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My head hits my chest. Fuck.
“After that shit went down with Jessa, I wanted to not only check into Julia as you asked but figure out why Jessa risked your wrath knowing you had it out for her. I hadn’t found shit until today. Ma, look, I have been on this shit and as soon as I knew I did what I felt I needed to. I didn’t know Pops would be out on his own. Fuck. And I figured we, as a club, could handle this shit.” I say incredulously.
“You felt, you fucking felt… Blaze. I am not just your mother, Blaze. I’m your fucking boss. You don’t decide what to do unless Itell you what to do.” With the venom in her voice Ma glares at me. I take a step back as if she fucking punched me in the gut. Something in my eyes must have had my father seeing how her words affected me.
“Savvy,” He says softly to her, taking a shaky step in her direction.
“You are not in charge of shit…. You think with all of your little computer hacking and shit you do, you know better than me… You…”
“Savvy, ENOUGH,”
It isn’t enough she keeps going. And I want to argue with her. I want to tell her I’m not just her son, but Pops, too. Tell her I made the right call with the information I had. Explain that I’m a brother in LSMC Pops is my Prez and my job is to protect him and the club. It took me a while to come to terms with that, but once I did, I felt a sense of kinship and family to my club brothers and my Pops. So, I made the right call going to my VP and telling him what I knew.
But I didn’t say that.
What I did was walk away.
Twenty-One
GUNNER
?
Feeling like I’ve been hit with a Mac truck. My head’s filled with cotton balls, my arm feels like it’s been through a meat grinder. And yet, I’m still aware enough to know shit has gone so far left with my woman and my son. Despite my anger at discovering why I was the target, my focus was on Savvy and how she spoke to our son. That shit was out of line. I know she’s used to being the boss. Believing the last word and decision is hers and hers alone. I understand her anger, but it only takes one look in her eyes to see the truth.
Savvy was scared.
Watching my son react to her words, the pain in his eyes and the slumping of his shoulders nearly sent me to my knees. I hated to see the look in his eyes because I know what it is to disappoint the one person you strive to make proud. Blaze made a choice that was the right one, and Savvy needs to understand that. Blaze isn’t just our son, he’s also a brother in my club, not only a member of the organization. If there is a threat to the club, or to me. He, along with all the brothers, knows to come to me or my VP. He wasn’t wrong in that. He would never be wrong in that, no matter how pissed off Savvy gets about it. I’m damn proud of him because, until tonight and this moment, I wasn’t sure if he would ever see us, me and the brothers in the club, for who and what we are. Family. Family to love, protect, and cherish. Now to get his pissed meerkat of a mother to understand that.
As I watch Blaze retreat from our little group, my good hand hangs as I clench and unclench my fists in frustration at the situation. My eyes leave Blaze meeting my other sons, Bull and Vex, whose eyes bounce back and forth between us. I can see that they understand what their brother is going through and want to go with him. I smirk at how close my boys have become in the last year and a half. I also see indecision in their eyes on what to do. Unfortunately, or fortunately, this isn’t the first time my boys have seen me banged up. With a nod in their direction. Vex visibly sags in relief at my okay to follow his brother. Bull looks between me and Savvy and back to me, his eyes remaining on mine. So many emotions swirl in them and I understand without words that he isn’t happy with me or what just went down with his brother and Savvy.
“I’m good boy. Go to your brother.”
As the last words leave my lips, Savvy turns her glare on me. And unlike my son, she is about to learn real quick that I will not put up with her shit. I’ve let this woman run roughshod over me because I deserved it, but we are past that now. She has accepted my claim as my woman and she needs to understand exactly what that means. Her little fit out here with Blaze shouldn’t have happened. She is in my world now, and she needs to respect the order of things. Which I know is going to be a hard as-hell pill for her to swallow, being a boss in her own right. Savvy is used to being in charge, being the one to make the decisions, and the one our children go to. And then it clicks.
Turning away from her. I look over when I feel a tug on my arm. Doc has been working on me since Savvy dug the bullet out of my arm not so gently. The shit still throbs, but dealing with my family and cleaning this shit up is more important.
Looking around, I hadn’t noticed the road had become busy with activity while I was being patched up. I’ve always known the capacity of the organization, but to see it in action is something else. The unmistakable unmarked vehicles of the organization’s cleanup crew dot the road with a few additions. My eyes find Petrov, who is standing on the side of the road speaking to a group similarly dressed like him. I assume they are his men. When our eyes connect, his narrow as he takes me in from head to toe before turning away and barking out orders in Russian. He turns and stares at me as his men disperse, but I don’t break eye contact with him until he turns away to say something to one of his men and walks toward his awaiting vehicle.
I hadn’t known he’d arrived. I guess I wouldn’t have since it had to have happened during the gunfight and before my club brothers came to my rescue.
My eyes leave where he is standing and look around, taking in the scene and not seeing what I’m expecting. I chuckle, realizing they’ve up their game. There isn’t a cop or paramedic in sight, but there are an ambulance and cruisers stationed on either side of where we are currently standing. Before I ask, Bellamy must see the question in my eyes.
“Oh, yeah. Well, you know we didn’t want an innocent bystander to come across this and want to be a hero. So you know… Badda Bing Badda Boom. Cop cars and ambulances for you.” She chuckles.
I shake my head at her explanation, expecting nothing less from my girl. Taz gives me a look and a shrug. He knows that is all the explanation we are going to get about it. With a nod, he turns and pulls her away, no doubt to give me a moment with my still fuming woman.
Looking at Savvy, she is glaring at the road, bloody fists clenched at her sides as she mumbles to herself. I look down at Doc who catches my eye understanding what I want. He mumbles he’ll deal with the rest of my injuries at the clubhouse and he takes off.
When I take a step toward Savvy, she doesn’t react. Her back remains to me, but I know she can feel me. She always feels me as I feel her. As much as I want to pull her into my arms and reassure her, I’m okay. She and I need to have a few words. Releasing a breath, knowing how pissed she is, this conversation is going to get ugly. I’d rather do it here and now than at the clubhouse because our rules are different. The brothers may have given her leeway in the past, but that’s over now and her getting froggy with me there will not fly. Hell, Bellamy has learned that lesson on more than one occasion. So that is a fight I’m just not in the mood for. And honestly, when I get back, I’ll have shit to do and a bitch to hunt down and deal with my fucking way. Savvy needs to know now that, even if this Julia bitch is her past, she is squarely in my present and came for me. And when you send for me, I’ll come for you and come hard. The shit with Beverly was different, and Savvy needs to understand who the fuck I am. I allowed her and our kids to do their thing and I appreciated them coming to my, Princesses, and the club’s aid, but she needs to know that I’m not some weak motherfucker that can be so easily fucked with without repercussions.
“When he is wearing his cut Savvy, you are his mother, not his boss. His mother.” I say my voice even, but letting her know exactly whose side I’m on.
She whips around, leveling me with a glare, one that I’ve become immune to.
“Nope, before you pop off. Fucking listen. I’ve let you say and do shit out of respect for you. I’ve taken more shit from you than I have anyone in my forty-plus years of life, and I deserved it. I know I deserved your ire and wrath. But in this, when it comes to my club, you don’t get a say.” The deadly glare she gives me makes it clear my words are pissing her off. Before she can respond, I raise my hand with a shake of my head and a glare of my own, one I wouldn’t usually level on her. One that lesser men would shrink away from. One that says that I am not talking shit, but damn serious. A glare this situation, unfortunately, calls for.
“You don’t get to come down on one of my brothers because he didn’t do something the way you wanted him to. Son or not, member of the organization or not. When Blaze is wearing my club’s colors, he is mine. He follows my lead, my orders, and my decree as a brother of my club.” I glare at her. She’s pissed, but so am I.
