Chapter Thirteen #3
He didn’t let it out until Archie laid her hand on his
chest.
“I also know where I’m gonna rest on this,” she told him.
“I’ll eat the maintenance I’ve paid so far, and we can come to a figure he’s
okay with on the improvements, but I also have to be okay with it. That said,
I’m not caring for this building without his help. So he either pays me to
clean, he cleans, or we agree on paying someone to come in and clean. He also
either pays extra for me to deal with accounting and admin, or he takes his
share of handling that. If he wants nothing to do with any of this, he can buy
me out. But if he reaps the rewards, he shares the burdens.”
“Good,” Jagger said softly.
“He’s threatening to sell his half, but not to me.”
Jag got quiet again.
“I’m no lawyer,” she said. “I don’t know if he can do that,
but it’s his and I suppose he can. And honestly, it might be better not to have
to deal with Elijah. I told him this and that was what you walked in on.”
“You called his bluff and he lost it.”
She nodded. “I called his bluff and he went from ticked to
out of his mind. Commence him getting up in my shit.”
“And your take on that?” he asked.
“He doesn’t want to sell. With half my rent on the store and
the units, which, by the way, I give him money for my apartment too, he’s
making five grand a month.”
“And maybe, he wants to be in on this with you,” Jagger
suggested.
She looked confused. “What?”
“This was your grandparents’. Your mom’s folks. It’s a
building, but it’s also a legacy. Maybe even a memory. And you’re his sister. I
just met him, and he didn’t make a good first impression, but if he was an
out-and-out prick who wasn’t worth your time, you’re the type of woman who
wouldn’t give him your time. So there’s a bond, and my guess…it’s not just
business. I’m sure the same goes for you. You’re his sister and he loves you.
He doesn’t want to lose this because he makes good bill on it, but also because
he’s in it with his sister.”
He got another warm look after he said that, and she sidled
closer.
“I’m currently in denial about the fact you met my brother
like you just did. Not to mention, all I’ve done pretty much is bitch about
him. Because he’s not a dick. He can be a dick, but he isn’t
a dick.”
Jag moved too, to hook an arm around her and pull her even
closer.
He did this saying, “I get the distinction.”
“You guys will get along. Though, warning, I’m not sure
you’ll be tight. Haley will love you. Dad will really like you. Eventually,
after we get past this, Elijah will dig you, but you won’t pal around. He’s
into sports, watching and playing, and he’s putting himself through law
school.”
That law school bit was news.
“So he’s not lazy, he’s just conditioned to lean on you, and
in some cases, that means taking advantage of you,” Jag remarked.
She nodded.
Right then.
They needed to move this along.
“Okay, you’re on with Mal’s mom,” he said. “But I think we
should warn him that’s going to happen. If he’s not sharing with her, then he
won’t want to be blindsided by that, because she’s probably gonna be all over
it.”
“She will be,” Archie confirmed.
“And as for the group, I got an idea.”
She was running her hands up his chest and when she got to
his shoulders, she held on and asked, “What’s your idea?”
“I think they should come to Chaos, to Ride. Meet the
brothers. Field trip. Showing them another version of a tribe, how we work
together, and I’ll figure out how to do the lecture about looking out for your
people without making it seem like a lecture between now and whenever that
happens. Do we have to get their parents’ permission for them to leave the
store?”
“Yeah, I always tell them when we’re off to do something.
But we have an email group so it’s easy. I can just pop a line to them. They’ll
all be cool with it. They dig when the kids have something fun to do.”
“Great. Once you do that, I’ll arrange some brothers to come
for pickups.”
She leaned some of her weight into him and said, “Awesome,
boyfriend, now maybe we should talk about you being all alpha all over my
storeroom with my brother, and incidentally, me.”
“Babe—”
She placed her three middle fingers over his lips to stop
him from speaking.
“I’m not going to say that was the wrong call. I honestly
don’t think I’ve ever seen Elijah that pissed. I don’t think he would have hurt
me, but I was not okay with him being in my face like that. That said—”
He pulled her fingers from his lips. “It’s the guy you got.”
She did a perplexed blink. “Sorry?”
“Me, that’s the guy you got. I’m not gonna be okay with
anyone up in your face, Archie, and I’m also not gonna hang back, let it happen
and let you deal with it if I can do something about it.”
“You knew he was my brother.”
“I did. And as your brother and as a man, he needs to
respect you.” He shook his head sharply when she opened her mouth. “Nope, babe.
No. He never should have been in your space like that. If you gleefully shot
his dog, I’m out and he can take his anger out the way he sees fit. You’re
calling him on pulling shit, he doesn’t like it, he takes a goddamn breath and
gets some control. He does not come to your space and get into your face. No.
End of discussion.”
He said those last three words because it was worth a shot
to say those three words.
But this was Archie.
Consequently, it was not the end of the discussion.
“I would have told him that once he calmed down,” she
returned.
“I believe you, but it didn’t happen that way, and I’m just
not that guy who is going to walk in on his woman in that sitch
and not make the move I made.”
They both fell silent.
Jagger broke it.
“That an issue for you?”
“It’s definitely sweet, you looking out for me and being
protective. But I can handle myself and my brother is never a threat.”
“But you get where I’m coming from?”
It took her a second, then she nodded.
Though after she gave him that, she asked, “If you’re having
words with Dutch, how would you feel about me pulling you out of that and
getting in Dutch’s shit?”
He rolled his neck.
There was no popping, then again, he’d already popped it not
long ago.
She did not miss this move, or likely what precipitated it,
even without the evidence being audible, so her voice was sweet to soften the
score she noted with her next words. “You get where I’m coming from,
boyfriend?”
“All right, I’ll take a breath next time. Though, just sayin’, that happens again with Elijah, the fact of that
alone, that breath might not work.”
“Sometimes I think I should introduce you to my friend
Joany,” she joked. “She thinks boys like you are all kinds of cute.”
He adjusted so he had an arm around her shoulders, and he
tucked her into his side.
He then moved them in the direction of the door to the store
while he said, “There’s a dude out there special enough for your girl. He just
is not me. I’ve figured out I like them chill.”
“Mm…” she hummed, before, “I’m taking it our discussion is
over?”
“My guess, Mal’s here by now and we gotta
talk to him, see how he is and give him the heads up. Then you got a call to
make.”
They were in the hall and she was staring at the door they
were headed toward like she didn’t want it to get any closer.
He then gave her the same pep talk Dutch gave him.
“It’s good we know what’s going down, babe. Because what’s
going down is not good and it needs to stop.”
“Yeah, I just…”
She let out a heavy sigh and he stopped them at the door
without going through it.
She looked up at him and finished, “Being an adult sucks
sometimes.”
“Yeah,” he agreed.
“All right, honey, let’s get this done.”
“Yeah,” he repeated.
“First though, just to say, you going to the school to check
on Mal…” She grinned up at him. “I’ve figured out I like boys like you too.”
On that, he realized he hadn’t given her a hello kiss.
He saw to that.
He then made sure he did a thorough job with it.
When they were done, they turned to the door.
And together, they pushed through it to get things done.
“Okay, that’s sorted. But before I call her, you need
to be real with me, Mal. Are you truly okay? I mean, physical-wise, where they
kicked you.”
They were at the soda fountain, him, Archie and Mal.
And Archie was finishing things up with Mal before she moved
on to having a chat with his mom.
Dutch was somewhere with Joany, and he had a feeling she’d
let him select the music, considering Buckcherry was playing.
“I’m okay, Archie,” Mal replied.
“Tell it true, Mal,” she urged.
Jag was sitting next to the kid, Archie on the opposite side
from him.
Both Jag and Mal had cherry Cokes, Archie made them then
opted out of a refreshment for herself.
“I’m telling it true, honest,” Mal told her.
Jag studied the kid’s profile and he’d have to be a
seriously good liar to be pulling that off because he didn’t look like he was
bullshitting.
Jag then looked to Archie, catching her nod. She pushed from
the back counter, went to Mal, laid her hand flat on the counter in front of
him and said, “It’s because I dig you. You mean something to me. Okay?”
“Okay,” Mal replied.
She studied him.
And that was when Jagger saw in her what he felt in himself,
but he couldn’t pinpoint what it was until then.
Mal was not their zone anymore.
Like she said, it sucked being an adult, but it was more.
They were powerless to take care of him in certain ways
because they were his tribe, but they were not his tribe.
He really needed to get the other kids to Ride.
Her eyes came to him, he gave her a smile he hoped made her
feel better, and then she reached out and touched Mal’s forearm before she
murmured, “I’m off to call your mom. Be back.”
With that, she took off.
Jagger lifted his Coke and sucked some back.
Dutch showed and took the position Archie had been in at the
back counter.
“Belated intro, that’s my brother, Dutch,” Jagger
introduced.
“Yo,” Dutch said to Mal.
“Yo,” Mal replied, then bent his