Jake
I was never this nervous to see Frank, not even when I messed up a mission, not even when I'd flunked out of that class that he insisted I take to learn some business skills. Of course, it didn't help that I'd had a little too much coffee that morning, after a little too little sleep. I was practically buzzing by the time he was ready to meet me for lunch.
And he recognized it as soon as he stepped out of his office.
“I knew it was strange for you to call and schedule lunch with me, rather than just showing up spur-of-the-moment and dragging me off for lunch, but I didn't realize it was this important,” he said, frowning at me and eyeing me from head to toe. “So. Who have you got pregnant?”
I gaped at him, wondering how he just knew. “How—”
Frank swore and shook his head. “Jesus, that was just a joke,” he said. “You actually got a girl pregnant, didn't you? Is it one of ours?”
“If it was one of the other Devil's Route bikers, I wouldn't be this nervous,” I pointed out.
“True.” Frank's eyes narrowed. “We'll talk about this over lunch, then, but at least tell me she's not a member of the Holy Flames.” The Holy Flames was one of the other biker gangs — that would have been like a modern Romeo and Juliet story, if that had been the case. But with probably more deaths on either side.
I grimaced. “It's not that bad,” I said. “She's not even a biker. It's just...”
“You're not sure you have it in you to be a dad,” Frank said sagely, and I nodded. That wasn't really what I wanted to talk to him about, but I figured that at least would give us a jumping off point. “Let's go get lunch,” Frank said with a sigh, clapping me on the shoulder. “I'll tell you everything that I know.”
“Her name's Halley,” I told Frank over burgers and beers at our favorite local greasy spoon. “I met her at a party eight years ago.”
Frank raised an eyebrow at me. “Have you been keeping her a secret this whole time?”
“No!” I said. “Look, we had a one-night stand and then she moved to Louisiana. I resigned myself to the fact that I was never going to see her again. But she's back in town. With our son.”
Frank's brow furrowed. “With your son,” he said slowly. “But you only had the one one-night stand?” I nodded. “So, the kid is seven or eight years old, and you're just now learning that you're a dad?” I nodded again, and Frank exhaled heavily. “This conversation needs something stronger than beer,” he said, pulling a flask out of his jacket pocket. He took a swig and then offered it to me, but I shook my head.
“I'm coming to grips with it,” I said. “The kid is, well, he's great, Frank. She raised him so well. He's super polite, and he's smart, and—”
“I'm guessing you didn't ask to have lunch just so you can sing the kid's praises, or else you would have brought the kid with you,” Frank interrupted, and I colored a little.
“You're right,” I admitted. I picked at the bun of my burger for a moment. “The thing is, they're kind of in a bad situation at the moment.”
“You need money,” Frank surmised, looking sage. He pulled out his checkbook and a pen, ready to write me a check right then and there.
“That's not it,” I said, shaking my head. “I kind of wish it were that simple.” I awkwardly rubbed at the back of my neck. “They need protection, actually. Halley is in the middle of a divorce from her husband, and the man is apparently not good people. She says he's an abusive alcoholic and that it's not a safe environment for Cole to be in. And despite her insistence that she can handle things for herself, I'm guessing it's not a safe environment for her either. She already has a restraining order against the dude, but they're kind of worried that he might violate that.”
Frank gave a low whistle. “Sounds like quite the mess,” he agreed slowly. “So, what are we going to do about it?”
“I need the help of the Devil’s Route,” I told him. “If we all worked together to protect her — I mean, that's not exactly foreign territory for us; we've done that for other people. We could figure out a schedule of shifts and—”
“There's one thing that you're forgetting,” Frank interrupted. “Or neglecting, at the very least. Our protection is a benefit that we afford to our members, but only to our members. It's too much of a risk otherwise. She could go to the authorities and expose us all.” He frowned, shaking his head. “If she's really a good girl, what do you think she's going to do the first time she catches wind of the fact that we routinely smuggle weapons and deal drugs and do all sorts of other outlaw shit? She run for the authorities, I guarantee it.”
I deflated a little. “But there has to be some way that we can protect her,” I said. “This is my son and his mother that we're talking about.”
“There's nothing that we can do unless they pledge themselves to our MC,” Frank said, shaking his head. “You know the rules, Jake. And you know that they're in place for a reason.”
“I know,” I said, frustrated. “But all the same—”
“No,” Frank said. “You know that there are very few things that I would ever deny you, Jake, but that's one of them. I'm sorry, but there's just no way that we can keep the two of them safe unless they join Devil's Route. You need to claim her as yours with a claim so strong that no one would ever even think to question it. That's what it means to be the president of the MC.”
“Okay,” I said unhappily. I would just have to find a way to convince Halley. She clearly cared about her son's safety more than anything in the world, so I didn't think that it would be too difficult to convince her. In fact, she probably already suspected that this was the case and that she would have to make this pledge. That would make things easier.
I hoped.