AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The last week or so since Chelsea left had been both quiet and fucking crazy all at once. We weren’t any closer to figuring out what the fuck was going on with the DePalma’s. Leo had been keeping a watch on Anthony with one of our boys sitting outside his hotel at all times of the day and night. Hoping, that if they try something else, that we won’t be caught with our pants down like we were with the car bomb that was planted under Chelsea’s car.
Kev had taken a look at what was left of the device, and had come to the conclusion that it was set to a timer. So the mystery remained, was Chelsea the target or was the bomb meant to go off and hit the club and hopefully some of its members.
Luckily for us, Chelsea parks her car under the shade of a tree which borders the fence line of the clubhouse, and not near the building itself like we do with our bikes. So there was very little damage done to anything but her car.
Leo tells me that Anthony has been leaving the hotel and meeting up with some men for casual lunches or drinks. From what we can gather they’re wealthy businessmen but nothing so far that seems like a threat to the club. It’s all very strange and ultimately mindfucking. But for now, the heat from the fire wasn’t burning too hot, and I was hoping it would stay that way.
I sat on a picnic table outside, watching Harlyn as she raced around the playground. The kid never seemed to get tired. When Sugar wasn’t forcing her to sit down and do her school work, she was constantly on the playground. It was like every day she looked at it like it was a new toy to play with, but it was just the same stuff she’d spent hours playing on the day before. I guess that was a child’s imagination for you. You could dream up anything and turn it into something amazing.
I heard the front gates creak open. I climbed off the table and walked over to the large fence that we’d built to protect the view of our outdoor area from the road. The reason for it being there always caused me to feel a rush of emotion. My mother had been shot sitting right where I was just sitting during a drive by. Some small time punks who thought they were the shit, wanting to brag about shooting up the local MC’s clubhouse.
My mom was killed that day and I should have been sitting there next to her, maybe even in front of her so that the bullets would have hit my body instead of hers. But at sixteen I was far more concerned about making it known that I wanted to prospect for the club. It would be two years until I would be allowed to even step up and plead my case, but I had watched these men my whole life. I knew this was where I wanted to be.
So instead of sitting outside with the women and children while the men held church, I was inside, sitting outside that room, waiting for them to come out. Offering to do jobs and wanting to spend time with them.
Thinking of myself rather than watching out for my mom.
I shook the thoughts from my head as I stepped into the space where the path ran down the side of the clubhouse from the front to the back. A dark blue Chevy truck pulled past the gates and into the lot, parking right by me. Connor climbed out of the driver’s seat and lifted his chin at me in greeting. His passenger door opened and closed, but I couldn’t tell who it was past the tinted windows. I heard another door bang shut before Lucy stepped around the massive vehicle carrying a small child on her hip.
Lucy gave me a smile as she came closer, it wasn’t her usual broad grin, though. “Hey, Op.”
“Hey, Luc.” My eyes flicked between the two of them. “What’s going on?”
It was unusual for them to visit, especially since I could count on both my hands the amount of times Connor had ever come to the clubhouse, and X-Rated girls weren’t usually permitted to be here unless there was a party and they had been invited.
“Sorry to rock up on you like this, but I saw Blizzard in town and he thought it would be a good idea for us to come have a chat with you regarding this little one,” Connor explained, pointing to the girl with dark hair who had a death grip around Lucy’s neck.
I took me a while to figure out what this had to do with us, but it clicked when she finally lifted her face and looked directly at me. “She Hayley’s kid, huh?”
Connor nodded.
I sighed. “Take her around to the playground, Lucy. Harlyn’s there with Neil. I’m sure she’d like a new friend to play with.”
“Sure.” Lucy smiled. “Shall we go make a new friend, Jay?” She placed the little girl on the ground and they held hands before disappearing behind the fence.
I tipped my head toward the clubhouse. “Let’s go talk.”
Connor followed as we walked through the main room and down the hall to my office. I shut the door behind him and took a seat behind my desk. He sat down opposite, leaning forward and resting his forearms on his knees.
“X-Rated is back up and running tonight. Should be busy,” he said casually.
We’d had to shut down the club for two nights so that police could investigate Hayley’s murder. I knew they wouldn’t find anything and they’d made us close our doors just to be assholes. But I didn’t argue. Hayley deserved more than for us to just hide her body somewhere like nothing happened. There was a little girl to think about, which I assumed was the reason for this visit.
“They find the girl some family?” I asked, not wanting to mess around.
Connor looked up at me and shook his head. “Parents are hardcore Christian. Want nothing to do with an illegitimate child. Tossed her out when she found out she was pregnant and she moved in with an old lady who used to babysit her.” He looked tired and frustrated. I knew he felt entirely responsible for the girls at X-Rated. They may belong to the club, but he was like the house mother and he protected them fiercely. “Jayla calls her Gran. She lives over in Montgomery, but she’s eighty-years-old and can’t even do a lot for herself nowadays. She can’t look after a four-year-old.”
“So what are our other options here? Obviously, there was never a dad listed and whether he even knows he has a kid out there is slim to none, and what’s a bet she never told anyone who he was.” I folded my arms and leaned back.
“For now, the police have allowed us to take care of her. She’s been staying with Lucy, Kat and Summer at the apartment downtown, and I’ve put the girls on rotating shifts so that at least one of them is home with her all the time.” He pushed off the chair and walks around it, staring at the floor. “They won’t let us keep her for long. Eventually, they’ll have to come and take her and then what? I don’t want that for her. She’s four and she just lost basically the only family that she knows.”
My mind instantly flashed back to Chelsea. It was like the past repeating itself.
“Look, let me see what I can do. Try and hold off giving her up for a while longer.”
He nodded but his head still hung low. He was feeling this loss hard. It was her association with the club that got her killed, so I’d do whatever possible to make sure that her daughter was looked after. Silence hung in the air and I knew there was something he needed to say.
“I want justice for her,” he spoke quietly, but I heard him loud and clear.
