Scarred Asphalt (13 page)

Chapter Eighteen

Today was the day.

The day to let loose and have some fun.

The Twentieth Annual SOMC Block Party.

Romeo had several Nomads of the club staying at the ranch
since they were spending the week cleaning up the clubhouse and getting it
ready for the event that Orcutt lived for. The two prospects, Zacky-boy and
Knucklehead, had helped with the renovations, though they were still missing
one, Janus.

Romeo had the whole block shut down, from the top of the
hill where Elmer’s was, all the way down to the old antique tea shop of Amy’s,
Ariel’s Treasure Cove. All of the businesses pitched in some money or supplies,
everything from alcohol to hamburgers and hot dogs. Every business owner and
employee was welcome to the party, along with the SOMC chapters from Reno,
Louisiana, and Mississippi. Not only was the club there, but their support
group, the Steel Horsemen, was there to BBQ.

All the money taken in from the games and vendors strewn
about the street was given to the local pit bull rescue to ensure the animals
were well taken care of. Security roamed the perimeter of the party, made up of
all the prospects from each chapter, and a couple of off duty policemen that
were friends with the club and tended to look out after them.

The vendors were mostly club members’ ol’ ladies, selling
things they made, usually something dealing with the SOMC, whether it be
patches, jewelry, pins; you name it, the women were selling it. The games were
set up for the kids: a cake walk, dunk the Reno president, bean bag toss, ring
toss, gold fishing, and a huge ass Twister that the adults could even play on.
There was face painting by Antonia, who was decked out to the nines in an elaborate
Tinker Bell costume that the kids seemed to love.

Romeo even invited the local gypsy to set up her red tent to
read fortunes and palms of whatever fool decided to venture in and waste their
money. Hell, even Romeo was debating going in and forking over twenty bucks to
see if she could tell him what the fuck to do.

Clowns wandered the block handing out balloons, making
balloon animals, and scaring a few people as well, much to the delight of
several members. Food vendors were selling sno-cones, churros, funnel cakes,
ice cream, and cotton candy. Off to the side was a huge tent setup that held
picnic tables and chairs for those who wanted out of the sunlight and to eat
and cool off.

Three bands had been hired, as well as Grant Random, from
Sirius XM’s OCTANE, to DJ the event and be the spokesperson and guest of honor.
In front of the stage was a portable dance floor for liquored up idiots and
those who just plain liked to boogie to dance their asses off.

Romeo was currently surveying the party from the bottom of
the small hill, beer in hand. His poor bald head was covered with a baseball
cap slung low over his eyes. He was with Wolf; Sinjin, vice president of the
Reno, Nevada chapter; Bishop, president of the New Orleans, Louisiana chapter;
Trouble, president of the Steel Horsemen; and Injun, president of the Meridian,
Mississippi chapter.

“How’s Amy holding up, man? She’s looking fat and sassy.”
Bishop asked as his nearly black eyes glanced to Romeo then back to watching
the crowd. He was the smallest of the group, a mere five foot eleven, but he
was built like a brick shit house. The man lived in the gym when he wasn’t
working his tattoo shop. With short cropped black hair, he sported a very close
shaven beard that could technically be called a five o’clock shadow.

Romeo snorted and lifted up the beer holding hand, motioning
to Mace and Amy at the cotton candy vendor. “Exactly that. She keeps Mace on
his toes, and we just found out they’re having twins.”

Sinjin burst out laughing as he pulled back the long,
red-tinted blond hair out of his steel grey eyes and tied it off. “You sure
Mace can handle her
and
twins?”

Romeo laughed with everyone, head tilted to the side to
glance to the Viking. “He can hold his own. I’m glad he made it.”

Wolf nudged Romeo with his elbow, his chin lifted slightly
to indicate who he wanted Romeo to look at.

A low whistle came from Injun with a small shake of his
head. “Apollo is playing with fire there.”

“Yeah, but it’s a good match. She needed to have her ass
straightened out and he is the best to do it.” Romeo finished off his beer and
tossed the bottle in the garbage. He stepped past Injun and stuck his hand in
the cooler to dig around to find a water.

“She’ll kick the shit out of him if he steps out of line.”
Injun snickered, clinking bottles with the others, who nodded in agreement.

He looked back to the heavy set male. He had light-brown
hair that was medium length, slightly curly and slicked back, showing the
blazing blue eyes off. His face was handsome and sharp angled, six foot two and
thick boned, not male model material, but you literally had to beat the hordes
of women off of him most of the time.

“That’s what I had in mind when I set it up.” Romeo pulled
out a bottle of water, uncapped it, and drank half of it down.

Sinjin nodded, following Romeo’s lead on the water and
grabbed one of his own. “I’m shocked he got her out in public like this. Your
plan seems to be working. She’s actually smiling.”

Trouble chimed in, the double pierced labret hooks moving
with his mouth. “She won’t be smiling if someone opens their mouth about what
really happened.”

The baldheaded male dampened the cheerful mood with reality,
forcing a frown from Romeo. “Yeah, she’ll go fucking postal if she finds out.
But I know Apollo. It’ll never come from him.”

Bishop cleared his throat, rocking back on his booted heels.
“Speaking of going postal, I have to say, Romeo, we’re all impressed at your
decision not to go to war over this shit.”

And on that note…

Romeo reached for another beer, twisted off the cap, and
snapped it into the garbage can. “Yeah, well, thank Wolf for talking me down.”

Wolf turned to look at the others with a quirked brow. “I
didn’t talk shit down. I just spoke the truth. The rest is on you.”

“I don’t give a damn how it happened, but we’ve got your six
on whatever you decide.” Sinjin lifted his water in salute and drank it all
down, ready to go back to beer.

Romeo leaned against the tailgate of the club truck, long
legs crossed at the ankles with a grin. “I know, bro. I’m not worried about
that. And look who just arrived, late as usual.”

Every male turned to see who Romeo was talking about.

The Hell’s Belles always made quite an entrance. Romeo could
honestly say there was not one unattractive female in the bunch. The girls strolled
in, scratch that—prowled in—each one in some form of Daisy Dukes and boots,
whether they were cowboy boots or thigh highs, the women were strutting their
shit like it didn’t stink. Since it was a family event, Romeo warned Kitra to
tell the club president, Tessa, to make sure they kept their tops on. They
usually just walked around in see-through tops, vests that were held open by
chains, or pasties. Today, they were in support shirts, baby T’s, tanks, and
halter tops.

Good girls.

“And this is my cue to leave.” Sinjin grinned large and in
charge, nodded to the other men, only to leave them behind to go talk to the
ladies.

Bishop, Trouble, and Injun weren’t far behind, leaving Wolf
and Romeo alone.

“You know…”

Romeo cut Wolf off mid-sentence as he stared ahead at the
men making fools of themselves in front of the 82s. “At our eleven o’clock. I
heard them roll up, they’ve been watching for about twenty minutes.”

“That’s the Romeo I know.” Wolf’s voice held a hint of
praise as he crossed his arms over the black tank top covered chest.

“I don’t know if anyone else has noticed them. If they have,
they’re doing a great job ignoring them.” Romeo tilted his head back to empty
his beer bottle, leaning to the side and grabbing another when he finished the
one he had.

“I know Sinjin and Bishop did. I saw their body language
shift.”

“Dude, you are seriously one creepy, fucked up individual.”

Romeo and Wolf had grown up with one another their whole
lives, Stone acting as a surrogate father. Demon, Wolf, and Romeo were the
Three Musketeers. Inseparable. Until Wolf joined the military and was sent off
to war. He came back a different man. Romeo knew he suffered from PTSD and was
helping him through it as much as he could. Wolf refused to talk about what he
had seen or had done overseas, but admitted that he was specially trained and
if it wasn’t an urban legend, his hands would be registered as lethal weapons.

“Thank you.” A white-toothed grin was given, the hazel eyes
hidden by a pair of mirrored sunglasses.

“You think they’re trying to get Intel? Or maybe thinking of
crashing the party?”

Wolf shook his head. “Muerte has balls, but he isn’t dumb.”

“True, we’ve got enough fire power here to start a
survivalist camp. That and the cops here.” Romeo sighed and shook his head.
“The only information they’ll be getting right now is that the ladies of the
82s have bods from Hell.”

Sniggering, Wolf finished off his beer and tossed it to the
can. “That they do.” His head cocked to the side.

“Hear something?” Romeo glanced around then back to Wolf.
Seriously, sometimes Romeo wondered if they did some super soldier experiments
on Wolf with his keen senses that he had.

“They’re gone. I heard the last bike leave.”

“Like I said.” Romeo snorted and pushed off the tailgate,
his ass going numb from sitting there too long. “How about let’s go throw balls
at Red?”

Big Red, otherwise known as Red, was Sinjin’s father and
president of the Reno chapter. He was straight off the boat from Norway and
looked like a giant. The kids all adored him, using him as a jungle gym, since
he was six foot seven. His son came by it honest, looking like a true Viking,
down to the shaved undercut and long hair, tattoo’s on the sides of his head
depicting his Nordic heritage.

“Mr. James?”

The voice stopped Romeo from moving, forcing him to turn
slightly and see who was calling him by his father’s name. Being formally
addressed was not something he was used to. “Yeah?”

He came face to face with a younger version of what could be
his mother or Amy, and a male in a suit standing next to her. The girl looked
to be maybe all of thirteen, with strawberry blonde hair that looked to be
turning brown, reaching down to her back in loose curls. The eyes that stared
back at him screamed Stone; they were Icelandic blue and framed by thick black
lashes. She did not have the skin coloring of a redhead, but held a slight
caramel color as if she spent hours out in the sun tanning. She was taller than
most girls her age should be, and she was already developing a healthy figure
of curves that could make a man misjudge her age rather easily.

The male stuck out his hand. “I’m Thomas Rathorne, Esquire,
you are Zen James?”

“You obviously know that already if you’re talking to me.”
Romeo took the male’s hand and gave it a firm shake. “What can I do for you?”

Rathorne reached into his suit pocket, produced an envelope,
and held it out to Romeo. “You have sole custody of your daughter, Shiloh
Margaret Lopez-James.”

Come again?

Romeo looked to Wolf, who was impassive as always, and just
shrugged like an idiot, then looked back to the hand still holding the envelope
for him to take. “I’m sorry. You sure you got the right guy?”

“All the information is in the envelope, with a letter from
her mother, Margaret Rose Lopez. I believe you knew her as Maggie?”

All of his breath left him. It felt like someone nut-checked
his ass. His vision went dark for a split second, forcing him to shake his head
and blink rapidly. Instant reaction was sheer fucking denial. He barked out in
laughter. “The guys put you up to this, didn’t they?”

Rathorne cleared his throat nervously even though he wagged
the sealed envelope in his hand. “What guys?”

Wolf gave the slightest shake of his head, then leaned it
toward the girl. “We had nothing to do with this, bro.”

“Could you stop talking about me like I’m not here? Geeze.”
The girl snatched the envelope out of the lawyer’s hand and slapped it up
against Romeo’s chest. “Will you read it already?”

Romeo’s head snapped toward the girl, eyes meeting her own.
Her gaze never wavered, though she lifted up a single brow. Good God, she even
acted like Stone. She was going to be a force to be reckoned with.

“Shiloh, please. Be nice—”

The red head jerked around to look at the lawyer. “I hate
that name. You know this. I answer to Rebel.” She rolled her eyes and shifted
her weight, placing her hands on her hips, her bracelet-laden wrists jangling.
“I’m your kid, okay? Uncle Hawkeye will vouch for me. I was raised by my aunt,
Uncle Hawkeye’s ex?” Both brows rose up as she stared expectantly at the adult
males.

“Ohmuhgosh.” Rebel ran the words together with an over
exaggerated sigh. “Seriously? Uhm, hello. I look like a mix between Grandpa and
Grandma and Mom. Even Grandpa said so.”

What. The. Fuck
.

Stone fucking knew?

Romeo was speechless for once in his life. His mind couldn’t
comprehend or process the information fast enough. His hand flew up to ward off
anyone saying anything else before he could make sense of everything that was
just laid out before him.

Emotions were nothing more than a pure maelstrom inside of
him. He didn’t know what to feel: happy at having a kid, pissed off at Maggie
and Stone for lying to him for so many years. Should he deck Hawkeye for lying
to him and withholding information like this from him, or be elated at having a
small piece of Maggie alive and to give him something to live for?

“This is fucking impossible. Maggie and I…” he tapered off
his voice to catch himself from going into detail the one time they actually
fucked.