Lucas’s text telling him that Cherry was going to call her caught her as she was getting into the car. She wanted to get some groceries to make dinner for them that evening; he would be coming over after work, whatever work meant. She knew he was working in the garage. He hadn’t stopped talking about that Cadillac he was rebuilding, but he said he wouldn’t be around until eight. As far as she knew, the garage closed at six but she didn’t question. She wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to know the answer to what he would be doing between closing and coming to her place.

 

Her place. It bothered him that she wouldn’t relent and move in with him, but she wasn’t ready, not yet. It was one thing to date him, to have his baby, but it was something else entirely to live with him and be his…his what? Old Lady? Wife? What would she be?

 

When Cherry’s text or call never came, she headed to the mall. She’d get her mom the pajamas, then grab her groceries on the way home. She tried not to worry about Cherry; maybe the girl still held a little hurt over what she’d said. Or she still wanted Lucas and having to play friends with his girlfriend chafed. Either way, Josephine had gotten along just fine without close friends for so long, she knew she’d be just fine shopping on her own.

 

Josephine turned down the corridor, heading to the parking lot, when she spotted Cherry. At first, she raised her hand to call out a greeting but stilled her actions when she recognized the man she was talking to.

 

Pressed into a shadowed corner of the pillars decorating the entrance to a high-end boutique was the man on the bike at Lucas’s house. She recognized his beard—it was longer in the front, coming off his chin into a clean V shape, where the rest of his face was clean-shaven. She couldn’t hear them and quickly moved to the side to stay out of their sight, but from his narrowed eyes and thinned lips, whatever Cherry was telling him wasn’t making him happy. Why the hell was she talking to him anyway? Didn’t Lucas tell her he was the president of that other bike club?

 

Cherry threw her hands in the air and stomped off, leaving the angry biker to glare after her retreating form. Josephine watched, tucked behind a “you’re here” map, until she was completely out of sight, then continued on her way to the exit. Her phone started ringing in her purse—Lucas’s ringtone. Fumbling with the zipper and her pretzel, she ended up colliding into a hard object. Dropping her pretzel, she cursed and apologized at the same time.

 

“It’s okay, darlin’,” a familiar voice responded. She got a better look at the person she’d just run square into. Clay. His skin wrinkled around his eyes as he smiled down at her. No friendly “nice to bump into you” smile but one full of menace. “You’re not hurt, are you?” He took a small step back and let his eyes wander over her, lingering a little longer on her chest than she was comfortable with. She hadn’t changed out of her scrubs yet, but the way he looked at her, she would have thought her clothes had fallen off somewhere along the way.

 

“I’m fine, thank you.” She snatched her pretzel from the ground and readjusted her purse on her shoulder. “Sorry for bumping into you.”

 

“No trouble at all.” He inclined his head. “Were you headed out to your car?” He looked over his shoulder at the exit behind him.

 

She looked at her watch and tried to think of the right thing to do. Call Lucas, that was the right thing to do, but if she did that right there, she’d insult Clay, and he didn’t look like the sort of man she wanted to insult openly.

 

“Yes. I was.”

 

“Then let me walk you out.”

 

“No,” she said with more heat than she intended. “No, thank you, but that’s all right. You don’t need to do that.”

 

“Of course I do. Wouldn’t want anything to happen to you while you were making your way out to the car. Lucas would have my head if I let anything happen to his old lady.”

 

“I’m not his old lady.” She took a few steps to the garbage can and tossed the dirty pretzel before starting to walk again to the exit. “I’ll be fine. Thank you, though.” She tried to give a smile and a nod, but he wouldn’t have it.

 

“Nah, I’ll walk you.” His hand grabbed a hold of her elbow. An outsider would see him as a gentleman, escorting her down the hall. In reality, his fingers bit into her arm. He held her with such a grip that twisting out of it was impossible. How did men learn how to do these things? “Even if you aren’t his old lady, he’ll cut my balls off if something were to happen to you. I mean, sometimes people get hurt. Bad things happen to good people.” He kept his voice low as he opened the glass door, letting a whoosh of fresh air hit them as they walked out. She managed to get to her keys and held them in her free hand, ready to stab him with whatever she could if she needed to.

 

Her heart hammered in her chest so hard, she could almost see the heartbeat through her shirt. A layer of sweat began to build on her forehead as they made their way toward the cars. “I’m over here.” She pointed toward the aisle where she’d parked. The mall was busier than usual when she had arrived and didn’t get a spot close to the entrance. Her little Audi was parked at the end of the row.

 

“Which car?” he asked, sounding as casual as anything, completely unaware or uncaring of the panic starting to build inside of her.

 

“The gray one at the end.”

 

“Looks a little secluded. You should park closer, where there are more people. Like I said, bad things happen. You could fall or trip.” His hand grew tighter on her arm. “Even to good girls who do silly things, like get pregnant with some biker’s baby. I mean, that wasn’t really smart, right? You know how dangerous Lucas’s life is? I’d never take up with a civilian—too dangerous. Especially if he doesn’t make good choices. Because his decisions affect you and that kid inside you. He makes the wrong call, takes a bad step, who knows what might happen to you?”

 

She kept her eyes focused on her car, willing Lucas to call back. “Here I am.” She tried to pull away from him, but he only walked her around to the driver side door. He took the keys from her closed hand and unlocked the door, opening it for her but not giving the keys back.

 

Josephine slid into the car, putting her feet in and tucking her purse next to her. “Thanks.” She put out her hand, waiting for him to hand over the keys. He rested his left arm on the doorframe, his right on the car, and leaned in. She could see speckles of gray throughout his beard.

 

“Be careful now, okay? Don’t go getting a flat tire or running off the road. Think real hard about the safety of your baby.” He gave her a wink and straightened up, dropping her keys into her palm. He barely stepped away when she yanked the door shut, not caring if he heard it slam. She sat watching him in the rearview mirror as he walked away…whistling? Was he really whistling? She shook her head and tossed her bag and purse in the passenger seat and jammed the key into the ignition. She needed to get away from the mall, away from Clay, and away from the mess she created with her own selfishness.

 

Driving past the grocery store, she made a right on the main road and headed to her mother’s house. She needed to see her mother.

 

# # #

 

“Clay has made a proposal.” Joe leaned forward over the table in the great room, lacing his fingers together over the wooden mallet he laid in front of him. Church had been underway long enough to cover old business and catch up on current shit, and it was time for Joe to put the idea of letting the marijuana runs go. “The Iron Rebels want the Maryjane Lane.” He put a hand up in the air when grumbles started from all over the room. “Let me put the fucking deal out there before you all start shitting on it,” he growled. The room quieted down.

 

Lucas glanced around the room and took another look at his cell before shoving it in his back pocket. Josephine was AWOL. Other than a short text canceling dinner the night before, he hadn’t heard from her. He tried calling and texting but got no answer on either try. Cherry told him she hadn’t been able to get a hold of her either, so they hadn’t gone to the mall. Whatever was eating at her, she could at least tell him. How could he fix a problem he didn’t know existed?

 

Joe finished explaining the options to the club, and hell broke loose for a moment before he launched himself out of his chair and glared down the chaos. Once the men settled, he slowly sank back in his chair. “Now, I get that it’s a shitty deal. I get that, and I’m not presenting it you saying I want this to happen. I’m bringing it to the table because I may lead this group of shit heads, but I’m not making this call all on my own. It affects us all, and we all get to have a say. I don’t like the idea of that shit they peddle making its way through this town so fucking easily, but it’s got to be a club call.” He pointed at Cutter to give him the floor.

 

“Say we take this shit deal. The club gets two percent of all their dealings, but—and it’s a big ass but—we have to fucking give protection? We have to ride with those assholes and cover their asses? Now, we as a club agreed years ago not to do dive into the hard shit. Medical marijuana is one thing. Doesn’t hurt the civilians and helps those who need it. We don’t do anything to hurt the civilians. That’s what we’ve done since the beginning of this club, and I think we should keep on doing just that.” Approving grunts went up after Cutter had his say, and Lucas nodded along with them. That was what their club did, no harm to anyone outside the MC life.

 

“But two percent…fuck, that’s a lot of dough. I don’t want to be working like a dog ’til the day I die. That would give us some cushion. Make a nice retirement fund,” Jordan, an older member of the club, spoke up.

 

“That’s easy for you to say, Jordan. You’re not going to be going on these runs, putting your ass on the line, and risking jail and whatever else for that two percent.” Jordan was past the age that he would be expected to go on jobs anymore. He worked garage detail when it was his turn and took a smaller chunk of the club income that came from the house and the runs.

 

“Let’s also look at the downfall of saying no.” Lucas shook his head when Cutter started to open his mouth to argue. “I’m not saying I like this; I’m saying what happens if we say no. Iron Rebels aren’t going to just say okay and walk away.” He jabbed his finger into the table. “They aren’t going to like it. And when those fuckers don’t like something, they get a little rowdy. Even if we say no, there could be shit coming down this way. There could be shit happening that could very well hurt this town.”

 

“We say yes, and we are going to be a part of that shit. Coke in the grammar schools. H running through the high school. No. Fuck that.” Cutter pushed back from the table and crossed his arms over his chest.

 

“I get it. I’m just saying we need a plan for any blow back for sticking to our guns.”

 

“That’s our fucking plan. Sticking to our fucking guns.” Cutter jerked a thumb at the cabinets lining the wall behind them. Part of their armory was stocked in the meeting room, for the unlikely event that something went down while they were all in church.

 

“Okay, okay.” Lucas waved his hand over the gavel. “Enough bullshitting. Let’s just get to the vote. We all know what’s at stake, so let’s go around.” He looked at Cutter seated to his left.

 

“Nay. Fucking Nay.” He slammed his hand on the table.

 

Lucas watched as one by one the vote came to him. Completely a formality at that point as his brothers had already voted against it, but he gave his vote anyway. “Nay.” He kept his eyes on Cutter as he gave his vote and received a satisfied nod in return.

 

Joe gave his own vote in rejection of the idea and clanked down the gavel. It was done. They would need to prepare for the fallout, but it was something they, as a brotherhood, would stand against. With the business concluded, the meeting ended, and the men started to pour out into the lounge area again.

 

Lucas waited for Cutter outside the door, catching glimpse of Cherry over at the bar. “Once Clay finds out how the vote went, we are going to start seeing some hostility. What he won’t be given, he’ll try to take.”

 

“Yeah, I know it.” Cutter ran a hand over his head. “You heard Joe, everyone’s on alert. Any shit gets pulled and we go on immediate lock down.”

 

Lucas pulled out his phone. “I need to head over to Josephine’s house. Make sure she’s okay.”

 

“No word still?”

 

“She’s been working and hanging out at her mom’s too much. She’s probably sleeping.” Lucas nodded toward Cherry. “I’m glad things are working out for you two.”

 

“Yeah, me too. I see the gals already gave her the patches.” Lucas noticed it as well. Cherry was wearing a denim kutte with the club’s logo on the back. On the front of the cut was Property of Cutter.

 

Lucas stared at it from across the room, thinking about Josephine. Would she ever wear his patch? Would he even want her to? It looked good on Cherry, looked fitting, but for Josephine, it didn’t feel right. Something seemed off about her wearing an old lady kutte.

 

“I gotta run.” Lucas slapped Cutter on the back and left him to tend to his woman.