Chapter Three
Hatch
The past few days have been great and I know my grin is nearly cheek-splitting as I head into the trucking company. “Good morning, Hatch,” Starla says.
“Morning, Starla.”
“Glad to see you’re back.”
“Good to be back, Axe and Twisted in?”
“Yes, I think they’re in the breakroom.”
“Great, need to talk to them, catch ya later,” I say, trying to get away from the troll otherwise known as Starla.
“Wait, Hatch! You got a minute to talk?”
I breath out a frustrated breath, “What’cha need, Starla?”
“I was wondering if you’d like to come to my place after work for a drink and some dinner. We’d be good together don’t you think, Hatch?”
“Out of the question, I have a woman,” I say to her, wanting to get away from her and this endless conversation.
“But Hatch, I don’t see a ring on your finger and I definitely haven’t seen her wearing your patch. You’re a free man in the eyes of the club. Give me a chance before you settle for her. Let me show you the kind of woman you’d be giving up.”
“Semantics, Starla, I’m very much committed to DJ and Ralynn. They are my world, my family. You need to move on, you and I, we’ll never happen,” I say pointing from her to myself. I think this bitch has lost her ever-loving mind.
“Until your patch is on her back, I won’t be giving up, Hatch. You deserve someone who will fight for you, you’re worth it.” Flabbergasted by her gall, I know that if I react the way I want to, that I’ll be fired and in jail, so instead I do the only other logical thing I can think of.
“Axe! Twisted! Get your asses out here...now!” I bellow down the hallway. Starla starts shaking and twisting her hands together in nervousness. Good, the bitch better be worried, since when does no not mean no? I hear heavy boots pounding down the hallway and know here shortly I won’t be dealing with the she-devil herself alone.
“What’s up, Hatch?” they ask me simultaneously.
“Do something about her,” I say, pointing at the bane of my existence. “Or I will, and trust me you don’t want me to,” I tell them, showing them I mean business.
“We need to know what happened before we can do anything about it,” Axe says to me. So, I lay it out all for them from the minute I walked through the door until now.
“Starla, you’ve been warned about this type of behavior at work, it’s unacceptable,” Twisted tells her. “I’m going to have to write you up.”
“I didn’t do anything wrong! It’s not illegal to ask him over for dinner and drinks!” she spews.
“It’s against protocol at the workplace and you know it,” Axe says to her.
“It is not! Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to work here with Cara and Twisted wouldn’t be able to work with Paisley.”
“Those are different situations and you know it! Don’t push your luck,” Axe tells her.
“Axe,” I say to Braxton. “This is harassment at the workplace and I won’t tolerate it.”
“We get it, Hatch, and she will be written up...I promise you that,” Twisted tells me. For some reason, I think with her determination to win me over, it will take more than a simple write up. I silently watch as Twisted leads her down the hallway and into his office. I have a really bad feeling where she’s concerned. She better not mess up anything between me and my woman or heads are going to roll.
“We have an appointment at the school tomorrow,” Axe breaks into my thoughts. “Think you and DJ will be able to make it?”
“Oh, we’ll be there alright.”
“Good, we have a lot to get done today. We have three local runs that are backed up, hopefully you’ll be able to get them caught up. They’re all within the city, you’re going to be busting your ass, good luck, brother,” he says to me walking away, but not before he gives me a pat on the back. Fuck, DJ is going to be pissed when I tell her about this encounter with Starla later. She already hates the bitch, and is dying to get her hands on her. I debate not telling her, but think better of it, not wanting someone else to spill it to her thinking I already had...fuck my life! I walk down to the docks and get into my truck, the sooner I get started on these deliveries, the quicker I can get home.
Today has been a work on my patience, my first drop off was a disaster, they were pissed off. They thought I was delivering yesterday so they weren’t prepared for me, and they treated me like a second-class citizen. I waited as patiently as I could for two fucking hours before I called Axe, who then made a call to their boss and suddenly the ball got moving and I was unloaded. Second drop off was okay, they were on lunch by the time I made it to the location, so once again I was left waiting for them to get done so they could unload the truck. The last drop of the day however was the one where I was positive I was going to land in jail for assault. One of the workers kept making fun of me in Spanish, thinking I wouldn’t understand him. I ignored the first couple of insults, until finally I snapped when they started talking about visiting my woman and showing her how a true man could take care of her...I lost control. No one disrespects DJ whether they know her or not. That was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back so to speak.
When I came back at them in Spanish and told them what exactly it was I would do to their appendages, they turned as white as ghosts and didn’t say a word until I left...that was thirty minutes ago. It’s nearing on six p.m. and all I want to do is get home to my girls. Only when I pull into the yard, I get the show of a lifetime.
DJ
Cara showed up at my door an hour ago, I could tell something was weighing on her mind. But I decided to get her some sweet tea, which I always have made for her, and we walk to the back porch to sit and enjoy the weather. We have some small talk, but she’s quiet and not her normal self.
“Cara, we’ve been sitting here for a while now, and you’re not acting like yourself. What gives?”
“I hate her!” She stands up and begins pacing back and forth in front of our chairs. I decide to let her get her words straight in her head before I push for more.
“Which ‘her’, sweetie, there’s so many to choose from these days,” I say trying to lighten the mood. I’m pretty sure it’s her Hitler-in-law, which is what I’ve always called Graham’s mother, Graham is her dead husband.
“Starla! The fucking bitch.” Okay, I know this isn’t funny per-se, but Cara never cusses. To hear the word fuck used in any way makes me laugh—I can’t help it.
“Oh God,” I wheeze out holding my stomach. I hold up my finger when she shoots daggers at me and is fixing to get onto me for laughing at her. “Sorry, it’s just she must’ve really done something bad to have you cursing and using that word in particular.”
“According to the conversation I overheard Braxton and Twisted having when I walked down the hallway, and went past their office, it was really bad,” she says pulling her thumb up to her mouth and chewing on the skin around her cuticle. Her sure sign that she has something to say but doesn’t want to tell me.
“Oh for fuck’s sake, spit it out already,” I say in exasperation.
“Starla hit on Hatch this morning,” she rushes out to say.
“That’s nothing new,” I tell her. I know she has a crush on my man, but it’s all one-sided so I am not really worried about it.
“Donna Jo, listen to me.” Uh oh, she pulled out the entire name. Now my curiosity has gotten the better of me.
“I’m all ears,” I say, now wanting to know what really happened.
“I was walking down the hallway like I said earlier and overheard Braxton and Twisted talking. According to what I overheard, Starla stopped Hatch as he walked into the office. She then proceeded to ask him to come over to her place tonight for dinner and drinks.”
I sit up straighter in my chair and my hackles have risen. No one tries to take my man! The nerve of that fucking bleached blonde barbie wannabe slut! “She what!”
“It gets better,” Cara tells me.
“I’m going to want to beat her ass, aren’t I?”
“Yeah, sweetie, you are. And I already have Nan picking up the kids and watching them. I’m coming with you, you need someone to have your back.”
“Dammit! Tell me the rest.” I know that I’m going to jail tonight. I can feel it deep down into my bones. Why didn’t Hatch call me and tell me?
“So, apparently there was a showdown between Hatch and Starla. The guys are anticipating trouble because she told Hatch in her own words, that until you wore his patch and had his ring on your finger she wasn’t giving up. I heard the guys say that she told him he deserves someone to fight for him, that he is worth it to her.” I look at my watch and see I have a couple of hours before the shop closes its doors, and I have every plan of being in that parking lot waiting for her to get off. I won’t go into the building and disturb their workplace, I do have some class after all. But this girl grew up in a trailer park, and I know how to get down and dirty with the rest of the trash! I’ve had to fight my entire life, and Hatch will be no exception to that. I will fight for him and what we are building.
We’ve sat around talking about the best way to take care of this Starla situation for the better half of the day. Finally looking at my watch and seeing it’s nearing on six o'clock, I go upstairs and put on some leggings, a t-shirt and tennis shoes. If I’m going to take her down a notch, I better not be wearing my good clothing, because then I’ll really have to beat her into oblivion. I throw my hair into a ponytail as I make my way down the stairs, I grab my purse, keys and phone and walk out the door with Cara hot on my heels. I won’t let her be anything but an innocent bystander due to her pregnancy. Braxton will shit a brick if anything happens to her or that baby. We get into the car and make our way over to RG Transportation. I see we have about five minutes until she clocks out for the day. We made it with perfect timing, I get out of the car and leave my purse and phone inside. Cara gets out and begins to follow me.
“I don’t think so, little momma,” I tell her. “You stay right here by the car at all times. I don’t want you anywhere near what will be going down.”
“If fists start flying I’ll move away, I promise.”
“Cara! Stay by the car, I promise you won’t miss anything.”
“Stop babying me, DJ, I’ll be fine,” she says rolling her eyes at me.
“Damnit, Cara, don’t you care for my lifespan?”
“Of course I do,” she says looking at me as if I’m the one who’s lost her mind.
“Then stay by the car so Braxton doesn’t kill me.”
“Fine,” she mumbles out. I know she’s disappointed. Just about that time, the bitch herself comes strolling out the front door. She notices me walking her way and snubs her nose up at me.
“What can I do for you, Donna Jo?” she asks snidely. Oh yeah bitch, it’s on.
“You can stay away from my man and keep your flirting to yourself. He doesn't want you, now or ever, move on and slut it up with someone else. He. Is. Not. Interested in you!” I say, pointing my finger at her with each word that leaves my mouth.
“Trust me, honey, you’re a cold fish. When he gets done playing daddy and has been between your lifeless thighs enough, he’ll come crawling back to me. He was in my bed and my bed alone since the day Anniston walked out the door and left him high and dry.” The shock of not knowing who this Anniston woman is must show on my face.
She begins to laugh at me, “I guess he never told you about her...huh?” I look over to Cara who is just as confused as I am and she shrugs her shoulders at me.
“Don’t really care about who is in his past, I’m his future!”
“Oh my God, you really believe that, don’t you?” she asks looking at the ground and laughing—at me!
“Yes, I do, he’s moved in with me and sleeps in my bed every single night,” I say proud of myself for getting that said. I’m still stunned over hearing another woman’s name, one who I should’ve learned about from Hatch and not this slimy bitch.
“Oh dear, he crawled into my bed the day she left him and was a constant until the day you showed up. He’ll be back once he tosses you aside, like I’ve said before and I’ll keep reminding you until it sinks into that thick head of yours. You should really stop using him as a baby daddy and find a man who can give you that and more. Hatch isn’t that, Anniston broke something inside of him and he’ll never commit to you.” I don’t know why I let her words get to me, how it’s even possible that she broke that part of me that had been hidden for so long now, but she did. I don’t remember initially grabbing her hair and throwing her down on the concrete, but I must’ve blacked out because the next thing I know, Hatch is pulling me off from on top of her and saying soothing things in my ear.
“It’s alright, baby, calm down. I’m here, I’ve got you,” he says over and over again. I look over at Starla who’s laying on the ground in a fetal position and notice I did quite a number on her.
“Take care of Ralynn while I’m in jail, Hatch,” I say to him.
“No one's going to jail, especially not you,” he says in a no-nonsense kind of way. Fuck! What have I done? I only planned on having words with her, not getting into a bitch brawl. I look over to where my best friend is standing and see her holding her phone up...damn woman recorded the entire thing! At least when I get back home we’ll have something to laugh over while I get drunk, maybe Paisley will come over and have a few drinks with us.
“You’re going down, bitch!” Starla says getting up and coming after me. It plays out in slow motion when I see Cara is close enough to her that she sticks her foot out and Starla face plants and eats gravel.
“Oops, sorry, that was an accident,” Cara says sweetly and innocent like. I know better, however, didn’t I tell her to stay back? Just then Braxton and Twisted come out of the office and into the parking lot with Paisley right on their heels.
“What the fuck is going on out here?” Braxton bellows out at all of us.
“I’ll tell you what’s going on!” Cara then explains everything to her man who is looking at her like she’s grown an extra head.
“So you took it upon yourself to run to DJ instead of letting Hatch tell her and deal with it?” Braxton asks Cara and I’m worried because her relationship shouldn’t suffer because of me and my drama.
“Of course I did! She’s my best friend, I tell her everything,” Cara replies.
“We’ll talk about this later,” Braxton says to Cara as he turns around to face Starla.
“I’m pressing charges against her,” Starla says pointing her finger at me. Fuck, I knew she would, if the situation was reversed I would do the same thing.
“You press charges on her, since you instigated this entire scenario with your bullshit this morning, and I’m banning you from the club,” Braxton tells her.
“You can’t be serious, Braxton!” Starla says to him.
“Try me and see what the consequences are...and to you I’m not Braxton, I’m Axe...the motherfucking president! Do not disrespect me!” Wow, I’ve never witnessed Braxton in action, it’s kinda scary.
“Fine! I won’t press charges this time but keep her away from me.”
I lose the filter off my mouth and say to her, “Then you stay the fuck away from my man, unless it’s business related you have no reason to speak with him. I don’t care how long he was your sex buddy, got me?”
Hatch
Sex buddy? What the hell did Starla say to her. “DJ, I’ve never had sex with Starla,” I tell her.
“That’s not what she was sitting here telling me,” she says to me.
“I said no such thing, this is you starting trouble, DJ!” Starla screams out at my girl.
“I’ve got proof right here,” Cara says, holding out her phone. “That you did most certainly say that and then proceeded to throw this Anniston woman in her face.” My body freezes upon hearing that name, talk about something from your past coming up and biting you in the ass! Motherfucker, I had planned on having this conversation with her at some point, but never like this.
I take her hand and lead her away from the rest of them, not wanting to have all of my laundry aired out in the open, especially not with Starla still glaring at us all. “DJ, I had planned to tell you about Anniston.”
“Who is she, Hatch?”
“Roughly six years ago give or take, I was living with her and had planned to ask her to marry me. She got shot of me though, claiming she wasn’t ‘in love’ with me and because I was going into the military, she didn’t want to wait around. I haven’t heard from her since. And yeah, it soured me on relationships because at the time, and at that age, I honestly thought she was the woman I was supposed to spend the rest of my life with. Until you, DJ. You and your feisty, smartass, beautiful self. I love everything about you, from your sailor mouth to your pinky toes and everything in between. As for Starla, Axe, Twisted and I have known she had a thing for me ever since we started up the MC. But I never went there because she’s not my type. I’d rather rub one out than try to screw something that has hips sharper than Ginsu knives.”
“I’m trying to tone down the mouth,” she says. “Not good for the kids to hear that all the time.”
“Never change who you are, DJ. Not for anyone.”
“I won’t, but I’ll try to curb my f-bombs, at least around the small fry set.”
I pull her close and kiss her before saying, “You know, you going all She-Hulk on Starla has me worked up. I had a shitastic day today and now? I just wanna go get our girl and see if everyone wants to go grab some Mexican food, so we can then go home and I can fuck you into the mattress.”
She looks at me and then yells out, “We’re meeting at El Toro Loco! Someone call Nan and have her bring the kids.” And just like that, this day turned from the worst in history to one of the best days I’ve had. With my girl, family and friends at my side, we ate, and we laughed, then we went home and I made passionate, fire-inducing love to my woman. If only the good times would last…