“Dumb. Go in dumb. You’re there as muscle. Have Junior test his folks and find out who’s really interested in being part of the club and who’s just using it for convenient cover. Show ‘em what it means to be a brother but you don’t know jack about the meth or Trainor.”
“Got it.”
“Good. Chelsea can teach the old ladies how to act too.” We share a laugh. Chelsea’s the youngest old lady here in the club and even with Easy and Michigan taking on Annie, Chelsea is still a year behind her. That she wouldn’t be on the bottom of that particular ladder might be appealing to her.
Judge stops beside Abel. “You okay with this?”
Flint had informed the new patch of what his new duties would be.
“Signed up to be a Death Lord. Doesn’t matter if I’m here or in the cities.”
“Good man.” Judge gives him a healthy pat on the back. “I’m not sure how long this will take. May be over in weeks. May be longer. Chelsea can get her beauty certificate or whatever the hell it is those ladies get.”
I cast a knowing glare at Judge. “You got this all planned out, haven’t you?” He’s never going to stop being my dad, always three steps ahead of me. His eyes twinkle but he doesn’t acknowledge that question. At least not out loud.
“You telling Chelsea that you've planned her life?” I ask.
“Oh no. She's your responsibility now.” He claps me on the shoulder.
* * *
“You’re taking this pretty well, all things considered,” I observe as Chelsea zips her suitcase. When I told her of Judge’s orders, she didn’t argue but went straight to the bedroom and pulled out her little wheeled case. It’s the one she arrived with all those years ago when Judge showed up with Chels’ mom but never had a chance to use again because Chelsea didn’t go anywhere. Or maybe it is more accurate that we never took her anywhere.
She was fourteen when Judge took her under his wing and seventeen, going on eighteen, when I went to prison.
She’s twenty-one now. No wonder she wants to leave Fortune. And not forever, she said, just for a little while.
“It’s not going to be long and we won’t be far.” She places her hands on her hips and looks around the room. There’s not much here since we just moved in. The bed, a mirror on the wall, two nightstands that BangBang’s wife gave us. We just moved in and now we’re leaving. “What will Judge do with the apartment?”
“It’s ours. We don’t know how long this will take. Could be a month. Could be longer. No point in renting this out to someone if we’re going to be back in a short time.” I repeat the words that Judge said earlier. As she shoulders her large purse and takes another long look around the room, I wonder if I had been close to losing her. Whether the urge to move out of Fortune would have taken her away from me forever. A chill sets into my spine that has nothing to do with the cold outside.
“What’re you thinking about?” She cocks her head to the side, her attention pinned on me instead of the beige walls. I walk over and tug her case off the bed and pick up my own duffel bag.
“I’m thinking that I love you.” Because when it comes down to it, she didn’t leave. She stayed true to me all three years I was in prison. I hurt her by turning away from her during that time. I didn’t want her to see me caged. I didn’t want her to have memories of me being in a jumpsuit with my hands and feet shackled together. And if I’d said that I wanted to stay in Fortune forever, she’d have been beside me the whole way.
A smile touches her lips, curves those plush pillows up. She saunters forward and wraps her arms around me.
“Just thinking that you do?” she teases and nips at my lips. I close my arms around her frame, one suitcase in each hand. “Because I know I love you.”
“You’re a brat sometimes,” I scold laughingly. “And if Abel wasn’t cooling his heels out in the living room, I’d drop the cases and throw you on the bed.”
“He can listen,” she says and drops her hand between my legs to cup my half hard erection.
The ceiling needs painting, I think when I drop my head back to enjoy the caress. “How about I just invite him in?” I joke but when the breath at my neck hitches, I dip down to look at Chels’ face. “What’s this? Didn’t know you were into that.” I have to force her chin up with my finger because she tries to hide a blush.
“I’m not.” She wiggles and I let her go. Shouldering her bag again, she stomps to the door. Once she reaches it, she turns back. “I don’t want anyone but you. It’s just sometimes I look at Annie, Michigan, and Easy and wonder but that’s all it is. Just a thought.”
This is interesting. We’ve had sex in a lot of places and in a lot of positions, but we aren’t very kinky—not threesome kinky or serious BDSM kinky although I’ve enjoyed binding her wrists and spanking her ass a few times. She’s just never expressed an interest in a threesome. “I’m pretty possessive. Not sure I’d want to see you have another dick inside you—not your mouth or your pussy.”
She makes a face. “I wouldn’t want that either.”
“Then what are you thinking about?”
Her chin drops to her chest and she mumbles a little. “Stuff.”
I wait and I swear the air between us turns pink with her embarrassment. Finally she lifts her face and rosy cheeked admits to her little dirty fantasy. “It’s just I wonder what it’d be like if some guy licked me while you were inside of me or if I was riding you in reverse what it’d feel like if he sucked my breasts. Just stupid stuff.”
I stride over and this time I do drop the cases so I can fully embrace her. “That’s not stupid and it might just be within my comfort zone.” Because I’d still be owning her with my cock. That other dude would just be like an add-on.
“I wouldn’t want it with any of your brothers though,” She cautions as if I’m about to open my mouth and call Abel in right now.
“Why not?”
“Dunno. I just don’t feel comfortable looking them in the face afterward and so it’s not going to happen because we don’t want to bring a stranger into a room with us. Besides, it’s just… pillow talk. Nothing serious.” She pushes up on her toes and presses a kiss between my lips.
“Well, it’s turned me on thinking about it and I bet you’re a little wet between the legs.” I grab her ass and lift her flush against my full-blooded hard on. “
So you can whisper your fantasy to me tonight when we’re fucking and I’ll make it real good.”
10
CHELSEA
The Misery clubhouse looks like a rundown old lady. There’s a rickety exterior set of stairs leading up to the second floor of the house and the porch that runs along the entire front of the house is slanted to the left. I make a mental note to stay away from that end of the house. It might sink into the ground with a wrong step.
“I’m glad I brought clean sheets with me,” I whisper to Grant as we walk up the wooden stairs. Two of the four steps are rotting and I can see the snow and dirt on the ground beneath them. We’re staying at the Misery clubhouse for just tonight and then I’m in charge of finding a small house for us to rent. It’ll have to have two bedrooms because Abel is staying with us.
He’s been silent as a mouse since we arrived. Grant, despite being younger, is in charge because he’s been a patch longer. Plus, he knows more about what it means to be in a club than anyone, given that Judge is his father and Grant grew up running around bikers and the granary and the club itself.
“Looks like a shithouse, don’t it,” Grant mutters in a low voice.
“This can’t have all happened in the last year,” I answer. The house has years of neglect on her and from what little I’ve heard, the former president has only been gone for a year.
“Nope. Says a lot about the club though.”
If the clubhouse is in this state of disrepair, the club itself isn’t going to be in much better shape. Wrecker presses the doorbell and then steps to the side, pulling me behind him. Abel takes the other side of the door, neither standing in front of it. Their actions tell me all I need to know. Walk lightly around the Misery club and don’t trust anyone.