by Ryan Michele
“You two fight like that a lot?”
“We used to. He taught me how to fight and how to protect myself.”
“While I’m gone, you need to work that shit out.”
“Yes… Dad,” her words dripped with sarcasm as she rolled her eyes. “You okay with Coop calling me mom?”
I walked over to the bed, sitting down on the edge. “It’s more of a question of how you feel about it.”
“Why do you do that? I ask you how you feel about something then you turn it back on me. I hate that shit.”
Giving her a sexy smirk, I said, “I’m completely fine with it. You’re my ol’ lady and someday soon, my wife.”
“Wife?” She sounded stunned. I didn’t answer; I just let her sit on the idea for a few. If she didn’t want to marry me, I’d throw her over my knee and spank her ass, and the fact that she hadn’t confirmed yet that she was my ol’ lady was not lost to me.
“We’re leave in the morning,” I said, pulling her out of whatever thoughts were racing through that head of hers as I wrapped my arms around her.
“Okay,” she whispered.
“Be smart. You need anything you get the Prospects to handle it. You keep our boy safe.”
Her eyes narrowed into mine. “Always.”
“You know I wanted to fuck you, but you had to go get yourself beat the fuck up. Now I’m screwed.”
Princess moved from her chair dropping to her knees in front of me. “Let me see if I can help.”
10
Harlow
I woke up to the sound of crying scaring the shit out of me and jumped out of bed to Cooper’s bed. “What’s wrong buddy? Come here.” I reached, grabbing him from the bed. He was sweating, burning up. Yelling out the bedroom door, “Ma!” I screeched as loud as I could.
I laid Cooper out on the bed as his screams were subsiding a bit now that his little body was waking up. “What’s wrong, Buddy?”
“Icky,” was all he said.
“You feel icky?” I said, rubbing his leg, not sure what I was supposed to do.
“Yeah…”
“Where at?”
“Don’t know… icky.” I guessed that was the best answer I was going to get.
“Okay, let’s see what we can do. Lay here for a minute.”
“No, go!” he yelled, as he clutched onto my arm.
“Okay, Baby, come with me.” Carrying him into the main room of the clubhouse, two club mommas were laying naked on the pool table. I’m sure they were leftovers from last night, and I didn’t want Coop to see, so I nudged Tug. “Can you get them out of here?” I asked, pointing to Cooper.
“Sure thing.” He walked over, slapping them on the thighs. “Get the fuck out of here, now.”
These women were all the same. They wanted the life and sucked dick to try and get there. But what they didn’t understand was that would never get them a brother. They don’t want whores for ol’ ladies. My stomach churned. I knew now, that Cruz wouldn’t do that. But it was always in the back of my mind.
They scurried off as I yelled, “Ma!”
Walking in, she yawned rubbing her eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s Coop. He’s sweating and hot. He woke up screaming. Ma, I don’t know what to do.” I heard the panic in my own voice, and it was very much warranted. Bullet holes I could patch up, but a sick child, not so much.
I handed him off to Ma as he tried to cling to me. “It’s okay, Buddy, Ma just wants to see if she can help you feel better. I’m not going anywhere.” This feeling inside of me was terrifying. It’s as if I’d cut my own heart out of my chest so this little boy would feel no pain, ever. I periodically thought about being a mom, but never put too much stock in it because of my no-brother rule and I’d never dared to go with a brother from another club. I saw that as disrespectful. It’s amazing how everything changes.
Now, I couldn’t imagine my life without this little guy. He’s mine, just like his daddy.
After assessing that Cooper had the flu, we cuddled up on the couch down in the basement of the clubhouse. Ma brought down chicken noodle soup, which he didn’t eat much of, and she made me pump liquids into him. We watched movie after movie, which normally I wouldn’t mind, but how many times are we gonna watch this movie where the cars talk to each other; I was getting a little burned.
Cruz called, and I updated him on what was going on. He said he’d try to get back sooner, but I knew that wouldn’t happen. A run was a run, and he had to finish it out. It was fine, though; I had everything under control; I thought.
On the second night, Cooper’s fever broke, bringing back the fun kid I had grown to love. It’s kinda crazy to admit, but I actually liked him being sick. He was a great snuggler, and I enjoyed every second of it, minus the back-to-back movies, but I dealt with it. I was glad he was better, and Cruz would be home soon.
He’s called me mom and mommy repeatedly, and I never corrected him. I didn’t want to. Every time I heard the word fall out of his mouth, my heart grew warmer.
I haven’t had a chance to talk to G.T. yet. I wanted to, but the timing hasn’t worked. I need to talk to him; something’s up and he’s damn well gonna tell me. What it is, I have no fucking clue, but I’ve only been out a short time, surely I haven’t pissed him off that much already.
The envelope came today from Deara, and Diamond snatched it up before I could get my hands on it. I’d loved to have known what was inside, because holding this little boy in my arms makes me want to get this shit taken care of fast. He doesn’t need this in his life. Innocence like this doesn’t need to be tainted with stupid bullshit.
But Diamond was keeping everything from me, and I knew there was no use asking, because he wouldn’t budge and tell me.
The third day, Ma wanted to spend some time with Cooper, and I couldn’t blame her, but spending time alone with Tug, Rocky, Breaker, and Buzz wasn’t doing it for me. They weren’t too happy, but I needed to get away for a bit.
Riding to Studio X was utterly relaxing. I loved being back on Sting, feeling his rumble between my thighs and the cool breeze flowing through my hair. Breaker and Buzz were elected to come with me, which didn’t bother me. They stayed out of my business and just hung in the background. I liked that. I needed that. It seemed that my every move was monitored by someone, and having any bit of freedom was amazing.
X was just starting to come alive when we stepped inside. Mostly men filled the tables as they drank in earnest. “Pour Some Sugar on Me” started blaring through the loudspeakers as the curtain opened. All eyes were on Blaze, the voluptuous brunette with huge-ass tits and a curvaceous body. Her small triangles of clothes left little to the imagination and watching the men in the room adjust their pants made me grin. She was one hell of a smart girl, who was only dancing to get through school. She was also my number one entertainment. I’d known her for years.
As Blaze worked the pole up and down, her clothes slowly fell away from her body, captivating everyone’s attention. Looking at the B.Boys, they were fully entranced by Blaze, their mouths hanging open.
“Hey boys, I’m gonna go find Liv. Enjoy the show.” Patting them on the back, I headed towards the office. Opening the door, Liv was behind the desk working on the computer. As she looked up, she glared at me. “What?” I asked, wondering where the hell that came from.
“You have Becs checking up on me?” Her voice was angry as she pushed back the chair, standing there crossing her arms.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Confusion set in as I thought back to everything that had happened and Becs having anything to do with it didn’t register.
“Becs… he’s been coming in here going over the books.”
Initially, anger surged through me, wondering what the hell was going on. “What the fuck are you talking about? I didn’t know anything about this.”
“You live with them.” She looked at me dismissively. “You knew and didn’t even bother to call me and give me a heads up? B
ecs has been into everything.”
“Liv, seriously. I didn’t know. First, what exactly do you mean by doing the books?”
“The books… all the money that comes in and goes out, everything that I’m supposed to be doing.” She pointed at the desk to emphasize her words.
“Maybe just to help you out?”
“Come on. I’ve been doing this for two years. You come home and all the sudden I’m not capable? Bullshit.” Her words were lacing with ferocity.
Thinking back over the last few weeks, I got it. “It’s not you. It’s me. They’re trying to protect me.”
“They’re protecting you from me?” she asked, as if it were the most asinine thing in the world.
“Pretty much. Liv, I can’t give you all the details. The guys are just handling shit the only way they know how, by taking over and controlling. Don’t take offense to it, and Becs isn’t a bad guy.”
“I didn’t say he was bad, he’s just into everything, and it’s driving me nuts.”
“Is he treating you and the girls good?”
She sighed, “Yeah.”
“Once all this shit blows over, it’ll get better and back to normal. I’ll actually be able to be here, and Becs’ll be gone.”
Blowing out a deep breath, she said, “Fine. Since you’re here, we gotta talk about something.” She sat down, and I followed sitting in the chair across from her. “Coke and heroin.”
My eyes popped to hers. Since I started X, there has been a policy of no hard drugs used by the girls. I understood that some needed a little relaxation before getting on stage, so a little weed would fly, but no coke, heroine, meth, etcetera. “What about it?”
“Some girls are using, and I can handle that. The problem is dealing.” She laced her fingers together pressing them to the desk. “Word has it that Stella and Moxie have gotten themselves in a mess, and the only way to get out of it is to deal, which they’ve been doing here at X.”
“What have you done?” Outraged didn’t even cut it. Guns I can totally handle, blood, fights, but my guy cheating and drugs in my studio were a huge no for me. When I started it, I didn’t want a bunch of druggie girls not being able to keep their shit together. If they wanted to use, they didn’t work at Studio X.
“This just came out the last couple of days. I haven’t done anything, yet. I need to catch them in the act.”
“Bullshit. You cut them. Get them the fuck out of here, now. I’m going to their lockers and flushing the shit, and then they get the hell out and never come back. They don’t take the stage.”
“But what about them?”
“What about them? They were told they didn’t bring drugs to X, end of discussion. This is not how shit works here.” Liv had a soft heart that I had been trying to harden before I left. Seems I wasn’t able to break that in her… yet. “I’m handling this.”
Getting up, I walked back to the dressing room, immediately going to Stella’s locker. Picking up my cell, I called Buzz or Breaker, one of them. “I need bolt cutters, bring them to the dressing room, please.”
Within a few minutes, I was busting through the lock going through all of Stella’s shit, throwing out heels, bras, and thongs as I went. In the very back of the locker, was a metal box. Pulling it out, I tried to open it, finding it was locked. “B.Boys, can you get me a wire hanger and a small screwdriver, please.”
Busting through the lock and throwing open the case, I was not shocked to see that approximately twenty-five small bags of white powder with several bills filled the bottom of the box. “Taste this, please.” I opened one of the bags putting my pinky inside. Taking the tip, I placed it in one of the B.Boys mouths. “So?”
“Coke,” he said with no hesitation.
It’s what I assumed. Going through Moxie’s things, proved the same thing. I decided while I was at it; I’d check the rest of the girls shit, too. Their contract has a clause in it that they can be searched at any time. I was invoking that right. There were condoms and vibrators, but no drugs.
Looking at the B.Boys, “Buzz go find Stella and Moxie, please. Get them in here, now.” The man on the right nodded and took off.
The other man asked hesitantly, “What are you gonna do?”
“Kick their fucking asses out.” My voice was void of emotion. I needed to separate business from emotion.
Moxie and Stella came into the room, trying to wrench their arms away from Buzz, who wasn’t letting go. “So, ladies. Something you want to tell me?” Their eyes both snapped to me as their faces paled and looked like they were going to be sick. I couldn’t help feel a bit smug at their reaction, but I wouldn’t show it.
Neither of them spoke, but they stopped fighting Buzz, who now had let their arms go. “Found some stuff in your locker. Care to tell me about it.” I stood at the dressing table and put the two identical boxes in front of me, strumming my fingers on them rhythmically. “See… funny thing is. I found something in here that, while in my studio, is not allowed.” Moxie gulped loudly while Stella stood there motionless. “Dealing in the studio is gonna stop. You need to get your shit, and get out.”
Stella spooked out of her trance. “We have to sell, if we don’t, he’ll kill us.”
“Who?”
“Rabbit,” Son-of-a-fucking-bitch. I was sick of hearing that man’s name.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” Something wasn’t right. Shit. “Call Tug, have him bring the cage, please. These two are coming with us,” I told the B.Boys.
“We can’t go with you. We have to be on stage.” Stella placed her hand on her hip as if that position would threaten me in any way.
“If you think you are ever going out on my stage again, you’re living in a fucking dreamland. We’re going to the club, and we’re gonna work this shit out.”
Relaying the information to Diamond and Pops, I actually felt unbelievably lucky to have these men in my corner. We’re not a traditional family, but we stood by each other no matter what. And I was glad to have them on my side. They said they’d talk to the girls. Pops wanted me to put the girls on lockdown, which meant locking them in the one room with no windows and the lock on the outside.
Diamond said he’d call a church as soon as the guys got back to figure this shit out. Until then, he wanted Studio X fully swept for any kind of drugs. That was Rocky and the B.Boys’ job.
Calling Liv and telling her that more of my guys were gonna be in went a lot smoother than I thought. She said the other girls were suspicious when all their shit was gone through, but it seemed that only Blaze knew what the two were up to. The rest were in the dark. This meant that the girls were selling to the men who watched them, not the dancers, which relieved a small part of me.
Curling up in bed, I wrapped my arms around Cooper, who was sound asleep. I knew I should put him in his crib, but I just couldn’t. This time I needed the snuggle.
11
Cruz
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Bullets went whizzing by my head one after another. This fucking deal didn’t go as planned, at all. It was supposed to be a simple fucking drop and out, but some other fuckers showed up. I didn’t recognize a single one, and no one had rags on.
As soon as we grabbed the cash, shots rang out, and we all jumped for cover, including Ransom’s crew. He obviously didn’t have a fucking clue what was going on either since he was fighting for his damn life, as well. I threw the duffle, with the cash, over my shoulder, keeping it tight against me. We kept firing back. All our guys were getting into position as best they could. We only had two automatics; the rest were 9mm.
Dagger and I were in the middle with G.T and Rhys on the right and Zed on the left. With one nod from Dagger, we all open-fired rapidly including Ransom and his crew. Rhys and Zed had the automatics, and they cleaned house pretty quickly.
Several of the fuckers took off running, we were able to nail a few of them, but one got off on foot. After making sure shit was clear, G.T and I took off after him our guns drawn as we ra
n. The fucker turned his arm sending off a few shots, but his aim was piss poor. Leaping into the air, I tackled him down to the ground with G.T. right on my tail.
G.T. kicked the guy’s gun away from his hand as I hit and punched the living shit out of him, his face turning red with blood. “Brother!” G.T. called, but fury was in my blood; I wanted this fucker to be taken out by my hands. “Brother!” he barked. “We need this one alive to tell us who the hell these fuckers are.” Coming up with some sort of control, I pulled back, looking at the battered man at my feet. I felt nothing but hatred for him.
Standing up, I moved away from the man on the ground, needing some air. “You got him?” I asked G.T. as the others were starting to approach.
“Yeah…” Walking off, I tried bringing myself down, but the high was too much. Anytime I fought and I mean really fought, for something, like the safety of those I loved, the adrenaline pulsed through me taking me a bit to settle down.
After coming back, the asshole was tied to a tree, hanging by his arms, his blood falling to the ground. It looked like the guys did a hell of a job on him. “Get anything.”
“Only thing this guy knows is his boss, Mr. Snider over there.” Dagger pointed to the dead man on the ground. “Got a call offering two hundred thousand to take us all out.”
“Anything else?”
“Nah. If he knew anything, we’d know. He’s just a piss-ant sent to do a job.” Dagger nodded as G.T. put a bullet in the guy’s head.
“What the fuck was that shit boys?” Ransom’s anger was palpable as his crew stood beside him guns in hand.
“Man. I don’t know what the fuck that was. Better question is how the hell they knew we were here?” Dagger turned on Ransom.
“If you think for one fucking second we said a goddamned word you’re out of your fucking mind.”
