Page 26 of Blue-Eyed Jacks (Destroyers MC: Skilletsville PA #1)

Kate

“I t’ll be fun. Trust me. ” I cursed Jackson under my breath as I mopped yet another spilled beer from the still so new it smelled like a factory, wood laminate flooring.

I did not know if it would stain or not; having zero experience with the particular brand they’d run from wall to wall lengthwise through the open floor plan, but I remembered the work it took to strip the floor in the house and did not want to face that again.

At least it wasn’t carpet.

The rug in the living room would never be the same.

Jackson was in the backyard, testing our new neighbor’s hearing with loud music and no fewer than five bikers swearing and laughing and being assholes in general.

I opened the pantry to put the mop away and stopped short.

Baldy, who came in with the second wave of bikers, grinned at me.

The girl kneeling at his feet hadn’t noticed the open door at her back yet… being too busy slobbering on his knob.

His fist was buried in her hair. The tattoos on his hand stood out against the white-lined tension in his grip.

Almost twenty years should have been enough to erase some memories. But as I shakily handed Baldy the mop, I realized that I still hadn’t recovered from all of them.

I closed the door on them and stared at the pristine white shaker-style molding. Her moans and the wet sounds of mouth on cock echoed in my head louder than the stereo thumping away at a heavy song I didn’t recognize.

Laughter from the backyard.

The clang of the grill lid.

Snatches of the TV upstairs where Zoe and some of the younger women of the club watched movies.

To my left, one of Jackson’s crew embellished a story about sex.

It layered upon the memories and added fresh new grooves of trauma.

I searched the room for a friendly face.

There was Skinner, the too-thin tech guru who Jackson recruited from Hagerstown.

Next to him was Hickey. He was also thin, but taller and more muscular.

Both liked computers, but Hickey was also good with money and therefore voted treasurer for the last eight years.

On the couch, almost taking up a section by himself, sat Bear.

He had a woman on his lap, but she was too busy rolling a joint to care that he was deep in discussion with the guy to his right.

That was Coop, or Chickenman as sometimes called.

He also had a woman. Jelly. She was dancing near the fireplace with Hollywood.

His name patch declared his road name was “Trout.” But the Hollywood moniker was due to his recent stint in amateur porn.

The club made porn movies. And ran a sex cam business. They had whores.

They smoked pot and sold cocaine.

What was I doing here? One of my two best friends was a cop. Wait, my other best friend used to be a hooker. I had no right to judge anyone. My father died a crack addict.

I’d been forced to give blow jobs to the officers of Shock’s court.

That’s what was really bothering me. I turned to look out the glass to see if I could catch Jackson’s attention. But his back was to me.

Slowly, I crossed the house to the stairs. I remembered to smile and nod when greeted. Pretending to be happy was a skill I’d never really lost. In fact, I’d perfected it over the years between then and now.

The music almost drowned out the TV, despite the volume being too loud to hear yourself think.

The women scattered on the large L-shaped couch were from various backgrounds.

My daughter sat next to a girl named Lily.

She was nineteen and going to college a month from now.

She’d had a rough start in life, being Jewel’s daughter.

But the young lady she was becoming impressed me.

It struck me as odd to know exactly how she came to be, seeing the before of Pinner’s relationship with Hilea in Poppy, the woman sitting next to her, and remembering that lovely child who somehow remembered me from that life.

Next to Gina was her daughter-in-law, Danielle.

She was an heiress. Her grandmother once ran this town for at least two decades.

But now Danielle was Sprout’s wife and expecting their first child.

I took the empty end next to Poppy. The subtitles were on, so I began scanning them to take my mind off downstairs.

Gina lifted an eyebrow. “Did you finally give up?”

“What?” It was difficult to make out her words.

“Trying to corral the looney bin.”

Danielle glanced over. “I lasted exactly five minutes. Jackson had a party going before I could even open my mouth.”

Gina wrapped an arm over her daughter-in-law’s shoulders. “Don’t let her fool you. She’s got Sprout wrapped around her little finger.”

Danielle put a hand over her stomach. “It helps that I can play the pregnancy card now.” A secret smile tilted at the corners of her mouth.

“Face it, you either fight it or join it. Or you do like we do and stake claim on a section of the house and make it a testosterone-free zone.” Gina indicated the stairs and the bedrooms.

From my vantage point, I could see the open doors for each one. They were empty.

If this had been Shock’s house, they wouldn’t be. I took comfort in that.

“What was the tipping point?” Danielle asked.

My eyes darted to Zoe and then I sent Gina warning in my silent “don’t get me started” expression.

Danielle’s mouth opened with a little gasp of understanding.

Gina, however, had no filter. “Was it the drugs or sex? I haven’t heard any fights yet.”

Of course, Zoe perked up and heard that.

“Gina!”

“Everyone calls her Ma,” Zoe observed.

“That’s because most everyone is young enough she could be their mom,” Lily stage-whispered.

“That’s enough out of you.” Gina clamped her fingers around the air to shut her up.

“Jelly’s older.” That was sweet of Danielle to stick up for Gina that way.

“I’m not calling her, Ma.” I sent a stream of gratitude to Gina. I wished I could tell her how much I appreciated her help. I opted for a partial truth. “She was one of the few people who were nice to me a long time ago.”

Poppy wrapped an arm over her half-sister. “Was that the night I met you? Mom said you were sick.”

“It was. Old Toolbox gave me some antibiotics and stitched up my head wound.” I’d almost forgotten that.

When Shock clobbered me in front of the entire Skilletsville chapter, he’d opened up a cut I’d gotten the week before when Shock threw me into the corner of the dresser.

It was infected. Which meant, even if I had gotten free, I’d probably be dead now.

Gina looked uncomfortable.

“Who’s Toolbox? I don’t remember him,” Lily wondered aloud. She looked to Poppy for insight.

Behind Danielle’s head, Gina slashed her hand in front of her throat, warning me to kill the trip down memory lane. Interesting .

Lily directed her question at me.

I shrugged. “A doctor, I think. Maybe.” Shock had a horse trainer on call. Their go-to for everything from stitches to syphilis was addicted to gambling. “They find someone with debts, usually.”

Gina’s eyes bored into mine.

“Shock’s guy had a gambling habit and used to give us horse medicine.” I scratched at my nose nervously. My hand shook, remembering the times he doped me up with ketamine.

“Mom?”

Zoe’s soft question broke me from my fugue.

“I’m okay.”

She frowned and got up from where she was sandwiched between Danielle and Lily to sit on my lap. I wrapped around her almost as tightly as she wrapped around me. But I didn’t cry. I wouldn’t. I was the strong one here.

“Do you still have a scar from the stitches?” Zoe searched my face for answers to all the questions in her eyes.

I led her hand to that ridge about an inch under my hairline. It was behind my ear where the skull got boney and thick. Luckily, it hadn’t been lower. I would be dead. At the time, I didn’t think it was lucky at all. But holding Zoe made me look back on things a bit differently.

Her expression was one of pity mixed with fear.

It was real now.

Not just a story from someone else.

“I love you, Mom.” She threw her arms around me again and squeezed hard. I squeezed back, savoring the moment for all it was worth.

Poppy’s arm tightened around Lily, and Gina put a hand on her daughter-in-law’s back.

The sweet moment was too good to last. A sound louder than the TV and the stereos erupted from the backyard.

“Oh shit. No one invited Hagerstown, did they?” Gina jumped off the couch.

I joined her, motioned to my bedroom, and led her to the balcony so we could see what the hell was going on.

The grill was tipped over, and there were no fewer than four men patting at the embers stuck to Sketch’s coat. Half of them were doing more laughing than fire prevention.

Sprout released the fire extinguisher on the pile of coals, scattering them into the grass.

“Get the hose.” Jackson motioned for a prospect to spray the grass.

Gina yelled down, “What the fuck are you idiots doing?”

Sprout looked up. “Hey, Ma.”

“Don’t ‘hey, Ma’ me. What did you do?”

“Me? Nothing. Bear bet Sketch fifty bucks he couldn’t climb to the balcony. But I greased the pole earlier.”

As they spoke, Danielle joined us, followed by Lily, Poppy, and Zoe.

“You greased the pole?”

“Yeah. Security risk, ya know?” He noticed Danielle. “Hey, babe. You’re looking fine tonight.”

Gina shook her head. “Never a dull moment. Are you sure you want one like him?”

Danielle smiled and covered her stomach. “I think he broke the mold.”

“You better hope he did.”

Sprout called out to Bear. “Yo, dipshit, do I get Sketch’s fifty if I make it up there?”

“Go for it,” Jackson said and dug out his wallet. “Fifty more says he lands on his ass.”

Money changed hands quickly.

“Do they always bet on stupid shit?” I stage-whispered to Gina.

Zoe overheard me and snickered.

Lily downright laughed. “Always. You better get used to it.”

Sprout took his time kicking any coals or ashes from under the balcony and stepped back a good three strides. He took a short, running leap at the house.