Chapter 24
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FOUR
Sawyer
The address Barry told us about is downtown in a building that’s a block of old apartments. It’s rundown and looks like the NOLA version of the ghetto. I really fucking hope there aren’t women and kids inside, then again, if there are, we can help them.
Of course, we’re not going in there, the cops are, since they have the building surrounded. Willow left no stone unturned in getting her team together.
“You okay?” Pipes asks me as we sit in the van, waiting.
“I’m good.”
“You sure about that?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“No reason,” he says. “You did good, brother. Especially with those assholes at the warehouse.”
We both know they’re just the middlemen, but they still willingly participated. What makes me more sick is Barry telling me he had kids. What the actual fuck?
I turn to look at him. “They deserve a lot more than they got.” Well, Barry is still alive, pending this investigation, plus we still need him to communicate with Forest, but I’ll be going back there.
No matter what Tag and Harlem ended up doing, they’ll keep him alive.
That’s what we do around here, we have each other’s backs.
“So I heard some whispers,” Pipes says as I shake my head.
“And you’re not gonna shut up until you beat me into submission, right?”
“Hey, what’s brotherly love without a little talk?”
“Your kind of ‘talking’ usually involves my love life, or lack thereof of.”
“Have you done anything about Nova yet?”
I sigh. “Like made the moves?”
“Like claimed her.”
I blink. “Wow, just come right out with it,” I say. “Don’t hold back.”
“Come on, I know you better than you think I do. You’re nuts about her, and she’s family, well, Dawson family. In a way, she’s already initiated.”
“Not gonna deny that, but we’re bein’ careful. We don’t wanna ruin what we have.”
“Which I get,” he says. “Because I almost ruined things with Casey when we slept together and she ran into some fuckin’ sweet butt comin’ out of my place.”
I’ve heard the story. Casey knocked on my brother’s door — he lives above the gun range where he works — and the sweet butt who had broken in a few minutes earlier answered in her underwear.
Pipes didn’t sleep with her, but he didn’t exactly have time to explain before Casey took off.
“Communication is key, brother.”
“I know that now,” he huffs. “My point is, Nova is good for you.”
I level him with a look. “How do you figure that? You barely know her.”
“She’s put up bein’ your friend for this long, that’s gotta be good.”
Wise ass. Though he does have a point.
“Hilarious. I’ll have you know she likes me a lot.” Well, she loves me and I love her, but I’m not gonna admit that out loud. And besides, Nova hasn’t okayed me telling people. Not until we broach the three stooges.
“Wait, did you already tap it?”
I feel him look at me and I roll my eyes. “Tap it? What are we, like teenagers?”
“You did, didn’t you?”
“Shut up.”
“Hey, I’m happy for you, I’ve seen you two moonin’ over one another for a while now.”
I shove him in the shoulder. “We haven’t been moonin’, who even says that?”
“No? Well, I’m your brother, I know you. I knew you liked her more than a friend for ages, so don’t play innocent.”
I clear my throat, shifting in my seat. “You know I’m not comfortable talkin’ about this kind of stuff.”
The silence stretches, then he chimes in, “Man, I’m only messing with you. I don’t want any actual details. Jesus. I just want you to be happy.”
Pipes has always idolized me, ever since we were little kids.
When I disappeared, it broke his heart. I still hold a lot of guilt about that, even though I know it isn’t my fault.
But I left him and my mom to fend for themselves, and that will always weigh heavily on me.
I never meant to cause them pain and heartache.
“I appreciate that. I just don’t wanna fuck things up with her.”
“You won’t. You’ve gone the slow route. Plus, I see how she looks at you, too.”
I turn to him. “How?”
“Like you’re the best thing since sliced bread.”
“You’re comin’ out with the weirdest shit today, bro.”
He chuckles. “You need any advice, just ask.”
“I’m like eight years older than you. What could you possibly know that I don’t?”
“Well, I know that the love of a good woman can change everything.”
Those words hit me like a ton of bricks. He isn’t wrong. I feel it in my heart.
“That’s true.”
“And you fell into my trap. So, it is love?”
I run a hand over my face. “You’re so fuckin’ annoying, did anyone ever tell you that?”
“Yeah.” He shrugs. “You did, repeatedly. Answer the question.”
I take a second to ponder what saying it aloud to anyone other than Nova means, but it’s Pipes. He’s my little brother. My best friend. I can tell him anything. “Yes, it’s love. The real deep kind, though, not just a flash in the pan. It worries me.”
“Why?”
“Because she has the power to ruin me, bro.”
The silence settles once more, then he says, “That very well may be true, but you know Nova. She’s in this for the long haul, right? You know she’s not gonna up and run and leave you broken-hearted.”
“Yeah, but nobody knows that for sure,” I say, biting my lip. “Do they?”
“It’s about trust. You either have it or you don’t. But don’t let your past try to ruin what you have goin’ with Nova. She’s into you, and I’m pretty sure she feels exactly the same way, so you should just go for it. Life isn’t without some risk, especially in the love department.”
“Spoken like a true philosopher.” I smirk.
“I’m just a regular guy, but I’ve got the love of a good woman behind me,” he says simply.
“Not even bein’ smug about it. The problem I had was that I didn’t communicate in the beginning.
I let her slip away because I was a chump.
I could’ve fought harder, but I was too worried about myself and bein’ rejected again. ”
“It all worked out in the end, didn’t it?”
“Yeah, but that’s my whole point. If you wait too long, she’ll find someone else, and do you really wanna sit around and watch that?”
The thought inherently disgusts me. No. No, I do not want that at all.
“Of course not,” I say. “That’s the last thing I want. We’ve navigated things as best we can, considering that I am who I am.”
He side-eyes me. “You’re too hard on yourself.”
Pipes is one of the few who knows the real details, not even my mom does. I couldn’t let her live with those images in her head. She already blames herself and she did nothing wrong.
“I can’t help it. While I was dealing, I knew what I was doing was wrong. I knew it wasn’t good.”
“Yeah, and you were a kid, and you made mistakes. That doesn’t mean you had the right to be trafficked, Sawyer. Nobody deserves that, you were thirteen when you started doing that.”
I know he’s right, but it’s taken me a shit ton of therapy and ongoing insomnia to get over that fact. It’s not like I want to be like this, I don’t. But some traumas you just don’t move on from fully. If I could take a memory pill and erase it, I would, but I can’t.
“I know, but if I’d have listened to Mom and my dad, then I wouldn’t have been in the situation I was in.”
“Also not true. Do you realize how many kids are abducted from places like school, the mall, parking lots, or even their own yards!” His voice raises several octaves. I know my brother loves me, but I don’t like seeing him get this fired up. “Nowhere is safe anymore.”
“You’re right. I know it wasn’t my fault, and I didn’t ask for that.
But I do hold some blame for takin’ money and dealin’ drugs, that wasn’t right.
Even at a young age, I knew it wasn’t. Did that give them the right to take me and do what they did?
No, obviously not, but I can’t change it,” I say.
“I wish I could, but as I told Nova, some parts of me are broken, and that’s just how it is. ”
“I wish more than anything that hadn’t happened to you. If I could make it go away, I would.”
I cup the back of his head, knowing he’s getting emotional. I know how much he loves me, and I him, and that we had a bond that couldn’t be broken. We have slowly repaired that bond since we were reunited, but we lost so many years because of this.
“I know that. This isn’t your burden, and I’m doin’ okay. Look at me; I have an amazing job and work with people I actually like. I have a cool apartment that’s mine. I have the club. You. Mom. Chris. Nova.” My beautiful, beautiful Nova. “I have everything I could possibly want.”
His frown lessons when our eyes meet. “You deserve happiness, and I want you to have all of it.”
“I do,” I reassure him. “I’ve never been happier since I moved here and found you again. That was the happiest day of my life.”
“The day I got shot?”
I laugh out loud. Yeah, that was how it happened. “Well, fate had a way of bringin’ us back together, bro. We’re like peas in a pod, we can’t be apart.”
He swallows hard; I see the fight in his eyes, and I wish I could take the pain away from him.
I knew how much I broke his little heart as a kid, and for years they assumed I’d run away.
Of course my mom went to the police, put billboards up and a missing person ad, but they didn’t know what really happened.
I don’t blame them; they were innocent, too.
“Just don’t go away again.”
I smirk. “Where am I gonna go?”
“I don’t know, what if Nova wants to go back home?”
“She doesn’t. Her life is here now. This is home. She just got a promotion, too, so she ain’t goin’ nowhere.”
“Right, and you’ve got nothin’ to do with that?” He gives me a lopsided look.
“Okay, maybe a little.”
“Or a lot,” he mutters. “You know every time we get together, you end up makin’ me almost fuckin’ cry.”
“Aww, it’s nice to know you still care.”
“Shut the fuck up. If you tell anyone, you’re dead.”
I wave my hands at him. “Ooh, I’m so scared. You think you can take me?”
“I know I can.”
I chuckle again. “You keep me young, little brother. No matter what happens, we’ll always have each other’s backs. I’ve got yours, and you’ve got mine, and that’s what matters.”
“And I have your back in claimin’ Nova. Don’t sleep on it, not with a woman like that.”
“Glad I’ve got your approval, I just have to get Brew and Haze’s. Logan was fine with it, in fact, he sniffed me out.”
“Logan is a dark horse, what’s his story, anyway?” Pipes asks.
Nobody knows too much about the eldest Nomad brother, but now he’s about to join the MC, I guess he’s gonna have to open up about some stuff.
“You know, I really don’t know. He’s chums with Hustler, but I don’t know much about his past. He’s run the bar forever, but aside from that?” I scratch my chin. “I’ve no fucking clue.”
Now it’s Pipe’s turn to laugh. “I guess if Cash thinks he’s good enough to be a Rebel, then so be it.”
“Oh, he’s good enough, he’s just always battled with authority, I’m sure that’s what’s held him back all these years, he likes his freedom.” Something also tells me that Logan won’t be controlled by anyone. I know he respects Cash, but they haven’t always seen eye to eye.
I think in the beginning he thought they were just another 1% club with a bunch of heathens running around town.
But slowly over the years, the citizens in New Orleans have come to understand that the NOLA Rebels aren’t the bad guys.
Cash and Jett set up BADVA years ago; Bikers Against Domestic Violence Association for women and children who have to testify against their abusers in court.
It’s something all the club members have a hand in from time to time to protect innocent families.
It’s stuff like that, and their work against criminals and crime in the city, that has made them respected.
But that has taken a long time. It probably helped that a few years back Willow commended them in a speech, and Cash even received an award for his and the club’s help in bringing down one of the worst trafficking rings in New Orleans.
But like anything these days where people are commodities, another branch pops up just as fast.
Which is why we need to find this fucking Regi.
The raid begins and we watch it all unfold. One by one, the women and kids are escorted out by the cops. I can only fucking hope that with Willow in charge these cops are all clean.
I glance at Pipes. “Wanna go do some dry cleaning?”
He balks. “Uh, I’m good.”
I start up the van. “That’s where we’re gonna find my old friend Regi or clues to where he is — the one I was tellin’ you about. Got a hit on a dry cleaners downtown.”
“Well, why didn’t you just say that?”
I grin. “Cash told me to call for backup.”
“And are you gonna do that?”
“Probably need to stake it out first. I don’t wanna go bargin’ in there makin’ him aware that we know about him.”
“Won’t he know once his men don’t show up?”
“One is still alive. We can use him as a pawn. The annoying thing is that this Forest guy calls him for updates, but he changes his number frequently. If we get Forest, we sure as shit can find Regi.”
Pipes smirks. “I think I like hangin’ out with you, it’s a lot more fun than the gun range.”