Ride with Me (4 page)

We cross the state line, and I see the sign: ‘
We’re glad you’ve got Georgia on your mind
.’ I quickly send a text to my ol’ lady.

I’ve got your pussy on my mind. It makes for a long ride in tight pants. Gonna give it to you good when I get home.

“Damn, Rex, I thought I had it bad. You’ve got me beat, brother.” Tripp cocks his head at me from the driver seat.

“Shut the fuck up and drive.”

He laughs. “She’s got you by the balls.”

“Suckin’ or fuckin’, my balls happen to love all that is deluxe about my Lux,” I give back to him as my phone pings with her reply.

My pussy is all that’s on your mind?

Without hesitation, I type my reply:
Your tits, your ass, your voice screaming my name when you’re coming, riding me.

Tripp smirks at me and looks back at the road. “When you gonna make her a Crews?”

If that isn’t million-dollar question number two.

“As soon as I can get some time off to take her to New York.”

Putting on the turn signal to change lanes, he doesn’t answer right away.

“New York, huh?”

“Her family dynamic isn’t one filled with a long connection, leaving us to send invitations for days. Her mom isn’t going to come, so outside of the girls, it’s her and me.”

“You don’t think Jolene would want to see her son get married? You don’t think Doll wouldn’t want to stand up beside her girl? Fuck, brother, you don’t think Axel would want to see this?”

I blow out a frustrated breath. “I get you. Tessie would let me take Axel to New York to marry Lux. She has respect for Caroline, and they have their own friendship. As for Mom … Well, I’m sure she would come up. With Doll, you, and BW, we can work something out.”

“If you’re gone and I’m gone, who runs Crews Transports, brother?”

I lay my head against the backrest. “She wants New York, Tripp. Would you deny Doll Central Park at sunset if that’s what she wanted?”

“I wouldn’t deny her a damn thing.”

I turn my head to him. “So you get where I’m coming from?”

Changing gears as he pulls into the outskirts of Custer, Georgia, he doesn’t miss a beat. “I’ll work it out for you to get the time off to make Lux a Crews.”

The red and black, international big rig rides smoothly as Tripp and I scope out the space from our position in the cab. The warehouse is a green building located out on its own. We are in the middle of nowhere, just as we like it for these kind of transports. Business is not always easy, and it’s not always safe, but it’s what we do. The risk is worth the reward. Our club is known for our professionalism, meaning our silence and ability to get the job done. It doesn’t come without risks, but we know what we face going in.

Roundman made the contact with Ravage MC, and he wouldn’t send us into a trap, but in our world, you can never be too careful. We met the boys ourselves at a rally once, but people change, and their loyalty is to their men first.

The empty box truck sits out front as we climb down from the rig. Four men meet us as we make our way toward the building. With sunglasses in place, I eye the men in front of me. The patches on their cuts read: Cruz, Rhys, GT, and Tug. All four men look as big and as tough as we are. Any one of them would fit in with the Hellions without hesitation.

The one named Cruz extends his hand to Tripp. “Thanks for coming.”

Tripp shakes his hand, and I let him do what he does as the Catawba club president.

“It’s what we do,” he clips back.

It is. This is our life: one run to the next—some legit, some not. We transport goods; it doesn’t matter what our job is. We take the shit from one location to the next safely.

Cruz moves to me as Tripp says hello to the rest of the crew.

Without looking at his boy, he speaks, “You wanna pull the truck up?”

The guy patched Rhys grunts, and I take this as my cue to move our rig in closer.

Tripp goes inside the warehouse with Cruz while I get set up to load. When I’m making my way back over to them, Rhys stops us.

“You’re not gonna ask what it is?” He quirks his brow. He’s testing us—smart man.

“That’s not how we roll,” Tripp answers as Rhys lifts a chin to us.

I don’t give two shits what’s in their crates. Cash, that’s what matters. They pay us; we carry the load and take the risk. What they are transporting isn’t our business.

The crates are loaded into the trailer, and then I climb in to make sure they are secure. The last thing we need is for anything to shake apart when we make our way down the interstate and back roads.

Once everything is hooked in place and sure not to move, I climb out the back just in time to see a manila envelope handed to Tripp.

“We’ll be in touch when it’s complete,” I hear him say before he makes his way to me.

We roll down the back door to the trailer and lock it in place. After climbing in the rig, I flip my hand in the air as a good-bye while we roll out.

“Consequences, New Mexico, here we come,” Tripp says, locking the envelope in the false bottom of the console. He settles into the driver seat, turning the wheel and pulling out of their property.

“The quicker we get there, the faster we get home, and that’s another day closer to making Lux a Crews,” I mutter as my dick gets hard at the thought. The caveman inside me wants her as mine in every way possible.

Caroline Crews has a ring to it. I smile to myself. Fuck yeah!

Leaving work, I can’t help missing Rex. I’m safe because of him and the Hellions MC. With everything that happened with Chad, the governor, and my past, they have become my solid in life. I can’t imagine not being a part of this life now that I know the club had my back long before Rex claimed me as his.

Family.

The Hellions are family.

I make the drive to Shooter and Tessie’s as I mentally plan out a smart but fun weekend with Axel. When I arrive, he’s ready to go, and my anxiety is already at ease. He wants to be with me, even with Rex away.

This is our family: Rex, Axel, me, Tessie, and Shooter.

I stop at the Chinese restaurant and pick up take-out.

“No pizza?” Axel asks, giving me the same smirk his father would.

I smile at the little boy who is the spitting image of Rex. “Maybe tomorrow night, but you’ve gotta have some vegetables, ya know. Broccoli is good for you. I got the sesame chicken combo, which is more rice and chicken than anything else, but a little broccoli is good, buddy.”

“Mom got to you again. First the language, now the vegetables. Next, it’s going to be manners and stuff.”

I laugh at his honesty. “Your mom just wants you healthy and happy.”

He throws his hands up in the air dramatically. “Lux, kids don’t come healthier or happier than me. I can have a break from the vegetables, you know.”

“Tomorrow night.”

He quirks a brow at me. “You know, Lux, we’re having a movie night.”

“Yeah,” I agree as I pull out of the parking lot and back onto the road.

“Well, corn is like a vegetable.” He pauses, smiling hugely. “We’re gonna eat, like, tons of popcorn, so the vegetables are covered, Lux, and we could, like, have cereal for dinner.”

“Hate to burst your bubble, little man, but popcorn is not a vegetable.”

He puts his palm to his forehead. “Lux, you’re supposed to be the cool one. You can’t be like the other women and give me the ‘carbs go to my butt’ speech. Live a little. Popcorn has corn, and corn is a vegetable.”

“You are your father’s son.” I laugh. “You could justify anything.”

He smiles proudly at me just as the Bluetooth in my car rings with the radio display showing Rex calling. Axel taps the button to answer.

“Daddy-o,” he greets.

“Axel, how goes it, little man?” Rex replies happily.

“Lux has been talking to Mom again. We’re having Chinese for dinner and not pizza so I get, like, vegetables and stuff. I tried to tell her popcorn comes from corn …”

“So it’s a vegetable,” Rex chimes in at the same time with Axel.

I can’t hold back my laughter. “Boys,” I start, “I’ve gotta have you both strong and healthy, you know, to take care of me.”

Rex quickly comes back with, “We’re Crews men; we’re as healthy as they come.”

“Well, as one of three women who love you very much, I plan to do my part to keep you that way.”

“Axel, we’re screwed, buddy. Grandma Jolene has gotten to her, too. Just give in and eat the vegetables. Take one for the team, little man.”

“We gotta keep the women in our life happy. Shooter says that all the time. I can have Chinese tonight and just sneak some extra M&M’s with popcorn at movie time. Just please tell her no oatmeal for breakfast. Even Shooter watches my back on that one.”

Rex laughs and my heart beats faster. The sound is heaven to my ears.

“Sounds like a damn good plan, Axel.”

“Rex, language,” I chastise.

“I just wanted to check in on my boy and my woman. Y’all have fun this weekend, and we’ll get together when I get back, Axel. And, Lux, donuts are a perfectly fine breakfast for a growing boy. No one really likes oatmeal until they’re, like, eighty and have dentures.”

“I’m with Lux; she’s like deluxe and shhh … stuff,” Axel catches himself and smiles. “Of course we’re gonna have fun. You do what you and Uncle Tripp do, and we’ll be here when you get back.”

I love the little boy in the car beside me and the man on the phone. It’s stuff like this I never imagined having in my life, but now I can’t picture ever being without.

“Are we really stopping at every rest area for a fuckin’ map?” I ask Tripp as we reach the Texas state line.

Since we pulled out of North Carolina, he’s stopped everywhere he can for maps. I get it; Doll loves them. She has all of these states already, though, so why must we keep stopping? I just want to make our way to our drop location and handle business so we can turn and burn to get home. I will be better once Lux and I are married. Knowing she wants this and I haven’t given it to her bothers me.

“Tangible, brother. Learn it,” Tripp retorts.

I shake my head. “You don’t tell her where we go, so she just highlights some made up path?”

“Nah, she highlights a future road trip. My woman, my bike, the open road—I’ll take that any day of the week and take her wherever she wants to go. I get the maps. It’s tangible evidence that I do think of her everywhere I go. And my woman gives back as good as she gets.”

I laugh. “It’s the little things, Pops.”

“The old man knew what he was talking about.”

Big wheels keep on turning as we make our way down the road toward New Mexico. My mind goes back to Lux. She kept my boy for the weekend. She is the balance to us. She gives him what Tessie does and respects Tessie’s wishes about the language and shit. She’s a role model for my boy. She’s a good influence for us both.

I missed a lot of time with Axel. Too much time. There are things in life you can make up for, and then there are things in life that can be missed. There are things you can’t take back, can’t make right once it’s been wronged, and one thing you can never get back is time.