Page 25 of Blue-Eyed Jacks (Destroyers MC: Skilletsville PA #1)

The Next Morning—Jackson

P ractically our whole clubhouse barn could fit into the monstrosity Sprout grinned like a lunatic over. Kate and Zoe hesitated behind me, but they’d exited the SUV and were now targets. I motioned them to follow Sprout inside.

He hung in the foyer by the door, waiting for Bear and me to get our asses in gear.

“This ain’t small, Sprout,” I scanned the double-wide arched brick of the foyer.

“Funny. That’s exactly what my wife said last night,” Sprout joked.

Hilarious.

Kate and Zoe were in the great room by the fireplace.

“There’s too much glass.” I pointed to the windows lining the space.

Two facing the street and a whole bank of them in the back so you could see the covered patio.

It was a criminal’s wet dream. The place screamed, “rob me!” Double doors in the front and back.

No reinforced beams between them, either.

My head shook from side to side as the girls went from one room to the next.

They oooed over the marble countertops, the wood floors, the vaulted ceilings, and each artisan pendant lamp that I was certain held non-tempered glass that would shatter everywhere if someone started shooting up the place.

“It’s a fishbowl, right Bear?”

He grunted. “You’ve seen Sprout’s house, haven’t you?”

True, but wrong. I pointed at the backyard, which I could see plain as day. “Sprout doesn’t have to look at his neighbor’s upstairs bedroom over the fence.”

“You haven’t seen the best part.” Sprout motioned for us to follow him.

That side-to-side motion of my head kept going. There was a window right next to the tub. I pointed it out to Kate. “Better not stand up; the neighbors will get a show.”

She blushed.

“I kind of hate tubs. Especially ones in exposed areas…like kitchens .” She sent me a crooked grin.

Oh, yeah. I remembered. A chuckle escaped, which caught Bear’s attention. He wouldn’t understand even if I explained it to him.

“Let me show you the closet.” Sprout led us through the bathroom, past the fancy tub with the huge ass window next to it, and tapped on the closet door.

His finger thunked mutely. “Reinforced. The entire walk-in locks down as a safe room. There’s a gun safe in the back.” He flipped open a hidden panel, revealing a full-sized steel cabinet with biometric locks.

Now we were talking.

“Does the other closet have one?” This beast had two walk-in closets in the owner’s suite.

He shook his head and squeezed past me and Bear to lead us through the maze of rooms and back through the main area to the other wing of the house.

“Office, full bath, two bedrooms with walk-in closets.” He pointed out each detail. Zoe parked her ass in the bedroom on the right and bounced on the bed.

“This is my room.”

I eyed the street through the window behind her. “The hell it is.” I pointed through the window. “Bear? What’s the range of a nine-mil with hollow points?”

He tipped his head and scanned the sightline from the curb to Zoe’s closet. An un-reinforced one. “At least double. Half-aimed with spray, she’s done, boss.”

“Let’s look at the back bedroom.”

“Dad!”

“No, Zoe. Do I have to park Bear on the street and have him point his 50-cal at us to prove why? Jesus.”

Kate blanched.

That side-to-side shake of my head was back. “Ground floor, windows, cheap ass fucking locks. I hate it.”

She glanced at the decor. “It’s too open.”

“Mom, it’s huge. I love it.”

“It’s the first place you looked at. Sprout, let’s see what else you got.”

The next model home was a two-story with garage doors gobbling up the curb appeal.

I liked it already. I could ride up to the smaller door, slip the bike in, and lock it down without exposing Kate’s car or the SUV to thieves.

The windows facing the street were higher and smaller, exposing much less of the life inside to someone casing the joint.

The door had a reinforced kick plate. I tapped it as Sprout led us in. “Much better.”

The foyer opened up on the right to a compact office.

Beyond that was the great room and open floor plan kitchen and dining.

The space was much less ostentatious, with fewer windows, subdued stone counters, not the garish black and white of the other house, but it still managed to pack a lot of space in the tighter frame.

Bear pointed at the yard behind the house. It was walled off, with no neighbors. Trees lined the sightline along with old-growth vines that would make most snipers groan with frustration. I’d have to get Wolf’s old Ranger buddy up from West Virginia to check it out. But it felt safe. Safer .

“Pantry, mud room that attaches to the garage…” Sprout led Kate and Zoe through the tour of the main floor before leading us to the stairs we’d passed on the way in. One side went down, the other up.

“This reminds me of the house in Maine.” Kate smiled at the open banisters and ran a hand over the railing.

“Except it’s a lot bigger,” Zoe commented.

“The stairs aren’t nearly as steep.”

“Or as narrow.”

Their commentary bounced back and forth as they pointed out the similarities and the differences.

The staircase opened to a common area at the top. Sprout’s decorator feathered it with a huge ass couch and sweet big-screen TV.

Zoe ran to the couch and picked up the remote. “It’s got movie streaming!”

I scrutinized Sprout. “You keep a model home wired?”

He shook his head. “I had Hickey set it up last night after the meeting.”

“Did you wire the other house?”

Another shake of the head.

“Bastard,” I muttered. He arranged the showing in the order he did on purpose. He knew I’d turn down the first house because of the security issues. Most people thought he was a dumbass. Things like this were why I kept him around.

“This one could be a guest room.” He motioned to the bedroom next to the stairs.

It had double windows facing the street.

“This one is harder to target.” He led us to the doorway to point out the smaller space.

The single set of windows above the garage was tucked into a dormer. Bear scanned the view.

“Bitch of a shot. The overhang fouls everything up.”

I nodded and silently conferred with Kate, tossing the ball into her court.

“Zoe’s,” she agreed.

Perfect.

“Now for the money shot…” Sprout was finding too much pleasure in this.

And yet, he was right again.

The vaulted owner’s suite was large enough that the king-sized bed fit nicely. There was a set of double French doors along the back side.

“What is that?” A security risk.

“Balcony. A private balcony.”

Well. That might be a deal-breaker.

I let Bear check it out first. Meanwhile, Kate ran her hands over the marble counters in the attached bath. I pointed at the freestanding tub. The window next to this one was smaller, less exposed, and still kinky enough to make me wiggle an eyebrow at her.

“Boss?” Sprout called from the attached walk-in closet.

I peeked inside. “Reinforced?”

He nodded. “But the main safe room is in the basement.” He waited for me to step out of his way to lead us down both flights of stairs to the family room.

“A bar should go over there,” Bear pointed to the far corner.

“This ain’t your house,” I reminded him.

He shrugged. “Figure I’ll be here often enough.”

Damn it, he was right.

There was a simple bedroom off the hall flanking the stairs.

Near the end was a bathroom. And at the very end, a closet.

I didn’t see the promised safe room he mentioned and was about to bring it up when Sprout reached inside the closet and flipped open a hidden panel, revealing a whole extra bedroom complete with gun storage, and an ultra-secure panic room.

“Sold,” I said. It was perfect. A house, big enough for at least a handful and a half of my men to visit, and small enough that I didn’t feel like a walking target. I looked at Kate for her sentiment.

“It’s too big for just me and Zoe.”

There was so much wrong with that sentence. “Bear? Check on my girl and do a circuit outside. Sprout?”

“Don’t have to ask me twice. Zoe probably needs help bypassing the child locks for the porn channels.”

“If you show my daughter porn, I will personally bury you alive.”

He had the audacity to laugh at me as he took the stairs two at a time.

Then it was just Kate and me.

She read my face.

“You can’t honestly tell me we’re going to live here together . We don’t know each other that well.”

As far as arguments went, Kate’s sucked. “My dick was in you last night. Your bare ass was on my desk.”

She frowned. “That doesn’t mean we’re just going to play house all of a sudden.”

“Yes, it does. You’re mine.”

Her back went straight. “Don’t.”

“Don’t what? Lay my claim? I did that sixteen-plus years ago when Zoe was born.” I pointed to the stairs.

Color stained Kate’s cheeks as she cleared her throat. “Your claim? I’ll remind you that the last man who laid a claim on me shared me with his entire club. Are you going to do that, too?”

“Hell no.”

“Are you going to conveniently forget I’m still technically married?”

Fuck that . “You’re getting a divorce.” I’d sic the club’s lawyer on it right away.

Her eyebrows rose. “Do you honestly think it’s that easy? I’ve been a missing person for eighteen years. I’m probably legally dead. I can’t just pick up where I left off.”

“If you’re legally dead, Shock ain’t got a husband claim, does he now?”

Her open mouth froze in place before she could utter her next argument at me. It shut as she thought about my statement. “If I’m legally dead, Shock got my trust fund.”

“ You had a trust fund?” Everybody and their fucking cousin seemed to have one of those. Except me and all the other dumb, working-class schmucks in my club.

“Had. Dad’s father. He was a circuit court judge.”

How to put this as kindly as I could? “You ever think that’s why Shock targeted your fucking sperm donor and his fucking coke habit? And maybe why he stuck a ring on it when that isn’t his M.O.?”

Maybe that wasn’t delivered with the finesse it should have been?

“Trust me, I thought about that a lot.” Her tone was acidic.

“Well, if you’re not dead, we should sue Shock for it.” I hadn’t heard of any rumors about a trust fund, but that wasn’t something I’d considered before.

“We?”

“You and Zoe. I’ll help. That we .” With a trust fund, she could have a life again.

Maybe one without me. I rethought my offer but kept my mouth shut.

If worse came to worst, and Kate and I couldn’t stand each other outside the bedroom, then I’d take my lumps and demand visitation.

Because I wasn’t about to get cut out of Zoe’s life again.

I’d just begun to dislike her as a teenager, and someday, she’d be an insanely strong-willed woman like her mother.

No one was going to deny me the opportunity to see that to fruition. “I’ve got a lawyer on retainer.”

Technically, a whole firm because the club’s legal issues got a shit-ton more complicated a few years back.

“How can you afford that? And this?” She motioned to the house. “You had a shack in Maine.”

“Yeah. And you saw how I lived until this morning. I had a room with a tiny ass bathroom above a biker clubhouse. Every dime went into making money.” For the club, mostly.

But also got socked away for legal fees and my Justin Case Charity Fund.

As in, just in case my evil doings caught up with me and I had to run.

Once Sprout married Danielle and started using the inheritance from his wife’s grandmother to start a construction company, that fund got bigger fast.

Her scowl confused me. “Why the face?”

“Illegal money?”

I tipped my head to the side and tugged on my ear as if I hadn’t heard her correctly. “Huh?”

“Who was I married to?” Her eyes narrowed.

Ah, right. She’d have seen ten times worse than the typical shit we got into here in Skilletsville. But that didn’t include my extracurricular activities, which ensured that no fewer than a dozen clubs around this country owed me a blood debt. Not even Wolf knew about those. But Nonno did.

And if he and Shock were cooking up a way to bring me down, it would be too damn easy to pin at least one of those murders on me.

Except that would also implicate Nonno, who ordered one of the hits. I stuck a mental Post-it on that memory to revisit later.

“About six, seven years back, the mayor of this little sphincter of a municipality saw the error of her ways and set us up with a lot of money and property.”

“Legally?”

“Yeah, all legit. Long ass story short, we had to protect her granddaughter. Sprout ended up sticking his dick in it, and they’re having a kid come December.”

“It’s hard to believe that gangly kid is going to be a father.” Her mouth lifted in the corner.

“Do you remember Ma?”

“Gina? Oh my God, yes. She saved my life.”

It was official. I was wounded. “So did I.”

Kate shot me a look that clearly said, “duh.” Or maybe something a little more complicated than that. I opted for simple. But I also had to warn her. “You didn’t tell anybody that, did you?”

“What? No. Shock would kill her, biker mother or not.”

If Shock killed Sprout’s ma, nothing would save him from the hell that would rain down.

“Good. Keep that in mind when you see her tonight. I’m going to get the prospects to bring your shit here. We’ll have a party to break the place in.”

“A party?” Kate was not enthused.

“It’ll be fun. Trust me.”