Chapter 3 #2
The gym was located in an old warehouse on the outskirts of downtown Indianapolis.
The size was perfect for our use, but the biggest reason the club bought it was that it had been constructed with a lower basement level accessible by part of the catacombs, a tunnel system built in the late 1800’s which ran under a portion of the city.
The majority of them were unusable after all these years, and most people had no idea the tunnels even existed.
We’d restored the section between our gym and the parking garage on the next block, allowing for fight attendees to come and go undetected.
If anyone did take notice of the unusual activity above-ground, Rossi had enough cops in his pocket to make any investigation go away before it even started.
It was literally an underground fight club in every sense of the word.
The basement level was outfitted with a regulation MMA octagon, state-of-the art cameras to capture the fights and transmit them over a secure network to carefully vetted bettors around the world, and enough seating for those lucky enough to score an invitation to watch the action in person.
There were also changing and shower rooms, plus warm-up rooms for the competitors and their trainers.
The fight nights were the only illegal activity the MC participated in these days. The club pulled in great money with the legal businesses we had, and none of the brothers were greedy enough to want to risk our freedom by dabbling in anything else.
I nodded an acknowledgement, instructed Rod to order lunch to be delivered for me from the Greek place nearby, then made my way down the hall toward my office. I had to get some administrative shit done before I got my daily workout in.
Several hours later, I roared into Rome’s driveway and came to a stop next to his bike.
He’d invited Lucky and me over for dinner, and I could smell the burgers cooking on the grill as I bypassed the front door to walk around to the backyard.
I let myself in through the small fence gate, and braced myself for impact as their son, Ethan, yelled my name.
As always, he charged over toward me and took a flying leap, trusting that I’d catch him.
I let out a silent “oof” as he made impact with my ribs.
He was almost seven now, and tall for his age, so it wouldn’t be long before he was too big to do this anymore.
After I lowered him to his feet, Abby strolled across the yard to greet me with their little girl, Everly, perched on her hip.
Ev had most of her fist crammed into her mouth, and her chin was covered in drool.
She wasn’t quite a year old yet, and clearly had another tooth coming in.
She already had two of them and wasn’t afraid to use them.
I’d discovered that the hard way when she’d bitten my finger as I’d tried to feed her a banana the last time I’d been over to visit.
I bent down to kiss Abby on the cheek, then dropped a kiss on top of Everly’s head, before Rome yelled at me to get my lips away from his girls.
I laughed and flipped him off behind Ev’s back as we headed over to the patio where he was manning the grill.
The sound of another Harley signaled Lucky’s arrival, and Ethan greeted him in much the same way.
Lucky joined us at the grill, with Ethan hanging off his back like a monkey.
“Do you need any help with anything, Abs?” I asked.
“Kiss ass,” Lucky muttered, laughing when I flipped him off.
“Nope, I’ve already got everything ready, we’re just waiting on the burgers,” Abby answered, motioning for Ethan to get down off Lucky’s back. “Come on, kiddo, you need to wash your hands before we eat.”
Ethan let go of Lucky’s neck and slid down until his feet were on the ground, almost taking Lucky down with him, than darted into the house with Abby and Everly trailing after him.
“I’m starving, man. I got roped in to helping my sperm donor fix his bike after Church and missed out on lunch,” Lucky scowled as he shook his head. “That fucker’s gonna run that thing into the ground one of these days. I just hope like hell it takes him out when it happens.”
Lucky’s dad, Ace, was our Road Captain as well as the manager of Fallen Angels, the strip club the Guardians owned.
He was also King’s half-brother, and a mean, miserable son-of-a-bitch.
Most of the brothers would love to see him stripped of his cut and removed from the club, but he hadn’t technically broken any bylaws.
I should know, since King and I had triple-checked that shit, hoping to find a legit reason to kick his ass to the curb.
As Sergeant-at-Arms, it was up to me to enforce the rules of the club, as well as to protect the club from outside threats. Ace was a problem just waiting to happen, and I didn’t trust the bastard as far as I could throw him.
On top of that, he’d been a shitty father to Lucky, who had been raised primarily by Sinner and King since Ace had spent years in and out of prison.
He was also a racist, homophobic piece of shit who tried to undermine King’s leadership every chance he got, just barely shying away from crossing the line every time.
Rome snorted a laugh at Lucky’s comment as he reached out and flipped the burgers over. He hated Ace, too, and refused to even acknowledge him as his uncle.
Moments later, Abby opened the patio door and stepped outside, carrying a tray filled with hamburger buns and various condiments. She set it on the table of the outdoor dining set before walking over to the grill to see how much longer the burgers needed to cook.
“Just another minute or two, baby girl.”
“I’ll bring the rest of the food out, then,” she said.
I followed her inside to help, and between the two of us, we soon had the table filled with enough food to feed a dozen people.
Lucky handed out drinks for everyone – all non-alcoholic.
Rome was living sober now, so he and Abby didn’t keep any booze in the house.
It didn’t take us long to fill our plates and start shoveling in the food. Abby made some killer potato salad, and I always ate more of it than I should. Today was no different.
“Everything was delicious as usual, darlin’.”
“I cooked, too, jackass,” Rome groused, and I grinned as I blew him a kiss.
Abby laughed and kissed his cheek, then whispered something in his ear which made him stop complaining and start grinning like a fool instead.
She carried the almost empty bowl of potato salad inside, leaving Rome staring after her as if he couldn’t tear his gaze away.
I’d noticed him doing that a lot since they’d reconciled.
Lucky and I took charge of cleaning up, with Lucky telling Abby to go back outside to relax. She protested, but Rome pulled her down to sit next to him as he held Everly on his lap, and that was the end of that.
It didn’t take us long to have the kitchen cleaned, then Lucky headed out for the night.
Rome, Abby, and I set on the patio for a while, watching Ethan playing on his swing set.
Rome got all butthurt when Everly reached for me, reluctantly handing her over.
I settled her on my lap, and she relaxed into the crook of my arm as she stared drowsily at her big brother.
“Sorry, man. What can I say? The ladies love me,” I joked. Abby giggled, and Rome got a shit-eating grin on his face.
“That’s not the way I heard it,” he snickered. “I understand that you stopped by to see Lauren after Church today?”
I glared at him, not appreciating the reminder.
“What the hell do you know about it?” I grumbled.
Abby darted a glance between the two of us before volunteering, “I talked to Lauren earlier to see if she was free to join us tonight. She wasn’t, but she mentioned what happened.”
I shrugged, trying to play it off. “I shot my shot, and she shot me down. It happens.”
Rome laughed as he shook his head, shooting me a pitying look as if he couldn’t believe I was so stupid.
“She saw you in action with a club bunny two nights ago, dumbass. What the hell did you expect, man?”
Abby leaned back and rested against his side as she nodded in agreement.
She looked vaguely disappointed in me, which stung.
Abby had been like a little sister to me for years now, and I didn’t like that she had such a shitty opinion of me at the moment.
It bothered me more than I cared to admit that her shitty opinion of me was probably well-deserved.
Ethan provided a welcome interruption as he jumped off his swing and ran over to ask for another brownie. While Rome got up to help him, I carefully handed Everly off to Abby, kissing both of them on the cheek as I made my excuses and got ready to leave.
I gave Ethan a high-five on my way out and glared at Rome as he smirked and told me to have fun with the bunnies tonight.
I took the long way back to the clubhouse, hoping the ride would clear my head.
It didn’t, and I grabbed a beer and headed straight up to my room once I got back, ignoring Melina and the other women who tried to catch my attention.
For once, I wasn’t in the mood to fuck, and I didn’t even want to try to figure out why.
I had a feeling in my gut that I wouldn’t like the answer.