Bubbles

---

I smelled Lexi’s anxiety when we walked into Jiminy’s, but we’d done everything we could to put her at ease. Gen and Bethany had gone through her clothes and put her in a deep purple skirt with a silky, flowy top in every shade of purple imaginable, and black boots with sky-high heels.

And her makeup, once again, looked like it should be in an art museum, but it was elegant instead of cutesy tonight.

They’d dressed Harmony in what can only be described as a fucked-up one-piece pants suit — skin tight from the shoulders to her thighs, and then way too much fabric from thighs to feet. It was black, with gold stuff on the front and a thin gold belt, and gold shoes with tall, super narrow heels.

Gen had insisted on painting a gold stripe on Harmony’s black-polished nails, and every female except Harmony had been way too happy about that damned stripe. Harmony seemed to feel like most of the men, but she willingly tolerated the makeover. She and Brain are a team — both geeks, but also both master strategists. There was no one better to have our backs for this dinner.

Speaking of makeovers, the Duchess had taken me shopping the day before. I was in black dress pants and a charcoal dress shirt. We’d bought the clothes and then had to go to her seamstress to get them fitted to me, and I had to concede the look worked. When I’d said it wasn’t me, Gen had said it could be one aspect of me — she said to consider it camouflage, so I’d blend in during certain situations, and I admit she had a point. Also, I’d had no idea they now made comfortable dress shoes. The last time I’d dressed up, more than a decade before, but still, the shoes had killed my feet. These were as comfortable as tennis shoes.

Still, I felt out of place in anything besides jeans and ridin’ boots, but Brain had told me Jiminy and Pebbles would be dressed in high fashion, and that Lexi needed the confidence of walking into the room knowing we looked just as good. So, I was dressed up.

And had arrived in a damned cage.

My sweet girl also wore a three-eighty under that flowy top, and I’d loaded my holsters a few blocks from Jiminy’s house. Getting caught with a weapon would send me back to jail, but no way was I walking into this unarmed. Better jail than a casket. I smelled a weapon on Harmony but had no idea where she’d put it — and didn’t ask.

One of Jiminy’s people moved to frisk me on the front porch, and I took a step back. “That wasn’t the deal. Talk to your boss.”

He eyed someone in the yard and must’ve gotten the okay, because he waved us in.

I shook Jiminy’s hand while Pebbles and Harmony hugged, and then Harmony introduced Lexi to Pebbles. Jiminy jumped in and offered his hand as well, saying, “Lexi, it’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you. Please, come on in and have a seat.”

We sat in a living room overlooking the Tennessee River, and an honest-to-god butler offered us drinks and then brought them on a little tray. Brain had coached us, so I managed to keep from rolling my eyes or otherwise being a smartass, though barely.

“Your mother is quite valuable to me,” Jiminy said, looking at Lexi.

Brain had figured Jiminy would wait until dinner to bring up the important stuff, but I have a good poker face so I didn’t show my surprise.

Lexi responded naturally, without a hitch. “She knows what she’s doin’, and she takes pride in creating product people can easily gauge. They should be able to use the same quantity of each batch to get the same results, every time.”

Brain had coached her in how to talk about drugs without saying anything incriminating, but it turned out, she’d already known the drill.

Pebbles sat in an oversized wingchair, and Jiminy propped on one of the arms. It made him taller than the rest of us, looking down at us. I didn’t like it and my wolf hated it, but standing for no reason would’ve been awkward.

Jiminy crossed his arms and eyed Lexi a few moments before responding. “I brought my own people to Chattanooga, but the top levels here insisted she be the one to shift the product from wholesale to retail. It turns out, my people learned a few things from her. They help her, but she’s the one in charge. I know she brought you in to help for a while. They spoke highly of your skills as well.”

“I’ve decided not to enter into the family business at this time.”

He looked at Brain, then back to Lexi. “You know a lot of our secrets.”

“I’m not a rat.”

“We have concerns about your knowledge falling into the wrong hands.”

“Bubbles is never going to even want to know how much or what you use to cut the product, or how to handle it safely. The club don’t mess with that shit. My mama’s secrets are safe.”

“Not the only concerns I have.”

Lexi shook her head. “Routes, times, people, and places change so often, I doubt I even have the knowledge they’d want, should they want to intercept.” She took a breath, glanced at Brain, and looked back to Jiminy with her shoulders back and her eyes fierce. “I was never initiated, never worked full time as an adult. Everything I did once I come back was a trial. I know the rules, and once you’re in, you’re in, but they don’t apply to me. I was just makin’ extra money, and yeah, I did it at one of the highest levels, but that’s because I had the knowledge to work at that level.”

Jiminy sighed. “I understand she had you doing it at eight, until you went into foster care at fourteen?”

She nodded. “And during the summer once I turned sixteen and the fosters didn’t need to know where I was every second.” She lifted her chin and sat up a little more. “I pulled out of the family business before I even met Bubbles. It was a personal decision that had nothing to do with him or the club. I’m going to be a hair colorist, and I can make enough money workin’ part time to pay my bills until I get out of college.”

Jiminy looked at Brain. “We need assurances.”

“We have none to give you. Lexi grew up in the hood, she knows better than to rat. We’re here as a courtesy. I’m not sure what else you need.”

He did know, because Lexi had explained to us how the percentage of baking soda, starch, caffeine, and other ingredients they cut the various drugs with gave them a specific flavor — not just to the taste buds, but in the speed the drugs hit the user’s system, the aftertaste when you breathed out, and even how smoothly (or not) you came down from the high. Jiminy didn’t want that information getting out, and he also wouldn’t want the club to know where the trap houses were.

Now, Jiminy met my gaze, and I didn’t smell an ounce of fear on the man.

“If certain information comes out, we’ll come for Lexi and you. Club rules say you’re responsible for your woman.”

I leaned back and pulled her a little closer to me. “You touch a hair on her head and no one will ever find your body.”

“Which is why you’ll die before we begin torturing her.”

Brain stood and took a step towards me, and it was enough to keep me seated. The wolf didn’t like looking up, but we could deal with it a little longer.

“Should you have reason to believe there’s a problem, you’ll come to Duke or myself and we’ll resolve it. There will be no need for torture or death. The MC has worked to get along with you since you came into town. We’ve given you no reason to believe that might change.”

Pebbles patted her husband on the leg and looked at Lexi. “You’ve been around, sweet pea, you know the men have to beat their chests and deliver dire threats, right? But now, for the really important question, who the fuck did that gorgeous job on your hair?”

“I mixed the colors and sectioned it, and did the front, but a friend from school helped me with the back.”

“Oh, honey, I can’t wait until you get your license. I want a row of hot pink roots and shiny silver ends under the rest of my hair in back, so I can pull some of it up and it’ll show, or leave it down and stay blonde.”

“Oh, that’ll look great on you, and give you so many options! Starting this summer, I’ll be able to legally do that sort of thing with an instructor supervising, but I’m not supposed to until then.”

Jiminy hadn’t moved, and I stood and looked down at him. “Lexi put that part of her past behind her before she met me. I haven’t asked her anything on behalf of the club, and can’t see why I’d need to. Best I can tell, her mother’s business partner taught Lexi how to use and clean weapons, and some basic self-defense, and it seems made sure she and her sister stayed alive when her mom was too high to remember to buy groceries. I have gratitude towards the man, even though I’ve never met him and don’t know his name.” I took a breath and changed my tone. “I don’t deal well with threats. You’d do better to stay away from them. They aren’t needed.”

Jiminy stood, offered his hand, and I shook it.

It turned out, Jiminy didn’t just want to touch base about Lex, but about where we were with Marlin. Brain did most of the talking, but I put my two cents worth in a few times. My sense was that Jiminy wasn’t sure Marlin should stay in charge of his crew, either.

Brain started out by saying our biggest concern was whether we could trust a leader when assurances were given, which had not been the case in our most recent dealings with Marlin. He basically said the same thing a dozen different ways to answer Jiminy’s other questions, but he’s good enough, it didn’t sound like he was repeating himself.

Lexi had a few glasses of wine with Pebbles, but she stretched them out so she could stay sharp. I was proud of her.

Brain had picked us up, so we all rode together, and he gave her high praise on the way home. “You did good, short stuff. You held your own without being a smart ass, even though I know you wanted to smart off a few times.”

“Pebbles will probably go with us Friday, for girls-night-out,” said Harmony. “She’s fun to party with, and I think our truce with Jiminy only holds because of her. Try to be nice to her and hang out some. Do shots with her or something.”

Lex looked at me in question, and I told her, “You’ll never go wrong following Harmony’s advice. I completely trust her and Brain.”

Brain took us to Duke’s house, with Bash and Gonzo still on their bikes behind us. The men all went out to his garage, found chairs, and had a little pow-wow about the evening. Lexi and Harmony went into the house, where I assumed they’d talk about what everyone wore and how it worked with their nails and shit.

Lexi

---

I learned more from listening to Harmony telling Gen, Connie, and Angelica about the evening than I had while it happened. It isn’t that I didn’t understand the nuances, because I did, but Harmony put it all together, and my blood ran cold.

I can remember a half-dozen people who’ve held Jiminy’s position over the years, and none have been as refined as him. None have been around as long as him, either. I knew some of it had to do with our proximity to Atlanta and the need to get the product away from a sophisticated police force. Much of it was brought to North Georgia instead of into Chattanooga, or was taken to a neighboring county north of the line.

Jiminy didn’t just watch over the cartel’s business interests in Tennessee’s fourth largest city — the tri-state area around Chattanooga has more drugs flowing through it than nearly any other metropolitan area in the country. Much of that is due to the fact the five or six counties right around us have some of the highest per capita rates of homegrown meth in the country. Mama’s people are bringing the good shit in from Mexico now, and they advertise it with the whole, “You won’t lose your teeth!” bullshit, but the local supply hasn’t dried up. At all.

So, Jiminy directs the traffic through and around Chattanooga, and he also oversees the entire drug industry in the metropolitan area, which means he overseas part of three states.

Which took the conversation to Sand Mountain in Alabama, and I suddenly knew there was information the MC needed.

But I listened to the women talking, and learned everything I could before I made a decision. Once you tell someone a secret, you can never take it back, and I was smart enough to know lives were on the line in both directions. Sparkie had warned I was straddling a barbed wire fence, and she hadn’t been wrong.

Fifteen minutes later, I wondered if the MC understood just how much the ol’ladies helped the club. The big Friday night tour-of-bars thing might sound like merely another wild party night, but there was talk of who’d handle Pebbles at each venue, and how they’d make sure she had fun and felt like one of us. There was also a discussion of making sure Spencer and Cam were invited, and they strategized about how best to keep Matty and Cam away from each other without the boys realizing they were being handled. A talk about someone named Briana, and I could tell Gen wasn’t happy, but everyone else seemed to like her okay.

Gen actually crossed her arms when they started talking about someone named Queenie, but she didn’t say anything and let the other women make plans.

It was Harmony who put an arm around Gen and said, “Queenie and Briana are invited because some of us like them, but mostly because it’s politically smart. I think we need to discuss the goodwill we’d get by inviting Lexi’s sister.”

Gen glared at her. “Queenie and Briana used to be…”

“Yes, and Lexi’s sister still is,” said Angelica, “but I agree with Harmony. I know Bash fucked her before I came to town. I even know she’s the last person he fucked before we got serious, and that she gave him advice about holding onto someone he obviously cared so much for. Doesn’t bother me a bit.”

They looked at me, and I considered what they were saying. “Etta’s already a friend of the MC. How does bringing her along for our little traveling party help?”

Gen shocked me by answering, because I thought she was against it. “Pebbles carries more weight than Jiminy will ever admit, so letting the two of them form a bond can’t hurt. Also, it’ll remind them how tight of a family we are. They know the workin’ girls are never invited on these things, but will see that she’s more now, because her sister is Bubbles’ ol’lady. She isn’t just an employee. Her mom’s important to the cartel, but now two of her children are important to us.” She sighed. “It isn’t a bad move.”

I looked around the room. All eyes were on me. Gen wasn’t happy, but she seemed resigned. I met her gaze. “I won’t invite her unless you can assure me you’ll be nice and welcoming, and not even a tiny bit of a bitch to her.”

Angelica had been drinking a beer, and she choked on it. Everyone else gave a nervous chuckle, but I ignored all of them and held Gen’s gaze.

“I know everyone makes fun of me for being a prude, and most days that’s okay. I was raised in a strict Catholic family, and these things just weren’t talked about. My mom brought me up thinking even marital sex is dirty and wrong, and only for the purpose of making babies. I don’t deny the fact I was warped by that, but I still have problems with…”

She ran the fingers of her right hand through her hair, rubbed over her eyebrows, put her hand back in her lap. “You and your sister both opted not to go into a lucrative family business. I’ve seen the numbers on what your mom makes, and she’d be damned rich if her drug habit didn’t eat up all her income. If you and your sister did the job without the habit, you’d be living like Jiminy before long. Why did ya’ll step away?”

“Etta made a lot of money as a teen — both as a mule, and preparing product.” I wasn’t going to tell them our mother had sold Etta’s virginity, and my sister had worked as a whore since she was a preteen, and then had bargained with our mother and done extra jobs for free to keep her from selling my virginity. I hadn’t even told Bubbles any of that.

Angelica sat beside me and put her arm around me. “I smell pain. Old pain, but it still hurts. I’m sorry we’ve brought whatever it is back to mind.”

I leaned into her a second, happy for the human touch, but then sat back up straight. “For too many reasons to list, Etta likes sex work. It suits her. She hasn’t worked for Mama in any capacity since she turned eighteen.”

“But you did, right?” Harmony had picked up on that at dinner.

“Yeah. I turned eighteen during my senior year, but didn’t have to move out of the foster house until I graduated. Etta made Mama apply for a two-bedroom in plenty of time, so one would be available by the time we needed it. Mama just expected me to work for them, and it was the easy thing to do. Etta hit the roof when she found out. Later, she went with me to talk to the tattoo artist when I got mine, and then wrangled me a job with them while we were there.”

Gen walked to me and pulled me into a hug. “Calling her Etta instead of Betty helps. Etta’s your sister, and she takes care of you. I like you, you love her. She and I will be fine.”

I nodded and pulled my phone from my pocket. “Something ya’ll said put a few puzzle pieces in place for me. I need to talk to the men.”

“You told Jiminy you didn’t intend to tell them any secrets.” Harmony apparently wasn’t terribly happy about that, though nothing she’d done while we were there had let me know.

“This isn’t that kind of secret, but you have to know I’ll share anything necessary to keep all of our men safe, right? There’s no need for ya’ll to know ingredients and ratios, or where the trap houses are, but if a need arises…” I shrugged and texted Bubbles.

Within a minute, Gonzo was at the back door, motioning me. “Blossom. Need you in the garage a minute.”

Bubbles met me as I stepped into the garage, his warm arms comforting me. Protecting me.

“Let me just say it. Maybe ya’ll need to know, maybe you don’t, but…” I crossed my arms and stepped away from him. “The cartel Jiminy’s with is anchored near the coast of Mexico, focused so they can easily reach the Caribbean as well as the southern coast of the U.S.” I took another step away from Bubbles, closer to Duke and Brain. I was telling them, not him. “A much larger cartel is focused farther inland, and they bring product over the land border.” I looked at the floor. I’d never be able to take this back once I said it, but they needed to understand.

“The two have recently stopped fighting each other and started working with each other. The other cartel has a huge presence on Sand Mountain — more factory than lab.” I shook my head. “It’s more than that. My understanding is that they bring ingredients in and manufacture a version of fentanyl.” And now, for the part they needed to know. “You know some MCs are…” I started over. They’d know most of the biggest MCs act as distribution and protection for a cartel. “The El Atroz MC is in Northeastern Alabama. It’s a bunch of hick towns and no one held territory, so it was easy for them to move in. They basically own Sand Mountain, but they’re being quiet about it.” I uncrossed my arms. Crossed them back. “I kept wondering what I knew that made Jiminy nervous. Ya’ll don’t give a shit about recipes and ingredients, and none of the trap houses are in your territory so you don’t care about those either. This has to be it.”

The men all looked at each other, grim. I’d hoped this was something they already knew and I was in the clear, but their expressions told me this was news to them.

Bubbles picked me up, sat in a chair, settled me in his lap, and pulled me to him.

He didn’t talk to me, though. He talked to his brothers. “We can’t do anything right away. They’ll come after her if there’s any reason to think she’s telling us shit.”

“Angelica has a Sand Mountain connection,” said Bash. “One of the female wolves she runs with has a farm on the mountain.”

“We spent some time up there fixin’ a problem for her,” said Duke. “El Atroz is made up of the worst of the supernaturals.” He sighed. “We have to bring Aaron Drake in. The—” He glanced at me. “Evil ones Aaron’s after are reported to work with them.”