Fractured & Formidable: The Sacred Hearts MC Book V

by Downey, A. J.

  “Marry me. I know, it’s shitty of me to ask like this, but I mean it, I love you and I need you and I just…” he let out a harsh breath, “Just say you’ll marry me, agree and I promise I will ask you with a ring and on bended knee with everyone around to give you that experience, but I just need you to know how much I love you. How in love with you I am.” He pushed up, bracing himself on his arms to look down into my eyes.

  I was speechless but I wanted so desperately to say yes to him that I found myself nodding emphatically, pulling him down over the top of me. My body jerked with silent sobs but I welcomed the tears this time. Didn’t want to contain them. I was simply just so happy, my tears of sorrow turned to ones of purest joy.

  Chapter 28

  Revelator…

  Despite everything going on, life went on, and so I found myself standing inside our new tattoo shop which was pretty much ready to go, ready to open. I put the finishing touches on a piercing tray and went back out front meeting Trig, Dis and Sunshine in the lobby. We were supposed to have our grand opening today, but instead we were having a wake. Tomorrow we would be laying Reaver to rest for good.

  It had been Chandra’s daughter’s wish that they have a closed, family only funeral. She was hurt, bad, and wouldn’t let Doc attend. Blaming him and the MC for her mother’s death. It was BS and hurt like a son of a bitch, but none of us could argue. We were chosen family, not biological but still, no matter how much I kept telling myself that, it didn’t take the burn out of what Misty was doing to Doc and the club.

  “Next week?” Trig asked. Disney and I nodded. We would be opening next week, but it still wasn’t the same because after tomorrow, Sunshine and the girls would be in the Sunshine State. Ashton looked grim. She wound her arms around Trigger’s hips and tucked herself tightly to his side.

  “I feel so badly that I’m going to miss it. That things have to be this way,” she murmured.

  “Us too, Baby, believe me.”

  He drew her in tighter to his side and we all stood in the brightly colored lobby to our new shop. So new it still smelled like paint, and wallboard, and construction, over the smell of antiseptic, which was just beginning to seep in before it overpowered.

  The lay out was much different than the old shop had been, but some things we’d tried to keep the same. The linoleum on the lobby floor was still black and white checkered tile. Disney’s area was a riot of new-school art and color. The walls of the front of the shop were decorated in neatly framed, freshly drawn flash, though the walls beneath the black frames were a deep eggplant purple this time.

  The front counter was mostly glass cases now instead of particle board. Body jewelry of every type proudly and professionally displayed. From earrings to gauges, to nipple rings, to belly button piercings… Hell, you name it; I had it at my disposal which was nice and would hopefully help the piercing side of business pick up. Before, we’d had the stock in the back and a binder full of pictures due to a lack of space.

  The new shop was big enough that we could probably hire one or two more piercers or artists if business was good, and we were kind of counting on it to be. Not only did Open Road Ink have a damned fine reputation from before. Dis, Trig and I all had a pretty solid client base, but where we were located now? We had bars, and with lowered inhibitions came customers, and we weren’t about to turn that down. In fact we were probably the best guys to be in place to have them walking through the door because we were professionals at our craft. That meant we wouldn’t be sending anyone home with a shitty looking or stupid tattoo. If we thought they were too piss drunk we’d send them away. Being near the bars could prove to be a double edged sword but between me, Trig and Dis we knew we could handle it. Ashton had grown over these last couple of years, she knew we would come to her aid if anyone freaked her out or disrespected her and she wouldn’t hesitate to call out.

  We were a family. A good team… and for the next few months we were going to be missing our heart. Disney went to her first, and crushed the little woman between his lanky frame and Trig’s as the first tears stood out in her golden eyes, making them shine just so damned bright.

  “C’mon man, suck it up and bring it in,” Disney grinned at me over the top of her head and I grinned right back.

  “I knew you loved me Puddin’,” I said and went to them and we all group hugged, for Ashton’s benefit, for a long minute in our lobby. The bell above our door chimed.

  “Thought this was a shop run by bikers not a bunch of hippies with their freaky love fest bullshit,” Duracell commented dryly.

  “You sure do know how to ruin a moment asshole,” Trig said but he was grinning. We broke apart and Duracell looked surprised.

  “Shit, Sunshine! Didn’t even see you there!” he exclaimed. Ashton laughed and wiped her eyes with a Kleenex, which she tucked back into the sleeve of the cardigan she was wearing over one of her 40’s style dresses.

  “Sorry, just a little emotional.”

  Duracell’s expression softened marginally, “No, hey I get it. I liked Reave too but I didn’t know him even half as long as you guys did.”

  “Whatcha here for man?” Trig asked and held Ashton against him, her back to his front; an arm across her chest. She brought both her small hands up and hung them off his forearm, leaning back and cuddling into his embrace. He smiled down at her and she smiled up at him and you could just see that they were each other’s entire fucking world. I felt something in my chest loosen in gratitude because fuck, I’d finally found that too with my Red and I wouldn’t trade it for the fucking world.

  “Club meeting, Dragon says it’s time to get the whole officers’ thing straight, before tonight… you know? Archer, Rush and Nox got back night before last and we’re all here so there’s nothing doing man.” He looked apologetic and the five of us traded some grim looks.

  “Yeah man, we get you.” Trig said softly.

  “Sunshine, you good to drive over to Dray’s place? Everett, Mandy and Shelly are there dealing with food and stuff for tonight. Dragon wants just the guys at the club for the time being.”

  Ashton nodded silently and craned her head back, “I love you,” she told my partner simply and he smiled, bent and kissed her on the mouth.

  “I love you too, Baby.” He gave her a little shove forward and she gathered her purse and keys. We locked up and got Ashton settled in the Jeep. I drove myself and Dis, while Trig opted to ride with Duracell in the ginger’s beat up old black Jeep Wrangler. We would escort Ashton to Dray’s.

  I was unsettled. Not liking the idea of leaving the girls on their own at our VP’s place, but I didn’t have a damned thing to worry about. Dray’s driveway was crammed full of bikes when we got there and one of The Kraken was in his driveway smoking a cigarette and talking on his phone. Ashton carefully pulled her and Trig’s Jeep Cherokee up to the curb and parked before carefully getting out. Cutter appeared on the front stoop shutting the door behind him.

  I rolled down my window to ask Ashton to tell Red I loved her, so I heard Cutter call out, “Hey, hey Li’l’er Bit,” which made me smile. He’d been calling Reaver’s Doll Li’l Bit since the day he’d seen her. When he’d finally met Ashton in person and seen that she was even smaller than Hayden he’d started calling her ‘Li’ler Bit’. It was cute as hell but you’d never hear me admit it out loud.

  “Sunshine!” I called, before her attention was grabbed completely by The Kraken’s president and no doubt by her best friend, who was probably inside. Where Cutter was, so too Hayden would be found. Ashton startled hard and turned around, wide eyed.

  “Sorry, just tell Red I’ll see her tonight!” I was suddenly and stupidly embarrassed to tell her in front of these other dudes to tell my woman I loved her. Stupid but true. Ashton broke into one of her beautiful smiles and she winked her understanding, and I couldn’t help but grin. She mounted the steps and gave Cutter a hug and slipped past him into the house. Once she’d disappeared from sight, Duracell’s Jeep pulled forward and
I followed in my Chevelle.

  The club was immaculate and as somber as I’d ever seen it when I arrived. Packed with the brotherhood from our chapter, those that had come from out of town likely making themselves scarce for our benefit and the benefit of this meeting. No one was about to ignore the elephant in the room which consisted of Reaver’s casket on the small stage, the black lacquered top and the silver handles and edging gleaming softly under the overhead lighting, even with as dim as it was in here.

  In the last week, this place had gone through a major overhaul and it had gone through it fast. The fishbowl was a fishbowl still, but the wall between it and Data’s closet had been knocked out to make it bigger. Not for meeting purposes, but for a space to monitor the state of the art surveillance system that’d gone in. Between the computer set up and the banks of monitors, Data was happier than a pig in shit, which it was nice to see the reserved brother happy and a little less introverted than he’d been, locked away in his little command center closet like he’d been.

  The curtains were still up and could be drawn during parties and the like, to hide the new setup, but right now they were drawn back putting the whole spectacle on display. The black cloth hanging straight at the corners of the little room where the glass panels met up in their frames. Data pushed up from the office chair in front of the monitors and stretched, and then he joined the rest of us in the common room.

  Next week or the week after, the new fencing surrounding the entire property would be going in. So would the new gate across the front drive. A heavy, no nonsense, big black wrought iron monstrosity to replace the chain link fencing we’d had before. The black metal bars square and stout and strong, reminded me of prison bars to a certain extent but they weren’t meant to keep us in, just any bad guys out. Truthfully, despite the prison connotations, I liked the new fence, it was burly and badass and made the property surrounding the club look more like an MC resided here and that the outside world should fuck with us at their own risk.

  “Right, looks like we’re all here so let’s get to it,” Dragon’s voice boomed over all of us assembled and those of us left standing, we took seats, everyone turning our chairs toward the front where Dragon stood. It wasn’t lost on any of us that Reaver’s casket was providing the backdrop to this little discussion.

  “We got two leadership positions in the cabinet to secure, two out of the five council seats are vacant. One was Reave’s as our Treasurer, and while Doc, our Secretary, has no intention of leaving this club, he just don’t feel he can hold office no more and I don’t blame him.” Silence, no one so much as coughed as we waited for our Pres. to go on.

  “We’ll deal with Reave’s spot first. Nominations?” Dragon’s dark eyes swept the room slowly but surely waiting for someone, anyone to speak up.

  “Ghost,” Disney said at last. Everyone turned.

  “Reasoning?” Dray asked and his eyes were both calculating and tempestuous. Disney blushed but the ballsy kid held his ground.

  “Seriously? It really ain’t no secret, Reaver couldn’t do math to save his life; it was pretty much always Shelly crunching the numbers. Shelly is Ghost’s Old Lady. I think if she lost the ability to keep doing for this club that it would finish her.” Disney swallowed and waited along with the rest of us.

  It was Archer who spoke up, “That ain’t no reason to make him a Cabinet member.”

  “You’re right, it’s not,” Ghost agreed, “Do you want to do it?”

  Archer shut his trap, Ghost looked from Trig to Dragon to Dray.

  “I’m all in. This club gave me the structure I needed to go on after the Marines. I run my own business, I know how to keep the books. It ain’t my favorite thing but I’m qualified and I’ll do my best to serve this club or die trying. Count me committed if you all decide that’s what you want.”

  “Any other nominations?” Dragon asked and swept the room. No one stepped up or came up with a name.

  “You know the rules, it’s in our by-laws. In order for a cabinet member to be elected into office for any charter or club of The Sacred Hearts, he must hold at least eighty percent of the vote. So put ‘em up. All in favor of Ghost for Treasurer?”

  I put up my fist, and the vast majority of the room followed suit, including Archer who was the only reluctant hold out, and he only did it when Rush scowled at him and Nox gave him a look that clearly communicated to anyone with half a brain, Really dude? This is how you want to start our stay with these guys?

  “So entered, so ordered.” Dragon went to Reaver’s cut which lay atop his casket and sighed heavily. He plucked a knife out of his jeans pocket and hit the switch, the blade leaping free of one of Reave’s stilettos. Hayden said Reaver had so many of them that every one of us should have one. We’d each taken what she’d given us and she still had a shoe box full of them, and those were just his stilettos.

  “I’m sorry buddy,” Dragon murmured as he cut the Treasurer’s flash from Reaver’s cut. He stepped down off the stage and crossed the room. Ghost rose out of his seat and took the scrap of felt material embroidered with the position, and I think that’s when it really crashed into a few of us. Some of the guys sniffed; me included, as our eyes watered. A few heads bowed and the room became deathly quiet.

  Dragon returned to the raised stage and cleared his throat, “I nominate Data for the position of Secretary.”

  “Wait, what?” the lanky man tossed his slightly greasy hair out of his eyes.

  “You heard me.”

  “I can’t be Road Captain and Secretary too,” he protested.

  “We’ll get to that if you get the spot, one problem at a time,” Dray grunted.

  “Any opposition?” Dragon asked, no one spoke up.

  “Any other nominations?” Dray asked, again no one said a thing.

  “Vote it, all in favor?” Every hand went up.

  “Congratulations son,” Doc grunted. Data just looked stunned. Doc swung off his cut and laid it on a table. He flicked out his own blade and cut the flash off his cut. Data did the same for his Road Captain flash. He took the Secretary flash from Doc and they hugged, pounding each other on the back.

  “Thank you, man. I mean, thank all of you,” Data was hoarse, beyond moved and if anyone had any misgivings on if he were the right man for the job, they fucking evaporated.

  “Anybody been a Road Captain before?” Dray asked and he sounded weary. I think all of us knew how he felt. None of us wanted to be here, doing this, restructuring just about everything under these circumstances. It was bullshit, but there wasn’t any other choice. Nothing else we could do. We had to wait. Get the girls safe, lose the cops before we could do anything else or even begin to right the wrongs done to us.

  “Archer,” Rush and Nox said at the same time.

  They grinned at each other and Rush said, “Jinx you owe me a beer.”

  Nox laughed, “What are you twelve?”

  “I am, then you are too genius,” Rush punched Nox in the shoulder and Nox laughed.

  “Both of you shut the fuck up,” Archer grated. Both of them automatically fell silent but it was Rush who rolled his eyes behind his brother’s back, Nox fought not to grin. Weird dynamic those three.

  “Anybody else want to try for it or got anyone else in mind?” Dragon asked.

  “Lucky.” Trigger was the one who had spoken, Lucky looked across to the big man and nodded.

  “You ever done it before?” Duracell asked.

  Lucky shook his head, “First time for everything I reckon.”

  “All in favor of Archer?” Dragon called.

  Hands went up, I knew Lucky but if Archer had experience, I was willing to give the dude a try. Lucky just seemed a little too nonchalant about it. I don’t think I was the only one erring on the side of experience. The majority voted the new guy, Archer, into the spot without so much as a second thought. Knew the right decision had been made when Lucky looked secretly relieved. I knew as much as anyone else that he would do anything for t
his club, anything at all that was asked of him even if he didn’t particularly want to. Data handed the Road Captain flash to Archer.

  “Right, any other business?” Dragon asked, looking over his shoulder to Dray. Dray sighed, leaned in and muttered to his Pops and Dragon nodded.

  “Right, Reave was our Enforcer too…” Dragon sighed and looked up, hopeful that someone would step up for the grim job.

  “Oh, gladly!” Duracell put up his hand and bounced on the balls of his feet. A bunch of the guys traded uneasy looks. No one should be that excited about taking a job that was about hurting people in most clubs. There were a couple of misplaced chuckles, one even escaping me at just how Reaver-like Duracell’s reaction was to the spot needing filled.

  “It’s yours,” Dragon shook his head and laughed low and all of us turned mutely and introspective to look at the damned black box behind him. There wasn’t a thing on God’s green earth that would ever replace Reave.

  Dragon stepped off the short drop from the stage, his boots clacking hard against the polished cement of the club room floor. He sighed and walked purposefully to the bar and went behind it. We all stood and followed our Pres, lining up along the bar’s front as he lined up shot glasses along its scarred wood surface. He cracked open a bottle of tequila, his go-to drink and poured them out in one long line, not even caring about spilling. Everyone grabbed one, handing them back to the guys not bellied up directly against the bar top. Dragon waited until everyone had one in hand before he raised his glass. We all raised ours in unison.

  “To Chandra.” He hiked up his glass a little higher and we followed suit, no one spoke, the sounds of creaking and sighing leather and the rattle of an odd buckle the only sounds to accompany the toast. We drank them down and there was an odd cough or two, the rush of breath as some sighed out at the bite and burn of the alcohol.