Page 8 of Jasper
“Once we find them, then what?” Slate says.
“Then we keep on top of them. I want to know who’s bedding down in our backyard without permission. And then I want to know exactly what kind of mischief they’re up to in our town. Only then will we move against them.”
That gets a few nods. “We start quietly poking around,” I add. “No patches or guns. I don’t want to trigger a response from them until we know what we’re dealing with. It still bothers me that their cuts and patches were so new, but their bikes were cobbled together from garbage. If they have the cartel backing them, it seems they would have decent bikes.”
Onyx leans forward. “It could mean all their money is going for accommodations or weapons.”
“They would be pretty damn stupid to blow their advancements on hotels when there are so many abandoned properties around. So, I’m gonna say it’s either guns or they’re still in a proving stage with their financial backers,” Slate adds.
I rub my short beard thoughtfully with one hand. “Or it could that building their own bikes from scrap is just part of their club culture. Think about it, Hyenas have a reputation as being purely scavengers who profit from the hard work of other carnivores. It could be they like to source parts from salvage junkyards and build bikes that can outrun everything on the road but look like shit. Thinking they’re less competent or lessdangerous because of the way their biker present would be a serious miscalculation.”
Our old man finally speaks again. “Smart thinking, Jasper. I’m more convinced than ever that there’s nothing my boys can’t do when they put their fucking heads together,” he says proudly.
I jerk my chin at Slate and tell him, “Organize the brothers in groups of three and let’s canvass the town for twenty miles in every direction. Let’s see if we can figure out where they’re living.”
“I’m on it, bro.” Slate is a bundle of nervous energy when there is an enemy in our sights. He stalks out of the office, all eager and deadly.
I turn to Mica and Onyx. “Why don’t the two of you get with Caesar and see about getting an IT crew together. Onyx, I want you working with a small team to hack cameras around town. Mica, I want you working with a team to track down everything you can find on the Hyenas. Drill down on their financials. I want to know where they’re getting their money and whether it’s bank cards, credit cards, or cash that fuels their operation.”
They both leave as well. All of the club officers have small offices here, so I’m almost a hundred percent certain that’s where they’ll be.
When it is just my old man and myself, he asks, “What job did you assign yourself?”
“I’ll be contacting our allies to see if they’ve got intel on the Hyenas. Someone’s got to have seen ‘em before. They can’t have just sprung outta thin air.”
“Sounds like a good plan. Now act like that wasn’t your second brush with death this year, get cleaned up, and get afterthese fuckers. I don’t have to remind you that having outlaws in our town will be dangerous for every law-abiding person who lives here. We can’t have them trafficking women, cookin’ meth, running guns, or any damn thing else that might draw more criminal elements to Cedar Falls.”
“Don’t worry. I’m gonna stay on them like stink on a dog’s ass. Those fuckers won’t pop their heads up again in this town without me knowin’ about it.”
“I know that you will, son. If I had any doubts, I’d be handling this myself.”
I walk out of his office tall and proud, knowing that I’m one step closer to the job I was always meant to have. I don’t go to the common room. I don’t check in with Queenie or grab a beer from the bar. I just keep moving, straight to my room on the second floor. I climb the stairs slowly, with every step jabbing a hot pulse of pain up and down my leg.
When I open the door to my suite, it’s dark inside. I don’t bother with the lights. The only thing on my mind is getting a nice hot shower. I need to clean the damn blood and grime off my body.
When I strip down, every movement comes with a bite of pain. My shirt sticks to my skin with blood and sweat, and my jeans feel like they’ve fused to the stitches. I peel them back with a hiss, then toss everything in the corner of the bathroom. I open one of the drawers, pull out clingfilm, and begin wrapping it around the bandage on my leg. It’s a testament to the violent life I lead that I just keep this kind of shit in my bathroom.
The water’s hot as hell, but that is the way I like it. It’s the kind of hot that stings at first, then radiates into muscle and goesbone deep. I brace both hands against the tile wall, let my head hang low, and let the heat wash over me.
And for a moment, I stand there letting myself enjoy the hot water pouring over my bare shoulders. I feel the ache in my muscles, the fucking loneliness. The men in our club are lucky in life but not in love. We have the MC, each other, jobs, money, and club girls. That should be enough for a man, I tell myself. Truth be told, it seems like enough for my club brothers. Not for me though. I long for what my old man has. A woman who looks up to him, who has smiles that are just for him and no one else. A soft feminine voice to soothe his savage soul when times are bad. My ma is his light in the dark.
The club keeps me busy. Most women aren’t looking to get into a serious relationship with the VP of a bike club. That means I have to settle for coming home alone or hooking up with club girls that mostly just want to become my old lady for the status and the life I can offer.
But lately I can’t stop thinking about what it would be like to be loved by a good woman. To have an old lady, and maybe even a kid one day. I dream about it at night. In those dreams, I can almost see her face and feel her warmth. She’s always just out of reach, and then I wake up alone.
I press my forehead against the tile, water still pounding over my aching body. It’s stupid to think this way. Some might even say it’s weak. But I fuckin’ want a family of my own more than anything. I’m ready for something real and lasting with a woman, one who doesn’t see me as a damn trophy to be won and waved in the faces of all the other club girls.
I somehow manage to rinse off, step out of the shower, and dry off, all in complete silence. I rip off the plastic covering frommy leg and clean around the bandage as best I can with a soapy washcloth. By the time I collapse onto my bed, I’m exhausted.. Instead of stumbling around the clubhouse in a stupor, I decide to sleep it off for a couple of hours and then get after the Hyenas like we planned.
Chapter 4
Tessa
I’m a few days shy of the ten week mark we talked about meeting before being transferred to Dr. Krauss, so that makes me two and half months along. Mrs. Whitmore has not let up on pressuring me about the details. At first, I thought I might have misjudged her. Maybe all the crazy in-depth planning was her way of handling the stress of not knowing and fearing that it wouldn’t be successful. Nope, come to find out, that’s just her regular personality.
But today we got called to the fertility clinic for an urgent meeting. And even though I’ve been having serious misgivings about being a surrogate for the Whitmores, I hope nothing terrible has happened to the baby. We’re all three nervously awaiting the news, when the medical director walks into the consultation room and sits down at behind the desk.
After polite greetings his expression turns wary. “Thank you all for coming today,” Dr. Langford states in a flat tone. “Unfortunately, there has been a slight complication.”
