Page 6 of Providence

3

Solomon

Trigger earned his place at the top of the Club. A lot of people assumed that he was gifted the position because of his Dad, but that was a lie. Trigger was smart without being superior, brave without being stupid, and loyal to the fucking end.

I loved the kid for it. When I stumbled downstairs, probably looking like a piece of shit dragged up from Hell, he’d cornered me in Judas’ office so no one else saw me like that. When I told him that he had to kick everyone out and arrange an emergency Church meeting, he hadn’t asked questions. He left and got shit done.

We were in Cain’s truck heading to the baby store that G mentioned. Trigger had taken one look at me, jittery like a strung out crackwhore, and taken the keys. We were halfway across town before he asked.

“Is she dead?”

My gut clenched at the thought of Dippy being dead. I shook my head. “No. She’s alive.”

Trigger’s face turned down in a frown. “The baby?”

I could feel my face softening just at the thought of him. “So perfect he’s hard to believe.”

Trigger let out a small relieved breath. “Thank fuck.” He turned to look at me, studying my face. “Then what’s going on, man? When you came downstairs, fuck, I thought the worst.”

I looked at Trigger, assessing him finally. I trusted this kid as much as I trusted my Brothers. “The baby has wings.”

The car swerved into oncoming traffic before Trigger righted it. “What?”

I shook my head, because I couldn’t really explain it either. “Perfect, tiny white wings. They caused… complications. Dippy is in an induced coma until she heals.” Well, it was kind of an induced coma. She was more like Sleeping Beauty, but none of us were good enough to wake her with a kiss.

Trigger didn’t ask anymore questions, just made statements. “Okay, so that's why you need everyone out. The wings change things. You are going to have to either move them, close off the Clubhouse or tell everyone. It’s not like those who were there for the angel fight don’t know that it was over Dippy.” He pauses, but I don’t think he wants an answer. “So you are going to have to tell some of them. We are going to have to limit the amount of non-patched members in the Club, no sweet butts, no one prone to running their mouth, until Dippy is back on her feet and can tell us what she wants.”

He pulled into the parking lot of the baby store. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll have a list by the time we go to Church. Everyone will understand, especially if it's only temporary.” This time he looks at me, staring me dead in the eye with his too observant gaze. “It is only temporary right? She will wake up?”

I swallowed hard, but I set my face into their normal stubborn lines. “She’s gonna wake up, even if I have to drag an Angel from Heaven itself to fix her.”

Trigger nodded, both of us pausing for a second. Then he opened the door and climbed out, like me threatening biblical beings was just run of the mill.

The glass doors slid open, and a cacophony of pastels assaulted my eyeballs. I knew which one was Stephanie, because she had both eyebrows raised at the sight of us.

“What? Was Scary Spice too scared to come back himself?”

Trigger’s mouth unhinged for several reasons. One, the girl was kind of pretty if you liked them just past jailbait. I was surprised she even knew who the Spice Girls were. Two, she was teasing Goliath, the man whose very name made people wet themselves in fear. Three, she literally did not give a single shit that two bikers just walked into her store. Made a nice change of pace since the last time I was in a baby store.

I eyed her. “Goliath is otherwise occupied. You aren’t going to call the cops are you?”

She rolled her eyes. “God, what’s with you guys? No, I’m not going to call the cops because you stepped into the store.” She shook her head and looked over her shoulder at the other cashier. “Karen might though. She's got a twitchy 911 finger, so don’t get any ideas about robbing the place of onesies.” She grinned, and I couldn’t help but smile back. Kid had some brass balls, I’d give her that.

I pulled a list out of my pocket and gave it to her. “I need everything on this list.”

She looked it over, a tiny frown wrinkling her brow. “Is Goliath’s wife okay?”

Now it was my turn to raise my eyebrows. G had called Serendipity his wife when he was here? Well, that was an interesting little tidbit for another day. My brows lowered and I shook my head sadly. “She’s okay. There were complications.” The lie was becoming my go to line right now.

Stephanie nodded sadly and led us toward the racks of baby stuff. She handed Trigger a basket, which he took without protest, and we just followed her around silently as she gathered stuff. I stopped in front of the pile of stuffed toys, reaching out to touch a teddy bear whose fur was the same blue as the tips of the baby’s wings.

She would be fine. I hadn’t been running my mouth to Trigger. I’ll drag her out of whatever dreamscape she was in myself if she didn’t wake up soon. Stephanie didn’t seem to need any further encouragement or input from us. She walked around, placing things that weren’t even on the list in the basket, explaining to Trigger how to use each and every item. I’d think she was trying to milk us for cash if she didn’t make everything sound completely vital.

Even Trigger was subdued, not once flirting with the pretty girl. Trigger flirted and fucked like he breathed. I didn’t know if it was the situation or the girl, but polite, austere Trigger was nearly as freaky as a baby with wings.

Stephanie rang up all our purchases, and I was glad we brought the truck. We got double of everything we thought we’d need, and if we didn’t, there were a lot of needy people in the community. Damnation MC, despite our shitty reputation with the law, had always been a port of last resort for those desperate in the community. We did toy drives at Christmas, and we gave food to the women’s shelter.

I thanked Stephanie as she gave me the receipt. “No problem. You tell Goliath that I’ll be praying for him.”

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