Mad About Moon (The Whiskeys: Dark Knights at Peaceful Harbor #5)(6)
“And we have some new business to take care of,” Biggs continued. “We need to make sure Sarah and Scott’s sister is protected. They know nothing about the last decade of Josie’s life, and we have no idea if she’s running from someone or if she’s just down on her luck.”
“She’s safe at the shelter,” Bones added. As a physician, Bones was the cleanest cut of the Whiskeys, but he was every bit as lethal. “But we’d feel a hell of a lot better if she had someone watching out for her. She’s reached out, but she’s obviously not ready to accept help from Sarah and Scott, which means she probably won’t accept help from me, either.”
“I’ll do it,” Jed offered. Though he wasn’t certain if Josie was Jojo, he sure as hell wanted to find out. But until he knew for sure, he didn’t want to mention it. “I’ll get to know her, make sure she finds a good job, a place for her and her kid to live. I don’t have that much time between working at the auto shop and the bar, but I’ll make it happen.”
Bear patted him on the back and said, “Way to man up, Prospect. I can pull more hours at the shop if need be.”
“No, you won’t,” Biggs said. “You and Crystal are newlyweds, and you’ve got a baby on the way. Diesel’s back in town, and he needs a job. He can take nights at the bar. Tex Sharpe needs a few hours over the winter, so he can fill in at the auto shop if we need him. We’ll figure it out.” Diesel and Tex were both members of the Dark Knights, though Diesel was a nomad, which meant he held no particular allegiance to any club chapter or territory.
“Diesel? Christ, Pop. He’s scarier than Bullet,” Bear said.
Bullet slapped Bear upside his head. “We need guys who intimidate the riffraff. God knows you can’t do it.”
Bear scoffed. “Fuck off. Nobody messes with me.”
“Boys, what could you possibly be arguing about on Christmas?” their mother, Wren “Red” Whiskey, asked as she walked into the kitchen. Most people thought she got her nickname from her flame-red hair, a trait Dixie shared, but she didn’t. When Bear was just a boy, he’d overheard someone calling her Wren and thought they’d said Red. The name had stuck. Red was tough as steel, but she also had a softer, maternal side. A side that made Jed want to be around her, protect her, and soak up all the motherly love she was willing to give.
Bear and Bullet mumbled, “Sorry, Mom.”
“Mm-hm,” she said. “Since you’re talking about club business and I’ve got all of you in one room without the distractions of your beautiful ladies and babies, I wanted to say my piece. I’ve been talking to Sarah and Dixie, and now that we’ve got two more babies in our family, and two on the way, I think it’s time we hire another waitress for the bar. I’d like to spend more time spoiling my husband and grandchildren and less time babysitting men at the bar.”
Bones, Bear, and Bullet all chuckled.
“You ought to give parenting lessons, Red,” Jed said. “I’d have given anything for a mother like you.”
She walked up to him, put her hand on his cheek with the kindest, most genuinely maternal expression he’d ever seen, and said, “You’ve got me now, darlin’. You’re just as much a part of our family as Truman, Gemma, Quincy, their babies, and the rest of our surrogate children.”
Bear had befriended Truman Gritt and his younger brother, Quincy, when they were teenagers. Their mother had been a drug addict, and Bear had taken Truman under his wing and taught him how to work on cars. Unfortunately, Truman had gone to prison for a crime Quincy had committed when Quincy was only fourteen—only to be set free and find his mother dead from an overdose, Quincy in the throes of addiction, and two baby siblings he hadn’t known existed living in a crack house. Now Quincy was clean, and Truman and his wife, Gemma, were raising their younger siblings, Kennedy and Lincoln, as their own.
“Thanks, Red. That means the world to me.”
“Why don’t we see about Josie working at the bar?” Biggs suggested.
“That won’t fly,” Red said. “I suggested it to Sarah, but she said Josie has just dipped her toes into the idea of reconnecting. She’s afraid Josie will get scared off, or feel pushed if we try to bring her into our world too quickly, and then she might run. But Sarah’s friend Tracey needs a job.”
“I don’t know. Tracey’s super sweet, and a tiny gal to boot,” Bones said. “I’m not sure she can handle that rough of a crowd.”
“If Fin can handle that crowd, I’m sure that little sweetheart can, because no one is sweeter than my wife,” Bullet said.
“Sarah’s sure Tracey can handle it,” Red reassured them. “Nobody bothers Izzy with Jed and Bullet around.” Isabel Ryder was a waitress at Whiskey Bro’s.
Bear grabbed a beer from the fridge and said, “A man would have to have a death wish to bother the girls or start shit with Desmond “Diesel” Black around. Where’s he been anyway?”
“I don’t ask and he don’t tell,” Biggs said.
Bear motioned toward the entrance to the kitchen and cleared his throat, drawing everyone’s attention to adorable four-year-old Kennedy in her fluffy red-and-green princess dress, holding Sarah’s three-year-old son Bradley’s hand.