“You sure you don’t need me here?”
“We both know I need you here, brother, but I need you there more.”
“I get that, I really do, but I need to be here with you and the brothers when shit goes down.”
“And you will be, but we’re not there yet.” He crossed his arms as he leaned back in his chair. “You gotta remember, our livelihood is hidden away in that locker. If anything happens to it, we’re fucked. I need you to make sure that doesn’t happen, and with the cops sniffing around, Remington will be safer at Ada’s.”
The cops were still causing problems. They were in and out of the strip club, poking around and looking for any reason to shut us down. Hell, they’d even gone so far as to have Viper come in for fucking questioning. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, I knew Viper was right. I needed to be at the locker in case those motherfuckers showed up, and it truly was the best place for Remington. I gave Viper a nod as I replied, “Understood.”
“Good. I’m putting my trust in you, brother. Don’t let me down.”
“You know I won’t.”
He gave me a nod, then looked over to Hawk. “Get with Menace. If he has anything new on Mathews, I want to know about it. Also need him to find out everything he can on these Punisher motherfuckers. I’m gonna need the names of every member. Where they live. Which project or corner they deal from. Anything you can find.”
“You got it.”
Viper then turned his attention to Axel. “We’re about to have a hell of a war on our hands, brother.”
“That we will, brother. That we will.”
The next few days pretty much sucked balls. I was in a fucking pissy mood over being stuck at Ada’s and away from my brothers and the clubhouse. As bad as that was, it wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was the fact that Remington was feeling and looking better by the minute. She was up and moving around, her bruises were all but gone, and she and Ada were yammering back and forth like two old wet hens. If that wasn’t bad enough, they kept pulling me into their conversations—which just so happened to be mostly about me. I had no idea why Remington kept playing along with Ada. Hell, if I didn’t know better, I might’ve thought she was actually enjoying torturing me.
We’d just finished eating breakfast when Ada leaned over to Remington and asked, “You have yourself any siblings?”
“No, ma’am. My folks decided not to have any more kids after me.” Remington giggled as she said, “I think I was a bit of a handful when I was younger.”
“I doubts dat.” Ada shook her head. “I bet you were a precious ding; just likes you are now.”
“Thank you for saying that, Ms. Ada, but I never really made it easy on my folks. Seems like I was always getting into something. I don’t know how they put up with me.” Remington’s eyes drifted to the ground as she said, “But I guess that’s what you do when you love someone.”
“Dat’s exactly right.” Ada glanced over to me. “Dat boy might not be mine, but I loves him all da same. Yes, I shore do. Love dat boy just like I loves my own chil’ren.”
“He’s really lucky to have you, Ms. Ada.”
“No, child. I’m lucky to have him.” She reached over and ran her hand up and down my bicep. “He won’t agree wit’ me, but he’s a good boy. Fine as day come. Now, don’t gets me wrong. He’s always been a handful.”
A big smile crossed Remington’s face as she looked over at me and said, “I bet he was.”
“Hey, I was a good kid,” I argued. “Never got into trouble.”
“Now, we both know dats not true.” Ada chuckled as she leaned over to Remington and asked, “Did I’s ever tell you about da day Noah here jumped off da roof?”
“No, ma’am.” Remington glanced over at me with a smile plastered across her beautiful face. “You haven’t told me that one yet.”
“Ooo-wee. Never heard such hollerin’ in my whole life. I thought the child was gonna die for sure. I come rushin’ outside and found him laid out on da ground, and he was carryin’ on somethin awful.” She shook her head with a chuckle. “Till dis day, never could get ’em to tells me the truths ’bout why’s he was up dare on dat roof. I’m a guessing it was just a bunch of foolishness.”
“I did tell you the truth,” I complained. “Well, partly.”
“Okay, then. Spill it.” Sounding intrigued, Remington asked, “Why’d you jump off the roof?”
“That’s just it, I didn’t jump. I’d heard a cat crying and thought it was hurt or something.” I shrugged as I took another sip of my coffee. “When I got up on the roof, it hissed at me, and I fell off.”