Page 26 of Tav
She swipes the screen on her phone, checks something and then holds her hand up above her head, holding up three fingers. She puts one down, then the next, then the last one before pointing at the door where, right on cue Rhodie walks throughthe door, making a beeline for his Ol Lady. He puts a package on the table, lifts Chewy, gives her a smacking kiss on the lips, then takes her seat, settling her in his lap.
Chewy snuggles closer and then pushes the package toward Elio. “There you go buddy, open that sucker and we can really get down to business.”
A wide grin splits my little boy’s face as he tears open the paper, his eyes going huge when he sees the contents.
“What is it, Elio?” Tav asks gently.
Without saying a word, Elio turns his package around to show us. A chess board. He hugs it to his chest reverently before opening it, taking out the pieces, and setting the board like he’s been doing this for years.
“Holy shit, my baby boy has been playing chess and I never even knew.” My hand comes to settle on my chest and I feel like a piece of crap. How could I miss that? My baby had been trying to show me, tell me, have me join in his game and I never once thought long enough or hard enough about it to figure it out myself. That, alongside what happened to Niko and Sage this afternoon has me feeling like a fucking failure. I’ve set my goal, and in doing so I’ve dropped the ball when it comes to my babies. Shit.
“Hey, Pixie, look at me,” Tav says as he gently turns me. “I know where that pretty head of yours is going, and you’re wrong. You are an amazing woman and mother. You’re doing this alone. You work and you raise four cool as hell kids. No normal person would have figured out what Elio was playing. Chewy and Elio have genius brains that sort through information differently than ours. You haven’t failed him. You’ve given him an aunt that understands him. Together, they’ll rule the world. Which, come to think of it, could actually not be a good thing.” Tav’s brows pull in and my eyes roll automatically.
“Well, thank you for putting me at ease and now giving me the shits over what mischief those two will get into.”
“More than you’ll know,” Tav says under his breath, but loud enough for me to have my head snapping in his direction.
“What?”
“Nothing. Let me introduce you to my brothers and then we can talk to Marx.” Tav takes my hand and tugs me toward the bar.
There’s a young man behind the bar, short, stocky and muscular. He’s wearing a prospect cut like Tav, so I’m guessing he also has all the crappy jobs. Tav’s told me a few of the things he’s had to do, not in too much detail of course. That’s secret man club stuff. Although from what I can gather, Tav seems to spend a lot of time cleaning things up.
“Takoda, this is my Ol Lady, Blanche. Pixie, this is Takoda. We get the shit jobs,” He smiles broadly as Takoda gives me a two finger wave and then goes back to wiping down the bar.
“This big guy is Tank. He’s my sponsor. He’s like my biker mentor,”
Tank smiles and gives me a chin lift. Ooook. Looks like these are men of very few words. A squeal comes from the hallway and I spin to see who is making that sound.
“Look, Mags! There are kids here!”
A little girl around Cove’s age with a dinosaur on her shirt runs out of the hall over to my daughter on the couch. “Hi! I’m Jovie. What’s your name? Do you have a mommy or daddy here? Or did the good men save you?”
I tilt my head in question at Tav. He leans down, his lips brushing my ear, giving me shivers. “That’s Jovie, Wire and Remy’s adopted daughter. Remy saved her from being sold by Hammer and her father, and now she’s their daughter. They live here in the clubhouse and she’s been dying for some little friends.”
Cove jumps off the couch and, using her outside voice inside, loudly tells Jovie that her brother was almost kidnapped by a bad man and he’s seeing the doctor biker. I cringe, hiding my face in Tav’s arms while he chuckles beside me.
Jovie gasps dramatically “Don’t worry DRMC will help, they’ll catch the bad man and make him pay.”
“Oh, it’s OK. My mommy is going to do that,” Cove says, nodding seriously.
“Oh, my mommy gets bad guys, too! One day I’m going to be tough like my mommy and daddy and I’m going to wear a leather vest like Papa Flack and Uncle Marx and Uncle Rhodie and Uncle Rider and Uncle Tank and Uncle Judge and Uncle Sniper and Uncle Fox and Uncle Nitro and sometimes Uncle Switch. But I’ll smell like pretty things and not armpits.”
“Ew,” Cove says, nodding in agreement while all the adults in the room watching the exchange try hard not to laugh at these two little girls nattering away like old women.
“Wire, this is Blanche, my Ol Lady,” Tav says, turning me toward a tall, incredibly good looking man, his dark skin shimmering in the light. “Look, I know he’s pretty, but you’re mine. And he’s taken anyway,” Tav grumbles.
“He is pretty, isn’t he?” A sweet voice says, “Hi, I’m Remy. Wire’s Ol Lady and Jovie’s mom. She’s over the moon to have another little girl to play with.” She smiles at me, her bright blue eyes full of warmth, and I’m overcome with wanting to hug this woman. She just exudes gentle mom vibes. Which is usually not at all the type of person I want to hang out with, but I get good vibes from Remy.
A loud whistle pierces the air and we all turn to the mouth of the hall where Marx is standing. The last time I saw him he was demanding to know where Hammer, my uncle’s business partner, was. At the time, I had no idea. I was more interested in getting rid of my cousin and making sure he wasn’t going topick up any more women to add to my uncle’s stable of slaves. My disgust over what my cousin was doing overpowered the urge for me to bend to Marx’s will. I may be full of piss and vinegar now, but my programming as a kid means that I have to consciously tell myself not to bow down to men in power. Like Marx. The only problem I have is that I’m in his territory, asking for protection from the very men he is looking for. I’m stuck between a rock and a very sucky hard place. On one hand, I need to finish the mission I set out to complete. On the other hand, my goddamned kids were assaulted today, my son almost kidnapped by the men I’m trying to end. I’ve accepted being Tav’s Ol Lady for the security it will offer my family, however I know that’s going to come with a trade. Shit. I weigh up my options. I can either take my kids home and go it alone, leaving them exposed and breaking Tav’s trust. Or I trust in Tav, and the men he calls brothers and ask them for help. Which is really damned hard when you’ve been handling everything on your own for the past 37 years.
Looking at Tav’s gentle whiskey-colored eyes, then looking to Marx, I know what I have to do.
Chapter 8
Tav
Iwatch as Pixie’s head swings between Marx, me, and the kids. I know she is weighing up her options. She may not have wanted to be my Ol Lady, but she accepted she needed the extra security that brings. I can only hope that she accepts the help the MC can give her as well.