Us (22 page)

"Ladies?"

"Speak of the devil," I said to Chris.

"Link?" Her eyebrows arched.

"Come in," I called out to the mocha skinned hottie on the other side of the door.

"Hey. You guys OK?" He poked his head around the door and I motioned him in.

Chris held out the joint, offering it to Link. He came around and sat at the edge of the bed closest to Chris. He puffed the joint and passed it to me.

"I'm good. Can I see J?"

"Yeah. I came in to get you. I can take you to him and leave the prospect."

I had a better plan.

"Can you step outside with me for a sec?" He nodded. "You good for a second?" I asked Chris.

"Go handle business. I'm gonna puff 'til I pass out. Wake me when there's food or it's time to go, whichever comes first."

"Word."

I stepped outside, Link following behind me.

"You think the prospect can take me to J? Can you stay with my girl, Chris? Lotta bad memories in St. Louis for her. I told her she's safe here. Think
you could reassure her? And not hatin' on P, but he seems a 'lil young to be consoling my best friend. No offense."

"Nah, it's all good. I'll make sure your friend is all set. I know you ladies just went though some har
dcore shit and it's a lot to handle."

"Thanks. I appreciate it."

"Anytime." He smiled, and the corners of his eyes crinkled, softening his face and making me think that he was a good guy, someone I just might trust. Cash, eh, now he was a wild card.

"Prospect," Link yelled to P. "Take Elle to J. Keep the boys off her. No questions. You go directly to church. Got it?" The prospect practically saluted Link, obviously taking his duties seriously. I thanked Link once again and followed the soldier.

We went back downstairs into the main hall littered with men in leather vests. So this was a real MC. I had barely gotten half way though the room when Dig took long strides towards the prospect and me.

"I got this." He took my upper arm and continued walking us towards the back of the room and through a large set of double doors. I stopped him before we went in.

I looked at Dig's hand wrapped around my arm and then up into his eyes. It was a dominating gesture, his hand gripping my bicep like I was a kid or one of his soldiers. I was neither, and I wanted his hands off me. Not that I was going to be a bitch about it, but I wasn't passing through the double doors until he let go of me.

He didn't.

"Dig, this isn't the time or the place, but soon you and I are going to need to have a friendly chat. For now, think you can stop gripping my arm like I'm a child you're dragging through the grocery store?" I said it nicely, well, as nicely as I could. I wasn't trying to be a bitch, and we
were
going to need to chat about some shit, but at the moment, all I wanted was to see J.

Dig sighed. "Yeah, we'll be chatting." He dropped his hand from my arm and led me though the double doors.
Before closing them behind him he told me, "It'll take time to get to one another, but I know you're good for him. He loves ya, and I can see the same love in your eyes." I nodded, confirming his words.

J was sitting on a couch in the corner of the room, a large table surround by leather chairs taking up most of the space. His was shirtless, his shoulder bandaged up and in a sling. I sat on the couch next to him and kissed his good shoulder, Gramps' shoulder. He placed his hand on the back of my head,
and brining it to his chest he kissed the top of it as I felt his body shake.

He was crying.

"Shhhh. It's OK. I'm right here." I wrapped my arms around him, cautious of his bad shoulder.

"You're still here," he repeated. "Baby, I'm so sorry." A sob ripped through him causing me to hold him tighter.

I let him be, allowing my presence, my closeness, and my love to flow through us. Words weren't needed at the moment. I was here. I was his. He never needed to question that. I'd made my decision in the room with no windows. Even after seeing the dead bodies, I was his, and I always would be. It might take days or weeks for me to convince him, but I was willing to spend the rest of my life making sure he knew that there was no one else for me. How could there be, after all we'd been through, and the fact that I couldn't imagine telling anyone else the things I'd told him? He knew me. The REAL me. I'd found my other half and I wasn't letting go.

I let him compose himself before I broke the silence.

"No more sorrys. This is us. I'm yours, darling. There's no place else I'd rather be right now than by your side. Please believe me when I tell you this. We may not be perfect, but we're perfectly us, and that's all I want."

I pulled away from him, wiping the lingering tears from under his eyes.
What a complex man I'd stumbled upon. I could see the monster draining from his eyes, and it just about undid me. I kept it together, though, knowing I needed to stay strong for my man. I put my hand on his cheek, and leaned forward to place a kiss on his lips. It wasn't feral, or carnal, or even erotic. It was a kiss that said
I love you and I'll be with you forever
. I held up my hand, reminding him of the ring on my finger.

"You still have it on." J held my ringed hand in his, looking at it like it was attached to someone else than the woman who loved him.

"Of course. Where else would it be?"

"Somewhere on the side of
the 270 freeway. I thought you would have gotten rid of it, of me."

"Oh, Bear. My dar
ling, Bear. It's on my finger, right where it's supposed to be. Don't even think those thoughts. Just tell me you're alright."

"Baby, I love you so much, and this shit is over. I'll be OK. The shoulder will heal. I was more concerned your love for me wouldn't. Let me hold you? As much as I can with a busted up shoulder."

He opened his arm, the eagle spreading out, ready to take flight. I smiled and kissed him one more time before letting him cocoon me with his body. I wrapped my arms back around his torso, enjoying the feeling of his warm skin against my cheek. We sat in silence, so much to say, to talk about, to figure out, yet only wanting to be close to one another for the moment.

Of course, it was Dig who broke up our reunion, coming back into the room that served as church.

"Brother. Ya doin' OK? I gotta tell the boys something. You ready for church?"

J looked up at Dig, his face full of competing
emotions.

"We can debrief. Put some shit out on the table, but no votes will be taken today. I need to get my head straight before I can put in a vote, and right now my head is full of pain meds and all this shit that just went down. Tell Link to hang around, and to pick a couple of his men to stay. The rest can go home to their families. We'll call them back in
if necessary. Think you can handle church? Seems you been acting Prez since you got back, eh?"

"Yeah, I got church. We'll go over everything and then give forty-eight hours before any voting takes place. You can sit tight. I'll handle Elle and take her back to her friend."

"I'll go with her," J said letting go of me. He stood up, but not without a few grunts. "You assemble the brothers, and don't worry about Elle." Though he didn't say this with malevolence in his voice, he did say it in a way that I was grateful for, a way that let Dig know I wasn't going to be handled by anyone but J. He put his arm around me as we walked out of church into the main hall, and I said a silent thank you prayer to Gramps for raising the man who knew me well enough to know that last comment of Dig's had the hair on the back of my neck standing up.

There was most definitely going to be a chat with Dig, but now it would be one that J was part of.

All eyes turned when J and I walked through the room. I didn't know if it was because of what happened, that J had a woman by his side, or that they were just nosey bikers. Or maybe a combination of all three. Regardless, I kept my back straight, my head high, and my arms firmly around J as I passed by the gang of onlookers, curiosity painting all their faces.

"Easy there," I told J as we walked up the stairs.

I led us to the door that Chris was in, likely passed out on the bed after two joints of nuggs. I paused, my hand in the air and ready to knock, as I heard laughter coming from inside the room. Link? Well, damn if my girl didn't bounce back quick. But didn't she have a man? Maybe she was just shooting the shit and I was assuming way more than what was actually happening behind the closed door.

"Can I come in, girl?" I knocked and then called through the door.

It opened, and Link stood on the other side.

Huh.

"Church, brother."

"I gotchya." Link turned to Chris. "Holler if you need anything. The prospect will be back outside your door while we're in church. I'll let you know when I head back to Kansas City."

She nodded, he stepped out of the room and went downstairs, and I just stood there speechless.

"Baby, lemme handle this and I'll be right back to you. We're staying here tonight. Cool?"

"I love you," I whispered in his ear. "And I'll be right here waiting for you. Always."

He kissed my temple, letting his lips linger there a moment before letting go and turning back down the stairs.

I tilted my head down and looked at Chris over the top of my glasses. "Looks like we got some shit to talk about."

"Nah. Nothing really. You gonna stay here, then?"

"It appears. Why? What's up?"

"Girl, I can't stay in St. Louis. Link said he'd take me home. I'm sorry, but St. Louis isn't a place I can be, and he's cutting out so..."

"It's all good," I assured her. "I understand, and I got J here, so I'm all set. We gotta figure out what's next, so I might be here a little longer. You OK to go home?"

"I'll be fine. Link talked me off the ledge. And we smoked another joint of the chronic. I'm 'bout to take a nap while the boys have their meeting. Wake me up when it's time to go?"

I laid down next to her. "Thank God for the king sized bed cuz I might just be closing my eyes too, and your ass is a bed hog." I learned that in a queen sized hotel room bed once. We were both 5'9" but in bed I swear Chris grew a foot and hogged the bed and the blankets.

"Word. I love you, bitch." Chris sprawled out on three quarters of the bed, shoving a pillow under her head. "I'm glad we didn't die today."

I just chuckled. Who says that? Apparently us.

"I'm glad we didn't die too," I said to an already knocked out Chris. "And I love the fuck out of you."

I closed my eyes and drifted off.

Chapter
35 – J

I was reeling from the pain killers, but I wanted to get this over with. There was plenty to discuss, and thankfully Dig was in full on control mode. He'd handle business and let me sit back and just be an observer for the time being. No one expected much from me, but I'd give them my gratitude. I owed the whole club my gratitude—and then some. Today wasn't the day for all that I had to make up to my club brother
s, though. They'd witnessed everything that went down, and knew that it was more than just saving my woman. We'd taken our club back today. No longer would we be under the thumb of a man solely focused on his own needs, and more importantly, getting as rich as possible.

Dig sat at the head of the table with Link on one side of him and Son on the other. Cash sat next to Link, and Pole sat next to Son. The rest of the room
began filling up with the other brothers, as I stayed seated on the couch. Once everyone was in the room, the doors were closed and Dig called the meeting to order. It felt surreal as we hadn't had real church in years, yet at the same time, it felt like coming home. From the looks on everyone's faces, they felt it too. The feeling of being back to where we belonged, back to a REAL MC, not just drug runners permeated the air.

"Alright," Dig began, his voice filled with authority. "Let's get this started so we can finish it and everyone can have some time to regroup. First, Burns. His ass is dead." The room filled with clapping, cheers, and a few howls. "Keep your shorts on boys, cuz we know someone was working with him and tipped him off as to where the women were going to be last night. There's still a rat to kill, but I think we're mostly safe for now. Son will look into the files Nick left behind before
he met the reaper. If there is something there, he'll find it. Any questions?"

When there were none, Dig continued. "I've talked to Link, and Kansas City will stay an MM chapter, but they will be free to handle their own business dealings. Link will hold his own church, as well as attend ours here in St. Louis. If he can't make it, Cash will come in his place. Joint efforts between the two clubs
will be voted on. Link will keep the St. Louis President clued in to all of KC's extracurricular activities, and it will be the St. Louis Prez's decision if it needs to be brought to the table. Both clubs are expected to back one another like the brothers we are. Any questions?"

Scratch, a Kansas City brother that had been with us since before Burns took over raised his hand.

"Ya got the floor, brother." Dig motioned for him to speak up.

"Who's going to be the new St. Louis
President?" His question was met with nodding heads and mumbles from the other brothers. It didn't surprise me someone asked. The reality was that we all wanted to know. Kansas City was still in tact. St Louis was a mess.

"Calm down everyone. New officers will be elected. Before we do so, I think we all need a few days to come back to the table with a clear head."

Scratch motioned for the floor, and Dig again gave him permission to speak up.

"I can't speak for ya'll, but I think everyone assumes it's gonna be you, Dig."

"I second that," Link spoke up.

"Third." Everyone turned to look at Son, surprised he was so forward in nominating his dad. The rest of the room followed suit and the vote was unanimous. Everyone knew Dig was the logical man to run the St. Louis clubhouse.

"I appreciate your votes, and that you have that kind of faith in me to lead ya, but let's take an official vote in forty-eight hours. We'll let the KC brothers go back to their club and regroup. Link, think you can proxy votes so your whole club doesn't need to make the trip?"

Everyone turned to Link. "I can, but I think they might want to come back for this. We haven't been a real club since Burns forced his way in. It'd be nice to celebrate once new officers are voted in."

He looked around the room to the rest of his club, all wearing smiles of agreement.

"It's celebration time!" I rolled my eyes at
Run. He was always down for a party, and word was that he'd been bailed out of Kansas City lockup a few times due to his love for "celebrating."

"If that's what ya want, you know you're welcome to come back. Just make sure you leave a few brothers and the prospects in Kansas City to keep your club safe. You've already been gone for two days straight. Don't want the locals thinking this is their time to step in on ya."

"I got it covered." Dig nodded to Link and asked the group if we could move on, to which everyone agreed. We were all tired, and wanted to get home to our families, or to our old lady as was my case.

"
Some of you know, but for those who don't, I set the deal up with the Zetas. We are in their debt and I'll be talking about how we can pay it off. Burns had us all in illegitimate businesses. Here in St. Louis, we'll be getting the bike shop up and running first and foremost. I want to keep our shit as legal as possible for now, so I'll be offering up money before muscle. Too much blood has already been spilled. I'll need the help of KC funds. Ya got some money stashed away for a rainy day, boys?"

Link looked at his club members, all silently nodding.

"We'll help you as much as we can. I can't speak for you guys, but I'm assuming Burns was lining your pockets just like ours. I'll be having church with my boys when we go back about what businesses we want to keep, kill, or start. But you know we'll do whatever we can to help."

Dig patted Link on the shoulder. "I appreciate it. I know ya didn't sign up for this."

"None of us did," Scratch pointed out.

"Indeed we did not. J brought someone back from Mexico as a favor to the Zetas. They'll be picking that favor up tomorrow morning at 6am. Make sure she's ready?" Link nodded, knowing exactly who Dig was talking about. "Ya also got a boy at your club that J had to get out of Mexico. He has been loyal to J and his old lady, and to the club. You got room for him to stay a couple days while we figure out how we're going to handle him?"

Link nodded. "I think the boy's lookin' to prospect."

Fuck.

"I'll handle the boy. Not sure if he'll be prospecting or not. Do you want him?" Everyone looked at me, still sitting on the couch behind Dig.

"Just let me know what you want to do, brother." I told Link I'd be in contact with him later in the evening, morning at the latest. He knew why, but didn't say it out loud. The brothers wouldn't understand why I had to talk to my old lady about a kid prospecting, and I wasn't up for swapping stories over the campfire. I did, though, feel I should take the opportunity to say a bit more while I had the floor and my pain to drug ratio was balanced.

"I just want to thank you all for what you've done. I know we all wanted Burns taken out, but putting yourselves at risk for my old lady means a lot. I owe you all more than words, but for now," I lifted up my arm that was in a sling, "words will have to make do."

There was a chorus of
no problem
and
you know we got you, brother
. All I could do was say thanks because the energy I'd exerted standing up and saying my piece weighted the pain heavier on the balance. I sat down and told Dig to continue.

"Ya gonna make it?" Dig turned around as I eased myself onto the couch.

"Keep going."

"Alright, last piece of business, we all know J had to make his woman privy to quite a bit of the club's business. Obviously, she got herself caught in the crossfire. I've met her and have no doubt that she can be trusted, but if anyone has any issues with the amount of information she carries, speak now and ya best offer a solution."

If I was surprised at his declaration, the brothers were more so. It was clear as day on their faces that they knew Elle could be trusted. Whether it was from word of mouth, or they could only imagine I would never bring someone into this life who couldn't handle it, I may never know. At that moment, I didn't care to know. Seeing their faces was enough. Scratch of course was the one to speak up and hammer the nail in.

"W
e all know enough to trust the old lady will keep her mouth shut, though we'd be interested in hearing where J found that woman so we can get ourselves one."

The room filled with laughter and I chose to ignore his comment, knowing he'd never find a woman like Elle. There was only one sun, and she was mine. It didn't seem like I needed to remind them of this, nor did I have the energy to
lay it out properly, but I would if necessary down the road.

"Let me tell ya, you ain't gonna find another like her, and I recommend you avoid getting on her bad side." Thanks, Dig. He put into words what was floating around in my medicated mind.

"Why? J's gonna one armed kick our ass?" Run yelled out. The boys laughed, but Dig was straight faced.

"I think she'd be doing the ass kicking." We all knew what was said in church, stayed in church, or Dig wouldn't have uttered his next words. "She's killed, and don't think it was an accident. That girl has balls bigger than most of yours. You fuck with her and she don't handle ya, I will. Trust me on that one, brothers."

Damn. I couldn't help but smile. Though Elle would tell him she wasn't a girl, and I would never repeat it, I'm sure him vouching for her would be something she'd like to have seen.

What happens in church, stays in church. Dig would have to get on Elle's good side another way, and he definitely was going to need to get on her good side. I had a feeling she was still sketchy on him, though I didn't know why. Yeah, Dig could be over controlling and aggressive, but he was a good man who was already thinking like a President.

"If no one has anything else to say..." Dig waited for anyone to bring other business to floor. When all were silent he declared, "Alright then. Meeting adjourned. I'll see you all in two days." Though not the official President, everyone waited for Dig to knock the gavel. The silence in the room reflected the fact that we were still a broken club in need of a leader. Dig made a fist and hammered it into the table.

That was going to have to do for now.

The brothers filed out of the room, leaving Dig, Son, Link, Cash, Pole, and I alone.

"Well, I don't know about you all," I said standing up off the couch, "but I'm going home. Fill me in on anything else?"

"I told Chris I'd take her home. You wanna take her?" Link asked.

"Lemme talk to my old lady a second. Those two tend
to stick together." I moved towards the door and had to brace myself with my left side, Gramps, my good side, on the door frame.

"Maybe you should stay here tonight brother. I'll send Pole and the prospect for the Suburban. Yeah?" I looked at Dig. As much as I wanted to get home to the pond, the spinning room made Dig's offer sound a better plan.

"Can you get the boy over here from KC?"

Link nodded, and I went to find my sun.