Page 42 of Virago

Double A took his time before he answered. When he finally did, he opened with a blustery, defeated sigh. “Candy and me, we’re goin’ through a rough spell. Just snipin’ at each other, mostly. I honestly don’t know where it started. You know how it is, little shit builds up sometimes, like gunk in the gutters. We’re just not gettin’ along too well right now. But last night, we had a wall-shaker of a fight. Don’t matter about what, it started stupid, but it blew up, and we said shit that hurt. I said something mean and made her cry, she said something that made me need to hit somethin’, so I left and came here. It was in that dead spell that always happens after eleven or so, and I was the only one around. I sat at the bar with a bottle and poured myself a few. Then Mindy walks in. She’s drunk, she’s cryin’, got a big bloody scratch on her face, says she and her sister had a knock-down over somethin’. I don’t know, she wasn’t makin’ a lot of sense.”

Rubbing his hands roughly over his face, Double A paused for a few seconds. Neither Badger nor Zaxx filled that empty space.

“I don’t know, Badge. I didn’t think I was drunk, but maybe I was. She sure as fuck was. I helped her clean up her face, and I offered to take her home. I spent the day working on the Dyna and it wasn’t back together yet, so I had the truck. I figured I could be a nice guy and take her home, put her where she belonged. That’s all I meant. I’m not interested in Mindy Jasper. She’s too young for me, for one thing. For another, she’s a huge pain in the shitter. And for the biggest thing, I fuckin’ love my wife and wouldn’t cheat on her. I was just ... I guess trying to do somethin’ nice while I was feelin’ like an asshole for making my woman cry.”

Zaxx was confident he could fill in the rest of the story. He knew how Mindy operated. She had one signature move that almost always worked, because men were simple creatures at their core. “She went down on you in your truck. And you didn’t push her off.”

Double A nodded bleakly. “Yeah. I don’t know why I didn’t stop her. I guess my head was all fucked up, and I was drunker than I thought.” He looked earnestly at Badger. “But I did not fuck her. She sucked me off. That’s all. I got no clue how her dainties ended up on the floor of my truck. She sucked me off, I dropped her at her house, and I went home. This morning, Candy still wasn’t talkin’ to me from the fight. She took the kids to church in the truck, and I finished putting the Dyna together and came here. You saw what happened next.”

Apparently, what happened next was Candy storming into the Hall with Mindy’s underwear in her fist.

If Mindy only gave Double A head, there was no reason for her panties to be off. Unless ...

Zaxx sat forward. “What if she planted her panties?”

Double A turned, his eyes wide. “Left ‘em behind on purpose to fuck me up? Why? I was bein’ nice to her!”

“That’s why,” Zaxx said. “Mindy wants to be somebody. She wants to be important. Here, the club is what’s important, so she wants a patch’s ink. She had a bad night last night, being ignored at the bar. I’m not making an accusation that she for sure did it, I’m just sayin’ I could see her thinking she had a shot with you, if she got your old lady out of the way. Did you say anything to her about trouble with Candy?”

“Fuck.” Double A leaned forward, rested his elbows on his knees and dropped his head. “Yeah. She asked why I was there all alone, and I told her.”

“Jesus fuck.” Badger leaned back in his chair. “We can’t have your personal shit smearing all over our floor, Dub. You know that. It’s more than a mess in the clubhouse. When one of the old ladies is hurt, all our women bring it home. And what the fuck was Mindy doing in here last night? She’s been banned for more than a year.” He turned to Zaxx. “Because of your mess with her. Christ, is she that good a fuck?”

“No,” Zaxx and Double A answered in accidental unison. Then they glanced at each other and almost smiled.

Zaxx took that slight ease of tension as his moment to say his piece. “I know I’m not in here because I went out with Mindy a little bit almost two years ago. If I’m here about Gia, that’s between her and me.”

Badger glared at him. “And her father.”

Zaxx shook his head. Regardless of any other complications he needed to think about, Gia’s father was not one he would countenance. “No. Isaac might want control over this, but he doesn’t have it. And it’s nobody else’s business. Gia is no pick-me Harley humper making trouble in the clubhouse. That’s Dub’s trouble, but it’s not mine. If there’s drama here over me being with Gia, that’ll be Isaac causing it, not me and not her. So take it up with Isaac. If he wants to come at me, I’ll meet him head on.”

Double A chuckled harshly. “My dude, you got no idea. He’s old and broke down, but he’s still a beast. And we’re talkin’ about Gia here. He will not see reason. If he wants you in parts, he will take you apart, and half the club will stand there and watch him do it. I’m surprised you’re not a bloody heap already. I don’t think any piece of news spread faster through town than you sucking face with Isaac’s baby girl right in the middle of the bar on a Saturday fuckin’ night.”

“Until your news, that is,” Zaxx shot back. Double A sat straight up, offended and ready to fight about it.

“Don’t you two fuckin’ start,” Badger barked. Then he signed heavily. “Dub’s not wrong. When it comes to his family, Isaac is nuts. But I’ll talk to him. Just ... fuck, Z. Of all the girls you could get with, it had to be Gia? Crazy as Isaac is about his family—and the man is fuckin’ certifiable—where Gia’s concerned, it’s not just him. She’s like the town daughter. Everybody loves her, most everybody treats her like their own.”

“Like a sacred artifact,” he said, remembering Gia’s own words to describe the same phenomenon—the reason she wanted to be away.

“Yeah,” Badger agreed, apparently missing the wrongness of seeing Gia, a flesh-and-blood woman, like that. “But Isaac’s the biggest concern. He called me at five this morning, and he was looking for backup. He meant to storm in and pull your bare ass out of her bed, and he meant to make a mess. Lilli and I talked him down from that, but it was a close thing.” Again he sighed, like the work of this day had worn him to the bone already. “I’ll work on him some more. I’m gonna offer him the ring. Maybe that’ll be enough. Be ready for that.”

Zaxx had been ready for that since his Gia first pulled him down for a kiss. Meeting her father in the ring was table stakes at this point, and becoming less important as bigger worries crowded in.

“I’m ready,” he said.

Tugging on his beard, Badger sighed yet again. “Okay, let’s wrap this up, because I fuckin’ hate that we’re sittin’ here talking about women as club business. Zaxx, I’m not gonna tell you not to see Gia, but for fuck’s sake be discreet about it, and figure it out with her father, somehow. And holy shit, don’t do anything to hurt her. Ever.” He shifted his attention to his VP. “Dub, you figure your shit out with your woman. Candy and Adrienne are close, and I am gonna catch heat from my wife over your drunken dick. I do not like other people’s bullshit stinkin’ up my marriage. And I gotta figure out how to neutralize Mindy. It’s one thing to be a drama llama and a nuisance, but if she’s throwing bombs into patches’ marriages, she has got to go.”

“We’re not talking about hurting her,” Zaxx said, hoping he was right.

Badger frowned at him. “Of course not. Not physically. Intimidate, though, yeah. I’m absolutely willing to scare the shit out of her—and to fuck with her life if I need to. She still works at Sinclair Harley, right?”

Double A shrugged. Zaxx said, “Far as I know.”

“I’m happy to call Doug and get her fired, and I’m happy to tell her that.” He leaned in again. “And from here on out, I’m gonna fucking fine any patch who lets her cross our threshold—her and her sister—and I mean the metaphorical threshold and the real one. No Horde with a Jasper girl. Period. They wanna fuck bikers, they can find some at her job, as long as she’s still working there. If not, they can go to Moe’s and take their chances there. Now both of you get the fuck out of my office—and keep your private shit private from now on, yeah?”

When Zaxx finally left Badger’s office, his head spun like a centrifuge. All his thoughts were slammed against the side of his skull, unable to move. How had it become so complicated to simply want to be with a woman who wanted to be with him?

Holy shit, don’t hurt her, Badger had warned. Ever. Was that even possible?

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