Page 7 of A Wrench in the Plan
Maybe I didn’t trust myself, though.
I wasn’t sure why I felt that way. I think it was the guilt weighing on me, and the fact that I’d questioned Evan starting the fire more than once. My judgment was off. I knew better, yet I’d still let those seeds of doubt grow in my mind.
This wasn’t a place I needed to go right now.
I snapped back into reality to find that LT had moved on and was now talking about the seats at the table. We all knew the change was coming, the old timers were handing things over to us young ones. But knowing it was something that would happen one day was a lot different than Prez actually making it sound like shit was about to happen. It left me wondering where I would end up. What seat could I fill? Or… did he just want me to keep on being a filler like I’d been doing?
Honestly, it was all kind of a shocker. I’d grown up with this table. With most of the men here as the leaders of the club. But, I guessed I couldn’t fault them for stepping down, even if I wasn’t a huge fan of change.
However, it was Sparrow who caught me off guard the most. Just when I thought Prez was about to call an end to the meeting, she piped up and said she’d been talking to some FBI fucker. Which was apparently how she’d found out about her bio mom.
I shot a look at Trav, and his face betrayed him. He knew. He fuckin’ knew about this and he hadn’t told me. I went through a fucking rainbow of emotions sitting at that table staring at my best friend, finally settling on hurt. I thought we told each other everything, but here was another thing he’d kept from me, just like how he’d been in love with my sister most of his life.
Come to find out, Sparrow’s bio mom used to run with The Bloody Jokers. I guessed it was before she met Mouse.
Let me tell you, I saw red when she talked about that FBI fuck messing with her while she’d been up in Indiana, and then how he’d followed her down here. Prez was pissed too, and if she knew what was good for her, she wouldn’t so much as let that fucker get within her sights ever again.
I wanted to blame this FBI guy for ruining my family. If Sparrow hadn’t found out that we didn’t share blood, all this tension and mess that our family was currently wading through wouldn’t have happened. I wouldn’t have found out that Mouse wasn’t my bio dad.
It had taken a while, but I was mostly over it.
Mouse was my dad. He’d raised me, and he’d always been there for me. So, as far as I was concerned, he was the man that deserved the title.
After Prez ended Church, we rode over to the container yard. Prez had decided that Sparrow should get a chance to get some hits in on the mole prospect that attacked her. I agreed with him, but I still worried about her. I knew she could take care of herself, but the big brother in me would always kick in and want to protect her. I wondered how Dad felt about it. Even though he knew the life, it couldn’t have been easy on him watching his little girl get ready to beat the shit out of some fuck that roughed her up.
And, yeah, you bet your ass we’d be in line right behind her. This fucker wasn’t getting away without feeling a lot of pain.
CHAPTER THREE
Cat
“I need a coffee,” I groaned the moment Evan walked out of his econ class, which always seemed to run over. Glad I didn’t have that one. And I sure as heck wasn’t going to take it as long as that professor was teaching it. “Why am I taking sociology?” To be fair, my class wasn’t much better.
Though we usually met up like this, we were in a time of crisis, apparently, and I had to promise that I wouldn’t go running around campus without Evan now that he was back. This was the best we could do, given the circumstances. And I had no doubt that there was some unhappy member sitting outside watching, just to be on the safe side. The week Evan had been gone, it had been poor Mad Bell tailing me. No bar meant no kitchen, which meant no job for him. So they gave him me, and I felt so bad for him. For some reason, the prospects seemed to be needed more at the clubhouse lately. I had no clue if that was something important or not, but I did get the feeling like the club was keeping them close for a reason that would never be known to us not patched in.
“Um, because the TA is hot and he convinced you to take it,” Evan not-so-helpfully pointed out with his brow raised smugly.
So, okay, the guy was very attractive, but that wasn’t the reason I’d decided to give the class a try. One, it filled a requirement, and two, he’d made it seem like it would be a fun class. It was not, at least not for me.
I looped my arm through Evan’s as we walked out of the building.
“How’s your day going?” I asked, trying to bring the pep back up even though I hadn’t been kidding, I was in desperate need of some caffeine.
When he didn’t answer right away, I pulled him to a stop in the middle of the sidewalk.
“What’s going on, Ev?” I asked, head cocked slightly to the side while I studied his features.
“I don’t think I’m cut out for this,” he said.
“What? College?”
“Yeah,” he said with a sigh as he used our linked arms to get me moving again. “It’s just that while I was…”
“Away,” I filled in for him, because I knew how things were when it came to club business. And while I had no idea why Evan had been “away” for a week, I knew it had something to do with the club. Dad had assured me Evan was fine and safe, and like the good little club princess that I was, I didn’t ask questions. It wasn’t like I would have received answers even if I did.
“Away,” Evan parroted, stressing the word with frustration, “I did a lot of thinking.”
“And that thinking led to you having the urge to drop out?” I asked teasingly.
