by Ryan Michele
This place was a cook’s paradise. Serious money went into it, and it would be fun as hell seeing what I could make. I wasn’t lying when I told Crow about my cooking skills. I had them, just cooking for one person sucked so I hadn’t done it much. This though, this could make miracles.
“It’d be better if you ground ‘em all up and put them in…” My eyes darted around the room and nodded to a tray. “Meatballs. That’d be perfect.”
Ash began laughing. “I suggested that! But Goldi said no. The guys don’t like shit hidden from them.”
“When it comes to food, as long as you’re not poisoning them, everything is game. Hell, just cover the beans in yellow cheese and they’ll eat them.”
Goldi smiled walking out, carrying a large pan with cling film on it. “Now that is a good idea.”
I shrugged as Goldi showed Van, Ash, and I how to make corn pudding. It was a very easy recipe. Only six ingredients went into it: cornbread mix, corn kernels, creamed corn, eggs, milk and butter. All of that mixed up together and put in a huge baking pan. We were slicing butter and laying it on top of the corn pudding when my cell rang. It was Naddy’s ringtone.
Grabbing a towel, I wiped my fingers quickly, pulling my phone out. “Sorry. I’ve gotta take this. Work.” On a nod, I walked into the bar and took the call. “Hey, Charlie!”
“Girl. You in Bama yet?”
Two women came into the room. They didn’t look like any of the ones in the kitchen, and their eyes scanned me up and down, giving me a shit vibe. They were mommas. Been around them enough to know them when I saw them. I didn’t hate them or anything like that. They had a place in the club. While I wouldn’t tolerate one on my man, they had a purpose and if they wanted to be here, that was on them.
Not needing them to hear my conversation though, I moved down the hall. “Yep, here. I got the email and will start soon. I need to get everything sorted, then I’m on it.”
“Another one came in, but it’s here in Sumner. The husband gig. I figured you’d skip it, but wanted to hear it from you.”
I sighed. “As much as I hate it, that being billable hours and all. But no. I’m here now. Going back and forth for every job isn’t gonna work. At least not yet.”
“You doin’ alright?”
My back leaned against the wall in the hallway. A few doors were on the left and right, and a bathroom, at least according to the sign, was on the left two doors down. Pictures hung on the walls, and I made a note to go back and scope them out.
Closing my eyes, I answered, “Good. Just finding my place.”
“Get that. You just be you and you’ll fit in anywhere.”
A smile tipped my lips. “Thanks, Naddy.”
“Alright girl, gotta go. I’ll call ya.”
“Thanks.” We disconnected the call, my head going back to the wall. Crow and I had a great morning minus the getting shot at part. This was it though. My place here needed to be known by everyone. Including the two who had eyed me dismissively. Hopefully, the portion of teaching everyone around us that I wouldn’t take their shit would come and go quickly.
Taking in some breaths, I heard someone talking low but audible. “He’s here now!” the man whisper yelled, then paused. “What do you want me to do?”
I moved down to the voice, searching my space and the different places I could move. Unfortunately, there weren’t many, and I was exposed here.
“How?” He paused again and some rustling came from the room, sounding like papers. “What bone?”
“Fine. Right.” Another pause. “Bye.” Another pause then a, “Fuck.”
A few moments passed and I made a move to leave, then a cell went off, luckily not mine.
“Yeah,” the man answered, then a pause. “Just came up a few seconds ago.” I heard some tapping that I’d thought was keys. “The basement. Man in a black sweatshirt with a hood and jeans. He went up to the door and is takin’ a crowbar to it.”
The man paused again. “Yeah. We need to get there soon.”
Another pause. “I’m in my room. Be out by my bike when you get here.”
Taking that as my cue to get the hell out of there, I moved fast dashing into the bathroom, just as the man, Lemon, stepped out of his room, head down typing out a text on his phone. Closing the door, I put my back to it.
Fuck. Something was going down with this man. Guess this was my cue to turn on the PI skills. Whatever this was had to be one hundred percent true before taking it to Crow. If it wasn’t, the club would never see me as loyal and would think of me in their business. That wasn’t what I was trying to do here.
The ‘he’s here’ part was what snagged me. He could mean a lot of people, but my gut was telling me that Lemon was talking about Simon. Now why in the fuck would he do that?
It was a question that needed to be answered.
7
Crow
“Leave him. Need to get to the store, Lemon says someone’s tryin’ to break in.”
“Fuck,” was groaned from several of my brothers.
That wasn’t even the half of it. If those fuckers got inside the basement warehouse and took what was there, we’d be fucked. Half of that lot was going to Wells. We just had to transport them and get paid. This was scheduled for tomorrow night.
The others were ours. It had better not be Starling trying to get in because we wouldn’t sell to his ass. Brewer said he was pissed about it, but it wasn’t best for the club, so fuck him.
We marched up the stairs, and Wrong Way locked the cellar door. Simon wasn’t moving and blood continued to drop to the ground. I just hoped he didn’t bleed out before we got back.
Jumping on the ATVs, we darted to the parking lot, got off and got on our bikes. Lemon was there waiting, helmet on and ready to roll. My chin lifted as did his. Finally, the guy did us a solid. Been waiting for that shit for a while now. It may not have to do with computers, but fuck, at least it was something.
The ride there was quick. We went down the back way to where the steel door was, guns out and ready. There were no vehicles anywhere leading me to believe whoever it was had left. We parked and moved up the side of the cliff.
Phoenix and Tex were first. They looked around the corner, darting their heads back and forth. Fuck, whoever this asshole was, was dead. Fucking dead.
The men went around the corner, only to pop back around. “Clear.”
“You’re fuckin’ shittin’ me,” I growled, moving around to the door. “Canvass the place.”
Several brothers went off to do just that, leaving Wrong Way, Lemon, and me. The door was solid steel, there was no cutting through it to get into it, but that didn’t mean we were lax on it. It all came down to the locks. If that was busted anyone could get in.
My eyes focused on the locks. There were no crowbar marks or any evidence that showed a break in. The metal still appeared extremely new with no dents whatsoever.
Lemon turned to where I was looking, and his body tensed for a moment. The movement had red flags waving in the air. “Damn, maybe I saw it wrong. It doesn’t look like anyone did anything.”
Wrong Way and I shared a look. We’d had this door replaced a few months ago because someone did try to break into it and almost got through. That door had the marks on it, lots of them, but this one did not. Something was off.
“Wanna see the tapes,” I ordered Lemon, but kept my gaze on Wrong Way. He got me and lifted his chin. The tapes were scratched on top of the priority list.
The brothers came back, everyone stating it was clear.
Grabbing the key from my pocket, I opened it as we moved through the tunnel. Nothing looked amiss. “Hornet, Rooster, start checkin’ the boxes.” They rolled off to do just that.
Lemon stood next to me. “Sorry, bossman. Swore that’s what I saw.”
I slapped him on the shoulder giving it a reassuring squeeze. “That’s alright, man. Rather be safe than sorry.” The feeling in my gut wasn’t good. We needed to see those damn tapes. I ha
ted not being able to trust a brother, but something wasn’t right here.
After all the equipment checked out, we rode back to the club. This was nagging on me. While I wanted to believe my brother, it was a hard pill to swallow that there weren’t any marks. A crowbar would’ve done some damage.
But why would Lemon lie? He was our brother. I had to trust he was doing the right thing, but fuck me, I couldn’t. The tapes would clear it up.
The gate was wide open when we arrived. Jimmy was up in the control room, and I waved him down. He came up just as we parked the bikes. “Why’s it open?”
“Power went out. Tried to get the generator to work, but couldn’t.” Jimmy stood proud.
“Fuck me.” My hand tore through my hair as I marched into the clubhouse seeing lanterns and candles lit. Some windows were open on the courtyard side of the building, but it would get hot in here quickly.
“Pixie!” I called out, needing to see my woman and make sure she was in one piece. It may be irrational, but I’d come to realize that was how I felt when Rylynn was in danger. She came from the right side, her face a glow in the light.
“Hey.”
“You okay?” I asked as we both moved.
She came closer, her hand coming to my chest. I cupped it with mine. Her strength burrowed inside of me, centering me in a way. Even her touch didn’t settle the feeling that something wasn’t right. That I hated. “Of course. We were lucky. Most of the food was done before it went out.”
I pulled her into me, face going into her neck and smelling her hair. Damn, I loved her smell. “Good. We ready to eat?”
“Whenever you guys are,” she responded, her head on my chest. Fuck, I loved having her like this. Safe. Mine.
“Give us fifteen.” Kissing the top of her head, I released her. “Need to check the generator.”
She lifted on her toes and kissed my lips. It was light, nowhere near what I needed from her, but it was the gesture of it that I loved. “Later,” she said, stepping away, a glint in her eye. Yeah, later was right.
The generator was in the back of the building and by the time I got there, Tex and Wrong Way had the box opened and both were bent down examining it.
“What do we got?” I asked them.
Taking a look inside, the wires were connected right. The lines appeared to be in their correct spots.
“Fuel,” Wrong Way proclaimed, standing up. “Bad fuel. It’s chokin’. Hell, I don’t remember when the last time we filled this thing was.”
A chuckle escaped me. “We’ve had it what, three years? So three years?”
It was Wrong Way and Tex’s turns to laugh.
“It’s not gettin’ fixed right now. Brewer went downstairs to check the circuit panel. If that’s nothin’ too, we’ll eat outside. Need you to go check on our friend. Make sure he’s still breathin’.”
This also meant with no power, we couldn’t look at the tapes. Either this was karma or bad luck. Hell if I knew if it were either.
8
Rylynn
We carried the food outside and placed it on two large white plastic tables. Goldi was serious about not opening the refrigerator more than once. Cali forgot the mustard, but Goldi wouldn’t let her go back in. Hopefully, none of the guys wanted it because they were shit out of luck.
I watched as Wrong Way shook his head negative to Crow as he walked up from where the ATVs were parked. Crow said, “Fuck.” Whatever that was, wasn’t good. Great. This first family meal was going great so far.
My eyes strayed to Lemon who was talking with Hornet and Rooster, a smile playing on his face. He’d better not be fucking over this club. My gut twisted. Things didn’t feel right.
The problem was this wasn’t Sumner. I had a place there. I knew what it was to be an ol’ lady. My mom, Princess, they all handled their shit. Except I didn’t know these brothers yet. I didn’t know who I could trust. Maybe my feelings were off because it was all so new. I didn’t know. The only thing I did know was I didn’t believe in coincidence, so the power outage on my first real night here with Crow must’ve happened for a reason. What that reason was, I had no clue.
“Chow time!” Goldi yelled so loud I had to plug my ears. Damn, she was like a drill sergeant with a soft side.
“I go first!” Van called out, grabbing a plate and going to town. She turned out to be a great cook. It made me look forward to doing it in Crow’s kitchen with her. We could bake up a storm.
A strong arm came around my shoulder as Crow pulled me tight to him. “Everything good?” I asked.
“Later,” he said, kissing my temple. “Let’s eat.” That didn’t leave good feelings, but I pushed them aside to enjoy my first meal with this new family.
They had a huge awning and a very nice pool next to it. After getting our food, we sat underneath it and Crow’s brothers came and joined us.
It reminded me of my family and the millions of times we did this exact same thing. Laughter rang out along with some barbs from one man to the other. It was comfortable. I didn’t feel like an outsider horning into their time together. They brought me into the fold like I’d been here for years.
Not knowing what to expect with them, this was a great feeling.
“Okay so, Wrong Way,” I started as he smiled at me. A smile that would take the breath away from a normal woman. Too bad I wasn’t normal. “How’d you get your name?”
Laughs went around the table. I’d been curious since Crow introduced us. There were so many possibilities.
“Oh, I’ll tell it,” Tex started as Wrong Way slapped his chest.
“What the fuck?”
Tex responded, “It’s fuckin’ funny.” He bent in like this was some secret he was bestowing on me. “Wrong Way here was set up to hit California, then drive up the coast into Oregon. The idiot drove two hundred and sixty-three miles north instead of heading west.”
Laughs were spread around.
“That was fuckin’ years ago,” Wrong Way said as response.
“What made you realize you were going the wrong way?” I asked.
Wrong Way shook his head. “Fuckin’ gas station.”
“The fucker had to have some random guy tell him that California was the other way!” Tex added in, laughing his ass off.
Wrong Way glared at him, but I could see in his eyes it was good natured.
“Gotta admit. That’s funny as hell. You go the wrong way now?” I asked.
“Fuck no. Learned my lesson.”
Tex barked out, “Cause he got a GPS!”
“Fucker,” Wrong Way grumbled, but, again, in good fun.
Ash came and sat next to her father, who wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She smiled softly, but there was something there, like she was hiding something.
Family. It wasn’t always blood. It was the people who surrounded you that made them yours. These were good people, and part of that coil inside of me lessened just a bit.
Crow wrapped his arm around me and pulled me tight to him, kissing my temple. “Havin’ fun?”
“Yeah.” My eyes connected with his, and he didn’t hesitate to take my mouth. Conflicting feelings ran through me. First, immense joy that he was claiming me in front of everyone. Second, the reminder of the kiss he shared with Sophia in front of everyone. When would those thoughts stop coming to my brain?
I pushed them out and focused on the good. Whistles were heard around us, and Crow didn’t stop until he was done. Damn, I loved this man.
“You tell her how you got your name, Crow?” Wrong Way asked with a grin.
He’d never told me that. I’d wondered, but with everything always up in the air, I never asked.
Crow smiled over at me. “Two reasons these assholes gave me the name Crow.” I listened with avid fascination at this bit of information. “When I was younger, I thought I was the shit.” Both Wrong Way and Brewer laughed to this nodding their heads.
“Talked a good game, but was still gettin’ my feet into the real clu
b life. This kid came over…”
Wrong Way burst out laughing, “And beat the fuckin’ shit out of him.”
Brewer added in, “He had to ‘eat crow’.”
I chuckled along with them. Road names didn’t come until they were patched members. “Okay, so how did he get it later in life.”
Crow looked me straight in the eye. “No one wants to eat a crow. They’re scavengers and eat carcasses like candy. Putting the fear of those who challenged me, was how Crow came to light.” He pointed to Wrong Way and Brewer. “These two fuckers though never let me forget what happened as a kid.”
“Did you lose a fight after that?”
He wrapped his arm around me. “Fuck no.”
“That’s my man.”
Crow went into Lemon’s room while I helped clean up. The electric company got everything up and going again stating a transformer blew, and I welcomed the air conditioning.
My mind wanted to know what Crow was doing in that room.
Did he already know something? Was Lemon hiding something? It wasn’t my business, but I had to look out for my man, and my gut was jumping all over the damn place.
Keeping up with the conversation while we washed the dishes, I couldn’t help but think of all the ways this could go really bad. Trust was a major component in this life. I didn’t trust Lemon. Not as far as I could throw him.
Crow’s other brothers though, they appeared solid. Even the two prospects were as well. Especially Ethan. There was something about him. Almost as if he were born to be in a club.
“You’re sure deep in thought,” Ash said, coming up beside me. Not startling me, but taking my attention away from what was going on down the hall.