’s not going to be anyone of his age that he wants to invite? ”
Dipping my head and raising it again, I show her she’s right. “Which has got me stumped. A teenage party was what I’d been thinking.”
“Club party,” she says decisively. “Ace has grown up around the club. He doesn’t need outside friends when he’s got his whole family there. We can hire a tent, so we can have it outside even if it rains. We can get the men grilling, and we’ll produce all the sides. Is it too late to order a cake?”
Mentally, I make a note. “I can get right on that. I’ll go to the bakery in town when it stops raining.”
Tapping her fingers against her mouth, she looks lost in thought.
Then she beams. “Ace got to know some out-of-town Kings when they came to rebuild the barn. Hey, it’s the rally the week before in Anarchy, isn’t it?
Maybe some of them could stop off with us on their way home?
It’s not often brothers turn down a chance to party. ”
The mother chapter of the Kings is based in the small town in California, and all chapters are invited to attend, though attendance isn’t mandatory.
As we’re one of the closest it’s become an annual event on the calendar.
I’ve been before as a club girl, but will be excited to attend this year as Freak’s ol’ lady.
“Ace might like that,” I offer thoughtfully. “Having more than the club would make his day special. But, can we not invite Smooth?” I interject hurriedly. “I wouldn’t want Ace’s day ruined.”
She snorts. “Oh, I’d like to see him come back. Saint and Short would probably try to kill him, but I might get my revenge first.”
“Are you going to the rally?”
She shakes her head. “Neither Saint nor I are going. Jade’s far too young for us to take her. Is Ace going?”
“He doesn’t normally.” I chuckle, “I suspect in the past he’d cramp Freak’s style. But with me going along, perhaps he could if he’d like to.”
“I suspect he would. Yes…” Another bright flash which momentarily dims the overhead lights, drawing Pippa’s attention outside again.
Then, she narrows her eyes, and takes out her phone.
She taps on it for a moment. Her mouth is pursed, her jaw tense, her whole expression so serious it makes me uneasy.
Leaning forward, I hiss. “What is it?”
“Don’t look now,” she says fast, pointedly focusing on me, and not the window that’s in her eye-line. “But there’s a man outside who’s paying far too much attention to us. I’ve just messaged Saint. It might be nothing, but…”
It’s not only me that has to worry about being out in public. It’s her too. She’s the Secret Service agent who was declared dead. If anyone recognised her, exposed she was alive and breathing, she’d be in a whole heap of trouble. And not only her, the Kings were the ones who’d faked her death.
Her phone rings. She answers. “Saint, babe. Yeah. I don’t know, it might be my imagination, but someone’s outside the coffee shop in the pouring rain and seems a little too interested in us…
Dee’s in town?… Yeah, that would be great if he could come here.
I’m probably worrying about nothing… Love you too, babe. See you soon. Kiss Jade for me.”
She turns back to me. “The prospect’s in town. He’s going to come here and draw that man’s attention. When he gets here, we’ll slip out of the back and leave.”
“Is that man here for you or me?”
Reaching across the table she takes hold of my hand. “Trix, it’s unlikely he’d be here for you. Why would your ex link you to Arizona, let alone this town? He’s got absolutely no reason to. But he could have recognised me. I’ll just have to disappear and keep my head low for a while.”
My heart rate, that had sped up, slows slightly. I grip her fingers. “I hate this for you.”
Her jaw tightens again. “Me too, Trix. But it is what it is.”
“Do you ever think it was a mistake?” It had been Ace, the son of my heart, who had used his amazing hacking skills and got into a federal database, altering the DNA records to replace Pippa’s with that of an already deceased Jane Doe.
She doesn’t pretend not to know what I mean. She shrugs. “I rather like being dead. Makes it a clean slate, you know?”
“You shouldn’t have come into town today.”
She grimaces. “I just want to live a normal life. But maybe eight months isn’t long enough for memories to fade.
” As a ‘murdered’ Secret Service agent, her face had been plastered all over the news.
Suddenly she looks into my eyes and vows earnestly, “If I’m discovered, Trix, I won’t expose Ace, or the Kings.
I’ll say I altered the database myself.”
Which would be a federal crime. I don’t point out she’d be arrested and lose both Saint and Jade.
She blinks fast, then hisses. “Dee’s got him distracted now. Come on.”
I stand quickly, follow her as she speaks fast to the barista, catching the word, ‘stalker’, and seeing the sympathy in the other woman’s eyes. We’re hastened out through the kitchen and the back door. There, we find one of the club’s SUVs waiting, Saint in the driver’s seat.
I get in the back, Pippa riding shotgun. Saint’s tension is palpable, even from where I’m sitting. With a cursed, “Someone will pick up your car up later,” to his wife, he guns the engine and pulls away.
I’m dropped off at Freak’s and my rental house, and then Saint and Pippa hightail it back to the club.
Jeez, I hope Pippa’s going to be alright. I’d clicked with her almost as soon as I’d met her, she never saw me as just a club girl. And seeing what she was bringing to the club, I’d gone out of my way to help her.
Saint had been an asshole before they’d hooked up. Okay, so he’s still mostly one now, but he’s softened, and anyone can see he’s so much happier. If Pippa was taken away, it would destroy him.
He’d burn down heaven and earth to save her.