Page 27

CHAPTER

TWENTY-SIX

CONAN

Weaving my way through the clubhouse, I have two things on my mind that I want to do. One, I want to check on the kids, and two, I need to lay eyes on my brother. I’m betting he hit the bottle pretty hard last night after seeing McKenna after all this time.

Guilt is a fucking bitch and Risk has that in waves.

The devastation he and McKenna went through was felt far and wide by all of us.

Nowadays, we do everything within our power to keep the two in separate states.

Which raises the question, what the hell is McKenna doing in these parts?

She’s from Virginia, so she’s a long way from home.

I put her on a bus after their last tussle, one that had us worried one would eventually end up six feet under if they didn’t get away from each other, and the ticket I purchased at the Greyhound station was for her hometown.

Since once upon a time, she was one of us, I want to find her, talk to her, and make sure she isn’t in any trouble.

I knock on the kids’ door and when one of them hollers for me to come in, I do. It’s chaotic when I enter. The older boys are folding laundry, the middle boys are watching over the girls, and the girls, they’re getting into everything—including the folded clothes.

Jordan looks up at me, but I don’t see frustration staring back at me, if anything, he looks happy about their behavior. “How’s it going?” I ask, a slight chuckle escaping my lips when I see Hadley swinging a stuffed monkey around, singing to it.

“It’s good,” Austin answers. “Brooklynn’s never seen so many clothes and toys before that she wants to inspect everything. Feels good to watch her giggle as she unfolds what we just folded.”

“Did y’all get everything you need?” I question.

“More than,” Jordan huffs. “I think y’all went overboard.”

“Jordan,” I say, and when he looks up at me, I continue, “these are necessities, man. These are things you should’ve had all along.”

“We’ll pay you back,” Jordan swears. “As soon as I find a job and get a paycheck, I’ll start making payments.”

“Did we ask for you to pay us back?” I hiss, promising them, “this isn’t a tit for tat thing. You, all of you, are one of us now and we take care of our own. If you want to help out, there are things around here you could do that’d take a weight off our shoulders.”

“Like what?” Austin asks.

“Things around the clubhouse need repairing, one of you could be in charge of keeping the bikes clean after we ride. Laundry piles up around here like you wouldn’t believe…

the club girls have a hard time keeping up with the mass amount.

If none of those things are things you’re interested in doing, ask around, somebody will have something,” I tell them.

“It’ll be nice to earn our keep,” Tate voices. “And extra nice that we aren’t fighting for a place to sleep anymore.”

“I have a concern,” Jordan states.

“What’s that?” I ask, nothing coming to mind that should be worrying him.

“The parties. It was loud last night and I had a helluva time getting Brooklynn and Hadley down. How often does that happen?”

“Too often,” I mumble. “Is it gonna be an issue?”

“I hate for us to be a burden, but I think it will be,” Jordan admits. “I’m sorry, Conan.”

“Don’t be sorry, Jordan,” I exclaim.

“You’d think with the way we lived that it’d be easier for us to drown out the background noise, but we aren’t used to the vibrations from the stereo. Usually, it’s traffic noise or chirping crickets we had to deal with. Benbrook isn’t party town, USA.”

“That it isn’t,” I chuckle. “We’ll come up with something, even if it means pushing y’all deeper into the clubhouse. I can’t say that the parties will die off, that’s just not going to happen, but we can try to make things easier for y’all.”

“We’ve been talking,” Tate interjects. “My parents paid off their home, and if we can figure it out, maybe we could move it somewhere close by? We could all live there, it’s only a three bedroom, but we could bunk up and make it work.”

Mulling it over, I confess, “Not sure about all the legal shit that goes with all of that. For all we know, the state took it over, but we can check into it. I’ll get Auto on it, and if that’s what y’all want to do, I’ll finance the move out of my own pocket.”

“We’ll pay–”

“Don’t start that shit again, Jordan,” I growl. “You boys have suffered and sacrificed enough as it is, let us take it from here. Huh?”

“I’ll try,” Jordan chuckles.

“See that you do,” I counter. “I know it’s hard to let the burden of responsibility go after having to carry it for so long but let us help you shoulder that weight.”

“You guys have done more than enough for all of us, it’s not fair to you to take on our obligations,” Austin argues.

“Life isn’t fair, kid,” I remark. “I’d think you’d have figured that out by now.”

“We have,” Tate admits without any hesitancy.

“But between the oldest of us, we do what needs to be done so we share the responsibilities equally. Jordan more so than the rest of us, but that’s because he likes bossing us around.

” Tate’s teasing has Jordan, Landon, and Austin laughing.

Tate shrugs his shoulders but his lips are tilted upward.

“Well, you’ve been added to the Deviant Knights family, and we take care of our own, y’all.

So, we’ll get shit sorted so that y’all are able to get the girls to sleep at night, then I’ll talk with my brother and see what kind of chores you boys can do outside of what our prospects are responsible for, alright? ”

I stick around for a bit longer as the boys shoot the shit and the girls run around like little tornadoes wreaking havoc in their room. I say my farewells and see ya laters, then head out to see if I can catch Risk.

As I was worried about Risk doing, he’s taken off. Told Marcum he needed a few days to clear his head. “Should I go see if I can locate McKenna and find out what she’s doing in these parts?” I ask my brother.

“No,” Marcum states. “I think we need to take a backseat to this and let it play out.”

“That’s a dangerous game you’re playing, Marcum,” I warn.

He groans, tossing his head back against the chair rest, and rubbing his temples.

“I know, Xavier. Those two have a lot of unresolved feelings and conversations they need to get out and clear the air over. If we keep running interference neither one of them will be able to move past this and start living their lives.”

“But at what expense? Anybody near them is liable to get caught in the crossfire and that could blow back on the club.” I don’t know why I’m issuing this warning to him, we all have the mental and physical scars from the last time those two were in the same room together.

“Judge Parsons called me this morning,” he tells me.

“How are things going? Are the kids gonna be able to stay here without any ramifications from the state?”

“Things are… iffy,” he says, sighing.

“How’s that, Marcum?”

“Each kid has to have a blood relative listed on file so he can push things through with the courts. That’s a lot of kids for one of us to take on,” he informs me.

“Marcum,” I say his name, leaning forward, placing my elbows on my knees and cupping my chin as I give him my full attention. “We’ve already taken them on, what’s a sheet of paper? Once you’re club, you’re club. That’s all there is to it.”

“They need legal guardians, Xavier. It’s the only way we can keep them here with us and not send them into the cesspool of case workers, foster homes, and all the other headaches that come with bringing social services into the fold.

If they step in, we’ll never be allowed to have face time with any of them until they are eighteen and have been taken off their dockets. ”

“We can’t do that to them,” I sneer.

“And we won’t, even if Luna and I have to take full responsibility for all of them,” he growls.

“Can’t do that,” I hiss. “For one, those kids have no relations between them so it wouldn’t make sense, and there’s no way in hell that the state would give you custody of six kids in a three-bedroom house.”

“Well, they won’t give them to you in a two-bedroom apartment,” he contends.

“You're right, they won’t. So now, we need to go into problem solving mode,” I stress.

He smiles at me before saying, “The women are already on it.”

“And what have they decided?” I ask, almost scared to do so.

“I’ll just tell you this, we need to let whoever’s manning the gates know to expect a delivery of doublewides tomorrow.”

“No shit!” I convey, my brows raised into my forehead.

“No shit,” he repeats. “Congratulations, Xavier, you’ll be an official homeowner as of this time two days from now.”

“Who else is getting a home besides us?” I ask.

“Me and Luna. You and Demi. Auto, and Hemi. We’re the only ones without records and that somewhat resembles the kids.”

“Have Hemi and Auto already agreed to that?” I probe.

“They have. Hemi will be moving his stuff into our house, and we’ll be taking one of the new ones,” Marcum tells me.

“Then we have a plan,” I state. “Just tell me what I need to do and where I need to be and when.”

“As I said before, our women are on it, and I’ll be the go-between with them and Parsons.”

I chuckle, because all I can think about is that this entire situation is fixing to bring a lot of havoc to our lives. At least now we don’t have to worry about soundproofing the room they’re currently using.