Page 29 of Tease Me

“I never thought of it that way. Maybe you're right.”

Hawk drives straight to the lawyer’s office and parks in front of the large building. There’s a ton of people walking up and down the street as they hustle from one location to the next, lost in their own world and not thinking about anything but what they’re about to do. After shutting off the engine of his truck, he gets out and walks around to the passenger side. Cash gets out and steps out of his way so he can help me down before placing a hand on my back and giving me the nudge and comfort I need right now. He’s not going to let me avoid this appointment because he knows it’s gonna be hard for me. Instead, he’ll help me face it head on and be there to pick up the pieces as they fall apart once again.

“Can I help you?” a younger woman asks as she keeps her attention on Cash and Hawk, completely ignoring me.

“Yes. I have an appointment with Mrs. Devlin. She’s expecting me,” I answer as she doesn’t offer me a response or do anything to let my sister’s lawyer know I’m here.”

I wait a few minutes as she flirts with the two men surrounding me until I snap.

“If you’re done eye fucking the men with me, can you please let Mrs. Devlin know I’m here for our appointment?” I bark out, my voice echoing in the lobby of the lawyer’s office.

“Excuse me?” she returns, finally bringing her full attention on me.

“I’ve been here for almost five minutes in which you’ve done nothing but stare at the two men with me. First of all, it’s disrespectful because you have no clue if either one of them are taken. Secondly, you’re in a lawyer’s office and the first person every single client sees. I’d expect you to be a little more professional than what you’re currently being. Yes, they’re sexy men wearing leather because they’re bikers. It’s every woman’s fantasy. Maybe eye fuck other men who you know are single on your own personal time instead of being on the clock at your job. Now, please let Mrs. Devlin know I’m here before I just head back to her office and make sure she knows why she wasn’t alerted to my arrival,” I state, my voice hard and cold as I let every single feeling that's been overwhelming me become numb and void.

“You have no business talking to me like that,” the woman says as Hawk steps up and wraps his arms around my stomach and Cash steps even closer to us.

Cash doesn’t touch me at all, but he makes it very clear that he doesn’t appreciate what’s just taken place with this woman. And that’s saying something because I did notice his interest in her when we walked into the lobby. I guess it really is her loss and she has no clue.

“My girl can talk to you however she pleases,” Hawk says, his voice a low growl as we start attracting an audience. “Do your job and let Mrs. Devlin know Kendell’s here to see her. Then, we’ll still make sure to tell the lawyer what you’ve done so you get some sort of punishment. Nothin’ you’ll enjoy I’m sure because it’s not sexual. If either one of us wanted you, we’d let you know. Since we didn’t, I suggest you do your job and don’t look at us again.”

“I’ve done nothing wrong,” the receptionist says, sitting up straighter in her chair and forcing her chest out even further to entice the men with me. She just doesn’t give up and I’m ready to reach over the counter and punch her as she still doesn’t announce my arrival to the lawyer.

“Actually, you are in the wrong, Stella. You can pack up your belongings and remove yourself from the building. You’ve got five minutes. I’ll be letting security know so they can ensure you remove yourself. If you don’t, they’ll be sure to remove you without your things. Kendell, I’m Mrs. Devlin. If you’d follow me please,” the lawyer my sister hired says as she turns toward us and waits for us to get to her side before leading us to her office.

I can hear the receptionist bitching and moaning behind us as Hawk steps to my side and laces our fingers together. We walk down the long, ornate hallway until we get to a corner office. Mrs. Devlin’s office has double doors that are thick and wooden with a golden name plate next to them. Her office has thick black carpeting down on the floor and the walls of her office are painted a light beige. There’s a couch against one wall and her walls are covered in pictures of all kinds. Including those showcasing her family. She takes a seat behind her large desk and motions for us to sit in the chairs across from her. Cash remains standing behind us as if he’s our guard and I want to laugh out loud at the thought of Hawk needing a guard of his own.

“I’m so sorry for your loss, Kendell. I met with your sister a few times as we worked through her will. She was such a brave young woman and loved you and her son so much. The two of you were all she talked about when we would meet. I know all about her situation and all I can say is that I hope he gets what’s coming to him,” Mrs. Devlin begins as she grabs a folder from the large stack off to the side of her desk and opens it before pulling out the papers and setting them down in front of her.

“Thank you. She fought until she had nothing left in her. We’ll keep her memory alive for her son. Um, did she stipulate what she wanted done with him?” I ask, nerves filling me because that’s the scariest part of this whole thing; I truly don’t know where she wants Gideon to go or who he’ll be with moving forward.

“She did. That was the very first thing she wanted to put in the will. Kendell, you are now Gideon’s sole guardian. She doesn’t want his father to have any contact with him at all. There’s a restraining order that we got in case her death did take place. It’s in effect as of now. The restraining order protects not just Gideon, but you as well. Martin is not to come within five hundred feet of either one of you. He can’t show up at Gideon’s school, the house you inhabit, or be in the same store, restaurant, or anything else. His family is not to have any visitation and if they try to take you to court, I have all the evidence to prove to a judge why they should not be allowed in Gideon’s life. They won’t win against me no matter how much money they have or how many judges they try to pay off to get their way.

“I’ve gotten the custody paperwork here and it’s already been signed off by a judge so it’s all legal and ready for you to take home with you. Kelsey had an inheritance the same as you with the same stipulations. However, we did find a clause in the paperwork that in the event of Kelsey’s death, any of her children were to get a monthly allowance of ten thousand dollars to go toward whatever they wanted. That will go into effect immediately and I’ve got the money locked in my safe as we speak. Moving forward, the money will be deposited in an account with you as his representative payee. You can open that account at any bank of your choosing. I’ve got the paperwork you’ll need to start the account and be listed as the payee for him until he reaches the age of twenty-one.

“The house cannot be sold. Kelsey wanted it to be there for Gideon when he gets older. Once he reaches twenty-five, he can decide what to do with the house. It’s his decision to make though and no one can interfere. I’ve got a ton of papers for you to sign and even more to go through,” Mrs. Devlin says as she continues to rattle off all the stipulations of my sister’s will while I sit there in shock.

Kelsey truly did look out for her son and is going to take care of him from beyond the grave. I have no clue what the hell he’d ever need ten thousand dollars a month for, but I’ll make sure it’s all spent on him no matter what he wants to do in life as he gets older and starts developing his independence and trying different things like sports and all of that. For now, I know exactly what I want to do with his first monthly allowance. He needs all new things so we can burn what little we had at Hawk’s house. I won’t let him have a single reminder of what we lost from this day forward. I mean, other than pictures. We’re going to plaster my sister’s picture all over the house so she’s always part of our lives.

We remain in the lawyer’s office for almost two hours. She goes over everything and answers any questions we have. Hawk asks a lot of them. Like what we have to do to ensure Gideon remains ours and if we can adopt him or not. Mrs. Devlin’s answer was that she would suggest waiting until I’m married or years have gone by with him in my custody before I attempt to adopt him. Only because if we start an adoption case, it will open the door for Martin or any of his family members to come and stop it from happening. They won’t be able to take my guardianship away, but an adoption is a different story. So, I know we won’t even think about doing that until several years pass and my nephew has a say in if he even wants me to adopt him. I don’t see myself getting married anytime soon.

Don’t take that to mean I haven’t thought about what life would be like with Hawk. I have more often than I’ll ever admit to. However, we’re not ready to get married. At least I don’t think we are. And I don’t want to stand up in front of the club or whoever else to marry him. I don’t want to be the center of attention for hours on end to have my ‘special’ day. That’s never been who I am and I’m not about to change that now. So, maybe down the road Hawk and I will talk about getting married, but I don’t believe we’re ready for that step. Maybe he feels differently, I don’t even know.

When we’re finally done getting everything taken care of with Mrs. Devlin, we leave her office with the cash from her safe in hand. Hawk and Cash take me to the local mall where I go crazy and buy Gideon an entire new wardrobe, new toys, a new bed we have nowhere to set up, and everything he could want. Cash and Hawk even talk me into getting him one of those motorized trucks for little kids. They promise me he’ll only be allowed to ride it when they’re with him and it’s the only reason I gave in. But, we’re gonna hold that back until his birthday which is in a few weeks. The day will be hard because it’s the first of many that Kelsey will miss. It won’t ever be the same again and that’s something we’ll have to work on each year when it happens.

By the time we make it back to the clubhouse, I’m exhausted and more than ready to go to bed. Hawk stopped at a fast food restaurant on the way back to the clubhouse and we all got something to eat so I don’t have to stop and do that when we get back. I can go up and shower the day off before sliding into bed and curling up with Gideon. He can get all of his new stuff tomorrow after I’ve had a chance to clean it all. Tonight, it can remain in the truck as far as I’m concerned. I don’t even want to think about it at all. Hawk and Cash have other ideas though as they bring everything in and unload it in our room so I don’t have to get it tomorrow. Hawk disappears for a while once Gideon and I are in bed and that’s okay. I don’t have the energy to talk to him about everything we learned today.

Chapter Twenty

Hawk

REAPER AND THE rest of the guys voted to let me move my family into one of the other homes on the compound. It’s just been sitting empty and there’s no reason why we can’t live there and make it our home. They’ll destroy the house I used to have and then we can decide if we want to build a different one in the same location or not. Personally, I don’t care. I have a feeling Kendell won’t want to live anywhere near the area where her sister was kidnapped though. So, I have no problem not being in that area of the compound at all. We’ll be over there when we go to visit the others, but that’s it. We’ll take it day by day and only do what Kendell and Gideon are comfortable with. I won’t ever push them when it comes to this situation because it’s already hard enough on both of them.

Without telling Kendell what’s going on, all the guys and ol’ ladies help me buy all new furniture for the entire house. While the guys and I set up all the furniture, the ol’ ladies go out and buy all new kitchen things, bedding, bathroom stuff, and anything else they can think of. By the time we’re all done with everything, it’s late as fuck and there’s no way in hell I’m about to bring Kendell and Gideon over to the new house for them to go through. Plus, Cash and I want to get the nursery and Gideon’s room done before I take them there. We’ve been talking about it and listening to what Kendell sees when she thinks of the rooms. When we went out shopping for furniture, Cash and I got all the nursery furniture we’ve seen my girl looking at online. She’s going to have everything she wants in our home because she deserves that and so much more.

For now, I’ve got some time to kill. The club had another vote when we were in church earlier. One dealing with Greg. We’re all gonna get our hits in on him and then I get to take the kill shot. Cash spoke up and stated that I should get the kill shot because of the fact that we only discovered Greg’s betrayal because of me and the fact that he helped Martin get onto the compound to take Kelsey from us. Reaper agreed and didn’t even put it up for a vote. No one fought him on it either. So, the second we step foot back in the clubhouse after getting done what we can, everyone stands from their seats and we all head down to the basement where the stupid fucker has been waiting for us to determine his fate. Even though I’m sure he already knows he won’t walk out of this shit alive. Though, Greg can be fucking dumb as hell when it comes to certain things.

I’m the last one in the cell we’ve been holding him in after removing my cut and leaving it outside the cell on one of the hooks we have there so our cut doesn’t get ruined. Leaning against the wall, I watch as Reaper steps up in front of Greg. The kid stares at our President with nothing but hate and disrespect filling his eyes. Reaper doesn’t say a word or do anything until Greg spits at him. It misses, but Reaper isn’t gonna fucking let that shit go.

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