Chapter 23

For weeks now Trixie had been shuffling back and forth from his place to the farmhouse. She was scheduled to work, and he was afraid to offer to pay her bills. She would probably hand him his balls and hit him over the head with a brick. He did ask her to move in with him and Riley, but she hadn’t given him an answer yet, although she did periodically kidnap the little furball and let the women at the farmhouse have visitation with her. His place was lonely when Trixie wasn’t there, so when Riley was gone too he took his ass to the club and listened to the brothers bitch and complain.

Last night he had recruited Trencher and Stank to go for a road trip, and they had looked up an old friend of Trixie’s. The fucker was still a shade tree grease monkey that thought he was a bad ass. Krom didn’t bother talking or arguing. He walked inside the sty that was advertised as a garage and grabbed the first man that he saw. He rammed his greasy head into the block wall, and let the fucker fall while he searched for his prey.

Gleason was working an old-fashioned tire changer when Krom walked into the back room. He had some sense of self-preservation because he raised the wedged angle iron that he had been using to jury rig the machine. The iron was yanked from his grasp, and he flew through the air into the hissing air compressor.

The last thing that Gleason saw was the steel toe of Krom’s boot slamming him between his eyes. The kick to the back of his neck just under his skull might have been overkill, but Krom didn’t give a shit. Looking at the beefy motherfucker that had beaten Trixie enraged him. He turned to leave, and the first man was coming his way with a wicked looking blade. Krom’s boot blocked the steel from doing any damage, and the man lost his grip on the hilt, causing it to clatter to the floor. He ran rather than waiting for Krom to regain his balance.

Krom walked out of the room and watched as Stank struck the fleeing man with the hubcap from a Chevy truck. It was almost amusing to see him fall backward into a mechanic’s pit. Those deep holes were outlawed nowadays, but in a place as old as this building was, it wasn’t a surprise to see one in use. For long seconds, the only sound in the place was a radio playing southern rock and roll.

Trencher lit one of the oil-soaked rags that seemed to cover every surface in the building, and tossed it on top of an old barrel that was labeled Waste Oil.

He was glad that that chore was finished, but wished that Gleason had put up more of a fight.

Tonight, he planned on asking Trixie to be his old lady. It was a big step, but he was certain that she wouldn’t humiliate him in front of the club, so he had gotten the go ahead from the brothers, and all he needed was the go ahead from the woman herself.

He took a deep breath and held the door open for her to walk through. She was looking good as usual in her jeans and a boat necked t-shirt that almost matched the color of his eyes, and Krom smiled when he saw the pinky ring on her finger and the bracelet that he’d sent her while he was in Florida around her wrist.

They sat with Snort and his wife, and when Trencher tossed the leather vest to Krom, the people in the room knew what was about to take place.

He stood up and held out his hand for her to take it and be pulled up into his arms. “I think you know what’s going on here, but since I’ve put you through hell a few times, I guess I can be man enough to let you take me down if that’s how you want to play it out. Either way, you will be my woman, my old lady. Will you be my old lady?”

She nodded and jumped up onto his neck while everyone around them laughed and clapped. “I thought that you were never going to ask.”

She stood on her own feet and let him help her into the garment with a patch declaring that she was his property. It felt odd, but she couldn’t stop smiling. She patted the pockets because one was sticking out a little bit and she thought there might be a wrinkle in the lining.

What she found when she stuck her fingers inside the small opening confused her at first, and as her fingers explored the object, she almost passed out. She pulled the ring from the leather and held it in her hand, not knowing what to do with it. Did this mean that he wanted more than-? No, he wouldn’t-

He went down on his knee right there in front of the club and took the ring from her fingers before he placed it on the third finger of her left hand. She never heard him ask her to marry him. The crowd was making so much noise that she couldn’t have heard a bomb go off. She finally nodded her head and smiled. She was going to be the best wife that a man could ask for. She was going to have a home and hopefully kids, and she was- She shook her head and laughed out loud.

She was going to be happy, and the rest could take care of itself.