Us (12 page)

Chapter 16
– J

As soon as we started driving, Elle passed out in the back seat. I found it rather miraculous considering the roads were bumpy as fuck. I felt like I needed a four-wheeler to traverse the streets of Mexico.
Not to mention the Camry seemed one pothole away from falling to pieces.
Please, Gramps, let us make it home.

As we drove, I contemplated what was happening back home. I hadn't heard from Son, which made me nervous. It had only been a week since they left, but lots of shit could go down in a week. I didn't know if Dig had made moves, or was holding back for some reason. Part of me hoped they were waiting on something so I could have a shot at Burns' head. Another part of me just wanted this shit over. I was ready to merely be a motorcycle aficionado, a mechan
ic, and Elle's man. Nothing more. Nothing less. Just us. A simple life. No drama.

No kidnappings.

No drive-bys.

No hiding out.

No killing.

I woke Elle shortly before reaching the border. The Zetas had
schooled me on what to say to Border Patrol. I asked Elle if she would let me handle it. The Zetas had expressed that both sides of the border would try and fuck with Elle, thinking she was the weaker of the two of us. They had no idea who they were dealing with! I agreed with the Zetas, though. Elle was strong and capable, but in the world we lived in, sometimes men responded to men better than a woman. Fucked up, I know, but it was reality, and we needed for this shit to go right. No mistakes.

"Are we there yet?" Elle asked, wiping the crumbs from her eyes.

"We'll be back in Capitalist Country soon. You got the passports?" She passed all four to me.

We were stopped at the border, the car searched, and our passports scrutinized. Two uniforms took our passports and left us standing by the Toyota waiting for our identification to be returned. Fernie, Isabel, and I were similar in skin color, but Elle was the odd man out. Bill Cosby could play
Which One Is Not Like The Other
with this any day.

"What's taking so long?" Elle whispered from my side.

"I have no idea, but it's the Americans who have our passports, so I'm assuming they are checking Fernie and Isabel out."

"Fuck." I put my arm around Elle and told her everything would be OK, even if I wasn't one hundred percent sure it was the truth.

We waited another half hour before the two uniforms finally returned with our passports.

"So, you two are adopting these kids even though they are practically adults?" Uniform One asked.

"That's correct, sir." I didn't offer up anymore info than that.

"And you two are married?" I held up Elle's hand with the ring on it. "Do you have your marriage certificate?"

What the fuck kind of question was that? Who the hell carried around their marriage certificate?

"No, sir."

"How long have you been married?" Uniform Two asked.

"Not long enough. I'm so in love with this man." Elle looked a
t me as she spoke in the most girly voice I'd ever heard. She was going for an Oscar worthy performance, that's for sure. "Isn't he wonderful to indulge me in adopting these two teenagers? I can't have kids." She laid a hand over her stomach and frowned. "So he agreed to adopt." She looked up at me. "I love you so much, honey." She winked when she said
honey
as it was not a word either of us had ever used.

The Uniforms mumbled something to each other and handed us back our passports. "Best of luck to you both." They said their words and turned on their heels, leaving us scrambling back into the Camry to get our asses back on American soil. Although there were aspects of Mexico I'd grown to love, the constant bike-riding weather among the highest, I was anxious to get home.

We were all silent as we crossed through the dense pack of cars littering the area. It was as if everyone and their mother were trying to cross at the same time. The chaos that was Mexican traffic leaked over the border, but within two miles, we were on our way to Oklahoma City, AKA—The OKC. I exhaled a breath as people began to follow the street signs and signals, something that seemed to be optional at times in Mexico. We drove through eastern New Mexico. It was my first time passing through the state. At first it was desert, and I'd had my fill of desert south of the border, but as we moved farther north, the desert turned to mountains.

"You ever seen aliens, kid?" Fernie looke
d at me like I was crazy due to my question. "We're gonna make a pit stop in Roswell, and the story goes that aliens landed there back in the day. Maybe we'll see some today."

"Sure," Fernie responded, disbelief filling his voice.

We stopped at a gas station so I could fill up the tank. "You need anything, ladies?" I asked Elle and Isabel. Elle didn't even open her eyes, she just gave me the thumbs down.

"
No gracias
." Isabel opened her eyes for all of thirty seconds before going back to sleep as well.

I looked at Fernie standing next to me at the pump and gave him a questioning look.

"She said no thank you. Damn. Did you learn any Spanish at all while you were in Mexico?"

"
Gooooooal!"I put my fist in the air and shouted it. People said it when someone scored in the soccer games I'd grown fond of. Mexicans didn't fuck around when it came to soccer. I think they might have been more fanatical than Green Bay Packer fans, though that might be pushing it. Packer fans
really
didn't fuck around when it came to their football team. Fernie just shook his head and headed inside to piss, clearly unamused with my half ass attempt at a joke.

"Hey, tell the person inside we want fifty dollars on pump one. Get me a water and whatever you want." Fernie walked back and I handed him a one hundred dollar bill. His eyes got wide and he hurried inside.

I filled the Camry with gas and went to take a piss on the side of the building where I could still watch the car, or more importantly, the women in the car—my woman. Fernie came walking out of the gas station as I was walking back to the vehicle. He had a soda in his hands, and a plastic bag that was overflowing with crap.

"Whatchya got there?" I asked once we were in the car and pulling back onto the freeway.

"Man, there was so much awesome shit in there! I got this alien stuffed animal for Genesis, and a giant bag of Sour Patch Kids." He pulled out the candy, and it was indeed the largest bag of gummy candy I'd ever seen.

"
You like candy?"

"Yeah, but it's like, you can't get some stuff in Mexico like here in the States. I've been wanting some Sour Patch Kids since I left Missouri. I got some chips and juice for the girls
if they wake up. Oh, and here." Fernie went to pass me the change.

"Keep it."

"For realz?" Fernie's voice went up in volume and pitch.

"Yeah, kid. Be quiet though so the ladies can sleep. We got a long drive ahead of us, so feel free to nap if you want."

"Nah, I'm good. I'll help you stay awake." Fernie settled himself into the chair. "Wanna learn some Spanish?"

I laughed. No more Spanish.
For now, that was Elle's territory and I was happy to leave it that way.

Chapter 17
– Elle

We arrived in Oklahoma City in the middle of the night. I'd woken up somewhere in
northern New Mexico, for which I was glad as the mountains were out of this world. It was quite a sight to see. For a brief moment, I forgot what was going on, and just enjoyed the scenery. I'd only seen such beautiful forestry in
Ojo de Agua
, and I wasn't interested in remembering. In fact, if I never thought of
Ojo de Agua
again, I'd be OK with it. Shame, as it was truly a beautiful park. Fuckers in the Escalade had to go and ruin it for me.

Once in The OKC, J found us a hotel off the beaten path. He went ins
ide and came out with one key. OK, so we were all sleeping together. No sex. Grrr. I wanted one night with J before shit popped off in Missouri, and I knew shit was going to pop off. That seemed to be our life for the moment. A night with just the two of us was exactly what I needed to calm my nerves, though I realized that would leave Isabel and Fernie alone in a room. Not happening. As well, I wasn't up for getting three rooms. That seemed like too much of a risk.

So one room it was.

Once in the room, we all took turns freshening up in the bathroom. It had been a long day, and I anticipated tomorrow would be just as long. For the time being, everyone just wanted to sleep. I had weird dreams in the car and woke up clutching Isabel's arm.
Way to get to know someone, Elle.

"Fernie, you take the couch. Isabel, you can have one of the beds. Elle and I will take the other. Anyone need anything that can't wait until tomorrow?"

J's question was met with a few grumbles which meant we were all set.

"You can borrow some shorts." I looked up to see Isabel leaning over her suitcase. She pulled out some seriously short shorts. If you were 5'2" they would be short, but at 5'9" they would be straight up coochie cutters on me.

"Um, do you have anything a little bigger?" I asked, trying not to sound like a bitch considering she was being nice enough to offer me her clothes.

She dug through her suitcase and found a slightly larger pair that would do the trick. At least I wouldn't be sleeping in my jeans. I took them from her and offered my gratitude. I was changing in the bathroom when someone knocked on the door.

"Can I come in, baby?"

"Yep." I opened the door for him, and he entered with his burner phone in hand.

"I'm gonna call Dig. Though you might as well be present for it."

He had no idea how nice that was of him, or what it meant to me that he was actively keeping me in the loop. No more starfishing.

"Let's do it," I said motioning to the phone.

He dialed and we waited. Putting it on speakerphone, I listened to it ring and ring. We were both about to give up when a sleepy sounding Dig picked up.

"Hello." His voice was groggy. It was two in the morning after all.

"Hey man, it's J. I got you on speaker with Elle."

"Where are you?"

"Oklahoma City."

Dig's voice cleared up instantly. "What are you doing in the States? Did Son call you?"

"No man, it got t
oo crazy in Mexico." J proceeded to tell Dig all the drama that had transpired—the shooting at
Ojo de Agua
, Fernie being with us, the Zetas making us take Isabel, and that we'd stopped for the night and needed to make a plan.

"
Brother, shit's a mess here too."

"What's going on
?" J and I sat together on the edge of the tub.

"Burns is on the run. He had Nick running the Kansas City chapter. We took him out right away and got shit
together at KC. I know we were going to handle St. Louis, but I felt like I needed to get KC on the same page. They're all on board. St. Louis is another story."

"I thought Lincoln was running KC?"

"So did I, Link too, but it seems Burns had Nick hanging around over there for the past month. Claimed he was just doing the books, but Lincoln already had his secretary. He knew Nick was keeping an eye on things since you and I disappeared. Luckily he was able to get word to Pole so we were ready when we went in. Lost one brother and a prospect before we were able to take down Nick, but when we went to St. Louis Burns was ready for us. We had our six men there, but he had those three we were unsure of paid off well enough to go toe to toe with us."

"Fuck, man. What happened?"

Dig told us all about St. Louis. Fret had five other club brothers and his own son Pole ready to go when Dig went in. Even having men on the inside, lives were still lost. Dig had his guys go in with knives first, hoping to avoid gunfire and attention. Apparently Burns didn't care about attention as he went hard, guns blazing.

"You guys were armed with more than knives, though, right?" J's eyebrows were pulled together. He'
d switched the phone to his left hand so he could rub his shoulder, his eagle, Gramps.

"Of course, brother. Ya know we were, but I was hoping it wouldn't be so bloody. We lost lives."

"Who?" I asked the question as if I knew any of the people being talked about. It didn't matter to me that I didn't know the brothers. They died helping J get his club back, taking out Burns, and helping us create a life for ourselves together.

"Brother, it was chaos in the clubhouse. We managed to take out Burns' three men, but we lost Skin
ny and Fret."

"Fuck, Fret? Where's Pole?"

I mouthed to J:

Me:
Who's Pole again?

J:
Fret's
son.

Me:
Fuck.

J:
Yeah.

Me:
Little kid?

J:
Son's age.

Me:
Still...

J shrugged.

"He's with me and Son. Got vengeance in his eyes. He wants to find Burns and give him a slow trip to the reaper."

"Man, I'm so sorry to hear that. Boy's lost both parents. Where are you guys now?"

"There's more, brother."

J rubbed his eyebrows. "What else?"

"After Burns disappeared, we had to bury Fret and Skin
ny. Son and I came to Bill's after the funeral to make a plan with Lincoln. Fuck, we shoulda stuck with the original plant to come to Bill's first. Link brought his VP, Cash, to the meet. When we got to the bar, it was all tore up. Shit was tossed all over, tables tuned upside down, all the bottles broke. It was a mess. Brother, I fucked up."

"Bill?" J shot up off the edge of the tub, and I stared at him, worry in my eyes. I knew that Bill had been a good friend to J. After Ratchet was killed, Bill was like a grandfather to J. A rather quiet and grumpy grandfather, but a grandpa nonetheless.

"He's in a hospital bed."

"Is he OK?" J gripped his shoulder tighter.

"Don't know. He hasn't woken up yet. They say there's brain movement, but not a lot. He's been getting better each day, but we won't know anything until he wakes up. If he wakes up." Dig's voice trailed off.

"Where are you staying now?" I finally spoke up.

"I'm in St. Louis. Son is with Lincoln in Kansas City. Ya guys gonna head this way tomorrow?"

I looked at J to answer. "It wasn't safe in Mexico anymore so we had to come back. You tell us where
the safest place would be. And don't forget we got two stowaways with us. We gotta get one back to his family, and the other one needs to lay low for a minute until a Zeta can come get her."

"Fuck. Well, I guess ya best
head to Kansas City for now. You're gonna have to keep the boy with you, though. I don't think it's safe for ya to go home just yet. Stay at the KC clubhouse. Burns is still on the run, but we know he can't be far. All his money is tied up in these two clubs. No doubt he wants his money and revenge for his brother's death."

"Word." J looked at me and I shrugged. I agreed with Dig. As much as I wanted to go home, it seemed like the perfect place for Burns to be waiting for us.

"Roger that, brother. Let Son know we should be arriving in the afternoon, and to free up three rooms for us. You probably should school him on Isabel. The last thing we need is the Zetas pissed at us too."

"Already planned to do so. May even pull him outta there. Maybe put Pole with you."

"You patch him in?" J asked Dig.

"Not officially, but
ya know he's been part of the club all his life, just like Son. Once shit blows over, we'll make the formal vote. Be careful, brother, and call me when ya get to KC and are settled. We'll figure out our next move."

"Yep. Thanks. I appreciate all you've done."

"Don't get sentimental yet. Let's get though this first. Yeah?" Dig was practical, I'd say that, though his practicality scared me a bit. It meant we were far from being out of the woods, and far from finding normal.

"Will do.
And brother, you did the best you could. We knew lives would be lost, though we hoped none of ours. This is war, and we'll get bloody before we get shit back together. You're doing a fine job leading us. Just remember that."

Dig grunted and
J hung up the phone, staring at it for a few minutes. I wrapped my arm around his waist, forcing his arm around my shoulders.

"I'm sorry about your brothers. I didn't know them, but I'm sure they meant a lot to you. Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Nah. I knew there'd be blood shed. I just never thought it'd be Fret. He's been around since I came to St. Louis when I was sixteen. I watched his son grow up. Fret was second generation, like Dig. Fuck, let's go to bed. I'm beat."

"Alright, darling." I led J to the vacant bed, Isabel and Fernie alre
ady passed out. We crawled in and made a pretzel with our limbs. J had held me too many times to count. I wanted to do the same for him during his time of need. I'd seen J mad, upset, pissed off, frustrated, but never sad. I could feel his agony, and I wanted to take it away. I wanted to be the light he always spoke of. I wanted to be his everything.

Despite our exhaustion, sleep didn't come easily. I was
restless, and I could tell J was as well. I laid there for almost an hour before deciding I couldn't take the thoughts knocking around in my head like stones in a glass jar. I was afraid my mind was going to shatter any second.

"Hey." I knew J wasn't sleeping. "Are you awake?"

"Yeah, baby. What's up?"

I hesitated for a moment. Was this the right time to talk about this? In a hotel room, with two other people, after fleeing Mexico under rather illegit
imate circumstances, right before another battle, and in the middle of the night? It seemed like I was pushing the limits of appropriate conversation time.

Eh, fuck it.
No time like the present, especially considering the circumstances.

"I'm sorry—about losing it. Twice I think."

J was silent for a moment, causing me to think I was correct in my assumption that I needed to shut the hell up. He had his own mind full of problems, so why was I bringing up mine?

"You can lose it anytime you need
to. I gotchya. You know that."

My racing heart stilled for a moment. He said it with no malice or annoyance in his voice, just love. I think it was love in his voice. I was discovering that I didn't always know what love was, but with J I was finding out.

"Yeah, but thanks still. I've never—I mean, I've never fallen apart like that anywhere but... well, alone. Alone in my own space, with my own temporarily fucked up energy. I've never had someone there to..."

"Hold you? Carry you through it?"
J finished my sentence for me.

I lay on my side and thought about it before answering.  Larry sort
of held me after the fucked up meth-head situation when I was sixteen, but that was more an arm around the shoulder while I bawled on his chest. There was no clutching of the shirt, no craving of skin to skin contact, and definitely no love involved.

"Yeah, I guess."

"I'll always carry you." He rolled into me, bringing our faces inches from one another. Closing his eyes, he professed his devotion to me once again. "I'd stand in front of one hundred bullets, one hundred times for you. My spirit will meet Gramps' before yours will. Of that, I promise you."

I wrapped my arms around his neck, burying my face in his silky mess of strands. I inhaled and closed my eyes, savoring the moment, the aroma of commitment—something that was a dirty word less than two years ago.

"My dear Bear, I can't imagine existing without you, so don't speak those words. Just hold me when I falter?" I ran my hands through his black hair, wondering if this is how Kyra felt when she had her hands deep in Kellan's hair. I pressed my face against his warm skin. This man was my sun, too. Heat radiated off him, even through the clothes I was unaccustomed to wearing in bed with him.

Gripping my ass in both hands, he pulled me flush against him. I clung to his warmth like a fiend starved for their next fix.
By pure instinct, I ground my hips against him.