And now they both sounded like they were up to something.
Alice clapped her hands together. “Great! We’ll just take our package and get out of your guys’ hair, then.”
Wendy made her way to Alice, the box in her hands. Wrecker stayed facing Alice but pivoted right as Wendy tried to sneak behind him. He snatched the box from her hands and hoisted it over his shoulder. “You wanna tell me what is in the box or am I going to have to look myself?”
“Tampons!” Alice shouted.
“Cat toys!” Wendy blurted out.
Wrecker shook his head. “Can’t you two at least get your lies in line?”
“Salad tongs!” Wendy spat.
Alice slapped her hand to her forehead. “Sweet Jesus,” she mumbled.
“Six black stocking hats, six black ski masks, and two pairs of black panty hose,” Pipe called.
“I’m gonna tell Nikki you ratted us out,” Alice threatened.
Pipe shrugged and moved around to the other side of the bar. “Go for it. I’m already in the doghouse for not telling her what’s going on with Cora.”
“She bug you about it, too?” Slayer asked him.
Pipe nodded and grabbed a beer. “Yup. She tried to wear me down, but she didn’t get anything.”
“What the hell are you doing with the burglar wear, Alice?” Wrecker asked.
“It’s not burglar wear,” she insisted. “I have your credit card. I don’t need to rob a bank.” She propped her hands on her hips. “Now fork over the box and act like you didn’t see anything.”
“Not happening, woman.” Wrecker tossed the box across the room at Slayer and me. “Hide that shit.”
Slayer grabbed it before it fell to the floor and tossed it behind the bar. “You got it.”
“I’m just going to order it again,” Alice insisted. “You might as well just give me the box so I don’t waste your money.”
Wrecker chuckled. “You bought cow print onesies for me and the baby. Pretty sure you’ve been wasting my money for a while now, Mama.”
“Stop,” Alice groaned. “You can’t call me ‘Mama.’ You know what that does to me when you call me that.”
“I do. That’s why I call you it.”
Alice stomped her foot. “You can’t just take my box away.”
“Box is addressed to Slayer. It’s his box, not yours,” I pointed out.
“Son of a bitch,” Alice pouted. “I told you we should have addressed it me, Wendy.”
Wendy shrugged. “I didn’t feel like typing in a different name. I just have stuff delivered to Slayer, and then, I take the box.”
“Oh, my God.” Wrecker scrubbed his hand down his face. “Just tell me what the shit is for? Looks like six of you are planning on robbing a bank or some shit.”
Alice clamped her mouth shut, and Wendy’s eyes darted to the floor. “That’s crazy,” she muttered.
“What else do you need black ski masks for?” Wrecker moved closer to Alice. “Last chance, Mama.”
Alice closed her eyes and cringed. “Fine!” she yelled. “We’re gonna go find Cora, and we needed clothes to help blend us into the dark.”
Pipe’s jaw dropped, and Slayer let out an audible groan.
These chicks were batshit crazy.
“You’re kidding me,” Wrecker said slowly.
Alice opened her eyes. “Well, you guys aren’t telling us anything, and it doesn’t seem like you’re doing anything to get her back, so you can bet your ass we’re about to go commando and find her.”
Wendy timidly raised her hand. “Uh, we weren’t going to wear underwear on our mission?”
Thank God we had stopped this before it even got out the gate. I could only imagine what a clusterfuck it would have been.
Alice rolled her eyes. “Girl, not that commando.”
“What other commando is there?” Wendy asked.
“You know, like, we’re on a mission ready to do whatever we need to do,” Alice explained.
“That’s not really what commando means,” Wrecker grumbled.
Wendy tipped her head to the side. “I thought that was Columbo.”
“What?” Slayer and I said in unison.
Alice pointed her finger at Wendy. “Girl, that was a TV show back in the day.”
Wendy tipped her head to the other side. “It was?”
Sweet Jesus. This was getting more and more ridiculous by the second.
“Enough!” Wrecker boomed. “None of you are going commando. You are not going looking for Cora. That box of shit you bought is getting burned, and I’m taking back my fucking credit card.”
Alice gasped and plastered a hand to her chest. “How dare you say such hurtful things to me when I’m in such a delicate state.”
“Delicate, my ass,” Pipe muttered.
Alice glared at Pipe. “I am so having a talk with Nikki about you.”
“The only thing you’re pissed off about is the fact that I'm taking back the credit card.” Wrecker stepped closer to Alice and laid a hand on her waist. “I’m gonna tell you one more time—leave Cora to me. If you do something to interfere with the plan we have, you might be the reason why she dies.”
“You told me she wasn’t going to die,” Alice screeched.
“She’s not going to if you just keep your nose to yourself, Mama. You’re almost five months pregnant. Chasing after some psycho is not what you should be doing.” He looked up at Wendy. “It’s not what you should be doing.”
“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” Wendy said meekly.
“I wasn’t actually going to go. Wren and I were going to be the command post,” Alice explained, as if that was going to make any of this better.
“Alice,” Wrecker muttered. He wrapped her up in his arms and crushed her against his chest. “I swear to God, you are going to drive me to an early grave.”
Slayer moved closer to Wendy, but she took off down the hallway. “You can’t yell at me if I’m not here!”
Pipe grabbed another beer and tossed it to Slayer. “Drink that, brother. That’s the only thing that’s going to help right now.”
Slayer cracked it open and downed half of it. “I just realized Adley is going to be exposed to the Girl Gang, and she’s going to grow up to be just like them.”
I cringed and couldn’t help but agree. “Yeah. I think you’re right about that.” Especially since Adley was with Wendy right now.
“You want a beer, Wrecker?” Pipe asked.
Wrecker shook his head. “Nah.” He pressed a kiss to Alice’s forehead, whispered something in her ear, and slapped her butt when she turned to flounce back down the hallway. He waited until she was out of view and turned to us. “Break out the hard shit, brothers. We’re all about to deal with a shitstorm with those girls. They ain’t letting this Cora thing go.”
Wrecker sat on the stool next to me and grabbed the first shot Pipe poured.
“We gotta get some more prospects,” Pipe grumbled.
“You don’t like playing bartender?” Slayer chuckled.
Wrecker set his glass back on the bar. “We had Warrior and Snapper, but they both kind of drifted away with all of the bullshit going on with the girls.” Pipe refilled his glass, and Wrecker tossed it back again. “I can reach out to them and see what they’re up to. They were both pretty good.”
I nodded. “Sounds like a good idea to me. With Freak getting patched in, we don’t have anyone to do all of the shit work anymore.”
Wrecker tipped his glass to Pipe. “When everything with Cora is over, I’ll talk to them.” Pipe filled Wrecker’s glass again, but this time, he held it up to Slayer and me. “Last one and then I gotta go check on my girl. She may be crazy as hell, but she’s still mine.”
We each tossed back our shot.
“Don’t be too hard on her,” I called to Wrecker’s retreating back as he headed in the direction of Alice. I appreciated the fact that the girls were worried about Cora and were willing to help find her. Not
that we actually wanted their help, but it was nice to know they cared.
“What are you up to tonight?” Slayer asked.
I shrugged. “Not a whole hell of a lot.”
Without Cora around, I didn’t know what the hell to do. For six months, she had been the one in my room, spending time with me. Now, she was gone, and I didn’t have a clue what to do.
“I’m sure the girls will be pissed off the whole night that we ruined their plan, so I say we keep drinking and play some pool.” Pipe grabbed the bottle of whiskey and headed over to the pool table. “Someone go find the rest of the guys,” he called.
Slayer downed his shot and ambled down the hallway.
So this was going to be my night.
Drinking with the guys while the girls plotted their next crazy antics.
It almost felt like a regular night at the clubhouse, but there was one thing missing.
Cora.
*
Chapter Six
Cora
“What have I told you about having shit delivered here?” Jenkins thundered.
“Who cares?” Susie screeched. “I needed stuff, and it was easier to just have it delivered than make a list for you to mess up and only get me half of what I want.”
This was an interesting situation.
Jenkins had been cleaning and messing around with his guns when there had been a knock on the door. I had never seen two people go from chill and relaxed to high strung and ready to attack so quickly.
By the time Jenkins had grabbed a gun and Susie grabbed a knife from the kitchen block, the delivery driver was gone and there was a large box left by the front door.
“What kind of shit do you need? That fucking box weighs at least twenty pounds!”
Susie ripped open the box and started pulling everything out. “Tampons! Big ass pads! Midol! Chocolate!” She pulled out three cans of soup and slammed them on the counter. “Soup that I ask you to buy but you never do! Three romance novels and diamond art!”
“What in the fuck is diamond art?” Jenkins asked.
I had the same question. Susie had enough money she could buy art made of diamonds? I kept my mouth shut and just listened to them bicker back and forth.
“It’s like cross stitching but with little plastic bead thingies. It’s supposed to help soothe me.” Susie tossed everything back into the box except for one of the art things. “I’ve been asking you forever to get me something like that to help pass the time and you don’t!”
“We’re not here to be doing some frou-frou art thing, Susie! We’re hiding out, and when the time is right, you and I are going to come back bigger and better than you can even imagine.”
Susie propped her hands on her hips. “Well, it’s been nine months, Jenkins, and I have yet to see us rise at all. Excuse me for trying to get something to help pass the time.” Susie grabbed the box, flounced over to the bed, and dumped it out.
Why did she bother to take everything out, then put it back in, only to walk over to the bed and dump it back out? Why was I questioning why Susie did things the way she did? Nothing ever truly made sense with her.
“Next week, Del and Tray are coming up. After that, you’re gonna get whiplash by how fast things are going to move.” Jenkins walked over to the bed and gathered Susie in his arms. “You gotta have faith in me, puddin’.”
Ugh. Gag me with a spoon. Did he really just call her puddin’?
In the five days that I had been here, I had never heard Jenkins talk to Susie like he actually liked her. It was oddly sweet, but I knew how fast he could flip his switch and go back to being a raging asshole.
Susie and Jenkins were well paired by the fact that at any second, either of them could become a completely different person.
“I have faith in you, Jenkins. It just seems like we’re doing a whole lot of waiting, and I’m worried it’s not going to pay off.” Susie laid her head on Jenkins’ shoulder and wrapped her arms around his waist.
Under any other circumstances, they would have looked like a couple having a romantic moment, but to me, it looked like two psychopaths having their split personalities get along for a second.
Jenkins pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Just wait, puddin’. Just wait.”
This seemed to pacify Susie, and Jenkins seemed to forget about the package of Susie’s shit they had just been arguing about.
Jenkins went back to cleaning his guns, and Susie hummed under her breath while she put away all the stuff that had been delivered.
I was basically any afterthought. If I didn’t make any noise and stayed chained to the radiator, Jenkins and Susie didn’t pay me any attention. Well, at least Susie didn’t pay me attention if Jenkins was there. I had discovered her mood swings very much played to how Jenkins treated her.
During the two times Jenkins had left Susie with me, she had been more than nice to me. There was always a point where she went a little psycho and flipped her bitch switch, but for the most part, she treated me decently.
I just had to keep biding my time, and from the sound of it, next week was when all the shit was going to go down.
Shit that, from what I gathered, meant I wouldn’t be here in the shack anymore with Jenkins, but I had a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that it meant things were going to get better for Jenkins and Susie, but for me, they were going to get much worse.
I had to figure out a plan to get out of here before that happened, but for the time being, I was clueless and running out of time.
*
Chapter Seven
Brinks
“Can you believe it’s New Year’s Eve?”
Mayra shook her head. “Nope. I can’t believe it. Before you know it, Alice and Wren are gonna pop out those babies and Cole is going to be running around, keeping us all on our toes.”
The talk of the future was driving me crazy.
Cora was still in the grasp of her psycho brother, and the rest of the club was acting like it was just another day.
“Speaking of Cole,” Karmen sang. She plopped down on the couch next to me and laid him in my lap. “Cole needs some Uncle Brinks time. He spent all day bugging the hell out of me with his cute, little, chubby face, so now, it’s your turn to hold him. That’s what happens when you agree to be his godfather.”
I wrapped my arms around the kid, but I really had no idea what else to do with him. “Uh, what’s up, little dude?”
He looked up at me and blew a bubble through his lips. “Ba.”
Uh. “Yup, ba, dude. Agree totally.”
“He is only up for another hour, and then, it’s bedtime for this cutie.” Karmen brushed a finger down his cheek and laughed. “As far as he is concerned, it’s eleven o’clock and the ball is getting ready to drop.”
“I can’t wait until we have a flock of kids around here and we get to fool them into thinking it’s midnight when really it’s only eight.” Nikki sat down on the other side of me and reached out to ruffle Cole’s hair.
“Are one of those kids going to be yours?” Karmen asked coyly.
Nikki shook her head. “Right now, that is looking like no.”
“Pipe doesn’t want kids?” I asked. Why was I asking this? I was participating in a conversation that could turn sideways in an instant. I was becoming bored as hell with nothing to do, so now I was asking loaded questions that could get me into trouble.
“Oh, he does. It just seems to be that my equipment doesn’t support that.” Nikki shrugged. “It’s fun trying, though.”
“Stop thinking about it and you’ll be pregnant in no time,” Karmen suggested. “Nickel and I didn’t even have the thought of a baby in our heads and look what happened.”
“If that were the truth then everyone besides Nikki would be pregnant.” Carnie laid a hand on her stomach. “Sweet Jesus. I better not be pregnant. Freak and I aren’t anywhere close to ready to have a baby.”
“Wrap it up then, sweetie. These bikers have some potent swimmers if you�
�re not careful.” Wren rubbed her growing belly and smiled.
“Trust me. If I could convince Freak to put two condoms on, I would.”
Alice walked into the common room with her hand on her stomach, and her face was as pale as a white sheet. “Remind me again why I thought it was amazing to carry the bearded wonder’s kid?” She leaned against the bar and looked like she was about to throw up.
“How are you almost six months pregnant and still getting sick all of the time?” Wren asked.
Alice bowed her head and let out a belch. “I wish I had an answer for you, Wren, but I’m too busy trying not to yack all over the floor.”
“What did you eat this time that isn’t agreeing with you?” Karmen asked.
Cole squirmed in my arms, and I moved him closer to my chest. He laid his head on my shoulder and closed his eyes.
“Hibachi from Ginzo,” Alice moaned.
Nikki brushed a wisp of hair from Cole’s face. “I think the difference between you and Wren is that Wren isn’t eating everything in sight like she has a lead stomach.”
“I always eat like this.” Alice finally stood up straight but kept a hand on her stomach. “I swear, if this kid comes out a plant-eating vegan, I am going to struggle like you would not believe. Mama needs her steak and piggie.”
“Maybe you should try eating a salad every now and then,” Wren suggested. “Maybe your body just needs a reset or something.”
“Hibachi is mainly veggies. I don’t know how a salad would be any better,” Alice complained.
“Right,” Karmen drawled. “I saw your leftovers in the fridge. Your hibachi was steak and had bacon sprinkled over the top. I won’t even mention the mound of rice in the other container.”
Alice flipped Karmen off. “Stop stealing a peak at my food. And is it really hibachi if you don’t eat a pound of rice?”
We all struggled with a reply.
“Uh, I think you have that the wrong way around, girlfriend,” Nikki laughed. “Hibachi is about the meat and seafood..”
“Well,” Alice huffed, “blame Ginzo for having it on the menu. I was just doing them a service by ordering it to help everyone keep their jobs.”
Fallen Lords MC: Books 7-9 Page 31
