Page 18 of Property of Stone (Kings of Anarchy MC: Pennsylvania #1)

Chapter Ten

“Have you seen Stone?”

The female voice echoing down the hallway made Stone jerk. What the fuck was she doing here?

She was supposed to text him what time she’d be home so he could get Wren back to the house before she got there.

For fuck’s sake. He was about to get served a healthy helping of shit since he brought her son to The Castle.

But he told Taryn he’d get the kids pizza for dinner and that was what he did.

He just failed to mention it would be for their kids and his brothers.

And that they’d be eating it at the Kings’ clubhouse.

Apparently, time got away from him since making two dozen pies took the pizza shop a fuck of a lot longer than expected.

Add in the amount of time it took to answer her boy’s five fucking thousand questions about the Kings, the brotherhood, their clubhouse, and everything else he spied with his two little curious eyes.

“Yo, VP, a momma bear’s here lookin’ for you. Thinkin’ that cub belongs to her,” he heard next .

From where he was leaning against the wall right inside of the cafeteria’s entryway, he could keep an eye on Wren while adding some much-needed nicotine to his bloodstream.

Smoke escaped his lungs when he twisted his head and told Grim, “Ain’t a cub, he’s a baby bird.”

Grim appeared in his sight with Taryn quickly following. No surprise, she looked wired as fuck.

Yep , Momma Bird wasn’t fucking happy that she had to track down her fledgling. “Thanks, brother, got it from here.”

With a smirk, Grim gave him a chin lift and disappeared.

As soon as Taryn spotted Wren sitting at one of the cafeteria tables coloring, she visibly relaxed.

“Boy’s fine.”

She sighed. “I see that. I got home and the house was empty. I panicked thinking he ended up in the hospital after you sent me that picture of him on the back of a motorcycle.”

“Sent a text askin’ when you’d be home. Musta missed it.”

She narrowed her baby blues on him. “I did, but why did you ask? So you could bring him home before I got there?”

Stone figured a grunt was the safest answer. Since it wasn’t a truth or a lie, it couldn’t be held against him either way.

When she plugged her hands on her hips, his gaze was drawn to those curves. “I didn’t say you could bring him here.”

He slowly lifted his gaze, taking in the rest of her. She was once again dressed in one of those shapeless chef uniforms with her name embroidered over her tit. He’d take how she was dressed this morning any day over that shit.

Especially since, this morning, she hadn’t been wearing a bra. He hated those fucking things. They should be considered false advertising. One minute tits look perfectly perky, then once freed, they become deflated balloons .

“Didn’t say I couldn’t,” he countered around the cigarette tucked between his lips.

“I figured that would be assumed.”

“That was your first mistake.” He took another long drag, inhaling the smoke deep into his lungs before blowing it up and away from her.

“One of many,” she mumbled under her breath and turned back to take in the large room.

While she did so, Stone tried to see it through her eyes. Admittedly, the scene wasn’t good.

Garbage overflowed onto the floor from the few trash cans they did have. Cigarette butts littered the room. Empty pizza boxes, beer bottles, and even bottles of booze covered the tables.

He made a mental note to make sure the cafeteria was on the sweet butts’ cleaning rotation at the next officer’s meeting.

But that mess wasn’t even the half of it.

Some of his brothers sat at a table, stoned as fuck and still scarfing down cold pizza like it tasted better than prime pussy.

Only, that wasn’t the worst of what she was seeing. Wren was happily chirping away a million miles a minute to the sweet butt sitting next to him also coloring with crayons.

Christ.

He didn’t like the taste of shit but he was about to eat some.

“Holy shit,” she whispered as she finished taking in the disaster left behind. “Was a pack of ravenous wolves invited to this pizza party?”

“Sweet butts gonna clean it up.”

“You mean the one coloring next to Wren?”

Again, his safest answer was another grunt .

She sighed her disappointment again. This time a lot louder. “Where’s Sunny?”

At least she wasn’t hauling her kid out of there and moving back to the house she couldn’t afford and needed to unload.

Thank fuck her house was now empty and all of her shit was being stored here on the property. Made it a little more difficult to just up and leave.

Unless she went running to her mother’s.

“Said she’d be up in my room watchin’ television.” His daughter was still bent about him taking her phone this morning, but he had told her to put it away once and once should be all it took.

Now she wouldn’t get it back until the morning. That made his girl cranky, but he was even crankier when she didn’t listen to him. And fuck if he was repeating himself.

“Okay, well. I guess I’ll take him…home.”

Why did her face scrunch up like she was sucking on musty balls when she said “home?”

At least she had a fucking roof over her goddamn head for her and her kid. One where her asshole ex couldn’t find her once he was no longer getting three hots and a cot.

“Are you staying? Do you want me to take Sunny?”

“Yeah. Just know she’s bein’ a total bitch right now ‘cause I took her phone.”

“Yes, well…if you haven’t noticed, she normally isn’t a little ray of sunshine towards me, Stone.”

“Know it. That pissy attitude don’t change, she’s gonna lose her phone ’til it does. And if that ain’t enough, she’s gonna lose TV privileges, too.”

All she’d be getting was one of those coloring books and a box of fucking crayons to keep her occupied.

“Let’s go get her,” he suggested .

Her jaw dropped open and her blue eyes went wide. “You want me to come with you? I can wait here with Wren.”

“Yeah, wanna show you around since this is gonna be Baby Bird’s nest away from home.”

“ Uh . I?—”

Here came the shit. He cut off the flow by yelling out, “Swallow!”

The sweet butt sitting next to Wren lifted her bleach-blonde head.

“Keep an eye on the kid, yeah?”

“Anything for you, Stone.”

That was what he always wanted to hear. He tipped his face down to Taryn. “That’s Swallow.”

“I heard. Do you call her Big Bird?”

“Her name ain’t got nothin’ to do with a bird.” Stone cocked one eyebrow at her, smothering a grin. “Let’s just say she got no gag reflexes.”

“Oh.” Taryn chewed on her bottom lip as she considered the woman across the room coloring with her son. “I’ll assume you tested that out.”

“Often.” Stone tugged that plump bottom lip down with the pad of his thumb. “How ‘bout you?”

She pulled her head back, freeing herself from his touch. “How about me, what?”

“Askin’ ‘bout your gag reflexes.”

She blinked. And blinked again. “What does that have to do with taking care of your daughter?”

It didn’t. It had to do with taking care of him.

The blood drained from her face. “You don’t expect more than that, do you? Because if so?—”

He grabbed her arm and turned her toward the propped-open double doors. “C’mon. Let’s go make sure my bad attitude hasn’t run away. ”

“Did she threaten that?”

Stone huffed, dropped the cigarette butt, and crushed it beneath his boot.

Her mouth gaped open. “You’re just going to leave that there?”

“Like I said, sweet butts will get it. And yeah, she threatened to become a hobo and ride the rails so she no longer gotta listen to her dick of a dad.”

“I could imagine her saying that.”

“I don’t need to since I fuckin’ heard it with my own two ears.”

They headed down the long hallway toward the stairs at the end of the hallway that led up to the second floor.

When he opened the fire door for her to enter the stairway, she said, “These aren’t the stairs you came down the other day.”

“Nope. The Castle’s got three. One on each end and the main one in the center.”

“The Castle? But this is a former school.”

“Yeah, nickname for our clubhouse since we’re Kings.”

She stopped at the bottom of the steps. “Do you have a throne?”

“Yeah. At the head of the table.”

“I don’t know what any of that means.”

He jerked his chin up, indicating she should head upstairs. She shot him a frown but began to hoof it up the steps.

Stone watched her hips and ass rock and roll with each step she took. “You will. More time you spend here, the more you’re gonna learn.” Only, he was a bit worried that the more she learned about his MC, the more she wasn’t going to like it .

“But I don’t plan on spending time here and I don’t think Wren should, either. He’s very impressionable and?—”

“Woman, he’s safer here than anywhere else.” Her son now being under Stone’s protection meant he was under his whole club’s protection, too. They’d make sure anyone regretted fucking with the kid.

Including the asshole whose nuts he spawned from.

But for now, he’d keep that to himself. She needed to be gradually introduced to this lifestyle. If she got overwhelmed, she might haul ass and he’d have to find someone else to help with Sunny.

This morning, he liked waking up to her being in his house. Despite him being stuck on the couch. Hopefully, he could convince her to change that sleeping arrangement soon.

“While that might be true, it’s not his safety I’m concerned about. Along that same vein, I don’t want him on the back of a motorcycle. He’s only six.”

“He liked it.”

“He also likes sour gummy worms for breakfast. That doesn’t mean I’ll let him eat them.” She paused at the midway landing.

“Keep goin’,” he urged.

“Shouldn’t you be leading the way?”

Fuck no. Then he wouldn’t get the view he was currently getting. “Ain’t nowhere to go but up. Ain’t gonna get lost.”

At the top of the stairway, she paused in front of the steel door.

While he doubted she expected him to open the door for her, he did it anyway, pretending he was a gentleman when he was far from that.

As soon as the door slammed behind them, he spotted another club girl headed their way .

At least she was fucking dressed. By dressed, he meant her tits and cunt were covered.

Of course, as soon as Flaps reached them, she gave him a sly smile and went toe-to-toe with him to rake her nails through his beard. “Hey, baby. Were you coming to find me? Do you want me to come visit you later once Sunny’s gone?”

Stone’s eyes sliced to Taryn. Like the sweet butt, she was waiting for his answer. Only, a grunt wasn’t going to cut it this time.

Fuck. “Ain’t gonna be here later.” He wasn’t sure if that was true or not, but that was what he was going with for now.

Flaps’s smile dipped downward. “Oh, too bad. I miss your beard tickling my?—”

“‘Nother time.” Stone cut her off before she got into more specifics, grabbed Taryn’s elbow, and put some distance between the two women. He waited until he heard the fire door slam shut behind them to say, “That’s Flaps.”

Taryn groaned. “Flaps. Do I want to know how she got that name?”

She probably didn’t, but he’d tell her anyway. “Her lips flap. Both the ones on her face and the ones between her?—”

“Got it!” Taryn shouted over him.

Stone smothered his smirk. “Got that nickname honestly.”

“As did Swallow, right?”

“And Loosey, Windy, Juicy, and Slick.”

Taryn groaned as they continued down the hallway. “I’m sensing a theme,”

“If the name fits…ain’t that right?”

“Actually…” she started.

“Anyway, you need somethin’, you tell them to get it for you.”

“I thought they were only here for sex. ”

“Nope. They’re here to serve and service us.”

“Like slaves?”

“Ain’t slaves.”

“But why do they stay?”

“Why wouldn’t they? They ain’t bein’ held against their fuckin’ will. They wanna leave, they know where the fuckin’ door is.”

“Do they bring you your pipe, a robe, and a bourbon when you walk through the door?” she asked jokingly.

“If I tell ‘em, they’ll bring me my pipe and a damn whiskey. And they’ll sit on my dick when I’m tokin’ and drinkin’, too.”

Taryn’s eyebrows almost hit her hairline. “How does one apply for this position?”

“Ain’t for you.”

“Oh, I wasn’t asking for me. I prefer to live in the current century, thank you very much.”

“Friend brings them to a party or somethin’ and they stay ‘cause they want the life.” Or to try to get their claws in a brother so they can become an ol’ lady.

“Do they live here?”

“Most, yeah.” The old school had so many rooms that everyone in the club, whether a patched member, a prospect, or even a club whore, could have a place to stay if they wanted. However, the prospects had to double up. So did the sweet butts.

Except for Slick. She’d been around the longest and was responsible for the rest of them. Kind of like a house mother. She made sure the sweet butts weren’t only sucking off the MC’s tit. If one of the sweet butts had a problem, they went to her first rather than annoying any of the brothers.

The best rooms were given to club officers, like Stone. It was one of the perks of being voted in to sit at the table.

“Why do you keep a room here when you have a house close by?”

“Convenience.” And for those times he partied so fucking hard he couldn’t even swing a leg over his sled without hitting the dirt face-first. “Had all the classrooms turned into efficiencies and all twenty-eight are claimed.”

“Does every member live here?”

“Depends if they got an ol’ lady or a family. Most of them keep a room here but don’t live here full time.”

“An ol’ lady…they’re like a wife, right?”

“Kinda, yeah. When you see ‘em they sometimes wear ‘Property of’ cuts.”

Someone must have done some research. He could just imagine what her search history looked like ever since that day she first showed up at The Castle. Hopefully the feds didn’t flag her account.

“Property of what?”

“Of their ol’ man. Their cuts identify who they belong to and are leather like ours. The sweet butts cuts are denim and say ‘Property of the Kings.’”

“Representation for an MC is important, huh?”

“Cuts are a symbol of our brotherhood and loyalty. Also makes a damn statement.” So did the colors inked into their backs.

“What statement is that?”

“Nobody fucks with the Kings or what belongs to us. You do, you’re gonna fuckin’ regret it. Guaranteed.”