Bones by the Wood (35 page)

She’d downplayed Dwight’s threats as much as she felt she could.  It wasn’t a misguided sense of loyalty that drove her.  It was a real fear that if Dizzy got involved she would somehow end up losing her job anyway, and then she’d be stuck, and she had this horrifying vision of Dizzy offering to pay her bills or some shit, and she didn’t want to deal with that, so she kept her mouth shut as much as he’d let her.  Eventually he’d reluctantly given in to her demand, and she’d arranged her shifts accordingly.  Dwight couldn’t really argue, but he was giving her some sideways looks that did nothing to soothe Thea’s misgivings.  She was pushing herself too hard, and if she wasn’t careful, she really would end up ill.  She could use a week, or two, to recover from the past few weeks, but that wasn’t ever going to happen.

They arrived at the Louisiana clubhouse with some time to spare.  Thea was struck by the huge, unapologetic mural on the side of the building.  Even with the line of bikes outside, and the garage on the side, the Texas clubhouse looked like any other building.  The massive artwork ensured that no one would mistake this building for anything other than the base of an MC.

The lot outside the clubhouse was full of bikes and cars, substantially more bikes than cars.  Cars and trucks were parked all along the tree-lined avenue that led from the road to the building.  With a few exceptions, the space that the avenue opened up into had been dedicated almost entirely to bikes.  Dizzy was in the process of swapping his helmet for his Stetson.  They’d had to pull over at the state line for the men to don their helmets, since they were a legal requirement in Louisiana, but not in Texas.  The men had grumbled, a lot.  Dizzy motioned Thea over to a space that was the ideal size for her ride.  She wondered what these people knew about her and Dizzy that had warranted the consideration of a space being reserved, not too far from the door.

Having seen all the vehicles, Josh was on a subdued downswing of his emotional cycle as they left the truck.  Thea made a concerted effort to hide her own nerves.  She and Josh automatically hung back a little as their raucous group walked into the building.  The men were on a high from the journey, laughing and joking and downright giddy.  She didn’t feel that there was a right place for her and Josh in front of any of the patches.  But as soon as they were all through the door, Dizzy doubled back and put his arm around Thea’s waist and dropped his hand on Josh’s shoulder.

Not for her own sake, Thea was glad for the gesture.  The whole space inside was packed with people.  Josh was comfortable around the Texas clubhouse now, and he had his friends here with him, but he was still a small kid in a room full of adults, most of whom were twice his height.  Seeing kuttes bearing patches that were different from the Priests made Thea nervy.

The interior of the Louisiana clubhouse was a lot like the interior of the Texas clubhouse.  They both pretty much looked like every redneck bar Thea had ever seen, although the Texas one showed the Spanish influence of being near the border, and the Louisiana one looked a lot more lived in.  Even with the miasma of all the bodies, aftershaves and perfumes, cigarettes and foods, or maybe because of that, it smelled like it had seen a lot more lockdowns.

Thea took a good look around, but she didn’t see all that many women.  It was easy to pick out which girls were the sweetbutts.  Their brazen flirting, as well as their apparent need to adhere to stereotypical stripper chic lit a neon sign over their heads.

Seeing all those dresses that had one thing in common, not one of them seemed to be longer than crotch length, made Thea glad she had chosen the outfit she was wearing, or more accurately, that Annelle had made her wear.

If she had thought that she would need to spend any time in the open air, in the cooler November temperatures, she probably would have argued more, but Annelle had made the point that she’d either be in the truck or in a room packed full of bodies, so she’d be on the warm side.  Dizzy hadn’t been a whole lot of help; she hadn’t expected a man who lived in jeans and his kutte with an assortment of shirts that only needed to keep his torso covered to be a knowledgeable guide on matters sartorial.  The extent of his input had been to confirm that it wouldn’t be a fancy do and that everything would be happening in the clubhouse.

Although Dizzy had said it wouldn’t be formal, Annelle had virtually had a seizure when Thea, only half-joking, had mentioned wearing her jeans.  So that was why she was wearing her only summer dress.  It was deep red jersey cotton, long, floor length, and strapless with some sort of fancy elastic work that gathered it at the top so that it held tight, at least until she forgot she was wearing a dress and stepped on the hem.  She was going to have to make sure that didn’t happen in this room.  She didn’t have an obscenely large bust, but she was little too large to wear this dress without some due care and attention. 

So far, Dizzy seemed quite taken with it.  Since he’d first seen her in it he’d had trouble keeping his hands to himself.  She tried to hide the shiver, more of a tremble really, as he dropped his head to press a kiss to her shoulder.  He lingered a little and Thea felt the first tingling stirrings of warmth begin to build between her thighs.  If he was going to keep doing things like that, then it was going to be a long and frustrating day, and she wasn’t sure yet if she’d have the opportunity to exact revenge.

Dizzy lifted his head up to scan the room. “Let me introduce you around so you know who’s who.”

“I remember who Samuel is, and I think I remember the others.  There’s no way I’m goin’ to remember the name of every person in this room.”  Thea glanced wildly around the room at all the people she hadn’t seen before.

“Not everyone, sweetheart, just the important people.”  He started to walk them across the room.  She could tell he’d spotted who he was looking for.  “And by that I mean Samuel’s old lady.”

Dizzy guided them over to a statuesque redhead.  The woman wasn’t dressed any more formally than Thea, really, but just looking at her made Thea feel dowdy.  It might have been the heels, because Thea had worn flat shoes to drive in and this woman was wearing sky high black pumps with a wickedly pointed toe.  Her black dress was elegant in its simplicity, with a wide neckline that showed plenty of an impressively pert cleavage, was saved from being trashy by long sleeves and a knee-length hemline.  The whole dress was fitted without being tight.

Thea took a deep breath and prepared to be on her best behavior.  How she was received would reflect on Dizzy; she needed to make a good impression.

“Moira.”

At the sound of what must have been her name, the redhead turned form the blonde sweetbutt she’d been listing instructions to.  Thea prepared for the worst at her stern expression, but when the woman recognized Dizzy, and caught sight of her, she broke into a warm, welcoming smile. 

“This is Thea.”  Dizzy gave her waist a little squeeze.  “And this young man is Josh, her son.”

Thea caught the subtext that this woman didn’t need to be told that she was with Dizzy, which meant that she knew something about them already.  That could be good, or not so good.  She’d find out soon enough.  Thea was impressed, though, at the way Dizzy had introduced Josh.  He seemed to know instinctively how to tread that line between remembering that Josh was still pretty young, but while managing to make him feel a little bit grown up.  Thea was envious; that shit came hard for her.

Moira held out her hand.  “So pleased to meet you, cher.”  Her accent was as rolling and lyrical as Samuel’s was.  None of the others from Louisiana sounded quite so mired in the bayou.  “The boys came back a few weeks ago tellin’ tales that someone had finally caught our Dizzy’s eye, and I’m not ashamed to admit I’ve been itchin’ to meet you since I heard that.”

Dizzy gave her waist an almost imperceptible squeeze again.  He got that she was nervous, although she’d deliberately not voiced that she felt that way.  She wanted to be brave about this.  But when it came down to it, she just didn’t get out and meet new people all that often.

“And you’re Josh?”  Moira dropped into a crouch so she would be more or less on eye level with Josh.  “The boys came tellin’ me tales about you, too.  Crash said you’re one of the best young gamers he’s ever seen.”

Thea looked on as Josh beamed under the compliment. 

“It’s nice to meet you, to Mrs....”  Josh stumbled.

“Oh, you can just call me Moira, cher.”

Josh tilted his head to one side.  “Why’d you call everyone ‘share’?”

Moira laughed gleefully.  “Cher, it’s a French word. Kinda means my dear.  It’s just a little somethin’ a lot of people in these parts say.”

“Oh.  Okay.”

Moira straightened, with a little grimace that Thea knew well came from her stiffened knee joints.  Crouching down to Josh’s level wasn’t a position you could hold for long.

“My girl Ashleigh’s almost done gettin’ ready, then we’ll be underway.  I need to go check on her.  My friend Dolly’s around here somewhere.  She’s got a little girl, just a bit younger than you, Josh.  Her name’s...”

“Jenny!”

Moira never got to finish her sentence, because Josh was suddenly off and running across the room, scrambling between sets of legs.  Thea looked on dumbstruck.  She knew the kid that Josh was barreling towards; she was Jenny Cross.  But what the holy fuck was Jenny Cross doing in Louisiana?  What the holy fuck was she doing in the clubhouse of this MC?  Jenny Cross’s daddy had been a member of the Rabid Dogs.  Thea never had found an answer for what had happened to the girl when her daddy had disappeared along with Elvis and every other member of the club.

“Josh!”  The girlish scream rang out as her son collided with the owner of the voice.

There was only one thought in Thea’s head.  How the fuck had that little girl come to be here?

Moira’s face was creased with confusion, as was Dizzy’s, but it was Moira that spoke, seemingly without thinking.  “How does your boy know Dolly’s little girl?”

“Dolly’s girl?”

“You’ve met Terry, Dolly’s husband.  They adopted Jenny a few months since.”

They’d adopted Jenny.  But it hadn’t even been a year since the Rabid Dogs had vanished off the face of the earth.  It had barely been even half a year.  Thea’s mind was racing.  How had they found Jenny?  Where had she ended up?  What had happened to that poor girl in the last six months?  Thea’s mind snagged on something unthinkable.  The system, what she knew of it, just didn’t move that fast... oh shit, oh shit, oh shit....  How had they known that little girl needed new parents so quick?

Thea’s knees nearly buckled.  She felt Dizzy feel it in the way that his arm tightened around her.  She pulled herself up, stiffened her spine, and fixed her expression to blank.  Her blood was running cold.  Her head was whirling.  Too many thoughts.  Too many strands.  Everything was knotted.  She had no clue how else to explain that Josh and Jenny knew each other, so the words were out of her mouth before she’d decided whether it was safe for them to be free. 

“She used to live in our town.  Went to the same school as Josh.”

She felt Dizzy’s fingers clench.  “You know her parents?”  Fuck, but his voice was ice.

“I knew her daddy.  Never met her mama.  She’d run out on them before I knew them.”

Moira was several degrees less friendly than she had been a moment ago.  “I’m goin’ to check on Ashleigh.  I think you two have some things to talk about.”  That last she directed very pointedly at Dizzy.  “The ceremony will be startin’ soon.”

Moira walked off, across the room, and disappeared through a door.  Dizzy was looking down at her, his expression was inscrutable.

“She’s right.  We need to talk.  This ain’t the time or the place for it, though.”

He hadn’t called her sweetheart.  He nearly always called her sweetheart.  Thea had the distinct feeling that her world was crumbling from under her feet.  She couldn’t make words.  She had no idea what she could say that would be appropriate for a room full of people.  She looked over at her boy, so happy and so joyous, talking so animatedly with his friend.  His world was going to fall apart, too, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.  Emptiness swept over her.

Dizzy still had his arm around her waist.  She knew the score, he was keeping her close so that the other men in the room would know she was with him, but the muscles in that arm were rigid, and he was holding himself stiff.  She couldn’t have said whether he was angry with her, because the only thing she could feel rolling off him was coldness.