Page 74 of Blue-Eyed Jacks
“If you’re legally dead, Shock ain’t got a husband claim, does he now?”
Her open mouth froze in place before she could utter her next argument at me.It shut as she thought about my statement.“If I’m legally dead, Shock got my trust fund.”
“Youhad a trust fund?”Everybody and their fucking cousin seemed to have one of those.Except me and all the other dumb, working-class schmucks in my club.
“Had.Dad’s father.He was a circuit court judge.”
How to put this as kindly as I could?“You ever think that’swhyShock targeted your fucking sperm donor and his fucking coke habit?And maybe why he stuck a ring on it when thatisn’this M.O.?”
Maybe that wasn’t delivered with the finesse it shouldhave been?
“Trust me, I thought about that a lot.”Her tone was acidic.
“Well, if you’re not dead, we should sue Shock for it.”I hadn’t heard of any rumors about a trust fund, but that wasn’t something I’d considered before.
“We?”
“You and Zoe.I’ll help.Thatwe.”With a trust fund, she could have a life again.Maybe one without me.I rethought my offer but kept my mouth shut.If worse came to worst, and Kate and I couldn’t stand each other outside the bedroom, then I’d take my lumps and demand visitation.Because I wasn’t about to get cut out of Zoe’s life again.I’d just begun to dislike her as a teenager, and someday, she’d be an insanely strong-willed woman like her mother.No one was going to deny me the opportunity to see that to fruition.“I’ve got a lawyer on retainer.”
Technically, a whole firm because the club’s legal issues got a shit-ton more complicated a few years back.
“How can you afford that?And this?”She motioned to the house.“You had a shack in Maine.”
“Yeah.And you saw how I lived until this morning.I had a room with a tiny ass bathroom above a biker clubhouse.Every dime went into making money.”For the club, mostly.But also got socked away for legal fees and my Justin Case Charity Fund.As in, just in case my evil doings caught up with me and I had to run.Once Sprout married Danielle and started using the inheritance from his wife’s grandmother to start a construction company, that fund got bigger fast.
Her scowl confused me.“Why the face?”
“Illegal money?”
I tipped my head to the side and tugged on my ear as if I hadn’t heard her correctly.“Huh?”
“Who was I married to?”Her eyes narrowed.
Ah, right.She’d have seen ten times worse than the typical shit we got into here in Skilletsville.But that didn’t include my extracurricular activities, which ensured that no fewer than a dozen clubs around this country owed me a blood debt.Not even Wolf knew about those.But Nonno did.
And if he and Shock were cooking up a way to bring me down, it would be too damn easy to pin at least one of those murders on me.
Except that would also implicate Nonno, who ordered one of the hits.I stuck a mental Post-it on that memory to revisit later.
“About six, seven years back, the mayor of this little sphincter of a municipality saw the error of her ways and set us up with a lot of money and property.”
“Legally?”
“Yeah, all legit.Long ass story short, we had to protect her granddaughter.Sprout ended up sticking his dick in it, and they’re having a kid come December.”
“It’s hard to believe that gangly kid is going to be a father.”Her mouth lifted in the corner.
“Do you remember Ma?”
“Gina?Oh my God, yes.She saved my life.”
It was official.I was wounded.“So did I.”
Kate shot me a look that clearly said, “duh.”Or maybe something a little more complicated than that.I opted for simple.But I also had to warn her.“You didn’t tell anybody that, did you?”
“What?No.Shock would kill her, biker mother or not.”
If Shock killed Sprout’s ma, nothing would save him from the hell that would rain down.
