ACE (Defenders M.C. Book 4) (6 page)

10

Janice hadn’t been to a party with the brothers in too many years to count.  There were only a few that remained from twenty years ago.  The old ladies treated her like one of them and when they had shown up to help finish the house she realized how good it would feel to be a part of a family like this.  The women ended up in the kitchen while the men sat around the fire and reminisced.  It was well after midnight when Marty stomped in looking more pissed than Janice had seen in a while.

“What’s eatin’ you Marty?”

“Well I was told it was my bed time!!  Of all the asshole things to say to me.  I’m nineteen years old.”

The women erupted with laughter and offered Marty a seat and a beer.

Angel rested her elbow on the table and propped her chin on her fist.  “What got you banished?”

Marty’s cheeks turned pink and there was another round of giggles.

“Come on, spill it.  We ain’t so young anymore.”  Ginger, Fox’s old lady put in.

“Fuck you Ginger, I’m still young.”  Mrs. said as she downed the rest of her drink.  “Spill it honey.”

“Well, I guess Ace didn’t like…”

Ace stepped in and pointed at Marty.  “Bed.  Now.”

Janice stepped in.  “What in the world happened?”

“I found her with Tommy Rich’s tongue crammed down her goddamned throat.  That shit ain’t happening under my nose.  Damned fucker’s twenty-five.”

Janice couldn’t help laughing.

“Don’t.”

“Get out of here and let us get to know your girl better.  She ain’t doing anything we all haven’t done.”  Mrs. said.

“Not what I want to hear.  Fuck!  She’s not like that.”

Angel leaned back in her chair.  “What you sayin’ old man?  You think I’m a bad role model?”

“You damned right I do.  Marty you don’t need to talk to anybody at this table but Lacey.”  He ran his hands over his head.  The women laughed so hard Angel fell out of her chair.

“Crazy fucking bitches.”  Ace threw up his hands and slammed the door on his way back out to the party.

“Marty set your ass down and have a drink.  Now is your time to ask us anything you want to know about the club.”  Mrs. put in.

Janice stayed quiet.  She wondered if she might learn a few things too.  She wasn’t patched and she knew the rules, but these women were treating her like she was.  She wondered what would happen when they figured out that she never would be.

“Ok.  Who’s Toothpick?”

“Brother.  Been in the joint for three years for beating a man nearly to death over his woman, Candy.”

“Who is Candy?  I haven’t seen her.”

“She works with Ink.  Pink tips on her hair… Good woman, not patched yet though.  Everybody thinks he’ll claim her when he gets out.  Well most do.  I’m not real sure.  Prison changes a man.  I think she’d be better off movin’ on.”  Angel said and grabbed another beer.  “She’s smart as shit.  Ink thinks she’s be a good second for him, but she won’t do shit until Pick gets out.”

“No way!  That man is crazy over Candy.  I bet you fifty she is patched within a week after he gets out.”  Lizzie insisted slamming her palm on the table.

“It’s a bet!”  Angel took a long drink and sat her beer down with a clunk.  “’Cause you don’t know shit about men sissy.”

“Like hell I don’t…”

Lacey leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest.  “Well I don’t know about you ladies, but I want to know what the hell is goin’ on between Marty and Mike.  He’s been impossible since the day she stepped foot in the clubhouse and I for one would like to know why.”

“ooooH hell yes!  What the hell is going on there?”  Bambi piped up.  “That man used to be so sweet and now he’s as prickly as a cactus!  Then today he beat the shit out of Jack all because the clubhouse ran out of beer at the bar.  There was a whole case in the back.  Didn’t make a lick of sense until I heard Moose say Jack had run to the club with Marty.”  She raised her eyebrows.  “Then I had to wonder what the fuuuuck was up with that.  Mike ain’t never beat the shit out of anybody that I know of!  I asked Moose, but he just shrugged those big ole shoulders…”

“Fuck!!  Bambi is getting all wet thinkin’ about her old man!  Look at her!  She’s squirming in her chair!”  Angel was laughing and pointing at Bambi.

“Shut up!  If you had what I do you’d stay wet all the time too.”  Bambi’s cheeks pinked.  “What’s with you and Mike Marty?”

“Way to change the subject Bambi.”  Angel let out a snort as she laughed.

Janice watched the women together.  This was what she had always wanted.  She had always wanted close friendships.  She had always wanted a family and that’s what this was.  These women were so different, but when you bring them together for the sake of the men they loved they made it work.

Mrs caught Janice’s eye and held it.  Janice felt like a bug under glass.  It took her a few beats before she winked and looked back to Marty who had started talking again.

“Tommy went too.  We just rode to town and back.  I didn’t see the big deal.”  Marty insisted.

“That’s a dangerous ride girly.  Pick the wrong two and it would have been a different kind of ride altogether.  Don’t be pullin’ that shit.”  Mrs. shook her finger at Marty.

Bambi shrugged.  “I guess Mike didn’t like it much.”

“What the hell is it to him anyway?  He seems like a grade A dick to me.”

“He really isn’t.  He watched my ass when me and Shad first got together.  Then saved it when those Devil assholes shot up the club.  Threw himself over me like a Kevlar vest and took my bullets.  He’s one fine man.  Somethin’ just crawled up his ass lately I guess.”  Lacey explained and Janice could tell the woman thought a great deal of Mike. 

Marty rolled her eyes.  “If he’s so great why doesn’t he have a good name like everybody else?  It’s like he’s a club stepchild or something.”

“Nothing suits him.  I’ve wracked my brain, but he’s just Mike.  I spent months with the guy while I was pregnant with Megan.  Well the names I called him then don’t really suit.  He’s never done anything remarkable except cover me and take my bullets.”

Angel pursed her lips. “I think Vest would suit him.  It’s his story.  It’s how he earned his cut.  Its’ his claim to fame.  Covered you like a fucking Kevlar vest. That’s it.  BOOM.  I need a fucking gong or something.”  She stood up and wobbled to the door.

“Hey boys!  Listen!!  From this day foreward, Mike will be known as Vest!!  He covered my girl Lacey like a Kevlar vest.  So says the women.  So let it be written, so let it be done.  That is all.”

She slammed the door and sat back down.  Marty covered her mouth with her hand, but couldn’t help her laughter.

“I would have loved to see their faces just now.”

“Oh they had better listen when I speak damn it or all hell will break loose.”

Angel ruined her moment when she missed her chair and ended up on the floor again. 

“Is that all it takes?  A proclamation from the queen?”  Janice couldn’t stifle her giggles.  Maybe she shouldn’t have had that last drink.

“Oh, I’m not the queen.  That would me Lacey.  Funny story.”  Angel recovered enough to say and Lacey groaned.

“Do you have to tell that story anytime someone new comes around?”  Lacey laid her head on her folded arms.

“Yes.  It shows that these men are all bark and bite only when we want them to.  Plus!”  She said as she stabbed the air with her finger.  “I really hate that I missed it so you have to suffer as much as me.”

Angel proceeded to tell the story of how Lacey got her nickname of Queen and the women were rolling again.

“I really thought I’d hate you.”  Lacey said as she squinted at Marty.  “Mike…Vest,” she corrected herself when Angel elbowed her in her arm.  “Well he just isn’t a fan and I figured you must be a real skank, but I like you.  I just don’t get it.”

The look on her face softened her words.  Marty shrugged.  “I think he’s just a dick.”

“That is true for all of these fine men, but we love them!”  Mrs. proclaimed and that seemed to be the end of the subject.

It wasn’t long before Ink came to collect Angel and the other men soon followed. 

Mrs. was the last to leave.  She pulled Marty into a warm hug and kissed her cheek.  “I love you sweetie.  If you ever need anything, you come to me.  I will stand with you, we all will.  You don’t have to call, just show up.  You are family and that means a hell of a lot around here.”

“Thank you Mrs.”

Then she pulled Janice in.  “First off, I know you never fucked my man so we don’t have a problem.  Second, be real good to Ace so we never do.  Third… leave this shit and we will all be back to help in the morning.  I’ll make sure the yard is done before you wake up.  Those skanky bitches should be good for something, but I wouldn’t let them in the house.”

She kissed Janice on the cheek and let Preach pull her from the house.  Janice had learned a lot about the club tonight and she regretted never being a part of it.  Janie had been a fool to turn this down.  These women would have helped her and she would have had Ace in her bed every night.  Janice wondered if she would have him in hers tonight.

He stepped inside and the look in his eyes told her what she needed to know.  He said his goodnights to Marty and leaned down to whisper in Janice’s ear.

“I can’t let you drive like this Janice.  You ‘ve had too much to drink.”

“I guess I could crash on your couch.”

“You could if you want me to fuck you in the middle of the living room.”

Janice met his heated gaze, but couldn’t find words.

“Get naked and get in my bed before I bend you over the fucking table.”

He slapped her ass hard and pointed her toward the bedroom.  She went happily.  There was nowhere she’d rather be and she knew it wasn’t just the booze talking.

11

Ace eased himself down on the couch beside Janice.  He looked tired and his skin was almost gray.  She had been in Cool Creek for almost a week and Ace seemed to be pulling away from her as a friend and clinging to her in the bedroom.  She hated the feeling.

“Won’t you tell me what’s going on with you?  Why did you come back after all this time?”

“Just wanted some peace.  Some place to just be.”

“Well you can be right here Ace.  With Marty and me too if you want.  Let us take care of you.”

Ace looked up and she wondered what he saw.  She knew she had aged well, but it had still been twenty years and she was almost forty.  She knew she was starting to get wrinkles around her big blue eyes and she had found a few white hairs mixed in with her red curls, but she was still an attractive woman.  She had been nineteen and Janie had only been seventeen when Ace and Tank had warmed their beds.  Ace had been older, in his twenties, and Tank at thirty, but the girls hadn’t minded.  They had loved them as only young girls could.

“I don’t think you know what you’re offering Janice.”

“I don’t think it matters.  I’m tired of being alone Ace.”

Ace let out a breath and nodded.  “Might be good for both of us but I don’t want Marty in the middle of it.”

“I wouldn’t do that to her.”  Janice felt her heart speed up and she could barely get her breath.  When he reached for her she didn’t protest.  When he touched her she didn’t mind.  She couldn’t think of anything but the tempest he was creating and she was losing herself to it.  When she found herself straddling his lap she went with it.  She rode the feelings that drove her until they were both too spent to move.  She lay on his chest as they caught their breath and neither of them spoke and when she woke to a darkened room it was to the smell of coffee and a tenderness between her legs that told her it hadn’t been a dream.  She had been warming Ace’s bed since she’d arrived, but this was different, this was an agreement of sorts.

Ace walked in from the kitchen carrying two cups of coffee.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”  Janice refused to let things get weird between them.  They had to learn to live together.  “How ‘bout some supper?”

She saw him sigh.  “Sounds good.”

Janice stood and pulled the blanket from the couch around her.  “Give me a few minutes and I’ll have us something good going.  When will Marty be home?”

“In a couple of hours.  She’s working on somthin’ with Spec.” 

“Something legal?”

He shrugged.  “Probably.”

She rolled her eyes.  “That didn’t really help.”

“How about this?” 

He pulled her against his body and kissed her hard.   Janice felt herself begin to tingle as he pushed the blanket from her shoulders and cupped her breast.  Ace was a big man and he lifted her as if she weighed no more than a doll.  It made her feel like a woman and she just wrapped herself around him.  He didn’t take her to the bedroom, but he pressed her against the wall in the living room.  This was no easy loving, it was a claiming, a need that must be filled and he filled it with deep, pounding thrusts that rattled the pictures on the wall.

“Fuck Janice, this feels so good.” 

She couldn’t even breathe.  Her body convulsed around him within seconds and he emptied himself into her body and panted for breath.

Janice tried to recover from her own climax.  She couldn’t believe he had just grabbed her and taken her against the wall like a teenager, but she loved it.  She felt young and alive for the first time in twenty years. 

Ace helped her stand and smacked her ass when she turned to go into their bedroom and her cheeks pinked when she blushed like a kid when he sent her a wink.  She was hopeless.

They managed to get cleaned up a few minutes before Marty walked in.  She raised a brow, but made no comment.

Ace watched Marty and Janice talk as they made dinner.  He knew he shouldn’t be here, knew they would be better off if he had never acknowledged them, but he was a selfish bastard.  He wanted to feel loved and he wanted to know his daughter and he wanted to know what it was like to have a family for once in his miserable life.

Marty looked up and smiled when she caught him watching her.

“You better not be watching my ass ‘cause that would just be nasty.”

Ace forced a frown.  “I was.  I was just thinking how sad it is you didn’t get your mama’s ass.  She had the nicest ass I’ve ever seen in a pair of jeans.”

Marty rolled her eyes and threw a dishtowel at him, but Janice looked conflicted.  He’d only been kidding with Marty although Janie’s ass was amazing, but he hadn’t meant to hurt Janice’s feelings.  This might get tricky, but then he met her eyes and she gave him a wink.  Maybe she was more of a woman than he had given her credit for…

Marty was looking back at her ass.  “I have a great ass.  Spec said I do anyway.”  She stuck her tongue out at Ace when he frowned.  “Mike too, but he doesn’t count because he is such a huge drag.  Tommy likes it too…”

Ace laughed.  “I’m betting any man you’ve been around for the last few week would agree that you have an ok ass.  Why has Spec been looking though?  He’s too old for you.  I may need to have a talk with him.  And you need to make sure Tommy keeps his eyes off your ass and his tongue off your goddamned tonsils or I’ll kill the little bastard.”

Ace wanted to laugh at the look of horror on Marty’s face.

“No, please don’t do that.  Please.  Spec or Tommy.  You can rage at Mike all you want or Vest or whatever, but not them.  They are the only friends I have here.”

“Maybe.  I really don’t like the sound of it.”

“Dad, please.”  Marty’s face blanked.  It was the first time she had really called him dad.  Ace wondered if she really thought he would reject her and figured she probably did.  He didn’t know what to say to reassure her so he just let it go.

“I said maybe.  I guess I’ll have to watch him.”

She still looked unsure.  “You don’t mind do you?”

He took a long drink of sweet tea before he answered.  “Mind what?”

“If I call you dad?”

Ace saw Janice from the corner of his eye as she dried her own.

“Why would I mind?  It’s who I am Marty and I’m damned proud to be.  Being your dad is just as important to me as being a Defender.  I told you already, you can call me anything you want.”

Marty’s eyes filled with tears and Ace felt like the biggest asshole in the universe.  What had he said wrong?

Marty rushed him and his arms were filled with a weeping female.  He patted her back, but had no idea what to say.

“You don’t know how much that means to me.”

Oh, well, good.  “I love you Marty.  You are my kid.  I wasn’t around because I didn’t know to be.  I’m really happy to have you as my kid.  I don’t regret anything but not coming back sooner.”

“I’m really glad you’re my dad.”  She wiped her nose on her hand.  “The brothers all really respect you and say you’re a damn good man.  I love you too, I have loved you all my life.  I was so scared you wouldn’t like me.”

“Damn it, you sure do know how to humble a man.  Marty you are everything I could ever want in a daughter.  I wouldn’t change a thing.”

She hugged him and he felt like a dad for the first time.  He hadn’t lied.  She was everything he could have asked for and he knew he was going to hurt her more than she deserved.

“Wash the snot off your hand before you finish my supper though.”

She laughed and went to wash her hands.  Janice smiled at him and nodded her approval. 

“She has needed that all her life.  It’s a miracle she hasn’t gone crazy over some boy, but none of them measured up in her opinion.”

“Not sure I do either.”

“Well I hope you don’t let her down.”

“No pressure though huh…”

“Not too much.”