“Because that number you called put you on as a target to whatever this shit is, Roe. I told you not to call anyone.” He shakes his head and disappointment comes out clear.
“How did you know?”
“Got ways, babe,” is all he gives me, and for some reason I let it go.
“I can’t just leave in the middle of the day.”
“No choice. You want to stay alive? Keep those kids in there safe?” The thump of my heart gets louder and harder.
“I did that by calling?” Guilt hits me hard. I put all these people in danger because I made a stupid phone call. “I should have listened.” The words come out in a whisper.
“Yeah, you should have. Now get your shit so we can get out of here.”
“Whitton, I need to talk to the office so they can find someone for me. Go sit at my desk and let me see what I can do.”
Whitton pulls my forehead to his lips and gives it a soft kiss. “Hurry.”
I take off down the hall deciding to use the ‘family emergency’ excuse. No one would believe the, ‘I just put you all in danger’ excuse. Shit.
Chapter 18
They will soon learn, I’m a rebel!
We ride back to Roe’s house in the truck, leaving her car behind. I need to get her home safe so I can call the brothers and get some information. Unfortunately, most of them are on the road. I don’t know how much I’ll get at this point. What I do know is, I’m going to make Roe safe in her damn house.
When the club rides in, I feel relief for the first time since I got Roe’s text and then call. Even better, when I look out of her window and see a Prospect driving a truck and pulling a trailer with my Harley and Waylon’s. I see my brother in the tiny sedan rental car parked behind the trailer. Climbing out of the car, he stretches before setting his eyes on the bikes. Knowing my brother will offload the bikes, I focus my attention on getting myself ready.
Going to my bag, I slide on my cut, feeling this missing piece of myself again for the first time since we started this surveillance and had to take it off. How can I keep the life I have in the Rebels and Roe, too?
“Are these your guys?” Roe asks, looking out the window and to her now full driveway. As I peer out, Thumper and Lurch swing off their bikes and make their way to the front door.
I kiss Roe’s temple. “They are. You’re safe.” She lets off a shiver as I pull away and pull open the door.
Thumper takes one look at Roe, then me, and smiles, holding out his hand to Roe. “Thumper, nice to meet ya.”
She takes it. “Roe, same.”
“Lurch.” He holds out his hand, and she shakes it as well greeting him. “Alright, brother. Let’s get the run down.”
DJ and Shamus introduce themselves as well, before I take the guys out back to give them the run down on the situation. I could tell this irritates Roe, but that’s something she’s gotta learn. Club business is club business. If she and I really do make a go of this, even if all the variables are against us, she’ll need to learn the life. Trust me to take care of her and trust the brothers to do the same.
“Bottom line, we’re not sellin’,” Thumper decrees. “Now we have a problem with your woman gettin’ on radar with these fuckers. Black Souls’ are pieces of shit and no tellin’ what they’re doin’ to the woman they’ve got with them. Did some digging on LaRoche’s woman. She’s got debt, lots of it, and that’d be our answer for them getting involved with the Souls. Looks like they’re in deep, and that’s on them. We need to know what you want to do about your girl in there.”
“The debt goes way back before LaRoche even came to Blakely,” Lurch explains. “My guess, they left Atlanta and used everything they had to build life here.”
“Drugs? Gamblin’? What the fuck got some everyday American couple into some deep shit with the Souls?”
“From what Gilly dug up, the woman wanted kids, lots of ‘em. Her man’s sterile and she ain’t got good eggs or some shit in her girlie parts is fucked up. Anyhow, they were doing foster care, got attached to a kid. Spent everything they could to try to keep the kid. In the end, the state took the kid back and the LaRoches’ lost their home, cars, and everything and got tied to the Souls,” Lurch informs us all.
“The timeline doesn’t make sense, why bother them now?”
Gilly takes a drag off his cigarette. “Souls had to clean house after they had so many key players lost to the feds. Finally got their shit sorted, and now they’re tryin’ to collect old debts. Since it’s been so long, LaRoche got comfortable. Too comfortable. Now they called in their marker, looking for LaRoche to buy from us and distribute to them. They didn’t think we would see the connection, and it was a way to bypass our rejection.”
“The burner phone number Roe called, well, they know her name, where she works, and by now, possibly where she lives.”
My heart thumps in my chest because I can’t force her to come with me. Well, I could tie her ass to the back of my bike, but a lot of good that’d do me. She loves those kids she works with, and ripping her from them would leave marks on her. But I can’t protect her here, while I’m in Blakely. Home for me is with Rebels, and that’s in Alabama.
“I’ll convince her to ride back with us.”
Lurch nods. “We gotta pay LaRoche a visit. Tell him we’re not sellin’, and he’s up shit’s creek with the Souls.”
“Yep. We’ll keep the prospects here with your woman while she packs. Then load her shit and get the fuck out of here when we get back. Roll out in fifteen. I gotta take a leak,” Thumper says, moving into the house where I see Roe pacing back and forth, chewing on her nails.
I’ve got fifteen minutes to get Roe to listen. Fuck.
As I enter the house, Roe comes directly to me. “What’s going on?”
I clutch her hand and move her to the bedroom, shutting the door behind us. “You’re scaring me more, Whitt. Are you leaving me?”
“Want you to come with me. Pack your important things and come.”
Her body stills and I reach for her arms, rubbing them up and down. “You said before you were willing to leave with me when we were young. Now’s the time to make good on that.”
“I can’t just leave now. What about my kids? My job? I can’t leave in the middle of the school year and with whatever Marie’s gotten herself into. I can’t just pick up and take off.”
“Know you love your kids. Know you love your job. Know this’ll hurt, but whatever Marie has herself into, you’re now on radar. I can’t keep you safe here. Come home with me and I’ll be able to. My brothers will be able to.”
“Just like that? Pick up and leave with you, no looking back?”
“My life is in Alabama… I want you there with me. If anything, these last couple of days have proved I don’t want to leave you. Now, with the shit storm goin’ on and you puttin’ your name in there, the best thing is for you to come with me. I’ll keep you safe. Protect you with everything I am.”
“I have no doubts you’ll protect me, Whitt. But what if this doesn’t work. What if I leave here and we don’t connect like before?”
At this, I press her body to mine, letting her feel how hard my cock is for her. “Never once have I forgotten you. You’re the only woman for me to love and cherish, Roe. Have been since we were kids. All these years apart—don’t mean shit. I want you the same, if not more, than before. We’ll make this work. I swear it.”
Tears spring to my girl’s eyes, but she fights them back. “You want me to pack now and leave everything behind right this minute?”
“Now, babe. Things are going to get dicey around here. If the Black Souls connect you to me, no telling what they will do. I can’t have that, Roe. I can’t have that hangin’ over my head.”
“What if I say no?”
“Then I’ve gotta figure out how in the hell I’m stayin’ with you.” The thought of not going back to Granville, Alabama with my brothers eats my gut. The bile rises, and I feel the need to puke. I know exactly h
ow she’s feeling and I hate I’m putting this on her plate, but this is life. Hers is worth a fuck of a lot and I’ll do what I have to, to protect it.
“You’d do that? Give up the club and Waylon to stay here with me.” Her arms come around my waist, and she holds me tight. “Really?”
“Babe, I’ll do what I have to do to make sure you’re breathin’ and by my side. Will I give up the club, fuck no. Just means I’ll operate away and have to go back a lot, but I’ll figure it out.”
“That’s your family, Whitt. Can’t let you do that,” she whispers. “But leaving, I just don’t know.”
“Gotta decide, Roe. Either you come with me or I’ve gotta have a serious talk with my club. Either way, we’ve gotta roll out of here in ten. While I’m gone, I need you to pack everything that’s important. Prospect’ll load it and when we get back, we’re gone. You don’t, then I’ve got more shit on my plate to deal with.”
Her head falls to my shoulder as she breathes deep in and out, her chest moving with each intake.
Long moments pass, and I know I need to get my ass out there and moving. “Babe?” I sigh, this kills me. “Need you to believe in me. Need you to know I’m giving you everything.”
She looks me in the eyes, and I pray she can read the depths of my emotion. “It’s going to be hell trying to find a job, Whitt. Especially leaving in the middle of the year with no notice. I’ve got enough to float me for a while, but …” She drops her head.
“I’ve got you.”
Her head comes up.
“I’ve got everything you need, Roe. Know you love workin’ with kids. We’ll make that happen. In the mean time, no worries about money. I’ve got plenty.”
“Whitt, are we really going to do this?”
“Yeah, Roe. Want you with me. Now and always.”
“Okay.”
I stare into her eyes, my heart being sewn together, piece by piece, at her words. “Okay?”
“Yeah. I’ve been alone without you. Love you, Whitt.”
“Love you, Roe.” I kiss her long and deep. “Pack. I’ll be back in an hour. Prospect will help you and load your shit in the truck. If it doesn’t mean shit, don’t take it. It does, put it in. Got me?”
“Yeah.”
I kiss her again, so fucking happy she chose to come with me. Fuck, I’ve missed her. There’s an excitement inside me. My pulse quickens, and the acid calms as I start to think about having Roe at home with me.
I pull away, and she squeezes my arm. “Whitton?” Her eyes blaze with so many emotions. “There’s a little girl, Marlayna. She’s in foster care. The Browns’...” The pain fills her features mentioning the girl and the best people I’ve ever known. “Marie had some visitation with her. We gotta keep her safe, Whitton. I can’t have anything happen to her.”
“Text me everything you got on her, I’ll get a man on it.” I don’t know much about what Marie had going, but I know the state is so short on foster parents that if she was still current on her certification, they might have been considering having that girl stay with them. If that’s the case, she may very well be on the Souls radar, too.
“Just like that?” Her eyes light up.
“Yeah, she means something to you, you mean everything to me, so she means something to Rebels. This is how my life works, Roe. Ride with me, and you’re gonna see it. Family in the best possible fuckin’ way ever.”
I kiss her quickly again before I have to walk away and get to work. The sooner this shit is handled, the faster we ride out and I have Roe with me on the back of my bike.
The ride to LaRoche’s place isn’t long, which puts me even more on edge on how close this shit is going on with Roe right here in the thick of it.
We ride right up and park. Walking in the pawn shop, it’s like every other day we’ve been here. Dead.
No patrons, but the door is unlocked. Stupid.
Vincent LaRoche comes from the back, and his face pales as he sees the six of us standing in front of his counter.
Thumper leans over, resting both elbows on the wooden top in front of him. “Answer’s no, LaRoche.”
“You can’t do this to me,” the man’s voice cracks.
“Oh, but I can and I did. You got ties to Black Souls. Nothing with them ever touches my club.”
We all flank Thumper on each side.
“My wife, they have my wife.”
“Not my problem,” Thumper gives him honestly. “Came to tell ya, we aren’t supplyin’ a damn thing to you.”
“They’ll kill her.”
Lurch grabs his side piece and slams the butt of the gun down on LaRoche’s hand. “Fuckin’ told your ass we aren’t into doing third party shit. We sell to you, it’s for you—not to be redistributed by some fucked up mess of a club with rats.”
The man bites back his pain.
“No feds involved. They put Banger in the ground after they were taken down.”
“You think I give a fuck? Feds gone, rats gone, none of that shit matters. Their club fucked their own shit up. Didn’t clear motherfuckers the right way. Too much heat. That’s not how we roll.” Lurch puts the gun away while the man drops his hand to his side.
“No further contact, we let you live,” Thumper says before we start to back away.
“My wife,” he pleads. “The kids she loves. Marlayna,” he whispers, and my heart stops. Fuck.
“Where’s the fuckin’ kid?” I bark out as my brothers look at me.
“She’s at a group home, but we’re supposed to get her in a week. To live with us.” Bile rises in my stomach, and I fight it back.
“What home?”
He hesitates and I pull my gun, aiming it at him. “What fuckin’ home?”
“Keensaw, the group home there,” he responds quickly.
“You don’t exist for that little girl anymore. You hear me?”
“That little girl is everything to Marie,” he whines, and I want to knock him the fuck out.
“And she’s not fuckin’ here, now is she?” TT responds as I put my gun away.
“You done?” Lurch asks, and I nod. “No contact with the Rebels. No contact with that little girl. Nothing. And you live. You don’t, I’ll put the bullet in your head myself.”
With that, we leave, get on our bikes, and Lurch and Thumper lead us to a nearby park where we stop.
“Kid?” Thumper asks as I walk closer to him, TT on my heels.
“She means somethin’ to Roe. Don’t have all the details on her, but if what LaRoche says is true and the kid was comin’ to live with them, means she ain’t got anyone.”
“Fuck,” TT says, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it.
“Yeah, brother. Kid lived with the Browns’.”
“You’re fuckin’ shittin’ me.”
I look at my brother, pain and anger warring in is expression. Fucking hate that for him. Tried for years to take on that shit so he didn’t feel it. I still don’t want him to, but I have Roe now and this kid who means a lot to my woman. I remember Roe’s face light up with the kid came to the funeral. That’s why I thought the little girl was her daughter. That connection between the two of them, the way the little kid ran into Roe’s arms…I didn’t miss a beat of it.
“Yeah, makes this kid my business. Therefore, our business.”
Lurch watches TT and myself. “Know you two had a rough start at things. Know the Browns’ took you in. This means something to Roe—we’re in.”
This I had no doubts, but I do have them where it concerns getting the little girl or, at least, making sure she’s safe. Remembering my time in foster care and all the questions I was asked over and over again float through my head, even though I tried for years to block them out. The main question they asked was about family. They always wanted to know if there were some kind of extended family somewhere that would take Waylon and me in. We had no one because our mother was a lunatic.
The thing with Waylon and my records is—there is one from the time we ente
red into foster care. Sure that shit is supposedly sealed, but nothing is truly sealed. I have a guy who could access anything I wanted at any time. So this leaves Waylon and I out for family.
“We need to have someone at the club be her extended family. It’ll take some computer adjustments, but it can work,” I tell them as TT looks at me.
“Can’t be us, brother,” he says, and I read his pained expression. “We got too long of a history. They’ll know.”
“Know that.” I look at my brothers. “We need either one of you or your ol’ ladies to have a tie somewhere.”
“Drea,” Shamus says without a blink of an eye. “It’ll work, too, because she can’t have kids and wants ‘em.”
“She be good at lyin’ flat out, brother. Know she’s your ol’ lady, but this is serious and she’s gotta keep a clear head while she answers stuff. You don’t think that she can handle it, we don’t need to use her.” Drea suffered a brain injury while on assignment as a reporter. She has some issues with fibers of her brain that came detached during an explosion. One where she’s lucky to be alive.
“Yeah, doc’s even suggested we do adoption, and we’ve already filled out most of the paperwork. I’m sure we could get approved for foster care pretty easily, and I know a guy there.”
Damn, this works. I look at TT and ask, “Thoughts?”
“If I can get to my computer, I’m sure I could make it work. They’ll want to interview you and Drea, Shamus.” Shamus nods like he’s already been going through this anyway so it’s no skin off his teeth. “You know, if I can swing the link, they’ll give the kid to them fairly quickly just to get her out of the home.”
I only nod, remembering how often we were moved from place to place only for those not to work and move to another. We spent time in the homes, too, and they were shit.
“We need to ride out and get home. What do we do about the kid until then?” Thumper asks me. Fuck if I know. What I’d like to do is snatch the kid up and take her with Roe and me, but that’ll just cause a lot of shit we don’t need coming down on us.
Scarred: The Ruthless Rebels MC Series Book 3 Page 10
