Chapter 11
Ace – Two Weeks Later
“Coco,” I whistle, gaining my dog's attention and he looks my way from where he’s sniffing a post, and I pat my leg from where I’m sitting astride my Harley while the brothers chat with the Huntsmen and Untamed brothers before we begin our trek home now that the vans have all been swapped.
Coco runs over to me without hesitation, and I smile slightly before he jumps up on two paws, pressing two against my chest, and I chuckle as I rub over his head.
Brit mentioned she would take him while I was away on club business this time around, but honestly, the prospects like having him in the van, and besides, knowing my luck, Dad would try and use him to get me to move back onto club grounds, which isn’t going to happen, especially not now, not after Mama hit me.
My words may have been harsh, but they were the fucking truth, and if Dad was the one who had the affair, she would have taken him for everything he had got at the time.
The prospect who wasn’t even a prospect when their affair started at the time was giving her attention, and she liked it and was selfish, and now I have to learn with the fact that Dad only stayed when he did because of me, because he needed to see if I was his.
I sigh as I stroke Coco’s head, and my phone vibrates for the twelfth time today, but I ignore it, giving my dog my whole attention.
Mama won’t take the hint, and with her being banned from the club for what she did to me, she’s not spending much time with her grandkids, so I’ve become her sole focus, and it’s beginning to piss me off.
Coco whines and places his head on my lap, like he can feel my tension, and I swallow slightly, the need to call Pidge slowly creeping up, which only makes my frustrations double.
Two weeks ago, I realized something that I have to admit—it scared the hell out of me, she calms me. Molly. My Molly.
I was raging mad when I found Abby naked on my desk, after all that shit at the clubhouse.
It pushed me over the edge. Yet one apology from Pidge, even after I shouted at her to fuck off, shocked me enough that my frustrations began to fade.
When she promised to pause her pranks to get me to fire her, I don’t know how to explain it, but I felt at ease. The need for a line disappeared.
She became my reason to breathe in that moment.
I had to get her to leave to give myself a moment to think.
But as soon as she walked back into the diner, I felt lost and alone again—my frustrations returned.
Then I wanted to strangle her when I found fourteen kittens in my wrecked bathroom attached to my office and don’t get me started on the chickens that ruined my log books.
I’m just lucky it’s all backed up on my laptop.
I sigh as laughter floats around me, my head fucking crumpled as I eye the blue ink on my tatted hands that hasn’t come off yet.
“Morning, boss man,” Shaun says as I walk into the diner, and I put my hand up to him while eyeing Pidge behind the counter, and she instantly protests, “I didn’t put kittens in your office again, I swear,” and Shaun snorts but coughs to cover it.
I narrow my eyes at her innocent look, hating that I feel disappointed that she’s not making my life hell, which is fucking ridiculous, and continue my path towards my office, trying my fucking hardest to stop myself from grabbing hold of the back of her neck and kissing her like my life depends on it.
These feelings, the thoughts I keep having of her, mainly on her knees sucking my cock while I jack off in the shower, are getting worse, and so is my anger.
Shaking my head, I open my office door when suddenly something heavy hits me on the head and bursts, and all I can see is blue, shocking me.
Son of a...
I squeeze the door handle and shout, “Pidge!” before I turn back around and storm into the diner.
Everyone quietens while Shaun bites his fist to stop himself from laughing, but I ignore them all and lock eyes with Pidge’s beautiful light green ones.
They widen for about a second before she bursts out in laughter, and I narrow my eyes at her as I sneer, “Oh, so you think this is funny, do you?”
This woman and her pranks just so she gets fired.
“Yes,” she giggles as she holds her side, and I growl, “Well, let's see how you like it then, huh?”
Her giggles stop as she looks at me in confusion before her eyes widen as I move quickly and she gasps before running away from me, the whole diner bursting out in laughter as I chase the fucking woman.
She said she was going to stop the pranks, but she fucking lied.
Maybe the fact that I rubbed my body all over her had something to do with all the pranks after that—including glitter bombs falling onto my head when I entered the diner.
She’d set them up whenever she saw me coming.
I’m just not sure what caused the ink bomb in the first place.
The image of Abby trying to touch me comes back the day before the blue ink prank, and the way Pidge’s eyes narrowed behind the counter, and I swallow hard.
Was she jealous?
Was that the reason for the sudden pranks again?
Or am I just reading into things because I know she’s supposed to be mine, but I’m refusing to acknowledge the feelings?
Fuck. The woman is a fucking menace, a menace I can’t stop thinking about, and the more I think about her, the more agitated I become.
I want her.
I shake my head noticing the ink still staining my tattooed hands as I run them through my dog's fur and my heart skips a beat.
The first four days without anything from her, I hate to admit it, but I fucking missed the pranks, and that just pissed me off some more.
“I heard you got a kitten,” a voice calls from my right, pulling me from my Pidge-induced haze. Coco barks as he leaps off me, and I turn just in time to see him bounding around Piston, the Huntsmen’s Treasurer and Tech God.
“Yeah,” I admit reluctantly.
I’m not surprised Dirty told Piston about the prank—I had to tell Dirty myself because I needed his help getting the animals back to where they came from. Chloe—well, Coco whined for her every time I tried to take her, so I decided to keep her, much to Brit's excitement.
I think she likes that a brother actually wants some animals, she just hates that I don’t live close to her anymore, so she can't look after them.
“How’s Natalie?” I ask him, and he smiles.
“She’s good, even happier knowing you kept one of the kittens after she overheard Dirty on the phone, you know she loves animals,” he says, and I chuckle.
Natalie, who Piston married when they were still teenagers, has a black cat that looks blue called Bluebell, and funny enough, she’s also a teacher, so of course, she and my lovely sister-in-law get on, having the same interests.
“Let me guess, Dirty asked you to speak to me?” I confirm, and Piston hums as he stands beside me, still giving Coco a fuss, and I look straight ahead, not really looking at anything.
I’m not surprised—he’s been trying to get me to talk for two weeks, since Mama slapped me but before that he was giving me space to get my anger out, but she, being Mama, pushed me to the brink.
Along with the feelings I want to deny toward a woman I accused of being a patch chaser, I couldn’t hold anything in.
My anger has faded slightly, but the frustration, the agitation, fuck.
“I know that look,” he murmurs, “it’s a look I had for about half of my fucking marriage when I believed my wife, my beautiful and amazing wife, could fake being pregnant to get my patch.”
“You were a dick by the way,” I retort, and he chuckles.
“I was,” he admits, “and I was very fucking lucky Natalie gave me another chance, that she loved me enough to fight for us, especially when I nearly lost her.”
He was lucky, and I can see they’re happy, I can see they’ve got an amazing family, but I just…
“I don’t want a woman,” I whisper.
“I know,” he sighs, “I understand, believe me, I fucking do, and I can see the anger radiating from you.”
“My mother really fucked me up,” I choke.
“And so did the brothers, going through the shit they did with their women, the shit every club we’re affiliated with, one or another has fucked up to the point our women have been hurt–”
“Except Slicer,” I cut him off, and Piston growls.
“Fucker,” he mumbles, then adds, “and Tank,” and I chuckle yeah that is the truth.
What happened with Tank and Jasmine wasn’t Tanks fault, Jasmine didn’t trust him enough to confide in him about what was happening, and Slicer, well, if his woman hadn’t snuck out of his hotel room, they would have gotten married before even leaving town.
“As I said before, you rudely interrupted me,” he says, and I chuckle again. He continues, “I get what your mama did was fucked up, I get it’s made you question women, but are you really going to let this woman walk away and find someone else? To fall in love with someone else and have his kids?”
I flinch at his words and look down as I try to breathe through that thought.
I’d only make her miserable anyhow. She does stuff every day to piss me off; she must hate me, right?
“You’re in love with someone, that is what your problem is, and your brothers have no clue, do they?” he accuses, and I clench my jaw.
Love, ha, there is no such thing as fucking love.
“Brother, be true to yourself. I can see the emotions running across your face, you’re in love,” he says softly, and I shake my head.
“I don’t want to be in love, I don’t even fucking believe in it,” I grunt, not giving a shit that I sound like a child, and he squeezes my arm.
“Unfortunately, what you want doesn’t really matter, because your heart and body want whoever this woman is, and your head needs to get on board before you lose her,” he mutters, and I flinch as if he fucking hits me, and I look at my dog with my heart in my throat, and my anger towards my mother boils to the surface.
She’s the reason why I won’t accept what I’m feeling. She’s the reason why I won’t get what I thought I wanted growing up with Pidge.
She’ll be the reason I’ll never settle down, and when I get home, I’ll be firing Pidge, just like she wanted.