Page 20 of Wild Card (Royal Bastards MC: Cody, Wyoming #1)

SEVENTEEN

Ash

I did my best to act fuckin’ cool, but seeing that cunt with his hands on her had me wanting to tear down walls. Now, I’m kicking myself for winding the fucker up then leaving him alone with her. There's every chance she’ll suffer the consequences of my actions, and I should have thought smarter.

“You got something on your mind, Wild Card?” Hack takes a seat opposite me, and I focus on the beer mat I’m flicking in my hand instead of looking up.

“Grizz, Taint, and Wraith moved in on Randall’s place last night. They got him tied up in the basement.” He leans over the table and lowers his voice so the whores that are hanging out on another table, waiting to catch a bite, don’t hear him.

“That supposed to give me a hard-on or somethin’?” I shrug.

I’m not in the mood for any kinda company.

I’m too busy feeling sorry for myself. It’s clear after what happened last night, I have to do something about the Ruby situation; I just don’t know what that something is yet.

I can’t offer her what Brett can, and she made it fuckin’ clear that she wanted what we did to be a one-off thing.

I made her promises that I can’t keep, because there ain’t a chance in hell I can stay away from her now.

I refuse to believe that it’s just money that drives her to stay with that asswipe. Ruby ain’t like that; there's more to her story, and I need to find out what it is so I can fix this.

“Harriet?” Hack’s face looks shocked when he looks up at the pregnant woman who’s just stepped through the door, and I notice the little group of whores all snigger at her presence.

“Here, um…take a seat.” He stands up and holds the chair out for her, and as she waddles toward it, she smiles at him gratefully. She hasn’t made it all the way when Byron steps outta his office, looking pissed.

“No need for a chair, she ain’t stoppin’,” he growls, and when Harriet looks up at him, the smile drops from her face.

“Byron.” She nods her head at him respectfully. “Is Taint around?”

“Taint’s busy,” he tells her coldly, and when I look at Hack to try and make out what's going on here, he shrugs his shoulders back at me awkwardly.

“I really need to talk to him.” She strokes the side of her big, round stomach like it’s causing her some discomfort, and when I suddenly start wondering how Ruby would look carrying my kid, I knock back my beer and drown that thought right outta my head.

“You gonna drop?” Byron asks with a frown.

“No. I still have two months to go.” She smiles, looking down at her stomach and rolling her hand around it proudly.

“Well, then, you don’t need to see him; best thing you can do is stay fuckin’ clear of this place and of him.” He turns and heads back into his office, slamming the door loudly behind him.

“Sorry.” Hack smiles at the woman as if he feels sorry for her.

“Don’t be. I get why he’s mad. Can you just tell Taint I stopped by? I thought he might want this…” She delves into her purse. “It’s the latest sonogram picture.” Placing a black and white photo on the table, she smiles sadly.

“You got one of them for Loche, too?” Cass steps out from behind the bar, folding her arms over her chest. Up to now, I ain’t ever seen the woman do anything other than smile, and suddenly I'm realizing that I never wanna be on the wrong side of her.

“Cass, please don’t be like that. Taint asked me to keep him updated. There's every chance this kid could be his.”

“Yeah, and there's every chance that it ain’t. Taint doesn’t need you hanging around here and reminding him of that.” She steps closer and picks the picture up off the table, handing it back to her.

“Being knocked up ain’t gonna protect you from what's coming to ya forever,” Cass warns. “Now get gone.” She nods her head toward the door, and the woman does as she’s told, smiling at Hack sadly again before she leaves.

“Fucking skank,” Cass calls out loud enough for her to hear, and Hack lowers his head and shuts his eyes.

“Don’t go lookin’ at me like that, nothin’ I said ain’t true,” Cass scolds him, picking up our empty bottles and heading back toward the bar.

“I know… but she’s pregnant and vulnerable. Taint may be mad at her right now, but he wouldn’t want us to treat her that way.” Hack follows after her

“She wasn’t vulnerable when she had her legs wrapped around Loche’s head, now, was she?” Cass waits for him to come back at her.

“Who the hell is Loche?” I move across to the bar, giving in to temptation and asking. I’m going with the concept that hearing someone else's problems might distract me from my own.

“Loche’s another club member.” Hack glances over his shoulder to explain.

“ Ex -member. He wouldn’t dare show his face around here again,” Cass corrects him.

“Loche was also Taint's best friend,” Hack adds, sighing heavily.

“More like a brother, they were in foster care together,” Cass intervenes again, and although I can see it pisses Hack off, he’s got far too much respect for the woman to call her out on it.

“That's pretty shitty.”

“It’s worse than shitty. Taint married that slut the second she told him she was pregnant. You shoulda seen how excited he was about becoming a dad.” Cass shakes her head with anger.

“Taint caught her and Loche going at it when he came home early from a run; it had been going on for months.” Hack scratches the back of his head and twists up his lips.

“Why you lookin’ so guilty, you didn’t fuck her, too, did ya?” I tease him.

“No, I wouldn’t do that,” he hits back defensively. “Loche’s my brother.” I can see from the look on his face that he ain’t proud of it right now. “Harriet could be carrying my niece or nephew, and I–”

“That little floozy doesn’t need you to worry about her; she’ll be just fine. She’ll land on her feet somehow,” Cass interrupts him.

“Taint’ll be pissed if we don’t tell him she–”

“Tell him what?” Taint interrupts Hack when he steps outta the door that leads to the basement. He’s looking a hella more chirpy than he has the other times I’ve seen him, as he wipes off his hands with a bloody rag and throws it over his shoulder.

“Noth–”

“Your wife was just here,” I interrupt Cass, agreeing with Hack. He should know that she stopped by.

“Harriet was here?” The look on his face instantly changes.

“She must have had an appointment or somethin’. She bought ya a picture of the kid,” Hack explains.

“Where is it?” Taint asks.

“Cass–”

“I sent her, and her picture, out the door,” Cass answers for herself. “You don’t need that shit.”

“Surely that's my choice to make,” Taint’s looking really pissed.

“It is, but that woman is venomous. You don’t want her in your life.”

“Maybe not, but if that kid she’s having is mine, I don’t got much choice. Hell, Cass, could you not have just stayed out of it?” He scrubs his hand over his face and starts pacing the floor.

“No, Taint, I couldn’t. I love all you boys like family, and nobody fucks with my family,” she tells him. “Now, am I cleaning up a stiff down there or patching up an invalid?” she asks, moving on from the subject.

“Wraith and Grizz are fixing it. I came up to pull a cage round back. Ain’t nothing left of him to patch up, but the basement's gonna need a clean.” He looks as if her words have got him thinking.

“Sooner we get another prospect, the fuckin’ better.” She picks up her cleaning caddy and heads through the door down to the basement, and Taint moves on outside.

“Poor bastard.” I shake my head as I watch him go out.

“And that is why you never commit to one female.” Hack raises his eyebrows at me.

“You heard from your brother since he was exiled?” I ask.

“Not a word, and he didn’t just cut a run because of the heat he had from the club; he wants nothin’ to do with that kid.” I can see the guy’s hurt to admit it.

“How can you be so sure?” I check.

“Cause if he did, he would have taken Harriet with him; she sure as hell wanted him to. If he gave any kinda shit, he sure as hell wouldn’t have left her here to deal with this alone.

” Hack keeps his head down as he heads into one of the side rooms and closes the door, leaving me alone with the table of judgmental whores.

“You look bored, Wild Card,” One of them calls out, and I quickly follow Taint outside. I’d rather help get rid of the fuckin’ stiff.

“So what did he tell ya?” I ask, kicking Randall's body, so it rolls into the hole we just dug for him. The man doesn’t look anything like I imagined him to be; he’s just a scrawny piece of shit that looks like he’s taken more drugs than he’s sold.

I can’t imagine he’s the mastermind behind the town's drug problem.

“Nothing. Menace and Zander turned his place upside down. Found plenty of stash, but he wasn’t gonna talk.”

“They always talk.” I shake my head in disbelief.

“You doubtin’ my abilities?” Taint drops the shovel from his hand and steps up to me.

“Yo, chill. I ain’t doubtin’ nothin,’ I’m just saying that when death gets laid on the table people's loyalties usually change.”

Taint shakes his head and eventually backs down, scrubbing his hand over his face before resting on one of the fallen tree trunks.

“You wanna talk about it?” I ask. It ain’t in my nature to get into other people's troubles, but it kinda feels like the right thing to do. It’s just me, him, and the dead man out here, and Taint doesn’t know me as well as he does all the others.

Maybe that’ll make it easier for him to get shit off his chest.

“I guess you already heard what happened, huh?” He digs the heels of his boot into the ground.

“I heard what Cass thinks about it all, but not what you do.” I move to take a seat beside him, not entirely sure what's going on in my head, but I think I might be feeling some kinda empathy for this guy.

“I loved her.” Taint shrugs. “I loved her with my whole heart, and it wasn't enough.” He sniffs back angrily. “You don’t wanna listen to my fuckin’ problems, Wild Card, let's fill this fucker’s grave and get outta here.” He goes to stand up, but I force him back down.

“Speak,” I tell him, pulling out my smokes and offering him one.

“She could have pulled that shit with anyone…but my best friend?” He shakes his head.

“You know that son of a bitch was the first person I told.” There's spite in the laugh he makes. “She said I had to keep the pregnancy a secret for the first… whatever it is… but there was no way in hell I was keeping somethin’ like that from him. He was my best fuckin’ friend.

I can’t even get into tellin’ you what we’ve been through together, and he stood beside me, while I married her, knowing that kid she has growing inside her could be his.

And d’ya know what the shit thing is about all this, Wild Card?

“I miss ‘em. I’d give anythin’ to have a beer with my best friend again. To be present at all those damn fuckin’ appointments with my wife. What the fuck does that say about me as a man?” He digs his heel in the ground a little deeper.

“That you’re a forgivin’ one,” I tell him, drawing back on my cigarette and having no other answers for him.

“I’m a fool, is what I am. I can accept getting screwed over by her, but Loche? That bastard was my brother. I’ve taken bullets for him.”

“So what ya gonna do?” I question him.

“If the kid is mine, I’ll step up. What else can I do?”

“And if it ain’t?”

“I don’t know. I ain’t thought that far ahead yet.”

“And Loche, is he likely to come back and step up himself?” I don’t know the guy, but I’m already thinking he’s an asshole.

“Last time I saw him, I told him I’d kill him if I ever saw him again, so it’s unlikely. He knew there was a chance the kid was his when he watched me marry her, and he said nothing. Man’s a pussy, he got no interest in her now things have got serious.”

“But you do?”

This man has to stop lying to himself.

“I don’t know what I want, and even if I did, how could I ever trust her again…

? I liked the idea of it; an old lady, a wife, some kids.

Something to make all this mean something.

I should have stuck with the attitude you got.

Care for no one and ya can’t get hurt.” He laughs to himself as he stands up and picks up the shovel.

I watch him get back to filling in Randall's grave, and hate the reality that strikes.

Taint’s wrong. I do care for someone. I care for ’em more than I care for myself, and I’m making myself wide open. I sense I’m gonna be burned.