Page 16 of JoJo

“Who the hell are you? This is between me and my sister. Our business isn’t any of yours.” CJ complained in his usually whiny manner.

“Considering I’m married to her, I do believe that makes it my business too.”

CJ’s jaw was hanging so low, I could see his tonsils if I really cared to look. “No,” he finally managed to hiss out.

“Yes, CJ. I have a marriage certificate, and video of the ceremony to prove it too. We were married last night, so you might as well pack up and get back to New York. Besides, Chuck told me why you’re here. Did you honestly think I’d let you crash at my home while you’re trying to steal the family business and sell it off, leaving me with no job or money to pay for the house you invited yourself to?”

“Dad’s house was sold. Where else am I supposed to stay when I come home?”

“I don’t know, but not here.”

“Jo, we’re family,” he whined again.

“I’ll tell you what, when you start acting like family of mine, I will be happy to treat you as such. For now, I’m tired. Steel and I have things to do, so you need to get out of here. Actually, I’ll be happy to meet you at Mr. Alexander’s office in the morning. I have an appointment set for ten.”

“I’m sure the wedding is bullshit.” He turned to plead his case to Steel then. “You know she has to stay married at least five years to keep the business, right?” My brother asked, with a knowing smile. Apparently, he assumed I hadn’t been up front about anything.

“I’m well aware,” Steel replied to him.

“And you’re okay giving up five years for that?” My brother’s incredulous tone and finger pointing were really pissing me off.

Steel glanced my way. “I’m sure JoJo and I will make do with one another just fine.” There was a the smallest of smirks on Steel’s face as he looked at me while he spoke. “You sister asked you to leave though, and I think that would be wise. As she said, we have things to do. We’d only keep you up with all the noise if you stuck around.”

My brother’s disgusted face turned to me. “So, you’re really going to whore yourself out for the business, huh? I’m sure Dad would be rolling over in his grave right now if he could see this desperate attempt at keeping the garage.”

“Too bad you don’t get to speak for Daddy from the grave. You weren’t around when he needed you to be, so you wouldn’t actually know what he wanted for me. Now, get off my property before I call to order you an official escort out of here. I’m pretty sure the local jail will be just as accommodating to trespassers as the Budget Inn is to paying customers.

“You turned out to be a bigger bitch than I thought,” CJ spat my way.

“Well, at least I’m not the biggest twat waffle on the East Coast,” I tossed back. Steel’s eyebrow quirked up and he bit down on his bottom lip to help hold in his laughter. My brother finally crawled into his car and left.

“It must suck to have a sibling you can’t get along with.”

“It really does. I wish he could understand, or more to the point, cared at all about anything other than himself. It hurts my heart to know he’s being like this.”

“Come on, let’s get inside before these bugs continue to eat me alive.” As if to bring home his point, Steel smacked his own forearm.

We were in the house maybe ten minutes when my cell phone rang. I ignored it. Then, Steel’s cell rang. He too, ignored his. Mine started again, but was quickly drowned out by the sound of approaching motorcycles. At least two from the noise levels. “Do you think there’s some weird force out there destined to keep us from having a full blown conversation since we said our I dos?”

Steel’s chuckle alleviated a little of the stress that was keeping my shoulders stiff. “It sure does seem like it.” He peeked out the front window and released a long, frustrated sigh. “It’s Quickshot, and looks like maybe his woman with him on the other bike.”

“Are you kidding me? After what I had to say to Keys earlier, I can’t believe she’d show up at my house with him in tow.” I grunted out a noise of frustration, and threw open my front door to march out to meet them as they were coming up the steps to my dilapidated front porch. “You both need to turn around and leave,”

“Not gonna happen,” Quickshot informed me as he glanced around my yard, and the exterior of my house.

“Quick!” Keys was pleading with him now.

“Your little farce of a union is already causing a rift between the clubs.” Quickshot started in on what I assumed was about to become a full blown lecture of some sort.

“No! You are causing irreparable damage, right now, by showing up to my house and telling me how my life is messing with yours. You can go to hell, Quickshot. My life isn’t open for discussion by you. Since I know you’re just the messenger boy, I’ll tell you Sweet can fuck right off too.”

“His life most certainly is open for discussion,” Quickshot spoke while tipping his head towards Steel, who was now standing just behind and to the left of me.

“I told you about that shit earlier today. If you want to keep forcing chats before I even get a damn chance to hash shit out with JoJo, I will turn in my kutte and walk away from the club, or better yet, I’ll head to Cedar Falls myself and see what Ghost thinks about this shit. You may have grown up there, Wallace, but my dad was one of the original members too.”

Keys gasped. “Quick, please, they need time.”

“They’ve had hours!” He all but yelled.

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