30. Picasso
PICASSO
Iwatched her as she sat there on the couch lost in deep thought, her brow wrinkled with tension around her eyes.
The past few weeks with her had been a rollercoaster from hell but there was no way I wanted off the ride.
As much as I hated to admit it, Eagle had been right all along about her.
Dax was a woman unlike any other, more layers to her than an onion, but it’s what makes her who she is.
I wasn’t Sprocket or Wes, who seemed to be able to get her to open up with the right probing question, but I did know one thing that might help.
I got up from my seat in the lumpy armchair and headed into the kitchen.
“Hey, Wes, any chance you can work your cyber voodoo and get some stuff delivered here? Or maybe find a way to get me out for a bit to get it myself?” I whispered.
Wes looked at me with a skeptical brow. Okay sure, I’d been a dick to him since he showed up, but I was more of the ‘no new friends’ kind of guy.
I didn’t trust or let people into my family without proving they would keep it safe like any of us else would.
My own flesh and blood that I looked up to all my life almost killed me using his bare hands, I still have nightmares.
Which is why I had converted the garage back at the house to my room and studio space.
It was insulated enough that you couldn’t hear it when they got bad, and too proud to admit it still haunted me.
“What do you need that badly?” Eagle questioned, staring up to me.
People think that I was the one with the brother complex, but Eagle was just as bad, he just hid it better than I did most of the time.
“It’s not for me, it’s for Dax. A lot has happened, and I know she tells us she’s fine but none of us have told her about the nightmares she can’t wake up from.
I think it might be a good idea to get some simple art supplies for her to mess around with.
If she’s anything like me, talking doesn’t always help but art never fails you. ”
Both of them glance over to where Dax is snuggled up and I know I’ll have their help.
“There’s someone else who can get that stuff without us having to cause a whole scene.
I’m also betting he would love to have an olive branch right now,” Wes muttered.
“The bastard doesn’t deserve any help from me, but I love her too much not to do something I know will help her.
Smart thinking Norman Rockwell, you might have just redeemed yourself. ”
Wes pulled out a simple black burner flip phone and hit the call button.
When had he been slipped that, and why didn’t he say anything about it?
No, no, it was time to put my suspicions to rest about Weston Price.
Dax loved him, and frankly, she needed him in her life to keep her grounded in a way none of us ever could.
“Shut up and listen because I’m only going to say this once, you hear me, Cammybear?
” Wes growled into the phone. “You want to help her then send over art supplies, nothing too crazy. A sketch pad, chalk, charcoal, pencils, shit like that for her to use while she processes everything you just dumped on her. God, do you even know how bad you fucked up?”
As I listened in, I couldn’t hear a response, which told me he might have a clue.
I didn’t envy that man, having spent some time in his shoes.
Thankfully my fuckup wasn’t as catastrophic as his was.
I’ll take chili oil to the eyes and get told off any day if it meant she would forgive me.
Wait... why was I worried about this guy being forgiven?
I saw the spark between them. This dude was someone who could go toe to toe with Dax and challenge her mentally, in a way I haven’t seen anyone come close to, but Sprocket.
Cameron also had a darkness to him that I didn’t like one bit, there was something about him that we were all missing.
My money was on the fact that Dax knew what it was, but she hasn’t decided to share it with us just yet.
“I’m sure you expected things to go differently because you always have the upper hand, right?
Did you forget that didn’t apply to her?
For Christ’s sake, you idiot, just because you watched her all these years from a distance, doesn’t mean you still know her…
yeah, is that what you think? This is why you should have stayed the fuck away, Cameron.
You can’t handle a woman as strong as Dax who’s just like your father. ”
Now I could hear yelling and swearing coming from the phone, which Wes proceeded to snap closed, cutting off the tirade.
“You gonna fill us in on him?” Eagle asked as he pulled stuff off the stove. “You know Dax doesn’t like to talk about pre-Tricks life, but I feel like we’re flying blind on this, and I don’t like it.”
Wes rubbed his forehead, letting out a heavy sigh.
“I can’t tell you the whole story, but he was the first guy she’d ever truly dated and seemed happy with.
When Devin died, he was there, supporting her, alongside me and Harper.
When she graduated, he asked her to move in with him, but Dax had already decided on taking down the Blackjax and knew Cameron wouldn’t support her in that.
He was going for a criminal justice degree and already had too much going against him in that area.
If she’d been honest about her plans, he would have done everything in his power to stop her from turning into who she is today.
So, with my help, she cut ties, we scrubbed her from social media and anything else that would connect the two of them and she vanished into the darkness.
Harper has been her only connection, but even then, not many people took notice of her in the fashion world that Harper surrounded herself with. ”
Wes paused and looked in her direction with sadness in his eyes.
“I had to talk her out of doing the same thing to Harper, but I knew she needed someone who knew Dax Blackmore and not just Two Tricks. I believe that Harper kept her alive, since it was because of her that Dax refused to let the world know that Dax and Tricks were one and the same.”
I sank into one of the kitchen table chairs. “Damn, has that woman ever been able to catch a break?”
“Not so far, and doesn’t look like it’s coming anytime soon,” Wes grumbled, as he chopped up stuff for the salad he was making.
“What are all of you muttering about in here?” Dax asked, causing us all to freeze as she snuck up on us. “Whatever it is seems to be rather interesting.”
As if it was the most normal thing ever, Dax sat her perfect round ass on my lap as she waited for her answer.
Instantly, my dick hardened as she shifted to look at me, like I would have a brain cell left to say anything right now.
I flicked my gaze up at the others and Eagle gave me a knowing look and grinned, silently laughing at my situation.
“Just going over what happened back at the FBI building,” Wes said, drawing her gray-blue eyes away from me. “At least we know the whole picture now with what’s going on.”
“I guess, but I don’t think that’s all of it.
Cameron told us the plan he needed our help with, yet I have a feeling that there are more layers to this.
How in the hell did the FBI find out everyone I might be working with and the clients I might have?
Doesn’t it seem odd to you, when I know how careful we are to keep that shit under lock and key? ”
Like a lightbulb turning on in my head I understood what she’d really just said and started laughing. “Holy shit, spitfire, you played him like a dealer in Vegas. Oh, I believe everything else you said in there, but that wasn’t the real reason you told him no, was it?”
Dax grinned at me and winked. “Look at you, catching on before the others did.”
My laughter brought the others into the kitchen with questioning looks.
“What’s going on?” Cognac asked, as I continued to chuckle to myself.
Eagle scowled at me and crossed his arms. “Well Einstein, you gonna tell us your great revelation?”
“They don’t have a fucking clue who your clients and connections are, there is no confirmed list. My guess is they picked out every big baddie out there in the hopes that you would believe them and take the deal, confirming which ones you do have a connection with,” I shared, looking back at her to see if I was right.
Her answer was to kiss me like I’d been wanting to since the moment she sat down on my lap.
It didn’t help with my raging boner, but I would just have to take a shower to deal with that later.
I’ve gotten used to rubbing one out at least once a day since she popped into our lives.
Finally being able to eat her like a fat kid at a buffet was everything I’d hoped it would be, and more.
Now, I was just waiting for the all clear and I would tie her up to a bed for at least twenty-four hours to truly show her how sorry I was.
One of the guys let out an obnoxiously loud cough, telling us to break it up.
“Well fuck, now all of us are going to try and be the smart one if that’s the reward we get,” Cognac smirked.
“You might as well sit at the table, dinner’s ready,” Eagle said, waving them over. The table only had six chairs, so I kept Dax right where she was, no sense in moving her, if there wasn’t a chair.
Eagle made stir-fry and my guess is that he did it so Dax could eat it with one hand. Void stood and dished up a plate before any of us could even make for the platters of food, then set it down in front of Dax. “What do you want to drink, little demon?”
“Water’s fine, thanks, big guy,” she answered with a soft smile.
Within a few minutes, we all had full plates and fell into silence as we stuffed our faces.
“Okay so explain this to me again?” Sprocket asked first. “The people they put up on the screen weren’t your clients and connections?”
“A lot of them were but others weren’t. That’s what tipped me off.
A few were dealers and transporters that I would never work with because they tend to stab you in the back…
literally. Then there were others I had never heard of or seen before.
It was like Picasso said, they collected every known criminal and put them up on the screen.
What stood out to me was the fact that they hadn’t missed any of my people.
They were all there. Many of them connect to each other too, so I couldn’t even give up the ones I hate to work with but can get me what I need where I need it,” Dax explained.
“Is this the type of thing you alert your people to?” Void questioned.
“God no, they know that someone is watching them from some government group, but to tell them which one would make them crazy paranoid. Add on that, I’m American, it would cause them to cut me off for sure, might even put me on the blacklist.”
“What’s our alternative? Can you smuggle us out of the States?” I asked.
This question seemed to shock her. “You would up and leave everything behind, just like that?”
“Over jail, hell yeah, no question. If we end up locked up for the next twenty to thirty years, what’s left for us?
The Phantom Saints would pick new leadership and carry on, we couldn’t manage things from inside the clink.
Maybe if it was just one or two of us, but not all five,” I answered.
“Besides, it means we all get to stick together, better to have five people watching your back than none. Well, and the fact that we’re family Dax.
You belong to us, we belong to you, simple as that. ”
The others all nodded their agreement.
“The only way you’ll be rid of us, little hellcat, is if we’re dead, otherwise we’ll do whatever it takes to stay together and free,” Eagle affirmed.
Dax just sat there for a moment and stared at us all. “If I was any other woman, I would be crying right now, that was way too fucking sweet for you guys to say.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at that and the others joined in, giving us a moment to forget what might happen in the future.
With all our brains combined I had to believe we could figure a way out of this, I just hoped it didn’t force us to abandon everything, even though we would, without question, if it came down to it.