I smiled.
His eyes again dropped to my mouth.
Then his lips did and he kissed me, sweet but brief.
He lifted his head and said in a way I knew he didn’t want to say it, “Gotta go, Butterfly.”
My reply came out the same way. “Okay, Joker.”
He knifed off me but did it grabbing my hand and yanking me up with him so I was on my feet.
He didn’t let go of my hand as he pulled me to the stool. Only then did he release me so he could nab his jacket and shrug it on.
But he claimed my hand again when he took the four steps to the door. He pulled it open, turned to me, and pulled me in front of him.
I tipped my head back just in time for his hand to curl light around my jaw.
“When’s your appointment?” he asked.
“Six,” I answered.
“Distance to the office from here?”
“It’s closer to work.”
“Right. I’ll come and get Travis, pick you up at work, take you there, then dinner.”
“You’ll need Travis’s baby seat.”
“Leave it for Big Petey.”
I nodded.
His fingers pressed in and I automatically went up on my toes.
It was the right move since his head was bending toward me.
He touched his lips to mine, his whiskers brushing the skin they’d sensitized earlier, making my knees go weak so I had to reach out my hands and catch his T-shirt at his belly.
He ended the touch too soon but when he lifted his head, his rough thumb glided over my cheek as his steel eyes moved over my face.
“So fuckin’ pretty,” he murmured and it was a wonder my body didn’t jerk out of his hold so I could twirl with glee.
“Thank you for dinner,” I whispered and he looked into my eyes.
“No problem, Carrie.”
I smiled.
His thumb rubbed over my lower lip before the pads of his fingers dug in lightly and he let me go.
I was proud I held it together and stayed steady rather than losing his touch and teetering.
“Later, Butterfly,” he said.
“Later, Joker,” I replied.
He moved out the door but looked back, doing it over his leather clad shoulder, a sinister biker who had a light touch, a molten look, a way with babies, and a talented mouth.
I put one hand to the edge of the door and lifted the other one to do a quick wave.
His mouth quirked, he shook his head, then he looked away and disappeared around the door.
I wanted to watch him walking away.
I didn’t.
I closed the door, locked its three locks, turned my back to it, and smiled at my massive furniture.
Then I brought both hands up and clapped them together in front of me, softly but repeatedly.
After that, on a skip-hop launching me that way, I went to go check on my baby.
Joker
No, no, no.
With Carissa’s sweet plea playing in his head, Joker parked at the end of the line of three bikes, swung off his, and moved into the dark alley.
Halfway down, close to a Dumpster, he saw Speck, Boz, and Hop circling two whores.
All eyes were on him.
His eyes were on the whores. “Early night?”
“Heidi needs to talk to you,” Hop said, sounding impatient.
Then again, he would be. His old lady was fucking beautiful. And their new baby was a quarter of Hop’s world, the rest of that made up with his other two kids and his woman.
He did patrol like they all did.
Then he got his ass home.
Tonight wasn’t his night for patrol, though. He was there because he had a way with whores.
But these whores, or one of them, was Joker’s.
Joker looked to the blonde, jerked his head, stopped moving their way, turned, and retraced his steps.
He heard her heels following and gave her his side when he stopped and waited for her to get to him.
When she did, she got close.
“I’m fucked, Joke.”
“Babe, you’re a whore workin’ for Valenzuela. You pulled me from somethin’ I was seriously into doin’ to give that shit to me?”
“I’m pregnant.”
Joker clenched his teeth and looked to his boots.
“Benito is gonna freak,” she hissed.
He looked to her. “You know whose it is, or you get knocked up by a john?”
“No way a client. Protection only. It’s my boyfriend, Brent’s.”
“And Brent says…?” he prompted.
Her face went hard. “Brent says it isn’t his.”
“You sure it is?”
Her face went harder and her eyes turned to stone. “Yes,” she snapped.
“You keepin’ it?” he asked.
“Hardly,” she bit out.
“You’re tellin’ me this because…?”
“Gonna find a buyer.”
He stared.
“Which means I’ll be outta commission,” she stated. “Which means you’re gonna have to find some other stupid bitch to narc on Benito.”
Fuck.
“And don’t even bother askin’ me to stay close anyway,” she went on. “Benito found out I’m knocked up, he’d scrape me off and I’d be lucky he does that before he beats the shit outta me. So I’m takin’ off to avoid the beatin’ the shit outta me part. This’ll be a sweet gig. If I find buyers, heard they pay doctor’s bills. Pay for an apartment. Feed you. Get you clothes. And give you wads of cash.”
Allowing his lip to curl, he did it wondering if he would have been better off if his mother had sold him to some couple who was desperate for a baby.
The answer to that was probably.
“Doin’ you a solid by givin’ you a heads-up,” she told him.
“You couldn’t’ve shared this with Hop?”
“I only talk to you.”
She did. He had no clue why. Except she’d tried it on with him a couple of times, looking to replace Brent, who had zero balls and a meth habit, with a man whose cock she hoped to suck to get her out from under the thumb of a lunatic.
Her problem was, Joker might fuck empty pussy, but he didn’t fuck greedy pussy.
“Got a lock on another girl we can turn?” he asked.
“Maybe, for one large.”
Yep.
Greedy pussy.
“You give a name, she gets us solid info, you’ll get your bonus.”
She nodded.
“Now, you’re here, I’m here, you got anything for me?”
“I think Benito is saving the best for last. He’s still concentrating on the Ruiz patch.”
This, they knew.
Benito Valenzuela was a pathological drug-dealing, porn-producing pimp who saw an opportunity when a couple of major players in Denver shifted out of the felonious into something that increased their life expectancy.
He went with it, claimed turf, did it easy, and got himself a complex that he was unstoppable.
He also got himself a mission.
Take over Denver.
All of it.
Including Chaos, the five-mile area surrounding Ride that Chaos decreed was free of drugs and whores. They decreed it but they also made it so by patrolling—brothers going out every night to keep their patch clean.
They’d been scuffling with Valenzuela for a while. Chaos attention turned to other issues. Valenzuela’s attention turned to other turf. But they’d had skirmishes, including invading a porn set to free Tabby’s junkie best friend who was paying her debt to Valenzuela by making her film debut.
Valenzuela did not take this kindly.
Since then, he’d been dormant where Chaos was concerned, doing his usual, sending dealers and whores into Chaos, causing headaches, but nothing extreme.
But the extreme was coming. Every member of the Club made it their purpose to know everything they could know about Valenzuela through every mean
s available.
He hadn’t forgotten Chaos.
Their problem wasn’t just him. It was that with each move he made, he got more money, which meant more firepower.
No one was unstoppable.
But part of the past and future Joker had learned about his Club included learning that Valenzuela had once been a nuisance.
He was now a viable threat.
There was a day when Chaos would have moved at any time during the past few years to neutralize this threat.
But Tack had guided the Club from hostile negotiations that led to aggressive takedowns that could get bloody for all concerned to defensive maneuvers that centered solely on their patch.
If Valenzuela threatened them directly, the Club would move to take him down.
Until then, they kept their shit clean and their families safe from blowback.
This was the beef Rush had with his father. Because even if Tack had pulled the Club out of maneuvers that started antagonistic and led to violent, Tack was still set on doing whatever they had to do to keep their territory clean.
Rush felt the Club should leave the policing to the police.
Until that moment, Joker hadn’t given a shit what the Club did. Whatever it was, he was all in.
But standing in an alley with a whore instead of exploring the many ways he wanted to make Carissa Teodoro whimper on her couch, he now had an opinion.
And until that moment, Joker didn’t understand why Tack didn’t work out his beef with his son.
But standing in that alley the day after he made the decision he should have made years ago in a car park outside a hospital, he got it.
Because Joker was standing in an alley with a whore. What he was not doing was exploring the ways he could make Carissa whimper, something he didn’t know where it would lead, he just knew where he wanted it to go.
And Tack had led his Club away from a dark path through blood then vengeance to clean.
He’d earned his scars.
Now his newer brothers, who had not walked through fire to turn Chaos around, were the future of the Club. They needed to prove their grit and earn their scars.
Tack would someday step down.
And the Club would be at the mercy of what he left behind.
But Tack knew you couldn’t lead without knowledge. You couldn’t demand respect without earning it. You couldn’t understand without experience.
Fuck, the man had it going on.
“You alive in there?” Heidi called.
He focused on her. “Need you to grab your friend and get off our patch.”
“Same drill,” she mumbled.
He didn’t confirm because it was a waste of breath. She was right. Chaos didn’t allow whores on their patch. She’d been told more than once. So had her friend.
“Get me the name of your replacement before you disappear,” he demanded.
“Whatever.”
He studied her a beat before he advised, “Girl, you get loose, you take a desperate couple for a ride by dangling precious in their faces, you stay loose. Get the fuck outta the life.”
“Nothin’ else I know how to do,” she returned sharply.
“You got a brain. Learn,” he shot back.
She saw her shot, and as usual, she didn’t hesitate to take it.
She moved in to him, the hard shifting out of her face, something false she didn’t know rang that way shifting into it.
“You could take that ride with me. I’d share the proceeds and stay outta the life for a decent guy.”
Joker stepped back. He didn’t say anything; he let his actions do his talking.
She tipped her head to the side and whispered, “Sure you can do better?”
He’d have had to think about that question the day before.
Nine years ago, he’d known the answer down to his gut and it wasn’t a good one.
Right then, the touch of Carissa’s soft skin still on his hand, the feel of her fingers against his scalp, the vision of her corny wave goodbye burned in his brain, he still wasn’t sure about the answer.
But he was leaning a different way.
“Take care of yourself, Heidi,” he said to end it, even in saying it, knowing she would. She’d do anything to take care of herself.
Even sell her baby to do it.
“Got no choice, Joke,” she replied.
She moved off, got her girl, and they took off.
His brothers joined him.
“Not a big fan of hangin’ in an alley with pussy for hire waitin’ for the queen bee to get her favorite subject to stand attendance,” Boz declared irately.
“Not the queen bee,” Joker shared. “Bitch is pregnant. She’ll vanish by daylight. But she says she’ll arrange a replacement.”
“We holdin’ our breath for that?” Speck asked.
“I wouldn’t advise it,” Joker answered.
“I’ll think on it,” Hop stated. “I come up with one I think’ll be open for an approach, we’ll plan.”
Hop looked to Joker.
“You on tonight with Rush?”
“On my way back to the Compound to team up,” Joker confirmed.
Hop nodded and said, “Home.” Then he took off to go there.
Without beautiful women in their beds and kids under their roofs, Boz, Speck, and Joker moved down the alley toward their bikes a lot more slowly.
“You ever trust that bitch?” Speck asked.
“She didn’t come up with much, but she warned us where Valenzuela would turn his attention, and her intel was rarely wrong,” Joker answered.
“You think she’ll clear out before she sells out to Valenzuela, playin’ both ends?” Speck asked.
Joker shook his head. “She doesn’t know jack about us so she’s got nothin’ to give. She’s stupid enough to share she shared, she’ll be in the morgue by morning. Heidi might not be much, but she ain’t stupid.”
Speck didn’t reply.
They mounted their bikes but before they went their separate ways, Boz called, “Sharp on patrol.”
And when he said it, Joker felt it.
Something new.
On patrol, Joker didn’t give a shit what went down. He did what he had to do for his Club to protect what was theirs.
But right then, he knew he’d be sharp on patrol.
Not that he wasn’t before.
Just that, should the uncommon happen and things got ugly, he was going to make certain it didn’t get ugly for him.
And Joker had plans tomorrow night he was no way in hell going to miss.
CHAPTER TEN
I Drink Beer
Carissa
“IF WE GET a judge who’s buddy-buddy with either of the Neilands, I’ll ask that he recuse himself. I’ve no idea if he will. But if he doesn’t, it sets him up for appeal.”
It was the next evening and we were in the conference room at Gustafson, Howard and Pierce—Angie, Joker, Travis, and me. And Angie was explaining her strategy, which was essentially to obtain child support, revise custody so my very young son spent most of his time with his mother, as it should be (according to me, and now Angie), and lastly, to do her best to slap Aaron and his father on the wrist, hard, for what they’d been doing to me.
A strategy I agreed with wholeheartedly.
She kept talking.
“I’m actually surprised the judge you had didn’t recuse himself. He’s known to have a longstanding close relationship with Judge Neiland.”
That was something I knew. Heck, the man had come to my wedding!
I didn’t have a chance to share this before Angie continued, “Your last attorney is very good, but my feeling is that he didn’t ask a judge he knew should recuse himself to do so because it would set him up for the man’s displeasure. Judges have long memories. They’re supposed to be objective, but they’re also human. If they don’t recuse themselves, they don’t like to be asked. They also don’t like threats of appeal. I don’t have the same problem as your forme
r counsel. They know that, and that should work in our favor.”
I wanted to jump across the table and kiss her.
Instead, I just smiled at her before I turned my head to Joker, who was sitting beside me.
It was then I wanted to kiss him.
This was because Joker was feeding Travis, who was sitting happily on his thigh.
It was Travis’s dinnertime. We couldn’t wait for Las Delicias and a high chair. My boy needed his food.
And Joker told me I needed to focus.
So when we settled in, I focused on Angie and Joker focused on my son.
Now, with surprising ease, he was shoving carrots in Travis’s mouth, the jar on the table in front of him, his attention on Travis, but I knew he was listening to Angie.
Taking him in, I thought he’d never been more handsome.
“I already have paralegals working on the motion we’ll be filing,” Angie continued and I looked back to her. “We’re hoping to do that tomorrow, latest the next day.”
“That’d be great.” I gave her my understatement.
“I’ll warn you that usually, as a first step, counsel would approach opposing counsel to try to negotiate things like this outside of court. However, I think we’re beyond that at this juncture.”
I nodded. “I agree.”
She nodded back. “Now, if Mr. Neiland does or says anything that makes you angry or uncomfortable or that you find questionable in any way, you document it. Starting with what happened with Travis and his croup last week. Dates. Times of phone calls. What’s been said. Et cetera. Everything you can remember. You also report it to me.”
I nodded.
“I have high hopes for this, Carissa,” she told me. “It’s unconscionable what’s been going on. My gut feeling is that if we don’t have the luck of the draw with which courtroom we land in, it will simply mean your circumstances will take more time to change. But I’ll do everything in my power to deal with this swiftly.”
“I don’t know what to say,” I replied. “Thank you.”
She grinned. “Don’t thank me. I’m getting paid. But regardless, I love my job. But when I get this kind of case, I love my job.”
I was glad about that. I liked her. She seemed nice and bullheaded, and in this instance, both worked for me.
Still.
“Thank you anyway,” I returned.
“My pleasure,” she said then looked to Joker and back to me. “Feel free to use this room to take care of Travis. But I’ve got a few more things to do before I go home. So if you don’t mind, I’ll leave you.”