I waved my hand. “Don’t worry, I’m starting to wonder what I’ve gotten myself into,” I said truthfully, the events of today starting to hit home.
How stupid was I? Getting myself into another situation that involved a ruthless gang. I didn’t know if I could deal with going back to constantly looking over my shoulder in fear. I wanted my normal, carefree life back.
But I loved Cade.
Crap. What a twisted web I had managed to get myself into. Pardon the pun.
Amy raised an eyebrow at my comment, but it didn’t stop her rant.
“I know I’m your best friend, but I’m not involved in the club and I’m certainly not valuable to this club. I am so busting out of this place.” She scrunched her nose in distaste as she cast her eyes around the huge common room littered with beer bottles and the occasional condom wrapper.
I didn’t disagree with her there, this wasn’t the best environment, but we didn’t have much choice, there were armed guards at the gate and a couple of prospects and members standing watch outside. We didn’t have much of chance of escaping, not that I really wanted to at the moment. This rough place was where I felt safest at right now.
Fucked up as it was, I trusted these men, knew they would protect me with their lives if necessary. That was one thing I had learned about the club, they were fiercely loyal and once you were in, everyone had your back. The men really were brothers and they had deep love for one another, even with the problems Steg and Cade seemed to have.
We were currently alone, some of the men had called various friends of the club and ordered them to get here and others had gone to pick some of the women up. Amy and I were first to arrive. I had a sneaky feeling Brock had something to do with the prospect who dropped by our house and practically “threw her on the back of his bike” – Amy’s words.
“Just relax for a second, Abrams, you’re going to ruin the soles of those Choo’s with all that pacing,” I said.
She immediately stopped, frowning down at her heels and slumping down next to me on a barstool.
I stood. “We’re in front of a bar, let’s see if I can rustle up something drinkable to make this experience a little more enjoyable.” I jumped over the bar and inspected what I had to work with.
“Cosmos?” Amy asked hopefully, head in her hands.
“No such luck, but we do have tequila,” I said holding up the bottle.
“Margaritas?” she asked, a smile creeping onto her face.
I gave her a look. “We are in a biker clubhouse, Amy, I doubt the big rough alpha males have margarita mix.”
Her face fell.
“We’re just going to have to strap on our balls and drink it straight,” I declared solemnly pouring us some glasses.
At that point, the door burst open and in walked Rosie, Lucy, and Ashley. They were closely followed by Evie, Lizzie, and to my surprise, more than a few Sweetbutts, arms laden with groceries. Rosie’s eyes lit up when she saw us, and even more when she spotted the bottle in my hand.
“Tequila! I love you girls, Jose is one of my best friends in lockdowns, and I brought margarita mix.” She held up a paper bag.
Amy leapt off her bar stool and hugged her. “I love you,” she told her sincerely.
I gave everyone smiles as they approached, Rosie detangled herself from Amy and hugged me across the bar.
“Holy shit, Gwen, I heard what happened. Are you okay?” Her face was scrunched with worry.
“I’m fine now and will be even better with the help of tequila,” I reassured her, telling myself not to twitch at the memory of insects crawling up my arms.
“You are one strong bitch.” She winked at me. “I’ll dump the groceries and dig around for our drink mix so we can get this party started.” She strolled towards the kitchen where the Sweetbutts had disappeared.
Lizzie walked up to me and gave my hand a light squeeze, eyes kind. “How you going Gwen?” she asked softly.
“I’m okay thanks, Liz,” I smiled at her, introducing her to Amy before noticing two little humans hiding behind her legs. I rounded the bar and crouched down in front of them.
“Why, who have we got here?” I asked playfully, sneaking a grin at the two kids who were peeking at me shyly.
A boy and a girl, both with jet black hair and both gorgeous. The girl was about five, with shoulder-length ringlets and a cheeky smile. The boy was a bit older, standing more confidently at his mother’s side.
“I’m Jack.” The boy held out his hand to shake, I held back a laugh at the child’s manly demeanor.
I tried to fight visions of little children with Cade’s steely grey eyes. Not the time to get clucky. I gave his hand a shake. “Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Jack, what’s your sister’s name?”
He stepped around his mother to stand in front of me. “You sound weird, are you from another planet or something?” he asked seriously and I couldn’t hold back my laugh this time.
Lizzie joined me before her face turned stern. “Jack,” she scolded, “that wasn’t polite.”
He gazed up at his mother, confused.
I straightened and ruffled his hair. “I sound different because I’m from a country way on the other side of the world called New Zealand,” I explained.
“That’s weird,” he said before running off to play with a couple of other kids I hadn’t noticed arrive.
“Sorry about that,” Lizzie said while scooping up the little beauty beside her.
“Don’t even apologize, he’s hilarious.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, sometimes I want to scream at the little shit, he’s too much like his father, it’s scary.”
I laughed, happy to see the obvious love in her eyes. I lightly pulled on her little girl’s curl. “What’s your name then?”
“This is Lily,” Lizzie replied when the little girl burrowed her face in her shoulder. “She’s a bit shy.”
I chatted with Lizzie for a bit until she had to go and put Lily down for a nap. I was about to turn and sit back with Amy, who had already downed two shots when Evie approached and hugged me. I gingerly hugged her back, surprised at the hard woman’s show of tenderness. She released me and stroked my face, reminding me of something my mother would do.
“You all good, honey?” she asked and I nodded. “Good, don’t worry, the men will take care of those animals, finally. That’s the last time they go near our women.”
Her voice was filled with anger, but her eyes seemed to water. She must’ve been thinking about Laurie, this incident bringing horrible memories to the surface. I gave her hands a squeeze and she smiled at me.
“Enough talking, let’s get down to business. I’ll get the Sweetbutts on cleaning this dump up and making food. I’ll find places for everyone to sleep, you want to be in charge of the most important thing?”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Booze,” she replied.
“Only if that includes me drinking some.”
The rest of the day passed in a blur of activity and cocktails. I was surprised at the number of people, although Cade said there wasn’t many Old Ladies, that didn’t mean there wasn’t a heck of a lot of women involved with the club. There was also a good amount of children, most of whom belonged to club members, results of divorce or one night stands.