Bones by the Wood

by Johnson, Catherine

  Thea started at the far end of the corridor. She didn’t intrude into the dorm rooms but swept her way into the main room and swept around that room too. She moved chairs and tables where she could, and where she couldn’t most people obligingly moved out of the way. There was the other room, the one behind those heavy looking double doors, but they were shut. It was only then that Thea realized that Dizzy wasn’t in the main room. She reasoned that he was probably in that other room that they kept disappearing into. It was different from the setup she’d seen before; it obviously occupied the addition to the building. She thought she remembered Elvis referring to that private space as the Church or the Chapel or something religious sounding. Thea decide not to barge in. If they wanted it cleaned, they could ask.

  Having returned the brush to its rightful place, she set some coffee to brew. She was beyond ready for a caffeine fix. She’d almost finished her much-needed mug of liquid energy when Josh came bouncing back in with Shaggy, looking like he’d seen Santa Claus.

  “Mama, Shaggy said he’d take me for a ride on his bike.”

  Thea was amused by the uncomfortable, slightly embarrassed expression on Shaggy’s heavy features. “I said only if it was okay with your mama.”

  Thea couldn’t help but giggle. “Sure, bud. But only around the lot. I don’t want you goin’ out on the road,” she added, more for Shaggy’s benefit than for Josh’s. “And don’t go buggin’ him to take you out now. I think maybe you should take a look at your school books. Maybe get a headstart on your classes for Monday while you’ve got the chance.”

  Josh deflated, but didn’t argue. Thea knew that he wanted to, but that he was worried she’d revoke her permission for the ride if he did. As he set off in search of his school bag, the door to the lot opened, and Annelle, Alex, Scooby and Cage started bringing in the results of their shopping trip. Thea made sure there was still plenty of coffee in the carafe, and then went to help.

  All the girls lent a hand, except Reba who was still MIA. Britney and Lucy made a cursory effort before reclaiming their seats. Annelle noted their involvement, but didn’t say anything until the majority of the work was done and it was just her and Thea stacking the boxes containing the inflatable mattresses in an out-of-the-way corner.

  “Who put a rocket up their asses?”

  Thea knew exactly who Annelle was referring to. “Me. I kinda persuaded them to help with the dishes. They hadn’t shifted off that damn sofa after you went out.”

  “You havta shed blood to get them to move?” Annelle seemed to be impressed with Thea’s success rather than angered that her own instructions had been ignored.

  “No. But there’s a good chance they’re both out for mine now.”

  “Those two are more bark than bite and not even a lot of that.”

  Thea was saved from debating her chances in physical combat against either Lucy or Britney by the thunderous roar of a number of bikes that signaled the arrival of their visitors from the neighboring state. Thea and Annelle finished what they were doing in the kitchen and went to observe the new arrivals. Neither woman was inclined to intrude on the melee in the room, which seemed to Thea to be a mass of man hugs, handshakes and back slapping. They stayed in the doorway to the kitchen, both leaning their shoulders against the jamb. Thea laughed to herself when she realized they looked like bookends, both standing there with their arms folded across their chests. She glanced over to the table that Josh had been seated at, to check that he wasn’t underfoot. He was watching what was going on rather than his books, but he was keeping to himself.

  There were seven new arrivals. One of them, bald and muscled, was as big as Shaggy and Scooby. The clubhouse wasn’t small, but Thea was beginning to feel a little claustrophobic with three giants in it. Another one with his head shaved smooth and equally muscled, although shorter, had a laugh that could be heard across the room. Ferret seemed particularly enthusiastic to greet one man who had a manic air, an extensive selection of scars across his brown-fuzzed scalp and blue eyes that were about as bright as her own. Thea didn’t catch any names, but no introductions were made to any of the women in the room, either. It was vaguely entertaining to watch them do their alpha-biker-man thing.

  One man with an impressively neat, pointed beard and well groomed moustache that shared several shades of brown and silver with the hair that waved over and behind his ears, was obviously the leader of the Louisiana group. Dizzy was leading him out of the thick of the pack and towards their private room when he looked up and over at Thea. He shot her a grin that she knew was just for her, and she couldn’t help her own answering smile. The man with Dizzy looked over, openly curious and seemingly even a little surprised.

  The quiet in the room seemed almost strange once they’d shut the double doors behind them. Nut appeared to have been dispatched to collect everyone’s belongings from their bikes. Thea took pity on him and, nudging Annelle to follow her, she went to help him decide where to put whom. Reba appeared from who the fuck knew where, so Thea asked her to collect some linens and to start to change the beds. Not trusting the woman, whose pupils seemed suspiciously dilated, to follow through with the task in its entirety by herself, Thea asked Myla to give Reba a hand. After they’d finished the allocation of the sleeping arrangements, Thea planned to get started on cooking the evening meal. Feeding this bunch was going to be a neverending task.

  Chapter Twelve

  Dizzy felt both relief and disappointment that there were enough empty seats around their table to accommodate the seven men from the mother charter without difficulty. It wouldn’t be this way forever, but this latest trouble had disrupted their plans to fill the table out. He guessed the results of this weekend would help a few of the prospective transfers make up their minds about whether they truly wanted to make the trip south or not.

  Dizzy was thrown for a second or two once he was in the Chapel. The Priests had been a single charter MC for as long as he’d been a member; he’d never witnessed this situation before. For a moment he paused, unsure as to whether he should offer Samuel, as President of the mother charter, his seat at the head of the table. Samuel, exhibiting the seamless ease that made him such an excellent President in Dizzy’s opinion, clapped his palm over Dizzy’s shoulder and gave him a gentle and unobtrusive push to the head of the table, before taking the seat at the foot of the table that would be facing him. All the members of the Texas charter took their usual seats, except for Easy and Ferret, who’d swapped so that Ferret and Crash would be next to each other.

  The planks that edged the table that they’d had made had been left with a raw, unfinished edge that had been varnished smooth. The legs were rough-hewn chunks of the same wood. Dizzy ran his palms over the uneven edging as everyone took their seats. It was part of the disorientation that it felt like a homecoming to see his brothers, but that they were visiting him in this new home, of which he was the leader. They belonged here as much as anyone, but they were somehow apart from it. He had to make a conscious effort not to fall back into his old role with them.

  The afternoon sun was slanting in through the windows, bathing the room in a cozy, golden light. The discussion they were about to have was, in itself, at odds with the homey feel of the room. Dizzy didn’t bother with the gavel; it wasn’t needed. Once the shuffling of chairs, the scuffing of hands over leather and the click of lighters had died down, the heavy weight of expectation drew silence over the room.

  “It’s good to see you all here, brothers.” Dizzy looked around the table. “Just wish it was under more relaxed circumstances.”

  “Same here.” Samuel replied. “But steel that’s been through the forge is the stronger for it.”

  “Well, this furnace will be burnin’ mighty hot.” Dizzy grimaced. “I know we’re all on the same page with this, but I’ll recap anyway. We’re goin’ to ride down to the border tonight. We’ll meet a group of Eduardo’s own men, men he vouches for. Then we’re goin’ to cross into Mexico the same way their illeg
als come out. We’ll hit the Los Perdidos compound, kill as many of the fuckers as we can, hopefully all of ‘em, and then get out and back across the border in one piece. I know y’all have had a long ride from Absolution, but it has to be tonight. The word’ll be out now that y’all were on the road. If we leave it much longer, they’ll hit us here. But we’ve got a little time to rest and eat before we need to head out.”

  “You got anyone you can leave with the women while we’re gone?” Samuel asked.

  “Only the Prospect. We’re still shorthanded.” Fitz answered.

  “We’re not much better off.” Chiz added. “We’ve pulled the girls in. Morse isn’t a hundred percent, but he’s gettin’ better all the time. We left Fletch and Kong in charge. Between the two of them, there’s a fuckin’ good chance they’ll have destroyed the clubhouse themselves by the time we get back.”

  There was a ripple of laughter from the Louisiana group. The Texas charter hadn’t met Fletch and Kong yet since they were never on the runs, so they were excluded from the joke

  Dizzy took the opportunity to bring the meeting back to relevant ground. “Did you boys travel heavy?”

  Terry shook his head. “No need to carry much more than we usually do, since Eduardo’s goin’ to loan us some hardware.”

  Dizzy had spent an intense couple of hours sitting at this table going over and over their plan in his mind, looking for the holes and pitfalls. The main one he kept coming up against was that taking on a Mexican cartel was not a good idea, not at all. That sort of organization was like a cockroach infestation. Leave so much as one alive and you’d always be fucked. But they had the backing of a Colombian family and they need to take direct and decisive action. There wasn’t much more to discuss now.

  Dizzy turned to Fitz. “I’m assumin’ we’re all set for when we get back? We’ve got a space for everyone to sleep?”

  “Your lady’s got it all handled, boss.” His lady? Thea? There was no way Fitz was talking about Annelle or any of the other girls.

  Shaggy chuckled and shook his head. “Yeah, watchin’ her makin’ sure everyone does their part has damn near been the highlight of my afternoon.”

  “You help her with that?” Dizzy raised an eyebrow in Shaggy’s direction. He hadn’t corrected Fitz, because... well, he hadn’t seen the need to. With this many patches around, it’d be easier for Thea if he didn’t. He wondered just what he’d missed.

  Ferret let out a long exhale of smoke. “No way, boss. She’s got her shit covered. We just get out of her way.”

  Dizzy caught Samuel’s openly curious look, and he wasn’t the only man wearing one. The members of the Texas charter were used to Thea after the past twenty-four hours. She and Josh were just as much a part of the furniture as everyone else now. The Louisiana guys were coming in on something that even Dizzy hadn’t nailed down yet, although he was very much looking forward to getting to work on that. Dizzy was proud that Thea seemed to be settling in, or taking charge, or just not getting railroaded, or, what the fuck ever; but he had no idea how much of claim he had on that pride, maybe a little after last night, maybe a lot after this morning. Yeah, can, open, worms, everywhere.

  Dizzy changed the subject, not a complete derailment, but a good-sized diversion. “Right, well time’s wastin’ and it smells like the girls are at work.” The smell of chili was seeping into the room. “Let’s eat. We’re on our way in a couple of hours.”

  He slapped the flat of his palm down on the polished mesquite as an informal gavel and stood. Everyone else followed suit, and when Ferret threw open the doors, revealing the full wave of the aromas emanating from the kitchen, there was chorus of appreciative sounds.

  Before they’d even finished streaming into the main room, Nut was lining beers up on the bar. His head start served him well; it was a frantic few minutes, albeit tempered by the distraction of food. The girls had obviously been listening for the end of the meeting. By the time all the men had reached the bar, they’d loaded a couple of tables that they’d pushed together with bowls of chili and tortilla chips and accompanying dishes of cheese and sour cream and plates of cornbread.

  The rest of the guys hung back, allowing Dizzy to lead Samuel over to the food before they hit the offerings like pigs in a trough. While Dizzy and Samuel were seating themselves at an empty table, Dizzy looked around for Thea and Josh, but couldn’t see either of them. He did notice that Ferret had found Lyla and had his arm possessively hooked around her shoulders, declaring her off-limits for anyone that didn’t already know. Cage and Terry joined them at their table, and they dug into the home-cooked fare that tasted as delicious as it smelled.

  They finished their food, and Dizzy caught Nut’s eye to fetch them another round of beers. He tuned back into the conversation about the garage and the restoration work that they had lined up, so he was surprised when he looked up to find that it was Thea who had brought their drinks over. Samuel and Terry were visibly curious all over again. More worms everywhere. It hadn’t occurred to Dizzy that he’d needed to warn Thea that there’d be questions about them, or that the presence of several unattached patches from out of town might be problematic. It did occur to him that it was because he’d been thinking of her as ‘his’ and that the other members of his charter had automatically been treating her as such, that it hadn’t been an obvious necessity. Time to put some of those worms back in the can.

  “Thanks sweetheart.” Dizzy smiled at Thea and was relieved to get a smile in return. “Samuel, Terry, this is Thea.”

  “Pleased to meet you, cher.” Samuel had known that the Los Perdidos had involved a civilian with a child in their threats, but Thea wasn’t still truly a civilian. “I’ve been hearin’ a lot about you.”

  “All good, I hope.”

  “Most definitely, cher.”

  Terry turned to Dizzy with a suspiciously mischievous grin, “You should bring her when you come back home, brother.”

  Dizzy hadn’t yet fully thought out the logistics for the club visit to Louisiana for Ashleigh’s wedding; he definitely hadn’t thought about bringing a guest, but he liked Terry’s suggestion.

  “Hmmmmm, I might.” He smiled up at Thea who was giving him good blank face. She had questions she wanted answered, but she wasn’t asking them here and now. He was impressed, and trying hard not to be distracted by that red lace still showing under her beater. It was almost worse now that he had an idea of what it concealed. “I’ll catch you up, sweetheart, don’t worry.” One eyebrow flicked, putting him on notice that indeed he would. “Where’s Josh?”

  “Back in the room. I thought it’d be easier if he was out of the way. I’ll let him know it’s safe to come out.”

  “Has he eaten?” Dizzy looked over to the carnage that had been the bowls of food. There didn’t seem to be anything left.

  “Yeah, he’s set. I wasn’t fool enough to think you locusts’d leave anythin’.”

  Dizzy fought the urge to shake his head. He was sure he’d be hearing something about all this, probably at least in relation to the obvious age difference. “I hear you’ve been keepin’ everyone in line.”

  Thea shrugged. “I wouldn’t go that far. Just remindin’ a couple of people that they need to work as hard as they play is all.” She turned to Samuel. “If you and your boys want to get your heads down for an hour, Annelle and me can show you to the rooms.”

  “Thank you, cher. That’d be appreciated.”

  “I’ll give you some time to finish your drinks. It was a pleasure meetin’ you.” Thea tipped her head to Samuel and Terry and made her way back to the kitchen. At least Dizzy knew now where she’d been hiding.

  “I like her.” Samuel stated. “Terry’s right, you should bring her to the weddin’. Moira’ll want to meet her.”

  “You’re talkin’ like we’re the ones gonna be gettin’ wed.”

  Dizzy wasn’t sure who started laughing first. Cage, who’d already made his opinion on the matter clear, or Terry and Samuel, who were al
so chucking like kids. Samuel recovered first. “Brother, I will tell you this, if you don’t tie that one down, you will regret it.” Another fit of laughter took him over for a moment. “However, seein’ as I’ve been married to a strong-willed woman for more’n three decades, I can tell you that there’ll be times when regret will chase you anyway.”

  “And seein’ how you’ve got some years on her, she’s gonna have the energy to make you suffer, brother.”

  Dizzy sighed. As it was Terry, the dig was mild. He could expect worse, especially if he took Thea to Absolution. By the time they’d finished their beers, Josh had reappeared and was having an evidently animated discussion with Shaggy and Scooby about something and whatever it was had Crash and Sinatra, who were sitting at the same table, in fits of laughter.

  Dizzy took his leave and headed first to the kitchen and leaned in through the door. Thea saw him and put down the pan she’d been wiping.

  “We’re ready, sweetheart. I just need a moment to get some shit outta my room.”