Chapter 17
Ricochet
“What’s up?” I asked, looking over at Lockout.
“Wanted to run something past you.” He tossed his phone over to me.
Catching it, I grinned when I saw Rip on the screen. “Hey, Rip.”
“You look good.” He was studying me over the app that allowed us to see each other.
“This is so sweet,” Butcher attempted a sugary tone. Coming from him, it was more a high pitched raspy tone, making him sound more insane than usual.
Glaring at him, I shook my head. “Thanks. Congrats on the wedding, Brother.”
“Appreciate it, Ricochet. We have a proposition for you.”
“Oh yeah?”
“My angel asked if we could possibly make a school for the kids.” He didn’t need to explain that he meant the kids that we’d pulled out of the desert cult. “I spoke to Lock about it immediately and he and Static have been looking into what that might entail,” Riptide explained.
I frowned, wondering what that had to do with me. School had been something I’d endured until I was finally out. I certainly hadn’t enjoyed it.
“Static jumped on it right away and has been helping us by talking with the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools. Seeing what they require,” Lockout explained.
Holding the phone up so Rip could still see, I waited.
They’d eventually tell me how this was going to connect to me.
“Sounds like a good idea,” I told them. “A way for these kids to get educated and a taste of life here in the city, without exposing them to a regular school. They essentially need to be deprogrammed from the cult and educated in normal life.”
“Unfortunately, it can take a few years to get everything done, but Static thinks he has a buddy who can help with that,” Lockout continued.
For whatever reason, Lockout sounded disgruntled at that, though I couldn’t figure out why.
He was usually on board with getting help wherever we could.
“We’ll worry about the accreditations, permits, and timelines.
We wanted to know if you’d build it for us? ”
My arms dropped as though they each weighed a hundred pounds.
The phone dangled in my right hand and Rip was getting a great view of the ground.
I glanced over at George, who was grinning from ear to ear.
“Why wouldn’t you ask him? He has the construction company.
” I’d gotten my own contracting license years ago, but I’d always just worked for George rather than striking out on my own.
“They did ask me,” George replied, “but I’m booked up on jobs for the next six months. You’d still be working under my company, I’d just be promoting you to foreman and you’d be taking the lead on this job. You’d have your own crew.”
This time it was my jaw that dropped. That was a lot of fucking responsibility.
It wasn’t that I couldn’t handle it, more the fact that they were willing to trust in me to get the job done.
These men never once let my age or my PTSD dissuade them from including me.
I swallowed down the love and affection I had for each of them before I blurted out something stupid. “Fuck yeah, I’ll do it.”
Smoke slung his arm over my shoulders. “This is going to be fun.”
Lock narrowed his eyes on us. “We’re going to have Smokehouse join you, and Hell when he has the time.”
“What about your job?” I asked Hellfire.
“I have some time off coming up this summer. I’ll be pitching in then.”
“Doing construction in the middle of summer on your time off,” Butcher said with a lift to his lip. “That sounds like fucking torture.”
It wasn’t fun. It was hot, sweaty, miserable work, but we wouldn’t complain because we were doing it to help our family. Sloane’s family now belonged to us.
“Thanks, Kid,” Rip said, pulling my attention back to the screen as I lifted the phone once more. “We want to get it going as soon as the permits get approved. We appreciate you taking it over.”
“Shit. I appreciate the opportunity. How long until we start?” I asked both Lock and George.
“Static and his friend are like wizards,” George said with a shake of his head. “They’re slicing through the bureaucratic bullshit with impressive speed. I hit a couple of walls myself when I went down to permitting and thought it was going to end up taking months, or longer.”
“That’s why we pulled Static in,” Lock remarked. “Having him on board is helpful in and of itself, but the list of people he knows is fucking priceless.”
“Who’s his friend?” Toxic asked.
Lockout tensed up. “A friend he knows who lives in Idaho. The guy’s an investment guru. He’s good at what he does. Static trusts him to get this done. He’s gotten the paperwork finished and in place in a few days’ time, that’s all I really care about.”
Frowning, I studied Lock’s face. There was something he wasn’t telling us. Something about this new guy was riling him up. His tone said the matter was closed, though, so I didn’t push. I wasn’t sure whether the others had really noticed.
“Can we really trust Static?” Hell asked. He winced when Lockout focused on him. “Sorry…but how well do we know him?”
“You don’t know him at all,” Lock conceded. “But I do. So does Riptide.”
“Good enough for me,” Hush said before our president could even utter another word.
“Same,” Priest said, leaning back against one of the cage rides that was parked in front of The Bunker.
The others all nodded. We knew that Lockout and Riptide both had some connection with Static, but the rest of us didn’t know him well yet.
He’d been included in the last mission and it didn’t seem like he was going anywhere for the foreseeable future.
Hush had mentioned at one point that Lock had tried to convince Static to join the club.
I wondered if that was what was happening now.
I hadn’t spoken to Static much yet. I’d been mostly keeping to myself, but he seemed like a decent guy. He certainly had skills that the MC could utilize. Being helpful to our club was important to us all. It was why Hellfire was willing to use up his yearly vacation just to come work for us.
“We’ll go over the plans, and who your crew will be over the next week,” George told me. “That way you’ll be ready to jump in once those permits are approved.” He hesitated, clearly not wanting to ask the next question. He didn’t need to; I knew what it was.
“I’ll be ready,” I said, before he had the chance to voice it.
It’d actually help to have something to focus on.
Something that was important to the club.
Not just to the club, but to the victims of the cult.
This might be the most significant and impactful thing I’d ever been tasked with.
It could be a way of atoning for what I’d done. I wasn’t going to let anyone down.
“Too bad you can’t get time off sooner,” Butcher told Hell with a wicked grin. “Better to be up on a roof than shoveling shit.”
Hellfire chuckled as he rolled his eyes. “I don’t shovel shit, Dumbass.”
“He pumps it,” Toxic said helpfully.
“Yeah, that’s better,” Butcher muttered.
Hellfire’s family owned a local septic company.
He ran a pump truck, and as the oldest son would eventually take over once his father retired.
He didn’t mind the work and it helped his family out.
It was hard finding good workers, so the company was mostly family owned and run.
Hell’s three brothers, two sisters, and four cousins all worked for his dad.
They were a pretty tight knit family so they all enjoyed it, even though, as Butcher pointed out, they worked with shit.
I’d rather stick with construction, but would do whatever it took to make it.
After being medically discharged from the military, I’d needed something to keep my mind busy and off my troubles.
George had taken me under his wing and taught me everything I knew.
I liked working with my hands, creating something new from disassembled pieces.
“Thanks, Ricochet,” Lockout said, drawing me back into the conversation. “This is going to be a big project, but we knew if anyone other than George was going to oversee it, it had to be you.”
I wasn’t tooting my own horn or anything, but I was damn good.
This job wasn’t being given to me because they felt sorry for me, it was because I was the next best. George was planning on retiring in the next few years and he’d already started grooming me to take over.
It’s why I’d gotten my license already. It just made sense that they were asking me.
That didn’t mean that it didn’t make a warm sensation take up residence in my chest. And the timing really was perfect.
With Jordan here, and now this project, life was more than just bearable, I was looking forward to tomorrow. I hadn’t had that sensation in years.
“Just wanted to make sure you were on board,” Rip said from the phone, “before we got too far into making plans.”
“Like I’d say no,” I told him with a chuckle.
He grinned at me and we said goodbye as I passed Lock’s phone back to him. This was turning out to be a good fucking day. My thoughts turned to the woman I’d get to enjoy the rest of the day with.
“That’s it,” Lock said, dismissing everyone. “Go enjoy the barbecue.” He watched as everyone started to walk away. “Ricochet. Give me a minute.”
I waited, and we watched as Priest’s girls charged Butcher and Toxic. Lockout laughed and shook his head. “How long before you think they’ve got those girls trained up on everything from self-defense to lobbing grenades?”
Snorting, I shook my head. “You think they haven't started already? The second one of them has a crush on a boy you’ll find them shaking down a twelve-year-old. They have those two wrapped around their fingers.”
“Not just them,” Lock murmured.
He was right. We would all give up our lives to protect them if need be. “Something tells me they’ll have the girls target shooting long before Priest is ready for it.”
Lockout laughed. “Damn straight they will. Priest will eventually give in and teach them his deadly accuracy.”
“I almost feel sorry for whoever they end up marrying.”
“I don’t,” he said. “They’ll have to get through all of us before they have a chance. It’s just the way it goes. Those girls will be worth it. Any man worth his salt will know that.”
Nodding in agreement, I shoved my hands inside my jean pockets. “Thanks for the chance to do this.”
His hazel eyes met mine. “You know we wouldn’t be asking if you weren’t the best man for the job.”
“I know.”
“I see the change in you since Jordan came into the picture. I can tell you’re ready for something more.”
“I am. I still plan on staying out at my sister’s place for a while, but I’ll be here every day, ready to work.”
One corner of his lips kicked up into a smirk. “Something tells me that it’s not about needing space anymore. You’re staying out there to be closer to your old lady.”
He wasn’t wrong. That was the thing about Lockout, he didn’t miss a damn thing. “She wants to take things slow.”
His chuckle was low. “Then you take it at her pace. You’ve got the rest of your lives together.”
“That’s what I’m doing. Doesn’t make it any easier. I just want to-” I shook my head.
“We’re used to getting what we want. Makes it hard as hell to adjust to someone else’s timeline.” He gave me a piercing look. “She worth it?”
“Fuck yeah.”
“Then you’ll do whatever you have to in order to get her on board.
” He slapped me on the shoulder as he started to walk away.
He paused, looking over his shoulder. “Don’t wait too long.
There’s a difference between giving her time to adjust and giving her time to talk herself out of things.
Sometimes you just have to take what you want. ”
“How the hell do I know when to do one or the other?”
His teeth flashed through his grin. “That’s on you to figure out.”
I watched him join the others down in the grass.
We always kept a few acres green, so the kids had a place to run around and play without worrying about cactus.
“That was real helpful, Lock,” I muttered.
He hadn’t told me anything I didn’t already know.
He just hadn’t helped with the one part I could have used advice on. The timing of it all.
Wanting to give Jordan a chance to get to know the women, I headed over toward the others. I grabbed the beer Butcher handed me and we caught up on everything I’d missed out on. Eventually my mind wandered back to what Lockout had told me.
Like he said, I’d have to figure it out.
Enough time had passed, so I went over to the bar.
I opened the door and leaned against the doorframe, watching as the women laughed and talked.
It only took a few minutes before I knew that the women were already connecting.
That made me relax a bit. The family aspect of our lifestyle was one of the things a lot of the women craved.
They loved the friendships they made almost as much as they loved their bikers.
It was going to make it easier for me to convince Jordan she couldn’t live without me.