Through The Weeds (Nightshade MC Book 2) (16 page)

“Smart.” Buster nodded. “Everyone here?”

“Yeah. You want me to get them downstairs?”

“Not just yet. We need more information first. I want everyone out on the streets seeing what they can find. You seen Caroline around?”

“She's out front with Danny and Rock, ordering the workers around.” Train grinned. “It's actually pretty hot. Don't worry, they're keep an eye on her.”

Monroe came back with the coffee. Buster drank it down in two large gulps. “Bring me another one and then hit the road. Meet back here at noon. We'll compare notes. Edge,” he scanned the room until he caught sight of him. “Hang back, you're coming with me.”

Edge looked surprised, caught off guard. Good. Buster wasn't one-hundred-percent sold that the rehabilitation had actually taken hold or that Edge was really willing to let go of Jillian so easily. He'd spoken of little else besides her and making things right with her. “Sure thing, Buster. You want another coffee before we go?”

“Yeah, that'd be good. Some aspirin too.” Buster headed for the door and outside. It was like the sun shone directly in his eyes, searing rays of light intent on scrambling his brain. He managed not to whimper, just barely.

Caroline smirked as she caught sight of him. She consulted the clipboard in her hand and said something to the men in front of her. They all nodded and headed off to the trucks parked at the curb. He had to give her credit, she'd found guys who seemed to know the trade. “Well, hello Sunshine.” She chuckled. “You do realize you're eyes aren't all the way open, right? What happened to you never getting a hangover?”

“Shut up.” Buster closed the distance between them, laid his hand on her cheek.

“That's a nice way to talk to me.” She pouted playfully. “Not even a good morning?”

“Good morning.” Buster chuckled. “You were up early. You should have woken me, or better yet, just stayed in bed.”

“Someone had to get the ducks in order out here. Oh, and just so you know, you're paying me the same as Ryan was.”

“I'll pay you.” Buster realized something was off about what she'd said. “What do you mean what Ryan was paying you?”

“I called him this morning. It's not fair to him to have things piling up while I'm out. He left all of the other applications in my office when he hired me. I told him who to call. So, you're going to pay me the same that he was. And benefits with vision. I've been squinting a lot.”

“You quit your job?”

“That's what I just said.” She frowned. “Wait, do you not want me to hire me? Do you think that it's a bad idea?”

“I didn't say that.” Buster reached out and grabbed her arm. “Just working my head around it. Did you hear what's going on?”

“All hell is breaking loose. I heard the news. Don't worry about me. I'm sticking right here at the bar. Have you seen it in stark daylight lately? It needs a serious cleaning.”

“You don't have to clean,” Buster told her, though things had been going to shit ever since Clark wasn't around anymore. “The girls can do it.”

“I'm not going to ask anyone to do something that I'm not willing to do myself,” She informed him. “Did you eat anything?”

“I'm not hungry.” The mere thought of food made him want to throw up. “I'll grab something later. I've got to go, things to take care of. You know that, right?”

“I do. Be careful. You're not going alone, are you?”

“No. I'm going to take Edge with me.”

“You sure he's up for that?”

“If he's not, now is the time to find out. And I mean to find out.” Buster leaned in and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “And you'd better stay close.”

“I said that I will.” Caroline sighed. “Amelia took off a little while ago. I think she went to the house around back.”

“The Washburn place,” Buster explained. He wasn't overly worried about Amelia being able to take care of herself. She'd be carrying, and she knew how to shoot. He also knew that too much time around too many people played games with her head. “She's probably in the garden.”

“Garden?”

“It's not as nice as yours. Amelia has mostly a black thumb. She'd probably be glad for a hand, but take someone with you.” Buster looked around. “Find Bones, he's not doing anything.”

“Fine. Give me a kiss and go.” Caroline tilted her head back. “I'll see you later?”

“You can count on it.”

<#<#<#<#

Buster couldn't get a read on Edge, and he was trying, really trying. But the man was just quiet except when he needed to speak. There was something different about him. Something in the way he carried himself, but Buster couldn't put his finger on that, either. He was getting really frustrated.

They walked into Foxy Bend together. “What the fuck?” Edge asked as he looked around.

Buster had been about to ask the same thing. For as long as he remembered, and that was a long time, Foxy Bend had been on the D-list of Detroit strip clubs; it was dank, vaguely smelly and boasted the finest dancers that could be found in a pool of meth addicts and heroin junkies. That wasn't the club he was standing in now. Nothing was dank or smelly, and the dancers were hot.

“Welcome to Foxy Bend.” A female voice, a familiar one, spoke. Karen had been working at the club, behind the bar, for a while now. She'd always favored jeans and tee shirts but now she was in skin-tight, leather-looking pants and a corset-style top.

“The fuck happened here?”

“The Wild Cards happened,” she replied. “And he's waiting for you, the top dog himself.”

“Why are you still working here?” Buster decided to cut through the bullshit. From what he remembered she'd been putting herself through school and only stayed there because she could stay behind the bar and not dress like a whore.

“We do what we have to do, right? Look, don't keep him waiting. Please. He's in the VIP area, see the velvet ropes? Jake's back there.” She lowered her voice. “Be careful.”

She was gone before Buster could ask anything else. “Son of a bitch.”

“How did we not know about this?” Edge hissed the question. “This place had to have been gutted. No one said a fucking word.”

Buster had to bite back his tongue to keep from thanking the younger man for pointing out the obvious. “Come on. Keep your mouth shut.”

Jake was sitting on what looked like a throne in the VIP area, a fucking throne. Buster didn't know if he should laugh or spit at the man. “Gentlemen, nice to see you.” He motioned for them to sit. “Let me guess, you're out around town trying to find a line on my guys after all the excitement last night.”

“You know how many people you killed?” Buster asked.

“You wearing a wire, Buster? Finally agree to be a lap dog for Harris? Is that why she hasn't been to see you yet today? Because she knows that Fido wouldn't bite the hand that feeds him?” Jake laughed, long and loud. “And before you act on that impulse to beat the shit out of me, I suggest you look around you.”

Buster had known that Jake wouldn't be alone in the bar, but he hadn't expected that every man inside would be armed. Fuck him sideways. “I'm not a fucking rat.” It was an effort to keep his tone even. “Seeing as you could have filled us with holes from the second that we walked in, I'm thinking there's a reason that you haven't. Want to fill me in?”

“Smart man.” Jake grinned. “Alright. I'll fill you in. Let's make it quick, though. I've got to get home for lunch, my wife is waiting for me. Hey, just realized that you're my brother now, Edge. What do you say? Do you want to come and play for the winning team?”

“Fuck you,” Edge replied. Guns cocked.

“Fair enough.” Jake shook his head at the men. “Well, I had to tell Jillian that I asked. Not that she's going to give a shit.” He grinned. “I know what Nightshade does with Miller, or should I say for Miller. When Mark was in charge, we were doing it, and we were doing it better. And we want to do it again, so you're going to end your relationship with Miller, immediately. I'll take care of the rest.”

“Oh, I am? Am I?” Buster moved from feeling pissed to being amused. “And why the fuck would I do that?”

“Because for every day you don't, more people are going to die. And you've got too much of a conscience for that, all of you do. Nightshade could be making serious bank, but you refuse to deal in certain things because of your morals. An MC with morals. That's a joke. Nightshade is a joke.” Jake rose to his feet. “And people won't just be dying from Binky.”

Chapter Fourteen

Amelia didn't have a black thumb, she had a black hand, but she was really trying. She told Caroline of Mrs. Washburn who'd lived in the house. It had been one of her favorite places to go, and still was. So Caroline got her hands, and everything else, dirty. By the end of the day, the place had started to show some promise.

Amelia was over the moon. Caroline was exhausted. All she wanted was a hot shower and maybe a cold beer. Maybe a light beer, if they even had that at the bar. She laughed at something that Amelia said as they stepped into the bar just in front of Bones. The sound died on her lips. The mood was heavy, the shades shut against the outside world.

“Shit.” Amelia sighed. “Do I even want to know?”

“No,” Danny said from the bar. “Just do me a favor and go upstairs, alright?”

“Okay.” Amelia gave Caroline a look and headed for the stairs.

Buster wasn't downstairs, so Caroline followed her up the stairs and to what was now their room. She opened the door, found him sitting on the bed. “Hey.”

“Hey.” He barely looked up from the floor.

“I need to take a shower, but I heard someone in there.” Caroline kept the conversation light because she could see the weight on his shoulders.

“We should go home.”

“Home?”

“Yes, home. I'm sick of sleeping on this lumpy mattress in this shitty fucking room. Grab some stuff, we'll get the rest later.”

“Wait, is it safe to leave?” Caroline was confused. The mood downstairs definitely suggested that something was going on. Something worse than the deaths and violence which had been claimed by the night before.

“You want to go or not? Safe? No. It's not safe. And we're not safe here. That was a delusion. See, now that The Wild Cards are waving their dicks around, the truth is becoming clear. Nightshade doesn't have all the friends we thought we did.”

“The Street Kings?” Caroline couldn't believe that Manuel would betray them. He'd always been such a nice guy to her. Sweet even.

“No, the Kings are solid. They've got our back. And pretty much just them. Somehow, Jake has turned people who've been loyal to us for years. We're good and fucked, Caroline. So if it's all the same, I just want to go home and sleep in my bed. Can we just do that?”

<#<#<#<#

Caroline was scared as they rode to his house, or their house, because she didn't know what to expect from anything. She'd been so sure she knew what she was getting into. Now, she knew she'd underestimated how high the weeds could get around Nightshade. It would be stupid not to be scared, and she wasn't stupid. There was only one thing to do, and that was trust in the man she'd signed on for.

She could feel the pain radiating off of him, the guilt he felt for their current situation, and Caroline was at a loss for what to do. So she held on. When they finally arrived, she could barely get off of the bike. Of course she'd seen it before and loved it from the outside. The inside was pretty bare, hard to read anything by it. Her best guess had been Buster had simply inherited some things and gotten the rest out of a catalog. Would it ever feel like her home? Caroline hoped so. She could already see flower beds in the front yard, maybe trying to cultivate some moss on the exposed brick front.

“Caroline, you coming inside or what?” he asked as he unlocked the front door.

“Sorry, I was just thinking.” Caroline caught up with him. “I really need a shower. I'm just going to run up and grab one alone unless you wanted to join me.”

“I need a few minutes, Caroline. Go and have your shower. When you're done, I think that we should talk. There's something that I should have told you sooner.”

“The shower can wait.” It wasn't even a possibility that she was just going to go up the stairs when he'd just said that, with that particular expression on his face. “What's going on?”

“I don't even know where to start.”

“The beginning usually works pretty well.” Caroline crossed her arms over her chest. “You can't just say something like that and expect me to walk away.”

“The Wild Cards. You've heard the stories from the first war, right? I'm sure it's all everyone's been talking about. Well, there's part of the story that they don't talk about. Part of the story that I should have told you when we got serious.”

“Tell me now, Buster.” Caroline didn't like the beating around the bush, and he knew it, so that told her that whatever he was going to say was going to be big. Important. She wondered if she should sit down.

“Her name was Hanna. She was a pass-around, except by then she wasn't really getting passed around. She was pretty much just mine.” He cleared his throat. “And after a while, she ended up knocked up. It was mine. There was never any doubt. Right before the end of the war, things got really ugly.”

Caroline had a good idea how ugly, since he obviously didn't have a child or a Hanna running around. The jealousy that flared in her at the idea of him being with someone else was ridiculous; they hadn't even known each other then.

“Hanna had a doctor's appointment, one of those scans to make sure the kid was growing right. It was, or should I say she was. It was a girl. We were leaving, heading to her car because there was no way I was letting her on the bike. It was too dangerous. They hit us right before we got to the car. It all happened so fast but at the same time, it felt like forever. There was enough time for her to be scared, to know what was happening.”

“Jesus.”

“I tried to go after them, but I was hit. Didn't realize it. Hell, I nearly bled out right there. Part of me wanted to. I hadn't kept my promise. I hadn't kept her safe. And now, I don't think that I can keep you safe.”

“Buster, I feel safe with you.” Caroline felt an ache in her heart. She walked over to him, took his hands. “I love you, remember.”

“I love you too.” He squeezed her hands tight. “And that's why I'm going to tell you it's okay if you want out of this.”

“You're insulting me.” She ripped her hands from his. “I think I've been more than clear that I'm in this for the long haul, even if that's slightly crazy. It's a good crazy, and I love you. If you want out of this, grow a fucking pair and tell me. And now I am going to shower because I smell and I'm so fucking pissed at you right now, unless you've got something to tell me, like leave.”

“Maybe you should start planning a trip to see your parents. You've said they've asked you to come visit.”

“You're still being insulting,” Caroline pointed out. “So, I'm just going to take my shower.”

“Does nothing I just told you bother you? I got a woman and my child killed, Caroline.”

“Of course it bothers me. I'm sorry that you lost someone that you love and a child. I can't even imagine the pain you're in, but it doesn't make me see you differently. And you didn't get them killed, the guy who pulled the trigger got them killed. It's pretty cut and dried.”

“Cut and dried?” He snorted out a laugh. “You are oddly fucking practical sometimes. You know that, right?”

Caroline didn't hear any compliment in his tone, which pissed her off. She knew that he was carrying a lot of hurt and weight on his shoulders over what was going on. “It's better to be practical than go through life blind. I've done enough of that one lifetime.”

“And what is that supposed to mean?” he asked.

Caroline didn't know why they were practically yelling at one another. And she didn't want to fight. He'd told her the big secret in his past. It was time she returned the favor. “All my life, I had a best friend. Her name was Kim. We did everything together, even as we got older, or maybe especially as we got older. Everything including the man who'd asked me to marry him. In the end she got him. I got out of there.”

“You never told me that before.”

“Seemed like the time, since we're revealing secrets. Also seemed fitting, since my new best friend has gone over to the dark side. I don't want to spend the night going back and forth about it, Buster. Is that really what you wanted to come back here for? No. I think that you wanted to get some sleep in your bed, right?”

“Right.”

“So join me in the shower, or not, and then let's just go to bed and do that,” Caroline suggested.

“Go on up. I'm just going to make sure the place is locked up tight.”

“Suit yourself.” Caroline carried her bag up the stairs and found the bathroom on the first try. She could count the number of times she'd been in the house on one hand. Buster seemed almost uncomfortable to be here, which was why she'd been mildly surprised he wanted to come here now.

Caroline stripped, turned the water on as hot as she could stand it, and washed the day away the best that she could. She kept it short, wrapped a towel around her hair and started to dig through her bag. She'd forgotten deodorant, she'd need to snag some from Buster in the morning, but she'd remembered her lotion and her hair brush.

She'd just pulled out a pair of shorts when the bathroom door opened. Caroline looked over her shoulder at Buster. “Everything locked down tight?”

“Everything is,” he confirmed. “You said something earlier, called Hanna the woman that I loved. She wasn't. I didn't love her. I liked her. Maybe I would have, eventually, but I didn't. I love you. The idea that I can't protect the things I love... you and Nightshade. It's... I'm not sure that I'm the right man to be wearing the patch. After the Royal shit, they need someone who isn't fucking everything up.”

Caroline dropped her clothes back in the bag, took the towel off of her hair and wrapped it around her body. “Have you made mistakes? Sure, we all have. It's not the mistakes that define you, Buster. It's how you remedy them. So, how are you going to do that?”

“Tomorrow, Nightshade is meeting with Joseph Miller for the last time. We're going to take him and his secondhand man out.” he replied.

It was on the tip of her tongue to ask what happened if they didn't manage to take them out, but she knew the answer. If Nightshade failed, this was likely the last night she'd spend with Buster. “Well, you definitely need a good night's sleep. I hope that you have air conditioning.”

“There's a fan. It's not that hot outside,” he grumbled.

“Well, it gets hot when we're all wrapped around each other. And I don't like being sweaty unless I'm doing something worthy of the sweat. And after the worthy sweating, I still like a nice cool room.” Caroline laughed as he reached out to tickle her.

“Fine. I'll turn the damn air conditioner on, but you're going to work off the extra on the electric bill.” He grabbed the towel, tugged, and then it was off. “Maybe you should start right now.”

“Oh? You got some idea of the payment that you'd like, or should I use my imagination?” Caroline felt heat pool between her legs. Her very naked legs, to go along with her very naked anything else, while he was fully dressed except for his boots. She should have felt exposed, maybe even a little embarrassed, but instead, it was getting her horny. She stopped walking, stepped in front of him.

“Well, I like the way you think.” His eyes darkened as she dropped to her knees and began to work his belt. “You know that you don't have to...” His words trailed off, replaced by a groan as she stroked her fingers over his length. “Fuck.”

Caroline chuckled, she couldn't help it. He said the same thing every single time, and her reaction, simply ignoring him, had been the same each time. Before she met Buster, she thought of oral sex almost as a chore. Ronald liked it, it took the edge off is what he used to say to her. She'd done it; it had never taken long. He'd just stood there.

Buster was completely different. He was active. His hands were already in her hair. His fingers slid along her scalp and then his hands twisted in the strands. He held her, moved her up and down his length. And he said things. He said the dirtiest things when his dick was in her mouth, and Caroline loved it.

She wasn't surprised when he pulled her off of him and then up to his mouth. He took full and immediate control of the kiss which she'd known he would. He pressed her to the wall, used his knee to push her legs open. Caroline braced herself, and then he was inside of her.

“Oh.” Her nails dug into his shoulders as he lifted her so that he'd have better access to her body. His thrusts were hard and deep, even more  than usual. It was almost as if he was thinking about what she'd realized earlier, this could be the last time.

Caroline pushed the thought out of her head, pushed all thought out of her head as she felt her stomach tightening. All that mattered was this moment and them.

<#<#<#<#

“It's barely light out,” Caroline groaned as she felt Buster shake her shoulder gently.

“Be that as it may,” his voice was a low rumble, “I've got a very busy day today, in case you've forgotten.”

She hadn't forgotten, she was surprised that she'd been able to sleep at all, but it was hard to feel anything but safe and warm when wrapped in his arms. “I'm up. Do you want me to make coffee?”

“I've already made it.” Buster pulled the covers back. “And I've even put some of those frozen waffles you like in the toaster.”

“There better be peanut butter.” Caroline realized that she hadn't taken the effort to put any sort of clothes on after their adventures in the hall, the bedroom and the bathroom, when they'd been sweaty enough to need another shower.