Cas
It’s a new day and nothing is going to fuck me up. Sparky is the first face I see and he’s anxious. Going over to him, he jumps up from the couch and pulls me to the side of the bar.
“I got a call from Shellie this morning, Jake showed up at her house today asking questions she said she didn’t answer.”
I knew this was coming, it was only a matter of time before Jake couldn’t be held at bay and came for us.
“Let’s go,” I reply.
“Where to?”
“You’ll find out.”
This isn’t fucking with me today, Jake has been on my shit-to-deal-with list and he’s been bumped up to a priority. If I’m honest, I thought he would’ve been on our backs a lot more than he has been.
Sparky rides behind me into town and comes to a stop as I pull up outside the cop station.
“Cas? What are we doing here?” he asks, his tone tinged with anticipation.
“We’re going to have a little chat with our friendly sheriff.”
I hear his long sigh, but he follows me inside and I ting the bell at the front desk to get someone’s attention.
I haven’t been inside this building before and I doubt I’ll ever come back after today. We’re told to take a seat, Jake better not leave us waiting too long.
“This place makes my skin crawl,” Sparky mutters.
“We won’t be here long then we’ll be gone,” I promise him.
“The last time I was here, they thought I’d hurt Bonnie.”
Fuck. That was a long time ago. They also thought he had killed Bonnie because Kitty, on her revenge quest, had smeared their home in pig’s blood and set Bonnie up to be stuck in the middle of nowhere so no one could find her until Sparky had been arrested. I admit, I despised the sight of my best friend’s old lady when she first showed up at our door and it took a long ass time for me to trust her, but that day when no one could find her, I felt helpless.
We’re waiting for ten minutes before Jake decides to show his face. Most of the time, he doesn’t bother me, and we don’t bother him. Today, he looks at us like he has us over a barrel and I want to slice his eyes out of his sockets.
“Look who has finally decided to grace me with his presence,” he smirks.
“You were told I would come to you, all you had to do is wait,” I smirk back and stand.
“I’m done waiting, come with me,” he huffs, and turns his back on us.
I can feel multiple sets of eyes following us as we follow Jake up to his office. It’s nothing special and too formal for my liking.
“I have a lot of questions, Cas,” he says, taking his seat behind his desk.
Sparky and I make ourselves comfortable opposite him and I hold my hands out.
“Then start asking, I’m not sitting here all day.”
He takes out his notebook and pen and asks, “Who attacked you and the club the night of October ninth?”
“There was no attack.”
“Tell me your version of events then,” he sighs.
“Did it occur to you that you weren’t called that night because nothing happened that needed assistance from the law?”
“There was an explosion, two people died, Cas. Don’t sit here and take me for a fool.”
“Two?” I question, treating him however the fuck I like.
“One died from his injuries and there was a body in the driver’s seat in the van. Only when I drove by the next day, the van and body were gone.”
I start to laugh, and he frowns, narrowing his eyes.
“You mean, Bobby?”
He writes the name down and looks up at me, “Does Bobby have a surname?”
“No, cause he was a fuckin’ dummy, it wasn’t a body. We were fucking around, and it backfired on us. Nothing more, nothing less. Unfortunately, John got caught out and it cost him his life.”
Jake sighs, throws his pen down and sits back in his chair.
“You’re feeding me bullshit,” he grunts, “We both know you were attacked, and then the diner was hit, that certainly wasn’t an accident.”
“I’m feeding you what happened, it’s not my problem if it’s not what you want to hear. As far as the diner is concerned, you’ll have to find out what hides in Hank’s closet, cause the incidents are not connected.”
“I arrived at the same time as the EMT’s, that wasn’t an accident and it wasn’t a dummy in the van. It wasn’t an accident and I’m not going to stop until I get to the truth.”
I’ve had enough, I stand up and Sparky stands beside me.
“If you really thought it was dodgy, why did you leave and not call it in? It was an accident, there was no body and if you follow us back to the club, I’ll give you permission to take a look around.”
I don’t wait to see if he follows, I know he will. I’m giving him an in into the club, he won’t pass up the invitation.
We make it outside and to our bikes when we hear, “There won’t be anything for me to find.”
I spin around, and I can’t help but laugh.
“Why are you still coming then?” Sparky calls out, saying exactly what I was going to say.
“As much as it will waste my time, it’s wasting yours too.”
We stand there as he walks over to his patrol car and I laugh again.
“After jack-off Jake is done, we’re going to pay Shellie a visit.”
“She isn’t gonna want us showing up,” he sighs.
“I didn’t want her boy showing up, but we don’t always get what we want,” I grunt.
“What about you? Your mom is still in town, do you know what you’re gonna do about her?”
Rolling my eyes, I can’t believe how he’s referring to her as my mom. A term, that to me is personal, she is far from being a mom.
I’m not dealing with her now, between Jake and Shellie we have enough on our plate to sort out. Jacqueline can fucking wait, like she made me wait all my life.
Sparky swings his leg over his bike and pulls out his phone. He hits a couple of buttons and goes to press it to his ear.
“Hang up,” I order.
He’s quick to end the call and looks questioningly over at me.
“Who were you calling?” I ask him.
“Pope, I was gonna give him a heads up to our visitor who is on his way.”
Shaking my head, I say, “Jake isn’t going to make this easy for us, if he searches deep and finds you made a call to Pope a half hour before we get back, he’ll find it suspicious for sure.”
Fatigue crosses his face and he slides his phone in his cut inside pocket. I climb on my bike and bring it to life, relishing in the thunderous roar of the engine. It’s pretty warm out today and the soft breeze begins to whip around the back of my neck as I pull out and catch up to Jake’s patrol car.
Sparky doesn’t take long to ride up behind me and together we cruise behind Jake until we near the club. I lean right, and Sparky leans left, we ride around Jake and ride side by side through the gates.
We park up in our usual spots and Jake comes to a stop by the bar. Brothers begin to gather around and watch our dutiful sheriff climb out of his car.
Only the breeze can be heard, and Jake has every set of eyes on him as he strolls over to the spot where the explosion took place.
He sweeps his booted foot over the gravel, hoping to disturb something. If he thinks he’s going to find anything, he’s shit out of luck. The guys cleaned up real good.
“Huh, it’s like it never happened,” he says, taking his shades off.
“What? Did something happen?” Ricky asks, acting the complete innocent.
“Nothing’s happened today that I’m aware of,” Slade says.
“Unless he means yesterday? You know, when Dex puked exactly where our fine Sherriff is standing,” Pope grunts.
Jake isn’t being fooled, he turns to me, holding his hands on his hips.
“Where’s the van?”
I step in before anyone else can answer him.
“I haven’t got a clue, I’ve been pretty busy lately.”
“Did you bring me out here just to mess me around, Cas?”
He’s losing his cool and it’s exactly where I want him.
“If I wanted to mess you around, I wouldn’t have brought you here. I would’ve made sure you didn’t step one foot on my land, I would be throwing all sorts of shit your way to throw you off. But, as we had fuck all to do with the explosion at the diner, and had an accident here, I’m letting you in as a curtesy in good faith to show you we have nothing to hide.”
The corner of his mouth pulls up on one side, and he slides his shades back on.
“Why don’t you show me around the back first,” he says.
“Let’s go.”
He leads the way, and I stay a step behind him. His eyes flitter around everywhere, trying to take in as much as he can. Beads of sweat speckle the back of his neck, the gravel crunches under his boots with every step he takes, and his hand keeps twitching, wanting to go for his gun. I too, can take in everything.
His pace fastens when he sees the old beat up cars and trucks. I’ll allow him to do his thing and let him believe he’s onto something.
He should know better, I wouldn’t have invited him in if there was a remote chance of him finding something to implicate us.
He takes his time walking around each vehicle, checking them out and I stand back, knowing my brothers have followed us without having to look around.
“So, you’re telling me that a van blows up, causing death and destruction and you don’t know where it is?”
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you, I’ve been recuperating myself from the accident and haven’t been around here much. Cars and trucks come and go all the time.”
“You could at least give me some respect and not call it a fucking accident,” he spits out.
“I call it as I saw it, and it was a fuckin’ accident. Just because it isn’t what you want to hear isn’t my problem. If you wanna keep investigating something that isn’t there, be my guest but all you’ll be doing is wasting your time and your precious resources. You’ve had your look around, now I’m asking you politely to leave. If I see the van again, I’ll be sure to let you know.”
Shaking his head, he exhales and takes one last glance around, before settling his eyes on me.
“We’ve always had a working peace between you and the town, fuck me, most of the town think you’re the best thing since sliced bread, but it’s gone too far this time. This goes beyond me, Cas. John has parents who want answers and don’t know your reputation, and his father, believe me, he wants answers. I don’t know why he was here, but I will find out, for his family.”
Time to play this problem to our advantage. I’m not going to let one fuck up be our downfall.
“John was our family, in fact, he was more family than most of our brothers.”
“What are you talking about?”
“John was Oak’s son. He came looking for his father cause his mother lied to him his whole life and he stayed for a while.”
“His son?”
“Yes, did you not hear me correctly? You see, there is a reason why we let people on our land, and John was with us because of his father, his real father.”
“Always an answer…”
“Because it’s the truth, ask his mother, if she’s not too busy grieving.”
“One of these days, Cas, you’re going to come unstuck and everything around you will fall and everyone around you will fall, and your brotherhood will mean nothing.”
Flexing my jaw, I grind my teeth together until the seething, blood boiling, urge to smash my fist into his jaw passes.
Sparky’s shadow crosses with mine as I take a step forward and he stops me.
“Fuck off, Jake.”
The burning in my blood is grateful when he leaves without another word being said. I’ve got another shit storm to fix today and she’s called Shellie.
I bang on her door and wait. Sparky is anxious. The muscles in his biceps are tense and he can’t stand still at all.
He knocks again and still no answer. After Jake taking his time at the club, there isn’t many hours of sunlight left.
Her car is on the drive and the curtains are open in the living room. I jump down off the porch, and peer through the window.
Shellie is asleep on the couch and judging by the numerous empty wine bottles surrounding her, she had help.
I pound on the window for a full minute before she starts to stir. I keep knocking until she sits up and blearily looks around until her eyes land on me. At first, she slowly blinks like she’s trying to work out if I’m really standing here or not then she stands.
I point towards the door and then I walk around and back up the porch steps.
“Is she in there?”
“Yeah, crashed out on the couch, she’s awake now.”
We both hear something crash in the hall and then the door opens, and we see a lamp broken on the floor.
“What are you two doing here?” she asks, squinting against the sunlight.
“We came to check on you, and good job we did. Have you been drinking since you called me this morning?” Sparky answers her.
“I…I’m fine,” she states.
“Can we come in?” I ask, not wanting to hang around on her doorstep.
Neighbours on this type of street are ones who remember what the bikers look like and write down license plates.
She leaves the door open and walks back to the couch. Sparky steps in first and I close the door behind me.
“I didn’t think I’d see you again,” she says, rubbing her head.
“We wanted to make sure you were doing okay?” Sparky tells her.
For some reason, Sparky has a closer tie to Oak’s ex old lady and I decide it will be easier on her if he takes the lead.
“Maybe you did, but you’re here to see what I’m going to say to the officer when he comes back, aren’t you?”
She’s quick and not stupid. I wish she had stuck around for the old man, I would’ve loved to see how happy Oak would’ve been with her around.
“What are you going to tell him?” I ask, stepping into the room.
“Whatever you tell me, I’m sure.”
She sounds bitter. I have to dig deep to find the subtleness she needs after losing a son.
“You’re not a stupid woman, Shellie, and you know what happened that night weren’t on us. I want to know where you’re laying blame.”
There, I’ve asked her. I need to know.
She hangs her head in her hands and sobs. It isn’t overly dramatic, but I don’t have the patience for it.
I jerk my chin at Sparks and he moves to sit beside her and soothingly rubs her back.
“If I hadn’t have come to tell you about Oak, your John would still be here,” he tells her, and I realise he’s holding guilt over the boy. He hasn’t said anything, but I should’ve noticed.
She looks at him and I turn away from her sadness and the tears rolling down her cheeks.
“I blame myself,” I hear her say, “Tell me what the story is and that’s what I’ll say.”
I turn around and Sparky is silently pleading with me. He needs me to say it. I cross the room and sit in the armchair.
“Our story, as you put it, is some of the brothers were messing around and it was an accident.”
“An accident?” she whispers, “I know it wasn’t a fucking accident, I also know your type of justice will be a lot more fitting than prison, so I’ll stick to your story and never stray from it.”
I forgot she didn’t know we’ve already punished the man behind Oak’s and John’s deaths.
“Shellie, we’ve already dealt with the guy responsible. I won’t give you the details, but I give you my word that we made him suffer.”
More tears fall, and her body is racked with the shakes.
“He really did suffer, Shell, for Oak and for John,” Sparky reiterates.
“Thank you,” she says, offering a small smile and pats Sparky’s hand.
“I’ll talk to Robert, it won’t help him to know the truth.”
That’s all I need to hear from her. I stand and leave. I need fresh air and I leave Sparky to say goodbye.
I didn’t connect with Shellie like Sparks did, and I don’t feel the same need to pander around her when she’s the one who left Oak and took his chance to be a father away from him.
I sit on my bike and wait for him. I send a smile to Oak because I know he would’ve made one hell of a father.