I sit at the bar, running over what just happened in church today. After I spoke to Hawke over the phone back in Tennessee, I rounded up my brothers and told them to get their asses back to New York. Some weren’t too pleased about it, but I didn’t give a fuck—shit was going down, and I needed Hawke to tell me what that was.
Now that Hawke has come clean, confessed at church what went down, it all makes sense. Why we were targeted at Ink Me, and now Josie, Hawke’s ex. Santana wants me to run the drugs for him, and take over from where my old man left off. He got wind I’d killed my father, and now thinks he can demand for me to take over. Well, he doesn’t know me very well. I’m not my old man, and I don’t take kindly to orders. I promised my club we would get out of the bad shit and focus on the good, and there is nothing, or no one, who will make me take back my word from my brothers. If Santana wants a war, then so be it. I’m ready for him. I killed my old man, I can take him and his crew down too. If that’s what it takes to keep my club and Jasmine safe, then I will do what I have to.
So now, to be safe, I’ve ordered the club to go on lockdown, and that includes getting my brothers’ families here too. I can’t take any risks. When Santana gets word I’m refusing his orders, he’ll want to come and find me, and most likely teach me a lesson and take me down. Well, I won’t let him destroy everything that I’ve worked hard for.
Images of Jasmine and my unborn baby display before my eyes, and I rub them with the heels of my palms. She doesn’t deserve this; she deserves a husband that can keep her safe. Maybe I was selfish marrying her but she’s mine, and there’s nothing I can do about it. When our eyes locked for the first time I felt our souls connect, and I knew from that moment she was the one for me, and I made a vow to always protect her.
“Hey, man, you okay?” Looking over my shoulder, I take another swig of my beer. Hawke slides onto the stool beside me, and Daisy hands him a beer.
“Yeah, man,” I reply, placing my beer back on the bar. “You need to get Luisa here, Hawke. I know you two have your disagreements, but get her here.” And just as I’m about to say, “I’ll call Jasmine,” my phone vibrates on the bar, Jasmine’s name displaying on the screen. I answer it right away.
“Hey, babe.” I get up from my seat, and head outside where I can get some privacy.
“Hey, you,” she replies, and my cock hardens just from the sound of her voice.
“I don’t want to alarm you or anything….” Those words have my gut clenching and my hand tightening on my phone.
“What is it, Jasmine? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, I just had a visit to the doctor’s. I had a little pain in my pelvis, but the doctor assures me that it’s Braxton-Hicks.”
“Braxton what?” I repeat, pacing the gravel.
“Braxton-Hicks. It’s basically considered false labor.”
“What the fuck, Jasmine. You lied to me, you’re not okay.”
“I am, I promise. It was a false alarm.”
“I’m flying out to get you,” I state, running my free hand through my hair, my heart beating fast.
“Don’t be silly. I got your message to get down to the club, is everything okay, babe?”
I stop pacing and rub my jaw, sighing. I need to tell her everything but I don’t want to worry her, and after her explaining that she went to visit the doctor, I think twice about telling her anything.
“Quill, you still there?”
“When can you get home, babe?”
“Um… the next flight leaves in the morning, is that okay?”
I sigh in frustration. I want her here now but it will have to do. “I should have brought you home with me, baby.”
“You had business to take care of. I’ll be there tomorrow, don’t you worry.”
I hear the club’s door open, and turn around and find Trigger exiting. I lift my chin at him and he leans up against the wall, obviously wanting to talk. “Hey, baby, I gotta go. I’ll be there to pick you up from the airport in the morning. Do me a favour, get Luisa to come home with you, okay?”
“Sure, I will. I love you, Quill.”
“I love you more. Be safe, and I’ll see you in the morning, yeah? Text me the flight details.”
“I will, see ya,” she says softly, and ends the call.
Looking at the screen on my phone, I forget Trigger is around till I hear, “Prez, everything all right with Jasmine?” The tension in Trigger’s voice has me believing he does care deeply for her. There was a time their friendship pissed me off, but now that Jasmine is wearing my ring and has my baby in her, it almost feels childish to think he had a chance over me.
“Yeah, man,” I reply. “Just checking in and asking her to get back here to the club. With all the shit that’s going down, I don’t want to take any chances.”
“Some honeymoon,” he states as he pushes himself off the wall, walking toward me.
I smile. “Yeah, some honeymoon. I promised her that when this shit settles down, I’m taking her away.”
He nods. “She deserves it, Prez. That girl is special, and you make sure you take care of her.” His gaze narrows on me when he says that, and I feel anger burn within me.
“Watch your mouth, brother,” I snarl. “Her safety is my responsibility. I know you may have taken on the role back when we had trouble with my old man and Jess, but now she’s my wife, and my woman. You got me, brother? Or have we got a problem?” I inch closer to him.
He places his palms up. “Hey, brother, I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“You better hope you didn’t,” I spit.
“I came out here to talk to you.” He’s smart to change the topic of conversation. I arch a brow at him. “Well, spit it out.”
Trigger’s hair is styled with product; he’s always been a pretty boy. Lately he’s added a piercing to his eyebrow, and a tattoo on the side of his neck, but it’s in some other language, so I can’t make it out.
“I need to leave the club for a while, visit my sister back in Chicago.”
“Your sister? How come this is the first I’m hearing about your sister,” I reply, tucking my hands inside my jean pockets.
Trigger runs his hands through his hair then places them on his hips. “I never brought her up because she’s in college where she belongs. She’s studying to become a doctor, smart as shit.”
“So what’s the problem? Why you gotta leave?”
He begins to kick the dirt, then he looks at me, his green eyes holding something in them I can’t make out.
“I just gotta go. Haven’t seen my kid sister in a couple of years, and I figured it was time I pay her a visit.”
I rub my thumb over my bottom lip, thinking back to how Hawke and I met Trigger. We were drinking at Rubix one night when Trigger walked in with Bear, his best friend. He had a cut face and a swollen eye. He ordered a beer at the bar, and was talking to Mike about some MMA fight. Mike’s our Manager at Rubix, and we go way back. We served together in the Marines, and when he was discharged he came to me for work, and I was more than happy to get him to manage our bar. I learnt that night that Mike had been to a few of Trigger’s fights, and that Trigger was an excellent fighter. Even with all the cuts on his face he was a pretty-boy.
That night Hawke and I tried to handle a drunk man who’d had a few too many. We struggled a little, the man was huge, built like a damn tank. Before we knew it, the guy pulled a knife out of the waistband of his jeans, but before he could slice me with it, Trigger stepped in from behind him. He twisted his arm up, and knocked the blade out of his hand. That’s when I knew this man would be loyal. He belonged with us in our brotherhood.
And that’s pretty much where our story began. He knew all about our club, and wanted in. Till this day I still don’t know how he gave up his MMA life for a biker club, but I don’t ask—it’s not my place to. Something tells me he didn’t have much of a family growing up, and finding us is like he’s home again.
“You sure it ain’t anything else? Something you’re not telling me?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “Nah, Prez, just figured it was time.”
I tap his shoulder. “Okay then, but right now I need you at the club. We need all brothers here, you got me?” He nods his head. “With shit happening with Santana, we stick together. I have no idea what he has planned.”
“Sure, Prez.”
“Once lockdown is through, you take that time to visit your kid sister.”
Trigger smirks but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “Sure, Prez. I’ll wait till shit has calmed down.”
“Did you want me to send for her? You worried about her safety?”
“Nah, it’s nothing like that, she’s good.”
“Well, all right then, let’s go in and have a drink.”