Chapter 14
Jasper
The bar is in full swing when we go back downstairs.
Voices can be heard over the background music, glasses clinking, and laughter.
This place is home for me. I know that some people might not get that, might think my upbringing was weird or wrong, but I’d argue that my parents were fuckin’ great role models for my brothers and me.
Tessa hesitates at the bottom of the stairs, scanning the crowd.
She’s more curious than scared. I can tell because we’re holding hands right now instead of doing that old-fashioned arm loop thing we did before.
Her hands aren’t trembling, nor are her palms sweaty.
I don’t blame her for being curious, since she’s never been around an MC before.
This is the loudest, rowdiest room in our clubhouse.
It’s also the least filtered. She just spent a couple of hours upstairs being folded into the family side of the club.
Down here, it’s blood, sweat, and swagger.
I wait patiently for her to take her fill.
Tessa catches sight of a club girl discreetly riding a brother’s dick on one of the back pool tables.
She’s wearing a full mini skirt instead of one of the tight ones.
The only way you can tell what they’re doing is by their position and the slight movement of her hips.
Tessa quickly jerks her head around, probably convinced that’s something she shouldn’t be seeing. I find her innocence adorable.
“You good?” I ask, close to her ear. “The brothers are kinda brazen. Don’t let ‘em make you lose your dinner.”
Her eyes lift to mine and she can clearly see the amusement on my face. That, coupled with the teasing tone of my voice, successfully drives home the fact that this is one of the many ways we play here at the clubhouse.
When her eyes go big, I say, “Try not to be so shocked. We’re all adults and we sometimes do adult things to blow off steam.”
She nods, “Have you done that, had sex out in the open?”
“No. It’s not because I’m shy about my brothers seeing my ass or anything. It’s because my ma raised me better than that. She said because we were destined to be club officers, we had to hold ourselves to a higher standard.”
“Thank God for Queenie, lest you and your brothers be true alley cats.”
I press my lips together to keep from laughing ‘cause my pretty new baby mama ain’t wrong about that.
“Ma is of the opinion that men need a good woman to keep ‘em on the straight and narrow. She calls it challenging us to keep our sword sharp.”
“I think that might be a little deep for me,” she responds before turning to scan the room briefly one more time. I like that—curious and alert but not shrinking away from what she’s seeing. So I just stand there admiring her.
Eventually, we find a spot at a high-top by the wall.
I motion for Silver to bring us a couple of sodas.
She gives me a death glare before complying.
She’s stuck cooking, cleaning, and tending bar without any hookups with the brothers, alcohol for herself, or free time.
It’s a good punishment for a club girl who likes to manipulate the prospects into fighting over her and has the audacity to publicly insult the club’s VP.
It might sound mean, but if she don’t like it, she can leave.
The only real question is how long it will take her to learn her lesson, and whether this time it will stick.
When Silver storms over and drops off our drinks, Tessa takes the glass of soda and leans back against the wall like she’s trying to figure out the rules of a game everyone else already knows.
“Do you hate everything about club life?” I ask.
“No,” she replies, studying the girls without blinking. “I just don’t understand the point of all this.”
“The point is that some people don’t have families or people they can rely upon.
They get tired of being lonely, feel beaten down by life, and want to be part of something greater than themselves.
My brothers and I are lucky that we have our family.
My parents didn’t have anyone when they were young, so they started the Sons of Rage MC. It was their found family.”
“That actually makes a lot of sense. I’m one of those people who doesn’t have anyone, except my gran. If anything ever happens to her, I’ll be all alone in the world.”
“No, you won’t,” I say sharply. “Because now you have me and our kid.” Sitting back again, I add, “My ma took a real shine to you tonight.”
Her eyes flash up to mine and her face lights up. “Queenie is amazing. You really lucked out in the mom category. You know that, right?”
“I agree. She has a strong personality, and it’s all our fault. My brothers and I were hellions growing up. If she hadn’t had such a firm hand, we might have all ended up following each other off a cliff or something equally tragic.”
She laughs, catching my humor. And it warms me all the way down to my bones.
Onyx appears out of nowhere, grinning like a madman. He knocks his knuckles against the table in front of her. “You passed the test, you know?”
She arches a brow, and her expression freezes in place. “What test? I didn’t know there was a test.”
“Our folks have a long list of things they find off-putting in a potential girlfriend. You didn’t act terrified of us, didn’t cower, and sure as hell didn’t insult anyone. Good job. Now, I don’t suppose you have a sister stashed away somewhere, do you?”
She gives him a withering look, stating, “No sisters, but even if I did, I wouldn’t throw her to a wolf like you.”
He barks a laugh, loud enough to earn him a few looks from nearby tables. “Damn,” he says. “Your kitty’s got claws, Jasper.”
“If you don’t stop annoyin’ her, I’m gonna hold you down and let her scratch your eyes out, brother.”
He gives me a careless shrug with one shoulder. “You and whose army, brother?”
I start to get up out of my seat, but, as always, Onyx lifts both hands in surrender, amused. “Just trying to congratulate you both on earning some respect from our parents.” Shooting Tessa an exasperated look, he adds, “You have no idea what an impossible feat that can be.”
I give him a rough shove, and he strolls off, still grinning.
I watch Tessa out of the corner of my eye while she sips again, lips wrapping around the straw.
“You want to play pool?” I ask.
“I don’t know how.”
“I’ll teach you.”
I expect her to make a hard pass to that idea, since the only open table is right beside the couple who was having sex not long ago, and they’re passed out on the pool table even now.
What I get is her sliding off the stool with a contented smile.
She follows me to the open pool table. I pull a cue from the rack and chalk the tip.
When I hand it to her, our fingers brush.
She looks up and holds my eyes for just a second, long enough for me to wonder if she’s as attracted to me as I am to her. I toss that idea right out the window because literally nothing in my life is ever that easy. Still, she keeps sneaking glances at me that are laced with interest.
“Careful,” I murmur.
“Of what?”
“If you keep looking at me like that, I’m going to forget we’re supposed to be playing pool.”
She doesn’t have an answer for that. She just turns to the table and leans in to make the first break of the night.
Suddenly, Tessa is not just some surrogate, carrying my baby. She’s the one I want in my bed.
She’s lining up another shot, with one eye squinted like it’ll help her aim better. The cue angles awkwardly under her fingers, but she’s trying.
I’m about to step in, hand at her back, ready to guide her grip when movement catches my eye. Onyx appears in the open doorway across the bar, his shoulders squared, and he jerks his chin at me. Something’s up and he wants me to come.
I straighten. “Hey,” I say, quiet now. “I need to go take care of something. Can you give me a few?”
She looks intently up at me, trying to read my expression, no doubt. The flirtatious mood has evaporated, and she can see that.
“Club business?” she asks.
I nod, feeling like she’ll be fine on her own for a few minutes. “I won’t be too long.”
She doesn’t push for information or complain about being left on her own. She accepts what I’m telling her, gives me a nod once, and lays her stick across the table. “Sure. I’m a big girl. I can handle being on my own for a bit.”
I want to kiss her temple or say something soft to keep the warmth between us. But I don’t, because she’s not mine to worry over that way—not yet anyway. Once she agrees to be mine—instead of just being my surrogate—I’ll do all that and more.
As I walk away, I feel myself transition from being a brother on a date to being the VP of the Sons of Rage MC.
It happens clean, fast, and automatically.
One second, I’m a man teasing a woman I want in my bed.
The next, I’m the VP of a one-percent club with a potential threat on the horizon and a table full of officers waiting for answers.
We don’t talk club business with our women. Not because we don’t trust them, but because once they know too much, they’re involved. And selfishly? We don’t want them to see the ugly part up close. So, I keep the two worlds separate and locked down.
When I push through the door into our meeting room, all of that softness stays behind me.
***
Once we’re all settled down at the table, a short silence spins out in the room.
Something must be up because Rock doesn’t usually call church at such short notice.
Onyx closes the laptop, his fingers drumming once against the lid.
Mica leans forward now, finally serious.
Slate hasn’t moved since he sat down, but he’s watching me closely.
All three of them are. Our old man strolls in last and takes his seat at the head of the table.
We established early on that this situation with the Hyenas was my chance to show him I’m ready to take over the role of Prez when he steps down. I asked for more responsibility, and he gave it. My old man taught me long ago that you don’t get to wear the patch and not carry the weight.
I slowly come to my feet and jerk my chin at Onyx. “So what’s happened? You got some info?”
Onyx doesn’t waste any time getting to the heart of the matter. He turns the laptop towards us. The first image up is a grainy but clear mugshot.
“This is Leo Marquez,” he states flatly. “The Hyenas’ president. Fucker’s not local. He’s from Aberdeen, Texas. He came west about eight months ago. No one in our network recognized him, which is why he slipped under the radar this long.”
“Texas?” Onyx repeats. “That’s a hell of a reach.”
“It gets worse,” Onyx continues, flipping to the next tab.
“This is his rap sheet. It’s long. Arrests include assault, weapons violations, suspected trafficking.
None of it stuck, but he is definitely a well-connected career criminal.
We ran him through old DEA bulletins and found a match.
He’s connected, loosely, to a violent gang with cartel connections.
They’ve been laundering cash through freight companies down near Laredo. ”
“Cartel?” Slate says, voice low.
“Yeah. Marquez’s name came up in connection with two separate cases. Both fizzled out, but his name stuck to them.”
I lean in closer, reading the scanned police reports. “What about their money?”
Onyx switches tabs again. Bank records. Diagrams. A red string map made digital.
“Most of their incoming cash for the past year has been money orders. All processed in the same bank, different names, always from addresses along the Texas-Mexico corridor.”
“That’s not small time,” I say.
“It’s not,” he agrees. “But now those money orders have dried up. Last two months, we’ve seen the shift.”
He clicks again. A shot of a printed invoice with the company name Verde Cement & Paving. The signature line is blank.
“They’re creating fake work orders,” Onyx continues. “For cement jobs, lot grading, concrete repairs—only the labor never happens. They bill for it. The backers pay them for a job on paper. The club launders the payment through that shell business.”
“How did you find all this?” I ask.
Onyx jerks his chin at me. “From a couple of local IT freelancers that Mica dug up for us. They pulled this data from public records, social media accounts, plus a few sketchy open-source hacks. Nothing traceable back to us, but it’s solid intel.”
I glance at Mica. “Do you trust them?”
“I trust they know not to dupe up or try to double-cross us,” he says. “I put the fear of God into them about fucking with us.”
Slate speaks again, eyes narrowed. “This isn’t just about claiming territory for these assholes. It’s about the logistics of smuggling people, weapons, and drugs. They’re clearly looking to establish a corridor through our hometown.”
I nod. “Which means this crew didn’t wander in looking to open a strip bar or pull a few temporary scams before running away to the next town. They’re puttin’ down roots for something bigger.”
“And we’re clearly in their way—the only ones standing between them and making all their dreams come true,” Onyx points out.
“This intel confirms what we’ve been thinking all along. They’re gonna fight to the bitter end to take and hold our territory.”
My old man finally speaks. “We’re not just protecting our ground now. We’re sitting in front of something they want. That’s a very dangerous place for us to be.”
Onyx nods. “What do we do about Marquez?”
“For now, we watch, keep digging until we get a lead on his financial backers. If we rattle him too early, they might disappear. Then we’ll have to do this all over again once they regroup.”
“Once we figure out all the main players? Then what?”
“Then we start planning for war. But in the meantime, we bring every brother up to speed on the situation. I’m not taking any chances on them getting ambushed by these fuckers.”
Slate pulls out his cell phone and sends a group text for them all to get their asses to church. They start pouring into the room almost immediately.