Dead souls mc complete s.., p.38
Dead Souls MC (Complete Series #1-5), page 38
But I couldn’t shake how adamant Diesel was about there not being a rat.
I wanted to think like him. I wanted to believe him. I wanted to believe in the integrity of our entire club and what we had built over the years. But I couldn’t help but wonder how all of this was coming to pass. If someone wasn’t ratting on us, how did The Black Saddles find Everly? How did they almost peel this case apart twice? None of it made sense without a rat in the picture.
And for the first time in the history of our club, we were all leaving church with more questions than answers.
The only thing I could do was go home and lay low for a little while. Grave was heading back to his new place where Everly was probably waiting for him and Knox was headed to check on Monroe. Since everything that happened, both of them moved their women to new safe houses, that they were not telling anyone about.
Contrary to how Rock felt about all this shit, I was happy for them. A family was a rare thing to have in our line of work. In the lives we led. If they found someone to be happy with and were expecting children, I couldn’t be happier for them.
I wish I had something like that, honestly.
“Hey, Brewer! Wait up.”
I turned around and watched Mick jogging up to me.
“What’s up, newbie?” I asked.
“Come on. I’ve been with you guys almost two years. Really?” he asked.
“When someone else pledges, you’ll be rid of it,” I said with a grin.
“Look, can I talk to you about something?”
“Sure. What’s up?” I asked.
I crossed my hands over my chest and leaned against my bike.
“Okay, don’t… hate me or some shit for this… but I can’t help but think with Diesel fighting against this whole ‘rat’ idea that he might not actually believe what he’s talking about.”
I furrowed my brow as I pushed myself off my bike.
“What do you mean?”
“Look, I know this could get me into trouble, but we’re pretty much all in accordance that there’s a rat, right?” Mick asked.
“Sounds like it, for the most part,” I said.
“Diesel is the deducer of us all. If there’s anyone that can flush this rat out, it’s him. So… why is he so adamant that there isn’t one?”
I felt my blood run cold as I drew in a deep breath.
“I’m not saying anything bad. I just… think it’s odd.”
“Don’t worry. You're not the only one,” I said.
“I’m not?”
“No. I do think it’s odd. I’m just not sure if Diesel is bucking against it because he doesn’t want to believe it or if he might be…”
Mick and I exchanged glances before the two of us started looking around.
“I’m so fucking glad I’m not the only one who was thinking it,” he said.
“You're not, but we have to keep it between us,” I said. “If there is even a hint of mutiny in this group, we’re in a lot of fucking trouble.”
“I don’t want mutiny. I just wanna know who the damn rat is,” he said.
“We all do. Well, most of us do. Keep your head low for now. Go home. Get some rest. I’m sure Diesel will call on us in a few days. Our distributions and shit have been halted for now so the feds can’t poke around and ruin anything, so our only job is to stay out of trouble.”
“And if The Black Saddles come for one of us?”
“Then we better be prepared for a fight,” I said.
I clapped Mick on the shoulder before he turned around and walked away. I felt bad for the guy. I really did. He became a prospect a couple year back after Diesel introduced him to the group. He was quiet. Scrawny compared to the rest of us. But he was loyal to a fault and a fucking whiz with numbers. We’d quickly promoted his ass to Treasurer because none of us could stomach doing numbers shit all day, but he definitely wasn’t a fighter.
And now, he was having to prepare himself to be one.
I shook my head as I got onto my bike. My plan was to ride back home and keep my head in the fucking sand. Out of all the guys, I was the one that tried to lead as normal of a life as possible. I had a decent home in a place where I had neighbors. There was a little pond beside my house where the kids of the neighborhood would go and fish. Swim. Shoot water guns and shit. I’d sit on my porch and watch them. Make sure nothing happened to them.
It made me feel like I could lead a normal life like that one day.
It wasn't that I didn’t enjoy the club. I did. The Dead Souls were my family. My brothers. My confidants. The only people on this fucking planet I trusted. But a part of me liked the idea of having a beautiful woman to curl up to at night. To sink my dick into and press my lips against.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t dream about it from time to time.
But I wasn’t too sure about having kids of my own.
I pulled up into my driveway and parked my bike in the garage. The sun was beginning to set and I pulled out my phone to order some pizza. I shut the garage door and walked into my home, and I drew in a deep breath.
Walking into this place would never get old.
I looked over at the clock and realized it was too late to go visit my mom. Not that she would remember me visiting anyway. Alzheimer’s was devouring her mind every damn day she was still alive. I had watched her waste away for the past six years. Watching memories from my childhood slip away from her. She couldn’t remember birthdays or holidays. Opening presents under the Christmas tree or carving Thanksgiving turkeys. Hell, we were at a point where she didn’t recognize me most of the time.
And when she did recognize me, she couldn't remember the last time I’d come to see her.
I sat down at the kitchen table and sighed. This place held a lot of memories for me. I grew up in this home. Took care of it when my father ran off with some bimbo in his office. My mother acted like she was strong. Never cried in front of me and never talked badly about him when I was around. But at night, I could hear her. Sobbing into her pillow from beyond her bedroom door. He broke that woman’s heart and spiraled her into a depression that took her years to climb out of.
I’d quickly learned how to grow up and take care of a family during those years.
I looked out into my backyard and saw images of myself running around. Kicking a ball with my dad while Mom sat on the porch with her coffee. I saw my father and I laying on a trampoline, watching an asteroid shower fly by at four in the morning. I was nine at the time, and it was single-handedly my favorite memory of my father.
But despite that good memory, he ended up being a piece of shit. Which is probably why I was hesitant about having kids of my own one day. I didn’t want to become the piece of shit that he was.
The ringing of my doorbell ripped me from my trance. I got up and pulled my wallet from my pocket so I could pay the pizza guy. I opened the door and grabbed my food, then handed him some money and told him to keep the change. If he was thankful for it, he didn’t show it. Just frowned at me and walked away.
I went to go step back inside, but a car inching up the road caught my attention. I stood there with my piping hot food in my hand as I watched the broken-down vehicle sputter to a stop. It backfired in the driveway and I furrowed my brow, watching as a woman stepped out of the vehicle.
Then a small girl clamored out of the back.
I didn’t recognize them. I’d never seen them in the area before. The house beside me had been vacant for months. Ever since the last tenants moved out. I watched the brown-haired woman scoop her young girl up into her arms and carry her inside, her body moving fluidly as her daughter giggled in her arms.
Huh.
New neighbors.
I watched her ass sway as she carried the girl inside.
At least she was something nice to look at.
2
Makenna
“Mommy! Mommy! The truck’s here!”
Ana went running to the front door before she ripped it open.
“Ana, what have I told you about not opening the door by yourself?” I asked.
“But no one knocked on the door,” she said.
“You don’t open it by yourself at all,” I said.
“Sorry.”
“Okay. You wanna help me with the boxes?” I asked.
“Yeah! I wanna decorate my room.”
I was thankful for the men that drove the moving truck all the way from Texas to here. Getting away from my ex was something I had wanted to do for years. The men pulled the van up into my new driveway and smiled at me, then they began helping me lug things into the house.
I picked up a box from the back and took it upstairs. I had everything labeled where I wanted it to go. My bedroom. Ana’s bedroom. The kitchen. The living room. Decorations for hallways. Stuff like that. I didn’t realize how much stuff I actually owned until I started packing it up one day, which was what made me look into a house instead of an apartment.
I found a rental house I could afford on my budget, so I jumped at the chance.
The guys were hauling furniture into the house and I was directing them where to go. I had an idea of how I wanted to lay things out. It was why I had come in a couple of days early. I had been sleeping on the floor while Ana was on an air mattress, but seeing the layout of the house gave me time to envision what it would look like after. I wouldn’t be able to easily move around furniture once the movers were gone, so I wanted them to be able to set it down in the right place the first time around.
Ana kept running in with bags of stuff from the back of the truck. I tried to make sure she wasn’t underneath any of the guys hauling furniture, but it was hard to keep track of her. She was running around with her red hair bouncing around her shoulders and her arms flailing like she was running away from a monster.
My daughter had the funniest run I’d ever seen.
The movers brought in the last of the big furniture and I told them where to set it. A few more boxes and I would be completely unpacked from that damn truck. I went out to the back and grabbed another box, hauling it off the truck.
Then, I heard a rumbling sound coming up the road.
I set the box down and wiped at the perspiration on my forehead. I saw a man on a motorcycle with a leather vest on his back and black aviators on his face. Oh. He must’ve thought he was hot shit. Were there men like that all around Northern California?
Because that shit was going to get old fast.
“Mommy? What’s that?” Ana asked.
“That’s a motorcycle. They’re very dangerous, sweetie. Make sure to stay away from them," I said.
“It’s a bicycle?” Ana asked.
“No,” I said as I watched the man pull in next door. “It’s so much more than that.”
The man parked his bike in the driveway as his garage door opened. I studied him, watching as he turned his head towards me. I picked my daughter up into my arms so she wouldn’t go running off to who was apparently our new neighbor. But when he stood up and took his sunglasses off, I felt the breath flee from my lungs.
His amber eyes were piercing. Dark. Brooding. But with a hint of kindness to them. He was tall in stature and his legs stood strong. His jeans clung to his rounded ass and his shirt was soaked with sweat. I could see the outline of his chiseled abs underneath the fabric and the way he grinned at me made fire rush to my toes.
I turned my back to him and I drew in a deep breath.
“You okay, Mommy?” Ana asked.
“Just a little tired,” I said.
He was sexy. No, more than that. He was fucking gorgeous. But I couldn’t get wrapped up in something like that. My neighbor? Was I insane? I didn’t have any time for fun. I had a daughter to raise and jobs to interview for and a life to restart.
I couldn't go around having a slice of fun simply because I was single for the first time in four years.
“Ma’am?”
I turned around at the sound of the mover’s voice.
“Yes?” I asked.
“All the boxes and the furniture are inside. You need anything else?” he asked.
“Oh, wow. Um… no, then. Thank you very much for your help.”
I slid a couple of twenties out of my back pocket and handed it over to the man. He took it proudly and nodded his thanks, then I watched him and his buddy climb up into the moving van. I stood there while Ana waved them off, then the two of us turned back to the house.
And I was painfully aware of the fact that my neighbor was staring at me.
Without turning to look at him, I started back into the house. I opened up the back door and let Ana run out into her new backyard. She had a few play toys back there that would keep her occupied, and I could watch her from the kitchen while I unpacked everything.
Her laughter was intoxicating, and it reassured me that I had done the right thing.
My ex was a piece of shit. I’d caught him cheating with one of my co-workers. Right there in the fucking back room of the building. I worked as a warehouse manager and was always back and forth between the front desks of the operation and the products out back. Despite the fact that the job wasn’t glamorous, it was a very good paycheck and had outstanding health benefits. I was thankful that my prior boss put in a good word for me, because I already had three interviews set up.
And I was pretty sure one of them was already a given.
As I stacked things in the kitchen, I watched Ana slide down her little plastic slide. She was giggling and having the best time and it made my heart soar. I’d already planned ahead and gotten her enrolled into school. She started at the beginning of the week and I hoped she would enjoy it. The people around here seemed nice enough. The secretary of the Elementary School she would be starting at helped me out by faxing everything over so I could get it back to her immediately.
They had been a massive help through this entire process and it reassured me I’d chosen a good spot for us to touch down.
The moment I figured out my ex was cheating on me, I threw him out. Then I packed up my shit and left. Luckily, he wasn’t Ana’s father. So, I didn’t have to worry about him coming after her or anything. Ana’s father was a good man. We’d gotten pregnant my senior year of high school and he had enlisted into the military in order to provide for us. He went through basic and moved us onto base with him, and we quickly fell into a good life together.
But before Ana was even six months old, an accident out in the field took him from us. Leaving me as a single mother at nineteen years old.
That was how I’d gotten into the warehouse business. It was the only place that would hire someone like me with nothing more than a high school diploma. My ex was my boss, and he saw potential in me. We grew close and he suggested all these certifications for me to get, and then I was promoted. I kept getting promoted, inching my way towards success. And he cheered me on every step of the way. Loved me and supported me and enjoyed his time with Ana.
Until I had been promoted over him as the overall manager of the entire warehouse.
That was when our relationship took a turn for the worst. He got angry with me easier and didn’t come around as much. He stopped spending time with Ana and she would constantly ask about him. We had more fights in the last year of our relationship than we’d had throughout the course of it, and it wasn’t until I caught him cheating with one of the line workers that I realized what had happened.
He resented me for the success he pushed me towards.
I decided I didn’t need that kind of negativity in my life, so I left. The few things he did have at my place were put in boxes and left on his doorstep. I told my immediate boss what was going on and she did everything in her power to try and convince me to stay. But when she knew it was fruitless, she put out a few feelers in Redding.
She still didn’t know why I wanted to be all the way out there, but she finally became supportive of it.
Redding had a massive warehouse that employed more than half the town. It sat on the outskirts of the town and had an opening for the exact position I was looking for. That was the job I was hoping to get. More money than I was getting paid in Texas, better health benefits, and a 401(k) with company matching up to four percent.
I was really hoping to nail that interview.
Ana was getting grass stains all over her dress as I emptied the last of the contents for my kitchen. It wasn’t much. Enough for Ana and myself. But it was what I had and I was proud of it. I moved into the living room and threw open the curtains so I could continue peering into the fenced-in backyard, but a knock at the front door drew my attention.
Who was at my door?
I walked over and threw the door open before my heart stopped. There he was, with his white t-shirt pulling against his athletic frame and his strong shoulders. My eyes grazed up his body, clocking every single piece of strength he had sitting underneath his tight jeans. There was a vein throbbing against his neck that I wanted to lick. I could feel my breasts rising to peaks behind my bra.
I looked up into his amber brown eyes as a small grin crossed his cheeks.
“This box yours?”
I stuck my head out into the porch and saw the massive cardboard thing sitting there.
“Yes. Yikes. Thank you,” I said.
I went to step out of the house, but his hand landed on my shoulder to stop me. His touch was hot. White hot. It sent electricity shooting down my spine and weakened my knees. I looked up at him as he withdrew his hand, then he bent down and picked up the box in his hands.
His arms flexed with their strength as veins began to bulge from his forearms.
“Where do you want it?” he asked.
3
Brewer
I pulled up on my motorcycle and saw a moving van in the driveway of my new neighbor’s house. Huh. That’s odd. She’d been there a couple of days already. I was friends with the old man that owned the place. Nice guy who lived in an apartment above the diner in town that he owned. Him and his wife had lived in that house all of their adult lives. Raised their children in it. But when she died, he couldn't stomach staying there. Not with all the memories and the whispers of the past coming alive at night. And I couldn't blame him. I found him on his porch out back one night at four in the morning and we had a long talk over the fence. I told him I’d help him find another place if he wanted to, and that was what led him to not only purchasing his apartment but investing in the diner below it.
