Chapter 9
Trigger
I silently watch as the prospects transfer thousands of ammo we’ve just collected from the Cartel to Untamed and Devil’s MCs vans, not taking my eyes off them seeing how they handle the work.
While Axel, the Pres of the Untamed Hell Fire’s MC who took in Doc’s old lady when she ended up in their local hospital in Dallas and had memory loss after a two month coma and had no idea she was his, and Stone chat about the next run with Smokey, the VP of the Devil’s MC and most likely speaking about Senator Jacob who tried to blackmail Doc into marrying his daughter, using Cole and Caleb as collateral to get his way.
Doc didn’t marry his daughter, he killed her then him and now the police are looking for Jacob believing he’s on the run after Dirty leaked several documents showcasing Jacob’s dirty secrets with the sick group, the Pillars who peddle in flesh dealings.
Turns out the fuckers have been working with someone in the Cannibal Group, using their cuts to attack women in town with Jacob's help to see who had fight for their customers, while also managing to distribute drugs through our territory.
Since Jacob went missing, the drug dealings have vanished along with attacks on women.
If it picks up again, we’ll have to go to war with the Pillars, the Huntsmen, the Devil’s, the Untamed and the Cannibal group all banding with us to take the fuckers down and even the Cartel if need be, though we could take them on our own.
I sigh as I watch the brothers mingle while the prospects do the heavy lifting, the grunt work to prove they have it in them, not one from each MC complaining like fucking troops despite the fact that it stinks of shit.
Every month, we meet up at a different location, rotating them as a precaution. Tank and I also take turns deciding who comes along each month, except for this time.
I needed a ride.
I can’t stop picturing that fucker’s arm around my wife, can’t get our conversation out of my head, I, fuck…
“You can continue to try and blame me for your actions.”
She’s adamant she didn’t do anything wrong, that she didn’t participate in the demise of our marriage, but she did, even if she is innocent, like she claims. She didn’t talk to me, didn’t communicate with me, and my mind came up with the worst-case scenario.
We both fucked up, and I need her to see where she went wrong as well so we can finally fucking move forward and learn to forgive each other.
I cannot live without her, and I know I shouldn’t have cheated, I know I shouldn’t have tried to find affection from someone else but Ash and I, we’re end game…
My phone rings, gaining my attention, and I grab it from my jeans pocket and frown.
Dirty
“Brother, everything alright?” I answer with concern.
I asked him to find out where Ashley was half an hour ago after she fucking hung up on me.
Some woman was professionally calling for her, and it fucking scared me thinking maybe she was seeing a lawyer about the divorce I’m refusing and was trying to enforce it through the courts.
Technically she now can because we’ve been separated long enough and knowing Ash, she’d go to someone not on our payroll, but he messaged all was good, so why in the fuck is he calling?
“Yeah, I uh, I just, fuck brother,” he sighs, and I frown as I stand straight off my bike with concern.
“Is it Cole?” I ask.
“No, no, he’s good, he’s playing some video game with Caleb after my mama picked both boys up from school, it uh, look brother, next week, I uh, I’ve given Ashley until next week to come clean with you,” he admits.
“What do you mean, Alex?” I demand lowly using his birth name as I tense up, my stomach tightening with fear.
“It means I know why she stopped sleeping with you, why she became distant and brother, she’s family, no matter what happens between you two she is family.
Us brothers we’re her only family no matter what she thinks and to prove it to her, despite you wearing the patch, despite you being my best friend, I’ve given her a week to come clean with you before I bring you into church,” he confesses and I swallow hard.
Fuck…
“Just tell me one thing, brother,” I ask quietly, knowing I can’t force him to break his values where my wife is concerned, because he is right, the brothers are her only family. We just haven’t treated her right. I question, “How bad is it?”
“Bad,” is all he answers, and my whole body locks up tight as he hangs up before I can demand more, and I slowly drop my hand from my ear.
Bad, how bad is fucking bad?
Did she fuck someone else after all?
Was it the fucker she’s seeing now?
He can’t just fucking hang up after a bomb like that!
“Brother?” I hear Stone question.
I look to see him and Axel standing near me, looking worried. “Dirty knows why Ash went quiet on me,” I admit quietly, my pulse racing, my stomach tightening.
Both their eyes widen in shock, Axel running a tattooed hand through his dark hair as I admit, “I spoke to Ash about doing pick up and drop off from now on and we-we got into another argument before someone called for her using her first and last name. I demanded to know who it was but she hung up on me so I called Dirty and asked him to look into her location...”
“What did he find out?” Axel questions with concern, and I swallow hard.
“He wouldn't tell me,” I admit, causing Stone to stiffen. I state, “He’s giving her until our next therapy session next week to tell me the truth before he pulls me aside…”
“She’s family,” Stone says with a realization, and I nod because yep, she is. She doesn’t believe it, not that I blame her, but she is.
“How have things been?” Axel asks as he crosses his arms over his chest.
He was in town for Doc and Brittany’s wedding, which Doc had surprised Brit with.
The Untamed are her family after she lost her memory, they became her support system.
He knew them and their crazy ass old ladies had to be involved.
Anyway, he saw my wife missing that day and he saw that not even the bride knew her, let alone Stone’s old lady.
Don’t get me wrong, Ash was there for Stone, for Caleb, when Rose got hurt because of Stone’s ex-wife. She wasn’t awake, so it doesn’t really count and Ash hasn’t met Brittany, a vet nurse who likes to rescue animals she thinks are being neglected.
Fucking Dirty is going to have a field day keeping her out of trouble, I tell you.
“She’s still seeing that fucker,” I admit as Anchor walks over with a wad of cash.
“It’s weird how Dirty can’t find anything on him from the name Cole gave Caleb last week,” he jumps into the conversation, and I nod.
Did Dirty get his son to ask Cole questions? Yes, yes he fucking did because my son won’t speak to me about it.
The whole time Ash and I have been together, I have not once asked Dirty to look into her, her family, or her friends, not that she really has any. I didn’t want to invade her privacy, didn’t want to push her away even more, but she’s leaving me no fucking choice.
“What, nothing at all?” Axel asks with a frown, and Stone murmurs, “Not one family member, no crime history, no school history, it’s like the man doesn’t exist…”
“Unless he gave Ashley a false name and could be using her to get to us,” I growl lowly, my body beginning to vibrate with anger yet again.
When Dirty explained her boyfriend was basically a ghost, I fucking flipped and wanted to confront her, to demand what kind of men she’s bringing into not just our son's life but her life, when she should be at home with me in my arms. Doc pulled me back before I could, reminding me she has no idea we’ve been looking into the guy.
“We need to get rid of him,” Anchor states, and I hum in agreement.
“We will,” I promise, because like fuck is that fucker fucking my wife any longer, I refuse it!
My fingers itch for my gun as the thought of them together hits my senses again, anger like no other fucking filling me.
Hypercritical? Yes. Do I give a fuck? Absolutely not.
Ashley is mine for fuck’s sake, she’s always been mine.
Then why is she dating someone else, the stupid ass voice in the back of my head echoes and I tell it to fuck off.
I’m ready to throw her over my shoulder and lock her up in the fucking house!
“I thought you wanted to try and be co-parents?” Axel asks with a sly smirk, and I give him the middle finger.
We both know it was my hurt, my pain, talking when I mentioned that, the thought of her being with someone else too fucking much for me to handle despite the fact I did the same, that we both cheated.
There is no way I can live without my wife, plain and fucking simple, and it doesn’t matter how much pain is between us. We have had an unhealthy attachment towards each other since day one, and something like that doesn’t disappear.
“Do you think she’ll tell you next week?” Stone asks with a serious tone, and I shrug.
“I don’t know. Dirty mentioned it is bad, which brings back her sleeping with someone else,” I murmur.
“Don’t automatically think that, brother,” Axel says seriously, “You could be dead set that was her reason, but until you know, don’t speculate.
Trust me on this, I have fucked up a lot with my old lady, and I’m now paying for it over the littlest things I do that piss her off.
Wait until she finally tells you next week before you allow your mind to wander and piss her off even more. ”
I’m not sure of the whole story between Axel and Annalise, his old lady but I know the aftermath after she finally forgave him and it is fucking bad.
Fuck, the clubs that he affiliates with receive male strippers with glitter bombs including us, along with boxes of dildos and lube all because we’re associated with the Untamed.
Last month, Axel had bright pink hair, his bike full of glitter.
The woman likes her pranks and takes them a tad too far sometimes, but Axel never snaps at her. The fucker did apparently try to do an intervention on the ladies, and well, let's just say it didn’t end well for him and the brothers involved, and it was fucking bad.
Their women giving men lap dances kind of bad.
“Or she could just be a cheating slut,” Anchor mutters, and I raise a brow as Axel slaps the back of his head and snaps, “Not fucking helping.”
Stone chimes in, “I thought you loved Ashley?”
Anchor winces and mutters, “Fuck,” then looks at me and demands, “Do not tell Ash I said that!”
Axel and Stone laugh while I smirk.
“She’s going to kick your ass for that comment,” I mention, knowing he didn’t say it out of malice, more like, he hasn’t seen his girl in a year after he showed her two can fucking cheat when she fucked her ex-boyfriend, going back to him, and he hasn’t been the same since.
He points at me and threatens, “You tell Ash, I swear to fuck, Trigger, I’ll tie you to an anchor…”
“Well, you are good at sinking them,” Stone adds, earning a glare from Anchor, and we all laugh at his expense.
It’s how he got his road name unlike Anchor from the Huntsmen MC who got his because he’s the anchor to their club.
Our Anchor used to work out at sea on weekends bringing in a shit ton of money for himself before he became a prospect.
He wanted to prove to the club he wasn’t just a club brat and all that shit like the rest of us, however the idiot sunk the anchor on the boat he was on, a large fucking one at that and it cost the owner thousands because of it.
He’s never going to live it down, to be honest.
Axel shakes his head, then looks at me and says, “One week, don’t let your mind wander for one week and see what she says and go on from there.”
“Thanks, brother,” I say, and he nods, then mutters, “Just hope she doesn’t want to meet my old lady. She’s still trying to get Brit to play pranks on Doc…”
“Ashley and Annalise together? Fucking never going to happen! I’d be sleeping with one eye open,” I instantly say, but soon flinch when Stone reminds me, “Rose wanted her number and now they’re like best friends or some shit…”
Dammit.
I groan and drop my head, causing them to laugh, before I shake my head with a sigh.
Honestly if it meant I had my girl back then yeah, she can speak to Annalise all she wants I just, fuck, I’m trying to figure out how to get us through this…
Yeah, my mind keeps coming up with the scenario that she cheated, but did she really?
Or was it the first thing I decided to latch onto because it gave me a reason to cheat? To fuck another woman and see what in my mind I was missing out on after settling down so quickly?
Fuck if that is the case, then never mind trying to get Ash to forgive me, I won’t fucking forgive me, it’ll tear me apart.