Page 78 of Zen's Crash

Siege shoots back, “Of fucking course not. This fucker deserves nothing. If I can deprive him of whatever comfort having money on his books in prison would bring, I’ll do it in a heartbeat. The way I see it, our club brothers deserve compensation for working so hard on this case. If there’s free money floating around, I’ll grab it for them if I can.”

I let out a sigh of relief, grateful that our club officers are making good judgment calls on this. “I think that plan makes sense.”

“Good,” Siege says. Glancing at Dutch, he gives him instructions, “Since you’re our club treasurer, I want you to get with Zen and stay right beside him when he makes the transactions. I want video evidence and an eyewitness, just in case any of this comes back on us. We need to be able to prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we returned all that crypto to the rightful owners. Maybe send some statement that law enforcement arrested the thief and is returning the crypto. Don’t name the police department, and don’t give a fake name. Just give them their crypto back with no place to ask follow-up questions. When you’re finished, create an invoice from our club—maybe for some kind of security service—so it looks halfway legitimate. Then pay our club out of the remaining crypto.”

Not really understanding Siege’s angle, I ask, “What’s with all the cloak-and-dagger stuff? I can just move the money, send the porn to the feds, wipe any traces of the cloud storage, and destroy the laptop.”

“No,” Siege answers. “The chance of any of this shit floating to the surface is remote, but Smoke has drilled into me that we don’t destroy evidence if it relates to our club at all. When you’re finished with the laptop, you and Dutch are to take it straight to Smoke’s office. He’ll lock it up in his safe. If we ever need it, we’ll have access to it. Smoke won’t get in any trouble for holding it, because client-attorney privilege protects him.”

“Whatever you say, Prez,” I tell him, because that all sounds legit to me.

Dutch speaks up. “Do you want me to do the traditional twenty-five for the club coffers and split the remaining seventy-five among the brothers who helped?”

“I sure do want the traditional split,” Siege confirms. “You can redistribute my cut and Zen’s cut as well. I consider it a service rendered to a brother in need, and this club isn’t gonna pay Zen for rescuing and defending his own woman.”

I chuckle. “That’s true. And if possible, I’d like to take a minute at our next club meeting to personally thank the brothers for their support.”

He responds, “We’ll be holding church first thing in the morning. Check your text messages—we sent out a notification earlier.”

I pull out my phone, and it’s right there in my messages. Siege slaps me on the shoulder and says, “Don’t worry—we know you’ve had a lot on your mind. I also wanted to congratulate you on getting engaged.”

Rigs must have let the cat out of the bag. I’m not upset about it because we’re very open with one another regarding our old ladies, and so forth. “Thanks Prez. Now that Lexi is wearing my property cut and my engagement ring, I guess it’ll be smooth sailing from here on out.”

Siege throws his head back and laughs, then snaps it forward with a totally straight face. “I can tell you haven’t been married before.”

Just as I start to worry what that means, Rigs speaks up. “Stop scaring the boy, Siege.” Turning to me, he says soothingly, “Marriage is great as long as you’re not an asshole to your wife. If you are, expect to get that same energy back.”

Siege clarifies, “Tenfold—you get the same energy back tenfold. His voice sounds a little panicked.

Rigs rolls his eyes. “I gotta get home to Mattie. Catch you all at church in the morning.”

Dutch adjusts his glasses. “Looks like we’re gonna pull an all-nighter.”

“Fuck that,” I tell him. “We’ll get this job done quick, so I can hit the sack with my old lady.”

“That sounds good to me. I’ve got an old lady to get back to myself.”

***

After saying our goodbyes, Dutch and I head to my office. It’s the best space for two people to work. I texted Lexi that Iwould be working late. Since she didn’t answer, I assume she went to bed. It’s late and she’s had a long and exciting day. We make short work of returning crypto to the fifty or so accounts Terrance stole from. My sister texts me immediately, probably because she’s got an alert set up to notify her if money comes in or goes out. She’s thrilled and thanks me over and over again, even offering to make me breakfast. I tell her that I’ll be bringing my fiancée. My sister is quiet for a few minutes before my phone explodes with excited questions. I decide to leave her guessing until tomorrow.

Just when I think all the excitement is over, I head down to my room. Sure enough, Lexi is fast asleep. I walk to her side of the bed and tug the blanket up around her shoulders. Looking down at her long dark hair spilling over the white bedding and the engagement ring I bought her glittering on her finger makes me feel things.

I happily walk around to my side of the bed and sit down to take my shoes off. That’s when I notice Lexi has folded her property cut neatly, with the words ’Property of Zen’ facing upward. Leaning against it is an envelope with my name on it. For a moment all my insecurity rushes back, and I wonder if she’s trying to give me my cut back, but then I tell myself not to be so fucking stupid. She loves me and she’s gonna marry me.

When we chose her engagement ring, she talked about getting me a gift. Maybe that’s what this is?

Opening it, I see there’s no letter or note to read—only a white stick with a plus sign in the little window. It has a cute yellow ribbon tied around it like it’s a gift. I realize it is a gift, possibly the best one I’ve ever received.

Relief surges through my chest as I clutch the positive pregnancy test in both hands and press my knuckles to my forehead. So many emotions are warring in my chest that I can hardly figure out how I’m feeling. First and foremost, I feel pure joy and happiness. I know she folded her cut that way to remind me she’s mine, and now so is this new life we’ve created together. I think I might be the luckiest man alive.

When Lexi came into my life, I was just another single brother. Now, I have an old lady who’s wearing my ring, and a baby on the way. I’m gonna be a husband and father a whole lot sooner than I ever anticipated. That thrills the fuck out of me.

I want to wake her up so we can share this fantastic news together, but when I see her sleeping so peacefully—perhaps the first peaceful sleep she’s had in a year—I can’t. My woman needs all the rest she can get if she’s gonna be growing our child. My mind fills with all the things I need to do. I text the prospects a grocery list of healthy, fresh food and lots of pickles and ice cream in case she gets cravings.

Next, I think about how to introduce Lexi to my parents. They know I’m a private person, so I don’t expect much pushback about having a girlfriend they don’t know. If we just got engaged yesterday, they’ll see introducing her right away as proper. My sister will be tickled pink to have another woman in our family—Lori and my mom both love their girl time.

Of course, I’m too excited to sleep. I stay up all night reading up on what to expect during a pregnancy.

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