“Yes, we’re together. Are you nosey bastards happy now?” I question the room with a laugh.
“Yes! Finally!” Iris jumps up and down.
“Okay, okay. Everyone calm down. We have a party to prepare for. If some of y’all don’t have any shit to do, you can head up to the roof and help us set up.” I tell the room, and a couple people start heading up the stairs.
“C’mon, kid, lets go get your kitties upstairs.” Mug tells Destiny, hiking her up in his arms. He turns back, “Chuckles, Hoodrat, grab a cat carrier and get your asses upstairs with me. We gotta get these guys settled in.”
Tala comes over to me and grabs my hand, pulling me over into an empty corner. “So, I need to tell you something. I talked to Stoney earlier and I think we settled things. He won’t take Destiny from us, as long as he can be active in her life. I . . . I think it’s fair. So, I suggested he gets her for the summer and we alternate holidays. I told him you’re always going to be her daddy, but he’ll be her father, and one day we will explain everything to her . . . but, I wanted to make sure we could keep the peace, Cowboy. Not just for the club, but for our family too. Destiny didn’t ever need to get into a nasty custody battle. Not now, and not ever.”
Well, I would’ve liked it if she spoke to me about shit. But as Tala always does, she dove into the situation and handled it the best way she knew how. “It’s fine. We’ll . . . we’ll have to sort shit out as things happen, but we’ll make it work, babe. I know we’ll figure it out.”
Tala lets out a breath she must’ve been holding in and walks into my arms. “I’m so glad to hear you say that. I really needed to hear it, to be honest. I was afraid you’d be upset.”
I shake my head, “No, babe. We’ve had our fair share of shit to be upset about. Now it’s time to look to the future and move on. We’re a team now.”
Tala rises up on her tippy toes and presses her lips to mine delicately, and it’s like another confirmation. I’m damn happy with this woman, and I know things won’t always be easy, but I’m really gonna try to show her we made the best decision we could by coming together like this. Not just for us, but for our family.
“Come on, lets get upstairs so I can show you these half dead cats.” I tease her, hearing the sound of her beautiful laughter filling the air.
“Please tell me there’s nothing else you haven’t told me.”
“Eh, Mug signed us up to be a foster family.”
“Stop it!” Tala cackles loudly, but as she holds onto my hand with her own, I know she’s finding a good bit of amusement out of it.
Chapter Ten
You don’t know how deeply you are intertwined with someone until you try to walk away from them
~ Abusive
Boss
I have to give credit where it’s due. I couldn’t have done this without everyone’s help. The rooftop has been converted from the usual drinking and smoking area, to every little girl’s dream. Purple and pink balloons are tied to the railing, there’s a six-foot table filled with presents and a massive Vampirina cake. I had ordered something smaller at first, but then Chuckles reminded me how I’d better get the biggest cake I could, figuring most of the guys would come just for the cake. He isn’t wrong and while they love cake, I’m sure they’re showing up because they love Destiny too.
Iris comes up with Destiny, plops her down on the ground and she immediately starts running around. This little girl goes from zero to sixty in a matter of seconds, I swear.
Looking around the rooftop I see everyone from the club is here, ready to take part in today’s festivities. It’s no shock that Destiny’s the only kid here at the club, but since I’ve had her I’ve gotten a little bit chattier with the neighbors. There are a few nice families in the apartments across the street, which thankfully ended up meaning we have four little ones in addition to Destiny today. She sees everyone here at the club every single day, so it’s no shock she ran straight up to her friends.
Since Destiny is pre-occupied and Cowboy has his eyes on her, I walk up to Stoney. Since he’s been here, we haven’t been able to talk about business, and considering one of his idiots killed the prisoner associated with the cult . . . we need to have a chat. It’s actually overdue if you ask me.
“You have a minute?” I ask, looking between Stoney and Horse.
Stoney nods, “Sure. What’s up?”
“I figure since you’re here, we might as well save Omen and Tracker the extra work. What the fuck happened with the cultist?”
Stoney shrugs, “Guess the fuck couldn’t take what we were givin’ ‘em.”
It pisses me off how he acts like it isn’t a big deal. “We needed him alive, Stoney. Now we have no leads. We have no fuckin’ clue where they are, or what they’re doing.”
Stoney nods, “They’re retreating to tunnels like the rats they are. Tala, they’re gonna pop their little heads up again soon, and when they do we’ll be waiting. Watch. These fascists group always act the same way, repeating the same sequence as their predecessors. It’s how they get fuckin’ caught, ‘cause they repeat the same shit over and over again.”
I shake my head in annoyance, “That fucker at your club shouldn’t have died. We needed him alive. If he was still breathin’ he could’ve given us somethin’ by now.”
Stoney cackles like I’ve just said the funniest thing he’s ever heard. “That piece of scum wasn’t gonna give us shit. Now, I know you wanna drive the knife deep into the cult’s heart . . . but you gotta be patient, girl.”
“They took so much from me, Stoney.” I grit, clenching my jaw.
They didn’t just take my father from me, but the newfound happiness I found with him. Some people in the MC community don’t understand how I could forgive my father for everything he did to other people, but at the end of the day he was my dad. He was certainly no saint, and in comparison, he was as bad as these cultists. But I really do believe near the end of his life he was trying to make amends for all the pain he gave others.
“I know they did, and we’re gonna get them. You just gotta be patient.” He tells me, but it still doesn’t make me feel better in the least bit.
“I don’t want to keep waiting. We’ve waited long enough if you asked me. They’ve been in hiding since my father died, slowly poppin’ their heads up like you just said. Now what do we have? Nothing. We need more, Stoney. We need more than . . . dead ends. We need to do more.”
“Sounds like you’re suggesting something.” He mutters, running his hand over his jaw.
I nod, “‘Cause? I am. We need to . . . think outside of the box. The cult’s been mainly operating around your area, still sticking close to the universities, yeah?”
“They have . . . what’re you suggesting, Tala?” Stoney questions, narrowing his eyes in on me.
“I want to send one of my newest prospects down to your charter, to work specifically undercover. I want her to try and find out about this cult. Hell, I was gonna have Omen talk to you about this, but I want us to have a regent program.”