Zero Regret

by Autumn Jones Lake

  His partner comes around the side of the car. He’s older. Slower. Smiling.

  “Settle down, Henry.” Apparently old and slow plans to play aw shucks, these new recruits got no respect cop today. He holds out his hand. “You’re new to downstate, right?”

  “Temporary.”

  “Your prez took a bullet to the skull, right?”

  Well, at least he’s getting right to the point. “You find the person responsible?”

  “Not yet. That’s not what we’re here for today, Mr. Frazier.”

  Great, they already know my name. Perfect. I keep my face neutral.

  “We don’t have all day.” I roll my hand in front of me in a hurry up gesture. “What do you want?”

  “You know Malone’s bowling alley out on 55?”

  “I’ve been there once or twice over the years. It’s a dump.”

  “It’s a pile of rubble,” the young cop says.

  I raise my eyebrows like I’m waiting for more information.

  “Someone burned it down last night. You know anything about that?”

  Hah. Nope. I was there and I still have no fucking idea what happened. “No, sir. You sure it was intentional? The place wasn’t in the best shape last time I was there. Was anyone hurt?”

  “When were you there last?” the older cop asks.

  “A couple months ago, maybe?” The night Murphy and I shook down the owner for some cash he owed the mafia. Just a regular Saturday night of fun.

  “Any of your bros been there more recently?”

  I glance at Rock, who shakes his head. “You’d have to ask them.”

  “Can we come inside?”

  Sure, please allow me to make your jobs easier. God only knows what’s going on inside the clubhouse at the moment. “You got a warrant?”

  “Do we need one just to come in for a chat?

  Points to the old guy for giving it a solid try. “I’m fine chatting out here.”

  “Seems like if you’re really an innocent club of Harley lovers, it’d be no big deal to let us inside,” young cop says.

  “What exactly are you hoping to find? A smoldering bowling ball? I already told you I don’t know anything about Malone’s. If one of my brothers has some info, I’ll be sure to have him call ya.”

  Realizing I’m not dumb enough to let them in the clubhouse, the cops glance at each other. “Here’s my card. Let me know if you hear anything.”

  I stuff it in my pocket without looking at it. “Will do.”

  We wait outside until the cops leave. No way am I risking opening the door so their nosey asses can claim they saw fuck-knows-what in plain sight and use it as an excuse to barge in and search the place.

  “Interesting they showed up here so fast,” Rock comments as we watch the car drive away.

  “No kidding.”

  Inside, the clubhouse is quiet.

  “Get rid of the fuzz, Prez?” Rooster grins at me as he strolls out of the office.

  “You catch all that?”

  “Sure did.” He tips his head. “Hey, Rock. Glad you’re still here.”

  “Thanks.”

  “How was Sway?”

  “Not too bad. Still seems tired. Stella stopped by to cheer him up.”

  Rooster snorts. “I’m sure she did.”

  “Shadow’s still down there. So’s Grip and Brew.”

  “You got a minute, Rock?” Rooster asks. “I wanted your opinion on something.”

  They both step outside and I make my way down to Teller’s room to check on him.

  I’m about to push open the door when I hear Charlotte’s voice.

  “Did you take a hit to the head?”

  Teller doesn’t laugh. “I’m serious. I don’t want you spending too much time around her.”

  “I understand why the situation bothers you, Marcel, I really do—”

  “It’s got nothing to do with that.”

  “Yeah, okay.” I can practically hear her eyeroll. “Z’s your brother.”

  Figured they were discussing Lilly and me.

  “He’s going through a lot with this transition,” Charlotte continues, “And he needs your support. I’m sure he’s already upset about last night. Don’t make things harder on him.”

  “I’m not. I haven’t said a word.”

  Liar. I struggle to rein in my laughter.

  “Good. Don’t. If he’s forgiven her, then so can you.”

  See, I knew there was a reason I always liked Charlotte. She’s a smart, practical woman. Not afraid to let Teller know when he’s acting like an asshole. Which is good, because it happens with annoying frequency.

  “Where’s your sympathy for me, woman? I took a bullet in the ass.”

  “Oh, I’m not thrilled with you…”

  Their voices lower and I’m pretty sure he’s trying to coax her into bed. So, I do what any good president would do—cock-block.

  I tap my knuckles against the cheap wood and push the door open all the way.

  “Don’t wait for an answer or anything,” Teller gripes.

  “The door was open, dipstick.” I shut it behind me with an exaggerated turning of the knob. “Besides, I can’t count how many times you’ve walked in on me unannounced.”

  Charlotte chuckles. “How are you, Z?”

  “Better than your man.” I smirk at both of them. “Obviously.”

  “That gratitude of yours needs work,” Teller says. “If I hadn’t been behind you, your ass would’ve been hit.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” I’m busting his balls, but really, I’m fucking furious he got hurt. A president’s supposed to be responsible for all his brothers. If anyone should’ve taken that bullet, it’s me. “Anyone bother you today?”

  “Just you.”

  Charlotte smacks his arm, making me laugh.

  “I’m asking because cops were here when Rock and I got back.”

  Charlotte raises an eyebrow. “What did they want?”

  “To come inside for a friendly chat.”

  She rolls her eyes. “Does that ever work for them?”

  “Probably. Most citizens feel it’s their duty to be as helpful as possible. They’re just beaming with pride to let the pigs in.”

  “While lawyers everywhere scream in frustration,” Charlotte says.

  “I’m glad you were here because if it escalated, I was going to have you come out and talk to them.”

  She tilts her head. Surprised, maybe? Hope’s only ever had good things to say about Charlotte’s lawyering skills. I trust her. “You think we wouldn’t have a female lawyer?”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “Charlotte’s practice keeps her busy enough,” Teller says. “Sway must have a lawyer on retainer.”

  “I’m sure he does.”

  “Charlotte is capable of speaking for herself about her law practice,” she says to Teller.

  Behind me, Rock chuckles. “Ah, like looking back in time.”

  Charlotte ducks her head and laughs. “Poor Hope.”

  “Were you guys this nice to Sway?” Teller asks.

  “Nicer.” I grin at him.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Lilly

  No one shares any details, but I gather enough information to understand Teller was shot.

  Now Charlotte’s middle-of-the week visit makes more sense.

  “I don’t even want to ask what you were doing that someone shot at you.”

  Z shrugs. “We were just as surprised.”

  “That’s informative.”

  He kisses the tip of my nose. “Wasn’t meant to be.”

  “Z—”

  “Lilly, I’ll share with you what I can.”

  But this is club business. He doesn’t say it, but it’s written in his expression. Hope’s briefly mentioned there are some things she doesn’t ask questions about. Heidi’s much more matter of fact about it. Some things just aren’t our business. Their blind trust in their men always seemed odd to me. Now I find myself trus
ting Z, probably more than I should.

  “Just tell me that we’re safe. That you’re safe.”

  He doesn’t hesitate. “Yes. If I thought you were in danger, I’d have you somewhere else.”

  “Okay.”

  I’m still turning our conversation over in my head when Charlotte stops by the house.

  “Come in. Chance and I were just going to have a snack.”

  “I’d love to, but I have to get back. This came at the worst time. I have a trial starting tomorrow.”

  “Oh, wow. Sorry.” I wave her inside. “At least let me make you some coffee for the road.”

  “Thanks.”

  She follows me into the kitchen and pours a generous amount of cream and sugar into one of the travel mugs I hand her.

  “You leave room for coffee?”

  She chuckles. “Marcel says the same thing.” She hesitates, then meets my eyes. “I hate asking, but would you check on him? Later today. Whenever you have a few minutes? I know Murphy will be back later.” She rolls her eyes. “And Marcel swears he’s fine, but I’m worried—”

  “Of course. I can do that.”

  “Just ignore him if he’s crabby.”

  I chuckle and squeeze her arm. “I have an older brother, remember? Plenty of experience with cranky males who don’t want to admit they need anything.”

  “That’ll come in handy. Thanks, Lilly. I appreciate it.”

  At the door, she gives me a quick, tight hug. “I’ll hopefully be back down Saturday morning. We’ll see how my trial goes.”

  “Good luck.”

  * * *

  “Want to go visit Uncle Teller?” I ask Chance after his nap.

  “Otay.”

  “What do you think we can bring him to cheer him up?”

  He races over to the coffee table and picks up what’s become his new favorite coloring book. Full of monster trucks. “Good choice.”

  Besides motorcycles, I’ve noticed quite a few of Z’s brothers have an affinity for tricked-out trucks. Teller’s is especially impressive. It seems to be a running joke between him and Charlotte that no one except Murphy has ever driven his truck.

  If Heidi or Charlotte were home, I’d probably go through the back gate and knock on their patio door, but as far as I know, Teller’s home alone, so I cross our front yards and ring the doorbell.

  He takes a while to answer and I almost consider calling instead, but finally, he opens the door.

  “Lilly? What are you doing here?” He winces as he steps back to open the door wider, but otherwise remains stoic.

  “Chance wanted to come say hello and show you his book of monster trucks.”

  Finally, his harsh expression softens as he glances down. “Hey, buddy. You bring that for me?” He nods to the book in Chance’s hand.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Let me guess,” Teller says in a low voice as I walk past him. “Z asked you to come check up on me?”

  “No, Charlotte did. She was upset she had to leave.”

  “Damn,” he mutters. “She has a rough enough week without worrying about this BS.”

  As unfriendly as Teller has been to me at times, I’m charmed by his interest in and support of Charlotte’s career. Since he’s so sweet to his fiancée, his sister, his niece, and pretty much every other female associated with the club, he can’t be all bad.

  I figure his issue has more to do with me. I get it. Z may have forgiven me, but it’ll take a while before his brothers trust me. While Wrath had been the one I was most worried about, I haven’t had to deal with him much since moving down here.

  Teller stretches out on the couch on his side and pulls the coffee table over at an angle so he can flip through the coloring book with Chance.

  “Have you eaten since Charlotte left?” I ask. Somewhere in the back of my head, career-oriented Lilly is rolling her eyes and asking, Are you really offering to cater to Z’s over-muscled, caveman brothers now?

  But I shut that voice down because she’s a bit of a snobby bitch.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Z

  The tension in the club hasn’t gone away since the night Malone’s blew up. I don’t completely trust Shadow, but I’m trying to keep the club together.

  I also want to keep my family together. I always swore I wouldn’t be one of those bikers who claimed to be a “family man” yet spent all his time at the clubhouse. When it’s appropriate, I have Lilly and Chance at the clubhouse with me. When it’s not, I try to spend my days at the house and wrap up as much club business as I can at night.

  Today, we’re having a spur-of-the-moment backyard barbeque at my place. Teller’s finally feeling better. Heidi and Charlotte came down to stay for the weekend. Charlotte’s brother, Carter, joined them, promising to watch the kids if we wanted to go to the clubhouse tonight.

  Sun’s out today. Pool’s warm. Why not?

  “Hey,” Murphy says. “They’re doing good, right?” He nods at the pool.

  Heidi and Lilly are teaching the kids to swim. Really, they’re just splashing and kicking water at Teller and Carter, but that’s fun too.

  “How pissed is Wrath you haven’t been at Furious all week?”

  “Don’t tell him I’m here today.” He shrugs and glances over his shoulder. “Jake’s trying to put together a self-defense class geared toward the ladies. More intense than the usual ‘poke the eyes, scream, and run.’ Heidi and Charlotte are doing it. I know Wrath’s having Trin go, which means Hope’s taking it too. Think Lilly will be up for it?”

  “Yeah, why not.” I point the meat tongs in my hand toward the pool. “She’s right there, ask her yourself.”

  “It’s kind of hands-on.”

  “So?”

  “Showing them how to get out of choke holds and stuff.”

  Meaning Jake needs to put his hands on the girls to give them instructions.

  Would Lilly blow a gasket if she knew Murphy was basically over here asking my permission for her to take a class? Probably.

  “You’re fine with Heidi doing it?” I ask.

  “Yeah, she’s comfortable with Jake.”

  “You trust him with Heidi?”

  “Oh, fuck yeah. She’s a dolphin as far as he’s concerned.”

  I snort at the joke, happy that’s getting around.

  He glances over his shoulder. “I’m still not sure how much I trust some of the brothers down here. I figure a few extra lessons can’t hurt.”

  I snort and poke at the chicken on the grill in front of me. “Shit, I don’t know what I worry about more these days, the club or everywhere else?”

  “Well, that too. Fucking hate some of the douchewaffles she has classes with.”

  “Someone bothering her?”

  “Nothing she can’t handle.” He smirks. “Or so I’m told.”

  “Meaning, Heidi asked you not to come to school and make a scene?”

  “Close.”

  “She asked and you did it anyway.”

  “Much closer.”

  “You found the kid and threatened him until he pissed his pants.”

  He slaps my shoulder. “There ya go.”

  “Oh, is Murphy telling you how he terrorized one of my classmates?” Heidi walks up behind Murphy and presses her wet body against his back, hugging him from behind.

  “‘Terrorized’ sounds so extreme.” Murphy shrugs. “It was a friendly chat.”

  “Suuuuure it was. I told you I had it covered.”

  “What happened, Heidi?” I ask.

  “Just a guy in my class. At first, he was friendly. We worked on a group project together. I probably mentioned my daughter and hubby a million times.” She squeezes Murphy tighter and he rests his hands over hers. “He started making jokes about how I’m too young to be tied down. Stupid shit like that.”

  “Fucker,” I grumble.

  “Typical ‘bro’ behavior,” Murphy says. He glances over his shoulder at Heidi. “Finish.”

  Heidi groans. �
��It’s stupid. He started texting me, asking me to go out.” She tips her head back to look at Murphy. “Told him my weekends were busy.”

  “And?”

  “He just kept it up. I finally sent him a stern, ‘I’m not interested, stop asking’ text and he flipped out. Said I wasn’t that hot anyway and I shouldn’t be such a stuck-up bitch and give nice guys a chance. Crazy shit.”

  I zero in on Murphy. “Sounds like he needed a beating, not a chat?”

  Murphy shrugs.

  “Teller go with you?”

  “No, he’s been laid up. Took Rav with me.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me? I would’ve gone with you.”

  “I think you have enough to handle right now, Prez.”

  “Um,” Heidi pokes Murphy’s side. “No one needed to go anywhere. I blocked his number and reported his behavior to the school.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure they’ll take care of it.” Murphy rolls his eyes. “The way that school handles stuff, you’ll probably be the one who gets in trouble for hurting his feelings.”

  Heidi sighs. There’s no arguing with Murphy when he’s fired up.

  “I kind of agree with him, Heidi.”

  She makes a wide-eyed face at me. “I’m so shocked, Uncle Z.”

  “Smart ass.”

  Heidi tugs on Murphy’s hand. “Come in the pool with us?”

  “I’ll be right there.” He leans over and kisses the top of her head.

  “Seriously, Murphy, you should’ve told me. I don’t want some punk messin’ with Heidi like that,” I say once she leaves.

  “I told Rock, so I was covered. Happened when I was home taking care of things. Only saw one of the texts by accident, Z. She probably wouldn’t have told me otherwise. Didn’t think it was a big deal. But you know how assholes like that are. He could be some nutjob who kept it up.”

  “Yeah, or a nutjob who comes after her even harder next time.”

  He works his jaw from side to side. “Yeah, I thought about that too. So fuckin’ glad she’s almost done in a few weeks.”

  “Until the next one.”

  “Fuck, I know.” He looks over at Heidi and Alexa again.