All That Matters (24 page)

“Alright,” Buster had to shout to be heard over the congratulations and good natured ball-busting. “We've got one more order of business to discuss. I think that you all know who that is.”

It was Info and Cane; they were still in the wind. There had been several sightings of Info, but they hadn't been able to pin him down. There was a lot of that going around. Josh hadn't been spotted since the day they'd thought they had him cornered at the law office. The plates from the car had come back, it was leased to the law firm, so it was pretty much a dead end. He was sick of all the dead ends.

“We got anything new?” Danny asked.

“I heard from my guy at the casino, he spotted Info last night,” Monroe offered. “Of course, the dumb fuck didn't call me until this morning, which did us no good. He's going to ask around, see if anyone else who was working remembers seeing him. The girl wasn't with him, though.”

“And no sign of Cane either, right?” Danny spoke up again. “I've been giving it some thought. Cane seemed like a solid guy, one who'd keep his word, so it's never really sit right with me that he brought Info back. What if we're wasting our time looking for him?”

“Ace. Bones. You two think that you can figure out if Cane is dead by running one of your searches or whatever?” Buster asked.

“It's not going to be like on television,” Ace warned. “It's going to take some time and patience.”

“We're in short supply of both those things,” Buster reminded him. “But anything that you two can do is going to be appreciated. Everyone else, keep your eyes and ears open. If there's nothing else, let's get out of here. Train, stay a minute. I need to talk to you.”

Train remained seated as all of the other guys filed out. They'd head downstairs, find drinks and start celebrating the new blood. “What's on your mind, Buster?”

“You,” Buster answered bluntly. “I'm a little worried about you lately.”

“Worried? About me? Why?”

“I know how you are about change, Train. There's been more change in the past few months than I can list. And not just club stuff, you dating someone is pretty much the biggest change of all.”

“What's your point?” Annoyance began to buzz at the base of his skull. He didn't like personal conversations almost as much as he didn't like change. Especially he didn't like conversations with Buster when his president had that particular look in his eye.

“Are you sure that it's not all too much? Lately, you've been not yourself. You aren't hanging out. You have one beer and stop drinking. I saw Claire offering you a go with her and the new blond girl, and you just walked away.” Buster ticked the items off on his fingers.

Train ticked the items back off at him. “Of course, I'm not hanging around here as much as I did at the bar. I lived at the bar. I've got my place now.” Even though it had been nearly a week since he'd set foot back in his actual place. Basically all of his stuff was at Meg's now, anyway. “I have a couple of drinks because I'm not a fan of drunk driving, something which wasn't a problem when I lived at the bar. As far as the pass-around bitches go, none of them have anything on Meg.”

“Things have gotten pretty serious with the two of you. I got to admit, I'm surprised.” Buster leaned back in his chair and lit a cigarette. “She's a sweet girl.”

“Yeah, she is.” Train chuckled to himself because Buster would never know how sweet she really was. He shifted in the chair as his cock swelled at the thought of being between her legs. He'd been so wrapped up in club stuff lately, he hadn't been spending nearly as much time with Meg as he should have.

“Sweet isn't your thing, Brother. Let's be honest, it's probably the opposite of your thing. Maybe I'm a little worried that you've gotten yourself in over your head with her and don't know how to get out.” Buster held up a hand to hold him off. “Give it a minute. Hear me out before you bite my head off. Are you sure that you're not just seeing your sister in Meg? She took care of you, and Meg takes care of the boys. I could see how that might...”

“I didn't tell you about that for you to throw it in my face.” Train felt anger rise up from the deepest place inside of him. “And not that it's only of your business, but what I feel for Meg doesn't have shit to do with my past.” He stayed in the chair only because he knew that getting in Buster's face right now would lead to them going at it. “Where the fuck is this coming from, Buster? You turn into Dr. Fucking Phil when I wasn't looking. You want to talk about acting out of character, you're doing it right now.”

“I'm just trying to look out for you, Brother. That's all.”

“Bullshit.” The wheels in Train's mind had been turning since Buster started to speak. Finally, they stopped turning as he realized everything that Buster was saying to him probably had come straight from Monroe's mouth. “Monroe put you up to this, didn't he?”

“He's concerned about her, too. He doesn't want to see her hurt, says that she's had a rough go of it.”

Train wondered what else Monroe had said about Meg, who he'd said it to and just who he thought he was. “If he wanted to stake a claim on Meg, he had his chance to do it,” Train snarled as he rose to his feet. “She's my old lady, and he's going to learn to keep his nose out of my shit.”

“Train!” Buster called after him, but he was already out the door and down the stairs. As he'd expected, everyone was in the main room. Bones was behind the bar pouring drinks. Everyone else was hanging around. Claire, Chastity and two new pass-arounds were working the crowd. As usual, his brothers seemed to be enjoying the attention. Train scanned the crowd until he saw Monroe standing near the front door.

“Monroe!” Train called him out from the bottom of the stairs. “You got something that you want to say to me?” He closed the distance between them and got right in Monroe's face. “Because if you do, be a man about it, don't go behind my back like a  gossiping little bitch.”

“You already know how I feel about you and Meg,” Monroe answered without backing down. Instead he met Train's eyes. “I've known her a long time. She's one of the good ones. After all the shit she's been through, the last thing that she needs is to get hurt when you get bored with her.”

Train found the entire speech particularly insulting, so the only response he had was his fist, rings and all, in Monroe's face. Someone in the background let out what sounded like a war cry. No one would interfere, but they'd enjoy the show. He fully intended to give them one.

Monroe seemed dazed as he threw a return punch. Train dodged it, sent his fist into the other man's gut. He followed up with another hit to the face. Train wanted blood. Monroe had earned this beat-down by over and over again pushing his nose where it didn't belong when it came to Meg. Monroe's next punch landed, and the battle was on. Things went downhill from there, they hit the wall and Train knew he'd have to replace some of the sheet rock.

Train barely managed to keep his balance as they ricocheted away from the wall. Monroe landed a punch to his ribs that made him suck in a deep breath. The pain only fueled the rage consuming him. His next hit caused blood to bloom from Monroe's nose.

“STAND DOWN!” Buster called out. “That's enough.” Train stopped because he knew that if he didn't, his brothers would pull him off and because he knew Buster was right. Monroe had had enough. He was bleeding from his mouth as well as his nose. “You two good now?”

“I'm good.” Train reached out to shake Monroe's hand, even though his hand was covered in blood. Monroe took it without hesitation. They'd stay good as long as Monroe remembered his place and kept his nose where it belonged. If he stepped over the line again, the next beating would not end just because there was a little blood.

“We're good,” Monroe confirmed, the words barely understandable because of his rapidly swelling mouth.

<#<#<#<#

Leo was at the kitchen table with a glass of water in front of him when Train came home. “What are you still doing up, kiddo?” Train hung his jacket on the hook near the back door, crossed over to the fridge for a beer.

“I was thirsty,” Leo explained. He shifted around in the chair. “Meg's upstairs. I don't think she's sleeping, but she said she was going to bed.”

“What happened?” Train walked over and sat down at the table. “Talk to me, Leo.”

“The hospital called today. Joshua had a really bad day and hurt one of the orderlies. They're transferring him to another institution.” Leo sunk down further in the chair. “Meg said they couldn't, that it's too far away, but they wouldn't listen. She screamed at them and called the lady a whole bunch of names when she hung up.”

“Shit.” Train scrubbed his hands over his face and was a bit pissed that Meg hadn't called him herself. It made him remember his phone and realize he hadn't turned it on after the meeting. When he did, he saw that she'd sent a text and left a voice mail. “Fuck.”

“You're lucky we don't have a swear jar,” Leo observed.

“Yeah, you're right about that. How do you feel about Joshua going to a different place?” Train slid his chair back and walked over to the fridge. He found chocolate milk and decided that it would do just fine as hot cocoa.

“Is it bad if I say that I don't care?” Leo spoke so low that Train wasn't sure he'd heard him right.

“I don't think it's bad. You feel the way that you feel.” Train put a sauce pot on the stove and dumped the milk in. “I would like to know why you don't care.” He busied himself getting cups and taking out the tin of cookies Caroline had sent over and didn't press Leo to talk.

Eventually the boy started to talk. He stuttered and stammered to start, obviously not sure of what to say and no doubt feeling guilty. “I don't like going to see him, so if I didn't have to go, that would be good.”

“Why don't you like going to see him?”

“That place smells. It's supposed to make it smell clean, but it makes my stomach hurt.” Leo's eyes were firmly on the table. “And then once we get back to see him, he's not even glad to see us. He's mean and nasty. He talks to Meg like my dad used to, that makes my stomach hurt, too.”

“I can see why you feel that way.” Train had never chosen his words so carefully before. “Did you tell Meg?”

“It'll make her feel bad.” Leo shook his head.

“I think it'll make her feel worse that you feel bad and didn't say anything.”

“But I am saying something,” Leo protested. “I'm telling you right now. I hope Joshua never comes home because I think that he'd hurt us and like it.”

Train heard the creak of the floorboard in the hallway but Leo didn't. Meg must have heard everything that he said because she was there with her hand over her mouth. She wasn't crying, yet, but there was no way that it was far off. Fuck. Not for the first time he wondered, and worried, if this was going to be what pushed her over the edge.

“I won't let him hurt you, Leo.” Train took a third mug from the cabinet for Meg and poured the heated chocolate milk in all three of them.

“I won't let him hurt you either, Leo.” Meg's voice made the boy jump, a guilty expression on his face. “And I'm so sorry I didn't realize that you felt this way. If I had, I wouldn't have made you keep going on the visits.”

Train set the cups on the table. “Alright, everyone sit down, relax and have some cocoa.”

“Where are the marshmallows?” Leo asked.

“Right. I almost forgot about those.” Train didn't know how, since Leo preferred more marshmallows than anything else. He opened several cabinets in search of them.

“They're in the cereal cabinet next to the fridge,” Meg offered.

“Thanks.”

“So, you're not mad at me, Meg? Because I don't want to see Joshua anymore?”

“Of course not, you're old enough to know your own mind. I wish you'd have told me sooner because if you want to know the truth, he scares me, too.” Meg kept her voice light; Train could tell that she was trying as hard as he'd been to say the right thing. It was nice to know that he wasn't the only one who had to.

“What if the doctors can't make him better?” Leo asked. It was a heavy question, one that Train wasn't sure Meg was ready to deal with on any level.