Page 75 of Blue-Eyed Jacks
“Good.Keep that in mind when you see her tonight.I’m going to get the prospects to bring your shit here.We’ll have a party to break the place in.”
“A party?”Kate was not enthused.
“It’ll be fun.Trust me.”
Chapter 22
Kate
“It’ll be fun.Trust me.” I cursed Jackson under my breath as I mopped yet another spilled beer from the still so new it smelled like a factory, wood laminate flooring.I did not know if it would stain or not; having zero experience with the particular brand they’d run from wall to wall lengthwise through the open floor plan, but I remembered the work it took to strip the floor in the house and did not want to face that again.
At least it wasn’t carpet.
The rug in the living room would never be the same.
Jackson was in the backyard, testing our new neighbor’s hearing with loud music and no fewer than five bikers swearing and laughing and being assholes in general.
I opened the pantry to put the mop away and stopped short.
Baldy, who came in with the second wave of bikers, grinned at me.
The girl kneeling at his feet hadn’t noticed the open door at her back yet… being too busy slobbering on his knob.
His fist was buried in her hair.The tattoos on his hand stood out against the white-lined tension in his grip.
Almost twenty years should have been enough to erase some memories.But as I shakily handed Baldy the mop, I realized that I still hadn’t recovered from all of them.
I closed the door on them and stared at the pristine white shaker-style molding.Her moans and the wet sounds of mouth on cock echoed in my head louder than the stereo thumping away at a heavy song I didn’t recognize.
Laughter from the backyard.
The clang of the grill lid.
Snatches of the TV upstairs where Zoe and some of the younger women of the club watched movies.
To my left, one of Jackson’s crew embellished a story about sex.It layered upon the memories and added fresh new grooves of trauma.I searched the room for a friendly face.There was Skinner, the too-thin tech guru who Jackson recruited from Hagerstown.Next to him was Hickey.He was also thin, but taller and more muscular.Both liked computers, but Hickey was also good with money and therefore voted treasurer for the last eight years.On the couch, almost taking up a section by himself, sat Bear.He had a woman on his lap, but she was too busy rolling a joint to care that he was deep in discussion with the guy to his right.That was Coop, or Chickenman as sometimes called.He also had a woman.Jelly.She was dancing near the fireplace with Hollywood.His name patch declared his road name was “Trout.”But the Hollywood moniker was due to his recent stint in amateur porn.
The club made porn movies.And ran a sex cam business.They had whores.
They smoked pot and sold cocaine.
What was I doing here?One of my two best friends was a cop.Wait, my other best friend used to be a hooker.I had no right to judge anyone.My father died a crack addict.
I’d been forced to give blow jobs to the officers of Shock’s court.
That’s what was really bothering me.I turned to look out the glass to see if I could catch Jackson’s attention.But his back was to me.
Slowly, I crossed the house to the stairs.I remembered to smile and nod when greeted.Pretending to be happy was a skill I’d never really lost.In fact, I’d perfected it over the years between then and now.
The music almost drowned out the TV, despite the volume being too loud to hear yourself think.The women scattered on the large L-shaped couch were from various backgrounds.My daughter sat next to a girl named Lily.She was nineteen and going to college a month from now.She’d had a rough start in life, being Jewel’s daughter.But the young lady she was becoming impressed me.It struck me as odd to know exactly how she came to be, seeing the before of Pinner’s relationship with Hilea in Poppy, the woman sitting next to her, and remembering that lovely child who somehow remembered me from that life.Next to Gina was her daughter-in-law, Danielle.She was an heiress.Her grandmother once ran this town for at least two decades.But now Danielle was Sprout’s wife and expecting their first child.
I took the empty end next to Poppy.The subtitles were on, so I began scanning them to take my mind off downstairs.
Gina lifted an eyebrow.“Did you finally give up?”
“What?”It was difficult to make out her words.
“Trying to corral the looney bin.”
