“I swear to God, I will kill you one of these days,” she seethed at me before turning to her husband. “Ash, I thought we talked about this—”
“Callie, please,” Ash sighed. “Go back to bed. You need your rest more than ever and getting all worked up isn’t going to help matters. Let me handle this.”
Callie perked an eyebrow, a little bit of her characteristic attitude showing, “Ash, I won’t be told—”
“I’ll make you breakfast,” Ash interrupted. “Chocolate chips and whipped cream and decaf coffee from that frou-frou place that you like. And hashbrowns and eggs. Baby, it’ll be a fucking all-you-can-eat buffet down here when you wake up.”
“Bacon too?” she asked, turning soft and with wide eyes.
“Bacon too,” Ash amended, pulling his wife in close. He nuzzled her neck and grabbed her ass. “And I’ll even bring it to you in bed.”
“Fine,” Callie smiled, pressing a kiss to her husband’s lips. “But it better be a large coffee and extra chewy bacon or you’re going to have to work a little harder next time.”
And with that, Callie sauntered off down the hallway. Ash watched her go, and I couldn’t blame the man. I’m sure I looked the same way at Brianna. He popped into the mudroom and came back wearing a pair of sweatpants. He gave me a good once over, disappeared, and returned with a cloth-wrapped object.
“You’ve seen better days,” he chuckled, handing me the ice pack.
“I could say the same thing about your pussy-whipped ass,” I shot back with a smile, putting the pack to my swollen right eye. “Glad to know that you two are still so lovey-dovey about it all.”
“Yeah, sorry about that,” he blushed, running a hand through his hair. We made our way to the living room, and Ash sat on the couch and I sat on the chair. “Her hormones are all sorts of whack right now, with the baby and everything.”
“Congrats,” I nodded. “You excited?”
“Fucking terrified,” Ash admitted, but there was a smirk on his lips. “But I’m ready. I know the man I want to be for my kid, and I just have to hope it’s a boy. If it’s a girl, I don’t think I could even let her out of the house. I don’t want the responsibility of having to deal with a bunch of punk-ass kids who are thinking they’re gonna get lucky with her and then I have to kill them because…fuck, that’s my baby girl. And I know what I was like at that age, and I just…no, Callie’s gotta have a boy.”
“Well, fuck man,” I sighed. “That’s still awesome.”
“Thanks,” Ash replied with a sigh. He looked at me dead in the eye, “So what the fuck happened that has you knocking on my door at this hour?”
So I told him everything. Meeting Brianna that night he shot me to King’s plan to kill Satan, the hit on the east warehouse. I left out no detail. Well—except the glory that is Brianna and the sex we had. I left that out. But I told Ash that she’s my woman, and that admission made my heart flutter. I needed to kill King for everything he ever did to me, to Prince, to the other guys, to Brianna. Ash nodded along, listening as I recounted the events.
“And you want what from me?” Ash asked.
“I need to meet with Satan and all the other men,” I answered simply.
“You’re not well liked around here, man. Don’t expect a warm welcome.”
“I don’t want a fucking family reunion,” I replied, somehow managing to keep the snarl out of my voice surprisingly. “Just as long as I won’t get my arm broken, we’re good.”
Ash nodded. He looked at the time. “I better get started on breakfast. You got a place to stay?”
I shook my head and held up my poorly re-bandaged left hand. “Nah, I need to find a doc and get a cast first. I’ll figure that out later.”
Ash looked at me, and I could see that there would be more questions. But now was not the time. I looked at the clock—we’d been talking for almost two hours at this point. It was well time for the rest of the world to be getting up too. Not to mention, he had a wife to be attending to. He sighed, running a hand through his hair.
“All right. I’ll call the men and Satan and then let you know.”
I nodded my silent thanks and we stood up. He opened his arms, and we hugged it out. I walked out of Ash’s house and made my way to my bike. Ash stood at the door, watching. I saw a drowsy Callie wrap her arms around him, and I waved as I rode away. The wind was cool on my face as I merged into traffic, and I couldn’t help but smile.
One day, Brianna and I will be just like that.
* * *
I stood there awkwardly,shifting from foot to foot. Satan’s house was huge and located in a nice neighborhood of Phoenix. And the twenty or so odd bikes packed into the driveway looked out of place. But when you’re rich as hell, literally, then you can afford to piss off your neighbors all the time.
I looked at the white plaster cast on my left wrist. It was at least something that I could observe without seeming weird. Not to mention, my eye was still a little fucked up. I did see that Ash had already drawn a penis on it with a pink sharpie.
There’s no fix to it, I’m afraid, the old doctor said. He kinda looked like a turtle now that I thought about it.Not without surgery and pins, and you said you have to get back on the road. So I’ll cast it. If you want to pursue surgery after that, you can, but it’s better to do it now.
