“Yeah. Told the sweet butts they can’t touch him. But livin’ there, he’ll see the rest. Just wanted him to avoid today. Don’t wanna scare him away before he understands.”
“Think he’ll understand?”
“Don’t know.”
“If he doesn’t, will you give this all up? For your son? For Cassie? For Daisy?”
Judge’s nostrils flared. “Didn’t want it in the first place.”
“The club or the position?”
“Both.”
Jemma locked eyes with her brother’s troubled green ones and whispered, “If you really didn’t want it, you wouldn’t be here.” She stepped around him and put a hand on the door handle. “See you tonight.”
He moved out of her way, and she climbed into the driver’s side and closed the door. She watched her brother’s long legs take him quickly back to the barn.
To his club.
To a group of men who had no problem with her brother beating another one of their own.
She rubbed her chest.
Her heart ached a little.
No, that wasn’t right.
It ached a lot.
Chapter Six
“This is fuckin’ insane,” Cage muttered as he stood next to Trip staring at the single-wide mobile home.
What sat before him was exactly why he’d tolerated that beating a couple of days ago. Because his club, his brothers, had his back. No matter how much he fucked up.
As long as he didn’t screw over the club or his brotherhood.
After Jemma left the other day, he practically crawled back to The Barn but he managed to make it there on his own power. And while they all sat around spit-balling ideas on where Cage could live, even temporarily, he downed about a half of a fifth of Jack.
Simply to dull the pain.
But that also meant he had needed help back to his room in the bunkhouse after their discussion. Or actually in the midst of it, since he missed most of what had been decided.
The next morning he picked up Dyna from Judge and Cassie’s house since they kept her overnight due to his inability to do just about anything.
Though, he did manage not to shit the bed.
Luckily.
Now two days later he still hurt like fuck and looked like he kissed a speeding tractor-trailer.
“Crazy, right?” Trip asked. “Stella found a business that specializes in emergency housing. It’s fuckin’ genius. They set up shit like this when a hurricane or tornado, or even fuckin’ Godzilla, takes out your house. Gives a family a place to stay while their home and life are being rebuilt. Or for when your balls are to the wall with a baby on your hip and you need somethin’ quick. Like you do. They truck it in and set it up. When you’re done with it, they pick it up. Like I said, goddamn genius.” He turned and pointed to the shed where they kept their sleds. It was parked right next to it. “It’s not the best spot since we had to put it near the large shed to temporarily hook it to utilities. It’s a quick fuckin’ fix, but it’ll do you for now.”
Fuck yeah, it would.
Thing looked brand new, too. It wasn’t some dumpy damn tin can that had been sitting and rusting in a trailer park for a couple of decades.
“Thinkin’ about settin’ up a business like this for the club. Gonna talk to Deke about it. Maybe run some numbers by Red. We got the space to park these fuckers. Get some of the guys to get their CDLs and get ‘em trained... For what they charge for haulin’ and rentin’ these fuckers out...” He shook his head. “Once the initial expense is paid off, we might be rollin’ in it. Could be a good investment.”
Cage didn’t have a head for numbers, not like Autumn and Deacon, so he couldn’t comment on that part, but he did catch the part about how much it was costing.
He hadn’t worked in over a week, his hourly salary at the shop was basically shit, and he already owed Dutch a shit-ton due to all the baby shit he had needed to buy.
Not to mention the fucking cost of formula and diapers.
Having a kid wasn’t cheap. And this was only the beginning.
Wraps were cheaper. Unless they were defective.
He stared at the huge expense sitting before him. “Club paid for it?”
Trip turned with his hands on his hips and gave him a strange look. “Dutch.”
What?
“Yeah, he paid for it. Just asked if we could put it here. I was all for keepin’ you guys close. You know how I feel about us bein’ spread out. Don’t like it. Bad enough Dodge is livin’ above the bar, Dutch is in his place in town and Ozzy’s livin’ in the motel’s manager quarters. Beside Dutch, where Oz and Dodge are stayin’ is necessary since they’re managin’ those businesses. And Dutch, well...”
“Enough said.”
“Yeah, you know your pop. Set in his ways.”
“And from what I’ve seen since stayin’ with him, he’d have a tough time stickin’ to the bunkhouse rule of no women stayin’ all night.”