“You created this bullshit mess,” I reminded him, “The day you decided not to keep your dick in your pants. And the day you decided to hit your wife. Don’t fuckin’ expect us to forget either of those anytime soon.” I could feel my anger levels rising but fought to remain calm. He wasn’t worth it.
Madison visibly relaxed and the scowl was wiped off her face. She turned back to Dad. “We won’t be there tonight,” she said, quieter now, less angry. And then she said to me, “Can we talk when you get some time?”
I nodded. “Sure, I’ve just got some information to share with Dad and then I’ll come find you. You’re waiting here for J?”
“Yeah. Thanks,” she replied and with one last look at Dad, she pushed through the front door and left us alone outside.
Dad stared after her for a moment, lost in thought, before addressing me, “I’ve made some bad decisions in my life and I’m fucking paying for them, but this shit with our family needs to be sorted. Your mother wants it dealt with.”
I shook my head. “Not gonna happen. And don’t play the Mum card. Jesus.” I ran my fingers through my hair and felt the beginning of a headache. Fuck, I needed a drink, or better yet, some pussy to ease it. Yeah, pussy always helped.
He contemplated what I’d said and then nodded tightly. “What do you need to tell me?”
I was over-fucking-joyed that he was moving on and not starting an argument. “Darrell quit so we need a new manager for Indigo. J’s there now sorting out staff for the next few days but until we find someone new, J and I will keep it running.” This strip club was giving us no end of problems lately.
“Good. Find someone soon though because we need you both for other stuff.”
“Yeah, I heard. Bullet’s giving you some grief over Blade’s crew?” I’d heard this from Griff who kept me in the loop these days because I’d been distancing myself from Dad.
“Christ, it’s never fucking ending. Blade’s ramped up his supply business, stepping on Bullet’s territory. Black Deeds want me to get Blade to back off. Coke is their main game and he’s taking from them. Just cause he’s my son doesn’t mean he’s going to listen to me. It’s another thing I don’t need to be dealing with at the moment. So, yeah, I need you around in case shit goes down.”
“I’m not getting involved with Blade. But if it blows back on Storm, I’m on it.”
“Well stick close cause I reckon shit’s gonna go down at some point. And think on what I said about our family. It’s not just your mother who wants it healed,” he muttered before walking away.
I watched him as he got on his bike and took off, and wondered where he was spending his time these days. It was three o’clock in the afternoon and I doubted he was heading home. Neither Madison nor I knew if he was still carrying on with Blade’s mother because neither of us had spent any time with him in the last four months.
My phone rang, interrupting my thoughts. I reached into my pocket and grabbed it out to see who it was. Lisa. My neighbour’s kid. “Darlin’, what’s wrong?” I answered her without hesitation because she only ever called me when she had a problem. For a twelve year old, she was surprisingly drama free, so I knew if she called, something was going down.
“Scott, Monty’s sick,” she said, voice trembling.
“What’s wrong with him?” Monty was her cat; her faithful companion in her shitty life.
“His face is all puffy, like a chipmunk, and he isn’t eating. He’s pretty much just sleeping all the time and he looks so sad.”
“How long’s he been like that, darlin’?”
“For a few days,” she admitted quietly.
Christ. “You should have told me straight away. I’ll be there soon, okay.” Her mother wasn’t equipped to deal with shit like this and I thought I’d made it clear to her to always call on me, but she was the kind of kid who hated asking for help.
“Okay. Thanks, Scott,” she said and then hung up.
I shoved my phone back in my pocket and entered the clubhouse, searching for Madison. I’d see what she wanted and then head over to pick up the cat and take him to the vet.
Nash ran into me as I rounded the corner to go into the kitchen. “Did you sort Darrell’s shit out?” he asked.
“Nope. The fucker quit instead,” I answered him.
“He’s an asshole so we’re better off without him.”
He was right but it’d left me screwed because now on top of everything else I had to do for Storm, I also had to run Indigo. “The girls are pleased that he’s gone, especially Velvet.” She was Indigo’s favourite stripper so keeping her happy was on my agenda. Darrell was too fucking handsy with the girls and had put the hard word on most of them. Just because they took their clothes off for a living didn’t give him the right to expect a quick fuck out of them whenever he needed his dick wet.
“Good,” Nash said.
Something in his tone grabbed my attention. “Why are you so interested in this? Indigo’s not your gig.” Unless of course you counted him visiting the joint for personal pleasure which he did often.
He shrugged. “Velvet’s told me some of the shit that he said and did to her. I didn’t like the way he treated them.”
I continued to study him. There was something there, something he was keeping close to his chest. “Yeah, we’re better off without him but we need a new manager soon, and fucked if I know of one. If you have any ideas let me know.”
“Will do,” he agreed.
“Okay, I’ll catch you later, man. I’ve got to get a cat to the vet before they close.”
“What the fuck? You don’t have a cat do you?” he asked.
I shook my head, “Neighbour’s cat.”
“Michelle’s?”
“Yeah. Lisa sounded stressed about it.”
“I don’t know why you rented your house to that crazy bitch, and sure as hell don’t know why you look out for her so much. Not after what she did at Indigo.”
“It’s not Michelle I care about, brother. She’s still a junkie so someone needs to be there for her kid. And she hasn’t worked much since we fired her so Lisa goes without a lot.”
“And people think you’re an asshole,” he muttered, and then checked his watch, “Shit, I’ve gotta go. I’ll catch you later.”
He headed out of the clubhouse and I went looking for Madison. It didn’t take me long to find her; I followed her laughter to the kitchen. It was bloody good to hear her laughing again.
She was chatting with Stoney and grinned at me like an idiot when she saw me. “Stoney was just telling me how you got drunk last night and - ”
I cut her off and glared at Stoney. “Thanks, asshole. You wait your fuckin’ turn. Payback’s a bitch.”
Madison was pissing herself laughing now. “Seriously good shit, Scott. I can’t believe you did that!”
“You’d better believe he did that. Our Scotty doesn’t discriminate,” Stoney threw out there.
“What doesn’t he discriminate against?” J asked, entering the room.
I threw up my arms. “Fuck me! I almost went to town on some dick last night. How the fuck was I supposed to know she was a he?”
J, the asshole, started laughing too. “Fuck, man, I feel your pain. I often crave a little cock too, brother. If you feel you need that shit, we won’t judge.”
I punched him hard in the arm. “Good one, dickhead,” I retorted, and then directed at Madison, “What did you want to talk to me about?”
“I just wanted to invite you to a get together at our house on Sunday afternoon,” she answered.