Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
SHORT
“Sit down,” Bullseye barks as soon as I enter his office. Without preamble, he gets right into it. “Doc came to visit with me yesterday evening.”
“Looking for Bronwyn and Trip?”
He nods. “Yeah, it was lucky we got them out of here.” He sighs, and his hand brushes back his hair.
“He was ranting and raving, more about Trip rather than the girl. Going on about how she’d stolen his son from him.
” He pauses and meets my eyes. “And he was blustering about you having the hots for his daughter. He kept referring to you carrying his bag?”
I stretch out my legs, crossing my hands on my stomach.
“Yeah, I did that. Didn’t like him taking advantage of her.
” I filter back through Prez’s words. “You said he concentrated on Trip? That makes me fucking suspicious, considering why Bronwyn got him out of there. Fuck, Prez, we can’t let him have him.
Why isn’t he concerned about where Bronwyn is now?
” I would have thought he’d be shitting himself about her revealing her secret.
Or was he confident his threats to a child would still work on a woman?
Prez ignores my question, or at least he doesn’t respond by the time there’s a knock on the door, and he calls out permission to enter. Saint, Freak, and Tempest walk in. There is only one other chair, which the VP takes. I half-stand, offering my seat to Tempest.
“Think you’re best sitting down, Short,” Prez snaps.
Tempest waves me off and takes a stance against the wall alongside Freak, who, focusing on my still blackened eyes, smirks. I show him my middle finger.
As soon as Prez starts talking, it becomes clear he’s already filled the enforcer and sergeant-at-arms in.
“Once Doc was satisfied we had no idea where his kids were, he asked to speak to me, ‘man-to-man’.” Prez puts those three words in air quotes.
“He asked us to find them on his behalf, and rather than payment, threatened that if we didn’t, then it would be time he and the club parted ways. ”
Freak links his hands behind his head and tosses out a question. “And what will the club do if Doc withdraws his services?”
“Other clubs survive. Bron will be qualified as a nurse practitioner in a year’s time. She also works at the hospital. Maybe she knows someone who wouldn’t mind turning a blind eye to treat us if the money is right.” I tell them.
“Short’s got a point,” Saint backs me up. “While it’s convenient to have him on call, Doc’s a fuckin’ pervert.”
Prez shrugs. “We’re not female. That doesn’t fuckin’ matter to us. What would hurt is Doc no longer treating us.”
“Only because we’ve got hair on our balls,” I rasp out. As various looks come my way, I explain, “Bron brought Trip here as she was certain Doc was going to do some kiddy fiddling with him the other night.”
Forming an unlikely alliance, Freak roars by my side.
“Kid might be special, but he feels like anyone else. And no kid deserves to be abused and defiled.” He slams one fist into his palm to punctuate his statement.
Shooting him a grateful glance, I decide my revenge on him might not be as painful as I had originally planned.
“Come on, Prez,” Tempest states cautiously.
“If what Short said about Bronwyn’s suspicions is right, you can’t seriously be saying you’d hand the kid back to a fuckin’ child molester?
” He shakes his head. “I know we turn a blind eye to the law, but that’s something I’m not sure I, or other members of the club, would be able to stomach.
As for losing what Doc does for us. If Bronwyn stays around, she’s good enough to patch us up for most of the shit that happens to us. ”
“If Bronwyn stays. Who’s to say she won’t take off? It would make sense if she wanted to get away from a father who hits her,” Freak puts in.
Saint nods at me, and I know it’s time for me to step up. “She’ll stay. I’m claiming her as my ol’ lady.”
Apart from the VP who stays silent and gives me a smirk, there’s a chorus of “what the fucks?” sounding around me.
“Know you’re coming from a good place, Short, but did you hear yourself?
Apart from the fact she’s been broken by a father who lays hands on her, and you’re not known for the loving and gentle shit, she’s not the type of woman to hang around the club.
You really see her wearing your patch?” Tempest is obviously trying his best to let me down gently.
“You let me worry about the ins and outs—”
“I think it’s the ins and outs that the sergeant-at-arms is talking about.” Freak makes a crude gesture by making a circle with one hand and pulsing a finger from the other through it.
Okay, now I’m really going to make my vengeance hurt.
Ignoring him, I continue to plead my case.
“She’s made of sterner stuff than you’re giving her credit for.
I know what I’m getting into.” All of a sudden, I admit to myself she’s been driving me crazy for months.
“I want her, okay? And I know I’ll have to take it slow, but I believe we can make it work.
” I realise I implied the opposite to her, but that was only to get her to trust me, to hopefully get her into a place where I could begin to make my advances.
“And what about the kid?” Tempest asks.
“I’ll claim him as well. He’ll be my son.”
Freak turns astonished eyes on me. “Look, I’m on the kid’s side, okay? Ace isn’t without his own issues, but that only means I know what you’ll be taking on with a kid who doesn’t even talk. How the hell are you going to handle that?”
“I’ll figure it out,” I say stubbornly. “All I know is that they need the club’s protection, and my stepping up will give it to them. Everything else can be sorted in time.”
Saint butts in. “Short, I didn’t get a chance to say much to Prez before this meeting. Might be best if you fill him, Tempest, and Freak in on the true situation.”
Raising my chin to the VP, I raise my hands and run them over my head. Suddenly, I’m glad I’m sitting down.
“If you’ve got something to tell us…”
I give them the short version, but that’s hard enough to repeat. Put simply, it doesn’t cover the magnitude of what Bronwyn suffered, how she was abused from such a young age, how she got pregnant, and how Trip is hers.
There’s silence when I’ve finished. Prez, his first concern for the club and its members, voices his concern as to the veracity of what Bronwyn told me.
Before I can answer, Saint waves his hand. “I was there, Prez. Not for the whole conversation, but enough to know every word out of Bronwyn’s mouth was the truth. There was no embellishment. The truth was more than fuckin’ enough by itself. Made for hard hearing.”
After shooting a quick look toward his VP, receiving a sharp confirmatory nod in return, Prez steeples his hands and just stares down at them. It’s almost as if I can see the wheels in his head turning.
Freak, who’d turned his head away when I’d finished the retelling, looks back now and states, “Well, that’s settled.
However it’s done, even if it’s by Short claiming them.
Bronwyn and her… son?” His eyes meet mine, asking for confirmation that we’re going to acknowledge their true relationship now.
When I raise my chin, he completes what he was going to say.
“I’d vote for them having the club’s protection. ”
“Me too,” Tempest states.
After throwing a grateful look in his direction, my eyes land on Prez.
Bullseye scratches his forehead. When he speaks, his words seem to propel us back to the start of the meeting, ignoring anything I’ve been saying. “Doc wants to know where Trip is. He wants him home—”
Suddenly, I’m shouting. “Didn’t you hear me?
You can’t insist that Trip goes back to Doc just because he’s good at doctoring.
Not when you know what he’ll be subjected to.
” Getting to my feet, I lean forward, placing both hands on Bullseye’s desk.
“You know what I’m wondering? How I could fuckin’ follow a man who even thinks of doing that? ”
“Got to agree Short’s got a point, Prez,” Freak growls.
“For fuck’s sake!” Prez stands up so abruptly his chair topples back, the vehemence in his eyes making me take an involuntary step in the opposite direction.
“Whoa. You all better zip your fuckin’ mouths, before you say something you can’t take back.
At what point did I say I was going to give Trip back to him?
” Looking back, I can’t remember him actually saying those words.
“As for thinking I’d stand by and let a kid, any kid, and especially one that couldn’t even verbally fight back, return to a man like Doc, after what I’ve learned, you’re out of your fuckin’ minds.
” He pauses and gives that Medusa stare again, only this time it’s focused on each of us in turn.
“Losing Doc will hurt the club, but we’re fuckin’ adults, and there are more ways than one to skin a fuckin’ cat.
None of you are asking the right fuckin’ questions. ”
Tempest steps forward, daring to put himself in the firing line and shaking his head. “We ain’t no mind readers, Prez. So, if you know what we should be asking, I presume you’ve got the answer for us.”
“I’ve got the question,” he retorts. He’s got all of our attention. With bated breath, we wait him out. After a pregnant pause, he shakes his head and asks me directly, “Was Bronwyn being sexually abused by Doc all this time? ‘Cause I’ve never heard or seen any evidence of that.”
I answer him. “No, he stopped when she got pregnant.” I can’t help emphasising. “She was fourteen, and when she,” my teeth grind as I remember her words, “when she grew tits and a bush.”
“She aged out,” Tempest sums up on an exhaled breath.