Chapter Seven
I t had been too long since Pat had been able to get back into the garage and actually work on fixing cars. Club business always came first, along with protecting the town. He pulled out from under the hood of the latest car he was fixing. There was nothing wrong with it, just a tune-up.
Most of the people in Carnage rarely spent money to keep their cars in tip-top shape.
Only a couple of people did, and Pat was always happy to work on those vehicles.
He was happy to work on any of them. He loved working on cars.
Rarely did he like working with people. His time with people was over, apart from the club, but he didn’t have to fake it or deal with assholes while staying silent.
At the sound of a feminine throat-clearing, he turned to find Hazel, Ava’s mother, standing at the edge of the gate.
“Good morning,” he said, checking his watch to see it was a little before twelve and still technically morning.
“Hello,” she said.
At this time, he didn’t feel he should be overly familiar with Hazel, so he glanced over at her and then behind her. “Can I help you with something?”
“My name is Hazel Beckett, my daughter introduced us, and I’d like to talk to you.”
“Beckett? Are you a relation to Ava?” he asked.
“Cut the crap,” Hazel said, folding her arms across her chest. “I’m not a fool and don’t treat me like one.”
Okay, he liked her. She had fire.
“I know who you are,” Pat said.
“Exactly, so you know why I’m here?”
“I’m guessing you’re here to warn me against seeing your daughter,” he said.
Hazel sighed. “No, I don’t want that to happen. If you stopped seeing Ava, she would know. Look, my daughter ... I don’t know what your game is, but I don’t like it.”
“I’m not playing a game.”
She took a step forward. “I know you’re used to women that have slept around and know the score.
After Ava’s father died, she never was interested in boys.
As far as I know, she is not even interested in men.
She works and loves to sew, that’s it. And then you turned up on the scene, and I know Ava likes you. I’m asking you not to break her heart.”
“Do you make it a habit of meeting with all the men who are interested in your daughters?” Pat asked.
“No, this is the first time and I may not know you or the club personally, but I’m not a fool.
I’ve heard the rumors, seen the fallout.
All I am asking is that you do the decent thing, and don’t toy with my daughter.
My husband may be dead, so he can’t give you the warning, but if you hurt Ava, break her heart, I will be your worst nightmare. ”
Pat looked at her and he knew she wasn’t kidding. He wasn’t afraid. Hazel was a momma bear protecting her young. He got it. Ava was a young woman.
“I’m not toying with her. Ava and I, we’re just ... hanging out,” he said. “That’s all.”
“I’m the mother of two children. I was happily married for a long time, Pat. Do not take me for a fool. It starts with hanging out, and then it develops. Ava is not a woman who can be passed around. Think about that when you have your fun.”
With that, she spun away from him, and he watched as she walked right out of the gate.
“Okay, I don’t think that chick even knew I was here,” Rusty said, popping out from under the hood of a different car, complete with what looked like part of the engine in his hand.
“I don’t think she would be partial to being called a chick,” Pat said.
“Tell me. She made me fucking hard, though. Do you think she’d be into me?” Rusty asked, getting to his feet.
“No.”
“Come on, man, look at me. A lot of women want to go for me.”
Pat wiped his greasy hands on the cloth he held, and looked up at Rusty. “She’s a widowed woman, and I don’t think she goes for the kind of guys who get sexually transmitted diseases for fun.”
“I don’t get them for fucking fun. I’m just unlucky is all. That’s not cool, man.”
Pat ignored him, and went back to looking over the car.
It was all good. There were no major faults.
The cost of the service wasn’t too high, and with no parts needing replacing, it was a pretty easy job.
Grabbing the clipboard, he went through all the major checks, signed off on it, and then made his way into the main reception.
Maddie was behind the counter, typing away at the computer. The moment the door closed, she looked up and smiled at him.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey. I’ve got one done,” he said, handing it to her.
She glanced down, nodded. “I’ll call them.”
Lindsey, her and Bull’s baby girl, was secured to her chest as she worked. The little girl was sound asleep.
“Are you sure you should be here?” Pat asked.
“Yeah, Bull’s back in his office. It’s all good.”
He knew Bull wasn’t happy with Maddie being a potential target. The problem was, they couldn’t hide their women away forever. Maddie and Aria had to return to work.
Pat looked down at the sleeping child. He never thought of having kids himself. Children and wives, families, were not in his future. At least, for the longest time they hadn’t been. Now as he watched Bull and even temperamental Grant, it seemed possible.
He couldn’t help but think about Ava. She would make an amazing mother. He just knew it.
“Is Mrs. Beckett here to get her car fixed?” Maddie asked.
“No, she came for a word.”
“A word, is everything okay?”
“Yeah, everything is fine.” He stepped out into the cold air. Fall was turning into a cold one.
Halloween was just around the corner. He knew the guys were looking forward to the Halloween party they threw every year. This time, he didn’t know if he was even tempted to go.
Rusty was wiping his hands on a cloth as he stepped out.
“Do you think she even realized there were more of us around?” Rusty asked.
“No. I don’t think that is ever on her mind.”
“She’s hot,” Rusty said.
“Don’t fucking touch Mrs. Beckett,” Pat said.
He rarely got into it with the guys on who they could and could not fuck. Hazel was strictly hands off.
Rusty held his hands up. “Hey, it would be doing you a favor.”
“And how do you figure that would be doing me a favor?” Pat asked.
“While I got her screaming my name, you could have all the fun you wanted with her daughter.”
Pat shook his head. “Don’t touch her.”
He knew from his digging that Hazel had been through enough.
Her husband did leave her the means to be able to take care of herself, but that wasn’t the kind of shit he’d been talking about.
On paper, and through the town gossip, he knew Ava’s parents had been the real deal.
Not just two people coming together for sex.
They had been in love. Married when they were eighteen, two years later they had Violet.
For twenty-one years they were together, until a horrible act of fate took him from her. Ava had been fourteen, Violet nineteen, and Hazel thirty-nine years old. Their lives were changed forever.
“Whoa, dude, seriously, consider me hands off. You don’t need to tell me twice.”
He continued to glare at Rusty and he wrinkled his nose. “Whatever.”
Pat watched as Rusty turned toward the front gate, and then suddenly made himself scarce.
This now had his attention, and it was none other than Lidia, stepping through the gate. She had her hair pinned back, and was covered from head to toe in a thick jacket.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey. Aria is not here,” he said.
“I know she’s not. I called her and asked where you were.”
“Why?”
“Because I care.”
Pat looked at her, and this time he seriously looked at her. “Look, Lidia, I think you’re a nice girl and all that, but I don’t want—”
“Dude, stop. You’re going to embarrass yourself, okay.” Lidia laughed.
“But—”
“No, don’t but me. I am your friend, Pat, nothing else, and if you think I am here for any other reason, you’re going to embarrass yourself.” Lidia thrust her hands into her jacket.
“Friends?”
“Yeah, friends. That’s it,” Lidia said. “You told me you’d check up on me and you must have forgotten, because I still don’t have the update. Is everything okay? Your bike? What is going on?”
Lidia had started to hang around him after Aria had ended up at the hospital in a coma. She had hung around him before that, during one of the lockdowns around the Miguel threat, but they had become friends with Aria in the hospital.
They literally sat together. He’d listen to her talk, and the truth was, Lidia didn’t talk a whole lot about anything serious.
She ranted a few times about a guy named Sean, but other than that, she filled the silence.
It had been refreshing. When she left, that silence had returned, and was what caused him to hunt down an escape from the nighttime, where he subsequently met Ava.
“My bike’s dead, and a lot is going on and it is club related. I can’t tell you.”
Lidia rolled her eyes. “Fine on the whole club stuff. Aria told me when you guys say it is club stuff, I am to keep my nose right out of it. Are you okay? Is anyone threatening you, because I’m really good at hurting objects? I can beat the shit out of a car until there is no tomorrow.”
Pat didn’t want to, but he found himself smiling. “You’re offering to beat shit up for me?”
“Yeah, obviously, you’re my boyfriend.”
This made him glare and Lidia rolled her eyes.
“Duh, boy and my friend. What are best friends for?”
“Aria’s your best friend,” Pat said.
“Dude, I can have more than one best friend.” Lidia tilted her head to the side and smiled. “You were nice to me, and you didn’t have to be. You’ve been there for me, helped me, and I appreciate it.”
“So, friends?” he asked.
“Yeah, friends, but do you have to check with your woman first before you can be friends with me?” The smirk on her face told him she was teasing him. “You see, you keep all this stuff to yourself, and bottle it up, it’s not good.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”