Brother to Brother: The Sacred Brotherhood Book I (12 page)

I swallowed hard, and told him everything and when I was finished, he sighed asking, “Why didn’t you tell me you weren’t sleeping because of that asshole?”

“I didn’t want to be a bother, I guess I figured you wouldn’t really care. I mean, it wasn’t affecting Noah, so why bother, right?”

He went deathly silent for a minute and I could almost hear him thinking, finally he said, “Right,” but it came out so incredibly bitter. I wondered for a glimmer of a moment if I had hurt his feelings with that little revelation.

“What are we going to do?” I asked weakly, fear for mine and Noah’s safety creeping in.

“’We’ aren’t going to do anything.
You
are going to stay here with Rush and Nox,
I
am going to go have a talk with Dragon. I need you to sit tight. Clean yourself up, and go comfort your boy. I’ll be back when I can.”

I nodded and he let me go; I suddenly felt bereft and incredibly selfish. Of course my son needed me, and here I was, in Archer’s room, hiding from him. I felt deep shame over that, even deeper than I had a moment before. I didn’t have the time or ability to fall apart for myself when Noah needed me, now did I? I swallowed hard and looked up at Archer.

“Be careful?” I asked and he searched my face, his green-gold eyes almost troubled.

“Always am,” he said and got up, going back out into the living room.

Chapter 16

Archer

“She okay?” Rush asked and I shook my head handing him the piece I took off the banger.

“No, I need you two to stay here and keep her and Noah safe, I’ve gotta go see Dragon and get in front of this before it gets worse.”

“Yeah, we can do that, fly low fly fast Brother.” Nox said and with that, I was out of there. I went out, the Charger was gone, and I put my headphones in and plugged them into my phone, dialing up Dragon as I fired up the bike.

“Yeah?” he answered by way of greeting.

“We got a situation, P. One of the Fiddy Street Crew’s boys just busted into my place and tried to rape Mel.”

“Jesus Fucking Christ! What would he go and do a damn fool thing like that for?”

“Perceived disrespect, she told him to turn his music down in a less than polite way. What’s worse, he was gonna do it in front of Noah.”

“Shit, they okay?”

“Shook up, scared as fuck, I got Rush and Nox there watching ‘em but we need to get ahead of this before all hell breaks loose.”

“You on your way here?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I shouted above the road noise. “Be there in like ten more.”

“Noted, I’ll get us a sitdown with their shotcaller,” he said.

“Be there soon,” I said to the empty air, Dragon had already hung up on me.

***

Something like an hour later; Dragon, me, Reaver, Duracell, and Blue were riding up on neutral territory. The man of the hour, the shotcaller for the Fiddy Street Crew, waited with some of his street soldiers outside a couple of tricked out black Escalades.

“To what do I owe this pleasure?” he called out when we’d shut off the bikes.

“Seems to me you might want to tug on a leash or two before me an’ mine get a mite upset,” Dragon said dispassionately.

I stood in my appointed place and tuned out the conversation. The last thing I wanted was for the club to get in another war, and the last thing I needed was to get pissed off and shove us headlong in that direction. I’d called Dragon for a reason, because if anyone could get us out of this using diplomacy it was him. Additionally, if there was anyone who could get me the other thing I wanted, it was him… and what I really,
really
wanted was that motherfucker’s head on a pike.

“So you’re telling me that if you don’t get this cat’s head that it’s gonna be war?” I heard the shotcaller say.

“That’s about the size of it, yeah.”

Go Dragon,
I thought. Color me impressed, I didn’t expect him to be that direct. The shotcaller looked skeptically at us for a full minute, taking our measure as to how serious he thought we were being.

“Man you must be some kind of crazy,” he said, the scepticism in his eyes coloring his voice. It was Reaver who beat me to saying it…

“Tell that to the Suicide Kings,” he said and I tried not to smirk and failed. So did the rest of the guys on our side of the proverbial line in the sand.

The shotcaller called back over his shoulder to one of his men something that sounded like ‘groan main’ which was the weirdest fuckin’ name I’d ever heard, and with our road names, I’d heard some fuckin’ doozies. I didn’t comment, I wanted to see what was what.

“Yeah, Boss?”

“Who runs out of the apartments on twenty-sixth and Vine?” he asked.

“That’d be Shorty Mac, Boss.”

“Uh huh,” he said and licked his bottom lip, head back, lookin’ down his nose at all of us. I gritted my teeth and I could see Duracell doin’ the same.

“Alright, y’all do you. You disappear this one man with no interference from me an’ mine we cool?”

“Oh yeah, we’d be cool,” Dragon said.

The shotcaller nodded slowly, considering, “Y’all some badass motherfuckers, we want no beef wit’ you. You want him, you can have him. Rapin’ girls in front of their kids is bad for business as is evidenced by this little party we’re havin’ right here.”

“I don’t disagree,” Dragon said.

“Cool, we cool then?”

“No interference from you and yours, we’ll be cool as soon as the job is done.”

“So be it.”

“Pleasure doing business with you,” Dragon said with a wicked smile, before he turned to me, “You want you should do this, they’re bein’ your declared property an’ all?”

“Absolutely,” I said.

“Awww!” Reaver stuck his bottom lip out and pouted.

“You’re welcome to join me,” I told him and he gave a feral grin.

“Yay!”

The men from the Fiddy Street Crew gave Reaver a weird look, the shotcaller saying, “Man, you’re one weird cat.”

Reaver bobbed his head happily in the dude’s direction, “Uh huh!”

“Right then, meeting adjourned…” Dragon muttered and we started up the bikes, leaving out the way we came. About half way to the clubhouse, Reaver and I broke off and went our own way.

Chapter 17

Melody

The bedroom door opened and I looked up sharply from where Noah lay sleeping. It was late, and for once the apartments were silent, but of course I couldn’t sleep. Archer stood in the doorway and I sat up, he came into the room and shut the door behind him, his gaze roaming over me and Noah, his lips thinning down into a straight line.

“Marry me,” he said and I blinked.

“I’m sorry, but did you just ask me to –”

“I’ll say it again,
marry me
, Mel. I’ve been thinking about it. I can do so much more for you, and for Noah. I can put you both on my insurance at the shop, I can adopt Noah and be a father to him, I can give you both the protection you need and with the tax breaks and shit, I can get us into a house faster, and start saving for the boy’s education… all of it.” He scanned my face and I sat, shocked into silence. Everything he said was true but…

“Why? Why would you do this? I mean, what’s in it for you?”

“A family. A real one,” he said. “You agree to bear me at least one child, you be a mother to them, that’s all I want, Mel.”

“How do I know you won’t treat Noah like something… less, once you have a child of your own?” I asked, voice quavering.

“You have my word, and have I ever gone back on my word in all the time you’ve known me?”

I closed my eyes and breathed slow and even. This was big. This was a lot and so very quickly. I opened them and stared at Archer which was when I noticed a few errant stains on his tee. Stains that hadn’t been there when he’d come home the first time. Stains that looked suspiciously like blood. I looked Archer in the eye and swallowed hard.

He sank to the end of the bed, never breaking eye contact and said, “Just think about it, you don’t have to answer me now –”

“Yes,” I said, voice hollow. It was impulsive, but it was far from irrational. In fact, it made perfect sense. It was just daunting, but I would do anything, and I mean
anything
for my child and this? This was no exception.

He adjusted himself, laying down on the other side of Noah, I laid down too, facing him, my child between us.

“Yes?” he asked and I eased onto my side so I could face him across the pillows.

“Yes.”

He closed his eyes and nodded faintly, opening them again and voice rough with an undefined emotion he murmured, “Sleep. I’m here to stand watch, you’re safe, Noah’s safe and no one is going to hurt either of you; not anymore.

I closed my eyes and nodded faintly, and when I opened them again, Archer was gone and Noah was nose to nose with me.

“Moooooommy! Wake up!” he said and I smiled in spite of myself.

“Good morning,” I said softly and he grinned.

“I’m hungee,” he whispered and I sat up.

“Cereal?” I asked.

“Tix!”

“Trix it is,” I said and stood, picking him up when he reached for me. We went out into the living room where we found Archer, standing with a concerned looking Rush and Nox.

“Did you seriously agree to marry this asshole?” Rush asked and I immediately scowled at him.

“Language!” I admonished.

“That doesn’t answer the question,” he said.

“Yes, and it’s my business and Archer’s,” I told him.

“Oh my god,
why?
Why would you do that?” he asked and looked completely baffled.

“Do you really have to ask?” Nox leveled his twin with a downright tempestuous look.

“Shit, man. I just never thought I’d see the day, let alone that it’d be –” he stopped mid-sentence and looked like he was struggling.

“What? That’d it’d be Grinder’s leftovers?” I asked softly.

Silence met my question and I set Noah down in a chair at the table. I brought down a bowl and filled it with his favorite cereal and added milk, bringing it and a spoon over to him. I sat down with my son and helped him eat, we were doing really well with him feeding himself and making less mess in the process. I smoothed down his bed head and watched him for a moment while the guys all stood around looking guilty or just plain at a loss for anything to say.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you can say whatever you’d like about me, treat me how ever you’d like, as long as Noah is treated well and you don’t treat me poorly in front of him, okay?”

“Rush, Nox, I think you guys had better go for now,” Archer said pinching the bridge of his nose, squeezing his eyes shut. Nox punched Rush in the arm.

“Ow!”

“Shut up, you big baby, let’s go,” Nox said and he didn’t sound at all happy with his twin. I didn’t blame him. Rush had a bad habit of opening his mouth and inserting his foot. This was no exception.

The boys piled out of the apartment’s front door and shut it behind them leaving Archer and I staring at one another over my baby’s head as he happily munched his cereal, apparently none the worse for wear over what’d happened the day before.

“Change your mind?” he asked. I shook my head silently.

Archer nodded and rolled his lips, “I’ll uh, get us an appointment at the courthouse.”

I nodded and swallowed hard, “You should let your brothers know, not just Rush and Nox, but the rest of the club, you know? So that they can be there; they might get upset if they feel left out. It’s kind of an important milestone.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea, you know its Saturday. You don’t have work, why don’t we go over to the club and let folks know what’s up. I don’t think it’s a good idea you hanging around here today, you know, after what happened.”

I nodded again, and smoothed my lips together, “That’s a good idea,” I murmured.

Archer sank into the seat next to mine and asked, “What’s bothering you?”

“A lot of things,” I said quietly.

“Talk to me,” he said and I closed my eyes.

“It’s okay,” I told him, “You don’t have to pretend all of a sudden to care because I’ve agreed to marry you…”

He sat up straight and shifted in his seat, leaning back, “If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t have asked you to in the first place; don’t you think?”

I sighed and fixed my gaze to the tabletop, “I know the reason you’re doing this is for Noah, and that’s okay. I’m used to being an afterthought.”

“Right, can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“Why do you put words in my mouth?”

I looked up sharply, “Excuse me?”

“Have I ever said you’re an afterthought?”

“No…”

“Okay then,” he stood up, “finish feeding our little man, I’m going to grab a shower then I want you to get dressed so we can get going.”

“Okay,” I murmured, once again feeling thoroughly dismissed. He went into the bedroom and I sighed, putting my face in my hands.

“Mamma sad?”

“No, Baby. Mamma’s just frustrated.”

“Okay,” he said and I had to smile. I don’t recall if I’d ever gone over ‘frustrated’ but we had a long ways to go yet so it didn’t much matter.

When Archer came out of the bedroom, freshly dressed and running a towel over his hair, I had Noah wrapped up with coloring on some plain sheets of butcher paper with crayons. I rose quietly and went to slip past Archer and he stopped me with a light grip on my arm. I startled and looked up into his green-gold eyes which had always been so intense and slightly ethereal with how beautiful they were. Not that I’d ever admit it to him, that just seemed like such an awkward thing to do.

“You don’t have anything to ever be afraid of out of me,” he said. “You have my word.”

I stood there open mouthed for a moment, the proclamation from him being totally unexpected, I didn’t know what to say and what came out of my mouth was the best I could think of with how simply overloaded my mind was, “Thank you,” I said and it was apparently the right thing to say. He let me go, and inclined his head in a gentle nod and I let my feet carry me the rest of the way to the bedroom.

I dug out clothes to wear, some jeans and an old, club, ladies cut tee from the Arizona chapter. I showered and pulled my hair into a pony tail while it was still wet. I dressed slowly and deliberately and when I finished, I sat for several long moments asking myself just what it was I had done by agreeing to marry Archer… I mean, I barely knew anything about him!