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“Tig, brother, I need you to do me a solid.” Clay appeared beside where Tig was working on a customer's bike in the Teller-Morrow garage.
Tig threw down his wrench and wiped his greasy hands on a stained used to-be-white rag that he pulled out of the back pocket of his work coveralls “What do you need, chief?”
“There's a new boss setting up shop over in Stockton. Name's Lorenzo Alcazar. He's reached out to introduce himself to the club. Says he has a business proposition for us. I want you, Juice, and Opie to take the meeting.”
“When and where?”
Clay handed him a small piece of paper with a Stockton address written on it. “Meeting's at nine. I want you to hear the guy's proposal and evaluate how big of a threat, if any, this guy is to SAMCRO. Use your own good judgment on how to handle the situation.”
Tig furrowed his eyebrows. “But I don't have any good judgment.”
Clay chuckled darkly, “exactly.” He slapped Tig on the shoulder as he walked away.
9:00 PM
Stockton Arms Apartments
Lorenzo Alcazar was a pompous middle-aged mob boss with an obvious Napoleon complex. Everything about him was designed to exude power. The 1.5 million dollar penthouse, the designer suit, the Rolex watch. No matter how casual the latino man behaved all of his efforts screamed that he was trying just a little too hard. Juice had looked into the mobster that afternoon. He was bottom rung, controlling only a small territory in Puerto Rico. He had attempted to take over the territory of Port Charles, New York five years earlier but had been run out by Sonny Corinthos, one of the most powerful mafia dons in the country. Alcazar had no alliances with any major crime family. He was a nobody, someone not a soul would miss if he dropped off the RADAR.
“I've cut a pretty sweet deal with the Cortez Cartel to distribute their H. I want to cut a deal with SAMCRO to sell my product in Charming,” Alcazar explained as he poured himself a glass of bourbon, top-shelf, of course.
“Drugs don't come through Charming.” Opie crossed his arms over his chest. “The Sons don't allow it. We never have and we never will.”
“Only thing we allow to be slung in Charming is bud. Unless you've got some kind of pipeline on that, this meeting is over,” Tig shook his head.
“You won't allow it, huh?” Alcazar raised an eyebrow. “Not even if I offer the Sons a 60/20 split of all Charming profits?”
“Are you deaf?” Juice glared at the man.
“Not even if you got Chuck fucking Norris to pitch your vein candy in a late night infomercial,” Tig spoke to him as though he was speaking to a very small child.
At that moment, the bedroom door opened and out stepped a tall, broad-shouldered beauty. She had obviously not been born one but Tig suspected that if she wasn't wearing that badly concealed look of terror on her face, she would be the most beautiful woman that he had ever seen.
“You alright, darlin'?” Opie asked before Tig could.
“I told you to stay in the room!” Alcazar hissed in an embarrassed rage.
The brunette woman held up two perfectly manicured hands. “I'm a call girl. Lorenzo answered my ad and has been holding me here ever since,” she spoke with a strong southern drawl.
“You're here against your will?” Juice asked.
The woman nodded.
Tig motioned for her to come to his side. Once she was there, he wrapped his arm around her waist.
When Juice saw the small affectionate act, he rubbed a hand over his head and muttered an uneasy, “oh, boy.”
“We've got a big problem, Mr. Alcazar.” Opie took out his Glock and pointed it at the man.
“We expect women to be treated with a certain amount of respect around here.” Tig turned to look at the woman at his side.
“What's your name, baby?”
“Venus,” the woman replied softly.
Tig took in the cut on her lip and the bruising around her right eye. “Did he do this to you?” He reached up and tapped her lip gently.
Venus nodded.
“Opie.”
His name was spoken like a command and Opie pulled the trigger, shooting Alcazar right in the heart. The mob boss seemed to fall in a slow motion into a bloody heap on the floor.
“I'll call Happy to help us clean this up.” Juice pulled out his burner cell phone.
While Opie and Juice waited for Happy, Tig took Venus down to where the bikes were parked next to the complex, hidden out of sight in the shadows.
“You wanna come home with me tonight, baby?” Tig straddled his bike before handing her his helmet.
“Oh, my charming prince, I would not be worth the money you paid me. I'll give you my card for later though.” She reached into her blouse and pulled a business card out of her bra.
Tig took the card but shook his head with a chuckle. “I wasn't offering to pay you, baby.”
Venus gave him a skeptical once-over. “You know I've got a little something extra downstairs, right darlin'? I'm not as much of a lady as I behave.”
Tig good-naturedly rolled his eyes. “It's the 21st century, babe. These days havin' a dick doesn't disqualify you from being a woman. I know all I see is a lady standing in front of me and a beautiful one at that.”
Venus cracked a small smile. “As much as I would love to accept your invitation, sweetie pie, I can't. I haven't been home in three days because of Senor Psychopath laying upstairs. I have a son and a nanny who won't wait much longer to report me missing. We have an arrangement. If I'm gone longer than four days, she reports it to the police.”
“You shouldn't be working a job where you need to make those kinds of arrangements,” Tig shook his head. “You need a man looking after you.”
“You offerin' darlin'?” Venus laughed like the very idea was absurd.
“What if I was offerin', babe?” Tig shot back. “How are you a mom anyway? Divine miracle?”
“Drunken mistake five years ago with a girl that I used to go on calls with. She signed her rights away at birth.” Venus replied on autopilot like she was used to answering that question. “And if you were offerin', I'd want to know why.”
Tig shrugged. “It just feels like it's something I want to do. I haven't had an old lady in a long time. It feels past time to get a new one.”
A month later found Tig laying in bed, curled around Venus' nude body. He was feeling both sated and emotionally torn up at the same time. He and Venus spent almost every night together. He'd met her son. She'd met the one daughter that was still speaking to him. Still, she refused to accept the label of old lady. She refused to give up her demeaning job. He couldn't take the thought of other men putting their hands on his girl anymore. It was making him insane. Venus belonged to him.
“Penny for your thoughts, darlin?”
Tig had thought that she was asleep. Lord knew he had done his best to wear her out.
He sighed and kissed the side of her neck. “Quit,” was all he said.
Venus sighed and rolled over in his arms to look at him. “Quit what?”
“You know what, V,” he kissed her softly on the lips. “Quit. You and Joey can move in with me and Dawn. I want you to. I want to take care of you, baby. I can't take other men touching you anymore. I'm gonna end up fucking killing someone. I love you, Venus.” It wasn't until the words were out of his mouth that he realized that was the first time he had ever said them to her.
Venus smirked. “It's about time, my charming prince.” She pushed herself up a little to kiss him before laying back on her pillow with a smug look on her pretty face. “I've been working the reception desk at my friend Nero's escort service for the past month. I haven't been out on a call since Senor Psychopath. I don't allow anyone but you to touch me. I was just waiting to find out if you loved me like I love you. I guess you do.”
“Why you little minx,” Tig grinned as he started tickling her.
6 MONTHS LATER
Life had become a hell of a lot better for Tig once he had Venus in his life. He took on the role of father to little five-year-old Joey and he seemed to be much better suited to fatherhood the second go around. Venus even got along with Dawn. His old lady seemed to have some kind of magic touch when it came to dealing with Dawn's ever less amusing and a whole lot more illegal antics. Venus called his daughter 'spirited.' Tig called her a royal pain in his ass.
Even though, in general, Tig was happy with his life, he was having a pretty irritating day. It was one of those days where he had planned everything perfectly but everything that could go wrong, did. First, on his way back from the jewelry store, he had laid down his bike out on Route 4 and banged up his knee. Then when he had arrived home, it was to find Venus tending to their sick son. Joey was running a fever and the poor kid had been throwing up most of the day. It was a little after nine when the little boy's fever broke.
“Baby boy's finally sleeping,” Venus announced as she joined him in their bed.
“Good, you both need some rest.” He sat up in bed, careful of the ice pack strapped to his knee with an ace bandage, and gave her a quick kiss before reaching over into his nightstand drawer and retrieving something out of it just as the house phone rang.
Venus groaned before reaching over and grabbing the cordless phone off of her nightstand. At first, Tig didn't pay attention to her conversation. He was too busy fidgeting with the box in his left hand.
“She did WHAT?” Venus suddenly exclaimed.
Oh, this couldn't be fucking good.
“Alright, thanks so much, Deputy Chief Hale.” Venus hung up the phone and threw it back on the nightstand carelessly.
“Do I wanna ask baby?”
Venus turned and gave him an exhausted smile. “Our little Dawnie was just arrested for mail fraud. Her bail's five grand.”
Tig ran a hand over his face. His little girl was going to put him into an early grave long before the reaper got a chance to. “Fuck it,” he finally spoke. “She can spend the night in lockup. She's earned it. My day has fucking sucked and you've been running yourself ragged looking after Joey. We're not coming to her rescue this time.”
“Tough love works for me.” Venus cuddled into his arms. “I love baby girl to pieces but this boloney is starting to get old. Why did your day suck, darlin'?”
“Because I've been trying to find the right time to ask you something important.” He held up the ring box with his left hand, his right arm still wrapped around her waist. He flipped open the lid with his thumb to reveal the diamond ring within.
“Oh, Alexander,” she gasped in surprise.
“Will you marry me, Venus?” he asked. “And before you answer, know that I'm talking about really getting married, no commitment ceremony bullshit.”
“Yes, baby doll, of course.” Venus had tears in her eyes as he slid the ring on her finger.
Tig pulled her closer and kissed her slowly and tenderly. “I love you, baby,” he whispered huskily when they pulled apart.
“I love you too, my charming prince.”
FINIS