Page 21

Chapter Twenty

I t had been six days of Slice and her living at the compound, and as far as Faith was concerned, she was ready for them to live there permanently and give up her apartment. Micah and Isaiah were over the moon with having kids to play with all the time. They were still staying at Baron and Regina’s while they decided where they could live. She and Slice had a movie night with Willa and Cruise at their place and then went to a family game night at Sprite and Roam’s. She loved getting to know people better.

Hope and Benji were over in one of the suites in Locks’ house, but they were over at Regina and Baron’s a lot. Hope and Locks seemed to have something going on. Faith wondered if they’d done anything yet because woo-wee, the heat in Locks’ eyes when he stared at Hope when she wasn’t looking was enough to singe everything in its path. When Faith had tried to question Hope, Hope had slapped her hand over Faith’s mouth and told her to shut it. When Faith had pushed, Hope had threatened to tell every embarrassing story she knew to Slice.

She was still driving the bail bonds SUV with all its reinforcements and bells and whistles. For the first few days, one of the guys on their motorcycle had escorted her to and from school. The more Sarah and Scoop dug in, the less they felt they needed to worry quite as much. The brother had ended up having outstanding warrants, so the bail bonds company had taken him in. He’d been moved directly to jail for failure to appear notices. At least she didn’t have to worry about him, but Slice said it was good to still be aware.

Although Dex had improved Candace and Prim’s behavior for a couple of days, they’d resorted to calling her names and putting her down again. Faith had decided she’d just deal with it because it was so small compared to everything else going on. But Micah had heard them calling her names. Unbeknownst to her, Micah had mentioned it when he was over at Sprite and Roam’s house playing.

Faith wasn’t quite sure what had ensued next, but Candace and Prim had both come to her today and apologized. They’d also said they would be on their best behavior. They’d used those exact words and then requested that Faith let Winnie, Willa, and Beth know they were following directions. Faith couldn’t wait to get home and find out what Winnie, Willa, and Beth had done. Whatever it had been, Faith was thrilled because it meant she didn’t need to stay on guard all the time about what would be said to her or done. Faith hadn’t even shared with Slice that earlier this week, Candace had started pinching Faith’s side where it was the fattiest. Faith had cried for ten minutes in the bathroom, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell Slice when they were working on so many other things.

Faith pulled the SUV into the compound, and Slice walked out of the club’s garage to meet her. She rolled down her window, and he leaned in to kiss her. She shivered at the cold, brisk air that rolled in.

“How was your day?” Slice asked.

Faith cocked her head at his words. His tone implied another meaning. Did Slice have a hand in what had happened?

“What do you know about my day?” she asked.

“I know that my woman better share anything that affects her from now on.” He leaned closer with those words, then whispered, “If you think I’ll ever let anyone hurt you, you are delusional. Winnie, Willa, and Beth sent me a text of what they were planning, and I mentioned you had two finger-shaped bruises on your side that you didn’t mention to me. Babe, I get I shouldn’t try to solve all your problems, but do you think you could at least let me comfort you after you have a shitty day?”

Faith laid her hand on Slice’s cheek. This man didn’t have a problem talking through anything. She needed to learn from him.

“I love you, and I’ll do better sharing next time if there is one. They seemed pretty scared today,” Faith said, grinning.

Slice chuckled with a huge smile on his face. “Oh, I bet they were. I believe you have a welcoming party at the house wanting to know if your day went a little differently. Good luck. They aren’t thrilled that you didn’t ask for help either.”

Faith huffed. “Okay, I’ll drop the boys…”

“Nope, boys hop out. We’re playing games with some of the other kids in the clubhouse. Who is ready to have the championship of racing tournament this afternoon?”

Both boys yelled. Although Faith wasn’t looking forward to facing the women at her house, she was glad the rambunctious boys would be with Slice.

Faith giggled at listening to Winnie, Willa, and Beth tell how they’d scared the girls. She’d apologized for not sharing. Remi had said something that almost had her in tears.

Family takes care of each other. You’re family now, so your problems are our problems. You’re not all on your own.

She, the boys, along with Hope and Benji, now had a huge family they could depend on.

“So I just wanted to drop by, knock on their doors, and threaten them. Umm, Beth may have had a little more of a dramatic idea,” Winnie said.

“Yeah, I was thinking we’d show up. Tell them if they didn’t start being nice, we’d do to them whatever they were doing to you. Then I heard Beth’s idea. From now on, when we need to do something, I will bow to the mistress of mayhem that is Beth,” Willa said, chuckling.

Faith snickered. She adored being around women who built each other up and had each other’s backs.

“Oh, come on, Winnie. As if you didn’t think my idea was better like Willa did. Willa doesn’t have those preconceived sibling notions that I’m still a youngster. They were in Candace’s house, in her living room, drinking wine and talking about their day. Her security is crap, so I picked the lock on her back door, and we came into the kitchen. When they just kept jabbering on, I turned on the faucet in the kitchen and let it run,” Beth said.

Winnie giggled and slapped her leg. “Suddenly it’s dead silence in the family room, and then Prim whispers, ‘Is that water I hear?’ And Beth turns the faucet off. Then she pulls a packet of microwave popcorn out and starts it in the microwave.”

Winnie giggled more and motioned for Beth to take over. Willa was giggling so much she couldn’t contribute to the conversation even if she wanted to.

“They discuss quietly what they should do while the popcorn finishes. So I pulled the popcorn out and opened the bag for a snack. Candace decides to be brave and walks into the kitchen. When she sees us, she stops and stares. Doesn’t say a word, just stares at us. Prim comes in and then immediately starts babbling, asking us if it’s because they pinched Faith. Which we didn’t know anything like that had happened. We were just scaring them because of the bullying. I looked at Winnie and Willa because I didn’t think our original scare was enough since they’d escalated to physical abuse. Which, by the way, you owe Winnie time in the gym now so she can show you easy ways to stop someone from doing crap like that,” Beth said.

“It pissed me off that they even considered it was okay to get physical with another teacher, so I decided part of their punishment on the fly. I told them the bail bonds and the MC didn’t appreciate bullies. I made them each pinch each other’s sides thirty times. That little bitch Candace was crying after the third time. Then I explained that not only were Faith, her family, and kids under the protection of Bluff Creek Brotherhood MC and the bail bonds, but so was everyone else in town.”

Beth laughed. “Oh yeah, Prim looked at Candace like what the fuck , which made us wonder who else they’d been bullying. I pulled out my stun gun and made Candace get a piece of paper and write down all the things she’d done to you and anyone else. Then we made Prim do the same and sign them. I explained that if I heard one more instance of anything they’d done, I’d visit during the night and they’d not know when I’d come, but I’d make them pay. Then we told them they had to verbally apologize to you and all the others and change how they acted. I might have implied that we had cameras that would know if they behaved or not. Candace got so upset she peed on her kitchen floor,” Beth said, snickering.

Faith tried to feel some sense of empathy for what Beth, Willa, and Winnie had done to Candace and Prim, but she had none. She couldn’t decide if knowing they’d done this to others made her feel better or worse. What made them want to tear other women down instead of helping to build each other up?

“Thank you for scaring them. I love my kids in my class, but it had gotten to where I hated going into the school,” Faith said.

“I want to take some classes with Winnie too. When my son pushed me around at Christmas before Rose and Locks took him away, I realized I wanted to know enough to be able to help myself and Benji get away if I had to face that again,” Hope said.

“I think it’s a good idea. I’ll come and watch since Mr. President believes me being pregnant means I shouldn’t be going on skips. At least I could watch something fun,” Remi groused.

“Oh, like you’d want to have to deal with a skip. You know, you’d be worried that some big three-hundred-pound jerk could hurt the baby,” Jesse said.

“Yeah, but I want War to think I’m giving it up for him so I can make him get up and get me chips when I’m hungry at night. I mean, I’m carrying around his spawn. The least he can do is get me stuff when I don’t want to get up,” Remi said.

Faith giggled, but she was taking notes because these women handled their alpha men at the same time as still being strong themselves. Willa was newer, like she was, and Faith felt a little closer to her since Cruise and Slice were such good friends. Willa had already promised a helicopter ride for Faith, Slice, and the kids on a pretty day.

“What type of wedding do you want, and what type of timeline, Faith, would you like it accomplished in? I’m happy to steer Slice to the correct answer,” Regina said.

“I just want us to be married, and I’m ready to move onto the compound. The boys love all the kids, and I feel so much safer,” Faith said.

“The house we’re in will be free,” Rose said.

Stella, Rose and Tasha’s mom, turned to look at them. “Why will your house be free?” she asked.

Rose looked toward Tasha. Tasha stuck her tongue out at her sister.

“I love that you’ve all found a home in Bluff Creek, but I want to travel some and use my skills. The ER was busy where I was at. It’s such a slower pace here,” Tasha said.

“Okay, do you know what you want to do and where you want to do it?” Stella asked.

Faith was impressed by how calm Stella was with her girls. They were adults, but Faith figured being a parent to adult children was just as hard but different. Not butting in but offering advice or help when they requested would be a tight wire to walk the balance.

“Not for sure yet, but I have some feelers out. Until I do, Rose and I talked about taking a trip. Rose already asked Remi for some time off. We’re going to take a road trip,” Tasha said.

“Well, you’re adults, and it’s not like I can say anything because I adored traveling for a while. Do you know when you want to leave?” Stella asked.

“Soon,” Tasha said.

“So we could easily move into one of the suites at Locks’ until we do leave, which would free up the house,” Rose said.

“Well, looks like it’s decided. We can help everybody pack and probably get everyone moved no later than Monday,” Remi said.

Faith couldn’t believe how fast it had been decided. “I don’t want a big wedding. I just want to be married. I don’t like dressing up, so if it could be casual, I would love that.”

Regina nodded. “Leave it to us. We’ll get a plan together and check with you before we tell Slice.”

Willa leaned close to whisper, “They move fast here, but the family we get is so worth it.”