-:- KNUCKLES -:-
Thursday morning, breakfast was over, and Axel called Church. It’s going to be a quick one so the brothers can get to work and open up. Grease doesn’t look happy at having to come in, as he has a lot of work with the garage.
Stitch is sulking because Bianca left on Monday, but he’s not saying a word about what happened between them, or if it was just wishful thinking on his part.
Axel walks in and takes his seat at the head of the table, picks the gavel up, and taps it gently, grinning as he looks around at everyone. “Good morning, brothers. It’s not a long meeting, so don’t look so annoyed, Grease.” Chuckling flows around the room and I can see the twitch on Grease’s lips as Axel intended.
Axel continues. “As you all know, we caught the cocksucker, and he’s now in Vitale’s hands. I’ve spoken to Vitale this morning, and he’s confirmed that the issue, as he calls it, has been dealt with fast and efficiently.”
Buzz chuckles and rubs his chin. “We all know what that means, don’t we?”
Grunts and comments fly as we’re all relieved the man has been dealt with, and none more so than myself. Jo can now live her life quietly and without looking over her shoulder in fear.
“Did Vitale say why Tommaso was so obsessed with Jo?” Jig asks.
“He wouldn’t say anything to start with, just kept grinning. Cost him an ear, fingers, toes, a pair of balls, and an eye. Eventually, he said she reminded him of his first love when he was a teenager and she died, so he felt the only way he could get that feeling of love back was to get Jo, who would be a placeholder.” Axel scowls as he fills in the information he’d been told. “Vitale told him he was a sick bastard, cut off his dick, shoved it down his throat, then shot him in the head.”
I blink a few times because we’ve all done some torturing and seen some shit in our time, but fuck, this is some serious stuff. “What, if anything, will come back on us?” I ask because I’m a little worried that we may have some backlash.
“Vitale assured me he was cleaning up and nothing will come back on any of us at the club. We seem to be building a type of peace between us and if we can keep that, it’ll be best for all of us.”
PT is writing his notes and how he’ll be explaining this in the minutes is beyond me, because nothing that’s actually said can be written as proof we had anything to do with a murder, even though it was warranted.
“Next he reported on Bianca.” We all turn and look at Stitch, whose jaw clenches but remains stoic. “She is on her way to Vitale’s relative. She was welcomed back into the family, given an apology that she’d suffered, and her father is being investigated by Vitale as an accomplice of Tommaso. It doesn’t look good for his future.” Grinning, Axel is enjoying the payback that is coming to all the ‘family’ as they call themselves that stepped out of line. “Questions on Tommaso or Bianca?”
We again, all look at Stitch, but he doesn’t move a muscle, comment, or give eye contact with anyone. He looks like it’s going to take a while to get over Bianca, and we’ve all seen it before, but it’s never a good place to be. I’m just delighted I’ve got my woman, and I’m gonna hang onto her for as long as I draw breath.
“Okay, so we need to get back to some normality. Mia, Eden, and Meat have organized a theme night at TJs on Saturday night, and I expect you all to turn up. Let’s make it a good night, enjoy ourselves, and move forward.” Axel slams the gavel down, ending the meeting and I quickly make my way out of Church.
Walking into the common room, I’m shocked when I see Lincoln with a backpack on his back, and Jo crying while hanging onto him. Rushing over, I grab her and pull her to me, looking at Lincoln over the top of her head, waiting for an explanation.
Lincoln sighs. “I’m leaving for training. I signed up for the Green Berets and I’m heading out to start the 63 weeks of training, but I’ve got to pass the physical fitness assessment first. I’ll pass, as I’ve been working on that since I came here, thanks to Target and Chaos pushing me through.
“I’ll keep in touch, Jo. You’ve got everyone here to make sure you’re alright, and I’m not worried anymore. Tommaso will not hurt you and Knuckles is going to make sure you’ll never be in danger again. Come on sis, you’ve got to let me go now, but I’ll be back. You can bet your life on that.”
Jo sniffles and wipes her cheeks on my Henley, which has Lincoln shaking his head and grinning. Stepping back to her brother, Jo hugs him and gives him what he needs. “Okay Linc, go do what you have to do, but keep in touch with me and come back whole.”
“I will do my very best.” Lincoln kisses her forehead and holds his hand out for me to shake. “Look after her brother.”
“Of course, I will. We all will. That’s how this family works, and you are part of this family, so come back to us when you’re done.”
Walking out, we watch Lincoln jump into the truck with Sawyer driving and wave as they leave the compound. I hug Jo and she sniffles a little more. “He’s got to live for himself a little now, Jo. It’s time for him to do what he needs, and wants to do. He’s been a hell of a brother to you.”
“I know he has, and I love him so much for putting himself second all these years. Fighting in those horrible fights just to make sure he kept me safe. I want him to have a good life now and if serving the country is what he wants, then I’m going to be happy for him.” Jo grips my hand, and we walk back inside the common room.
Mia walks over, grabs Jo’s hand, and pulls her away from me and towards the playroom. I’m not even going to ask what the fuck is going on because when Mia is on a mission, it’s best not to get in the way.
Taking my phone from the back pocket of my jeans, I send a text message, and I’ve done that, as I don’t want to actually speak to the asshole.
Me: Take me and Colton off your fight list and door duty. We’re done.
Grit: Come on, you can’t just drop me in it. You’ve had weeks off doing whatever other shit you do.
Me: I’m done and so is Colton. End of story.
I don’t wait for any reply. I block his number and grin. Now I’ve got to tell Colton, that’s not going to be so easy. But he’s better than being involved in that shit, and he’s gonna be a brother soon, so he can get his temper under control and fighting isn’t the way to do that.
Saturday night came around too fast, and I’m walking behind Jo into TJs feeling like an utter prick. She keeps calling me Barney Rubble and I’m dressed in a damn brown dress. It’s the only way to describe it. I’m carrying a fucking club and I can tell you I’m hanging onto Jo as she’s dressed in a little blue dress that has all her curves showing. Fuck me, if anyone approaches Jo, I’ll half kill them.
Walking into the club there is a huge notice saying, ‘Welcome to Bedrock’, and the club has been done up to look like a prehistoric cave. The staff are all wearing gear similar to ours, so I don’t feel so much out-of-place even though I feel like a fool.
The evening is flowing nicely. All the brothers look like fucking idiots, but they are taking part in good humor, but I can see them eyeing up all the women that have turned up looking like prehistoric Bedrock characters. I’ve eased as the evening has progressed, but I’m watching Jo all the time.
Meat is dressed as Fred Flintstone, of course, and he has an orange spotted outfit with a blue tie, and he keeps saying Yabba Dabba Do. Which has everyone singing ‘When you’re with the Flintstones, you’ll have a Yabba Dabba Doo time’ and I roll my eyes and shake my head, I’m not singing that shit for nobody, nope not even for Jo, who’s finding all this highly amusing.
I watch as Jo dances with the ol’ ladies, laughing and singing. They all love Meat for some damn reason, and they’ve got him dancing with them. He’s got no shame and I’m watching him shaking a club, doing some weird dance moves which have me grinning. Then it happens.
Meat comes to a grinding halt and, following his gaze, I see the woman who was dressed as Wonder Woman. She’s now dressed as Wilma Flintstone and she is standing, hands on her hips tapping her bare foot on the floor, looking mighty pissed at Fred, who has his arm around Carrie.
Wilma scowls, points, and throws her head back, grabbing the red/brown wig she’s wearing as the force of her showing her displeasure nearly has it falling off, but she jams it right back on again. Spinning Wilma disappears amongst the crowd in the bar area, and Meat or Fred, in this case, darts after her.
I’m amazed at what I’m seeing, because who is this woman, where does she keep appearing from and why is Meat so damn interested. Jo walks over and wraps an arm around my waist, looks up, and laughs. “I can’t wait to see if he catches her.”
Shaking my head, I chuckle too. “No, me neither. I hope she leads him a merry dance because after what happened, and his PTSD kicked in so hard it’ll do him good to have something else to concentrate on.”
Chaos stands next to me, shoving me with his shoulder. He must have overheard as he replies. “You’re not wrong. She looks like a feisty one. I can’t wait to see him give chase.”
The woman in question darts past laughing, eyes sparkling and one hand holding her wig on. She bobs down and behind a group of women and Meat dashes past us, scowling and growling. The three of us stand there looking innocent because we will not out her.
Fifteen minutes later, Fred is on the stage area, and he spots her across the room near the main door. The room bursts into laughter when Fred holds both hands against his mouth and shouts. “WILMA!”
The DJ for the evening plays the Flintstone theme, and the whole club sings along. Much to Meat’s annoyance when they impede his progress to the door.
Looking down, I grin at Jo. “Welcome to the MC, Jo. Love you.”
“Love you too,” Jo replies, and I bend down, holding both sides of her face, and kiss the absolute shit out of her before placing my forehead on hers and we look into each other’s eyes.
What I see is my future, and I’m going to hang on as hard and for as long as I can. Until death, do us part.
