Page 7 of Craving Theodora
“You remember Harv down in Sacramento?” Casper asked. “Died last year?”
“Vaguely,” I replied. From what I could recall, he’d been a good friend to the club and had a hand with custom shit like I’d never seen before or since. He’d slowed down by the time I was old enough to appreciate it, but a couple of the boys still had his mods on their vehicles.
“He was a friend to the club,” Grease said, reaching up to scratch his cheek. “Reached out before he passed and called in a marker.”
“And you’re just gettin’ around to it now?” I asked dubiously.
“Didn’t see a way to repay it until now,” Grease answered flatly. “He’s got a daughter, Theodora. She’s in deep down there. Had a son with Mike Granger.”
“Fuck’s sake,” I muttered. Mike Granger had died three years before. He’d been a supreme asshole, and he’d been that way because he could. His fuck of a father controlled 75 percent of the drug trade through Sacramento, and what he didn’t control, he still had his fingers in.
“As you can imagine,” Grease continued. “Harv was concerned about leaving her.”
“With good reason.”
Grease nodded in agreement.
“From what we’ve gathered, the Granger family keeps a loose hold on Theodora and her kids. Don’t get up in her shit, but make sure that she remembers they’re there.”
“She work for them?”
“Unclear,” Grandpa Casper said. “But she claims she hasn’t done any work for them in the last five years.”
“You’ve been in touch?”
“We’ve reached out,” he confirmed.
“We need you to go down,” Grandpa Dragon announced. “Drive her and the kids back up here.”
“Quietly?”
“Semi.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“That means,” my dad said, turning toward me. “She’ll be ready, but she can’t look like she’s fleein’.”
I just stared at them.
“She’s not escapin’,” Grease said quietly, watching me closely. “Yeah? Nothin’ to escape from. She’s just movin’ to Oregon to be near her man.”
It took longer than it should’ve to realize what he was saying.
“You want me to play house with this woman.” My voice was flat.
“We need to get her the fuck out of California,” Grandpa Casper said. “And we can’t give the appearance that we’re poachin’ her.”
“Of course not,” I replied sarcastically, keeping my voice just this side of respectful.
“You’ll take the bus down tomorrow. She’ll pick you up at the station, and you’ll drive them to Oregon.”
“Then what?” I asked. “We make it to Oregon without problems, then what? Not as if the Grangers don’t have eyes here.”
“Tommy’s gettin’ your place ready today,” Dad said. It was the apology in his voice that made the situation clear.
“You want me to live with her?” I blinked in shock. I’d been asked to do a lot of things for the club. I’d broken more than a few laws. I’d cleaned up disgusting messes. I’d taken my brothers’ backs even when I wasn’t sure they were in the right. But this? Fucking insane.
“For a while,” Grandpa Dragon confirmed, like it was any other job. “Give it a few months. After that, you two go your separate ways. No one will think anything of it. Didn’t work out, nothin’ to write home about.”
