Arrow of Time (7 page)

“
Might bark a bit, he'll get it eventually. He'll be more pissed if he finds out tomorrow that we found him today and didn't tell him about it.”

Dawg wondered how long 'eventually' would be, but shrugged and knocked on the door.

“Why the fuck aren't we just calling on his home phone?” Mech asked.

“
Cuz, if we call on the home phone we wake up the entire fucking family,” Bull said patiently. “If we knock on the door Edie'll get the door and wake up Brick and
maybe
Mel. Which is still three people less than if we call on the home phone.”

At the mention of Edie, Dawg bit his cheeks. He'd love to see her in her sleeping gear. She'd been around for almost two months and had been to the compound a couple of times. Usually just to pick up or drop off Eliza. Sometimes to get Vasco for their coffees. She'd gotten really friendly with Vasco, and since Vasco was his godfather and had been his sponsor, Dawg was close to him too. That didn't get him any favors what so fucking ever, though. He'd asked about her once out of curiosity, and Vasco had just laughed and shaken his head. He wasn't gonna get anything from him.

They heard someone at the other side of the door. “Who is it?”

Yup, that was Edie alright. Hopefully in a very small amount of clothes.

“Bull. We need to talk to Brick.”

“
Okay, give me a sec.”

He could hear the beep from the alarm when she turned it off and then the door swung open. She looked at them all with raised eyebrows as they walked inside, passing her where she was standing, holding the door open for them.

“What's up, Nibbles?” He asked and winked.

Her sleeping gear wasn't the see through stuff he'd fantasized about, but still good. A white tank top, black boy shorts, and if he wasn't mistaken, no bra. The girl had nice tits, he’d noticed that the first time he talked to her. Pretty small, but oh so perky.

“I'm trying to figure out if I should go up and wake him or you,” she said and sighed.

The five of them stood still and stared at each other. It was a valid question, but he knew for a fact that if Brick was in bed with his Old Lady, he'd kill them if they walked in and saw something they shouldn't see. And he had a hard time picturing Brick letting his woman sleep in anything but her birthday suit. They all seemed to be thinking the same thing, and Edie nodded.

“I'll go, but if he starts screaming, you better come up there and save my ass.”

He looked at said ass when she walked away and nodded.

“I'd save that ass any day.”

She turned around and smiled at him before wiggling it a bit. It was a very nice ass, a perfect ass, and he felt his cock stir at the sight of that shaking perfection.

“Edie?” They all heard and saw Eliza coming down the stairs.

“
Hey, baby girl,” Edie picked her up and gave her a kiss. “I have to go and get your dad. You can wait in my bed, I'll be there soon.”

Eliza nodded and started towards Edie's room before she noticed them and instead came walking with her thumb in her mouth. He hardly noticed it, since he was more focused on the ink he could see coming out at the back of Edie's tank top. It was on her left shoulder, but he wasn't sure what it was. Something black, maybe waves, and some other colors in a strange shape. When she passed a light he could see through the tank top, and it seemed like it covered her entire left shoulder.

“Why are you here?” Eliza said when she reached them and held out her arms towards him.

Dawg picked her up and gave her forehead a kiss. “Need to talk to your dad. How's my favorite blond?”

“Good,” she said and took off his beanie, just like she always did.

Eliza was his girl. He had a thing with ladies, no matter what age, so Eliza loved him, and he was crazy about her, too. She was a great kid, a real charmer, and she didn't have enough chicks around her. Probably why she was all about Edie. And she was also all about him, which he figured could give him an advantage. She might be more willing to tell him things about Edie than Vasco was.

“Sweetpea, wanna tell me what Edie's got tattooed on her back?”

Eliza smiled and put her small arms around his neck while shaking her head. “Dad says I can't talk about Edie with you. Vasco said it, too.”

What the fuck! What the fuck was going on? He wasn't hitting on her, so why the fuck were they all about protecting her like that? She'd been alone all over the world for years; he was pretty sure she was fully capable of taking care of herself.

“
Why would they say that?” He mumbled and smiled at Eliza.

“
Yeah, wonder why?” Bull said and rolled his eyes.

“
I'm not an idiot. I know what ‘off limits’ means.”

He could see that Bull had to bite his tongue not to say something way out of hand in front of Eliza, and their eyes met. After a few seconds, Bull started to laugh. He could imagine quite a few things Bull would want to say that included him, pussy and off limits.

They heard footsteps down the stairs, and Edie came walking. She went right up to him and extended her arms to Eliza, who almost jumped into them. She threw her arms around her neck and whispered something in Edie's ear.

“
Did he?” Edie smiled and looked at him. Then she whispered something back to Eliza before looking at them all. “I'm taking this little lady back to bed before she's unable to go back to sleep. Brick is on his way.”

“
Night, Sweetpea,” he said and blew a kiss to Eliza.

“
Night, Dawg.”

“
Night,” Edie said, and the two of them walked away just as Brick came down the stairs.

He gave his daughter a kiss and then turned to them.

“I'm assuming you have a really fucking good reason to be here.”

“
You didn't answer your phone, and we found him.”

A scary smile spread over Brick's face and he put his cut on. Obviously they were gonna take care of business right away, and Dawg was looking forward to it. Watching Brick and Bull interrogate someone was a fucking work of art, and he learned something new every damn time.

They walked outside, and Brick opened the door to the back of the van. Looking at the man lying in there, his smile got even bigger.

“
Who knocked him out?”

He was referring to the cut in the asswipe's eyebrow.

“He objected to following us, so Dawg here clocked him,” Bull answered with a nod towards Dawg.

Brick put his arm around Dawg laughed. “Wanna have first go at him?”

“Absolutely, Prez.”

-o0o-

Bull sat down outside the cottage next to Brick. Bear was sitting on his other side, and Dawg and Mech were cleaning up inside.

“
He did good,” Bull said and lit a smoke.

He was referring to Dawg. Brick had given him the chance to do some of the interrogation, and the kid had obviously paid attention the other times he'd been with them.

“Yeah,” Brick said with a smile.

The dealer had sung like a fucking canary. He had gambling problems and owed some big shot money and had taken the pot as payment. The guy he'd given it to didn't know it was the Marauders’ pot. They'd still pay him a visit. To make sure that everyone was well aware what happened if they accepted goods stolen from Marauders, whether they knew it belonged to them or not. The dealer was dead, and he'd be hung, without head and hands, along the road to Phoenix and found there. Everyone would get the message.

It was just pot, the money wasn't the big deal. It wasn't much money at all; they barely gave a shit about it, but it had to be very clear to everyone that you Did. Not. Steal. From. Marauders.
Ever.

“
Could've been worse,” Bear said. “Could've been diamonds.”

“
That's why we haul that shit ourselves, directly to the client. Don't trust anyone else with that stuff. No one is even supposed to even know we have those diamonds,” Brick said.

“
Yeah,” Bear nodded. “Gonna go home to my Old Lady. Need a fucking massage.”

“
See ya,” Both Brick and Bull said with a hug, and they watched Bear mount his bike and take off.

The diamond smuggling was kept under wraps. They kept it separated from the pot, and the only ones knowing it were members of the club, the cartel feeding them, and the guy up in New York who bought it from them. That was it. They never crossed streams, ever. Pot was a risk with the law, which was bad, but pretty easily avoided. If the word got out on the street that they were smuggling diamonds, it was as good as painting a bulls eye to their forehead. A lot of money in small packages. What most people didn't seem to know was that it was a lot more complicated than they thought. You couldn't just walk into a jewelry shop and sell them. But the word 'diamond' set off shit in people's heads. Good thing was, no one suspected bikers to have anything to do with it, and so far, there weren't even rumors flying around that they were in that business. That's how they wanted it, and it was working.

-o0o-

Wednesday, May 16
th

IT WAS LATE WHEN
I came home, but I could see the people scattered around the deck on the side of the house while I was still in the car. I had been warned, though, so it wasn't something I hadn't expected.

“
Looks like the party's still going on,” Dawn laughed.

I'd been working at The Rover for almost two months, and Dawn was the one I'd grown closest too. It didn't mean that we were the best of friends, or even saw much of each other outside work. She was just the one I talked to most while working, and she also gave me rides home on occasion. Which was nice of her, I didn't exactly live in her neighborhood.

“Yup. Bikers, you know. The fact that it's a Wednesday isn't going to bother them. Not like they have fixed hours at the garage.”

They didn't. They pretty much came when they felt like it, and they quite often took off in the middle of the day, for 'business'. Not even to mention them taking time off for runs, being away for a few days. They had four guys who were normal employees that took care of most of the day-to-day work. So having a massive party disguised as a barbecue in the middle of the week wasn't much of a problem. Brick and Lanie had warned me about it. Wasn't like I could object—it was their house.

“Hope you manage to get some sleep,” Dawn said and waved when I left the car.

“
Don't worry. Thanks for the ride.”

It took a lot more than a party to keep me from falling asleep after a shift.

The first one I ran into was Mace, leaning his hand against the wall in the hallway. He had one of the girls pinned between him and the wall, and his hand was up her skirt. She was holding on to the braid in his beard and glared at me when he let go of her mouth and turned to give me a nod. I couldn't say for certain that she wasn’t wearing any panties, but if she did, they were the smallest fucking panties ever. And she was shaved. Good to know.

I turned the corner into the kitchen and saw a guy leaning against the kitchen island. When I passed it to get a bottle of water from the fridge I noticed the girl on her knees in front of him.

“Hey, Edie,” the guy leaning against the kitchen island said and when I looked at him I realized I'd met him before.

He didn't seem the least bit bothered that he had his dick in a woman's mouth while talking to me. He didn't have a very strained voice either so I assumed that she wasn't doing a very good job. She had a very short skirt and she wasn't wearing panties. I laughed and shook my head.

“Hey, Lem.”

Since there were hangarounds and sweetbutts it meant it wasn't a strictly family thing. This was just a massive party for anyone that was considered loyal to the club. They'd warned me about that, too. Brick had also more than hinted that there might be some nudity. Public finger fucking and blowjobs hadn't been mentioned, though.

I walked through the living room to get to the deck on the other side of the house, where the grill had been set up earlier that day. The prospect Haze seemed to be off duty since he was on the couch and... yup, pretty sure that it was at least halfway in.

When I walked out on the deck, Vasco was the first to greet me.

“Hey, Kiddo!” He had a blond in his lap and she did have panties, of the string variety.

I shook my head, leaned over and gave his cheek a kiss. “Dirty old man.”

He smled and held up a joint for me and I took it. Brick and Mel were in another chair and I had to give it to her; she'd loosened up considerably since she hooked up with Brick, 'cause his hand was where no man's hand had boldly gone in public before. He smiled when he saw me and when she noticed he wasn't moving his hand anymore she turned around and she did blush

“
Oh, Edie.”

“
Hey,” I sat down. “Sorry to interrupt.”