Mea Culpa

Chapter 11

As hard as Coco tried to make their shopping trip fun, Roxy was miserable the whole time. She couldn't buy things she really wanted, she had to look somewhat professional and her usual style was far from that.

"How can I make you smile?" He asked, his big brown eyes looking at her full of melancholy. "You want my get you something? I saw you lookin' at them Nikes."

"You wanna buy me something?" Roxy huffed, throwing the latest bags in the trunk of her car. "Buy me my freedom."

Disappointed at first, Coco suddenly realized that may be an option. If they ever got married she'd be free of Alvarez. It wasn't an immediate fix and not one to take lightly though so he didn't mention it to her.

"I can do dinner," he chuckled.

"I'd love it but I have to get Mateo," she said.

"We can all go," he offered.

Roxy smiled but shook her head. "You're sweet but no. I'm not really in the mood."

"You're gonna like working for Pena," Coco told her. "She's cool."

"I'm sure she is," Roxy huffed. "I'll drop you back at the clubhouse."

Coco was right, Pena was a pretty cool boss and Roxy found that out just three days after meeting with Alvarez. The first week and a half was a lot, and Pena was surprised she knew so little about the other side of her job.

"Bishop said you were raised in an MC," Pena mentioned one day at lunch.

"I was," Roxy nodded, "But when I was little they kept me in the dark and as I got older I didn't want to know," she laughed. "Guess I should have paid more attention."

"I'm sure you had different aspirations," Pena remarked.

"Yeah," Roxy shrugged. "Kind of."

They continued to eat in semi-silence, muffled phones and the sounds of a busy office came through the door but that was it.

"First weekend after your first full week of work. Any plans?"

"Nope," Roxy laughed. "I've never worked an actual full week, I'm kind of beat."

"After our meeting with Galindo you can leave early," Pena offered. "Sometimes I will need you during the weekends but usually it's just Monday to Friday."

"I feel like a big girl," Roxy joked. "You know, or maybe you don't, this wasn't my idea but thank you for this opportunity. I appreciate it."

"My pleasure," she said with a chuckle. "I'm going to assume you're not Bishop's actual niece?" Pena asked, stabbing a carrot from her salad and popping it in her mouth. "When he mentioned this arrangement he said my niece, but he never specified the relationship before when he talked about you."

Roxy smiled a little. "He called me his niece? That's sweet but I'm technically not. I dated his cousin's son and am the mother of the same cousin's grandson. With the clubs and all family is family, blood or not."

"You're lucky to have him looking out for you," she said somberly. "When you were in that legal mess in Arizona he was pretty torn up about it. I tried to help but I was basically powerless."

Although Roxy doubted it was on purpose, Pena was doing one amazing job of showing Roxy how much they cared about her. The teasing and tough love always made her feel like more of a responsibility than anything else.

"Bishop's a good guy," Roxy said quietly. "They all are."

She smiled as she gathered her garbage from lunch and tossed it in the bin. "He's one of the better ones," Pena added.