by Ravenna Tate
“Legs, you need to talk to her. Explain how things work for us with law enforcement.”
“I did.” Chloe reiterated what she’d said to Rai moments ago.
“She’s one of us now. Donny offered her a job. She needs to learn when to open her mouth about club business, and when to keep it shut.”
“I think Tannin should be the one to explain that, not me.”
“Yeah. You’re right.” He gave her a tender look. “You really like her, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do. She’s passionate, and she’s loyal. And aren’t those the very qualities you look for in a patched member?”
Gorgon chuckled and pulled her close again. “Can’t argue with you there. But filters are needed, too, baby.”
“Did she say something else?”
“She told Tannin she’s uncomfortable with the criminal aspect of what Donny does. Tannin understands this is a huge change for her, and he’s trying not to freak her out at the same time about all the shit Donny is into.”
“She said something similar to me when you two were out getting the food. Give her time. She’ll be all right.”
“I wish I had as much faith in that as you do.”
Chloe smiled. “She loves him.”
“Love is blind, Chloe.”
“Yeah. Don’t I know it.”
His gaze hardened. “I would never treat you the way that fucking bastard did. Never.”
“I know that, Billy.” She only called him by his given name on rare occasions, and this felt like one of those times. “I didn’t mean to imply you would.”
Gorgon held her close until Rai and Tannin joined them again. Chloe pointed out the car, and Tannin wrote down the license plate number. “I’ll give it to Donny,” he said. “Just in case.”
Tannin and Rai got on Tannin’s bike.
“Donny knows about the note, too, right?” she asked Gorgon the question in a low voice, so Rai wouldn’t hear.
“Yes. He does.”
As the four rode back to the club. Chloe hoped Donny’s men would find Brad soon, wherever he was, and take care of him once and for all. Certainly having his license plate would help, wouldn’t it?
If that was his plate.
She wasn’t sure she could handle any more possible sightings of him, or more notes. It didn’t escape her that once again, she was the only one who had spotted him.
Chapter Ten
When Gorgon couldn’t sleep, which was often, he left his room so he didn’t disturb Legs. Unless he wanted to fuck her, of course. But her new ink was hurting, and she’d taken a pain pill before going to bed, so he left her alone.
He briefly considered trying to talk to Tannin about Rai’s concerns over Donny, but didn’t want to intrude if they were fucking, or if he was finally getting through to her about how things worked around here. When Rai first came here, Gorgon had been reluctant to accept how quickly Tannin had fallen for her. But once Tannin assured him that Rai was the only woman he wanted to spend his life with, Gorgon had put aside his own judgment and supported Tannin.
Now, he didn’t doubt her love for Tannin or his for her. But Gorgon had both a business and an MC to run. He didn’t have time or patience for people who got all high ground moral on them about their association with a Mob boss.
And while he understood in theory the thunderbolt concept, business was business, and fucking a hot chick was fucking a hot chick. The two rarely mixed well. Whatever Tannin’s reasons for believing Rai was the one, Gorgon hoped she’d accept her new life and the way they did things here sooner rather than later.
Because if it came down to it, Gorgon’s priority was this MC and the club. Yes, the people helping him run both were his Brothers, but he couldn’t let one Brother, or one Brother’s old lady, have a negative effect on the rest.
Gorgon went down into the club and turned on the lights. No one was in there, which didn’t bother him at all. He liked to come in here by himself and think. He’d eventually have to talk to Tannin, Brother to Brother. Gorgon respected Tannin’s choice of Rai as his old lady, but she in turn would need to respect and accept their ways, or they’d have to find a solution.
Tannin was an officer in this MC. His Sergeant-At-Arms. Gorgon needed him to help run this club. He needed him focused and as dedicated as he’d been since joining this MC at age eighteen.
At times like this, it was impossible for Gorgon not to think about Scotty, his older brother, and the one for whom this club had been named. Scotty and Tannin had been best friends in school, from the time both were in kindergarten. But Sterling Tanner, aka Tannin, hadn’t grown up in a biker family, or in the compound that used to occupy this land.
Tannin had grown up in a mega rich family, with a father who was as much of a criminal as Donny. Instead of Internet gambling and pilfered clothing from other countries, Preston Tanner dealt in insider trading and questionable takeovers of struggling businesses. Same thing, in Gorgon’s mind. Illegal shit is still illegal shit, no matter what kind of a fancy label you give it.
These days, the older Gorgon got, thinking about his childhood or anyone else’s led to musing what it would be like to have kids of his own. Kids that grew up in an MC, the way he’d done. He wasn’t getting any younger. There should be someone to pass all this on to one day. He wanted to be a father and do right by his kids. It would make up for what had happened to Scotty and the others.
But what if Chloe didn’t want the same thing? They’d never discussed it, and if he brought it up but she wasn’t crazy about the idea, he’d look like a damn fool.
“Hey, everything okay?”
Gorgon turned around at the sound of Mastema’s voice. “Yeah. Fine.”
“I was processing the paperwork for that new dancer Rahab hired, Kayla Romanowski, and I saw lights on in here. Thought I’d make sure it was one of us.”
“Who the fuck else would it be? We have a fucking security system.”
“And I’m one of the fucking officers so I came to investigate.”
Gorgon and Mastema had also been friends since grade school. They were the same age, and had both grown up in the MC culture. “You remember when we were just Billy Westfall and Dan Treadstone?” Gorgon swept his hand in a wide arc. “Before all this?”
“Yeah. I’m prematurely gray, Gorgon. Not fucking senile. Of course I remember it. You in here thinking about Scotty again?”
“Maybe.”
“Hard not to this time of year.”
“Yeah.” The anniversary of Scotty’s death was one week away.
“This time of year also makes me think of all those first days of school.”
“What, seriously?” Gorgon snorted. “You hated school.”
“Yeah, but I loved all the girls. And some of the teachers. Remember that English teacher we had in ninth grade? The one who wore the tight skirts and heels every day?”
Gorgon nodded. “Sure do. Miss Jennings.” His dick grew hard just picturing her. “If I could have fucked a teacher, it would have been her.”
The corners of Mastema’s mouth turned up. “Oh, man, every fucking guy in that class had the same fantasies when that broad turned around and wrote on the whiteboard.”
“Yeah. Pushing her up against it to feel what was under that skirt.” Gorgon walked around behind the bar. “Scotty had her for English, too. He told me if I ended up in her class, I’d be hard the whole fucking day because of her.”
“He was right.”
“Sure was.” Gorgon poured them each a shot of whiskey. “He told me that the day before he died.”
“Fuck. Hey, I’m sorry. I never knew that.”
“I never told anyone.” He shrugged. “Just one of those weird things you remember, you know?”
Mastema stared at him for a few moments. “Was a helluva fire.”
“Sure was.” Gorgon handed Mastema the shot of whiskey.
They clinked their glasses together before draining them. “We were so young.”
“Fourteen.” Gorgon poured them each another shot. “Just stupid kids.”
“Not too young or stupid to remember, though. Some things you never forget, no matter how many years go by.” They drained the second shots.
“Wonder if Tannin remembers?”
Mastema gave him a hard stare. “Gorgon, Tannin’s father paid men to set the fire. He left his home and his family behind because of that. I never asked him, but I would bet my bike that not a day goes by that he never forgets it, either. I’m also guessing he’ll never forgive himself for that, even though he had no part in it, so why the fuck are you still holding it over his head?”
“What the fuck makes you think I’m holding it over his head?”
“You’ve been acting weird since he asked Rai to be his old lady. Something you want to talk about? You dislike Rai that fucking much?”
“Fuck you. I don’t dislike her.” Gorgon poured a third shot for both and put the bottle away before coming back around to the front of the bar.
“Then you don’t trust her. Is that it?”
“Tannin trusts her. That’s enough for all of us.”
“Yeah, he does. She’s his old lady. You think he should have asked our permission first?”
Gorgon drank his shot and cut his gaze toward Mastema. “It’s been suggested he might have done so.”
“Yeah, well, I think a man should be able to make up his own mind about that. We’re not the ones fucking her. He is.”
“It happened so fucking fast.”
Mastema drank his third shot and slammed the glass down on the bar. “It was the thunderbolt!”
They both laughed. Vassago and Donny talked about the thunderbolt all the time, to the point most of the Brothers ignored them. The rest of them got their digs in whenever possible. But no one would tell either Vassago or Donny to their face they thought their belief was full of shit.
“So, what the fuck are we doing about finding Brad?” asked Mastema. “I heard Legs saw him again today in town.”
“She thought she saw him. She’s not sure now it was actually him. Donny is running a California plate we spotted, parked close to where Legs thought she saw Brad.”
“Why haven’t Donny’s men found him? What the fuck is up with that?”
Gorgon faced Mastema. “That’s a really good question. It’s pissing me off, to be honest. Rai shot off her mouth today in town about why can’t we just call the cops. That pissed me off, too”
“So that’s what has you so fucked up tonight? The fact she might call the cops?”
“She won’t. I trust Tannin to explain it to her.”
“Seriously, why not just talk to Donny and ask him?”
Gorgon frowned. “Yeah. Right. You first.”
“Okay. Yeah. I see your point. What does Vassago say about it?”
“Nothing. He told me Donny is on it.”
“You think Donny is protecting Brad for some reason?”
“What? No fucking way. Brad is nothing. And I think that’s the fucking problem. This is small potatoes to Donny.”
“Someone could call in an anonymous tip. Just sayin’. Brad has active arrest warrants.”
“You want to be the one who does that, Mastema? Donny already told the cops that he’s back in town.”
“Yeah. I forgot about that.”
Gorgon grunted in response. An anonymous tip was a legitimate option, but it would undermine Donny’s faith in them. Vassago said that Donny had only told the cops he’d spotted Brad, not that he’d come into the club. He also would never tell them about the note. None of them wanted the cops showing up here to interview members or customers, or asking to see the note. Especially not Donny.
“Talk to Donny and make him understand what it means to you,” said Mastema. “What it means to Legs to find this guy and run his ass out of town for good.”
“I can’t simply call Donny and demand we have a chat about the guy who nearly killed my old lady last year, and is now back, harassing her with notes.”
“There was more than one?”
“No. But this is bullshit. Makes me want to go out and play detective myself, if I had the fucking time.”
“Ask Vassago to set up a meeting with Donny for you.”
“Yeah. Maybe I’ll do that.”
“Donny knows what Brad did, and he’s always spoken out against that shit.”
“Yeah. Guess he’s got other things on his mind this time.”
“Legs is safe here, Gorgon. Notes or not. He won’t be back inside this club.”
“Yeah, I know. But she’s afraid to dance now because she doesn’t want to look out in the crowd and see him again. She’s afraid to go back into town, too. Hell, she’s afraid to get the fucking mail! I don’t like her feeling like a prisoner here.”
“Then you gotta tell all that to Donny.”
“Maybe I’ll call him myself anyway.”
“Can’t help you there. That’s your call, man.”
“You done with the paperwork on that new dancer?” It was time to change the subject. “What’s she look like? Rahab took care of this on his own.”
“Oh man.” Mastema’s eyes gleamed, and Gorgon swore there was fucking drool at one corner of his mouth. “Fucking gorgeous. Short dark hair and big blue eyes. Nice tits, too. And a round ass.”
Gorgon snorted. “You’ll be fucking her within a week.”
“Hope so. Fuck. Those eyes, man. You should see them.”
“My old lady has blue eyes.”
“Yeah. I guess she does. So, you gonna stay down here for a while?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m goin’ upstairs.”
“Yeah. Whatever.”
After Mastema left, Gorgon was still restless. He mulled over everything Mastema had said. Did he really trust Rai? It was easy to say he did because Tannin did, but Gorgon wasn’t sure. Not deep down, where it mattered. And the root of that mistrust was buried in his history with Tannin. No surprise there. No shrink needed to ferret that shit out.
Tannin’s father had burned down their original building because he didn’t want his precious only son hanging out with bikers. They’d fought over it all through Tannin’s childhood and teen years. His fucking father had been obsessed with it.
But Tannin had nothing to do with the fire, and everyone here knew that. He’d tried so fucking hard to bring his father to justice, only to have roadblocks tossed in his way at every turn. He’d also walked away from all of it to join the MC. The family name, the money, everything. And he’d never once looked back. His trust fund and some very lucky investments had financed the building they now occupied. If that wasn’t loyalty, nothing was.
Gorgon hadn’t doubted Tannin’s wanting Rai to be his old lady because of the fire. He had doubted it because Tannin had a history of fucking women outside the MC, and who had caused trouble for them. The most recent had been a woman they’d had to fire from the strip club for tossing a drink in a customer’s face. He’d finally broken up with her the night Rai came here, and he’d ended it because there was conflict among the members over Tannin continuing to see her after she was fired.
Rai was a beautiful, intelligent broad. No one here thought otherwise. And she got a raw deal. No doubt about it. She’d been duped by a Mob boss. Vito Cinquepalmi had forced his way into her company, right under her nose, and then put a hit out on her when she refused to become his partner.
She’d ended up here by coincidence the night she was running. One look into her eyes, and Tannin had been toast. Tannin had always been a sucker for dark-haired, dark-eyed chicks. But this was more. He was deeply in love. No fucking doubt about that, either.
That was all fine and well. Even if Gorgon accepted it, what he still struggled with was the doubt Rai tossed around. She had a big mouth and wasn’t shy about voicing her opinions. He’d noticed that about her the first night she was here.
And even that was okay when appropriate, but the talk among the members and sweetbutts
was that some felt Tannin had chosen her to be his old lady too quickly. Before she had a chance to settle in here and show everyone that she wanted to be part of this lifestyle, and part of this MC. That talk, in turn, caused unrest among the people Gorgon had responsibility for.
He didn’t like that. Choosing someone to be your old lady was as close to marriage as any of them would ever come. It commanded respect. They respected Tannin, and they respected the fact that one of their Brothers had chosen Rai as his old lady, but not all of them respected Rai as a person. The only problem was, Gorgon had no fucking clue what to do about it.
It wasn’t within his power to force those people to respect Rai, or to accept her as part of this MC. They had to reach that level on their own. And because Chloe was so close to Rai and defended her, Gorgon was concerned this lack of respect and acceptance would fall on her head, too.
“Fuck it.” He turned off the lights in the club and went into his office. No sense in trying to wake up Legs. He wasn’t going to fuck her while she was knocked out from a pain pill. He’d stare at the walls and think about whether or not to call Donny on his own. That’s what he’d do.
Chapter Eleven
Chloe woke to the smell of coffee, but not just any coffee. That was a Starbucks. She’d bet all her ink on it. She opened her eyes and smiled. “Who did you have to fuck to go and get this?”
Rai laughed. “Tannin, but that doesn’t really count, does it? I have sandwiches for us, too. Gorgon had a phone call. He said to tell you he’ll be up when he’s done.”
“Is the call from Donny?” Chloe sat up, pulling the covers around her. She was cold.
“I think so. Tannin’s in there, too. They took the call in the club conference room.”
“Church, Rai.” Chloe took the cup, wrapping her hands around it for warmth. “It’s called a church.”
“Sorry, but ‘church’ to me means you know … stained glass, statues, incense, and Gregorian chant.”
“They still do all that in church?” She sipped the coffee. “Mmmm … oh, God, that’s good.”
“Only on special occasions, I guess. Venti caramel macchiato, right? That’s what Gorgon said you like.”