Chapter 7
Viper
Ihadn’t planned on staying the night at Rebecca’s place—I didn’t have the time for such distractions.
A shit-ton of things needed to get done at the club, which included touching base with Dax and any intel he had about the Broken.
I also needed to get with Menace and ask him to find out everything he could on Camden.
I knew this, and yet I continued to lay there on the sofa with Rebecca nestled in the crook of my arm.
We’d fallen asleep midway through the first movie and hadn’t moved all night—which suited me just fine.
Her long, dark hair was slightly disheveled, and her cheeks were rosy from being bundled up in a blanket.
I’d never seen a more adorable sight. I could’ve lain there all day with her curled up next to me and the sun shining on her angelic face.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before Rebecca began to stir, and after a slight stretch, she yawned and mumbled, “Good morning.”
“Morning.” I brushed the hair from her eyes. “You sleep okay?”
“Mm-hmm.” She sat up and stretched her arms over her head. “Slept like a baby. That movie knocked me right out.”
“Is that right?”
“Oh, yeah. You were right.” She looked over to me and snickered. “Rocky really packs a punch.”
“You trash-talking Rocky?”
“Who me?” she asked innocently. “Nooo. Never.”
I loved that she woke up looking just as beautiful as she had when she fell asleep. I wasn’t surprised. Rebecca truly was a natural beauty. She didn’t need all the makeup and done-up hair, and after last night, I was learning she had quite a sense of humor to boot. “Better watch yourself, woman.”
“Wow. I would’ve thought your boy, Balboa, could handle a little trash talk.” She shrugged playfully. “I guess I was wrong.”
“Ah, you’re gonna get it.” I was about to grab her and carry her upstairs to bed and show her what trash-talking would get her but stopped dead in my tracks the second I heard my burner ring. “Damn.”
I reached into my back pocket, pulled out my phone, then immediately answered, “You got Viper.”
“Hey, brother. It’s Dax. You got a minute?”
“Not at the moment, but I’ll be at the clubhouse in ten. I’ll call you back then.”
“Sounds good.”
I hung up the phone, then pulled on my boots and stood. “Sorry to rush off, but I gotta get over to the clubhouse.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, just got something I have to take care of.”
“Wait a second.” Rebecca hopped up from the sofa and darted into the kitchen. Seconds later, she returned with a hot pink tumbler in her hand. She lifted it in the air and announced, “Coffee.”
“How’d you manage that?”
“It’s set on a timer.” She smiled as she offered me the tumbler. “Sorry about the bright color. It’s the only one I had on hand.”
“It’s great.” I leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. “What do you have going on later tonight?”
“Cat’s supposed to come back later this afternoon.” A warm smile crossed her face as she added, “But I could always ask Mom to keep her another night if something were to come up.”
“Why don’t you do that? Maybe we could finish that movie marathon.”
“Or maybe we could find a more entertaining way to spend our time.”
“I’m sure we can come up with something.”
“Oh, I’m sure we can.”
Without saying anything more, I grabbed my cut and headed out the front door. As I got in my truck and glanced back at Rebecca’s house, I couldn’t help but smile as I thought about last night—something I wouldn’t have expected after the crazy week I’d had.
As soon as I arrived at the clubhouse, I grabbed the coffee Bec had made me and headed straight for my office.
When I walked in, I was surprised to find that Axel, Hawk, and Menace were already there waiting for me.
Hawk was the club’s sergeant-at-arms, and he took his job seriously.
Like me, he’d been concerned about the situation with Coburn from the start and was eager to get it resolved, so I wasn’t surprised when he asked, “Did Dax get in touch with you?”
“Yeah, he called while I was ... busy this morning.” I walked behind my desk and was just getting settled when I noticed Menace eyeing the pink tumbler. I gave him a stern look as I warned, “Don’t say a fucking word.”
He held up his hands and chuckled. “Wouldn’t dream of it, Prez.”
“Pfft. Smartass.” I grabbed my burner out of my pocket and tapped in Dax’s number, then put it on speaker so they could listen in on our conversation. “Hey, Viper. Sorry to call so early this morning. I hope I didn’t catch you at a bad time.”
“It’s all good, brother.” Before he had a chance to say anything more, I asked, “Did you get a chance to look into the Broken?”
“I did.” I leaned back in my chair and listened to him explain, “From what I can gather, they’re a fucked-up crew ... a bunch of loose cannons just waiting to wreak havoc.”
“Damn.”
“That being said, I don’t think you got anything to worry about with these assholes. Apparently, they’ve got something brewing with another club, and it has them all out of sorts.”
Dax seemed confident as he spoke, which should’ve eased my mind. Unfortunately, it didn’t—at least, not completely. “Keep an eye out. If you hear anything I should know about, call me.”
“Will do.”
“I appreciate your help with this, Dax. I owe you one.”
“Don’t mention it, brother. Glad to help.”
As soon as he hung up, I looked to Menace and Axel and said, “Fuck these assholes. We’re keeping the guns.”
“You sure about that?” Axel asked.
“It’s our only option—at least for the time being.”
I understood my brother’s concern. Over the past few months, the club had sustained a few hard hits, and the last thing we needed was another. The thought made me think about the Manor and all the changes we’d made to the security.
After Coburn’s attack, we brought in several extra hands—most of which had worked under Braylon in the service. Riggs and Menace had also made some significant modifications to the security system, which had me curious. I turned to Hawk and Menace. “How are things going over at the Manor?”
“Better than I expected, honestly,” Hawk answered. “Braylon’s three boys and the two guys Riggs sent are really on top of things, and I think the new upgrades on the security system are just what we needed out there, especially those loss-of-power alerts.”
“The upgrades are badass, Prez,” Menace boasted. “If the power goes out for any reason, we’ll all get an alert on our phones, and the new solar cameras will kick on.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear. And what about Kiersten? She and her team still keeping up with production?”
“Oh, yeah. That and more.” Hawk shook his head. “She’s even talking about starting up a new line for later this spring.”
“Get with her and have her work up some numbers for me. If that’s something she’s interested in doing, we need to do our part in making sure it happens.”
“You got it.” He glanced over to Menace and Axel, then back to me. “If that’s all, I’ll get with Rafe and head over there now.”
“I’d appreciate it.” I watched as he got up and walked out of the room. As soon as he closed the door, I turned to Menace and said, “I’ve got something I need you to do for me.”
“Okay, name it.”
“I need you to look into my brother.”
“What exactly am I looking for?”
Normally, I wouldn’t discuss something like this with anyone else in the room, but Axel had been through thick and thin with me.
He knew all about Mia and how hard it’d been seeing her with my brother.
He’d encouraged me for years to move on, so I could only imagine what he was thinking when I said, “I’m pretty sure he’s been fucking around on his wife, and I need you to find out if that’s true. ”
“You seriously think he’s fucking around on Mia?” Axel asked with surprise.
“Unfortunately, I do, and I’m not the only one. She thinks the same damn thing.”
“He can’t possibly be that fucking stupid.”
“I hope to God I’m wrong, but I got a bad feeling I’m not.”
Menace stood up and said, “I’ll get on it right away and let you know what I find out.”
“I’d appreciate it, brother.”
Once he was gone, Axel waited a moment, then turned to me and asked, “You okay?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Don’t give me that bullshit. I know how hard it’s been to deal with Camden all these years.” His brows furrowed with concern. “It’s gotta be fucking with your head to think Camden’s been screwing around on Mia, especially with your history.”
“It is what it is.”
“Don’t do that. Don’t just blow it off like this shit doesn’t mean something to you.”
“Of course, it means something to me, Axel, but whether he’s cheating or not changes nothing.” I could feel the anger rising inside of me as I continued, “She chose him. End of story.”
“So, even if you had a chance with her, you wouldn’t take it? After all these years of loving her? Wanting her?”
“There was a time when I’d jump at the chance to be with her. You know that, but a lot’s changed.” I ran my hand over my face and sighed. “I honestly can’t say what I’d do. Not anymore.”
“Does this change have anything to do with your friend, Rebecca?”
“It’s not like that, and you know it.”
He shrugged. “I didn’t think so, but like you said, things change.”
“Don’t try and Dr. Phil me, brother. I’m not in the fucking mood.” I stood up, grabbed the pink tumbler Rebecca gave me, and started out of the room. “I need more coffee. And a cigarette. And maybe a shot.”
“Damn, sounds like you could use an episode or two of Dr. Phil.”
“Fuck no. Jerry Springer couldn’t even touch this shit.”
Before he had a chance to respond, I walked out of the office and made my way to the kitchen. After I poured myself some coffee, I headed down to my room for a hot shower. I hadn’t had a chance to take one since I’d left Rebecca’s, and I was hoping it might help knock the edge off my sour mood.
It didn’t.
I got out and dried off. As I wrapped a towel around my waist, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror.
I leaned in to get a better look at my thick, overgrown beard and immediately thought of Cat and what she’d said about my needing to shave the damn thing.
At the time, I thought the kid was crazy, but now? Maybe it was time for a change.
I ran my hand over it, gave it a firm tug, and before I had a chance to think about what I was doing, I grabbed my shaving trimmers from below the sink and plugged it in. I wasn’t ready to let it go completely, so I put on the number four guard and got to work.
Once I was done, I quickly realized it wasn’t the change I was going for, so I went for the three.
That shit didn’t work for me either, so I ended up breaking out the two guard.
By the time I was done, I barely recognized myself.
I ran my hand over my thick five o’clock shadow and had to admit, Cat was right.
The longer beard had made me look older.
I left the bathroom and walked over to my dresser. I’d just pulled out some fresh clothes when there was a knock at my door. “Give me a minute.”
After I put on my boxer briefs and jeans, I opened the door to find Country standing in the hallway. Before I could ask him what he wanted, he inhaled a stunned breath and asked, “Oh damn, what the hell happened?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Your face!” He brought his hand up and moved it in a circular motion around his mouth. “What the fuck happened to your face?”
“Nothing happened, numb-nuts!” I barked. “I shaved.”
“Yeah, I can see that.” He looked absolutely distraught. “But why, Prez? That beard was your trademark.”
“My what?”
“Your trademark,” he repeated. “You know. The thing that makes you ... you.”
“I don’t need a fucking beard to make me, me. It’s just a fucking beard.”
“I know, I know.” Country almost looked like a pouting child as he muttered, “But I liked your beard.”
“Did you need something, or are you just here to bust my balls?”
“I came by to let you know I was heading back to the Manor.”
“Figured you would’ve headed on home after your shift last night.”
“Well, Lynch and I had one too many after closing, so I figured it was best to just hang back here.” Before I had a chance to give him a hard time, he continued, “Just came by to see if there was anything you needed from me before I take off.”
“Get with Hawk. He’s planning on heading that way later today to talk some things over with Kiersten.”
“Oh?” Concern marked his face. “Everything all right?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine. Just gonna talk to her about that project she’s wanting to start up this spring.”
“Good deal.” Country tilted his head to the side and gave me another once over before saying, “You know, the new look’s growing on me. You’re looking pretty fine there, Prez.”
“Get the fuck out of here, Country.”
“Catch ya later.” When he turned to leave, something in the corner caught his attention, and he whipped back around. He stepped back over to my doorway and peered inside the room, then pointed over to my trash can. “Hold up ... Is that what I think it is?”
“What now?”
“Is that the dirty Santa gift I gave you?”
“Yeah, as a matter of fact, it is.”
“You trashed it?” he asked, sounding utterly offended. “I put a lot of thought into that gift, and you just tossed it.”
I reached down and grabbed the box out of the garbage, then shoved it into his chest. “If it means that much to you, then you take it. I’m sure you can put it to good use.”
“Me? Ah, now, I may not be packing to the level you are, but I do just fine. I won’t be needing any male enhancements any time soon.”
“Then, give it to someone who does, or toss the fucking thing in the dumpster,” I ordered. “I’m tired of looking at the damn thing.”
“If you’re sure.”
“I’m positive.”
Country slipped the box under his arm, then turned and headed down the hall.
I immediately shut the door and finished getting dressed.
Once I’d put on my boots, I put on my cut, grabbed what was left of my coffee, and headed back to my office.
I’d just stepped out of my room when Lynch and Widow appeared in the hallway, and Lynch’s mouth immediately dropped open.
“Holy shit, Country wasn’t kiddin’. You really did shave it off.”
“Did you need something?”
“Nope. Just wanted to see the look.”
The words had barely left his mouth when Rafe and Hawk slipped up behind Widow, and like Lynch, they looked equally surprised by the loss of my beard. Rafe was all smiles as he said, “Damn, Prez. Looking good. You’re gonna have to beat off the ladies with a stick.”
“You ain’t lying.” Lynch snickered. “Prez is a stud.”
And just like that, it was back to running a fucking daycare.
Damn.