Page 57 of Absolution

“Yeah V, she’s with him now.”

Voodoo cracks a joke as I look down to my watch. It’s been over four hours since I dropped her off and not a peep from her yet. That I will take as a good sign. As much as I wanted to be by her side today, this needed to be between the two of them. Two lost souls damaged by their upbringing seeking solace and peace in this world. Unlike Ricca, Asher had no one except for her. This was there chance to start over together, and my chance to give Ricca something that no one else had done before. A family.

“How’s Thor doing?”

“He’s doing alright. The sister not so much. She has been a joy to live with,” he declares. “I’m positive she came from money, and this kind of lifestyle isn’t exactly her cup of tea, if you get my drift. I wanted to do a background search on her, but Thor threatened my manhood.”

“Yeah, I’d leave that one alone, brother. Is she clashing with the other old ladies?”

“Not exactly. With helping Ricca with the house, Darcy, Dani, and the others have been pretty busy. It’s the club girls that are the problem. They all apparently wanted a piece of Thor, and this chick isn’t exactly on board with their type of nursing. It’s like fight club with less bikinis and mud.”

This news isn’t surprising at all to me if V is correct in his asset of the girl. Those who come from privileged lives aren’t good fits for club life. Being an old lady isn’t an easy position in the club. They hold no official titles, aren’t privy to club business, and have no say in most of our dealings. Raze tries to give the women more wiggle room than most other clubs, but it’s for their own protection that we keep them out of it.

“Let me guess, Daisy and Bubbles.”

“You hit that one on the head, but the problem has been solved. Raze blew his top this morning when he came in to find the place trashed.”

“I take it the sister is gone.”

“The opposite actually.”

I almost gasp. Club whores are a dime dozen for us, but these two women had been with us a long time. Ruby depended on them when it came to keeping the clubhouse in ship shape, but if you cause trouble, you’ll be doing it from the outside. There’s enough drama and bullshit in the world to deal with bad behaving pussies.

Voodoo babbles on about some woman that he had met online. Leave it to him to find pussy on the Internet that he loves so much.

“You sure she’s real? And not catbaiting you?”

“Catbaiting?” he chuckles. “Dude, it’s catfishing, and do you seriously think I didn’t check on that shit right off the bat? Hello, computer genius here.”

“Hey, I barely function with my phone and a Google search. I leave that other shit to you.”

“She’s real, trust me.”

The confident tone of his voice tells me he’s serious about this crazy ass shit. Meeting someone online is a dangerous business these days, so I really hope that he did in fact do his homework. I’d never let him live it down if he went to meet this chick and it turned out to be a dude.

“Are you going to meet her anytime soon?” I question, prying to see just how far he’s gone down the Internet dating rabbit hole.

“That’s the problematic part,” he confesses with disappointment clear in his voice. “She’s not local, but I hope that once you’re back and she’s still interested that I can get a few days off to give that a try. So hurry up, asshole.”

Jesus, he does have a hard on for this chick. As long as I have known him, I’ve never seen him stick to just one woman. He was a favorite amongst the club girls, and he wasn’t afraid to flaunt that fact. The only steady relationship that he’d ever had was the computer that sat in his office, and probably a bottle of petroleum jelly.

“I’m trying my best, brother. If today goes as well as I think it is right now, we could be able to fast track the paperwork.”

An idea pops into my head that might just help us out even more.

“Say, how hard would it be for you to hack a government computer again? Like you did for the marriage license?”

Voodoo lets out an exaggerated sigh, before answering me.

“Dude, that was child’s play. The State of California really needs to hire someone who actually knows how the dark web works. One link click, and the ransom ware going around, would shut them down for weeks.”

“I don’t need the play by play, V. Is it possible?”

“Of course, it is. What are you thinking?”

The idea I have teeters on the edge of my tongue. If I go through with this and V gets caught, this could hurt our case. Meddling with court documents could land us both in jail. The devil on my shoulder is screaming for me to ask, but the lesser evil version on the other is telling me to rethink this. A thing that I had never done, before meeting Ricca. My mind used to be so clear on my path. I never second-guessed myself once, but when it’s not just you anymore that you have to care about, it’s completely different. I had made a mistake in giving Ginny her space to protect her, but all it gave me was the painful memories of her death. A mistake that I wouldn’t deal with again.

“I need you to hack the caseworker who did the home study for us, and find out where we stand with her recommendation to the court. Think you could do that?’

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