Page 54 of Brother In Arms

Chapter 19

Rush

I worked my ass off around that fucking farm while Bailey dealt with not only her lawyers and meeting up with that Cranston woman, but soothing a never ending stream of prissy ass fuckin’ rich snob assholes. All of them were demanding shit way out of pocket to ensure that their precious horsemeat was safe. We had guys on rotation, Jorge’s idea, sleepin’ in the fuckin’ stables at night, waking up every hour on a stagger to check things out.

What’s more, and what no one knew, we had a couple of our guys from the club around keepin’ an eye on things. It was quiet for a while. Almost too quiet, to be honest which typically meant one thing and one thing only; they were gearing up to cause more trouble. I didn’t like it, but honestly it was nice getting a bit of a reprieve.

I’d been missing my shop and needing some fresh clothes. Bailey had said she would be fine and to get some ‘me’ time in. I appreciated it. Loved it even more that I may have found a woman who got my need for some time to myself, just me and whatever chunk of wood I happened to have in front of me.

I’d been doing okay hand carving some little pieces in the evenings and spare moments, but I’d really been missing my shop the last couple of days. The current piece I’d been working on was seriously calling my name and I got so absorbed in what I was doing I completely lost track of time, I also completely missed the fact my two brothers ended up on the stools I had set up in the corner of the shop. They sat at a bar height table, several brews between ‘em and a couple dead soldiers back in the six-pack they’d come from.

“Hey, guys… what’s up?”

Nox laughed and Archer being his typical deadpan self said, “We was wondering when you were planning on coming up for air and stop hittin’ that rich pussy to go back to hittin’ your shop.”

“Man, if I could I’d hit that rich pussy in my shop.” I was surprised that our typical foolin’ over a girl was suddenly sitting wrong with me. I felt like, I don’t know, like I was somehow betraying Bailey by talking about her like that. That’d never happened to me before, that kind of reaction.

Nox picked up on it first, he always did. He searched my face and said, “Well, Arch, I do believe we get to welcome Rush here to the fold.”

“What the fuck you talking about, boy?”

Nox twisted the top off a fresh cold one and held it out to me. I went over and took it and clinked bottles with him and held it out for Arch to do the same. He did, and we drank and Nox said, “I do believe my twin here has finally found love.”

“The fuck, you say?” Arch leaned back on his stool and frowned. “How the fuck do you guys tell this shit about each other with one look?”

“It’s a twin thing,” I told him, knocking back some more beer. “You wouldn’t understand.”

Nox laughed while Archer made a face and gave me the finger. I smiled and laughed a little too and asked “To what do I owe this pleasure of having both my brothers in one place at the same time?”

“Noah and Chandler are wondering where their Unca Rush is, and so is their mamma.”

“Club business,” I said and Archer scowled at me.

“I fuckin’ know that, asshole. I’m a part of this club, too, or did you forget?” I shook my head and smiled.

“You already missed a couple of Sunday dinners now, you best not miss this one.”

“Might need to set an extra place setting,” Nox said and Archer nodded.

“Done deal, bring the rich girl with you.”

“Jesus, Arch, she has a name,” Nox said shaking his head.

“Ain’t none of you fuckers said it yet,” he admonished and drained the rest of his beer in two pulls, cracking another one and drinking half of it in one go.

“Bailey, her name is Bailey,” I said laughing. Mel had rubbed off on Archer in a lot of ways over the last year, but in a lot of ways, Archer remained stubbornly the same.

“Right, well bring Bailey to dinner on Sunday or Mel an’ the boys are gonna have my balls.”

“Right, and we wouldn’t want that.”

“Fuck no, we don’t want that!”

Nox was laughing so hard he was gonna fall off his stool, but Archer, he was smiling. I kind of liked the softer side of my hard assed older brother.

“So you two love birds trading ‘I love you’s’ yet?” he asked and I knew he meant to yank my chain but my silence must have tipped him off, I mean, I didn’t know what to say about that one. I wasn’t about to lie, not even a white lie, to either of my brothers. We weren’t like that, ever.

Nox scoffed in disbelief and said, “You’re fuckin’ serious?”

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