Page 38 of Keys

“Good. What about you two?” He asked of Snake and Walker. Snake shifted from foot to foot uneasily. “Something brewing for you back home?”

“My sister’s about to go into labor any day now. Promised I’d be there for her since her piece of shit baby’s daddy won’t be.”

Ghost nodded. “You can ride back with me; I’m headed that way tomorrow morning anyway.” He turned to Walker then. “You good?”

“Good to go, Ghost.”

“All right. The three of you will head out with Wren in the morning. Fairly sure that Rabbit and their WTF crew will be taking over from there into Canada. They’ll be ready for you whenever you get in. Any problems between here and there, you let us know immediately.” Ghost started to walk away before casting a quick glance over his shoulder. “Quick, let’s talk.”

Once Ghost and I were behind closed doors in his office, I recounted everything that had been going down since the last time he left us alone in Georgia. The man frowned through all of it and shook his head.

“I knew it would be a challenge for him, but I didn’t think he’d crack like this.”

“He’s having a hard time reconciling the Jamie he knew here, who would have made a perfect old lady for him, with the Angel Girl who runs her own world there. It’s tripping him up.”

“You think he needs to be pulled out?”

I sighed. “Part of me wants to say yes, but it’s personal for me where that’s concerned.”

“Because he fucked shit up worse between you and Keys?”

“Yeah. That aside, I think he’s just going through some growing pains. It’s going to take a little adjusting to the fact that a female crew runs differently than we do. Doing it their own way works for them.”

“You think they’ll stay together with all those challenges threatening to keep them apart?” Ghost asked, a contemplative look on his face as he did.

“Does it really matter? If they can work together, I think that’s all that you should concern yourself with. The last time you meddled where those two were concerned, it didn’t go well.”

It was Ghost’s turn to sigh. “I just want to see them both happy.” He leaned into me then. “I saw one of his regular girls the other day. She looks…” Ghost hesitated a moment. “I hope like hell that I’m wrong, but I could have sworn she looked like she put on a little weight in all the wrong kind of places.”

“You think he knocked some chick up back here?”

Ghost shook his head. “No telling. The chick is in college. Could be anyone’s kid if I saw right. She was pretty hung up on him though. It turns out to be true, it’ll kill my daughter.”

“You going to give her a head’s up?”

He shook his head. “Nope, and neither are you. Just telling you what I saw because if it is true, she’s going to need you when she finds out.” Ghost got up and grabbed a bottle of Johnny Walker Black from the desk drawer and two fucking Dixie cups. I laughed at the cups. “Shut up. They fit in the desk, and I can’t break them.”

I continued laughing as he poured us both a double shot and passed one of the paper cups to me. “Might need to put you in charge out there if shit goes south between Sweet and my girl.”

“I figured that.” Frowning into my cup, I knocked the drink back and let it burn down my throat before sliding the cup across the desk.

“I know that’s not what you wanted, but are you willing?” Ghost asked.

“I’m club for life, Ghost. I’ll do whatever you think is best. I don’t want the responsibility forever though. There are a few businesses I want to get involved with starting up to help the club coffers. I can’t focus on that and run a chapter at the same time, especially a new chapter.

“I know it. Promise, if it comes to that, it will be temporary. Hopefully, I can go put a foot up both their asses and get everything back on track. Get to the Dakotas, take a few to get your head around shit before you come back. I need you all in, no matter which way this shit settles.”

“Will do.” I stood to leave, but Ghost threw his hand out and caught my arm to stop me.

“Quick, you ever find out what your girl was hiding from her past?” I shook my head in response. “I hate to ask it, but the information you sent up here before makes shit look like she might have a bigger involvement in what’s going on out that way.”

My lips thinned as they pulled down at the corners. I already knew that. It was the reason I was afraid to dig further into her past. Something wasn’t adding up and there were too many coincidental pieces tying Keys to a man she shouldn’t have been tied to.

~*~

We took off for the Dakotas Chapter the next morning. Neither of my parents made it to the clubhouse, so I wasn’t able to see them. I figured that I’d stop in on the way back, when I had a little more time, so that I could check on them. Hopper told me that he didn’t think they were living together any longer. That was news to me. Hell, I honestly wasn’t sure if it was good news or not. My parents were in love once upon a time ago. Club life shredded whatever love and trust each of them had for the other, and if everyone was being honest, they should have split before I was ever even out of middle school. The fact that they kept trying was a testament to how attached people are to their first love, even when it becomes toxic.

It was something that occupied my mind on the long haul to South Dakota. Three days of burning up the road, thinking about my parents failed relationship, Keys and the shit she told me about her parents, and it made for a lot of crap knocking around my head. The worst of it was the fact that Keys and I might never be able to make shit happen between us, and that was mostly my own damn fault.

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