As they were walking to the door of the clubhouse, under Dizzy and Fitz’s watchful eye, Josh stumbled and nearly tripped. Thea saw that he was too busy staring at the impressive row of Harleys to watch where he was walking. It was a mass of black and chrome, some matte, some shiny, and one was actually a very dark blue, but they all managed to look completely individual. It was worth a look or two, and Thea could understand Josh’s avid observation.
She put her palm behind his shoulders, without actually touching him, to guide him through the door, and then let her hand drop so that he couldn’t accuse her of destroying his street cred. She decided to aim for Annelle, but she’d gone a step and a half before she realized that Josh had pulled up short. When she turned, he was standing stock still. His eyes were wide and he was a little pale. Thea looked around the room and realized what the problem was. It wasn’t that Josh wasn’t used to crowds, but he wasn’t used to this many men, big men at that, all of whom were openly carrying guns and knives on their persons. A couple of them were humongous, and would seem bigger to a ten-year-old. Thea mentally kicked herself for not thinking to warn him better about what he would be walking into, and then kicked herself all over again that he’d had the kind of life where a few men gathering in a room caused him to freeze.
His street cred be damned. She put her palm on his shoulders at the nape of his neck.
“It’s okay, bud. They’re all friends.”
“Hey, Josh.” Dizzy had appeared on Josh’s other side. “How ‘bout I introduce you around?”
Josh gave a small, tight nod, but didn’t speak.
Thea let Dizzy lead Josh around the room as he introduced him to all the patches first, then to the women that she didn’t know. It was useful for her, too. Shaggy and Fitz she knew now. The short man with the curly hair was Cage, the other shorter man of the bunch, although that wasn’t saying much in a room full of semi-giants, was Easy. Shaggy’s darker twin was Scooby, and Lyla’s man was, seemingly quite appropriately, Ferret. The local, whose name Thea still couldn’t remember, was introduced as Nut. They all nodded and smiled ‘hello’ to Josh.
By the time her boy returned to her, he was much more relaxed. Josh turned his face up to look at Dizzy.
“Why’d you call him Nut?”
“It’s short for Wing Nut, ‘cause his ears stick out.”
Josh screwed his face up. “But that’s really cruel. Calling people names like that is really nasty.”
Thea bit back a grin as she watched Dizzy try and come up with an excuse. She could have taken over and thrown him a lifeline, but it was just too amusing watching him struggle.
“You’re right. It is bad to call people names when you’re tryin’ to hurt them. But this ain’t like that. It’s kinda a nickname. He knows we’re not bein’ nasty.”
Josh didn’t look at all convinced. Dizzy turned pleading eyes to Thea.
“Don’t you have some homework to do, bud?”
“Yeah.” Josh’s tone was utterly despondent.
“Right, well, let’s get you set up doin’ that while me and Aunty Annelle sort out dinner. We’re havin’ hotdogs. Oh, and Clarice found your science book in her flat today. You must’ve left it there.”
Josh didn’t look any more pleased that his lost textbook had been returned. Thea looked at Dizzy as she spoke, asking with that look if she was speaking out of turn; she didn’t know if the book was needed as any sort of evidence, but he nodded and left her to settle Josh to his homework tasks. She saw him disappear through the double doors, and by the time she had Josh set up at a table, Dizzy had brought the book over and tucked it safely into Josh’s bag.
Satisfied that Josh was occupied, Thea joined Annelle and Alex in the kitchen to prepare the evening meal. The advantage of this meal was that it didn’t strictly require cutlery, or even plates much beyond a paper napkin, so everyone was able to eat without moving from their seats, and there wasn’t a mountain of pots to wash afterwards.
Once everyone had eaten, and the cleaning that was required had been done, Josh coerced Shaggy into playing a racing game, although Thea couldn’t say for certain that there was an awful lot of coercion involved. The huge man and her young son we soon yelling at the screen. With his hooked nose and heavy brow, Shaggy had appeared to be the caricature of the rough biker heavy, but seeing him now, cackling with laughter, as was Scooby, who was perched on the arm of the sofa that Josh and Shaggy shared, Thea was charmed.
Everyone found some way to occupy themselves. Some people played cards, others were chatting. Thea noticed that there were one or two bodies missing. There were none of the blatant sexual acrobatics that she’d witnessed when she’d visited the clubhouse in the past, and she thought that perhaps, in deference to the presence of a child in the room, people were being more discreet. She’d been sitting quietly on her own, watching them for a while, when Dizzy joined her.
“You know, when you said you had a boy, ‘til I saw the picture, I would’ve thought Josh would’ve been younger. You don’t look old enough to have a kid in grade school.”
“Thanks for the compliment. I think. I was nineteen when I had him.”
“He got a daddy?”
“I don’t know.”
Dizzy gave her a look that started off shocked and ended up expectant.
“Hey.” Thea was a little offended that he seemed to be making assumptions. “It ain’t like that. His daddy was a junkie. I didn’t know how bad until after I got knocked up. He’s somewhere on the other side of the state. Could be dead for all I know. He never tried to contact me or Josh after I left.”
“He let you walk away with his son?” Even shaded by his hat, Thea could see Dizzy’s brows draw down in disbelief.
Thea shrugged. She’d gotten past the anger and sadness that had once hurt her so much. “He cared about the junk more.”
They were interrupted when Cage called Dizzy over, from the looks of it, to mediate a dispute in a game of cards he was playing with Ferret, Lyla and Alex. After what appeared to be an extremely animated discussion, Dizzy came back to her.
Before he could sit down, Thea asked, “Are we crashing on the sofas tonight? Only, I think Josh is about to pass out on Shaggy over there. I really should get him into bed, or into... whatever.”
“Don’t worry, sweetheart, you and your boy have a bed. You’ll have to share, though.”
Thea had expected that might be the case, if they were lucky enough to warrant a mattress. “Of course. Thank you.”
“Come on, you get your boy and follow me.”
It was a strong indication of just how tired he was that Josh only protested half-heartedly when Thea extracted him from his new friends. She made sure to thank Shaggy and Scooby, she was sure there were more... adult pursuits that they would rather have been, well, pursuing, but they hadn’t complained once about entertaining Josh.
Dizzy led them through a door off the main room which led to a corridor which was lined on one side by a series of doors stained the same dark hue as the furniture in the main room. He led them to the door at the end of the corridor, pulled his key chain out of his pocket, selected a key, and unlocked the door. He opened it, and waved them into the room beyond. Thea was surprised, but pleased, to see their bag of belongings in the center of the bed.
“Thank you,” Thea said gratefully. She was exhausted from the adrenaline highs, the stresses and the sheer fullness of the activities of the day and had no intention of doing anything other than lying down on the bed with Josh and falling into a coma.
“No problem, sweetheart. You sleep well, you too, Josh.”
Josh mumbled something incoherent, being almost fully asleep on his feet. He listed strongly to one side, but Thea caught him before he fell. Dizzy chuckled and left them to their room without further distraction.
Thea half-carried Josh inside and managed to get him onto the bed. She moved their bag to the floor, tucking it under a cheap, black veneer desk that was situated against one wall nex
t to a matching set of drawers. The basic double bed was pushed against the other wall, and in the third wall was a door which mirrored the one that led into the hallway. When Thea investigated, she found that it led to a small bathroom. The walls were white-washed, like the ones in the corridor and the main room. It was obvious that whoever had been responsible for the changes hadn’t particularly cared about interior design aesthetics.
She pulled Josh’s sneakers, socks and jeans off and managed to maneuver him underneath the plain navy, cotton-covered comforter. She toed her own sneakers off and pulled her sweatshirt over her head. She folded it and laid it on the desk. Then she climbed onto the bed, over the covers, wrapped herself around her son so that he was curled into her body with his back against her chest, and tried to sleep.
Thea had been lying there for some time, she wasn’t sure how long, trying to stop the tornado of thoughts and fears that was whirling through her mind, when the door to the room opened almost silently allowing a slice of light to penetrate the darkness. She almost shot off the bed, only the fact that she was still wrapped around a sleeping Josh kept her from leaping up or shouting. She wasn’t sure if she was relieved or even more incensed when Dizzy walked into the room and closed the door behind him.
“What’re you doin’?” She hissed.
“There ain’t enough rooms for everyone, sweetheart. There needs to be some sharin’, and you’re in my room.” Dizzy’s voice was low but clear, just above a whisper. He started to undress, beginning with his boots.
“You could’ve said.” Thea hissed back. She felt like Goldilocks being discovered by the three bears. “We’ll go.”
“No you won’t.” Having rid himself of his boots and socks, Dizzy set his Stetson down on the desk and ran his fingers through his hair, shaking it out. When he started to pull his plaid work shirt off, Thea’s brain froze. She couldn’t very well carry a comatose Josh right out of the clubhouse, and she had no idea whether there were still people in the main room. From her past experience, a full on fucking orgy could have been in full swing.
She relaxed, marginally, when Dizzy stopped undressing once he’d laid his folded shirt on the desk next to his hat. She tensed all over again when he came over to the bed and climbed up behind her. He lay down, still wearing his black jeans and black thermal shirt, and curled around her body the way that she had curled around Josh’s.
Thea tried to move away, tried to put some distance between them but he wasn’t having it. He curled an arm around her shoulders and laid his palm flat on her chest, just under her collar bones. She was rendered temporarily speechless by the warmth spreading out from his rough palm as he firmly pulled her back against him.
By no means had Thea been a nun in the ten years that she’d been on her own, but she had never slept through the night with a man. She had always ensured that she was back in her own apartment, alone in her own bed, before Josh woke up for the day. This would be the first time that she’d lain down and slept, simply slumbered, with a man since Josh’s father.
She could feel Dizzy’s breath, whispering past her hair, brushing against her neck. His body was warm and solid behind, around, hers. She hadn’t relaxed in the slightest, and she tensed more than she knew was possible when his arm moved. But instead of groping her as she feared he might, he simply moved the arm that had been laid across her shoulders until it curved around her own arm, which lay over Josh, so that his hand rested over hers.
“Shhhhh, sweetheart. Relax. You’re safe.”
After long moments, during which Dizzy made no further movements, and which partially convinced Thea that he really did only intend to lie on the same bed to sleep, Thea began to relax by degrees.
She wasn’t sure whether Dizzy meant that she was safe from him, or safe for the night from the threat overall, but she didn’t need specifics. Right at that moment she did feel safe. Someone had been watching her and her son, somebody evil and twisted enough to slice pieces off an old man. But in the present moment, she felt secure and protected enough to drift off into sleep.
Chapter Ten
Dizzy was nudged into consciousness by the buzzing of his mobile phone. He’d set an alarm the night before and now it was vibrating a soundless alert from the back pocket of his jeans. Thea responded to his waking, but did not wake herself. She sighed and snuggled a little deeper into the bed and into the curve of his body. Lying here with her, waking with her pressed against him, was having a physical effect on him, an unfortunate effect given the presence of her son in the bed. He needed to get up before that became a problem.
Still, Dizzy was reluctant to leave her, to leave them. It was a long time since he’d woken up with a woman in his arms. There was something restorative in the calm peace of simply lying down and resting with her. But he needed something more from her, something darker and deeper than this tranquility he’d found as he interloped into the sense of family she’d created between her and her boy.
After the events of the preceding day, he wasn’t certain that the opportunity for more was still on the table. It had definitely been a possibility, if the tone of their teasing flirtations in the store could be relied upon. Even after she’d seen him beat the tweaker, she hadn’t run from him. But being in the sights of a capable and ruthless enemy like the Los Perdidos was a whole different ball game. She hadn’t caused a scene when he’d joined them in the room, but then, he hadn’t given her much opportunity to. But now was not the time to dwell on any such possibility. His plate was full with the need for swift retribution.
Dizzy edged carefully away from Thea and off the bed. He picked up his boots, shirt and hat and left the room. A shower would have to wait; he didn’t have the time anyway. Once in the hallway, he shucked into his shirt and settled his hat on his head before leaning back against the wall while he tugged his boots on.
The next door down the corridor opened and Cage stepped out. Dizzy noted that Cage had closed the door with a suspicious amount of care, much like he had when he had been trying not to wake Thea and Josh as he left. But whether Cage had someone in his room, someone he thought enough of that he didn’t want to rouse them so early, was a thought for another time, too.
“Mornin’, brother.” Dizzy kept his voice low.
“Mornin’, Pres. Sleep well?”
“Yeah. You?”
Cage paused before answering. “Yeah.” Dizzy thought that pause meant maybe Cage hadn’t slept all that much. Either Cage and whoever he was letting sleep in had made a particular effort to be quiet, or Dizzy had slept even more soundly than he’d thought he had.
Dizzy pushed away from the wall and took the first steps down the corridor, but Cage stilled him with a hand on his arm.
“Pres, you can tell me if I’m over the line, and that’s fine. But I gotta say this. That could be a great little family you’d have yourself in there, but you need to ask yourself some hard questions. I don’t know you well enough to know if you’re the hit and run type, but anyone with eyes can see that she ain’t, least not once her kid’s involved. But that’s all your business. What is my business, is that what’s inside that room gives you somethin’ to lose, somethin’ that could hurt you. And what hurts you, hurts the club. And for your own sake, those two people in there just about triple the size of the target on your back.”
“I know, brother. I spent a fair bit of yesterday thinkin’ about that.”
“You come to any conclusions?”
“Only that none of it feels like a bad thing.”
Cage shook his head ruefully. “Brother you are down and tapped out. You just don’t know it yet.”
Dizzy thought about asking if he was the only one, but decide that he’d let Cage keep his secrets for the time being. The aroma of coffee drifted down the hall. They both caught it at the same time.
“Come on.” Dizzy clapped Cage on the shoulder, “or those other fuckers’ll’ve emptied the pot.”
They walked together into the main room. Nut was behind the bar
, pouring coffee into mugs like a good Prospect. He’d come in asking about work in the garage and everyone’d taken to him straightaway. They’d decided to forgo making him spend some time as a hangaround before bringing him in as Prospect, but they were paying close attention. They hadn’t had any reason to be disappointed with their choice so far. Ferret and Easy had already claimed stools and mugs. There were cooking noises coming from the kitchen, so Dizzy assumed some of the girls must be up. He and Cage had taken their first sips of coffee when Fitz joined them. There was a short commotion in the hallway that announced Scooby and Shaggy’s arrival before they stumbled through the door, accompanied by Lucy and Britney. It didn’t escape Dizzy’s notice that rather than go straight into the kitchen where there was work being done, the two girls headed over to a vacant sofa. Reba was occupying one of the others, seemingly dead to the world despite the noise.
Bones by the Wood Page 12
