Arrow of Time (37 page)

“
I don't think a bomb is that much of a risk,” Bull said. “They want us alive. Don't think the families are at such a risk at the moment, either. They're gonna prepare, but even so...”

“
Yeah, want them in a lockdown from tomorrow morning, escorts to and from work and school. From Tuesday night no one leaves the compound until this is over.” He looked around. “Anything else?”

They shook their head, put out their smokes and mounted their bikes again. It was on.

-o0o-

It was the morning after the meet with Phoenix Águilas. When Dawg turned around he was face to face with Edie, sleeping next to him. To say she wasn't happy about the lockdown was an understatement, but she hadn't argued about it. She'd known it was coming, and he'd ensured her that they'd have his room to themselves. They'd packed the night before and the bags were waiting by the door. Her bags were heavy as fuck so he guessed she'd brought hundreds of books.

He'd come home to bookshelves which were put together, and had lifted them up muttering about her not listening. But he'd known she wouldn't listen. She was much too set on getting by on her own, and he was secretly pleased that she hadn't tried to lift them herself. He'd at least managed to stop her from doing that. It was a win in his book.

He gently stroke the bridge of her nose with his thumb.

“Nibbles, we need to get up.”

Instead of answering she threw her leg over him and moved closer with a cute moan. He already had a morning boner and she wasn't helping. They needed to be on their way. He dropped his head and gave her forehead a kiss.

“I'm hitting the shower. You need to be out of the bed when I come back out.”

She mumbled something that he took as an affirmative, and he took his boner to the shower. He stood in the shower trying to will it to go down and then just grabbed it. Holding it hard, he started a quick speed to get off fast so they could be on their way. He heard the shower door slide to the side, saw Edie's smile, and then she got down on her knees in front of him. Didn't say a word, just took his dick in her mouth.

“Fuck! Babe... We're...” He was going to say that they didn't have time and that's when she grabbed his balls, pulled a little while humming. “Oh shit!”

He drove his hand into her hair, holding the back of her head and thrusting into her mouth. Leaning back against the wall, he looked at her, working his dick, and he fucking loved it. He'd gotten pretty close by himself so it didn't take him long to blow his load into that amazing fucking mouth. She stood up, rinsed her mouth and gave him a kiss.

“Ready for the day now?” She said with a smug smile.

“
Yeah,” he said and gave her a kiss. He held her face. “You ready for this?”

“
I don't know. I'm not sure what it means.”

“
I've been to a couple when I was a kid. Just remember it as a bunch of kids running around. When I got older I wasn't much at the club since I was out.. fixing stuff.”

She circled his waist. “Promise you'll come back.”

“I'll come back, Nibbles.”

He understood that she was worried. The idea was that it would all be over quick. Really quick.

“Sisco and Bucket are here in fifteen. Get ready,” he mumbled and gave her another kiss.

-o0o-

I rarely felt lost in a situation anymore. I adapted, and I approached the entire lockdown thing in the same way I did any other new situation. I spent some time checking it out, and then I threw myself into it. I unpacked my bags in Dawg's room and then walked outside. There were people and kids all over the bar. A lot more kids than I'd calculated for, and I guessed they were hangarounds’ and sweetbutts' kids. I didn't see any of the members and assumed they were either in the chapel or already taking care of business.

Mel, Ella and Angela were in the kitchen, along with two other women I didn't recognize. I sat down on the couch next to Violet, and Eliza came running and threw herself into my lap.

“How are you?” I asked Violet.

“
Good.” She turned and gave me a shy smile. She was talking so low I had some serious trouble with hearing anything she said. “Like having time off from school.”

I remembered her saying something about some tests the school wanted her to take, so I assumed she had difficulties and understood why it was nice to have some time off. I looked towards the bar and saw Lisa standing between Mitch and Mac. Stella, Mech's kid, was with Rick, and Dennis, Mech's oldest, came over to us. Smiling at Violet.

“Hey, Vi,” he said as he sat down. “Good with some time off from school?”

She nodded.

“What are you drawing?” Eliza asked. “Can you draw Belle from Beauty and the Beast?”

“
Sure,” she answered and flipped to the next page in her pad.

I left Eliza on the couch and caught Mitch who was standing by himself.

“Heard you're the new Dawg,” I joked and gave a meaningful glare towards Lisa.

“
Lisa?” He laughed. “Naw, she's like a sister. But someone needs to pick up the torch now that you have him all locked down.”

“
You okay?” He was older; he got this a lot better than the younger kids. “With all this, the lockdown and... stuff?”

“
Yeah,” he gave me a serious nod. “They'll fix it, whatever it is. This is just so they know we're safe so they can focus on the club stuff.”

“
And him?” I nodded towards Mac.

“
You know Mac, never stresses about anything.” Mitch stood silent for a second and then he started laughing. “Two years ago he had this job at a demolition firm for the summer. Basically knock down walls with a sledgehammer. After a week he started having nosebleeds, and we were talking, me and him when we were out fishing. He was a bit worried about the nosebleeds.”

I knew they went fishing on occasion. They had some place by the river. It used to be with Brick or Bear, but these days it was usually just the two brothers. I suspected that some part of the reason that Mel loved those two boys was that they had the kind of sibling relationship she wished we'd had when we were younger. They were great together.

“And?”

“
We figured it could be stress. He was working long shifts, you know. Dad got all pissed; 'You haven't been stressed a single fucking day of your life, and now you think you have nosebleeds from stress,” Mitch bellowed the last part in a really impressive imitation of Brick. “He's right. Mac doesn't stress out often.”

“
So what was the nosebleeds?”

“
Oh, he'd gotten the face mask thing wrong. He was working on dry walls with glass fiber in them so he needed to change his mask like twice a day and he thought it was twice a weeks or something..”

I stared at Mitch, and then I started laughing.

“You're such idiots.”

“
I know,” Mitch nodded. “We're gonna sneak out and smoke some pot later. Wanna come?”

I looked around in the clubhouse, loads of people and kids running around, and I nodded. This would get to me.

“Oh yes. Just so I know, if we're caught, how much shit will I get from Brick, Mel and your mom?”

“
Not too bad. Think you can still play the 'formerly runaway sister' card. Or
possibly
say it's my fault. I'm known to be a bad influence on women.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

“
Jesus! How much time have you spent around Dawg?”

“
Some, but you should've seen dad before he met Mel. And then it's the rest of them.”

I laughed. “True.”

He was a good kid. Crazy, but good. Not in the same way as Mac was. Mac was a genuinely nice guy, really thought things through before he did anything. Mitch was nice, but much too restless to think anything through. He was really smart, though, and wasn't shy to use it in his favor.

“
Come and get me before you sneak out,” I said and bumped his arm.

I should probably have tried to stop them, but they'd do it no matter what I said, and somehow it felt better if I was with them. That could just be something I told myself, though.

-o0o-

Melanie was beat. It had been a looong day. Really long. She was in bed alone. Brick wasn't back yet, and Eliza wanted to sleep with Aunt Edie. Dawg would be away for the night, probably a stakeout, so it wasn't as if Brick could have a fit about having Dawg with a boner in his baby girl's bed.

She woke up when Brick tried to sneaked into the bathroom. He came into bed five minutes later and drew her close.

“
Hey, honey,” she said and moved as close to him as possible. “How's it going?”

“
Good. Need shuteye,” he mumbled. “All good here?”

“
Yeah.”

Wasn't any point with nagging; he knew she was working hard to make sure it all ran smoothly, and he'd promised to make it up to her when they were done.

She listened to him falling asleep, followed him not long after, and when she woke up in the morning he was already gone.

-o0o-

Dawg came back in the morning and found both his girls in his bed. Eliza on her side with her thumb in her mouth, and Edie holding her against her chest. He got into the bed behind Edie and held them both.

When he woke up they were gone, and he found them at a table, next to Vi.

“Vi's drawing me pictures!” Eliza yelled when she saw him. “And you snore almost as loud as daddy.”

He gave Edie a kiss. “All good?”

“I'm banned from the kitchen. Apparently you can't have dill weed in chicken salad.”

“
You put dill weed in chicken salad?”

“
She told me to put it in the salad, not
which
salad.”

He loved his woman, but she was possibly the worse cook he'd ever met. And now she'd fucked up lunch. He'd never hear the end of it. That time when his Old Lady fucked up lunch during lockdown.

“What?!” She said and glared at him.

“
Nothing. It could work. Dill weed in chicken salad.”

“
You suck!” She muttered, and he leaned down and gave her cheek a kiss.

“
Love you.”

His phone rang, and he'd never been as happy about his phone ringing. It was Bull, he needed him. He gave Edie a long, wet kiss and took off after grabbing a chicken salad sandwich. Dill weed did not work in chicken salad.

First thing Bull said when he saw him was, “Heard your Old Lady fucked up the chicken salad.”

Definitely would never hear the end of it.

-o0o-

Thursday, May 9
th

DAWG YAWNED AND RESTED
his head on the handlebar, looking towards the direction he expected the rest to come from. When he heard them, he emptied the rest of the energy drink. They'd been in lockdown for five days, and he really hoped all those stakeouts paid off. It would suck if he'd spent hours on end in various trucks pissing in bottles, sleeping a few hours a night for nothing. If all things went according to plan, this would be the end of it. They'd stay in lockdown for another night, just to make sure, but he'd sleep through that. All of it, and with no kid in his bed. He'd made sure of that.

“
All set?” Brick asked him and he nodded.

The big black SUVs following the bikes parked, and Roberto stepped out of one of them the second it stopped. Two guys, obviously bodyguards, followed closely behind him.

The cartel had arrived the day before and had the final planning meeting that morning, which was the main reason for Dawg's extreme sleep deprivation that day. It had gone on for hours. He'd had loads of coffee and two energy drinks, and he was still about to fall asleep where he was standing.

“
Is it all set up?” Roberto asked as he walked towards him.

“
Yeah.”

They had six groups out, each led by a president. Of the rest, those who weren't guarding the compound were standing in front of him. There was a lot of them, around thirty bikes, pretty much filling the parking lot, and then there were the cartel people on top of that. They'd be fine even if he was off his game. He just didn't like to be.

“You've done a good job. All of you.”

This was Roberto's way of apologizing. The meeting the night before had been tense, at least at the beginning. Especially the Greenville Club had showed very clearly how they felt about what had gone down so far. Brick had very diplomatically pointed out that the cartel was there now, and he expected them to back them fully now. Which Roberto had ensured.

Dawg didn't respond, just gave him a nod. Roberto dug up a clear plastic sample bag from his pocket and held it up in front of Dawg. There were two pills in it.