“Who is it?” she asks. “Or is it none of my business?”
“Course it’s your business. You’re going to live here and you have a right to know what’s going on.” To a certain extent. Some of the club stuff is for members only. “This late? It’s got to be about the club.”
She looks relieved which tells me that she thought it might be a woman. I chuck her on the chin and then point to the towel on the hook next to the shower. “I’d prefer to be in here, scrubbing you down but I need to see what’s going on. You going to be okay?”
A lot of heavy emotional stuff just went down and we should be cuddling in the bed instead of getting our leathers on.
“I’ll be fine. Go on.” She makes a shooing gesture with her hands and draws the shower curtain shut. My dick twitches when I hear her start to hum and I see the shadow of her body start moving under the water but I got no time for this. I give my groin a slap and walk out.
In the entry, my club president is explaining something that Michigan isn’t taking well. He looks angrier with each passing second.
“What’s going on?”
Judge turns to me. “We’ve got a small situation. Your girlfriend’s father has called the police and accused you of kidnapping her. Since she’s in your shower and I assume injury-free, it makes sense for her to go back home tonight and try to work it out with her father. Those charges will get dropped.”
“No.” Michigan folds his arms across his chest. Has he ever said no to the Prez before? I can’t think of a single time.
Judge doesn’t take it personally. “The local chief of police has it in for us.”
“Was that before or after we took a tire iron to his arm and made it mincemeat?” I say. Judge had Michigan and me accompany him when he punished Chief Schmidt for trying to fuck with Pippa and for getting his son put away for three years.
“Since his head shoved its way out of his momma’s cunt,” Judge replies. “He was born stupid and growing up made him meaner, not smarter. Look, it’s for one night.”
“I don’t like sending her home to her father.” I rub my chin. “He’s an asshole.”
“Don’t doubt it, but you guys can be brought up on kidnapping charges and sit in the city jail tonight or Annie can go home, pack her things and move out. Pippa says that Annie’s planning on getting a new apartment anyway. Besides, I need you to go back to Minneapolis. That MC you were checking out for me got in some trouble and I need you to straighten it out.”
“I don’t like it,” I repeat.
“No,” says Michigan.
Judge sighs. “You think he hurts her?”
Michigan and I exchange a look and then he steps back, exhales and drops his defensive stance. “No.” He shakes his head. “What do you think?” he asks me.
“I think it’s better that neither one of us is in jail if we want to take care of Annie,” I answer.
“Then if she’s not in physical danger, she needs to go see her old man and either they’ll work out whatever conflict they have or she tells him to go to hell. By the time you’re back, it’s yesterday’s news and you can go on with,” he waves his hand, “whatever you got going on here. We got trouble back at Minneapolis. I need you to go up there and clean the house. Two of the fools got caught on a weapons charge and according to Junior they've got three safe houses full of stash. Wrecker and Abel will drive the cage. I want you to meet with Junior and then go clean out those houses.”
“Are we eliminating them?” Michigan asks. He doesn’t care and neither do I. We just want to know what kind of tools to bring.
“Nah, they don’t know shit about us. It’s Junior whose ass is on the line. I promised his old man I’d watch out for him, not the club.”
“We bringing all the stuff back here? Is any of that hot?” Michigan asks.
“Yeah, I don't want any of this near the granary. You guys should take this up to Detroit Lakes.”
“Fuck, that's like four hours away.” I frown.
“That going to be a problem?”
“No, but it would be nice if you and Pip would keep an eye on Annie.”
“She your girl now?”
“Yeah. We’ll make our claim during our next church but for now you can spread the word informally. We were trying to keep it on the down low because of who her father is but I guess that’s moot now.”
“What? Do you mean to tell me that Pastor Bloom isn’t excited about the two of you debauching his precious daughter? Color me surprised.”
“Speaking of Annie, I think that she will do a good job as your office manager.” If she’s moving out, then she needs a job right now.
“Are you saying that or is your dick saying that?” He points to my groin.
“No, he's right,” interjects Michigan. “She’s been working as a church secretary for the last four years. She keeps their books, does all their brochures and shit. Does customer service shit.”
Judge looks interested. “Yeah, okay, it sounds like she could do the job. I'll touch base with her while you're gone. Have her come over to the office to see if she feels comfortable there and whether there's anything that we got going on that she can't do.”
“You want to tell her or should I?” I ask Michigan. His eyes darken and I can see him getting angry again. “I’ll do it.”
He gives me a short nod.
When I reach the bathroom, Annie’s done showering. It’s mouse quiet in there. I wonder how much, if any, of the conversation she heard. Giving a quick tap of warning, I twist the knob. Annie’s sitting on the toilet wearing her wrinkled tan skirt and a fresh shirt. Her backpack is resting against the sink cabinet.
“I heard my name. Is something wrong?” Her voice is a little trembly. I curl my hands into fists I’d like to shove into her father’s face.
“Your old man doesn’t like that you’re here. He’s gone to the police and reported that we kidnapped you.”
She sucks in a shocked breath and covers her mouth. “Oh no! I’ll leave right away.”
Everything we built tonight is threatening to fall apart. I grab her pack and shoulder it before she can pick it up. “Baby, it doesn’t matter to us who your old man is or what he does to us. What matters is what we feel for each other. Now you love us, right?”
She nods miserably, her lashes sparkling in the harsh bathroom light from unshed tears. “We said we love you and I can promise you we haven’t said that to any other woman.”
“I believe you.” She stands up and rises on her tiptoes to press her lips against my cheek. “I’m going to go home tonight, pack and tell Father I’m moving out.”
“Good. Michigan and I have to go to Minneapolis so I’m giving you my key. Make yourself at home. Just dump my shit on the floor and we’ll rearrange stuff later.”
I give her a slight push and follow her as she walks down the hall. My dick stirs in my jeans as I watch the slight sway of her tight ass in the skirt. When we get near Michigan, he releases a deep growl.
Judge shakes his head. “That answers that.”
“She’s our woman; we’re claiming her.” Michigan pushes his chin out.
“Great.” He slaps his hand on Michigan’s shoulder and then mine. “Saddle up and call me when it’s all taken care of.” He points his finger at Annie. “Pippa’s outside and can give you a ride home.”
“Sorry you had to come here this late,” she mumbles. Her face is a fiery red.
“It’s no big deal. Club’s a family and we watch after our own. You do your part tonight and we’ll take care of you. I’ll give you guys a few minutes.” Judge walks out.
“A bunch of fools from that club we were just at in the Cities got into some trouble and we need to run up there and take care of business. We should be back tomorrow night.” I pull the key off my chain I have hooked to my belt loop and press it into her hand.
Michigan holds her first, burying his head in her hair and squeezing her so tight I’m worried she can’t breathe. “I can’t kiss you,
sweetheart, because if I press my lips against your sweet mouth, I’m not going to stop.”
He gives her another squeeze and then passes her off to me. I do kiss her, tonguing her deep and long until we’re both panting.
“Fuck it.” Michigan pulls her back into his arms and plants a hard kiss on her mouth.
When he releases her, her cherry red lips are smiling.
“You be in our bed, wearing nothing but our cuffs tomorrow night,” Michigan orders.
“All right.” She gives us both two more quick pecks against our cheek and then trips out the door to climb into Pippa’s little red car.
Wrecker and Abel, a prospect, show up about thirty minutes after Judge leaves. Wrecker is Judge’s son and is probably coming along to tell the dumb folks to shut up and stay locked up tight and in three years they’ll be out. Wrecker served three for involuntary manslaughter for defending a local who’d been attacked by a skinhead from a white supremacist biker group from up north. Should’ve been fucking self-defense and no charges but Schmidthead—Chief Schmidt—saw an opportunity to bring pain on the Death Lords MC, Judge specifically, and got the city attorney to bring charges when the county wouldn’t. On advice of counsel, they pled that shit down to involuntary and Wrecker did three years. He came out of it fine and as long as these punks kept their shit locked up tight, they’d be welcome in most any MC around. Loyalty means a lot in the brotherhood. That Abel is being sent with him means that Judge is getting ready to patch him in.
You don’t trust shit like this to a prospect.
From the gleam in this serious former Marine’s eyes, he knows it.
“Ready?” I ask.
“Always,” he says. We both know we’re talking about more than the trip up to the Cities.
“Guess we’ll be having a big party one of these days.”