Page 4 of Demo

Around mid-January, both Tessa and Harper were reaching the halfway mark of their pregnancies. While they were over their morning sickness, they were overheard in the clubhouse one afternoon complaining about their lack of bladder control, swollen ankles, cracked nipples, hemorrhoids, the sharp pains of their baby moving around inside them, and the one-eighty mood swings.

To which Starbucks, because he was an utter dumbass, made the very loud statement, “Please. If pregnancies were that difficult no woman would willinglygetpregnant. Personally, I think you guys are just saying all that to butter up your men. Pregnancy, periods, labor…” He waved it off. “Annoying, sure, but they’re probably not painful at all.” Then he rolled up his sleeve to show a round-ish scar. “Nowthiswas painful.”

This suggestion then prompted an all-out gender war between the couples. Even Angel and Cage were taking sides.

Like many of the single members, Demo was staying safely on the sidelines. There was absolutely no doubt in his mind that the women would win though—mostly because their men couldn’t stand to see them upset and Harper at least seemed seconds away from bursting into tears.

Then DeeDee, Bear’s mother, and Louisa, Bulldog’s mother, came storming through the clubhouse doors, followed closely by Lawrence, Bear’s father. The man stood at six and a half feet tall, yet it was his pixie of a wife whom everyone moved out of the way for.

DeeDee walked right up to Tessa and handed her a box. “Finally! I’ve been waiting years for this.”

Which was how Lucky, Bear, Bulldog, Cage, Starbucks, and Lawrence found themselves hooked up to electrical stimulators that mimicked period pains and cramps. In a surprisingly short amount of time, the women created an obstacle course of sorts that the men had to complete to, quote,win the Gender War.

Lucky went first. He moaned, groaned, whined, and cried his way through doing fifty jumping jacks, moving the clubhouse couch and lounge chairs around, balancing a serving tray of plastic glasses of water—of which he dropped four—and then finally had to carry his wife twenty feet between two pieces of masking tape that had been placed on the floor.

Harper was laughing so hard at Lucky’s pain and torture that she had to be let down halfway to Lucky’s finish line to run to the bathroom to pee. As soon as his wife was out of sight, Lucky curled up into the fetal position on the floor and let out the most pitiful whimper.

It was not looking good for Demo’s gender.

Angel, Jasmine, Sophia, DeeDee, and Louisa were representing Team Vagina. They were doing the exact same challenges with the stimulators on even higher settings with such ease that Demo was ashamed for the first time in his life to be a man. Since Harper and Tessa were pregnant, they couldn’t put the stimulators on and, while Bulldog was completely on Team Penis, he adamantly refused to allow Abby to participate. Bulldog claimed she was already subjected to her biological symptoms once a month and he would not see her uncomfortable just for a “stupid fucking bet”.

Jenna and Steel were the only couple not participating since, per Steel, he already knew his wife was better than him in every way.

When Team Vagina prevailed, Team Penis would be paying for a kid-free spa weekend at a fancy resort. Demo saw Keys already researching the closest five-star places that they could take the women to. It would seem none of the observing men hadanyfaith in Team Penis. It wasn’t until the challenge had started that Demo realized that Team Penis didn’t have faith in themselves either, because no victory prize had been named should Team Penis win.

Abby cheered for her man from her seat next to Demo on the bar stool. Bulldog was sweating bullets and looked ready to puke—even though Tessa only had the stimulator on level five out of ten.

A small hand on his arm startled him, making Demo look over at the redhead. Her bright green eyes held concern. “What’s wrong?”

Demo’s eyebrows drew down. “What do you mean?”

“You’re pressing your elbow into the bar, almost like you’re trying to push your shoulder further into the socket,” Abby explained.

Demo glanced down at his left arm. He hadn’t even realized he’d been pushing so hard. In recent months, he’d been trying more subtle ways of relieving the pain. None were working that well. He was sleeping like crap because every time he twitched slightly in bed, pain would radiate like someone had jammed a hot poker into his shoulder.

He forced himself to sit up, trying hard not to flinch as he did. “Just tired.”

Her eyes narrowed, not believing his lie. “Did you ever go see Paige?”

Paige Hannigan was Harper’s sister-in-law. He knewofPaige, as she was around the clubhouse often with her two boys, Michael and Nelson, but he’d never spoken to her. In truth, he knew more about her finances than he did ofher. As Treasurer, it had been Demo’s job to work with Keys to fake a life insurance policy and deliver monthly checks to help her out. Her husband, Richard, had been Harper’s brother—and a complete dickwad. The club didn’t want to see Paige and her boys suffer for the man’s sins.

Richard was dead, but no one who wasn’t a patched member knew that fact. Harper and her parents suspected, because they weren’t stupid. There was no proof, though, no body. As far as the world knew, Richard Hannigan was just another missing person. Keys faked the insurance policy to make it look like it was a preemptive stipend to hold Paige over while missing the family’s primary income. Such a policy didn’t exist, nor did any life insurance policy in Richard Hannigan’s name, but the club had wanted to do something to help Paige out without delivering a suspiciously large wad of cash to her.

Harper and her parents knew Richard’s sins. As far as Demo knew, his wife and young sons did not.

Paige owned an acupuncture clinic in town. She’d opened it just under a year ago. Abby had been one of her first clients, seeing her for pain and stress management. Demo didn’t know much about the practice of acupuncture, but Abby swore by it. Bulldog still took her weekly for a session.

Before Demo could think of something to say to Abby, whether the truth or a white lie, Lucky’s phone rang.

After releasing the Honeys from their positions, the club had voted to hire two housekeepers who wereactuallyhousekeepers. Yelizaveta, a wife to a local plumber and the mom of one of Harper’s students, and Frankie, a college friend of Sissy’s, were hired on. However, Frankie soon became more of a nanny to the club kids than a housekeeper. She lived in one of the trailers the club kept on the property too, since she needed a place to live when she had moved to town.

While Ollie, Aaron, Bree, and Scotty attended high school and Lila attended the local elementary school, Cassie was homeschooled due to her agoraphobia. Frankie helped out with Cassie’s lessons, though her primary job was to take care of Conner, Maggie, Georgie, Caleb, and, most recently, SJ. With two other babies on the way, Demo wouldn’t be surprised if Frankie was going to be getting an assistant or two soon. The club kept joking about opening up a daycare.

With it being a Saturday, Lila and Scotty were hanging out with Frankie and the infants at Bulldog and Abby’s house. Since they had the biggest house, that tended to be the residence where the club kids were babysat.

Demo saw Tessa turn off the stimulators attached to Lucky’s abdomen and groin area as he pulled out his phone. No matter a bet or challenge or adult antics, the club kids came first. Demo assumed Lila and Scotty had gotten into some mischief and the caller was Frankie until he saw Lucky’s scowl when he looked at the Caller ID on his phone screen.

“It’s Mitch,” he said to no one in particular.

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