Chapter 7
CHAPTER 7
R onnie
The further out he drives, the more nervous I become. Is he taking me out here to feed me to the alligators? Two hours later, we pull up to what must be a fifteen-foot high fence with a gate and keypad that Lion inputs six numbers in before the gates swing open, and we drive through. I swear we drive another fifteen minutes, and there, hiding behind the gate, is a beautiful house on the water. It is gorgeous, raised up off of the ground, allowing him to pull the motorcycle under there to park. As much as he talked about my house being a million-dollar home, I know for a fact this house is well over a million dollars, and it is sitting on acres of waterfront.
“What do you do again?” I ask, trying to figure out how the secretary for the Sin City MC can afford this house and the one in Harvey.
“I told you,” he says, reminding me of the conversation we had when he informed me of his role in the MC. I know SC MC has their fingers in a lot of pies, but what kind of pies are they serving for him to be able to afford all this?
“Bullshit!” I tell him, to his wide smile. “And what is with all this damn land and security? I have only seen fences like this for prisons.” I say, looking at all this land being boxed in with fifteen-foot brick fences.
“You’ll see,” he says before bellowing out “Jazz! Blues!” I look around to see what he just called. He calls the names a few more times before I hear a noise that I must be hearing wrong cause ain’t no way. I expect a man like him to have Cane Corso or German Shepherd dogs, but when two big ass lions come bounding across the field, I climb up his side until I am practically standing on his shoulders.
“You better get down. I am pretty sure they are going to tackle me,” he tells me, givingme just enough time to get off of his shoulder before the biggest of the lions knocks him down to the ground. Both Lions begin licking him and jockeying to get any attention from him as he laughs. “Don’t move,” he tells me between laughs and I become a statue. He manages to get off of the floor and introduces me to his babies. “The smaller one is Jazz, and the bigger one is Blues.” I don’t give a damn how friendly they are with him. I didn't make a single move. “Let’s go inside,” he says, and I am happy to get any distance between me and those killers. “Wait, let me have your t-shirt.” I whip the shirt up over my head, handing it to him and leaving me standing in my sports bra. I watch as he gives them my shirt to smell, even going as far as rubbing my shirt on them before handing it back to me, and I look at it like it’ll bite me.
“I’ll wash it,” he says, carrying it into the house.
I feel a little better once we are inside, and I am as impressed with the inside as I was with the outside. The house is simply gorgeous.
“Feel free to look around. I need to go grab the groceries from the bike,” he says, and seconds later, he is gone. I was in his house in Harvey for less than thirty minutes, and I didn’t even think to look around, but as soon as I stepped out of the kitchen and walked into the living room I knew I’d been tricked, and I don't know if I want to cuss him out or laugh. Soon after, I hear him come back in, the grocery bags thumping on the table.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask.
Lion
I do not keep too many personal things in my house in Harvey. It’s too accessible, but out here, well, it’s my sanctuary where I feel close to my family, so there are a shit ton of pictures on the wall. I knew as soon as she saw them, she’d know. There was no other way.
“I had to make sure I trusted you,”
“And you trust me now?”
“You are the only person outside of family that has been here,” I tell her, her eyes swinging to me. Her eyes swing back to the pictures, and she made her way over, picking up the framed photo of my dad and her Uncle Lenn.
“I have this same photo. Uncle Lenn gave it to me when he told me, Sunshine, if you ever get into trouble, real trouble, go to NOLA and find Jacob or his sons Judah and Benjamin. Show them this picture and the one of me and you, and they will help you. I went back to the brothel that night to get a box that had those pictures in it, along with some money. I looked for you for almost two years, but everyone acted like they had never even heard of a Judah Brussard.” She turns her hurt eyes to me. Her eyes filled with unshed tears, and I moved without conscious thought.
“I have been Lion since I was little more than a toddler, hell, even my teachers called me Lion. I think Uncle Lenn knew that if you knew my given name, I’d know you were someone I could trust. I don’t know if my MC knows my name is Judah since I am the Secretary and I keep all the records.” By then, I have her in my arms.
“I miss Uncle Lenn. He used to take me to so many places my mother would have died had she known. He let me be in the room when he was conducting business while he was up in Baltimore. If it wasn’t for his training, Franklin would have been caught and killed me.” She pushes back a bit to look up into my face. “I am so sorry Juh..ah Li.. um, what do I call you now?” she asks.
“When it’s you and I, Judah. When we are in public, I am Lion,” I tell her, and she rests her forehead on my sternum.
“I am so sorry, Judah. About your father, I hate that he has taken so much from us. The last time I talked to Uncle Lenn, he told me he was on his way to see me, that he had something to tell me, and the next thing I knew, I was getting a call about a car accident, and his car was too damaged to recover the remains. Only the necklace that had the ring his mother gave him on it was recovered. Uncle Lenn never took that necklace off. I had to bury him. We had a service for him, but it was just me and my mom. I had no idea how to reach you guys.”
“When we learned of his death, my dad had a traditional New Orleans funeral complete with several Second Lines performing for him. We danced our way through the Quarter in honor of our Uncle Lenn,” I tell her. “He was not forgotten, and he was loved.” She nods on my chest.
“What now?”
“Now we get that piece of shit husband of yours.”
“How?”
“I’m working on it. Also, I want you to know I sent a few of the guys to the brothel to protect Ms. Adelaide.”
“Thank you! Let me text her and see how she is doing?” She shoots off a text, and we make our way into the kitchen. Between the ride and the talk, we both are starving. Working together, we put together a quick meal of Shrimp Po Boys, fries, and some Nehi Peach soda.
“Tomorrow I have to go back, but I want you to stay here. Jazz and Blues won’t let anyone on the property, and no one outside of Bones knows about this house anyway,”
“How long will you be gone?”
“Probably for most of the day. Don’t worry. I will leave you everything you need just in case you need to leave here for whatever reason.”
“Okay,” she says in a small voice, and I don’t want to leave her. I don’t understand how I went from literally wanting to murder her with no remorse to wanting to literally peel the flesh off of her husband and disappear anyone and anything else that wants to harm her.