Chapter 22
Bear
W olf and Jackson both wouldn’t fit through the front door of my shop at the same time, but that didn’t stop them from trying. Wolf had led the charge from the curb. I’d just peeled off the second latex glove when the bell above the door sounded as Jackson elbowed past him.
Being who it was made when it was not matter. I motioned to my apprentice to clean up the client I’d been working on. “ Reschedule him. Any time that works with his schedule.”
Then turned my attention to the twin thunderheads in my front lobby.
“ You’re back.” I held a hand out to Jackson .
“ What’s this shit with your ol’ lady?”
Fuck . Jackson didn’t mess around with preliminaries. At least he hadn’t shot me yet. “ She ain’t my ol’ lady.”
Wolf snorted, but kept his speculation to himself otherwise.
Jackson had that face on. The one where he just had to prove his point. There was no arguing with him when he got like that. He flicked a finger up. “ One , she’s been living at your house since the first. Two , you ain’t poked your face in the club for a whole fucking week.”
No shit. Fridays were the only mandatory night. And seeing that it was Friday , I was due for another appearance. “ I’ll be there tonight.”
“ That doesn’t fucking count. Three , you took her to that fancy as fuck restaurant.” He pointed toward the place just down the block.
“ That ain’t a crime.”
“ It is when his wife hasn’t gone there yet.” Wolf kept his voice low. His usual tone when he insulted Jackson .
I laughed.
Wrong move.
“ Lemme guess, you just made it home, Kate’s pissed because it took longer than expected, and you plan to come to church tonight?”
“ That ain’t why, and you know it.”
Beside him, Wolf brushed a finger on the tip of his nose to tell me I’d hit the truth right on the…well, nose.
Unfortunately for him, Jackson caught the movement out of the corner of his eye. “ Knock it off. Kate’s just fine with me going to church tonight.”
Jackson was delusional. There’s no way Kate was fine with the situation. She’d made a habit of showing up at the house every day for the last week because she missed her husband so much. Her and Zoe practically lived with me it was getting so bad. And Rose ?
She was enabling their visits despite my warnings.
“ Tell him the shit about Carl ,” Wolf prompted.
“ What shit about Carl ?” I checked behind me to make sure the client and my apprentice weren’t listening in. “ And let’s take this somewhere a bit more discreet?”
“ You know what I’m mad about.”
Jackson could be mad at any number of things. A few of them related to Carl . More than a few were aggravated by the fact he hadn’t spent time with his family. But was I going to open my mouth and stick my size elevens in it? Hell no.
I led them through the bullpen to the back alley. “ Okay , bitch me out, but first, what thing about Carl ?”
“ The money,” Wolf summarized.
Ah , that. I glanced at Jackson , who usually was more verbose. “ Carl’s money. The protection fee?”
“ You’re not stupid, Bear . The money Rose stole.” Jackson leaned in closer. “ How does it look when we charge for protection, and our client gets ripped off?”
Shit . I hadn’t thought about that part of things. “ She’s got it. It ain’t like she’s going anywhere.”
“ Well , we need it.”
My gaze jumped from Jackson to Wolf to hear it from him. Just because Jackson said jump didn’t mean Wolf was going to make me go through with it. “ We who?” I asked him.
“ We , the club,” Wolf confirmed.
I swallowed. After hearing Rose’s side of the story, I had better insight into why she’d done what she did.
Not that I fully accepted it, but it was a better reason than just wanting to take his money.
Hell , I would have taken that as a reason and probably understood it.
Carl hit her at least once. And with the way her voice trembled whenever she brought up her past with Carl , I’d guess that was not an isolated incident.
It might even be a minor one, given her hatred of him.
But I wasn’t the kind of brother who’d pass along a sob story to try to change both Wolf’s and Jackson’s minds.
“ How much time do I have to convince her to give it up willingly?”
Wolf’s eyebrow went up.
Jackson , however scowled. “ And you dare to say she’s not your ol’ lady?”
I squared off with him. Rank or not, he was pissing me off. “ Let me remind you who asked me, no… ordered me to do this?”
“ I didn’t say stick your dick in it.”
“ You didn’t exactly tell me not to, either.”
Wolf’s heavy sigh of disgust interrupted our argument.
“ What ?” Both Jackson and I said at the same time.
“ Twenty grand.” He held out his hand.
I stared at it. “ The fuck?”
“ Twenty grand from you. Buys out Carl . We meet him on his turf and buy Rose for the money she stole. Walk away from all of it. You then go back to Rose and tell her she owes you. Make her work it off.”
His plan was insane. “ Who are you? And what if Tits hears you talking like that?”
Jackson laughed. “ He’s got you there.”
“ I’m serious. I won Tits fair and square. I know that’s not how it’s supposed to work but that’s how it smooths out all the fucking feathers sticking out.”
“ You know, he’s not completely wrong.”
“ Shut up, Jackson .” I wasn’t going to buy Rose from Carl . “ There’s a huge problem with that. Carl wants her back. In fact, he named at least thirty grand, if not closer to forty-eight K as his starting point.”
The mere mention of how much I’d been quoted made the men with me scan the alley for eyes and ears.
“ And I turned him down. I don’t buy women. They come to me and for me all on their own.” Sure , that sounded like bragging, but it was the truth.
Jackson held his hand over his mouth and muttered, “ How much have you spent on the hookers upstairs?”
“ That’s different and you know it. Hell , you were once the best customer up there.”
Jackson frowned. “ That was then. Listen , I want to get home to my wife. Maybe I can squeeze at least one orgasm out of her before I have to come back and listen to you assholes ruin my club.”
“ Ain’t your club anymore, old man,” I joked.
“ Who you calling old?”
“ You .” Wolf laughed with me.
“ I ain’t old.”
Jackson’s protests wouldn’t fly.
“ Your daughter drives,” I pointed out.
“ Hell , she dates.”
Wolf’s statement was met with a squinted glare. Slowly and grimly Jackson asked for the impossible. “ Who ? I need names, addresses, next of kin…”
“ We’re not helping you off a teenager.”
“ Which teenager?”
I traded a look with Wolf to see if he was going to back me up or not. There was no way would I rat Zoe out. The fact that she was doing normal teenage shit was a blessing. And Wolf knew where I stood on that hill.
Wolf slapped Jackson’s arm. “ We’re just giving you shit.”
“ I need a name,” He growled.
“ You need to get laid. Go home. Otherwise , you’re going to miss your window.” We had about two hours before church. With the drive, Zoe , and just Jackson and Kate being who they were, he’d be late.
“ Fuck all of you. Twenty grand, Bear . Or I will not endorse your promotion.” He tapped a finger on my chest and slipped back inside. The spot where he’d touched hurt.
I turned to my president. “ You told him?”
“ I had to. That’s his job.”
“ To meddle in our shit?”
Wolf shrugged. “ What else is he going to do? It ain’t like he’s got a club to boss around anymore.”
“ He’s got twenty clubs.” And that wasn’t enough for him.
“ Go easy on him. We were his first.”
Damn it. I caught Wolf’s arm before he followed Jackson . “ I’ll fill you in on the whys of things after the meeting, okay?”
His eyes met mine. “ There are whys?”
I nodded.
“ Anything that’s going to bite us in the ass?”
I filtered through everything I knew. “ I doubt it. But it will bite at a conscience or two.”
“ You have a conscience?” He laughed, slapped my arm with a grip to the elbow before letting go, and followed his boss.
Big surprise, right?
An even bigger surprise for them would be to find out I’ve had one all along.
T here was barely time during my pit stop at home for me to dump my plain jacket and shove on my colors.
Rose had her hair up again. That left her pretty neck wide open to give her a peck and rub my beard against it as I inhaled the fragrance of the week.
She changed up between flowers and the vanilla blends I preferred.
Today’s was a light lemon with an undertone of something richer.
If I asked, she’d probably say something like dragon’s blood or wormwood.
I stopped asking and just buried my face in it. It was the best part of my day.
“ Church tonight. I’ll be late. Set the alarm for me, will ya?”
“ Bear .”
Her tone was serious. I quickly checked the clock. “ I got five minutes before I’m late. Can it wait?”
That’s when I noticed the red around her eyes. The puffy state of the skin. “ What made you cry?”
“ John called.”
Called … my phone. I’d loaned Rose a burner. I tried to soften my tone as much as I could before asking, “ And ?”
“ Beth’s running a fever.”
“ She’s still in the hospital, right?”
Rose nodded.
I shrugged. “ She’s in good hands then.” I needed to go, but the pallor of Rose’s face made me hesitate. “ Rose ?”
“ She’s supposed to be getting better, not worse. The stem cells aren’t growing and reproducing.”
My mouth shot its load before my brain could flag it. “ Ha . Carl shot blanks.”
Her face went even paler. Then it turned red as she got angry with me. “ It’s not a joking matter.”
I was going to have to pay a fine for showing up late. “ Babe , I can’t do this right now. I’m sorry your girl is in a bad way but, I can’t . I’ve got to leave.”
“ I need to find Carl .”
“ Oh , fuck no.”
“ You don’t own me.”
What a wrong thing to say. “ No ? Because of you, I owe twenty K to pay off Carl because you stole his shit. I’ve paid for the clothes on your back, the food you’ve eaten, and put a fucking roof over your head.
” I grabbed hold of my temper and used it like a club.
“ Get your coat and boots on, you’re coming with me.
Because while I may not own you, you owe me two more weeks of your time.
” I pulled the shorter leather coat off the hook and tossed it at her. “ Now !”
Her mutinous face told me what she wasn’t saying. But I was too worked up to care. She was coming with me to the club.
Once we were there, I would be able to breathe easier and come up with a plan that wouldn’t involve her getting within a thousand feet of Carl Wingren . Because going back to that asshole was not an option. Ever .
I intended to keep her.