“Don’t tell me you’re afraid of bikers,” I called out to her.
“Not at all.It’s just…” Her explanation trailed off and I turned to see what had caused her to go mute.Knuckles, Grease, and Bigfoot rounded the corner and started to head our way.
“It’s almost time.I can’t wait to see what sweet, sweet Nell cooked up for us,” Knuckles called out.He clapped his hands together and rubbed them as if he was about to unwrap the greatest gift of all time.That was about the time his eyes drifted toward the truck.He stopped cold in his tracks and his jaw actually looked as though it came unhinged for a minute.I glanced back-and-forth between Cassidy and Knuckles who both appeared frozen in the other’s presence.
“What the fuck?”I asked as quietly as I could.
“Why don’t you hop back in the truck, Cass?”Grunt said as he stepped in front of the woman to block her view, or maybe to block Knuckles’ view of her.“I’ll go help you unload, so you can get out of here faster.”
“What the fuck, Grunt?”Knuckles called as he started to jog across the lot toward the truck.He didn’t bother heading to the side of the truck everyone else was on, though.Instead, he opened the passenger door and threw himself inside just as Cassidy pulled herself up into the driver’s seat.
“No!Nope, Nope, Nope,” Cassidy repeated the angry mantra of nopes as she shook her head adamantly.“Get your ass out of my truck, James!”
It was obvious she must have known the boys from before they became members.At least that was what I assumed since she used their government names and I couldn’t place her as having been around the club at all.Nell covered her mouth, and looked like she was trying to hide a smile behind her sleeve as I pulled her back into my front and moved us further away from the truck.
“What do you know, sweetheart?”
“I know nothing but I really want to understand what the dynamic is.We were originally going to have the party over at the Morton’s place and do the unveiling there, so everyone would remain surprised.I literally told her there was a change of plans and sent the clubhouse address this morning.I didn’t see her texts until she drove up, but she’s been trying to back out since I sent that text and I’m beginning to think Knuckles might have something to do with her not wanting to be here.”
The truck eventually backed down the lot and then down the side of the building to make for an easier unload into the club’s kitchen.We stayed put because Nell refused to leave her creation unattended.“Your club brothers can be assholes and someone will peek,” she insisted.
Bigfoot and Grease, who had finally made their way over to us, laughed as Grease nodded his head.Our shining example, the club’s president, was the one who tried to lift the corner of the canvas blanket that covered the piece.My wife smacked his hand away and turned to me with one hand on her hip and another pointing at Bigfoot.“See what I mean?”
“You are always right, sweetheart,” I agreed with a grin plastered to my face as I watched Bigfoot stare down at his hand where she’d smacked him.
Grunt made a whipping noise and laughed as I glared over at him.“That pussy got you all kinds of…”
I put a boot to his ass and the poor bastard tipped over and fell as his knee gave out on him.“Never talk about my wife’s pussy,” I warned.
“Fuck man, I was just saying you were whipped.”
“Yeah, that’s not an insult.Nell’s the best thing that ever happened to me and I’m smart enough to know how to keep my woman happy.”
“Awww, Love, that was so sweet,” Nell called out as she worked with Brady to rig up some sort of pully system from the forklift behind the installation to the canvas covering it.
“What’s up with the blonde chick and Knuckles?”I asked as Grunt got up and dusted himself off.
“We all grew up together, high school, the whole nine yards.Knuckles and me were best buds.Cassidy used to be best friends with Simone.”
“No shit?”I asked, shocked because everyone hated Knuckle’s ex-wife.Even when they were together, we were all hard-pressed to figure out why.
“It’s a long messy story, but that dumbass fucked up and left the wrong woman swinging in the wind and then he made matters worse when he finally caught Simone.He blamed Cassidy, very publicly, for not telling him that his wife was cheating.Dickwad didn’t even realize that Cassidy stopped being friends with the bitch around the same time Simone announced she was marrying Knuckles.Cass had it bad for him back in the day.Simone was just using him because…” He hesitated to finish that explanation for some reason.“Well, she had her reasons, as unfounded as they were.Cass took the hit when Simone betrayed her and hooked her claws into Knuckles - who happened to be Cass’s life-long crush.”Grunt shook his head.“That girl deserved better than she got from both of them.Not sure how he thinks he’s going to fix things, but I’m guessing this is the first time Knuckles has laid eyes on her since the shit show when he blamed her for everything, even though she was the one with a broken heart his wife had done.Broke that damn woman’s heart all over again.”
Nell had been listening to Grunt recap the situation.As she got off the ladder and came to stand by my side, she suggested, “Maybe someone should go check on her.”
“Go right on ahead,” Bigfoot called out encouragingly.
“Nope.It can’t be me.I have to keep you vultures away from the prize.”She glanced down at her phone.“We have one hour.You should make sure everyone’s here for the unveiling by then.”Nell grabbed a chair that was strapped to the back of the forklift, unfolded it, and sat her ass right in front of the covered art.She was serious about guarding it until the unveiling.
“I’ll go check on them,” Grunt said as he walked off toward the side of the building where the truck had parked.I followed behind, not intending to get in the middle of anyone’s business, but making sure some angry broad wasn’t about to burn the clubhouse down for revenge.Simone had been crazy enough to do it, so I worried a woman who was once her best friend might be as well.
When I rounded the corner, Grunt had stopped short and I ran right into him.I looked past his shoulder to see that Knuckles had the blonde pinned against the wall and his lips plastered to hers.
“Well, nothing to see here, I guess.”I said just as the woman pushed him away and smacked him across the face.
“You were saying?”Grunt asked.
“Fuck, man, that looked like it stung.Maybe we should leave them to it.We could go beg Nell to give us a preview.”
