Both Cooper, his son, and GT, Cruz’s brother-in-law and our VP, stood on either side of him. That meant this was hardcore business. Tells. Everyone had one. Figuring them out was the hard part, but once you had them you could read moods without a word.
“We’ve got a problem.” Those were never good words to start a conversation. “Got a call from Crow.” Crow was the President of the Rebellion, Alabama Chapter of the Ravage MC. He was also another one of Cruz’s sons. He had three. “There seems to be a new player in town. Ace of Sparrows. It appears they’ve been growing right under our noses the last few years. Now they are established, according to Crow. They’ve been quiet. Under the radar. Also, under the radar when it comes to their supply.”
Everyone stared at Cruz taking all of this shit in. No one stepped on the Ravage MC’s feet. No one. And supply meant guns.
Yeah, I knew we were selling guns to assholes, but it was a good profit. Being in the Marines I’d worked with all kinds of them and was very fluent with them as well.
“I want Cooper, Deke, Micah and Dry to head there. You need to scope out the place. Put up some cameras or figure out how to get into their feed. We want to be able to monitor it here. Got it?”
“Yeah.” We had our orders, and while the other guys went to their women to tell them bye, I went into Remy’s room where she and Katie were putting away all of Remy’s new toys. It looked like a toy store exploded all over the place.
“She’s never going to take that off,” I said, leaning my shoulder against the doorjamb, watching the two interact. It was a sight to behold. Katie had a knack with children.
Katie’s eyes flashed up to mine, while Remy didn’t miss a beat. She came to me immediately, grabbed my hand, and pulled me into the room, saying, “Nope. Iz neverz taked it off.”
Katie chuckled. “That’s why I made it. For you to wear.”
“You’re gonna need to power wash it in about week.”
“No!” Remy screamed, horrified. “No watting wit powder.”
This made me laugh. Her speech had gotten better, but she still had this baby language at times. Ensley was taking her to get help for that. “Alright, bug, no powder. I hate to run out on ya, but I have to get goin’.”
“Whys?” Remy asked, not letting go of my hand.
I bent down on one knee, getting eye level with the little monster. “I have to work, but I’ll be back to see ya soon, and we’ll play with all this…” I looked around the room that was filled with rainbow-haired trolls, “…stuff.”
“Is gots lots of Twollz,” Remy announced with a wide smile on her face.
“Yeah, you did. Now, give me big hugs.”
Remy didn’t skip a beat, wrapping her little arms around me and giving me a large puff of pink hair in my mouth. I looked over to Katie who was smiling. “Hair … not my thing.”
This made Katie laugh as she said, “I remember…” As soon as the words left her lips it happened. She shut down. The spark went out of her eyes, and I swear her entire body sagged. It was only a moment, but I saw it.
I hated that for her. What those fuckers did to her. Anger pulsed through my chest. My girl. They hurt my girl. Those assholes made it out of this world too damn easy. I wished I could kill each and every one of them over and over again. Still, the anger wouldn’t go away. I didn’t think anything would take that away, except for Katie.
I rose to my feet. “Gotta head out.” Taking a step toward Katie, I reached out just to grab her shoulder and let her know I was there with her. But she surprised me by grabbing my hand, turning and pleading with her eyes.
“Be safe.”
Fuck that felt good. Damn good that she cared. Still after all this time, she was right there with me even if she was trying to keep me at arm’s length. Pushing my luck, I leaned over and kissed her cheek, whispering, “Always. I’ll see you soon too.”
Then I was gone. Had shit to do and probably people to fuck up. No one messed with Ravage. No one.
5
KATIE
Beep … beep … beep … beep… All day I heard that sound repeated. Nonstop. Beating into my brain. Each item scanned through the register had that sound. One after the other. A never-ending cycle of UPC codes and beeps from several different lanes of checkers.
There were times I heard that sound in my sleep, only to wake up in a hot sweat, which I found strange. Why would that sound keep me up at night or make me dream about it? Sure, it was a daily thing for me, but it shouldn’t invade my mind like that.
Being a cashier was a job, and like any other job, you put your head down and did it. You had a headache from the noise, you took Advil. Your feet hurt like heck, you pushed through and soaked them when you’d get home.
Epsom salt needed to be added to my grocery list. It was the only thing I could find that actually made my feet feel halfway normal.
But all that said, I was grateful for the job. When Ensley and I first got to Sumner, we had nothing but the clothes on our backs and a bag with random things from home. Having the Quickie Stock hire me with no previous job experience was a miracle.
At the commune, we never had to worry about jobs or money, because that wasn’t our responsibilities. My job was to raise the children, clothe them, feed them, teach them; pretty much do everything with them. That was a job I didn’t get paid for, though. It was one that was pressed upon me at an early age.
Luckily, my boss, Ms. Brashers, didn’t ask for a resume, just an in-person interview and hired me on the spot.
Many days were ten-hour shifts. My boss always wanted me to stay through shift changes so the customers never had to wait because we were switching out people. Good for the customers and good for me, because I got paid overtime. It was only an hour and a half, but when you work six days straight, you had nine hours extra on double time, I got paid for eighteen extra hours a week. I didn’t question it. Just took it as a gift from God and went with it.
The noise today, though, was riding on my last nerve. I had no clue why, maybe it was just an off day. But I had my mask in place, and no one who came to me today would know it. Don’t get me wrong, I was completely grateful for the job. It paid the bills. I just had my grumpy thoughts in my head from time to time.
I grabbed the can of corned beef and pulled it across the scanner, listening for the dreaded sound then bagged it. After finding the other four cans on the belt, I bagged and then double bagged them because no matter how heavy those cans were, the bags always seemed to rip. Orders like this one, I wished they asked for paper bags. We could only pull those out upon the customer’s request.
Finishing up, I smiled at the woman in front of me. “That’s twenty-seven dollars and twenty-three cents, Ms. Davis.”
“I’ve told you to call me Rene.”
I smiled wide. “I know, but I’ll still call you Ms. Davis.”
She chuckled. “Whatever you need to do.”
She was always nice and was a regular. I tried to learn the regulars’ names right away. It made them feel at home, and I wanted to make the best of the day. Having happy people at my register was better than the mean ones.