Mostly because he was the Lord of Acid himself.
“Yeah.”
“You told him?” she asked, mouth wobbling.
“Had to, Lily,” I admitted sheepishly. “You’re his Old Lady. I’d want to know if Ghost was hurting.”
Ghost tensed on my lap, but I didn’t look at her as she peered up at me with big, wide blue eyes.
Lily frowned a little but nodded. “You can tell him I’m okay.”
“He wants to know if you want him to fly home?”
She reared back at that, her head almost thumping into the wall. “Really?”
I smiled at her. “Really.”
Her brow puckered, but she maneuvered her way throughout the tangle of arms and bodies from the other women, and murmured, “Give me the phone, please?”
I passed it over to her, and she hit connect, “Baby, I’m okay.”
When she wandered off some, I ignored her conversation, even though giving her my phone made me antsy, and instead, I looked at the group who was over by the wall, each of them looking wrecked.
“Are you going to talk to Tiffany?” I asked them all, but no one in particular though.
“I don’t think I’m good enough to help,” Tiffany whispered. “I mean, I can’t…can I? How can I help?”
“You think we’re hopeless?” Tatána inquired softly, her voice filled with sadness.
“No. I’m just not fully trained for this.” Tiffany’s voice was small, miserable. “I quit school. But I thought I could help, only I don’t think I’m good enough for you. You deserve the best but—”
“You helped already,” Amara interjected softly.
She shook her head. “No, Lily helped. I didn’t do anything.”
Tatána reached over, cupped her shoulder, and murmured, “Maybe we can all help each other, and you can watch over us?”
She bit her lip. “I’d like that, if you would.”
I shot Ghost a look, interested to see if she’d talk to Tiffany or not, but she wasn’t focused on the conversation. Instead, I saw that she had a funny look on her face, one I could actually read, and I felt no compunction in admitting to her. “If I still had a bike, I’d leave it and take a flight home to you.”
She sucked in a sharp breath at that, and enjoying that I’d confounded her, I grinned, then reached up and tapped the tip of her nose.
“Now, I have shit to do, ladies,” I told them when I saw Lily was wandering back, my cell in her hand. “Can I leave you to play nice for an hour or two?”
They were all somber, all far too sorrowful, staring at me with soulful eyes, but they nodded, and though it might not seem like much, it actually felt like a big step forward.
The biggest step?
Getting Lodestar here, getting her to find that fucker so we could slay him.
Sinner style.
Fuck, that was a day I couldn’t wait for.
Five
Sin
Link was antsy to get home, and I couldn’t blame him.
He was fiddling with that fucking rosary of his like the damn thing wouldn’t break, and if he jiggled his goddamn foot much more? I was going to kick it out from under him.
Still, for all that he was annoying me, I got it.
Fuck, I did. I wanted to get back home as much as he did.
“I know you want to get back,” Rex was saying patiently, “but we still have things to tidy up here.”
“The fire department looked the other way,” I grumbled. “I don’t see what the holdup is either.”
Rex narrowed his eyes at me, but I scowled right back.
“I haven’t seen my woman in a fuckuva long time. You bet your ass I want to be on her the second I’m home.”
At my words, everyone in the office stilled, then Nyx turned to me with a raised brow, and muttered, “Shit. You’re going to brand her, aren’t you?”
“What about my statement made you think that?” I rumbled, my brow puckering as I stared at him with irritation.
“The fact that you just admitted you haven’t boned anyone since you got here.”
“I never said that,” I countered.
“You pretty much did,” Steel muttered, eying me up like I was a fucking alien or something.
Because I wasn’t thinking straight, I ground out, “Just because I’m not stupid enough to let my woman get away from me for free pussy—”
Steel’s eyes flashed. “Fuck you.”
“No, thanks, don’t know where the fuck you’ve been,” I snapped.
“Children!” Rex ground out. “I don’t need this right now, do you hear me?”
I shrugged, but folded my arms across my waist. “It’s not that fucking crazy that I might have found someone I actually like, is it?”
“She’s pregnant, you want to brand her, and apparently haven’t cheated on her since you got here months ago. That means the brother who’d fuck the bunnies at least three times a day has turned into someone completely different.”
Nyx’s words had me shrugging.
“You didn’t touch a drop last night either,” Link pointed out.
“So it’s a crime for me to be a better man, is it?” I snapped.
“No,” Rex murmured, his tone soothing, “but you have to deal with the fact that these guys are learning about all this in a very short space of time. They’ve gone from thinking you were a shithouse for leaving Giulia stranded to go and watch one of the strippers get naked, to suddenly becoming pope material.”
I snorted at that. “Nothing about me is a pope. I’m still all sin.”
Link rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah.”
That had me grinning, because even though I was a twisted fuck, I was among my own kind here. Sinners? There was a reason we’d made a family among our brothers. It was easy to do that when you were with people who were like you.
“We’re traveling down tomorrow,” Rex stated, steering the topic back to the one at hand. “We can’t change that. Not when we have to clear up the mess we made last night.”
“Not much of a mess considering the department is in our pocket.”
“We left the chapter short a warehouse.”
“The fucking thing didn’t burn down,” Nyx muttered.
“No, it just gutted it.” Rex rolled his eyes. “We’re here, and that’s final. Anyway, I want to see if Butch needs ousting.”
“He does,” I confirmed. “He’s lazy, doesn’t get shit done, and I’m pretty sure Peggy has a hold on him that none of our council would appreciate.”
Rex groaned at that. “What do you mean?”
I shrugged. “If Butch is too busy fucking, she’ll order the guys around and they listen.”
“That’s not a crime,” Steel reasoned. “Giulia does the same thing.”
“When it comes to cleaning the fucking kitchen,” I retorted. “I’m talking about runs. She knows about shipments and shit. What’s in them, where they’re going. Details we keep among the brothers. Hell, some of the council probably don’t know as much as she does.”
“You think she’s acting in his stead?”
“Wouldn’t be surprised. He’s more interested in the sex and booze. Pretty sure he’s got a coke habit.”
“Fuck,” Rex snapped, and I knew why. Sinners weren’t allowed to sample the wares.
It was the number one rule.
Fuck who you wanted, drink how much you needed, but drugs? Nope. Back the fuck away, or take off your cut and get another job.
Link groaned. “Fuck, we’ll be staying longer if we need to find another Prez.”
“What about Storm?” Nyx suggested softly.
I blinked at that, surprised by the proposal. “Storm’s our VP.”
“Shit job he’s doing of that when he’s soaking himself in drink and pussy like he’s waiting on his funeral.”
“He’s been like that since Keira left,” Link agreed. “But I don’t know if it would be wise to bring him down here.”
“Might be good to
give him the option. Rex, your hold on the Sinners is absolute. His job is pretty much unnecessary unless you’re on a run, and you don’t do that anymore. Not much anyway. This is a one off, let’s face it.”
Rex rubbed a hand over his chin. “Fuck, this is a big deal, Nyx. I mean, shit, he’d be leaving his woman and baby girl behind.”
“Like he isn’t doing that already?” Nyx shrugged. “I’m just saying it’s an option. He’s a good man when he isn’t being a fuckwit.”
“Does anyone know what happened between him and Keira?” I asked.
“By the sounds of it, one of the bunnies told her that she gave Storm a BJ while she was pregnant,” Nyx muttered.
Rex grunted. “Fucking dumbass.”
Yeah.
Dumbass was the word.
That was the trouble when the women weren’t in the life. They didn’t get how it worked sometimes. I mean, it didn’t work like that for everyone. Giulia would have Nyx’s dick on a platter before she shared it, and he was a possessive fuck anyway. He’d kept things to one bitch at a time for as long as I’d known him.
Link?
I mean, I’d assume he’d be loyal to Lily, especially as he was antsy as fuck to get back to her now. Like, I’d never seen him be that way with anyone else, so I figured it must be love.
And for me?
Well, I hadn’t fucked anything, not even my fucking fist unless Tiff had talked me off over the phone since I’d come over here.
Maybe I was made like Nyx.
I’d been loyal to my ex. She’d been the one who cheated on my ass, something I only found out when I got back from deployment. And since then, I’d never been committed to anyone. But they were right. I might not have said the words, but I’d be branding Tiff.
Whether she liked the idea or not.
Rex scratched his jaw where stubble had gathered, then muttered, “Wonder if I could get them all to come down here together. Fresh start?”
“Could set things in motion. Might pull his head out of his ass actually having to work, you know?” Nyx mused, and I knew why too. Nyx was the only one who could talk Rex into shit. Not even Storm could do that.
The two were tight.
But more than that, they trusted each other and had the other’s back. I’d noticed it before, but because I was, essentially, in a council meeting where I’d never had that before, I hadn’t seen it.
Church was different.
That was the council telling the brothers what was going down. Sure, we had some say in shit, could vote on certain matters, but most things were pre-decided by the council for the good of the club.
“I don’t think that’s fair,” Steel muttered. “Storm does a lot at the chop shop and for the strip joint.”
Nyx just snorted. “Getting drunk and watching pussy strip ain’t good for our business. Still, ain’t saying he’s a shit VP. If anything, he’s the opposite. He’s too good to waste as Rex’s VP, especially when there’s a position opening up here.”
“There’s time,” I pointed out. “Butch and Peggy aren’t running the place into the ground.”
“Not yet. If he’s high as a fucking kite, though, then things will change soon. There’s always a fine line between a hobby and addiction.”
“He’s functioning, is all I’m saying. If you want to put things in motion, then the option’s there.”
Rex eyed me, staring at me like I had shit on my face or something.
“What is it?”
He shrugged. “If Storm takes the job, there’d be a position on the council.”
“No shit,” I replied drolly.
“Before this fuck up with Giulia, I’d have thought you’d be a good fit for it. Especially since you had stopped drinking so much.”
“Shit-faced ass,” Steel muttered, and I flipped him the bird.
“Fuck you,” I retorted, but there wasn’t much heat to the words. He was right. I’d been soaking my liver in tequila. Still, I cut Nyx a look, and he wasn’t glaring at Rex for the suggestion, neither was there death in his eyes when he looked at me.
“You’d have a problem with that?”
“No.”
One word.
Never let it be said that Nyx was prone to rambling.
I looked at Rex. “If you think I could—”
Rex pursed his lips. “Nyx would be promoted to VP. He’s pretty much that anyway. You worked with him on security. Would make sense for you to take his place as Enforcer.”
Despite myself, my throat choked at that. “You being serious?” I’d never have expected to come out of this with a promotion, but fuck, this was insane.
“Yeah, I’m being serious, but only if Storm agrees to be Prez down here.” Rex tapped his fingers against the shitty desk chair. “I can’t see it myself. He’s too fucking lazy to move, but we’ll see.”
“It would be a solution. Needs to be someone from our club to keep things in control here.”
“You want the role?” Rex asked Nyx, his tone serious.
He shook his head. “I’m no Prez.”
Rex pulled a face. “No. You’re too fucking headstrong with this war you’re fighting.” He sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Steel, what about you?”
He arched a brow. “Me?”
“Yeah, only one fucker called Steel.”
“If Storm doesn’t want the job, I’ll think about it, but I think he’ll take it. The fucker isn’t happy, and he’s being a dick right now, but he’s a good brother. Maybe this is the kick in the ass the bastard needs.”
Everyone nodded, because he wasn’t blowing smoke up our asses. He meant it.
And it was the truth.
Storm had been a good brother before he’d fucked up his life.
Sometimes, in our world, it was easier to think you could have the cake and eat it too.
He had a wife at home, a kid, then he thought he could fuck whoever he wanted without there being any repercussions?
He’d learned otherwise, but the shitty thing was, he’d messed it up for his kid as well.
More than anything, that pissed me off.
I knew what it felt like to come from a broken home. It sucked, and when it was unnecessary? It sucked even more.
“Okay, at least I know what I’m doing. Once I’ve smoothed shit over with Butch and helped him figure out how to patch things up at the warehouse, we’ll ride tomorrow. Be ready. It might be in the early hours. Fucking hate this place and those goddamn bunkbeds.”
Nyx snorted. “You should have tossed Butch out of his room.”
“What, and wake up with Peggy’s mouth around my dick?” Rex shuddered. “No thanks.”
I laughed. “She’s been sniffing around you something fierce.”
“Shame I’ve never wanted to fuck a barracuda.”
Link chuckled at that. “We all know that’s bullshit.”
Rex frowned. “Huh?”
“Rachel.” He arched a brow. “She’s a barracuda.”
Rex huffed, but his eyes turned thoughtful. “You’re right. Never thought of her that way though.”
“Yeah, well, it’s a day for firsts,” Nyx said dryly, and fuck if he wasn’t wrong.
Sin
“Motherfucker.”
The word slipped from me the second I rounded the corner into the kitchen and found Butch in there with a clubwhore.
Dray was pretty cool, all round, but the fact that she was sniffing the shit on the table while Butch boned her was a fucking no-no.
And that Butch was condoning it? That he’d probably bought it for her?
Fuck.
I scrubbed a hand over the back of my neck, and for the first time, I was unsure what to do.
I’d seen Butch sniffing marching powder up his nose before, wiping away white trails on his nose, but that was before. I was uncertain of my place here. I had to fit in.
I had no place in this chapter, and with my future on the line, Tiff’s too, I’d been unable to say shit.
I was potentially going to be the Enforcer for the NJ chapter of the Satan’s Sinners.
Enforcers didn’t hide around fucking corners wondering what the fuck they should do.
Nyx wouldn’t hesitate to smash the bastard’s skull into the table, and while I definitely wasn’t as insane as Nyx, I’d earned my name for a reason.
“The fuck are you doing?” I snapped, striding into the room.
Dray squealed, and the straw she had up her nose went flying, as did a lot of the powder. Her wail was neither orgasmic nor in surprise at her being caught—it was outright distress at the powder’s flight.
Butch shot me a grin, and from his eyes alone, I saw he was high.
The dumbfuck knew the rules. Christ, it wasn’t like there were many.
No drugs.
Mostly because it fucked with business. We were a hedonistic bunch. It wasn’t often we were denied anything pleasurable, but drugs? Caused shit.
Plus, Bear had put the rule in place back when his VP had gotten hooked on meth. It had sent the fucker loopy. Could still remember Prince shoving the barrel of his fucking gun into his mouth and blowing his brains out—not just because it had been a disaster for the club, but because I’d been a Prospect at the time and I’d had to clean his fucking brains up off the floor.
I grabbed Butch by the back of the neck and shoved him down into the table. As his head collided with it, he growled at me, “What the fuck?”
He shoved Dray aside, and she went flying onto her knees, then he turned to me, dick out and flopping in the breeze, his fists raised.
One hit to the nose, and he went flying, joining Dray not only on the ground, but in a sprawl. He fell onto her, their heads colliding, knocking her out. He was out for the count seconds later, and that had nothing to do with the cocaine he’d been snorting.
A whistle sounded from behind me. “Long time since I’ve seen you do that.”
I cut Rex an irritated look, since it was clear he’d been watching me, waiting for me to act. “You could have waded in. I have no rank here.”
His grin was dry. “Wanted to see what you’d do. Can’t have my Enforcers pussying out on situations like this one, can I?”
Forgotten & Found: A Dark & Dirty Sinners' MC Boxset Page 68