2. Wyatt
Chapter two
Wyatt
“ O zzy wants us in church,” Cash says as Pepper and I are outside running around.
“Be there in a minute,” I reply to our club treasurer.
If anyone had told me that I’d spend most of my days taking care of a puppy, I would have laughed in their face.
He has nearly doubled in size since I picked him up while he was cowering next to the dumpster at Thorn and Thistle, but I couldn’t leave the abandoned pup.
I looked for his mama and potential littermates but came up empty.
Probably a good thing, considering Ozzy would have killed me if I’d brought any more dogs home.
But honestly, what did he expect me to do?
I mean, he did tell me I could take it to the animal shelter, but that didn’t sit right.
This little guy had already been abandoned once, I sure as shit wasn’t going to do it again.
“Pepper, come,” I command. His golden ears perk up, and he trots over to me, sitting at my feet like I’ve trained him. “Down.” He rolls over, and I kneel, petting his stomach. “Good boy,” I tell him as he lies on his back and accepts all the love and attention.
“Funny, that’s usually the face I make when Lucy rubs my belly, though we’re usually naked and it’s after—” Before Jude can finish his sentence, I pretend to cover Pepper’s ears.
“Not in front of the children, you fucking pervert,” I say.
Jude looks from me to the dog and shakes his head. “You’ve lost it, mate.”
I shrug and stand, snapping at Pepper, who immediately rolls back over and sits next to my leg.
“You’ve trained him well,” Jude compliments.
“A lot better than Lucy’s trained your sorry ass.”
“That’s because I’m not the one who needs training. Lucy, on the other hand—”
“Lucy on the other hand, what?” the woman herself asks, stepping out into the expansive backyard with Charlie, Linc’s old lady.
“Nothing, Lucifer. I was just telling Wyatt how much I like it when you rub my belly.”
She quirks a brow and gives her man a flat look. “I'm sure.”
“What are you guys doing here?” I ask, saving my brother from the dressing down his old lady is sure to give him.
“Target practice,” Charlie answers.
That piques my interest. Most of the time when the girls come to practice at our outdoor range, Maizie is here with them.
I look past Jude and the girls, hoping to catch a glimpse of the woman who’s had me captivated since I first met her at Thorn and Thistle.
Unfortunately for me, looking is all I’m allowed to do.
Ozzy told me years ago—in no uncertain terms—that I wasn’t allowed to take her to my bed.
My own fucking prez friend-zoned me before I even took a shot.
Lucy must see the expression on my face, and she smirks. “It’s just the two of us today. Maizie said something about having to do a few things before her shift tonight.”
I pretend that it doesn’t faze me in the least that Maizie isn’t with them. “Who’s watching Colby tonight?”
“Me and Linc,” Charlie answers. “Maizie said Colby wanted to come over and watch movies at our house since ‘Auntie Charlie has the best snacks.’ Why don’t you come over and bring Pepper? They can run around the backyard and get nice and tired, so when Maizie comes to get him, he crashes out.”
“Sounds good,” I reply.
Knox peeks his head out of the back slider and gives us all a look that would terrify lesser men. “Church. Now.”
Jude kisses Lucy hard on the mouth, and I follow him inside. Before heading into church, I stop in the kitchen to give Pepper his treat for being the best dog ever.
I slide into the seat on Ozzy’s other side, directly across from Knox, who’s sitting next to his brother Linc. On Linc’s other side are Jude and Braxton—our sergeant-at-arms. Cash drops into the seat beside me, and our road captain, Barrett, settles in next to our treasurer.
I love this room. Always have. Gramps had the center of the giant oak table we’ve all gathered around carved with our club emblem—a skull with black roses for the eyes.
This table reminds us that we’re here for our brotherhood, that everything we do is to keep our family safe and taken care of.
That we live our lives on our terms. As I look around the room at the pictures of the brothers that have come before us, it’s as though they’re all watching us, taking stock.
I hope they know how much this brotherhood means to each and every one of us sitting at this table.
There’s a reason this is called church. This room is sacred, and I feel it every time I step foot in here.
Ozzy bangs the gavel on the table, and we all turn to him, giving our president the attention he deserves.
“I’m not going to beat around the bush. Looks like the Bone Breakers are back in town.”
That earns a surprised look from everyone except Knox.
We haven’t heard shit from those assholes in over a year.
They came here looking to work with us for the Monaghans.
Finn, the head of the Irish mob family we’ve worked with for years, wanted to expand out West. He wanted us to vet the other club since we didn’t have a close relationship with them.
Instead, they saw an opportunity for a payday and tried to take Jude’s old lady back to the cult she was raised in.
It didn’t work out particularly well for them, seeing as Lucy isn’t afraid to shoot someone in the face, and Jude, who found them trying to take her, is a fucking psychopath.
Needless to say, the three guys they sent never made it back to Arizona.
“How many?” Cash asks. I look down and notice his giant hands clasped around the black leather armrest of the chair he’s sitting in.
“One, that I know of. It’s Mia’s brother,” Knox answers.
“What the fuck?” Braxton grits out. “Your old lady’s brother is in the club whose members ‘disappeared’ last time they came to Shine? That’s quite the fucking coincidence.”
Knox turns that steely gaze that has petrified plenty of rowdy assholes on our sergeant-at-arms. “You will tread carefully, brother,” he says in a dangerously low tone. “Mia had no idea he was part of the club. She hadn’t spoken to Nolan in years.”
Braxton nods, properly chastised for his implication.
“He cornered Mia at the park yesterday,” Knox says.
“Told her he was here on business. She didn’t see anyone else with him.
Could be he was passing through Shine on his way to wherever his club is.
Could be he was having a look around. No one said anything to us about him or anyone else asking questions about their missing friends.
I don’t think they’d be that stupid—not after what we did to that compound. ”
“The fact that one of them stepped foot in our town doesn’t bode well for their intelligence or sense of self-preservation,” Jude says, flexing his jaw.
Hell, if it were me and anyone in that club showed up here after trying to take my woman, I’d be flying out of this room so fast and hunting down every last one of those motherfuckers. But I don’t have a woman, and I don't teeter on the edge of sanity like the Englishman sitting across the table.
“So what do you think he was doing here?” Cash asks.
Knox shrugs. “We won’t know until someone makes a move. I don’t love the fact that anyone from that club even knows the name of our town, let alone used to live here, but we can’t go to war with a club just because one of their members is here visiting his family.”
“We should have taken out the lot of them when they went after Lucy,” Jude says.
Uh-oh.
“We were a little fucking busy at the time, Jude. Or did you forget your old lady had a cult after her?” Ozzy says, his gaze pinning Jude where he sits. To question Ozzy means… Well, I actually don’t know what it means, considering no one’s ever done it.
Jude nods. “Sorry, Oz. I hate the thought of any of those arseholes being within a hundred miles of Lucy. Or any of our old ladies, for that matter.”
Jude’s apology seems to temper Ozzy’s anger for the time being.
“So what happened yesterday exactly?” Cash asks.
“Mia was at the park with Maizie and Colby,” Knox starts, and I immediately sit up straight.
That piece of shit was near Maizie and her kid?
That I don’t like at all. Not one fucking bit, actually.
“He said he was here on business, but didn’t specify what type of business.
Then Mia gave him the what for, and he took off. ”
“Are you sure she didn’t see anyone else?” I ask.
“She didn’t,” he answers.
We don’t know much about the Bone Breakers, but it would be highly unusual for any club to send only one guy to check out a rival club. If it’s only Mia’s brother here, he’s probably just in town for a visit.
“Did he show up at Mia’s grandmother’s place?” I ask, hoping that we can put this to bed.
“Nope,” Knox says. “But Mia told him she doubted her grandmother would even want to see him, which her grandmother confirmed when Mia told her that he was in town. Mia and Elaine have written Nolan off, especially after the shit he pulled when he and Mia lived together in Phoenix. The only family that still gives a shit about him is his parents, and they moved to Boston years ago.”
“Maybe he was on his way there?” I offer.
Knox shrugs. “Anything’s possible. But the fact remains—he’s a Bone Breaker. There’s no way in hell he doesn’t know that three of their men went missing here. The fact we haven’t seen any of them in almost two years? That’s pure luck.”
And thank God for that. We’ve been a bit busy the last couple years. Not that we can’t handle it, but it’s nice to think they’ve bought the whole they disappeared after leaving Shine story we sold them. Though I’m beginning to think it isn’t that easy.
“I’m going to increase security at Midnight Rose and Thorn and Thistle,” Ozzy says. “To be on the safe side. If the Bone Breakers have proven anything, it’s that they aren’t afraid to go after the women.”