Son of a Beard Read online

  “Let’s just say what?”

  That was Tommy, her husband, and I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing at the look on Tally’s face.

  “He’s an even bigger ass,” Tally finished. “Why are you skulking?”

  Tommy’s mouth kicked up, and I saw his hand lower behind Tally’s back, and she shivered.

  “What do you think he just did?” Imogen whispered.

  “My guess is that he just put his hands down her pants,” I whispered right back.

  Tally’s eyes, which had been unfocused and distant, finally returned to me.

  “But there’s this thing about the man you love,” she whispered, not caring that the man she loved was standing at her back, listening to every word. “They can drive you insane, but at the end of the night, when you’re in their arms, everything that was wrong with that day ceases to exist.”

  I found my first smile since I’d arrived.

  The happiness that I could see on her face was reflected on his, and I felt a pang of sadness hit me.

  Would I ever have that with Truth? Or had I forced myself on him, and we’d never have that?

  I didn’t know, but I hoped like hell that one day we would—if only we could get over the Elais Beckett hurdle, I felt like we would have a fighting chance.

  Hiding my irritation as well as I could, I settled on nibbling on the cookies that were lining the table as far as the eye could see.

  “You’re freakin’ awesome, you know that?”

  I took another bite of cookie and smiled at Imogen.

  “Why do you say that?” I asked.

  “Because you’ve just eaten your seventh cookie, and haven’t slowed down long enough to care about the fact that the men are watching you like you you’re going to go postal any moment.”

  I sighed.

  Looking down at the cookies with disgust, I shoved the next two into my mouth and made a promise to myself that I’d lose the weight I’d put on since moving into the same house as Truth.

  It wasn’t a lot of weight, per se, but it was enough that I couldn’t fit into my jeans as well as I’d been able to do two weeks ago.

  I looked over at the man responsible for all my weight gain—all seven pounds of it—and let my eyes rove all over his body.

  Even in a pair of jeans, a black shirt, and his cut, the man looked ripped. He looked like he worked out, played hard and had no regrets at all in life.

  His eyes turned away from the conversation he was having with Seanshine, Aaron, and Tommy—when had he left?—and caught mine. Our gazes caught and held.

  “Have y’all gotten serious?”

  I looked up, and realized rather quickly that the ladies were having a conversation around me—one that clearly was about me—and I hadn’t been paying the least bit of attention.

  “I’m sorry, what?” I gave Tally a small, apologetic smile.

  “I asked if y’all were serious.”

  I looked down at my ring, fingering it, and the ladies gasped.

  “What is that?” Tally grabbed my hand.

  Imogen leaned across the table, her ass waving in the air, and snatched my hand to hers.

  “You’re married?” Imogen shrieked.

  ***

  Truth

  I was having a serious conversation with Aaron about emergency protocols, my hand on Tank’s head, petting him softly, when the woman's shrieks rent the air.

  “You’re married?” Imogen shrieked.

  The men that were surrounding me looked in my direction, wondering if I would deny it, but I could do nothing but shrug.

  “Vegas, baby.”

  The men had, apparently, neglected to tell their wives that we were married.

  Big Papa snorted.

  “Got my first wife that way, too.”

  We’d all heard about Big Papa’s first wife.

  She was a Vegas show dancer and had seen him at a show. She thought he was some big man made of money with him dressed up so fancy as he was. Really he’d just been attending a police officer’s convention and had worn a suit instead of his uniform. Tracy, Big Papa’s first wife, thought he was hot shit in that suit, and one thing led to another, causing them to be married by the end of the night.

  Sean came along nine months later, and two months after that, she was gone again, never to be seen again.

  Big Papa had filed for divorce, and had then filed for abandonment when nothing ever came of the divorce papers he’d sent to her.

  Six months later, Big Papa was officially a single father, and he’d pretty much been that way ever since.

  Though he’d been married one other time, but that hadn’t taken either.

  That one had just been a fast and loose wedding as well. The marriage had been even shorter.

  Two days after Lizzibeth married Big Papa, she filed for an annulment.

  But that was about all I knew about that one.

  Lizzibeth had nearly broken Big Papa.

  It didn’t seem like too big a deal at the time, but now that I had a woman of my own, I could see the lines on his face. I could also read the loneliness in his eyes, though he’d never admit to it.

  “Well, I’ll be damned,” Aaron said, popping me solidly on the back with one scarred hand. “The real question is, what are you going to do about it.”

  I sighed.

  “I’m not doing anything about it,” I admitted. “I’m going to keep living my life.”

  “And what about her?”

  That was from Ghost.

  “What’s it to you if I do anything or not?” I shot back.

  “What’s it to me?” he asked, leaning forward out of the shadows. “You have a woman that cares for you, and you’re just going to throw her away?”

  I’d never said that. Not even once.

  “Nope,” I denied. “She’s already moved into my house. Now I just have to make sure that pecker head doesn’t try to kill her.”

  “That won’t happen,” Big Papa promised, ready to turn the topic at hand. “Now, about that security.”

  I listened, and even retained some of the information, but it was hard to keep my hands off my woman…my wife.

  She was talking animatedly to Imogen and Tally about something, and the way her eyes swung from one woman to the other, paired with the smile on her face, was making me lose concentration.

  “Earth to Lover Boy,” Sean drawled.

  I sighed and returned my attention back to the conversation at hand.

  And immediately wished I hadn’t.

  “We’re going to make a run this weekend to the Benton Chapter House,” Big Papa was saying. “You are not cordially invited. You’re going, along with the rest of us.”

  “Can the women go?” I asked.

  Aaron groaned.

  Tommy grinned.

  “We already went over that, for about fifteen minutes,” Sean said. “This is a penis only trip, and vaginas aren’t invited.”

  “But what about Beckett?” I asked. “I can’t leave her here by herself with that jerkwad loose in this town.”

  Big Papa continued to stare.

  “We went over that, too.” Sean confirmed.

  I crossed my arms over my chest.

  “And what was decided?”

  “That we send the women for a girls’ weekend up north,” Tommy said. “My parents are living in Colorado for the winter. They want to partake in unlimited snowboarding and have a place big enough to house not only the ladies, but us as well if we want to drive there after we’re done here.”

  I thought about it.

  “I do have a break coming between sessions,” I admitted. “I have to finish a sword, and the next one up after that is Verity’s project for her dad. If I ask her to go to Colorado, and tell her I’ll join her there in a few days, she won’t have a problem with that.”

  Big Papa slapped me on the back.

  “It’s settled th
en.” He stood up. “Who wants to take a shot with me?”

  Nobody raised their hand, and Big Papa laughed.

  “Never thought I’d see the day where all of my boys are pussy whipped.”

  With that parting comment, he left, leaving Sean, me, Tommy, and Aaron sitting around an unlit fire pit, staring at each other.

  “I’m not pussy whipped,” Sean finally added. “I don’t even have pussy.”

  We all let that digest for a few long moments before Tommy chimed in with, “That sounds pretty sad.”

  “I thought you were into Tommy’s sister?”

  That came from one of the prospects, and everyone around the fire pit tensed.

  I looked at Tommy to gauge his reaction. Aaron looked at Sean.

  And I chose to leave.

  Ghost chose to follow me.

  I had a destination in mind.

  Ghost followed me because it was either stay and listen to drama between brothers, or listen to women…and I knew which one I would rather have.

  I lifted my hand and grasped onto Verity’s pony tail, tipping her head backwards with a slight tug.

  “You ready to go?” I asked.

  She blinked, and then let her eyes drift over to Ghost.

  “Yes,” she answered. “But I told the ladies that they could come over tomorrow so we could make cookies for the firefighters stew and auction tomorrow night.”

  I looked over at Ghost, who shrugged.

  We both knew that the ladies weren’t going to miss this stew and auction without a great bit of coercion on our part.

  “About that…”

  Chapter 16

  When you’re feeling powerless, just remember one thing. A single one of your pubic hairs will shut down an entire restaurant.

  -Fact of Life

  Verity

  I woke up early to cook the Motley Crew, also known as Sean (Seanshine I’d heard him called last night), Ghost (a scary man who was eerily quiet and rather intimidating), and my husband breakfast.

  I was still fuming.

  So, not only did he not feed me anything but cookies all night long, but he’d also given explicit orders that we were leaving for Colorado tomorrow afternoon, and we would miss the firefighters stew and auction.

  Something that I’d gone to every year for the last five years. Something that I adored going to because it made me feel happy to see the excitement on the firefighters’ faces when they saw my donation check.

  I’d just finished up with the last of the bacon and was cutting it into pieces to mix in with the scrambled eggs, when Truth came in.

  He looked rough.

  And not just the normal rough that he always looked, but an even rougher rough that made him look more caveman than man.

  “Wow,” I said, eyeing his beard. “Did you at least brush your teeth?”

  He bared said teeth at me, and I grinned.

  Then frowned.

  “Why do you smell like onions?” I asked him.

  He took a seat at the kitchen table where all the food was laid out and frowned.

  “After you went to bed last night, Sean went to grab us some burgers from The Warehouse. I ate two,” he said, poking the eggs with his finger. “I’m not hungry at all.”

  The knife I was using to cut the bacon with hit the counter with a clash, causing him to look up.

  “You what?” I said carefully, turning fully to look at him.

  “I said, Sean grabbed us some burgers from The Warehouse,” he repeated, not understanding that he was in danger. “Ghost and Sean aren’t hungry either.”

  “Why would you do that?” I asked. “And if you were to go out and get food, why would you not have at least offered to bring me some?”

  “Because you were asleep?” he said slowly. Carefully.

  I most certainly had not been asleep. In fact, I’d been watching TV when he’d come into our bedroom, and I had been meaning to ask him for hours why he smelled like onions, but I hadn’t wanted to wake him up.

  Now, I realized, I shouldn’t have been so considerate. It was obvious that he wasn’t.

  I gently picked up what was left of the bacon, and walked it over to the trashcan, before dumping it inside.

  I’d already had a protein shake, and I’d only gone through the torture of making the most delicious smelling bacon in the world for his ass.

  And now he said he didn’t want it.

  Fucking wonderful.

  “What the hell?” Truth asked, watching me reach for the eggs.

  I took them and dumped them into the trash, too.

  Eighteen eggs and twenty-five pieces of bacon, ruined.

  My mother would’ve had a conniption.

  And without another word, I walked out of the kitchen and to the bedroom, closing it quietly behind me before sitting on the bed and trying not to cry.

  What the fuck was wrong with me? Me, Verity Ruthann Cassidy, no Verity Ruthann Reacher, crying over a goddamned hamburger, bacon and eggs?

  I seriously needed to get a grip, but I couldn’t.

  I continued to stay mad at him, even when he said the sweetest words I’d ever heard him say two hours later as he was preparing to leave me.

  “If I only had one helmet, I would give it to you,” he told me.

  I managed to hold a straight face, but just barely.

  He left me with a peck on the cheek, and then he was gone.

  I sat there, wondering whether I’d made a mistake.

  But no answers were forthcoming.

  Sighing and standing up to start packing, I busied myself with folding clothes and rearranging Truth’s sword collection in his closet so I didn’t have to think about matters of the heart.

  ***

  “He even quoted my favorite song!” I yelled, clapping my hands twice to get the ladies attention back.

  “That’s ground for divorce,” Tally said. “You should serve him papers.”

  I snorted.

  “I’m just kidding,” Tally sighed and picked up her own suitcase, hefting it into the back of Imogen’s SUV before shutting the hatch.

  “Do you think they’ll leave us once we get to the city line?” Imogen asked, eyeing the four prospects who were idling on their bikes behind us.

  “Probably not,” I muttered. “Because if they leave us, then I’m unprotected.”

  “Don’t feel special. Aaron still has them follow me around periodically, too. If I don’t answer my phone fast enough, the first thing he does is send one of them in my direction, if he doesn’t come himself.” She smiled. “They’re overprotective. You’re just going to have to learn to live with it.”

  I shrugged.

  “I will. It’s just tough, because I’m not used to having someone shadow my every move. They’re with me at the grocery store. They followed me into the feminine hygiene product aisle two days ago. They even tried to come into the bathroom with me. When I opened it and showed them it was a single stall without a window, they reluctantly backed off. Though I’m sure if I’d have let them come in they would have.”

  Imogen snickered.

  Tally, however, turned in the front seat and looked at me.

  “Tommy told me a little bit about this Elais Beckett guy.”

  I swallowed, and then nodded. “Yeah?”

  She twisted her fingers as she explained.

  “Tommy said that Truth was in a bad place when he got home from his last mission. Shut himself in his house or his workshop, and stayed there for close to a month. It wasn’t until Stone…”

  I held up my hand to stop her. “Who is Stone?”

  Her face fell a little bit more. “Stone was the Dixie Warden’s old president. The cop who was killed by the gang member nearly a year ago.”

  My heart fell.

  “I never knew he was involved with the MC,” I whispered. “I was gone the week it happened for a wedding in New Hampshire. I heard about it on Fox
News, though. I couldn’t believe something like that happened in our small town.”

  Tally licked her lips then continued. “Stone forced him to think straight again. Apparently, when he found him, Truth was a mess. He’d built eight swords in a one-week span, and you know how long those take him to get done.”

  Months. He had to stay up night and day to get even one done. For him to get that many done in such a short time span was likely not conducive with Truth’s health.

  I started to feel worse.

  “Vengeance was his answer, though, to pulling his head out of his ass. He was in a dark place, and Tommy said he was kind of scary while he was doing whatever he did during the time he was working with Elais Beckett.”

  Doing whatever he was doing meant killing people.

  I shuddered.

  I didn’t judge the man. I knew he was just doing his job, something he believed in and thought was right. He didn’t know that Elais Beckett was giving him inaccurate information to manipulate him into doing his bidding.

  “Hey, how about we go to eat?”

  My head swung up, and I realized we’d left my driveway, and had gone as far as the city limits. The city limits where the fire station sat, with hundreds of cars parked around the station.

  “Yes,” I said instantly. “I vote yes.”

  Tally and Imogen laughed, and then Imogen swung her car into the only available spot, which, luckily enough, happened to be very close to the building.

  The four bikers that were following us pulled directly in behind us and idled, wondering what we were going to do.

  When we got out and started heading for the front door, and the mass of people, they jumped off their bikes and headed toward us.

  “I bet we’re giving them minor heart attacks right now,” Imogen murmured quietly just before the four of them showed up at our sides.

  I, of course, had two. One on each side of me.

  The one on my right was on the smaller side, and he had a quick smile, especially when he saw me looking.

  “What’s your name?” I asked.

  “Fender.”

  I blinked.

  “Your real name is Fender, or your ‘road name’ is Fender?”