Chapter 7
Seven
Sometimes I say “don’t be crazy, Hush” but I don’t always listen to myself.
—Jasper to Calliope
JASPER
As if things couldn’t get any worse.
Now I had to deal with Maxine.
And Bernie.
“You’ll have to go make contact.”
Webber.
When he’d gotten to the shop, he was sounding pretty fuckin’ pissed.
Which was understandable.
Hell, I was, too.
I’d led this mess here, and now it was my turn to clean it up.
Fuckin’ hell.
“I had Apollo send the address to your phone,” he said. “Man, I need to warn you about something.”
I frowned. “What?”
The fact that he felt like he needed to warn me had the hair at the back of my neck standing up on end.
“Bernie.” He cleared his throat. “She has a kid.”
I frowned. “A what?”
“She has a kid,” he continued. “Apollo was trying to look into the kid more, but man, he looks exactly fuckin’ like you.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose and was already ready to deny having a kid, but Webber kept talking, stalling my outburst.
“Kid’s around seven,” he said. “Lines up really well with when you left New Orleans.”
Bernie and I had a great year together, but where she wanted kids and a house and marriage, I wanted a break.
I didn’t want to be tied down—who would want me?
I didn’t want to be responsible for other people—I didn’t have the mental capacity at the time to deal with that kind of relationship when I could barely function on my own.
Hell, at the time, I could barely commit to a gym, let alone another person.
But we’d had fun for a year.
And when she’d given me an ultimatum, marriage or she walks, I’d chosen my freedom.
That’d been when I’d decided to take the FBI up on their undercover operation with the Truth Tellers MC.
I’d been desperate to get away, not wanting to give Bernie any illusion that I was willing to stay and make a go of the relationship.
Hell, Bernie had been a great woman.
In fact, if there’d been one person that I might’ve been able to settle down with it’d have been her. At the time, anyway.
Even now, though I wouldn’t mind catching up to her, there was never going to be a chance of more.
“All right, I’ll head over now.” I paused. “Hey, do you think that Apollo has something that I can slip into their place? We can listen in on their conversation and figure out if there’s something she’ll say after I leave.”
“Hold on,” he said. “Apollo’s seeing what he has.”
I waited as I walked to my bike, angry as hell that I had to deal with that—with Bernie and Max—when I’d had better company, for him to get back to me.
“Apollo’s going to meet you there,” Webber murmured. “Keep your eyes open. Where there’s one, there’s more.”
I agreed with him on that.
I’d kept sending my help away because I didn’t want them to know how deep and entrenched I was getting with the Truth Tellers. It’d been when I started to slip away from my assigned partners that I knew that I’d slipped over the edge.
No longer did I believe that I was a cop.
I was a Truth Teller, and all cops were suspect.
The moment that it became us—the Truth Tellers—and them—the cops—I’d known it was my time to turn in my resignation.
I’d not been working for the cops for a year when Webber had found out.
I’d never felt such an intense sense of loss until that day.
I’d finally found the place that I’d belonged and…
“Are you even listening to me, man?” I jolted at the sound of Webber’s voice.
“No. Lost in thought.”
Webber sighed. “Get your head in the game. We don’t want them here, and you need to make sure they leave. If I have to make sure…”
Fuck.
“I’ll make them leave.”
The ride to the address Apollo had sent me took me to fuckin’ Colleyville, outside of Dallas.
I was already pissed as hell I had to make this drive in the middle of goddamn Christmas traffic, but it made it worse that they lived in the fuckin’ rich bitch neighborhood that would definitely notice someone driving a loud ass motorcycle through their fancy streets.
I’d gotten the beast when I’d turned sixteen, scraping and saving to buy it with my dad’s help.
The thing needed some work, but the engine still purred.
But that didn’t make it any less of an eyesore.
I pulled over as close to the neighborhood as I could get and stopped.
Apollo pulled up behind me a few moments later and got out.
“Why are you so far away?” he asked.
I jerked my head toward my bike. “Fancy neighborhood, not fancy vehicle.”
He tossed me his keys. “Drive mine. I’ll come get it from you in the morning and switch.”
I traded keys with him and then reached for the bug that was… “A bottle cap?”
“It’s one of those things that gets overlooked. And it’s something that almost everyone has in their home. This one is small and clear, so you can probably just slide it under the couch and it’ll go unnoticed for a while.”
I thought about Bernie’s non-cleaning habits that she’d had when we were together and knew that this would work out well, actually.
The woman couldn’t clean to save her life.
Neither could her sister.
Between the two of them, their place had always been a fuckin’ mess.
“Got it,” I pushed the lid into my pocket. “I’ll let you know when it’s done.”
He snorted. “I’ll know before you even know.”
With that, he headed for my bike and took off.
I got into Apollo’s fancy Audi and drove to Bernie’s place and got out.
Pocketing the keys, I headed for the door and knocked.
Bernie opened the door, but a small kid followed right at her heels.
He definitely looked like me, but I knew he wasn’t mine almost instantly.
I wasn’t sure why I was so sure of that, but I knew it in my gut.
Bernie sucked in a breath and stared at me in shock.
“Wh-what…” She drew in a deep breath. “Jasper, what are you doing here?”
She pushed the kid behind her, and I snorted. “I’m not going to hurt him.”
She pressed her lips together.
She knew that I was part of a motorcycle club.
She’d always been wary of them for some reason, but hadn’t ever felt like sharing that reason.
“Your sister broke into our club president’s shop today, and I want to know why.”
She blinked, then turned to look at the kid. “Gavin, go to your room.”
Gavin looked at me, then looked at Bernie, then nodded. “When’s Mama coming home?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “Go.”
Gavin left, and Bernie waited until he was enclosed in his room before she opened the door wider and said, “Come in.”
I did, taking a look around at the home before saying, “Since when do you have the money for this?”
“I don’t,” she said. “Max does. Gavin’s dad was wealthy, and his child support is outrageous.”
“Ahh,” I said, though I didn’t exactly believe that.
Bernie was honest to her core.
Her sister, on the other hand, not so much.
I’d bet my left testicle that Max got this place because the FBI provided it for her.
It wasn’t lost on me that the location was rather close to the clubhouse.
“Yeah, sure,” I said. “Why’s your sister here?”
Bernie frowned. “She wanted a fresh start. After her ex.”
I snorted. “She’s not here because of her ex, Bernie. She’s here because of me.”
She blinked. “What? Why would she be here because of you?”
I saw no point in lying, so I told her.
“I left the PD, quit the FBI, and ended up patching into the MC I was supposed to be infiltrating,” I said. “And Max knows me. I didn’t think she’d ever make it through the FBI training, though. So I’m surprised to find that she’s here.”
Bernie blinked.
Just as she opened her mouth to disagree with me, the door opened, and Max walked in looking frazzled.
She froze when she saw me standing there.
“Max,” Bernie said quietly. “What did you do?”
Max looked from me to her sister and back before saying, “What are you doing here?”
I studied her for a second, taking in her tall form, her intense eyes, and the scowl on her face.
“You were caught leaving the shop,” I said. “Why were you there?”
I, of course, knew why.
But I wanted her to tell me anyway.
I’d trusted her once.
“I…” She hesitated. “I’m not sure who you saw, but it wasn’t me.”
I shook my head. “Max, I know it was you. We saw you getting into an SUV just down the road, after we tracked you using our security cameras.”
“That’s impossible,” Max refuted. “I didn’t get caught by your security cameras.”
I rolled my eyes. “You were. And you did. Now, I know why you are here. You want to infiltrate the Truth Tellers. But let me tell you this, Max. You won’t make it. And whoever is helping you, they’re lying to you.”
“What?” Max feigned innocence. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”
I laid it down for her.
“You’re working for the FBI,” I said. “In an official capacity, but you’re not FBI. I’m guessing you work as some freelancer. You never passed your peace officer’s licensing.”
Max’s face scrunched up.
“They’re using you to get close to us because of your connection to me,” I told her. “They don’t care about you. They don’t care what happens. They don’t care if you come back to your kid.” I looked at the child’s door. “And let me tell you something, Max. We don’t, either.”
The meaning for that was clear.
Though we didn’t hurt kids, we didn’t discriminate against women and men. If women wanted to play rough, we obliged them. That simple.
“I…”
“Whoever is letting you use this house.” I walked around, taking a look around at the interior, making sure to drop the water bottle lid in an area that it wouldn’t be noticed as I moved.
“They’re using you. You see money, but they see an in.
They don’t care how they get that in, if you understand my meaning. ”
Bernie cleared her throat. “Are you threatening us?”
She sounded hurt.
But she didn’t understand.
The Truth Tellers protected their own, and they didn’t feel bad about how it had to be done.
“Go back home, Bernie. Take Max and her kid with you,” I urged. “Because the next time I come by, it’s not going to be in a nice way.” I hesitated at the door and leveled Max with a look. “The next time you come into any of our places, we won’t be so nice about letting you leave.”
With that, I left, heading for home.
I was in a shitty mood as I pulled up, that only got darker when I saw Calli outside, kicking her feet, sitting on the tailgate of her truck in nothing but a t-shirt.
She had a bag of potato chips in her lap, and she was absently talking on the phone as I shut the car off.
She didn’t look over at me, and instead continued her conversation.
“Just give it a rest, Searcy.” Calli groaned as she pulled out a chip and threw it to the ground.
“I’m not going to go. I don’t want to.” There was a long pause and then, “I love you. I love my family. But I don’t want to go on a Christmas Eve train ride with a bunch of fake bitches talking about hot chocolate and handing out stale cookies. ”
She sounded like she had experience with those fake bitches and stale cookies.
My lips twitched, even though mere minutes ago I wouldn’t think I’d ever smile again.
But that was the way Calli was.
Always making me smile.
Her grumpy attitude only made it better.
Which had me all the angrier.
I’d already left a good woman once.
If I did anything like what my entire soul was urging me to do, I’d probably never live to see tomorrow. Not only would Doc murder me, but Searcy would have my balls.
And I couldn’t lose this family of mine.
Not for her…right?