~Sawyer~
I roll into the Roadhouse for choir with a smile on my face. As I take my seat at the table everyone is looking at me funny including Rebel, my Prez. “So glad you could join us, sunshine,” he grits. I just smile in return as he gives me the evil eye stroking his blond beard with streaks of silver in it.
So maybe I’m late. I was wrapped up in that damn good pussy of Camreigh’s. Didn’t hear my phone buzzing from the pocket of my jeans on her bedroom floor. I was busy getting head in her shower after we woke up. She told me it wouldn’t happen again. I call bullshit. Little minx is addicted to my dick. I ate her pussy and fucked her hard over the kitchen counter before I finally left.
Our VP, Striker leans over and sniffs at me. He starts laughing. “Fucker smells like pussy.”
“Got a new bitch you’re hiding from the rest of us?” Viper calls out from his seat across at the end of the table.
“He’s tapping Cooter’s niece,” Vegas rats me out and Prez shakes his head. Assholes.
“Try not to get this one pregnant,” Romeo says with a chuckle leaning against the wall. He’s our former VP, and father of Striker. He doesn’t actively ride anymore but on occasion him and Grim, the former Prez, sit in on choir. Two hateful old fucks but none of us would be sitting here without them. It’s not even ten in the morning and they are already drinking moonshine and smoking a blunt. The crazy old geezers make the rest of us look like pansy asses.
I ignore Romeo’s jab. I get shit because I knocked up a clubwhore, Marissa. A real crazy cunt. We share custody of our daughter, Thea. Though I keep her most the time. Marissa likes to party too damn much, but I gotta say when she runs off, she always drops my baby girl off with me or the club first.
My brothers settle down and choir gets started. Prez is sending a few of us down to Texas where his son, Abel is having some issues with the cartel threatening his wife’s safety. I should be riding down but Prez is decent about shit with my daughter needing me so much. She’s only three, and I can’t stand being out on the road too long.
Last time I had to go on a run, Chelle, Prez’s wife kept her for me. I was gone a week. Thea cried for me day and night so hard, Prez said he’d never put the kid through that again. Trucker, ATL, and Snoop are leaving out in the morning. The meeting is adjourned, and I go by Marissa’s to pick up Thea in my truck, leaving my bike at my trailer. I’ve been fixing the place up, remodeling shit to make it more childproof. I want Thea to live with me. I doubt Marissa will fight me on it once I get the place done. She’s not a bad mom, but she’s too damn selfish, and I end up with our kid ninety percent of the time.
Kid is tall like me and able to ride in a booster seat. She looks more like she is four, but the doctor say she is fine. She’s got the chunkiest rosy colored cheeks, my dark hair, and green eyes.
When she sees me through the glass of the screen door knocking her face lights up and SHE slides down off the couch
. “Daddeee,” she squeals, running to the door as fast as her legs will go. She topples over her blocks but pops right back up.
I hear Marissa stomping through the house to come unlock the door. She’s got a beer in her hand and a cigarette dangling from her bottom lip. I look at the time. What the fuck? It’s not even noon. I don’t want to yell at her in front of Thea, but I’m fucking pissed. I was under the impression she never smokes in the house around Thea or drinks while she is watching her. It’s part of our arrangement.
“Hey, Saw.” Marissa leers at me. She’s wearing a low-cut tank top and no bra. I used to think she was gorgeous when we first met but the cunt has let herself go, and I am starting to wonder if she takes as good of care of Thea when she has her as I thought. Thick black eyeliner and mascara is smudged around her eyes and old foundation is caked to her forehead.
“You got her bag ready for me?” I bend down and scoop my girl into my arms. Her arms go around my neck and she holds onto me so tight as though she is sacred to let me go. “Hey, sweetheart. Daddy and you are going to spend the day together. Just you and me,” I whisper into her hair and it smells like spoiled milk. I will kill Marissa if I find out she hasn’t been taking good care of Thea.
“You in a hurry?” She turns her back to me after I walk in. Her ass cheeks are hanging out of her shorts dimpled with cellulite, and I can see teeth marks where someone has bitten her butt. I don’t give a fuck what she does when Thea isn’t around, but I don’t want that shit on display in front of my kid.
“I got shit to do.”
“You used to like to do me.” She laughs and puffs on her cigarette. Ashes fall to the carpet and she doesn’t even notice. I haven’t touched her in a year. When she told me that she was pregnant I wasn’t even sure if the kid was mine. Figured she was a cut chasing slut looking for a brother to latch onto but nine months and a DNA test later I found out Thea was mine. I tried to be with Marissa, and it lasted about a month. Neither of us were ready for a serious relationship but we continued to fuck until I wasn’t feeling it anymore. We both agreed that we would never work as a couple. Hell, she was seeing someone when I put a stop to shit between us.
“Are you drunk?”
“Only a little.” She giggles, and I want to slap her sober.
“Well, I don’t know when I’ll be bringing Thea back.” The further I get into the house I grow angrier. The dishes are piled up in the kitchen and some plates have black fuzzy mold on them. What the hell is going on with her? Shit has never been this bad. Marissa has always been a bit messy but never to this extreme. The house wasn’t like this two weeks ago. Is this why she has been bringing Thea to the Roadhouse instead of letting me pick her up? This shit isn’t going to fly with me.
“Oh, yeah? I guess that’s fine. She’d rather be with you.” She shrugs and I ball my fist.
I’m about ready to give her hell but remind myself that Thea is in my arms. I walk through the house stepping past piles of dirty laundry. I take Thea to her room and tell her stay put. I close the door behind me. At least her room seems clean. Just messy with toys on the floor. I go back to the kitchen to have a word with Marissa.
“What’s going on?” I grit through my teeth at her. She’s sitting at the kitchen table with her legs pulled up, head resting on her knees, running her fingers through her blue dyed tangles.
“Don’t ride my ass, Saw. I’m doing the best I can. I lost my job and things have been rough.”
I squat down in front of her and turn her chair toward me. “Why didn’t you say something? I give you money to pay the bills.” I look over and see the stack of unopened mail. A big red disconnect notice for the electric sits on top. I pop up as she lights another cigarette. I open the bill. What the fuck? She’s three months behind and missed her payment that was due yesterday to keep them from shutting off the service. The bill is nearly a thousand dollars. I crumple the notice in my hand and stalk back to Marissa. “What the hell is this? I pay you more than enough to keep the bills up here.”
She rolls her eyes and I grab her. That’s when I see the goddamn needle marks in her arms.
“Are you fucking kidding me? You’re shooting up?”
“It’s not that big a deal.” She puffs harder on her cigarette.