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~Dealer~
CALM BEFORE THE STORM.
Well, more like calm after that storm down in Brockford and the calm before the massive blow that’s still coming on our end.
For Priest, what he pulled back there weren’t a full-on attack, not to guys like him. Nah, it was little more than a warning shot. But it had another purpose too. The fucker’s trying to get inside our heads, trying to force a reaction from me and mine, trying to push us to make a mistake, a majorly wrong move out of emotion and fear.
And the way Ax has been since that day has me real worried he’s gonna fall for it and play into exactly what that motherfucker wants. Sure, he’s calmed down with me and Char now, accepting us and all that, but he’s also made it clear over and over that it ain’t enough for him that we already put the wannabe kidnappers to ground. Ain’t enough neither that it’s got Priest retreating and freaking out. Nah, it won’t be enough until Priest and every single one of his Gatekeepers are dead, until the entire empire is decimated, razed to the ground.
It’s a definite pattern for Ax. It’s how he gets whenever things get personal, when his family is threatened directly. It’s how he was when Frank Newman attacked the club on home soil and went for the kids. He wouldn’t stop until there was nothing left of him and his organization. The same went for the Devil’s Mavericks a few years back. He literally had the club burned to the ground, killed his own father in cold blood for it. I was down for his response on that situation. Hell, I was right there with him, backing him up every step of the way.
But this thing with Priest ain’t the same. Priest ain’t like them. This ain’t gonna get done just through brute force. That way is gonna result in a ton of casualties, maybe even actual fatalities.
Ax won’t handle a hit like that well. And with war coming, it ain’t a hit the club can afford to take right now.
I’m the guy usually talking him down when he gets like this, when brute force ain’t the right option, but after what’s happened but he ain’t hearing me. Sure, he’s got his VP, Grit, who’s a major calming force. But not when it comes to something this big-picture. The only person Ax has ever entrusted that to is me, and I know a lot of it is because I used to be Prez. He knows unless somebody else has stood in those same shoes, they ain’t gonna grasp it fully. Only another club president can.
It's got me on the fence about calling Spartan up. I know Ax trusts him, but that’s just as an ally right now. There’s a big difference between that and trusting somebody as a friend and even as family. Besides, knowing that ego of Ax’s, he ain’t gonna want to admit that he needs a shoulder to lean on, or even somebody to bounce ideas off. I’m the exception to that, because with everything we’ve been through, there ain’t no place for ego between us.
Fortunately, there ain’t just me and Spartan who can get through to his stubborn ass.
The person in question comes out onto the porch where I’m waiting on the family to get going for the day.
“Morning, Dad.”
“Morning, princess.” I eye Ava in her arms. “Little princess.” She waves wildly and all excited and I wave back, chuckling.
“Sorry breakfast is so late today. Neil had to take a call.”
I’ve stayed here enough times to know how things work in their family unit. Nobody touches the breakfast-making but Ax. He’s got a whole thing about it, a real production he’s got going on. Rox will wake Ava up and take care of her, get her dressed and all that, while he’ll make a big breakfast, sometimes a whole continental fancy-ass thing and call them down, they’ll sit together as a family talking and joking and spending some time together before Ax heads off to the clubhouse, Roxana heads down to Roxana’s Interiors, and Ava heads to pre-school.
“No worries. I got time right now. Plus, Char had to sleep in after being awake half the night.” And the night before that, actually. She ain’t doing well with this waiting to take out Priest and his Gatekeepers. She’s a lot like Ax in that way, except way more strategic and never letting her emotions get the best of her like he’s been known for doing more than once or twice over the years, that rage of his leading the way.
“So, you’re going to take Charlotte for a tour around Reirdon Falls today, right?”
“Yeah.”
Even though that’s the extent of my response, it has Roxana grinning and commenting, “So it is as serious as I predicted, I see. Just like I told Neil!”
“You told him that?”
“Yeah. Right after I saw how you two were together down in Brockford.”
That explains why Ax reacted so intensely right off the bat. He already knew, took Roxana’s word on it, and he knows she’s real good at noticing that kind of thing. He was freaked out before I even said a word or got a chance to explain it.
Well, at least all that’s dealt with now.
“You wanna talk about it?” I ask. So far we ain’t said a word on it between us. She seemed fine with it all, so I planned to just check in once Priest was dealt with and things were settled. But now she’s brought it up directly, I can’t just blow past it like I ain’t heard it at all. That never works out well when it comes to my daughter.
Ava throws her hands in the air, making it difficult for Roxana to keep a hold of her, crying out excitedly, “Anpa!” Can’t say Grandpa all the way yet, but she’s coming along with her talking real quickly. Roxana was a late talker, didn’t really get going until she was four. Ava’s only two and half. She must get that from Ax then.
I hold out my hands and Roxana eases my granddaughter into my arms and I settle her on my lap.
Roxana takes a seat on the edge of the sun chair beside me that looks out over the courtyard of her home. “Are you happy? With Charlotte, I mean?”
“Yeah, I am.”
“Then there’s nothing more to be said on the matter.”
