Chapter 29
Jace
Damn. Something had happened, but fuck if I knew what. I let Luna walk away, because my gut told me that she needed to deal with shit on her own, and I wasn't sure that I would have been of any help anyway. I was a take action kind of man, and my usual methods of taking care of trouble came at the end of my fists. Not that I couldn't talk shit out when the situation called for it, but when emotions and women were involved, I was at a loss. I couldn't begin to understand what went on in a woman's mind. Luna’s pain and tears gutted me though, because deep down I sensed that I was the cause of them. And that was on me.
I'd come in for a cup of coffee but now I wanted something stronger, and there was no fucking way that I was going to start drinking whiskey at seven in the morning. I looked down at the broken cup and the spilled coffee on the floor and snorted, deciding that I would clean it up myself. I was in the process of picking up the pieces of the cup when the sound of heavy footfalls alerted me that someone had joined me.
"Whoa! Brother, when did you grow a vagina?"
I gave Raze a glare as I put the broken pieces into the trash. "Fuck you," I snapped, grabbing a handful of paper towels. "You going to tell me that you don't help your woman around the house?"
He laughed, heading for the coffee maker. "It gets me pussy any time I want," he admitted proudly. "I saw your woman leaving. She looked upset."
My woman. I couldn't argue with him, because I'd claimed Luna, mainly because I didn't want anyone touching her except me. That made me sound like a selfish bastard, but I had to work out my insane attraction for her. That was not going as planned, though. If anything, I wanted her more now, and not just in my bed. She was setting up house in my heart, and I didn't know what to fucking do with that.
"She do that?" Raze grinned, bringing his cup to his mouth while watching me clean up the coffee. The man had a black eye and a big gash on his cheek. His knuckles resembled mine.
"Accident."
"So, what'd you do to piss her off?"
The asshole was still grinning. "She look pissed to you?" I snapped.
His expression grew serious. "No. She looked like someone stomped on her puppy."
I could only nod. "Hell of a fight yesterday," I said, changing the subject to something I was more comfortable talking about. "Too fucking bad about the brothers."
He nodded slowly. "Can't wait to send those fuckers to hell, and get shit back to normal around here." He set his cup in the sink. "Once those drones get here shit's going to move fast, brother. Reaper won't wait to put the plan into motion. After that we'll have three funerals to plan. You going to hang around?"
"Fuck, yes," I answered without hesitation.
Raze gave my shoulder a hard pat as he walked by. "Glad you're here to help, brother. Going to go out and sneak a smoke before my old lady shows up."
A smoke sounded good right about then. I decided to follow him outside.
****
Luna
With too much on my mind and nowhere to go, I was going crazy. Lockdown sucked. Sure, the compound was large and had lots of outdoor space, but the whole thing was fenced in, and the sight of razor wire along the top of the fence made it feel like a prison. In a way, it was. It kept us inside, supposedly safe from whatever enemies the club had. I actually did like being there—I liked the people, the comradely and the family dynamic that I hadn't had, ever. If only I could leave once in a while.
And do what, Luna? Feeling cooped up isn't my problem. Recognizing that my relationship with Jace is just sexual and is probably going nowhere is. He's been honest with me and I let him use me like a bitch in heat. What's wrong with me? I've been attracted to men before. No, not like this. There's something about Jace that really gets to me. He's everything in a man I that didn't know I wanted. Unkempt in a rugged, sexy kind of way, with muscles on his muscles.
I laughed at that silly description.
He's buff for a man in his forties, and I like the touch of gray at his temples.
I released a deep sigh.
Most of all I like his hands on me, his lips on mine, and what he makes me feel.
"You talking to yourself, honey?" I started and swung around, relieved to see that Bee, and not Jace, had moved up behind where I was sitting on top of the picnic table.
"I refuse to answer on the grounds that it may incriminate me," I chuckled, a little embarrassed that she'd caught me.
"Maybe you need to talk to a doctor about your problem," she joked. She came around and climbed up onto the bench to join me.
I laughed. "Melvin or Doctor Lockhart?" I noticed that she didn't have Max with her. "Where's the baby?"
"Spending quality time with his daddy." She released a resigned breath, looking in the direction of the trees beyond the fence.
Something in her tone snagged my attention, a kind of sadness that she couldn't disguise. "Are you okay?"
I wasn't surprised when she shook her head. "A little worried I guess." She took a deep breath before continuing. "Any time the club loses someone it reminds the rest of us how unpredictable and dangerous their lives are. We all deal with it in our own way, but I have a baby to think about."
"I'm sure everything will work out." I wasn't really sure of anything, but it seemed to be the right thing to say. I was concerned, too. "Did Reba and Tiger have children?" It occurred to me that I hadn't spent as much time around Reba as I had with the other old ladies.
"No. No children. Back in the beginning, when the MC was new, things were different. Warring clubs were at each other's throats on a daily basis, men were dying left and right. The cops were less apt to get involved, because MCs were so violent. So they decided not to bring children into it."
"This is all new to me," I confessed. "How long has the club been around?"
"It was founded around thirty years ago by Reaper and Wolfman's fathers. They also have chapters in Maine and Massachusetts. They started out as a serious outlaw club, but in the last few years Reaper has done his best to change their reputation in the public eye by doing charity work and donating money. But that doesn't matter to the other MCs out there who want to prove that their bigger and badder, or who want to run the Wreckers out of their established area. And when that happens, and the club is forced to protect themselves or retaliate, it puts them right back into the spotlight for the wrong reasons. Fortunately, it doesn't happen very often."
I nodded with understanding, because a lot of what she was saying backed up what Casey had already told me. "I hope Reba will be okay."
Bee nodded with a small smile. "She will be in time. The members of the MC are like one big family. She'll be taken care of."
Yes, but I knew that that wouldn't replace what she’d had with Tiger.
A slight commotion at the gate drew my attention. Since I'd been outside I'd noticed bikers arriving, some in groups, some by themselves, but when I looked this time I found the prospect opening the gate to let a delivery van inside. Several men rushed over to it as the driver got out and walked to the back to open the double doors. They began to work together to unload it and disappeared around the side of the building. Soon after, Wolfman came walking in our direction. It was clear by the way his gaze rested on Bee that he had eyes only for her. The love reflected in his eyes made me yearn for Jace to look at me in the same way.
"Where's our son?" Bee asked when Wolfman reached us.
"Down for his nap, babe. I came to tell you that Reaper's called church." He rubbed the bottom half of his whiskered jaw, looked at me, and then back to her. "Just wanted to prepare you, we'll most likely be riding out shortly after dark."
His gaze shot my way again, and something about the way that he looked made me wonder if he wished that I weren’t there. Maybe he had something private to say to Bee, or maybe he was afraid of saying too much in front of me, but I immediately brushed that thought away, because none of the Wreckers that I'd met so far had a problem saying what was on their mind. If Wolfman wanted me gone, he would have told me to leave.
"Jace will be riding out with us, honey."
"Is this a dangerous ride?" I asked, forcing a smile that I didn't feel. I knew that he wasn't going to answer me, and if he did that it wouldn’t be the truth. I could see it in his eyes, and the smile Bee gave me conveyed mild regret, as if she knew that Wolfman wasn't going to say what I wanted to hear and felt bad for me.
"Club business, honey. Don't know when we'll be back."
"I've noticed members from the other chapters arriving," Bee commented.
He nodded and leaned in to kiss her, and I turned away to give them some privacy. I stared at the tree line, trying to ignore the sounds of their passionate kiss, thinking that I should seek Jace out to tell him goodbye, too. I hadn't seen him since that morning when I'd left him in the kitchen. I'd run into Melanie and Val, two of the club wives, in the hallway. They'd been on their way to the laundry room and had clearly needed help with their full baskets and the little ones who had been trailing behind them, so I'd offered to help.
It had kept me busy for a good part of the day, and had kept my mind from feeling sorry for myself.
"Love you, babe," I heard Wolfman murmur in a gravelly tone.
"I love you, too." I could hear the tremor of emotion in Bee's voice. "Be careful please."
"Always."
I sensed Wolfman walking away. Glancing at Bee, I could see the effort that she was making to not break down as she stared across the yard. It scared me, and I wondered what exactly she knew about the ride that the men were going on. A sense of doom settled over me. I reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze, drawing her gaze to me. She gave me a watery smile. I wanted to tell her that it would be okay, but the words wouldn't come.
Would it be okay?
Bee released a deep breath and squared her shoulders. "I better go check on Max."
She made to get up and I followed. "I'm coming, too. I want to see Jace before he goes."
I knew that he may already have been in church, but I would wait for him to come out. It surprised me to see him when I walked into the main room where the bar was located. It was practically bare of men. CC and Toya and a couple of the other club women that I didn't know were hanging at the bar. Jace was walking through the room in the direction of where I knew they held their meetings. Our eyes met.
"Don't go anywhere, babe," he ordered lightly.
That was all he said before he disappeared around the corner. I hesitated to go to the bar when the club women, especially CC, were there. I didn't like her, and I was pretty sure she felt the same way about me. She was after Jace, she'd made that very clear, and didn't seem to appreciate boundaries. We made eye contact. I saw her smirk before she whispered something to her friends. That was when I decided to go to the bar and order a drink.
I wasn't going to let her run me off.
"Beer, honey?"
"Please." I returned the smile of the man behind the bar. I knew that he was a prospect because he didn't have any patches on his cut. He was young, maybe early twenties, and completely bald. "Thanks," I said when he set my drink down. "How come you aren't at church? I asked, making conversation.
"Only patched members attend church."
Oh. I took a sip of my beer. Jace and his friend Moody weren't patched members that I knew of, and I wondered if maybe allowances had been made for them.
"Don't waste your time, Toby," CC said from her end of the bar. "She's not going to give it up." The women around her laughed. "You want pussy, baby, you come to us."
That was something to be proud of? I rolled my eyes, biting the inside of my mouth to keep myself from saying something sarcastic about her sounding crude and desperate. Toby actually blushed, and began to wipe down the bar in front of me.
"In fact, I don't think she even knows how to satisfy a man," CC continued with a fake laugh. "Jace couldn't wait to have me suck his cock one morning right after they fucked."
That morning came back to me in a flash, the image of her and Jace together burning a hole in my heart. I refused to engage, sensing that it was what CC wanted. She was hoping to force me into an argument that would put me on the same level as her. I was better than that. I ignored her, pretending to enjoy my beer, even though it hit my stomach like acid.
"He has a nice, big, fat, cock." I couldn't argue with her there, he was huge. "Really scratches the itch. Have any of you girls had a chance to fuck him?" she continued snidely.
Oh, God, I so didn't want to hear the answer to that, and I fought the urge to cover my ears. Had she and Jace actually fucked? Was that how they'd ended their morning after I'd left that first time? I couldn't change it if they had. After all, the club women’s job was to sleep with the men and relieve stress for them. They didn't get paid for what they did, but the club did take care of them in other ways. Casey had told me that it included medical care and anything else that they needed.
The other women didn't seem as eager to be as crude and nasty as CC was being. If they responded to her I didn't hear them, and after a while she seemed to lose interest in taunting me. My mind turned to what could be going on in church.