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She turned and left.
Obviously, she wanted to cause a problem, get rid of my girl. But what the point of her coming in here dressed to kill was, I had no idea.
***
I stepped into the roadhouse and Bick waved. He was at a booth in the corner with Scott.
“Brother,” I greeted Bick who was chowing down on some wings.
“Jesse,” he returned.
“Chili good tonight?” I asked Scott, who hadn’t even looked up from his bowl.
We ate here most nights. Sometimes the chili was damn good; sometimes it came from a tin can.
“Yeah,” he muttered belatedly. “House made tonight.”
“Sounds good,” I said and gestured to the waitress, who was bussing a table nearby.
Pudge joined us and the four of us shot the shit while eating and having a beer.
Scott wasn’t contributing much. Scott was miserable.
I asked him to come for a ride with me when we were done, telling him I needed to run an errand.
“I’ll go with ya,” Bick offered, “If he’s busy. Or I can run the errand for you.”
I shot Bick a look and though I didn’t know him well, thankfully he picked up on it immediately and amended with, “Wait. Shit. I forgot I had something to do for Justice.”
“Yeah man, I guess I can come,” Scott muttered. “Had a few beers, you better drive.”
***
I pulled into the coffee house parking lot a couple blocks from the Valentine block.
“How you copin’?” I asked.
Scott turned and met my gaze. “With?”
“The Nico thing. What do you think I’m talking about?”
Scott looked me over like he didn’t know me.
“You’re not yourself lately, brother. You wanna get shit off your chest?”
“Who the fuck are you and what’ve you done with my brother Jesse?” Finally, he cracked a smile.
And relief swam through my veins. “Brother, good to see you crack a smile. But you’ve been off since that night and I’m sure I’m not the only brother who’s noticed. The ring didn’t help?”
“The ring helped a fuck-ton,” he said, body relaxing.
“Yeah?” I asked.
“Definitely. Can’t… can’t share about that night. Not me to talk about that.”
“I wouldn’t be able to do it either,” I said.
“But yeah,” Scott went on, “it helped to know most of the Jackals were gone. Didn’t help thinkin’ some of them could be part of our crew, but when I saw Nico’s face that night...” He blew out a long breath. “It all flooded back. Every fuckin’ detail of that night. I saw him once before and I wasn’t sure, but that was during the day in the hair salon. Seein’ him at night outside in the shadows took me right back. Knew it’d fuck with me, thought I’d have to walk away, give up the club. The ring helped. Shit he said helped, too. I get it. He was like Fork, stuck wading through shit. And that guy isn’t in my face constantly, but he’s makin’ it clear he wants to be brothers.”
“That doable?”
“Dunno, if I’m completely honest. Don’t expect every single guy in the club is gonna be someone I’m tight with. Most of the guys, I’m definitely close to. I’ll be there for them all like we’re supposed to do. But some feel like guys you gotta work with that you can tolerate but that’s all. I’d have all of their backs, of course, but you know what I mean.”
“For sure.”
“It’s early days, man. Hopin’ it’ll pass. I mean, I can’t ever forget what happened, but it’s not like he put his hands on me in…” His expression soured, “that way. But he was there, front-row seat to the worst thing that happened in my life. But… we’ll see.”
“So, then what? What else? Cuz you seem like you’ve got yer head on straight about the Nico situation, brother, but you’re not you. So…”
“Deanna slept with her ex.”
I straightened up.
He blew out a long breath. “Her older boy’s father decided to finally step up. She ran into her ex’s sister who’s with a brother from the falls.”
“Tracy. Victor Edwards’ woman.”
“Yeah. And they got talkin’. Next thing, her ex is calling, wanting to see his kid. Never took an interest before so guess his sister got up in his grill. Then he’s buying toys for his son. Took him out once. Wanted to see him again the next day. The kid was stoked so she agreed. Kid asked her to come with them. I figured it was good for Timmy. You know? Doing a thing with his mom and his dad. So Caden stayed with me. We hung out, had a boys’ night, fell asleep. Woke at five thirty in the morning and Deanna and Timmy weren’t back yet. Didn’t answer her phone. I was freaked. Finally, she came back at seven in the morning. Took one look at me and spilled it right away. Guilt was eating her alive. Blurted it before she even got her coat off and told me it was a mistake. Nostalgia. Said it wouldn’t happen again. Then got all… you know… complaining I’ve been distant. The Nico shit was fuckin’ with me, brother. I didn’t talk to her about it. Fuckin’ couldn’t. Between us, haven’t had any sex drive because all that was fuckin’ with my head. So, what… she has to go without my dick for a little while, so she falls on her ex’s dick to punish me?”
