It calmed me down better than anything else. Taking a sledgehammer to a wall not only seemed to mellow the rage I couldn’t get rid of, but it was also productive. Left me feeling accomplished and shit. I was pretty sure that was one of the reasons my dad had helped me with the down payment.
“Do you have the electricity wired yet?” Mom asked as we reached the back door.
“Nah.” I shook my head. “Gotta figure out where I want the walls first.”
“One day, you’re going to knock down a load-bearing wall and that entire place is going to fall down around you,” she replied worriedly.
“I’m careful,” I promised, stepping around my cousin Cam’s twin boys who were building an elaborate Lincoln Log house in the middle of the hallway. “I know which walls to avoid.”
“Callie, I’m gonna need you to talk me down,” my Aunt Farrah called out as we passed the doorway to her room. “I’m about to strangle your brother.”
My mom laughed. “I better go calm the nutjob.”
She hugged my side, then spun around and walked into Casper’s room. My aunt started yelling before she’d even closed the door behind her.
They were the funniest pair of friends I’d ever seen and they’d been friends for a long ass time. My mom was pretty mellow. She didn’t get worked up about shit very often and when she did, my dad calmed her down quick. Aunt Farrah was the opposite. It was all drama with her, and my uncle Casper fucking encouraged it.
I walked through the crowded clubhouse and almost groaned in annoyance. There were people everywhere. You couldn’t walk two feet without running into someone, and I completely understood my mom’s cabin fever. I was lucky—I spent most of my time in the garage bays working and anyone who wasn’t working wasn’t allowed inside. It was too fucking dangerous to have the kids running around like little chickens with their heads cut off. When things were normal, it wasn’t a big deal if someone brought their kid into work with them. Most of them were pretty well behaved and they were just stoked to be helping out their dad for the day. But when you got more than two together, especially during a lockdown? Chaos.
“Your dad still giving you shit?” my friend Leo asked as I bellied up to the bar.
I eyed the whiskey on the back shelf. “Is the world still spinnin’?”
“He’ll mellow,” Leo replied with a nod. I had a feeling that as a patched in member he knew a shit lot more than I did about what was happening with the club, especially since his dad was the president. “You with that blonde girl?” he asked, turning so he could lean back against the bar. “Hawk?”
“Why does everyone keep calling her Hawk?” I asked in confusion, turning to see what he was looking at.
Heather was sprawled out on one of the couches with Molly’s daughter, looking at a little tablet. Whatever they were watching must have been playing music, because Rebel’s head was nodding and Heather’s bare feet were swaying where they hung over the arm of the couch.
“That’s how she’s been introducin’ herself,” Leo said, catching my attention again. “Hey, I’m Hawk, what’s your name,” he said with a snicker. “Bitch has said hello to damn near everyone.”
That didn’t surprise me. She’d never been one to sit quietly in the corner. The girl liked company.
“I’ve heard the little one call her that, too,” Leo said, still staring at Heather. It was beginning to annoy me.
“Her name’s Heather,” I replied shortly.
His head turned slowly until he was facing me. “Think I’ll call her Hawk,” he said with a smirk. He waited for me to say something, to lose my shit, but when I didn’t, he got up and walked away.
I held my body still for as long as I could, then finally couldn’t stop myself from turning to see where he went. He hadn’t even gone near Heather, thank Christ. I could deal with Leo’s bullshit when I knew he was poking at me; he was my best friend and I’d been dealing with his shit since birth. But I wasn’t sure I could keep myself calm if I saw him with her.
* * *
“Got news,” Dragon announced.
It was hot as fuck inside with the fans off and the doors closed, but it was the only place all of us fit if we wanted to have a meeting away from the women and kids. The officers had been holed up nearly all day in church going over shit I had no clue about. Apparently they’d decided to let the masses know something, because the minute they’d come out we’d been herded into the garage like cattle.
“Been waiting on the Feds to finish their little Russian round up,” Dragon said with a smile. “Might as well let somebody else do some of the heavy lifting first.”