Chapter 14 The Contract
CASSIDY
“You guys are persistent, I’ll give you that.” The contract, that was hand delivered by Jasper, also known as Grunt, shortly after James left was straight to the point and worth its weight in gold for a business in Violence, New Mexico.
“Cassidy, whatever residual shit is between you and Knuckles, don’t let it stop you from signing this contract. If I need to, I’ll make sure Bigfoot had as an addendum added that Knuckles has to stay away. He’ll enforce it, but be damn sure that’s what you really want before you ask for it.”
I blew out a frustrated breath. “I don’t care if he’s around. I never had a problem with him, if you remember. He is the one who kept coming to me with problems that weren’t mine and making me look like an awful person when I had no clue what he was talking about.”
“Fuck, that bitch really screwed with his head.”
“Well, that’s what happens when the love of your life turns out to be a conniving cuntbag,” I joked.
“She was NEVER the love of his life, Cass.”
“That’s not what he said to me.”
Grunt shook his head. I figured if I had to be around the club for the sake of this contract - that I couldn’t turn down - then I needed to get used to calling old friends by new names. His dark eyes tracked every move I made.
“You know as well as I do that Knuckles can be a hot head sometimes. Comes from spending too much time in his dad’s house at the wrong time of his life.
Fact is, he never loved that bitch. He cared for her enough to stick to his vows until she fucked it up, but that was about it.
Even then, it was a constant test of his will to stay married to the harpy. ”
I giggled. “Sounds like someone doesn’t like her.”
“Can’t stand her,” he admitted freely.
“It’s weird because I thought her crush on you in high school was mutual.”
“It was because she had a banging body back then and there wasn’t a hint of innocence to her.” I wrinkled my nose in distaste at that. “Don’t judge, princess. You had a crush on the asshole who wouldn’t even acknowledge you at school.”
I laughed. “Touche.”
“About that,” he started to say and shook my head to indicate I didn’t want to hear it from him.
He sighed and grabbed my hand. We were seated at the single table in the restaurant’s dining area.
He was in Finch’s seat while I was in mine, though.
It was easy enough for him to reach over and take my hand where it rested on top of the contract I had yet to sign.
“Hear me out, please.” When I gave a slight nod, he didn’t hesitate. “I don’t know what excuse my brother gave you for his behavior back then, but I think you deserve the truth, even if it means going behind his back and telling you shit that was entrusted to my ears only.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t betray your friend’s trust,” I said.
“Yeah, I’d normally go with that, but I think in this case, he’ll forgive me. You weren’t the only with a crush back when we were younger. Half the damn time, that fucker blew off our plans at the last minute because he saw you light a fire in his grandparent’s backyard.”
“My backyard,” I corrected.
Grunt shook his head. “No, Cass. The fire pit was always on the Davis’s property.” He grinned as my jaw dropped.
“No! I was trespassing and using their fire pit that whole time and no one said a word to me?”
Grunt laughed. “Why would they? You weren’t hurting anything and no one else was using it.”
My face burned with embarrassment. “I can’t believe all this time… Oh no! It must have looked like I was stalking him then.”
“It didn’t. I promise. The first time it happened, James asked his grandpa if he wanted him to tell you that you couldn’t do that.
Gramps said to leave you be that you had your reasons for wanting to be alone with a fire out there.
He also mentioned that the property line was really close and you probably thought it belonged to your family.
I think Tim knew you needed a place where you felt safe, even before they knew what a bitch your stepmom was to you. ”
“How do you know about that?”
The look on his face had an “I told you so” quality to it before he answered.
“My best friend in the world would ditch me to hang out with his grandparents. Do you know how fucked that was when we were teenagers?” Grunt chuckled.
“I went there a few times. Showed up out of the blue just to see what was so special about Tim and Virginia that Knuckles couldn’t tear himself away.
Only, when I got there, he wasn’t with his grandparents.
He was out back at a fire, laughing with about something the girl next door said. ”
I smiled and remembered those moments fondly.
James might have tainted my memories when it finally hit me that he was hiding our friendship, but before that, those moments were special - sacred even.
He was the one good thing in my life at that time besides his grandparents.
Simone wasn’t even a consideration. If she had ditched me as a friend it would have made me sad and curious about why, but it wouldn’t have broken my heart to lose her.
“He wouldn’t admit it back then, but when he got wasted after your father’s wake last year and Smooth and Grease brought him back to the clubhouse, the asshole couldn’t shut his trap about you.
Before all the drinks, I set him straight on some doubts I’d had since we were in high school.
The dynamic between you and Simone shifted a lot.
It went from you trailing around after her and hanging on her every word, to a completely flipped script.
Only, you weren’t speaking. Simone was still jabbering, but you weren’t tuned in anymore.
You certainly weren’t following her around, she was shadowing you until you decided to hide out in the library where she didn’t want to go. ”
“Best decision I ever made. That library gave me peace and the key to my future.”
“How so?”
“I found an old “Be all you can be” Army pamphlet in a box when I was helping get rid of stuff. It was a lifeline when I needed direction.”
“You were in the Army the whole time?”
“I left for basic training the week after we graduated.”
“You never even went to college?”
I shook my head. “I have a bachelor’s in business administration, but I earned it through distance learning with Purdue Global while I was enlisted. I never attended in person classes.”
“Well, we all knew she was lying, but damn, Cass. If anyone had ever bothered to check…” He seemed lost in thought for a bit. “I wonder why we took her word for so long. I even thought she was going to see you for a while.”
“I don’t know. James’s grandparents knew I went into the Army, so I’m guessing it was never brought up around them or they might have corrected the lie.”
“How long have they known?”
“Since the day I left. Mr. Davis was leaving to go somewhere the morning I stood at the end of our driveway to meet the recruiter who was driving me to my first stop.”
“Damn. Think I’ll keep that one to myself. Not sure how he’ll feel when he finds out his grandparents had the key to his ex-wife’s lies and where you went all along.”
I shrugged my shoulders. It wasn’t my problem and not a past I needed to face. It was weird that they hadn’t shared anything about me being in the military with their grandson over all those years I was gone, especially since we wrote to one another regularly.
“Anyway, my point was that he would rather sit by that fire with you than go hang with me at a party or whatever we found to get into. He wanted to be there with you. And when I confronted him about everything after that night at the wake, he eventually admitted that he had a plan that involved waiting until he was good enough to ask you to be his.” Grunt shook his head and laughed.
“The dumb bastard. I wish he had told me all this back then, could have saved everyone a lot of heartache.”
“You’re telling me that he was biding his time until he felt he was good enough to ask me out?” There was no hiding the disbelief in my tone.
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. You were supposed to be the end goal.”
“Bullshit!” I damn near shouted at Grunt. “He slept with the girl who was supposed to be my best friend and got her pregnant. In what world does that sound like James Davis was waiting around to be good enough to ask me out?”
“They hooked up after he got drunk when you never showed up to some party at Quemado Lake. Probably Ashley’s deal, since that’s what spurred him to tell you about how disloyal your friend was for not taking you to parties.
” We both sat on that information quietly for a minute before Grunt squeezed my hand again and then let go.
“He was only with her that one time until a month later when you were no longer talking to either of them - though he thought you were still friends with her. She told him she was pregnant and James had to do what he thought was the right thing and stick by her for his kid. The stupid bastard didn’t even have proof it was his, but because of the way his father left his mother and wouldn’t acknowledge him until his grandparents forced the issue, he refused to do the same or even similar to his own child. ”
“What did they have? In all of this, I think I forgot about the child they had together.”
Grunt shook his head. “She had a gnarly miscarriage at about seven months in. Nearly lost her life due to the blood loss. Even though Knuckles no longer had the baby to worry about, he stayed with her because it was so bad. The man is loyal to a fault. Would have remained miserable for life had she not messed up and he found out about her string of affairs.”
“I see. Well, that is sad for both of them.”
“He won’t tell you that he was basically in love with you back then, but I thought you should know.” Grunt said to bring me back around to the point of our conversation.
“It doesn’t matter if that is true, though I seriously doubt it. He didn’t treat me like someone he loved, or even liked unless we were alone. That’s not a kind of love I wish on anyone, least of all myself. I had enough of being cast in the shadows by people who were supposed to love me.”
My father’s face made an appearance in my mind and it made my heart ache remembering him the way I always did.
I wish he hadn’t tainted my memories. As a child, when my mother was still alive, I remember my daddy being the best man in the world and I knew one day I would grow up to marry someone just like him.
The way he loved me and my mom was something else.
And once she was gone, he forgot me. Those are the memories that come to mind when people mention him because they shaped who I became as an adult more than the happier version of him from my early childhood did.
“I’m going to sign this and send it back with you.
My partners need this. I have the ranch side of my family business to fall back on.
It does well enough to keep the bills paid on its own, but they don’t have that.
Finch is the only who gets a retirement from the Army.
Collette and Amberlee depend on the split of the money we get from our catering business right now. ”
“How in the hell are you making anything from catering around here?”
“We travel. If the place has a kitchen, we bring supplies and work from there. A few of our military friends have had some celebrations catered, and then word of mouth from there. We’re doing okay, but our location is less than ideal for business.
It’s wonderful, though for low overhead costs since I own my home and land free and clear.
We all live there without worry about having to pay for a roof over our heads.
We have two wells on the property, which is almost unheard of out here, and enough solar power to keep the whole town of Violence plugged in, if the infrastructure to support doing that existed. ”
“Damn, I don’t blame you for home basing here, then.” I slid the contract over to Grunt. “I’ll get you the details for Collette, Amberlee, and Finch. James said you needed to run checks on them before they can come to the clubhouse.”
“So, you’re going to send them instead of coming yourself?”
“No, we work together. Sometimes, there might be multiple jobs and depending on what’s needed, they will have to stay here while I go to different jobs. We can all cook, but they can’t do the baked goods that are sometimes the sole reason for a catering gig.”
Grunt stood to leave, but when he got to the door, I stopped him. “You should tell James - Knuckles,” I corrected, “that you told me about your theory. I don’t think he’d appreciate me knowing and him being in the dark if it was true.”
“It’s true.”
“It doesn’t really change anything.”
“We’ll see,” he said before he walked out the door.
“What are you going to do?” I turned to see Finch there watching as Grunt left.
“I’m going to do my job and not worry about any of those men. I don’t have room for their brand of love or chaos in my life right now. We’re trying to build a business.”
“People still need to get laid.”
“Go take your own advice, Finch, and leave my sheep alone.”
He threw his head back and laughed all the way into the kitchen again.