Chapter Twenty-Seven
Ididn’t even care that I had to walk back into town, so I could get my wheels and head home to the club grounds.
Had I kept my phone switched off so nobody could find me or track me?
Sure I fucking did. See, I have a mafia don for a boss, and even if I was one of his technical whizzes, I knew he had others who could do that shit just fine, not to mention that he could call on Ice if it came to it, since we were fucking collaborating so freely these days.
When I got back to the club, nothing looked out of the ordinary, so I think I got away with it. I parked up, and headed for my room.
“Grease!” Fuck. My shoulders tightened, as I turned to face the asshole who shouted my name.
“Stag. What’s up?”
He rolled his eyes, heading over to me, even though I sure as fuck didn’t invite him.
“Where you been? Did you get laid? Oh, you fucked that prissy cop, I bet-”
I grabbed his cut and dragged him up onto his tiptoes, since he’s a short motherfucker.
“You say one more word, and I’ll break every fucking tooth in that stupid mouth of yours.”
His eyes widened, and he shoved at my chest, but guess what, I’m bigger and stronger, fuckhead.
“Jesus, man. I was just shooting the shit. You got your period or something?” Fucker. I really didn’t want to laugh at his antics, but the prick had a way of pissing people off, and making them laugh at the same time. I dropped his cut, and he staggered a few steps.
“They do meds for that shit, ya know.”
“Yeah, yeah, man. I’m just tired. You wanna fuck off so I can get some sleep?”
He didn’t take the hint, following me as I started walking again.
“Seriously, though. You went after her, right? You musta got laid.”
I spun on my heel, and he groaned.
“Fuck’s sake, okay. I’ll shut it, just, you know… she’s a cop, man. She’s gonna be all up in your business, and all of our business. Still, pussy’s pussy, right?”
“You were on thin ice before, fucker, but it just broke. Back the hell off unless you want to see what I’m like when I’m really pissed off.”
Micro joined us, took one look at me, and smacked Stag’s back.
“Fuck off, will you? I need a word with Grease.”
I watched as Stag rolled his eyes and strolled away, and turned to Micro, because if he was also going to give me shit, he was going to get it back too.
“I don’t wanna know, man. I could see he was trying to get himself killed, and I didn’t want the extra paperwork.” Thank fuck for Micro, and did I ever think I’d say that?
“Thanks.”
“Will you be around later? I’ve got some quotes for upgrades to the security setup that I wanted your thoughts on.”
I nodded, checking my watch. “Gimme an hour to get my head down, and I’ll come find you.”
“Nice one. I need to take Soph for a check-up, but I’ll be back by then.”
His old lady was pregnant, which was great, you know, for them.
It wasn’t my thing. Babies, kids, all of it.
When you grow up in the mafia, any connections are just tools for others to use against you.
You make acquaintances and business associates, but you don’t get closer than that.
It sucked, but it was what I’d been born to.
It was getting harder and harder to keep people at arm’s length though.
Islept for longer than I planned, dragging my ass out of the bed at about three in the afternoon, which was shocking really, for a grown man, but I’d had an odd night, and I hadn’t been sleeping great anyway.
It wasn’t the bed, or the place, no… it was the thought of returning to another bed, another place, and never being here again.
Every time my fucking phone rang, I was waiting for Don Rossi to say it’s time.
In fact, it was equally unnerving that he hadn’t.
I headed for Micro’s office after a quick shower in the fucking shared shower in the shitty clubhouse.
We were going to rebuild it, but after the fucking office building was burned down at the patchover party back in October, that had become the priority to rebuild.
As it was, it was still under construction, but they’d crammed Micro’s office in there, and I had my replacement kit in a spare ‘bedroom’ if it could be called that.
It was a lockable room, and that was the best I could hope for right now.
“Hey man, I was just gonna look for you,” Micro said as he opened his door, and nearly walked right into me.
“Yeah, sorry,” I dragged a hand through my hair, accidentally fucking up my carefully constructed quiff, “I slept like the dead for once.”
He nodded, gesturing to the coffee machine he had on a foldout table in the corner. I couldn’t wait until this place was fucking finished, but then, would I even be here to enjoy it?
“Why hasn’t he recalled me yet,” I blurted as I closed the door, and Micro froze, halfway around the desk.
“Huh? Oh… him. I guess he’s letting us keep you while we rebuild.” He watched while I grabbed a black coffee, and sat down opposite his desk, and he settled back in his own seat.
“You want to stay, don’t you?”
I shrugged, glancing around the room to try and hold back just how much I wanted to fucking agree with him.
“Cameras aren’t set up in here, man. It’s safe.
” That was one good thing about the fire, because the place had been rigged to fuck with cameras before.
Even ones he hadn’t known were there, which was why Ice and me had both seen way too much of him and his old lady fucking. I didn’t miss that for a minute.
“I don’t know what you want me to say. I’m a mafia guy, right? I don’t get to choose.”
He leaned on his forearms, and stared me down. “But you want to, don’t you?”
Jesus. “Yes, okay? Yes. This is the life I really fucking want, but you don’t get to choose to leave my old life. You want out, you do it in a bag. I don’t know what other fucking option I have.”
Micro scratched the side of his head. “What, like we fake your death or something?”
I barked a laugh, because did he even see how ridiculous that was? I couldn’t just pretend to die, then stay here as Grease, or at the original Phoenix clubhouse. They were affiliated with Rossi, for fuck’s sake.
He rolled his eyes at me. “Fuck me. I’m a dipshit.
Of course we can’t do that, not unless you blow town, and join a club somewhere else, and I kinda like having you here.
I guess…” he glanced at the desk, picking up some papers he’d had set out ready, “I mean, we can keep finding reasons we need you here. Beefing up security, improving our tech side, that kinda thing. I don’t know how long that buys you though. ”
I nodded at the papers, and reached for them. “These are the quotes?” Micro shrugged, letting me take them and ignore his suggestion, although it was pretty much the only way to get to stay longer, at least for now.
“There’s really no way out?” He asked quietly, and I lifted my eyes from the paperwork.
“Body bag, man. I don’t think that’s the route I wanna take, even if I do want out.”
“Maybe Reacher can convince the Don that we need you long term to ‘enhance relations’ or something.”
I smirked at him, tossing the first quote aside, because fuck that shit, they’re taking the piss. The next one looked a little better.
“He’ll think you want my cock, man. You wanna be careful how you word shit like that.” I tossed the second quote and glared at the third. “Man, did they see you coming. These are ridiculous. Lemme make some calls.”
Micro snorted. “I had no idea what I was doing, man. Computers I can do. Security, I thought I had a handle on. I mean, I was spying on people who never knew I was there, but this? I guess my thoughts are elsewhere right now.”
“Sophie okay? The baby?”
It’s like I switched a light on in him, because he literally lit up and grinned widely at me.
“We got pics… you wanna see?” Jesus, now I had to play nice about babies.
“Is it one of those creepy ones where it looks like a demon child?”
He stared at me like I was insane, which I could kinda understand, and shook his head.
“Could you at least pretend to be a real boy? I promise it won’t give you nightmares.”
I let him hand me the damn thing, and you know what?
It was kinda cool, but didn’t make me get the urge to procreate.
I wasn’t sure biker life would be any better for a kid than mafia life, I mean, look at who I’m sitting across from.
He was raised by an absolute fucking psycho, and it messed him up so bad, he tried to murder everyone he knew.
At least he’d lost that side of him now, but he didn’t know about the secret fucking plan in place for if he ever went there again.
I really hoped it wouldn’t come to it, but it wasn’t just Reacher and Stitch who wanted a backup plan, to protect the club from him, but Rossi too.
He still didn’t understand how Micro didn’t die for what he did, and I guess a lot of people would have wondered the same thing, but even though Reacher had been his main target, the guy had a huge fucking heart, and wanted to give people a chance to redeem themselves.
You couldn’t fault that, unless it hurt people.
If Micro went dark side again, he’d disappear so fast, everyone’s fucking heads would spin.
“It’s nice, man. Congrats. Is that a little wiener I can see?”
He snatched it back and stared at it. “You can’t see that, you prick. We don’t know yet, but I’ll be honest, I’m kinda afraid of having a boy. What if I fuck him up like my dad did?”
“You think you couldn’t fuck up a daughter just the same?”
“Jesus fuck, what if I have a daughter and fuck that up too?” He dropped the picture and rested his face in his hands, and I felt like a real asshole.
Upsetting him hadn’t been my intention, I was just shooting the shit, and now I think I was starting to understand Stag a bit.
The fucker was always winding us up, but maybe he didn’t mean to, just like I didn’t.
“I didn’t mean that, man. I was just being adorable. You won’t fuck up your kid, no matter who they are. You know what not to do, so you won’t do it. I know you won’t.”
A low groan was my only response.
“Shit. Did I break you? I honestly thought it’d take more.”
One of his hands moved away from his face and flipped me off, but he laughed, and shook his head as he finally looked at me again.
I was relieved to see him shaking it off, because I didn’t want to ruin his happiness over having a kid.
Hell, even if I kinda hoped I’d be long gone by the time there was some snivelling baby hanging around here.
“Are you done being a prick, Grease?”
I shrugged a shoulder, shoving my chair back and grabbing those quotes again.
“There’s a first time for everything. Leave this with me. I’ll have updates for you tomorrow.”