Chapter 17 The Ex Wife
KNUCKLES
“I’m just saying, it feels like Bigfoot sent us here on a fool’s errand.”
“Of fucking course he did. He’s probably doing damage control with Cassidy in your absence.
Our club brothers and their families have been eating really well a few days a week since she signed that contract.
Do you think he wants to see that disappear because of your dumbass bullshit hangups surrounding your ex-wife?
” Grunt asked. We stopped in front of the restaurant we were about to go to.
The serious look on his face told me that none of what he just said was an exaggeration meant to make me see the humor in the choices I made. He held a mirror up and made me look hard at how Simone still fucked with my head without even trying.
“Honestly, I think the club would riot and vote you out before they let Cass go.” That time he was joking, but I had a sneaking suspicion some people might truly feel that way.
My girl might have been ignored by the assholes in high school, but there was no way for anyone to miss her presence now that she was all grown up.
“Let’s get some food, so we can get back on the road and get home. She never responded to a single text I sent and I can’t have her sitting with the idea that I moved on to another woman.”
“I wouldn’t call it an idea. You had another woman bouncing around on your lap the day she saw you, man. No mistaking that for something it wasn’t.”
“I didn’t fuck Tay.”
“Maybe not, but anyone with even a passing romantic interest in you would have considered that a boundary that shouldn’t have been crossed. I haven’t had a whole lot of experience with relationships and even I know that much, asshole.”
“What the fuck ever. I’ll find a way to explain and maybe she can forgive me for one more lapse in fucking judgement where her name and Simone’s in tandem caused me to doubt everything.”
He threw me a dubious look over his shoulder as the hostess moved us toward our seat. It wasn’t until he stopped cold and stared at something off to our left that I finally turned my head and saw what, or rather who, he stared at.
“Is that who I think it is?” Grunt asked.
Before I had a chance to answer, the fucker with the crew cut and a little too much silver at his temples leaned across the table and cupped the face of his companion before their lips met.
The kiss was short and probably what women would call sweet, too.
It was nothing like the smoldering hot kisses I’d shared with Cassidy in the back of her work truck.
My feet were in motion before I could stop myself. “Didn’t know you were in Phoenix, Cass.”
Her head whipped around and eyes rounded out comically wide. “James? I mean Knuckles? What are you doing here?”
“I had some business in town this week. Not sure if you got my texts telling you about it. I think the better question is: what are you doing here, and kissing a man who is old enough to be your father?”
I could hear Grunt’s muffled laughter from somewhere behind my shoulder just as the man Cass was with rose from his seat to his full height.
He was around six feet tall and obviously kept in good shape, but there was no denying he was a good bit older than we were.
Older even than my club president, if I had to guess.
He was nowhere near old enough to have fathered Cass, but it fucking got his goat and that made me happy.
“I don’t know who the hell you are, but this is not the time or place to do whatever it is you’re doing. Billups,” he started to say in a commanding tone, and then shook it off. “Cassidy has a lot on her plate and she’s here to let go and forget the bullshit, not have it turn up to spoil dinner.”
He called her by her last name out of habit. My guess was they were in the military together at some point. I hope the sleaze ball didn’t use his rank to force her into something she didn’t want.
“Cass, I think maybe we should head back to my place,” Mr. Military said casually as he glanced around and noticed we had a lot of eyes on us.
Cass blew out a frustrated breath and stood as well. “Thanks for ruining dinner, Knuckles.” The way she emphasized my road name made me queasy. As if she wanted to associate me with the biker she didn’t know versus the guy she grew up with.
“We need to talk,” I reiterated.
“No, we really don’t,” Cass shot back and followed behind as Mr. Military put his hand at the small of her back to guide her through the restaurant. If it weren’t for all the witnesses, I would lay that mother fucker out cold for daring to touch her at all.
“I’m not leaving without you speaking to me. I can’t have you thinking…” I started to say but she turned on me and snapped.
“That what? You had a barely clothed woman sitting in your lap when I came to the clubhouse. Pretty sure that was after you talked about some fucked up claim you had on me that meant I couldn’t date any of your club brothers.
Oh wait, maybe you want to talk about the bullshit your president called me in for before I left town.
The part where you all thought I was working with Simone as my fucking realtor to offload some of my family’s property because it was too close to your club’s property.
Or whatever other fucked up reason you think I had to sell my family’s land. ”
“It wasn’t…”
Again, she didn’t let me get a word in edgewise. The man she was with wore a steady smirk while Grunt hung back a little and took in the show like he was there with popcorn for a fucking movie.
“Yeah, I got the gist of what you thought, and once again, I was deemed guilty by alleged association because of the lies your ex-wife drilled into your head for however many fucking years you were married. You know what?” She stopped dead in her tracks just outside the door of the restaurant and turned fully to face me, “I don’t care anym-”
Her last word was cut off as the breath left her lungs in a hiss and blood exploded onto the front of my cut.
I glanced down and then reached out to catch Cass as she fell into me.
Grunt and Mr. Military took off after a woman who still held a gun on us, but seemed frozen in shock by what she had just done.
“Simone?” I called out as Cassidy whispered, a very pained, “No,” to me and passed out.
Fuck, just my luck, she thought I was calling her Simone. I pulled my phone out and dialed 9-1-1. It was something we would normally avoid, but considering Cass was shot in the chest, getting her medical attention was the only concern.
I was giving them the operator the lowdown on what happened, “There’s a 28-year-old female, shot in the chest, not conscious, shooter is in the wind.
Don’t know who or why but the woman who as shot is fucking breathing like a fish out of water.
Need you to get that ambulance here yesterday,” I grunted the last word as I pushed my sweatshirt that I’d taken off tight against Cass’s wound.
It was clearly a through and through, and I did my best to wrap and tie it off so pressure would remain on the entrance wound as well.
The most damage appeared to be in her front side.
“Get that bitch in your car or truck or whatever the hell you’re driving. Make sure she’s tied up and gagged. We’re taking her back to Violence to the clubhouse,” Grunt ordered. “I’ll escort you all the way there.”
“No, I have to get Cass help.”
“Knuckles is already on it,” he yelled.
“Ambulance is on the way and I’m not leaving her.”
“She didn’t even want to talk to you. If you only have your motorcycles, you can take my car to Violence with you and I’ll rent one to come pick it up as soon as I know Cass is okay.”
“Follow the fucking orders you were given, solider,” I snapped at him.
“Cass has been in my life since we were in fucking elementary school. Doesn’t matter if she’s mad at me over some stupid shit again.
I will make sure they fix her and then I will bring her home.
After that, if she never wants to see me again, then I will walk the fuck away.
Until that time, you need to get that bitch out of here and we need to try to minimize what the cops will find when they eventually roll up to investigate the shooting. ”
Finally, he listened. They got Simone out of there just as the ambulance showed up.
I climbed in back with her and told them what I knew.
Someone pulled a gun when we were having a lively exchange right outside the restaurant.
I don’t know who shot at us or why. I gave them Cassidy’s information and hoped like hell she didn’t wake up and tell them everything before I had the chance to explain that the club would get justice for her being shot, but we had to question Simone first because there were some things that didn’t add up about her behavior over the years.
Grunt: Cass’s date has his men on scrubbing any video from surveillance cameras. Let me know as soon as you have any updates on her.
“Who are you to the patient?” A nurse asked as they wheeled Cass out of the emergency room and straight to an operating room.
“Her husband.”
“Neither of you are wearing a ring,” she insisted.
“We work a ranch in New Mexico together. Not the safest thing to wear a ring. We have our own symbols of our vows. I have to update our family, is there anything you can tell me?”
“From what they were saying, her lung was pierced. I won’t know anything else until she’s out of surgery.”
I dropped to my knees right in front of the woman. “Please, God, don’t let anything happen to Cass. Fucking take me. Strike me the fuck down and keep her here. The world needs her more and I love her too much to live without her.”
“Aww honey, I’m so sorry. Why don’t you come sit over here close to my station and you’ll know something the minute I do.
” I got up and followed her over to the desk where she went back to work and I started shooting out texts to Bigfoot, the rest of the club’s officers, and eventually to Cassidy’s friends and business partners.
I had to wait on that part until someone got me their numbers, but I put them all in a group chat, so I could tell them all at once because I figured that’s the way Cass would do it if she were able.