Page 14 of Blue-Eyed Jacks (Destroyers MC: Skilletsville PA #1)

P inner held his baby girl, Lily, with great care. His gaze locked on the practically perfect little human with blonde hair like his own, and the good fortune to take after her mother in most other features. A year and a half old, and spoiled as hell. I felt bad for him, and the whole situation.

No sooner than the whore, Jewel, announced she was pregnant, Pinner’s wife left the state, hell, the continent, moving back to Hawaii to be with her parents.

And she took Pinner’s oldest daughter with her.

Now the old man was doting every ounce of his love on this baby because if he didn’t, he’d kill something.

But a biker club was no place for a child.

Especially since we had church tonight. Every Friday night like clockwork.

The junkyard office would shut down promptly at six, the floors swept, then the beer flowed, and the gavel pounded.

And with this gavel pound, I knew today was going to be the best day of my life yet.

Rumor had it Toro was pissed at Kush for something or another and needed a new vice president.

I intended to be that man. I’d worked hard to gain the trust of the officers, the members, and any motherfucker who held influence in the region. Even Nonno said I was a shoo-in.

There was one man who didn’t hold that opinion, though. And since this was an election meeting, the nearby clubs were present and vocal.

Shock walked past me as I manned the counter and stopped in his tracks. He pointed his meaty finger at me and said too loudly, “That’s the only position you’re qualified for.” Then he laughed and shut himself in conference with Toro.

“Toro won’t listen to him, he’ll listen to us.” Pinner said as he rocked Lily who was mostly asleep.

I wasn’t so sure. I was so close to having it all.

“He’s an asshole.” I spoke quietly enough, so only Lily and Pinner overheard.

Days like this, I knew better than to say a bad word about any ranking member, but I hated Shock with a fire that wouldn’t die.

And he returned that hate with a grudge of his own.

“He’s always going to think you stole his wife.”

I shifted, not willing to rehash old news. “He’s an idiot on top of being an asshole.”

Pinner laughed quietly. “You talk to Sprout?”

“About what?”

“About keeping his big trap shut.”

I glared at Pinner. “I didn’t hand him that phone, you did.” Lie often enough and long enough even innocent people believe it.

Pinner smiled. “Damn straight.” He jiggle-walked a pace or three away. “You hear from her?”

“Who?”

He turned and shot me a look that said, “Do I look stupid to you?”

So, I fired my answer right back. “You look dumb as hell, holding a kid.”

“There ain’t nothing like it. Looking down on that pretty little face and seeing parts of you there. One day, Jackson, you’ll get that. Hopefully, it won’t be taken away from you like my oldest. You need something like a baby girl to keep your ass honest.”

“Get the fuck out of here with that shit.” He was talking out of his ass.

He shrugged. “The way you whore around, I’m surprised you don’t have five kids toddling around here.” He began to count and point and name names. “There’s Jackson’s son one, and Jay two. Over there, Jay three, and four, twins, you know?” He laughed.

“Shut up.” I glanced at the door, suddenly uneasy, like there was a target on my back. I shuddered. It was almost closing time.

He kept making up names, giving me shit.

The phone rang, saving me from Pinner’s idiocracy. “Your dime, your funeral,” I answered.

“Hi, I’m looking for a part, but don’t remember the name of it. I talked to someone about it a while ago.” The woman on the other end was timid. But it was a woman. Which meant I turned on the charm.

“Do you remember who you talked to, pretty lady?”

“A man named Jackson.”

I smiled at Pinner, who rolled his eyes and mouthed something vulgar my way.

Then he pantomimed getting a phone number along with a quick thrust of his hips twice.

Too bad Lily in his arms made the action terrifying.

Otherwise, I’d have laughed. “You got him, darling.” I didn’t remember talking parts with this voice, but she did sound vaguely familiar, so I probably did.

“Do I?”

There was a sharp note in her tone. A chill ran down my spine. I knew that voice. “Remind me when we talked last.” I checked on Pinner to confirm his back was to me and fiddled with the computer to make this look legit.

“July.”

“Uh-huh. The ’05 Ford Fiesta with the sticky third gear problem.

I remember you.” I strode into the shelves of parts, bullshitting my way in a one-sided conversation until I was sure I was far enough away to not be overheard at all.

I still lowered my voice to a whisper. “I told you not to call me.”

“I had to.”

“Bullshit.” I didn’t need this fucking crap today. Fuck , Shock was right next-fucking door. “I’m hanging up.”

“No, please, I just had a baby.”

“The fuck?” I stared at the phone in my hand. Was I hearing things? That shit with Pinner was messing with my head. “Kate?”

“Her name is Zoe. She was born this afternoon. Crystal said you’d want to know. And we’re fine. I’ll hang up now.”

And she did. I stared at the number. Maine.

It might as well have been the other side of the planet.

A girl. My girl, Zoe . I leaned against the rack, dislodging a box of hose clamps.

I quickly straightened the mess and tucked the phone away.

Then thought better of it. I went to the call log and deleted the number from the history. Covering her tracks as best as I could.

I was a father.

Pinner came around the end of the aisle. “Yo, church is starting.” He bounced Lily in his arms and smiled down on her, a light on his face not many got to see.

One I’d never have on my face. Ever . I vowed that. Kate would be my one and only, and Zoe would be my one and only. And that’s the way it was meant to be. A biker clubhouse was no place for a baby girl. Or love, or weaknesses.

The vote swung my way easily. Toro whispered in my ear that Nonno approved me personally, despite Shock’s bitching.

I celebrated. Drank, fucked, toasted the patch and my brothers, and even raised a glass with Shock.

All the while, trying to forget that this was the last best day of my life.

There would be no other day I’d remember more.

Even if they someday voted me president of the entire region. This was it.

About midnight, the spell broke. Shock came at me, bitching his usual rant about stealing his wife.

He had the hooker I’d fucked earlier under his arm.

She didn’t want to be there. It was plain on her face.

The lack of smile, the fear in her eyes, the marks on her skin.

And she was one of mine. Ours. Whatever.

Skilletsville’s stable, not his. “Take your hands off her.”

“I beg your pardon?”

I stood up and wavered slightly from the heatwave of whiskey fumes trying to overpower me. “I said, take your hands off her.”

Shock’s eyes narrowed. A grin spread across his face. “How does it feel?”

“How does what feel?”

“Seeing me steal your woman. How’s it feel ?”

Terry wasn’t mine, except in the protective sense. But if that’s where Shock was going with this, I was in a mood to play along. “Take your hands off of her, now.”

“You ain’t no president.”

“Yet. But this is my club. The club’s girls. My officer patch means it is my responsibility. So, hands fucking off our property.”

“She’s Destroyers’ property. That means she’s mine.”

He was goading me, trying to get me to pop off hot-headed and admit I stole his wife. The whisper made me smile. It wasn’t a nice one. “She’s here for everyone, not just you. But she’s done for the night, right, Terry?”

The girl nodded and slipped out from under Shock’s arm. I held his bloodshot stare with my own.

“Everyone? Is that what we’re doing here? Sharing?”

I blinked. “I had her first.” Sending a little nod in Terry’s direction.

“And I had Kate first,” Shock stated.

There was a sheen of drool at the corner of his mouth.

His beard covered where the rest dribbled off to hide.

I focused on that. He was drunk. Easy pickings if I wanted to throw a punch.

Cause a fight, bring him down, snap his neck.

He was weak. “Your problem is, you don’t know how to balance.

” I could have been talking about the list in his stance or the way he ran hot and cold.

Or his books or payments to nationals. But we both knew I was talking about Kate and his possessiveness.

“Treat women nice; they come back. Treat them like shit; they run. Terry will come back to me. Maybe even later tonight. But Kate? She ain’t ever coming back.

She ran because you are an asshole who can’t balance. ”

His fist shot out.

I blocked it and tucked his arm under mine, trapping him close. I had a knife to his throat. “I’m an officer, and this is my ground. You fucked up, Shock. Leave.”

He leaned his weight on me. “You fucked up, Jackson. She’s mine. Kate’s mine.”

A weakness. One I couldn’t exploit without jeopardizing her, or… oh shit , my baby girl. That sobering thought had me push him away. “Take Terry with you. I don’t give a fuck.”

His eyes glittered. “One day, I’m going to catch you. You can lie all you want, but I’m going to catch you in those damn lies and bring you down.”

“Yeah, good luck with that. It’s nice to know you care so much.”

“I don’t care. I hate you.”

That’s where he was dead wrong. “You gotta care enough to hate. See? I don’t hate you because I don’t care.

Have a fun time, Shock.” I slapped him on the patch as I strolled past, looping an arm around another hooker so I could go upstairs and get some fucking sleep.

Who gave a shit about anything? This place, this club, this life I’d carved out?

It was one big pile of lies I’d have to keep cultivating forever, like a poisoned garden.

I fell onto the mattress. I don’t even remember putting a condom on, but it was there after it all.

Still intact, whole, and slimy. I’d get a vasectomy.

Schedule it for tomorrow. And keep my shit tight from now on while playing it fast and loose.

Win with a grin and bury my enemies deep, just like dear old dad.

Shock didn’t know who he was messing with.

One-Eyed Jack was a biker all his life. He held officer ranks from secretary to president and everything in between.

He taught me at his knee, carried me into meetings before I could even talk.

He taught me how to lie, steal, and murder my way to the top and beyond.

Men like Shock? They didn’t have the education I had.

I lay awake, listening to the dark-haired hooker snore, and letting all the echoes of past, present, and future bounce around my thoughts like a whirling carousel of color.

It was a puzzle to figure out. Find the pattern.

The thing that repeats—anticipate when it comes around next.

Plan. Let another piece fly by, set the pattern as it filled in piece by piece until the entire crazy picture was laid out as if it were standing still.

Once you did that, you were invincible. No secret in the world would bring that ride to a halt.

I built my kingdom in the dark. Bit by bit, horse by horse.

Laughing rider by laughing rider. A machine that would live long after some asshole shivved me in the ribs.

Maybe it was the whiskey? Or maybe it was intuition.

The best day of my life was gone. I couldn’t expect another like this again. A tear slipped out of one eye. I let it fall. Let the salty trail dry until it was crusty and stiff.

I was a father. It was about time I started acting like one.

Or, at the very least, begin stepping into the ruthless shoes One-Eyed Jack left behind.

Terry’s body washed up on the banks of the Ohio River, miles from Skilletsville.

I saved the newspaper clippings in a locked box I kept stuffed under a junked-out RV we sometimes used as a place to crash.

It didn’t matter if the elements ruined it.

I memorized the date and the headline. I could reconstruct it later if needed.

Two months after that, I collected another trinket.

A smuggler who ran the border told me how he despised working with Shock. How it felt like the man couldn’t be trusted. I laughed at him and flat-out told him I couldn’t be trusted, either.

He winked at me and smiled. “But at least with you, I know where I stand. You’re in this for the long haul. Shock can’t think that far ahead. And I can’t work with that. But I’ll work with you. You can make me the connections I need farther up the lakes.”

And that was how I gutted Shock’s pipeline and became the hub Pittsburgh had to go through to get product. Each were little trinkets of businesses or people with power. I collected them like a magpie. Because one day, Shock would fall. And I’d be there to make sure he never got back up.