Blackjack
Finding out that Ashley was pregnant was the best news I’d ever heard. It may not mean a lot to some men, but to me it meant everything. This was a second chance for me to do right be her. A year ago, no one could have told me that I would’ve ended up having a child with the one that got away, yet here she was, standing right before me.
Another month flashed by in the blink of an eye, it was still too soon to know the gender, but we decided to decorate the room on a neutral color scheme––mint green. Ashley was keen on betting that it was going to be a rumbustious boy, but I stuck with my guns in saying we were probably going to end up with a beautiful girl. Dex didn’t care either way. Whether he ended up with a brother or sister, he was happy for the two of us.
We waited to tell Fist for a few weeks. Ash had been so worried about something going wrong with the pregnancy and I wasn’t about to argue with her.
“Hot damn.. you’re not pulling my legs, are you?” The old man looks us both dead in the eye.
“No, Sir.” I respond, squeezing Ashley’s hand as she winds her arm around mine. “We wouldn’t joke about something like this.”
He looks from me to his daughter before taking her spare hand. “Is this true, sweetheart?”
I watched Ashley nod, biting her bottom lip before her mouth slip into an eager grin. “We’re having a baby, Daddy.”
The man squeezes her hand and the smile we’d been waiting for the entire day had finally emerged from his stoic expression. A laugh escapes him, and he stands up to open his arms, grateful for the news that walked into his living room. The two of us were pulled into his hug while Ashley cried her eyes out into her father’s chest. I patted the man’s shoulders, feeling closer to him than ever before.
“This is good news.” The man laughs before releasing us to wipe a tear from the corner of his eye, “I needed to hear this after the shit that went down last night.”
“Last night?” I ask.
Fist shakes his head and lifts his arm up to take my shoulder.
“It’s good you told me about this now. I just hope that what I have to say won’t spoil your happiness in this moment.”
“What’s going on, Daddy?” Ashley looks up at him with an expression mixed in confusion.
The man closes his hands down on his belt, looking down to the floor sternly. “This has gone on long enough. I’ve finally made a decision regarding to our issue.”
“What issue?” She blinks.
I cross my arms over my chest, “The Bears?”
“Correct.” The man finally looks up at me, somber as could be. “It’s unforgivable what your ex-husband did to you, Ashley.”
Ashley stepped back, her eyes more alert than before. I couldn’t pull my eyes from Fist with the way he ended that sentence. “Now, I know we’re blessed that you’re able to be with child––” Fist continues, scratching the back of his head. “But this man cost you your first baby. On top of that, he nearly cost you the possibility of bearing children at all.”
“That’s none of your business, Daddy.” She shakes her head, her voice growing sharper than her old man’s razor. “I thought we were done with this. I don’t want to see that son of a bitch’s face in this town again.”
“Which is why we have to seek compensation.” Her father emphasizes, opening his hands up. “It’s one thing to get a restraining order. It’s another thing to make him accountable and punish him in a way that he truly deserves”
“Dad...” She says lowly, warning him.
I take her arm in mine, giving it a soft squeeze before she could look up to me. With an assuring glance, I calm Fist down as much as I can, while still giving us the ability to go after Harry.
“We don’t know what could happen if we make demands from the Bears.” I say to Fist, “This is a personal conflict that could result into a war between us and the Bears. We’ve only just started getting back up on our own two feet after the drugs, shit, we had to use cash out of the reserves to fix alla that”
“With the rate we’re at, we can take them, Son.” He reaffirms confidently.
“There’s going to be casualties.” I point out.
Ashley’s arm tenses at the sound of that. Fist looks down to his daughter, taking a moment of thought to consider the fallback of this proposition. When his eyes came back to me, I knew it wasn’t enough for him to stand down.
“I know this. After everything Harry Vale has done to our girl he deserves what’s coming to him. My only regret is that I didn’t act sooner”
I looked down at Ashley but deep in her eyes, she already knew. No matter what we told him, Fist insisted that this was the way to go. I wanted to argue with the old man, but I couldn’t – I wanted to hurt Vale just as bad as he did.
***
Fist called an emergency meeting in church. By the looks of it, he had our men ready to rip at Grizzly himself and send the son of a bitch’s hide to his loved ones.
“Blackjack––… Blackjack!” Fist called out to me from the head of the table. My eyes lit up from where I sat and I saw that everyone was looking at me. Every single man in this church was looking for answers.
I blinked, “Yes, sir?”
Fist’s expression grew harder. “I asked what your thoughts are on the meeting being set into the middle of next week.”
“That’s too soon, Fist…” I thought to myself but dismissed it stubbornly before saying aloud, “How long ago did Ashley come to us?”
His heavy brows furrowed and I didn’t know as to whether he was unsure or disappointed in my response. “Why does it matter?” He asks at last.
Slowly, I crossed my arms over my chest as the men watched me in silence. I didn’t want to rush any assumptions and put a witch hunt for information out in the club. But, I couldn’t stay quiet about it either.
“It matters.” I look up at him, recognizing my affirmation. “Because I’m pretty sure things didn’t start getting better around here until she came around.”
“Save your sweet talking for the bedroom” Booger scoffs under his breath.
The brothers chuckled lowly after the joke. I narrowed my eyes at him, but Fist was the one to cut him short while he was still laughing.
“Boog, you cut him off again and I’ll cut off your whoring pecker.” The old man threatens before acknowledging me again. “Elaborate, Blackjack. If you please.”
I nodded, swallowing down the lump in my throat.
“If I’m correct, we were going downhill with our supply records. It wasn’t until Ashley came home that we started doing something about it. We became more alert with who was messing around with not only your daughter but––”
“With us.” Fist agrees. “Ashley came here mid-April. We had our meeting in early May to talk about what we were going to do about the missing product.”
“But when did we notice those shortages in the first place?” I stood up, asking the men around me, “Who was keeping records with what was going on in our ammunition shed? Or the arms rack?” It was only discovered recently when Kade and Zane went through our supply that we weren’t just missing drugs. Our arms supplies had been impacted too, and greatly at that.
Dixon’s voice came up automatically, “I oversaw ammunition and arms until New Years before the holidays.”
“And after?” I throw my hands up, everyone recognizing my frustration.
“We didn’t find anything significant missing until February…” Fist drifted off, his eyes looking down to the table of men before his hand slammed down on the wood. “Damn it! Who the hell is keeping our records!”
That’s when it hit me. Who was the one person who had been metaphorically sitting on the sidelines while the rest of us were out doing the runs. They didn’t have access to records but that couldn’t stop them from getting their hands in the cookie jar. Records, records, record… recording!
“Prez!” The old man’s surprised expression landed on me and I could feel the words slipping out. “I think we may have a rat and I’m pretty fucking sure I know who it is.”
“Who?” He snaps out.
“We’re gonna need some insect repellant”