Page 8 of Colton (Raging Barons MC #17)

-:- COLTON -:-

Hanging my crash hat on my hog seat, I look at Arrow, who is laughing his ass off, and keeps repeating. Got himself a date. Before he cracks up again with near on hysterical laughter.

I wish now I’d stuck with Knuckles after I’d looked at the houses, because this asshole is messing with me something bad. “What’s so fucking funny about me having a date?” I have to ask.

Arrow looks at me, and his eyes are sparkling with amusement and tears of laughter.

“Honestly, Colt, you know, you on a date. You need to soften up some if you want this here date to go well. You have more anger in you than a she-cat protecting her cubs. Women like some softness, unless we’re protecting them of course. ”

“Oh, and all this knowledge on females has you all loved up of course,” I snap, knowing full well he isn’t in a relationship with anyone.

“Maybe I haven’t had any dates, but I’m not stupid.

I’ll find out what Nyx is all about, and I can handle anything and anyone.

So don’t you go fretting about my love life.

Get out there and get your own.” I don’t wait for anything else he may have to say and stalk inside to find Mia. I need to organize our next run.

****

Breakfast eaten-check, laundry ready for Heather-check.

Now it’s time to make the call to Bart about the house I want.

I really hope this old guy is reasonable, but sometimes age makes us so damn moody you never know what person you are going to meet from one day to the next.

By that, of course, I mean the mood swings.

The call is picked up after three rings. “Hello?”

“Hello, is that Bart?” I ask, keeping my voice friendly.

“Yes, of course it is. Who else would be answering my phone?”

Oh shit, it’s moody Bart I have this morning, I can’t help but think to myself. “This is Colton. I spoke with your wife yesterday with regard to buying your house. I would like to place a private offer on the place.”

Before I can say anything else, the miserable old geezer snarls, “Nope, you go through the realtor or not at all.”

The old fuck has closed the call. I’m more than staggered.

Who the hell treats prospective buyers in that manner?

Geez, fine, I’ll give the realtor a call.

I do that right now, place my offer after informing him I’d seen the property.

Now I wait after I’ve given him my details.

Everything is so complicated now. The old way of handing over your money, the deeds changing hands and done seem to be a thing of the past. Now it’s jumping through hoops.

Finding Knuckles who is sitting in a corner of the common room with Mav, Arrow, Lincoln, Garth, and Bones, I take a seat. “Do we have the door duty rotation for next week?” I ask.

“No, not yet. But I think Lincoln, Bones and Mav are going to work Club Whisky, and Arrow, me and you are working TJs. It may work out better, as we can cover each other if we need time out, and down days. Garth, you can roll from one to another, helping to cover wherever needed.” Knuckles looks at each of us and we give a nod that we are happy with that.

“I’ll speak to Silver and Beer and make sure they are okay with that.

I’ve already told them to give us more freedom in how we want to work the cover. ”

“Good idea. We can cover for each other in case of an emergency, illness or whatever,” I add.

Garth taps the table, gaining everyone’s attention. “I’m good with being a floating cover. Remember, I still cover at the Swap Shop.”

“Is it still needed?” Mav asks, leaning forward and resting his forearms on the table.

“I don’t think so, and I’m going to speak with Sentry about it. It’s really boring and feels like I’m wasting my time.” Garth sighs but says no more.

“Well, you need to get things sorted for that Knuckles,” I state, and give him a sneaky smirk.

“Why me?”

“You are the one organizing shit with everyone. So, let’s be honest you are the man to sort out anything like this. Our leader so to speak.” Now the others seem to cotton on to what I’m doing, and Mav takes up next.

“Yeah, you are the man. You sort it all out, and we’ll come to you with our troubles and woes regarding the schedule of work,” Mav smirks as he looks at me.

“Oh, that’s good to know we have someone we can go to if we have an issue. Someone that sorts it out and stops stress.” Bones grins, looks at Knuckles innocently, then turns and winks at me.

“For fuck’s sake…” Knuckles starts to say, but is stopped when we all hear.

“Knuckles, you promised you would curtail using the F word, and it’s early in the morning still, yet I caught you saying it already!

” Jo is standing with her hands on her hips, looking at him with a slight frown, eyes that are definitely narrowed and pursing her lips. Shit, she looks disappointed too.

Everyone at the table turns to look from Jo to Knuckles, who, I have to say, is looking a little ashamed of himself.

I’m trying now to hold back the smirk, but I can feel it growing.

Knuckles jumps to his feet and follows Jo out of the common room without a backward glance at any of us at the table.

Mav laughs. “Well, that’s Knuckles in the shit for the day.” Which, of course, has all of us laughing.

“What has everyone got on today?” Lincoln asks.

“I’m going on a run with Mia in a while. Who was on the school run this morning?” I ask.

“I was, and it was sure interesting,” Bones states. Turning to look at him I notice he is trying his hardest not to laugh. “Those twins are gonna be assholes when they grow up.”

Now that has all of us laughing, because the twins are full-on kids. They don’t miss a trick, and they are like parrots, whatever they see or hear they easily repeat. Often embarrassing Mia in the process.

Whatever they got up to I don’t want to know.

I’ve had more than my fair share with the little fuckers.

But I have to smile as they are loveable, and even now they show a lot of Axel’s traits.

If my father had been anything like Axel, I wouldn’t carry all this inbuilt anger, and one day I hope to get my hands on my sperm donor and show him exactly what I think about him.

Running with Mia a while later I feel my body starting to relax, just muscles moving with the movement, and the quiet companionship we share .

“Gotta stop, for a minute Colton. I’ve got stitch.” Mia comes to a stop, hands on her side, holding the stitch she’s complaining about.

I jog on the spot, keeping my muscles moving and warm. “How are you feeling these days?”

Mia looks up at me as she replies. “Better I think. My sessions are enlightening. I never realized how much of my prison time and well, that whole thing I still carry on my shoulders. I don’t want it to define my life, or who I am.

I also realize that I was trying to control everything around me so I wasn’t hurt again, or put in that position either. ”

“I can understand that. Not the prison, of course, because I’ve had nothing to do with them, but the confinement, the feeling of betrayal, and in your case doing time for something you didn’t do. It’s got to leave you with PTSD or something like that.”

“Yes, but I didn’t know all that Colton, not at the time, anyway. I think I would have dealt with things in my life differently if I’d known.” Mia gives me a nod, and we start running once more at a gentle speed.

“What would you have done differently?”

“Well, the Cookie incident wasn’t handled right was it?

” We both give a small wince at that thought, but Mia carries on speaking.

“The girl gang, I’m going to dissolve. I don’t know why, but I don’t feel it's something I need to be involved in anymore. I tried to bring all the women of the club together. Even Nell, and women that are not involved with one of the brothers, but it seems that wasn’t right either.

Maybe I have done things wrong, but not for the wrong reasons.

Everything I’ve done has been for the club or the brothers, or the brothers' women. ”

“If this is about the trikes, bikes, and the girl gang thing then you need to let it go. If they didn’t understand you were trying to make a sisterhood, you know by having the same structure as the MC, with the prospects and stuff, then fuck ‘em. You don’t owe them anything, Mia.

You’ve helped every single person in the MC, in one way or another.

Do not stop being who you are because they can’t see further than the end of their nose.

” I notice Mia has tears in her eyes and when one strays down her cheek I turn and grab her into a hug.

I don’t care we’ve stopped running. I want to comfort this woman who has gone through hell, then been put in a position where she has to be seen as strong, capable and reliable.

Yet, it seems she is also an easy target for dissatisfaction, but I’ll stand by her no matter what because she is my First Lady, and she has a damn good heart.

I think it gets forgotten she is also a mother to three children, and the twins are hard work for her.

She glows with love for all of them, and for me personally, it makes her amazing.

I would have given my right crown jewel to have had a mother like that.

Far later in the day, I’m sitting in Knuckles' kitchen. “So, what are you, or we going to do about these underground fights? Have you got this one organized with Grit?”

Knuckles hands me a beer and takes a seat at the kitchen island across from me. “Yes, it’s done. I have fights set up for Fist, Lincoln, Bones, Chaos, and I had one for you, but it fell through. The other fights are just filler fights, so the night isn’t too short.”

“Okay. What about the gym idea, any movement on finding a place?”

Knuckles shakes his head. “No, the place I looked at isn’t going to be big enough. We have to have all the legalities and training in place too. I’m honestly not sure now it’ll be worth the trouble. I’m actually thinking these fights on Friday evening should be the last.”

“Hm, Grit is leaving soon isn’t he? We don’t have the time to run underground fighting, Knuckles. We also don’t want to end up in prison either.”

“I think you’re right. But we’d have to make sure someone else didn’t take it up, too.

I have heard there is a youth gang starting, but they have someone at their head who is pushing them all into different illegal shit.

My sources are trying to find out more.” Knuckles turns and smiles at Jo as she walks into the kitchen.

“Hi, Colton. Did I hear you talking about the fighting thing?” Jo takes a seat next to Knuckles and leans against him as he wraps his arm around her, tucking her into his body.

“Yeah. We are saying if we close it we’d need to make sure it stays closed.” I rub my knee as it’s aching a little since my run with Mia.

“I was thinking…” Jo says more to herself than us, but it grabs our attention as she pauses.

“What have you been thinking?” I ask.

“Instead of this gym and staying with the fighting theme, which is all okay but could lead you into poor company and dangerous situations. It is something that could go wrong and you all end up in prison. So, I’ve been thinking, why don’t you recruit more prior military and open a security company?

One that monitors security for homes, schools, offices, and that sort of thing.

But you could add personal security for say, hm, the mayor or another type of official.

” Jo looks at Knuckles and then me, and I’ve got to say her suggestion has a genuine reason for us to consider it .

Looking at Knuckles, I can see he’s considering it, too.

Jo kisses Knuckles on his cheek, then saunters out of the kitchen.

I can see she’s a little smug now that she’s sown the seed.

She’s really something, and I’m so happy to see Knuckles and Jo together.

They complement each other, and the love they share shines brightly.

Lincoln has now fully reconnected with Jo, and she has asked him to stay here now.

Him and his teammates leasing that property, with a view to buying, is him setting down roots.

I can’t see it’ll be long before Axel grabs them into the MC as brothers.