Page 10 of Stone

By the time Smoke steps back into the house, he’s had the time to inhale half a pack of cigarettes and make all the calls he needed to make back home.

With Sasha happily playing with a bucket worth of building bricks, we talk further. After receiving a very reassuring call from Mandy about the custody of Sasha, we agree that Smoke should stay another night here in Billings, before making his way back to Reno.

I have a meeting set up with my brothers’ lawyers, but Mandy has already let slip that Joshua and Savannah’s will shows that other than a significant sum of money being donated to a local veteran’s rehabilitation unit, the rest of their estate has been left to me, along with their clear indication that I was to have sole custody of Sasha.

The fact that they had complete and utter faith in me to take care of their little girl was enough to wipe any doubts from my mind that I could do this. And I’d make sure that Sasha would get the love and care that she needed, and I would make damn sure that the memories of her beautiful parents would be kept alive through her.

ChapterEight

Stone

It had taken around four weeks to get to a place where I could legally make the move back to Reno. Joshua and Savannah’s estate was another matter. That shit was going to take months, but the lawyers had it all in hand and would call me back to Billings if and when needed.

Once I’d decided on which key pieces of furniture I’d like to take to Reno, along with all of Sasha’s bedroom furniture, two of the guys would load up and drive a U-Haul van back to Reno.

The remaining furniture and white goods were included in the sale of the house, which according to the realtor, would sell in no time. Any residual monies from the house sale, which would be quite a respectable amount, I had instructed the lawyer to set up an account for Sasha, a college fund that I would add to as time went on.

Three days before we were due to leave, two of the guys came over from Reno, picked up a U-Haul van and loaded it up with what was needed to go. What took up the majority of the space were the boxes and boxes of toys and stuffed animals.

Sasha and I had to make do with the guest room and basic supplies. Thank fuck for the local diner at which we ate breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sasha was a bit unsettled, but it was only to be expected. She didn’t understand what was going on or fathom why she couldn’t see her mommy and daddy. I tried to explain, but hell, I could barely get my head around it and I’m a fucking adult.

Bedtime was a struggle. Tired and fussing and unforgiving as I tried to negotiate with her on story time once again, trying to explain why Daddy wasn’t there to read to her at night. It was emotional for both of us. To be blunt, it fucking broke my heart, but I had to get her through this.

At first, I thought sending everything familiar to her ahead of us was a bad thing, but doing it this way meant that everything could be in place for when we arrived there, hopefully making it easier for her to settle into a completely different house, town, even state.

I never thought taking a kid on a plane would be so chaotic.

I’d decided that traveling by road, a fifteen-hour plus journey, would be too much for such a young child like Sasha, so flying seemed the best option even though there wasn’t a direct flight. In my book, five hours with a short layover in Seattle was the way to go. Little did I know when I made that decision that trying to juggle two large suitcases, a stroller and a toddler all by myself was a logistical nightmare.

Stupidly, I thought that once we had checked our luggage in, things would be much easier. How wrong was I?

Sasha is a good kid, but she also gets bored quickly. Mandy had advised me to pack a few things to keep her entertained. But I honestly thought that she’d sleep for most of the flight with it being such an early start and had only brought Eddy, the teddy that she favored, and her comfort blanket. She had been fine for the first thirty minutes but, after that, had become restless and fidgety. Thankfully, one of the female cabin crew took pity on me and managed to produce some paper and colored pencils, so I spent the majority of the first flight to Seattle drawing cartoon cotton tails and puppy dogs. Which she would try to color within the lines. All things considered; she was quite the budding little artist.

Eventually, we arrived at Reno-Tahoe International Airport, collected our luggage and with Sasha safely strapped into her stroller, we made our way out to where Smoke had been waiting by the side of the club’s 1989 Dodge Shelby Dakota, which had been lovingly restored to its now pristine condition by Diesel, Wolf and Wolf’s eighteen-year-old son, Cub.

Smoke smiled like a dope when Sasha immediately responded to the sight of him, her little arms outstretched and looking for a hug. So, while Smoke hunkered down to say hi, I unclipped her from the stroller. She launched herself from the seat into Smoke’s arms, causing him to nearly lose his balance.

“Hey, darlin’,” he laughed out loud, her chubby little arms wrapping tightly around his neck. “You ready to go to your new home?”

I throw the bags and stroller into the flatbed of the truck and climb into the passenger side. Once I’m strapped in, Smoke hands over Sasha along with Eddy still tightly in her grasp, and I pull her safely into my lap. Legally, she should be in a child seat, but it was one thing that Smoke hadn’t thought about when he’d agreed to come get us. Honestly, despite Sasha’s safety been paramount to me, having her in my arms is cathartic. Probably for both of us.

“How was the flight,” Smoke asks as he climbs into the driver’s side and fires up the engine.

“Too hot, too long and lacking in liquor,” I sigh heavily. “Happy that we’re here at last.”

“Well, brother, you’re going to be stoked with the cabin, if it wasn’t for the fact that I’ve already gone all soft for this little princess,” he smiles and nods at Sasha, who’s now curled up looking decidedly sleepy, one hand still clutching her bear, the other fisting my T-shirt, “I’d have turfed you out before you’d even got your foot across the threshold.”

“That good, eh?” I say quietly, not wanting to disturb Sasha, who I’m hoping will now sleep so I can catch up with Smoke on the thirty-five-minute drive back to the club.

“Everyone has been putting time in to make sure it’s ready for you, Even Ginger and Footsie helped set-up Sasha’s bedroom so it looks all girly for her.”

“That’s nice of them,” I smirk at that. I never thought either of the two club whores had a maternal bone in their body. Or could it be that they’d done it in the hope that I would pay them back with sexual favors? “Guess I’ll owe them one.”

“You should know by now that they’ll do anything to get into your pants. Especially Ginger.”

I glance down at Sasha, her eyes tight shut, the rhythm of her breathing steady and even.

“Sasha’s asleep so why don’t you fill me in on what’s been going on while I’ve been away.” It feels like I’ve been out of the loop for so long. every time I’d tried to get Smoke to talk on our few phone calls that we’d had, he would find a way to change the subject, bringing it back to how things were progressing with my brothers’ affairs. I know that it was intentional. Smoke knew my stress levels were off the chart, mainly with the custody side of things. The last thing he wanted was to add any YOMC pressures on to me as well. But I was back, and although it would be a few more weeks until I would be involved full-time, I wanted to know exactly what was going on with the club. “Tell me, other than you having the guys run around getting things ready for us, what else has been going on?”

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