Page 40 of Jackass

“I’m not asking you to give up your daughter. But you don’t have to claim Sam to have your daughter. You can co-parent her together without making Sam your old lady.”

Blade looked away as soon as he finished speaking, and I just stared at the side of his head.

“What the fuck?”

“I’m just saying she lied to you, man. For five years, she kept Charlie from you. You want an old lady you can’t trust?”

“By the time she found out, we were in Nebraska. She didn’t know how to find me.”

“Bullshit,” Blade snapped. “She could have gone to the mother chapter to get word to you. Hell, she could have told you two years ago, when she saw you at The Diner. Fuck, man, she could have not cheated on her husband and slept with you to get pregnant.”

My brothers grumbled their agreements. Those who hadn’t been in the main room for the big reveal were shouting out questions, not understanding what was going on.

I sat there, stunned.

My best fucking friend would not vote in my old lady.

“Fuck you, Blade.” I stood from the table. “Fuck you.”

“Jack!”

I ignored King and walked to the door.

“JACK! Sit your ass down. We have shit to go over.”

“I’m not sitting next to him. I’ll stand here,” I said and leaned against the door.

“Fucking children. Jack, sit your ass down,” Gunner barked, moving over into my chair and leaving his chair open.

“The vote for an old lady has to be unanimous. Blade?” King asked.

My former best friend voted no.

He voted no.

“So much for having my back,brother.”Furious with him, I sat there with my hands balled into fists, barely resisting the urge to punch him in the face.

“Jack, you know I love you. You may not think so, but this is me having your back. Sam has a lot to answer for before she can be an old lady. She also needs to not be married to someone else,” he reminded me.

Shit.

He was right. Sammy was still married. She couldn’t be my old lady until she got divorced.

“Sorry, Jack.” King winced but at least had the decency to look sympathetic.

“Hey, King?” Ace questioned. “For those of us still in the dark, could we get an explanation? I mean, I didn’t know Sam was married for starters. So what’s going on?”

King quickly went over the highlights of what Sammy told us. Listening to him tell my brothers everything had me getting angrier. Not at Sammy. At her husband, at Blade, and at myself. But not at Sammy. She had been through enough.

“Alright, everyone. It seems Samantha’s husband doesn’t know where she is. But he has found her in the past. It could just be a matter of time before he locates her again. So, I want someone at The Diner every shift she’s working. Charlie will have a brother with her twenty-four seven. No exceptions.”

“Do we know the husband’s name? Maybe we can petition for a divorce with the courts. He would get served and either sign them without issue or he would come up here and we’d know to expect him,” Matlock suggested.

“That’s not a bad idea. Nav, can you get his address? He might not be in the same place he lived with Samantha,” King instructed.

“Sure, what’s his name?”

“Derek,” I murmured.