Fallon by Jessica Gadziala

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Sixteen

Fallon

 

 

 

 

"You're up early," my father said as I walked into the kitchen for a cup of coffee.

He was already there, leaning against the counter with his own cup.

"Yeah. Couldn't stay asleep," I admitted, going for the coffee machine.

We were going to move on the Vultures.

After several long talks with the club and with Danny's father, it seemed like the only possible choice.

After her father had done his questioning, it had come out that not only did three of his men make a move on our men, but that Chewy had been working on Danny's men behind her back almost since they first arrived in Navesink Bank.

Not all of them, it seemed.

Chewy might have been a lazy and opportunistic fucker, but he wasn't stupid. He knew that there were some die-hard loyalists to Danny. And he also knew that there were a lot of men in the middle, ones who might not have always been one-hundred-percent on-board with a female president, but had learned to respect her and the position she held.

Though, they couldn't have respected her all that much if they'd turned on her that night without even hearing her side of the story.

"Did Danny sleep?" he asked.

"She tossed and turned almost until sun-up before passing out."

"This has to be hard for her," my father said. "She'd lived with these men. Ate with them. Partied with them. Did jobs with them. Provided for them."

And now she was going to have to let us kill them.

From the moment we knew Chewy had been involved, and that he likely had some of the Vultures on his side, we all knew what it was going to come down to. They wouldn't be welcome in the Navesink Bank chapter of the Vultures. Or any of the other sister chapters either. And since they knew all the Vultures secrets, they couldn't just be allowed to keep walking around.

"I know," I agreed. "I think it comforts her a little that the five or so that she believed were the most loyal to her seem like they are."

"Still. It's a lot."

"Yeah," I agreed.

"Have you two talked about her plans after this?" my father asked. "Once business is handled, there is nothing stopping her from going back to her club."

"I know."

"And from the sound of things, she crawled over broken glass to get her chapter."

"Yeah, her father is a real dick," I said, shaking my head.

"Did you discuss it?"

"No," I admitted, knowing it was immature of us not to, but all this shit was still new for us. Sharing and communicating. Besides, I figured maybe Danny wanted to do some thinking about it on her own without me badgering her. That would be what I'd want in her situation. "I'm giving her a little space. This has all been... a lot."

"Yeah," my father agreed, sighing out his breath, but it ended on a chuckle.

"What?"

"The women," he said, shaking his head. "Every single fucking one of them has been... a lot. Kinda gotta start to think it's a club curse," he added. "But I don't think any of us would have it any other way."

"Ma wasn't a lot," I insisted.

"Christ, kid. Yes, she fucking was. Is. But especially was. Human trafficking and skin traders and long-lost family members and one fucking twist after another. Believe me, kid, it was a lot. But that woman is the main reason I get up out of bed each morning," he added.

"Kinda sappy for you, old man," I teased.

"This is a hard life, Fallon. Especially at the top. So when you find a soft spot in it, you hang onto it."

"Have you met Danny?" I asked, smirking. "Nothing soft there."

"I think there is a lot of soft there," he countered. "But I think you're the only one who gets to see it. There's something special in that. And I'm glad you found it. I think a lot of us saw it coming."

"What? No," I said, shaking my head. "We hated each other."

"You poked and prodded at each other. It's different."

"She had you kidnapped."

"I didn't hold a grudge. You did."

"How could you not have been holding a grudge?"

"Because I knew what it was like to be Danny, to make the tough decisions, to step on some toes when it's needed to provide for your men. Besides, she made it right," he said, meaning by killing the man who'd kidnapped him, because his orders had never been to torture my father, just hold onto him for a while. "Besides, I liked her spirit. And I liked seeing someone take you down a peg or two once in a while. You needed that."

"Gee, thanks, Dad," I said, shaking my head.

"Hey, you want to be told how great you are, you go to your mother. You want real talk, you come to me. And real talk, you can be a dick sometimes. Not judging. I used to be one too when I was your age. But hearing Danny call you out on it was a real treat for me."

"You know what?"

"What?"

"You can still be a dick sometimes," I told him, sharing a smile with my father before Dezi suddenly made an appearance. Shirtless. Inexplicably covered in glitter. And wearing ten different colored beaded necklaces.

"I don't think I want to know," my dad said, snorting as Dezi stopped in the doorway, a hand on his stomach.

"Hm? Oh, this?" he asked, waving at himself. "This is what happens when you happen upon a Happy Divorce party."

"A Happy Divorce party," I repeated.

"Yep. Had a cake and everything. Had a woman pushing a dude off the side of the cake and said Problem Solved. You ever see a woman fresh off a toxic relationship out on the town with all her girlfriends who told her from the jump that he wasn't shit? Wild, man. Wild."

"Where'd the glitter come from?"

"Glitter," Dezi mused, actually having to think it through. "Oh, right. Gay bar."

"You went with a group of chicks to a gay bar?" I asked.

"They had some really good drinks there," Dezi said, sighing a bit at the memory.

"Did Sway go with you?" I asked, knowing the two of them liked to take off on adventures together.

"Last time I saw him, he was under a pile of naked women."

"And you?"

"Me? I'm a gentleman," Dezi declared. "I only brought home the divorcée. She and her dude hadn't shared a bed in years, man. Years. I think she almost broke me," he admitted, grimacing. "I came for some ice."

"Ice," my father repeated.

"Don't," I said at almost the same time.

But it was too late.

"For my balls," Dezi declared, getting a groan out of my old man.

"What'd you do now?" Danny asked, walking in behind Dezi, still wearing my shirt, her hair bed-messy, giving him a knowing look.

"Chapped my balls," he declared, getting a head jerk from Danny before she laughed, slapping him on the shoulder.

"Nothing like a recently-divorced woman, huh?" she asked.

"How'd you know?"

"Because I just passed her in the hallway. She had on a shirt that said 'I got my name changed back' on it."

"Oh, right. She had clothes on at one point," Dezi said. "She on her way in here?" he asked, glancing back.

"She's on her way out the door," Danny said, shrugging.

"What? No. She's supposed to take me to brunch," Dezi said, looking crestfallen.

"Sorry, man," she told him. "If there are still some, I can heat you up a frozen waffle."

"Will you heat up the syrup?" Dezi asked.

"No. Because you're not a child," she said, making her way to the freezer. She tried to hide it, but she totally heated up the syrup when no one was looking.

My dad was right.

There was a lot of soft there.

She just hadn't led a life that allowed her to show it without someone thinking she was weak because of it.

"Wish I didn't use all the whipped cream last night," Dezi said, sitting down to eat his frozen waffle with warmed-up syrup. "What?"

"How do you not need a crane to lift you out of the clubhouse?" Danny asked, shaking her head. "I've been here all of two days, and you've eaten enough food for an army."

"I choke down one of Cary's green drinks every day," Dezi declared just as the man in question came in, still sweaty from the gym.

"Yeah, that balances all that shit out," Cary said, snorting as he went to grab some black coffee.

"Did you get enough sleep?" I asked as Danny grabbed a cup of coffee as well.

"I don't think such a thing as 'enough sleep' exists for today," she said, shrugging. "That's why we have coffee."

"Have you figured out how to lure your loyalists out yet?" Cary asked.

"I've been thinking about that."

"Uh oh," my father mumbled under his breath.

"I think it might be easier for me to go in first," she said.

"What? No," I snapped. No fucking way was I sending her into a room full of enemies, some who might very well want her dead.

"No, seriously. We haven't been thinking about this right. All we have right now is speculation. I mean, aside from Chewy being a traitor who needs killing. But we have no idea about the others. I need to get back in there."

"It's too dangerous," I insisted.

"Would you be saying that to, say, Dezi or Cary?" she shot back.

"Walking into a place full of threats with no backup whatsoever? Yeah, I'd be saying this to them too."

"I have to talk to my guys. Dutch and Grandpa at least. They will have information for me. I considered calling or texting, but I don't know at this point if Chewy is just letting them be there, or if they're being watched. I don't want to risk them."

"Just yourself then," I said.

"I'm a big girl, Fallon. I can take care of myself. I'm not going to go in there guns blazing. I'm not a fucking idiot."

"What's the plan then?" my father asked, neutralizing a situation that he knew was going to get heated quickly if he didn't step in.

"I'm going to text Dutch and say I am coming by later to grab some of my stuff. Doesn't sound like a threat. If anything, it sounds like a woman who is defeated and knows she needs to move on with her life. They didn't know about the safe deposit box. They have no idea I had that much money squirreled away. They'll think it's normal that I need my clothes."

"No," I said.

"It's not exactly up for debate," she shot back, giving me an understanding, yet firm, look. "If this was you, and these were your men, you would want to try to know for certain before you went in, guns blazing, and take everyone out."

She had me there.

"I don't like it."

"I'm not asking you to like it."

"It could go bad fast."

"Which is why I would have you get your guys set up nearby before I even text anyone. Get into place, get prepared. I'm assuming, with your connections, you can find a way to get me wired, so you can listen in."

I shared a look with my father.

This would be the one chance to throw a wrench in her plans, to say it wasn't possible, that we didn't have the supplies.

"Yeah," I said, sighing. "Yeah, we can do that."

"Good. So, let's get it going," she said, giving us a nod before moving out of the room.

"Gotta admire how calm she is about walking in there," Cary said, shrugging.

"So, who are you thinking for backup?" my father asked. "Pagan is down."

"Yeah," I agreed. He wouldn't like to hear us say that, but he wasn't the asset he usually was with his bum leg. "Niro, I guess. Same energy. Seth has the sniper skills. Get him on a roof somewhere. Maybe Finn too, he's not bad. But maybe some of your guys for the hand-to-hand shit." They were more seasoned, less likely to freeze up. "Cary, Dezi," I added, nodding toward them. Cary was as seasoned as my father's men. Dezi was the kind of man you wanted on your side in a street fight. "And Slash."

"You're gonna want Crow too," Dezi said, leaning back in his chair.

"Why's that?"

"He's been hard to get a read on, but Sway said something about him being a little fucked in the head when it came to knives," Dezi said, shrugging.

"It's a little hard to take you seriously when you're shimmering with glitter, but if Slash agrees, then Crow too."

"They're a big club," my father said, "but I like our odds even with fewer men going in. Plus, there's Danny. Sounds like she can handle herself."

My mind flashed back to the night of the accident, how knee-jerk her actions had been.

"Yeah," I agreed. "She can handle herself."

And I would just have to learn to be okay with that.

Because she was going in there alone.

Whether I liked it or not.