Chapter 23
Zeppelin
Misty’s weight on me as we lie on the couch is better than any gimmicky weighted blanket out there. My heart swells as I feel a happiness unlike anything before.
We’re doing this. We’re really doing this. I can’t remember a time I’ve ever been this happy.
“I have to go get Bernie from your mom’s salon,” Misty says, her lips kissing my chest.
I love how her arm drapes over my body, our legs tangled together, and her head rests on my chest.
Just as I’m about to disagree, my phone chimes. I reach for it without disturbing Misty and open it to see a text from Jethro.
JETRO: Shipment coming
I groan. “I have to go, too.”
“Work?”
I nod and kiss the top of her head. “Yeah.”
Hooking my index finger under her chin, I guide her face up to claim her lips again. She opens up for me, her body sliding up mine as she does to bring us face-level.
“We can’t,” she whispers, her lips pressed against mine. “We both have to go.”
“Tonight,” I say. “If you want, I can swing by after Bernie’s gone to sleep.”
She shakes her head and smiles, our lips still touching. Our noses brush against each other, and I love being this close to her. “Come over for dinner. We should tell Bernie.”
My eyes widen. “Really?”
“If we’re going to do this, we’re going to really do this. All in or all out.”
“All in,” I say, cupping the back of her head as I kiss her hard. She trusts me not to hurt them. “I’ll be there. Thank you, Misty.”
“For what? The sex?” She climbs off me and begins to dress.
“Well, yeah, but for believing me. I want this more than I can tell you.”
A deep breath escapes as she pulls her shirt over her head, and she looks serious. “Me, too. Just… please don’t let us down, Zep.”
“It’s the last thing in the world I want to do, baby. Cross my heart.”
I get up and dress, too. We alternate between kissing and dressing until we’re on the porch, fully clothed. She stops and has a confused expression on her face as she looks at my bike.
“What?” I ask.
“You don’t just run the Velvet Desire, do you?”
“No, we have a tattoo shop, pawnshop, and gym.”
Her eyes narrow. “But there’s something else, isn’t there? Something that’s not quite so legal. The real moneymaker.”
“You don’t think it’s a real moneymaker? Because we make bank at the brothel.”
“Fine, don’t tell me.”
I grab her arm as she tries to walk away and press her body flush with mine. “I can’t talk about it. Club business. Please don’t be angry.”
“That’s all I needed to know.”
“Does it change things? With me and you?”
She shakes her head. “No, it was a test.”
“Did I pass or fail?”
Pushing away from me, she shrugs and walks down the walk. “Guess you’ll have to wait until tonight to find out.”
Damn, I kind of love this woman.
“Hey, Colt,” I say, pulling my helmet off and stepping off my bike.
Colt Nichols, the president of the Deranged Drifters mother charter, nods his blond head at me. “What’s up, Junior Molloy?”
I laugh. Colt took over the head seat from my uncle a while ago.
And with this change, we were finally able to make a deal with the Drifters to run guns for them in Nevada.
Johnny and I decided it was better not to work with family, so as long as Jennings sat at the head of the table, we used a smaller supplier.
“It’s a bit out of the ordinary for the president to show up with a delivery, isn’t it?” I ask.
Laughing, he nods again. “Just want to make sure everything is running smoothly. How are things going?”
“Great,” Jethro says as he opens one of the crates on the truck. “We have a customer champing at the bit to get these.”
I smirk as I eye up the AS Val. “Silent assault rifle? What the fuck are they gonna use it for?”
“Not our business,” Jethro says. “But damn, this is pretty. I want one.”
“I bet we can work something out,” Jennings says and walks over to us. “Let a few of our single guys have some time at Velvet Desire, and we’ll call it good.”
“That sounds like an agreement that should be made between presidents, don’t you?” Colt asks, eyebrow raised. “Ah, who am I kidding? I want one of these, too, now that we’ve got a standing order for them.”
I pull Jennings into a large hug. He’s the only father figure I have left, and I didn’t realize how heavy the weight of my loss still hangs on me. Being with Misty has helped me forget enough to not feel it every second of the day.
“You holding up, kid?”
“Best I can.”
“I see Jethro’s wearing that pres patch.”
Touching my patch involuntarily, I tap it. “It wasn’t the best decision for the club if I took Johnny’s seat. Jethro’s a better fit.”
“Looks like we got another second generation putting the club first,” Colt says. “Respect.”
“Find anything out about the accident?” Jennings asks.
I shake my head and sigh. “No. I tried to get the report from a cop, but he tried to fuck me over. He’s working with Butch.”
“Need us to pay him a visit?” a deep voice asks.
The large man with an impossibly deep voice makes me feel like a child. I’m not a small man, but I feel tiny in comparison. Undertaker, I think, is his name. His government name. How the fuck does that even happen?
“Nah, I took care of it. Got his wife to leave him and take the kids, then his house burst into flames. It was the damnedest thing. Then we blacklisted him from Velvet Desire.”
They all laugh as the crews load up the boxes from their truck into ours. If I’d had more time, I would’ve taken a video of it to show. That would have been great.
“So things are still fucked with the Venom?”
Shaking my head, I hold back my snort. “Same as fucking ever. You know how they are, Jennings. Took our best tattoo artist. Used one of their girls to get him hooked on Venom Dust, and it was downhill from there.”
“That shit’s nasty. It started making its way to Black Valley, but Psycho’s making it more dangerous to sell it in town than use it,” Colt says, tossing a gun to Jethro who wears the biggest smile on his face. “He has ties to the cartel and knows how shit snowballs when drugs get involved.”
“Tommy was good. The best, honestly. Did most of the ink on a lot of us, but he got in debt with the fucking addiction. Not a bright one, either, and joined forces with the enemy to pay them off.”
“Was?” Jennings asks.
As good as it felt to get some of my aggression out at the time, knowing what I caused doesn’t feel great now. The high of fucking over Vold masked the guilt until it wore off. “Broke his fingers in retaliation, and they killed him.”
“Shit, you guys are ruthless,” Venom says.
He says it with a smile, and he’s the only person with that name that I don’t want to kill upon seeing. And from the way Jennings talks, it would be difficult—if not impossible—to do so.
The bleached hair slicked back would look stupid on anyone else, but with his angular face, it oddly works. I still can’t figure out how he’s as tough as I’ve heard he is. He’s lanky as shit and not overly tall. Nothing about him screams dangerous.
Except his eyes. And that creepy grin that looks like it jumped off the screen of a horror movie.
The gold band on his finger surprises me most. Who the fuck would marry such a creepy motherfucker?
“Heard you got a new girl in your life. Finally kicked Chanel to the curb?” Jennings asks.
“Yeah. Didn’t you hear? She’s getting married.”
“Heard something about that a few years back. Didn’t stop you two from fucking whenever she came around offering to spread her legs.”
I hold my hands up. “Nothing’s happened since her man found her naked in my bed. Let him give me a decent beating for it.”
“You didn’t fight back?” Colt asks.
“Deserved it.”
“I don’t know if I could just sit there and take a beating like that.”
I laugh. “I bet if your wife started punching you, you’d let her. That’s pretty much how it felt. No real damage done.”
“Fucking pussy,” Venom says with a chuckle. “No wonder his girl was knocking on your door. When they’ve had a taste of a real man, it’s like catnip.”
That’s the best analogy I’ve heard to explain it. Kind of wish I’d put that together. I’m the cat dad here. “Pretty much.”
“So, the new girl. Your ma says she has a daughter. You’re really dating a single mom?”
“Bernie.” I can’t stop the smile as I think about her. “She’s eight. And so fucking smart. Smarter than all of us here, that’s for sure. Life is so simple when I talk to her.”
“Kids do that,” Colt agrees. “And then they become asshole teenagers with sassy mouths and defiant attitudes.”
I don’t think Bernie will become that. Not as long as she feels she still has some of her independence. Not that I can blame her, and I think I’ll work to help Misty loosen up on the reins a bit.
“I’d die for that girl,” I admit.
“And her ma, it sounds,” Jennings says with a smirk.
He has no idea. “You sticking around for a bit? I know Mama could use the visit.”
“Planned to stay for about a week, at least. With Colt in charge, I can take time away now.”
“Like you couldn’t before,” Colt says with a scoff.
My uncle’s face turns serious as he locks eyes with me. “How’s she doing? Really?”
“She’s putting on a brave face, but I know she’s falling apart behind closed doors. I don’t think she’s ever loved anyone like she did Johnny, and he took such good care of her.”
“I love my little sister, but she’s never been like Tess. My wife would probably have taken over the club if I died while in the pres seat.”
My aunt definitely would’ve tried. “Sounds like Colt’s wife might do that someday,” I point out.
“Nah, not now that we have kids. Before kids? Yeah, she’d have cut off balls to get in that room,” he admits.
“Mama could really use you, Jennings. She won’t let me in because she knows I’m hurting, too, even though I’d put it aside for her.”
“That’s a mom thing,” Colt says. “Trust me. Lex would do the same for our kids. Means you were raised by a good mother.”
It’s true. Mama’s the best. World’s greatest. But it kills me that she can’t turn to me like she should. We both lost the greatest man we had in our lives, and she’s dealing with it alone. At least I have the club to share my pain with.
And now Misty, too.
“Thanks,” I say. “Jethro, are we good for the run? I have plans tonight.”
“We got it, Zep.”