Arrow of Time (26 page)

“
They're pissed about the attention,” Brick started.

He'd spent hours on the phone and in meets the last month. Mech had dug out whatever he could on the Phoenix Águilas, there was
nothing
to tie them to any cartel, or any other organization. It didn't matter. They wanted to do it their way down in Mexico, and their way was obviously slow as fuck.

“
And they think it's about the strip clubs. I've explained that without the strip clubs we're gonna have problems moving the money. If we have problems moving the money, we're going to have problems with moving their goods. It's going to bring more attention.”

“
Not even mentioning that we at the moment are known to the authorities as strip club owners,” Chuck said with a nod. “They might think we're in the pussy business and as long as that's what they're looking for, it's a good thing since it's the wrong thing. Suddenly changing front isn't gonna be a good thing if they don't want us to draw attention. What is it the Águilas want?”

“
We're guessing pot.” It was Bull. “All gangs starts with that. Easy to grow yourself, not long sentencing and easy to unload.”

“
They can't fucking know it's from cartels. What we're selling,” Marko, from one of the clubs up north said. “If they're Mexican, they know about cartels. They can't be that fucking stupid.”

“
Doubt it,” Brick agreed. “They have the numbers, but being Mexican, they'd know what going up against a cartel means. They probably still have family members down there. On the other hand, we don't have the cartel backing us at the moment and I'm starting to have a serious problem with that.”

“
So what was their response to us needing the titty clubs for money laundering?” Chucky asked.

“
That we have the garages.”

The people around the table looked at each other before they started laughing. They all thought the same thing: no garage on the planet made the profit they'd have to push through them. It didn't exist. That was why the strip clubs worked. They kept them at such a high class that it was plausible that they made a lot of money. It was starting to become a problem that they were getting so damn popular, simply since they were starting to make so much money legally. This alongside the income from the muling increasing at the same time was making it a big hassle. But even with those problems, they could never move that kind of dough through a garage. They were already doing that at a maximum as it was.

“I'll talk to them again,” Brick said, “I'm bringing the presidents from the other border clubs as well.” He looked at them as he said it and they both nodded. “But either way, we are going to have to start looking into other possibilities on how to laundry the money. A cash business that's popular.”

“
Still,” Chuck said. “That's a pretty pleasant problem, that we're making too much money. Let's all bring that back to the clubs, think on it and meet up again. We've talked about it, Hawk and I,” He drifted off for a second and then took a deep breath. “We talked about it, didn't have any solid ideas yet, but I think it's doable.”

They threw some ideas around, talked more about how to approach the cartel. They needed to take that gang out and agreed that until this problem was resolved, the main bulk of their smuggling was gonna go through the two other border clubs. Greenville would be there at those clubs to take their share of the load, but more hours on the bike to secure the loads wasn't a problem to any one of them.

Once the meeting was over, they all went out to the bar. He was standing next to Dawg when one of the older members from Englewood, Angel, came up to them and put a hand on Dawg's shoulder.

“
Playtime's up, boy. Time go get your ass home,” he growled and then left.

“
Yeah, 'cause shit like that's gonna convince me,” Dawg muttered. “He's not the first, either.”

“
Want me to have a word with Chuck?”

“
Not gonna help. He
was
the first one. Same day I got here.” Dawg turned around, leaning against the bar. “This is home, but it's not my club. I'm not gonna come back here, and them trying to bully me into it isn't gonna make me any more eager.”

Brick had never thought about Dawg going back, at least not in quite a few years, he was such a natural member of the Greenville charter now. But he was still glad to hear him say it, for a lot of reasons—the obvious one being that he liked Dawg, and he really liked having him in his club.

“Good,” he said. “Let me know if it becomes a problem.”

“
It's not. Not at all,” Dawg said with a big smile. “If you could help me with mom...”

“
Forget it, kid!” Brick laughed. “She's your problem, not mine.”

CHAPTER TWELVE:

What's With the Blinking?

-o0o-

Thursday, February 14
th

BRICK LOOKED AT MEL,
who was standing outside the office at the compound. He knew who she was waiting for, and when Dawg arrived she went over to meet him the second he got off his bike. They talked for a few minutes, and she was waving a lot. Dawg was mostly smiling. Once they were done, Dawg walked away to get changed for work and Mel came over to him.

“
So?” He asked with his arms crossed.

She'd been working herself up over the Edie and Dawg thing since they got back from the funeral, which was almost two weeks ago. He didn't see the point.

“I don’t know,” she answered.

“
What did Edie say?”

He knew his wife, so he knew she'd talked to Edie, too. Although he'd bet a lot of money it involved a lot less waving.

“That it wasn’t any of my business and that I in general didn’t know what I was talking about.”

He bit his cheeks, but he couldn’t help it. “She’s right, babe. Leave them, let them figure it out by themselves.”

“But...”

“
No. You can’t help a person who doesn’t want your help. If Edie’s happy and Dawg is, it’s none of your business. And more importantly, they're not gonna give a shit about your opinion, and you'll be the one they get pissed at. Let them be.”

“
Fine!”

Another one of those 'fines', so he was in the doghouse again. He watched her stomp off. She wasn’t done with this, he could tell, but all his attempts to tell her to back out of it had been futile. He’d seen it at the funeral, the way Dawg eyed Edie, and when she finally walked up to him and took his hand. It wasn’t about fucking, he was damn sure. Dawg wouldn’t walk around with a girl like that at his own dad's funeral if it wasn’t more. A lot more. Not even mentioning his mood the months between Edie coming back and the funeral. That mood was about Edie, he knew it. The entire club knew it. Mel hadn't noticed, since she ignored Dawg.

Later in the afternoon he sat down next to Dawg in the bar.

“
Don’t even start,” Dawg said and glared at him.

“
Wasn’t gonna.”

More glaring.

“Kid, I wasn’t going to,” he assured him once more.

They talked about other things. The club was going for a run not long after, and Wolf came over to talk to them as well. Once Dawg knew he wasn’t going to get shit he relaxed, and it was a nice talk. A normal talk, and it felt like the first in a long time. Bear sat down as well, and then it turned into the usual shit, basically just shooting the shit. About an hour later the door opened, and Edie came in and she looked pissed. Dawg sighed and got up to meet her.

Brick watched them walk over to the side for their discussion, one of those muffled discussions that probably would’ve been arguing out loud if they’d been alone. That’s at least what Brick thought. And he thought that up until the moment Dawg held her cheeks, gave her a kiss and leaned his forehead to hers and said something. She nodded, gave him a hug and left. Dawg watched her leave and then came back over to them. He looked at Brick.

“
Bro, I love you and I love your Old Lady, but she needs to back the fuck off.”

Brick sighed and nodded. “I know.”

That was all they said about it. The conversation returned to the previous things, and Dawg seemed okay. Some hangarounds dropped in, and the sweetbutts weren’t far behind. It soon became one of those not-so-planned parties, where people were just drinking, the music started and then it was on. They all needed it; it’d been so much shit going on and this was a fucking catharsis.

He was next to Bear when a sweetbutt came up to them, Bear smiled and took her hand and not that much later they walked away towards the dorm.

“Guess he needed some ass,” Bull muttered and Brick laughed.

It wasn't much of a secret that Bear liked anal, his wife didn't, and his solution was to simply get it from girls around the clubhouse. He had no idea if it was something Ella knew, but he didn't care. That wasn't his problem, and he'd made it
very
clear to Mel that it was something she needed to shut up about.

Drunk as fuck, he was half lying on the couch, still talking to Bull, when he saw Edie coming back. She had her work clothes on, and when she saw Dawg playing pool, she smiled and went over to him. He grabbed her ass, lifted her up on the pool table and they kissed. Then he just lifted her up, she threw her legs around his waist and they walked away, still kissing.

“Shit. That’s some serious stuff,” Bull said and laughed.

“
Looks like it.”

“
Not that strange.”

“
What do you mean?” Brick said and turned to look at Bull.

“
Lots of shit’s gone down for him. Vasco and his dad. And they’ve been friends.”

“
So you think that's solid?”

“
Hell yeah,” Bull laughed. “Bear told me he caught him renting some chick flicks and buying chocolate a while back. Apparently she was on the rag and he was buying her stuff to go and hang with her. Teased him about it and he just laughed.”

“
He what?”

“
Yeah. Got her stuff and listened to her nag. Before he was even getting any, probably didn’t realize himself how bad he wanted her. Needed a wake up call and he got one.” He nodded towards the dorms where they'd disappeared. “They were close long before they fucked. So I’d say that’s pretty fucking solid.”

“
Think he’ll keep it up?”

“
He might have learned a lesson when he screwed it up and she took off. He was pretty down when they weren't talking.  So maybe,” Bull shrugged. “But that’s not my problem.” When Brick looked at him he continued. “And it’s not your problem.”

“
My Old Lady seems to think it's her problem, which means she's making it my problem, too.” He emptied his beer and pointed at Bucket. “What about him?”

“
Think he's good, really good,” Bull nodded. “I'd vote him in.”

“
And his bitch?”

“
Long gone as far as I know.” Bull pointed at Haze. “I'm gonna get that one drunk as fuck, see where he's at.”

It was something they did, more than once. Usually while the guy was still a hangaround, before they made him a prospect, and then a few times while they were prospects. Really drunk people talked, that was one way of finding out who they really were and if they knew how to shut up. Bull was good at drinking, so he or Bear were the best choices for it.

“Do that. I’m hitting the bed.”

It was better to stay at the clubhouse. He was drunk, in the doghouse and in no mood to talk about who Dawg was tapping, used to tap or a general discussion about the guy’s dick-activity. He was really fucking fed up with talking about it.

-o0o-

When I woke up it was because of Dawg’s snoring. He’d been quite drunk by the time I showed up after work and he’d been horny, so he immediately carried me away and my panties were off about the same second the door was slammed shut behind us.

Now he was holding me close and snoring directly into my ear. I turned around, scooted down and pressed my face into his chest, hugging him tight.

Lanie had pissed me off so bad the day before, and I wasn’t sure how to handle it. She’d said some hurtful things in a pathetic attempt to ‘wake me up’ as she’d put it. Including asking if I thought I’d be enough for a guy who usually had two girls at a time. I had to admit that one of the reasons that really ticked was that I’d been thinking the very same thing. I hadn’t told Dawg that part, though.

“Oh, fuck...” Dawg moaned and I laughed.

“
Pain?”

“
Not that bad. The light isn't helping, though.”

“
I’ll get you something.”

“
It’s in the bathroom,” he groaned and turned over on his stomach, burying his face into his pillow.

I got up and went into the bathroom, peed and found the pills, filled a glass of water and went outside again. He was still lying down, hugging the pillow, but looked at me when I walked over to the bed. He took the pills, swallowed them down and drank the water. After putting the glass on the nightstand, he pulled me down onto the bed.

“How are you?” He asked and kissed the side of my neck.

“
Okay.”

“
Sure?”

“
Yup.”

He stopped, got up on his elbow and looked at me. “When you say ‘yup’ you’re really not okay.”

“She said some hurtful shit.”

“
Shit that hit close to home?”

I nodded and Dawg studied me, stroking my hip, up my side and circling my nipple.

“Like what?”

“
Do I have to?”

“
Yup,” he answered with a big smile. “I don’t give a shit what she spits out, but I want to know what you worry about.”

“
She asked if I thought I could be enough for a guy who usually had two women with him in bed.”

The movement of his hand halted, and he looked at me and then laughed.

“Baby, it can’t even be compared.” He pulled me closer. “It’s not the same, none of it is because...” He shook his head. “Fuck. I...”

“
What?”

“
I’m trying to figure out how to say this without pissing you off.” He looked at me again and stroked my cheek. “When we started hanging out for real, after that Japanese flag thing, I... it didn’t.”

“
You had sex with two at a time, and...” I tried to help him with a smile. It wasn’t like I didn’t know he was still fucking girls while we were hanging out.

“
And, it wasn’t enough.”

“
And this is?”

“
Yes.” He leaned down and kissed my collarbone before going further down to licked my nipple. “Wanna know why?”

“
It would be a comfort,” I said and ran my hand up his neck and through his hair.

He moved up and gave me a brief kiss before looking me straight into the eyes. “Because I love you and when we have sex it’s not just about getting off or... fucking. Like I've told you, this isn't fucking, it's more. And I won't get that with anyone else, or even a bunch of others.”

I stared at him. “You love me?”

“
Oh, yeah,” he smiled. “Like crazy.”

I wasn’t sure what to say, and then I felt his hand between my legs, and with a moan, I closed my eyes and met his hand when his fingers pressed inside me.

“So when we have sex, it’s about both of us and feeling those things,” he mumbled and kissed my breasts, flicking my nipples with his tongue. “So there’s no need to worry, it can't be compare. You and me, it's perfect, Nibbles.”

I pulled him up over me, watched him putting on a condom before he leaned down over me. It was slow and calm, but still so amazing. He loved me. He’d said it, and when I came I hugged him tight, burying my face in his neck, and smiled.

When I heard his, “Fucking perfect, Nibbles and I love you,” I closed my eyes to hide the tears. I loved to hear it, but at the same time I realized that him saying that meant... that I had to be honest about... everything.

He laid down next to me and I got comfortable on his arm.

“I need to tell you something, Dawg.”

“
Okay.”

“
I killed my dad,” I started and hid my face so I didn’t have to look at him while I told him this. “I walked into his bedroom while he was sleeping and I shot him in the head.”

He didn’t say anything, but I felt him moving, and I braced myself for him just getting out of the bed and leaving. Instead I felt his hand on my cheek and his thumb on my chin as he forced me to look at him. He was smiling, a nice smile.

“I know, and I know why.”

“
You know?”

“
Yes. Brick told me, and don’t be pissed at him about it. He told me when you went to India, so I knew... who you were. Why I needed to leave you alone and wait for you to... take the first step. Give you time.”

I was so fed up with people butting in on everything. I understood why Brick told Dawg, but it wasn't up to him. He'd given a long speech about it being up to me and 'my story to tell,' and this was the second time he'd done it. And this time it sounded like he'd told the full story, not just the main facts.

“Okay,” was the only thing I could think of saying. Then I looked at him and it hit me: he knew, he probably knew a lot about what had happened. Why I really took off the first time. Brick telling him made me wonder who else knew. Then something else dawned on me. “You know I’ve been institutionalized?”