Chapter 24
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FOUR
Julie
Today has been a disaster, and it’s not even ten in the morning.
When I walked into the building, I rolled my ankle while wearing my wedges.
Then Curtis, the mailroom employee, spilled coffee on the sleeve of my shirt as soon as I got upstairs.
Thankfully, my shirt is black so you can’t tell it’s there, but I know it’s there, and it’s driving me crazy.
As if that’s not bad enough, Mr. VanDuran forgot to pick up his suit yesterday for court today.
“I got it!” Simone, one of our female security guards, says as she rushes toward me breathlessly.
“How did you get it?” I ask, standing.
She hands it over when she reaches me. “The lady from the dry cleaner brought it over. Instead of letting her up, I decided to bring it up myself.”
“You guys didn’t feel like clearing her, huh?” I tease.
She laughs softly. “Not with the heightened security, no. If we can do it and make our lives easier, then I’m all for a little extra work.”
“Thank you. I know Mr. VanDuran will be very excited to have this.”
“Of course.”
We part ways, and I head to Mr. VanDuran’s office and knock on the door.
“Come in.”
I open the door and hold the dry cleaning bag in front of me.
“Finally something is going right today,” he mutters as he stands.
“I’m glad I’m not the only one having a rough day,” I joke.
His eyes narrow. “Is everything okay? Is someone bothering you?”
I shake my head. “No, nothing like that. Just a clumsy morning is all.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. Now you better get changed before you’re late for court.”
He looks at the clock over my shoulder and curses under his breath. I have to bite my tongue to stop myself from scolding him.
How embarrassing would that be? Scolding my boss.
Shaking my head, I start to leave his office.
“Julie,” he says, making me pause.
I turn and give him my attention. “Yes?”
“How about you get out of here early while I’m gone? Go do something for you.”
“But I have work to do. You need me to…”
He shakes his head and cuts me off. “It can wait. Seriously, take a day. I’m going to be out of the office anyway. It’s fine.”
“I don’t want special treatment.”
He frowns. “No special treatment. You’re a good employee. The best I have ever had. You don’t flirt with me, and you do your job well. Things have been tense around here for a few weeks. I want you to go relax. It’s selfish, really. I don’t want to lose you, so I want you to go unwind.”
Well, when he puts it that way…
“Are you sure?” I press.
“Positive. Now go so I can change. Otherwise, I’ll be late, and then we will both be in trouble.”
Leaving his office, my mind races with possibilities.
What should I do? Do I just go home and clean? Should I call Yak? Do I take myself out?
“What are you doing?” Lisa asks as I grab my bag out of the drawer I keep it in.
“Mr. VanDuran said I could take the rest of the day off since he won’t be in the building.”
She sighs. “Man, you have the nicest boss. I swear mine would just create more work for me if they aren’t going to be in.”
“Don’t say that too loud or you might jinx it,” I warn her.
“You’re right. Well, have fun on your day off,” she says before walking away.
After shutting off my computer, putting my coat on, setting my purse over my shoulder, and grabbing my phone, I head toward the elevator. As I step inside, my phone vibrates, and I see Liz’s name flash across the screen.
Liz
Do you ever look at people and think their mom should have done the world a solid and swallowed?
Me
Liz…that’s mean on so many levels.
I laugh softly as the elevator descends. When I step into the lobby, it goes off again.
Liz
You didn’t answer the question.
Me
Honestly, because the thought has never crossed my mind.
Liz
How are we friends again?
Me
I’ve wondered for a long time. Doesn’t change the fact I love you, though.
Liz
Back at you.
For a moment, I contemplate telling her to ditch out of work early and to come hang out with me, but I decide against it. I know it would take zero convincing to do it, but I don’t want to encourage her to do something she shouldn’t.
No, I can spend the day by myself. Doing…something.
“You out of here early, Julie?” Simone asks, pulling me out of my thoughts.
“I am. Do you have time to walk me to my car?”
She nods. “Let’s go.”
I step outside and take a deep breath. The cold air cuts right through me, and I can’t help but wrap my jacket around me tighter as I make my way to my car.
Simone follows me, keeping her eye out for any danger. Once I’m at my car, she waves to me. “Have a good day.”
“You too.”
When I get inside and turn it on, I shiver.
“It’s brutal out there,” I mumble to myself.
Pulling up the forecast, I see that we are in for a doozy later this week, and an idea starts to form.
Since I’ve been with Yak, I haven’t taken any time for myself to do some of the things I love. Like cooking and baking.
Putting my car in drive, I head to the store to grab all the supplies I need. I grab things for cookies, brownies, breakfast bites, and soup. Once I have everything, I head home and unload the groceries.
After changing, I start to put things away when my phone buzzes.
Yak
Everything okay? You’re home early.
Me
I’m fine. Mr. VanDuran let me have the day off while he’s in court.
Yak
Damn, if I would have known, I wouldn’t have agreed to work.
I laugh softly at the word “work.” Sure he’s working, just not in the traditional sense.
Me
It’s fine. Just make sure you’re safe.
Yak
Always. Let me know if you need me.
Closing out of his messages, I turn on some music, some early two-thousands jams, and get to work. First, I start on the soup so it can simmer while I work on the rest. Then I move on to the cookies.
As I work, my mind quiets down. I don’t think about Yak and what he could be doing. I don’t think about my dad and how he will react when I finally admit that the man I’m with is someone he would try to put away. Even Aragon doesn’t cross my mind once, nor what he might have in store for me.
I let all my worries fade, and for a moment, I am the girl I was before I met Yak. The one who was boring.
I don’t want to be that girl anymore, though. I want to be his old lady.
Smiling to myself, I let even that thought fall away as I focus on the task at hand.
In this moment, I have never felt more at peace with myself.
Yak
Smiling, I stare at my screen. My girl is dancing around her kitchen as she does about a million things, but she does it with ease.
She looks happy. Peaceful.
If I didn’t know any better, I would think everything was right in her world. That nothing is hanging over our heads like a storm cloud.
“Hey, you ready?” Yooper asks, coming to a stop next to my room.
“Yeah, let’s do this.” I pocket my phone and shut my door behind me.
As we walk through the clubhouse, Sap and Poutine nod, silently letting us know they are paying attention while we are about to be gone for a few minutes. My eyes find Aragon in the corner, holding court with Krill and Beck.
I shake my head. I swear to God it’s getting harder and harder every day not to punch him in the face.
“Fucking hate that guy,” Yooper mutters quietly as we step outside.
“He won’t be our problem anymore soon enough,” I say.
We jump into his truck, and he takes off. We head about three miles down the road and come to a stop where five men are already waiting. Yooper and I get out of the truck and approach.
“Which one of you is Monarch?” Yooper asks.
A guy, who looks old enough to be our dad, steps forward. “That would be me.”
“I’m Yooper, the president of this chapter. Sorry it took us so long to meet.”
Monarch chuckles. “It’s all good. I figured it would happen when it needed to. These are my boys, Mountie, Ottawa, Winnie, and Gretzky. Sorry I didn’t bring more, but this is all we have right now.”
“This is my brother, Yak,” Yooper tells him.
“Please don’t apologize. We are willing to work with anyone you can spare right now,” I tell him.
“So tell us what you need,” the one called Mountie says.
“We have some issues internally. Ones we plan to take care of. We need some assistance with an upcoming run,” Yooper tells him.
He nods. “What can we do to help?”
This is where it gets tricky. Can we really trust them? Only one way to find out.
“The brother we suspect has been going after my old lady. Seems to think she is his in some sick and twisted way because he thinks he saw her first. He didn’t.”
“That sounds like a fucking nightmare. Sorry you are going through that,” Gretzky rasps.
“It’s bound to happen. People get power hungry,” Yooper says.
“What do you propose?” Monarch asks.
“We want to see where the product is going. We believe Aragon is misplacing some of it and selling it to others. We are going to bring you in as support and see what he does. We need to figure out where the product is going to prove it is him taking it,” Yooper tells him.
“So we need to slip trackers into the crates?” Mountie asks, making me nod.
“Shit, Mountie, sleight-of-hand shit is right up your alley,” Winnie teases.
Mountie gives him the middle finger, making us all laugh.
I pull out a bag of trackers. “If you guys can put them in as many crates as possible. If you have enough, try dropping some of the trackers into barrels. I haven’t quite figured out which weapons they prefer to snatch since the crates are mixed.”
“You got it,” Gretzky says.
Yooper’s phone buzzes, and he looks at it. “Okay, everyone is ready to roll. Ready to head to the clubhouse and get this going?”
“Let’s do this.” Monarch nods.
We get back into the truck, and they follow us to the clubhouse.
“You ready for this?” I ask as he shuts off the truck.
Yooper looks up at the sky. “I am. I’m ready for the storm. What about you?”
“Me too, brother. Me too,” I mutter before getting out.
“Where the fuck were you, and who are these people?” Aragon demands.
“They are brothers from the Forbach chapter. We asked for an assist,” Yooper tells him calmly.
“Forbach chapter? Did you know another chapter opened up?” Yukon asks Wolverine.
“Yeah, do you not read the shit the head chapter puts out?” Wolverine mutters.
I have to bite back a laugh. Can’t blame Wolverine, though. I didn’t know the chapter existed until Yooper had the idea to call them in.
I mean he had me reaching out to Arkansas for help for crying out loud.
Aragon scoffs. “Assistance? We don’t need anyone interfering.”
“That’s not your call to make, Aragon. Now are we going to do this or what?” Yooper says gruffly as everyone stares.
“Let’s get this fucking over with,” Aragon mutters before stomping toward his bike.
We all get on our bikes and head out. The wind is fucking frigid, and I know by the time I get home tonight I’m going to be a goddamn icicle.
Why the fuck, out of all the places Yooper could have picked to settle down, did he have to choose fucking Canada?
Checking my mirrors, I see that Wolverine is taking up the back of the line, making sure no one falls out. Krill and Beck are somewhere in the middle behind me. Looking forward, I watch as Aragon tries to fight with my brother for lead, but Yooper won’t let him have it.
Fucking idiot.
If he doesn’t knock this shit off, we will for sure see red and blues flashing behind us sooner rather than later.
It takes us twenty minutes to get to the dock, and we all roll in like last time. Instead of Diego, it’s another man.
The guy walks over to Aragon immediately and shakes his hand.
“What the fuck?” Gretzky says quietly next to me.
“Now you get it,” I mumble under my breath.
Yooper makes his way over to Aragon, and the guy’s eyes widen when he sees Yooper’s patch.
Shaking my head, I break away from the crowd and head to the crates. Picking up a crowbar, I pry one open.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Aragon shouts.
I raise a brow. “Checking to make sure the inventory is all here. Like I’m supposed to. Do you have an issue with that?”
His jaw clenches, and he looks at my brother before shaking his head.
“Fucking dickhead, that one, huh?” Monarch murmurs.
“You have no idea,” I sigh.
Everyone moves into action and starts opening crates. Out of the corner of my eye, I watch as the Forbach crew starts slipping trackers into the boxes so discreetly that if I didn’t know to watch for it, I would miss it.
Perfect.
My eyes dart over to Aragon, and I see him whispering with Krill and Beck while scanning the room.
Now for them to take the bait.