“Yeah, let’s go into the kitchen. Everyone’s gone for the day, and there’s coffee.” Dad nods his head, letting me know he’s leaving us to it, and heads into his quarters with a squeeze of my hand.
“Oh God, a girl after my own heart. She has coffee,” Raven says. Her name matches her perfectly.
“If there’s no coffee, what is there?” My bravado is slowly fading as we all move into the kitchen. The guys and their women make themselves comfortable around the eat-in kitchen that we keep for our now employees.
“Gonna give it to you straight. I’m assumin’ you know enough about Rage to know shit sometimes happens. Got a tip that the warehouse had drugs in it. I’ll tell you right now Diamondback doesn’t deal in that shit. We’re not always above board, but we do not fuck with that shit,” Shovel states. I straighten my shoulders, thankful of that.
“Still doesn’t mean people aren’t lookin’ to fuck with Diamondback, Jolie,” Razor gives it to me straight.
“They got him on an unpaid ticket when the kid was nineteen. Failure to have car insurance or some shit like that, along with a parkin’ ticket. He was never notified since he moved shortly after. If you catch my drift, to make a long story short, they’re attemptin’ to make an example out of him. That’s all they got. Now, he’s not gonna have the luxury of a phone until we bail him out, so we need you to be strong.” I can hear the sincerity in Shovel’s voice but also the sheer annoyance that they’re pulling this shit on Decker.
“I can do that. Just, if you get to talk to him, let him know everything’s okay. He’s worried about me enough to last a lifetime. I don’t want Decker doing it in there too.”
“She’ll be fine, Shovel. Persephone and I will keep her busy while you guys go visit with the lawyer, which my watch is saying you’ve got about fifteen minutes until you have to be there. We’ll get our stuff settled. Well, maybe not Shadow’s. He’s a no-touch kind of guy, if you get what I mean,” Raven states. Another thing related to club life, if you’re someone’s Ol’ Lady, you don’t ride on the back of someone else’s bike, brother or not, and you don’t try to help another brother out with anything you’d be doing the same for your own man.
“Yep, come on. I’ll show you to your rooms.” It’s well into the early part of noon, and I need anything I can do to keep busy at this pace. When I fall apart, it’ll be in Decker’s room, his scent surrounding me, random toothpicks on the nightstand, and all on my own without prying eyes.
Fifteen
Rage
“You’re free to go, Mr. McKay,” the arresting officer tells me. I’ve been in holding going on damn near close to twenty-four hours. Thankfully, it wasn’t much longer than that, or I’d be in the government-issued orange jumpsuit, shoes without shoelaces, and have to bend over and cough. Instead, I was put in an interrogation room. Nothin’ was said. It was the weirdest shit, and to pick me up on somethin’ so minor. Shit ain’t addin’ up, and I’m ready for the brothers to get here.
“Thanks.” I don’t say anything else, not when I see a man in a suite waiting for me outside the local sheriff’s office.
“I hope to hell you’re not brought back in here, on anything.” I can’t figure out his game plan. He’s the one who arrested me. That remark had me rethinking it all.
“I hear ya.” I push through the door. Behind the man in a suit are Shovel, Razor, and Shadow. Things are really fucked when both the Prez and Vice Prez are here.
“Brother, you’re a sight for sore eyes,” Shovel states.
“Prez, been a minute.” I nod my head.
“Your lawyer.” Razor nods his head. He holds his hand out, and I shake it.
“Thanks for bein’ here, Smith,” I tell him, having already met him at the warehouse. His hands were tied with my arrest until he could get my record.
“It’s my job. These fellas here tell me there’s a room we can use at The Breezeway Inn. Reckon that’s good for you?”
“That’ll work. Give me a minute with them, if you don’t mind?” I ask.
“Not a problem.” He steps away.
“Jolie wants you to know she’s fine.” I imagine she is. The strength she has built up in her body from life treatin’ her like shit on the bottom of her shoe.
“I didn’t think she wouldn’t be. She’s a hell of an Ol’ Lady.” I let Shovel know that we were building a relationship and didn’t tell him that I was claimin’ her until today.
“Yep, I assumed so.”
“She’s deep in the trenches with Persephone and Raven. Wonder what they’ll be up to next.” Razor has a sly grin on his face. I just roll my eyes. I don’t know who the biggest shit starter is in their relationship—Razor or Raven.