“Ain’t gonna happen, Jett. Uncle Don wants to give Dwight a second – no, a fourth chance – so I’m here until he gets his shit together and comes back.”
Jett’s dirty-blonde eyebrows rise up, smile vanishing. “You don’t think that’s happening soon?”
“Nope. I visited him a couple times. Guy’s a mess. A drunk driver killed his son and now the guy’s a drunk himself. Can’t really blame him, I guess. But it’s not lookin’ good for me.”
Jett’s nodding like he understands now. “I see.”
“Yeah.” I exhale and take a drink, looking at the floor. “Fucking sucks ass, man.”
“Yeah, you’d think someone should do somethin’ about somethin’ like that,” Jett grumbles.
“What can be done?”
He breathes in through his teeth, making a hissing sound as he weighs the problem. Rising up, he paces a bit.
“You want to take your jacket off?”
Jett looks at me over his shoulder. “Huh? Oh yeah. Sorry. Was in my head trying to think of how to help you.” He peels off the leather and tosses it onto the couch. His muscles are so big he’s got veins pulsing out of them.
“Shit, Jett, you’re ripped.”
“Same as you.”
“You’re bigger than I am.”
“Comes with the territory.”
“Still have the one tat though, huh? Aren’t you guys supposed to get one for the club?”
Jett looks at the matching tat all of us brothers got when we each hit eighteen. Jaxson and Jett thought it up, and Jeremy designed it even though he was the youngest. He’s got a way with a pen.
Jax and Jett got inked at the same time, together, since Jaxson was twenty and Jett was eighteen at the time. We joined as soon as we hit legal age where Dad couldn’t argue. I think he secretly wished he could get one, too. And I know he’s proud of how we feel about each other no matter how different we are.
Jett holds my eyes a second and the gravity of our connection is felt. “The Ciphers want me to get one. I’m stalling. I have our code written above my cock, though.” He runs a hand over the crotch of his weathered jeans. “I’ll get the tat of our patch when I feel like it.”
“Sure. Makes sense.”
We’re silent for a moment. He’s a loyal man, our Jett. But that loyalty is theirs now. I’m proud he’s still holding onto a piece of his for his own. It hits me deep. It’s been hard watching him fade away from us since he joined the motorcycle club, but still, he’ll always be my brother first. This symbolizes that for me.
He’s back to thinking of a solution. “What to do about Dwight…what to do about Dwight. Hmmm…”
“Jett, it’s useless. Let’s just drink some beers and you can tell me about the shit you’ve been doing.”
He waves me away, pacing in those big boots of his. Finally he stops. “Well, I wish Jaxson had called and told me to drive down from Montana where I was nailing this farm girl with big tits so I could come here and fix Dwight up good so you could come home. I wish he’d have called and asked me to do that.” Jett looks at me with meaning.
I nearly drop my beer. “Are you fucking kidding me!”
“Nah.”
“That’s why you’re here?!”
He grins the smile of a man who’s done bad things. “Oh, yes. Dwight is in a hell of his own making right now.”
“What the fuck have you done?!” I’m laughing, but I’m also a little worried about Uncle Don’s friend.
He fills me in on what the Ciphers are doing, and what they’re going to do. I’m listening with my mouth open most of the time, and when he gives me the approximate amount of time he thinks it’ll take, I shake my head and hold up a hand for him to stop.
“First of all, what the fuck, Jett, thank you. You really think I can go home in a month?”
“If I’m good at scaring him sober, three weeks maybe.” He sets down his empty bottle and slouches onto the couch. “We’ll stick around while he starts up at the job again. That’ll give him a reason to stay clean. And he’ll have a purpose.”
I mutter, “We all need one,” under my breath, stunned he’s done this for me.
“Fuck yeah, we do.” Jett says, checking out his dirty boot.
“I’ll get you another beer.”
“I’m good.”
Sitting on the coffee table, I set my bottle by his. “Jaxson did this?”
Jett’s smirk fades away. “It was dad, Jake. Dad wanted you home.”
It feels as if all the air leaves the room. Jett’s looking at me and we both know why Dad would do this. He hates having any of us gone. He hates Jett for leaving. He hates that Jeremy left, too, but loves him for joining the Military so that’s a whole different thing. It’s honorable what Jeremy’s done, in a congressman’s eyes.