I kept my butt in my seat, though, and was surprised when RayRay told someone I couldn’t see, “We take aim at Pebbles in forty minutes. Make sure our top people are here, so they’re alibied.”
I’d been playing a video game, and now I closed it and opened my texting program to tell Duke, so he could let Jiminy know.
I breathed a sigh of relief when RayRay got a phone call telling him Pebbles’ husband had shown up at her hair appointment and was sitting with her as she had her hair fixed.
He disconnected the call and quietly said to the men sitting with him, “He’s there? What the fuck? Why would he… shit. Fucking hell. We aren’t aborting. Get in your car and drive to Wildboy. Tell him to shoot up their cars while Jiminy and Pebbles are still inside. Make sure they don’t hit Jiminy or any of his people. We’re just sending him a warning.”
An undercover cop was between us, but he was human and I was pretty sure he couldn’t hear them. However, it’s possible he had some kind of electronic listening device, because he stepped away with purpose. I texted Jiminy directly this time, since Brain had set him up with our encrypted app. I knew Brain would see whatever I texted him, so no need in copying anyone.
Next, I texted Brain to let him know I was drawing LEO attention, and it would be nice if I got a call from a doctor asking me to meet him somewhere to talk. A few seconds later my phone rang, and I was thanking Doctor Roberts for letting me know how surgery went as I walked out of the waiting room.
I made my way out of the hospital and once again took the bus to a section of town with no traffic cams. I met Viper on a rarely used road, but he was in a van this time. I changed clothes in the back, and held my head over an open garbage bag as I ran my shaver over my scalp, face, and throat. My shaver can be charged via a USB port, and the van’s full of them, so it all works out and I looked like myself again by the time we made it to the compound.
I was surprised to see Jiminy’s BMW in our garage, and I looked to Viper. “You know about this?”
He nodded and winced. “There’s something else. We went to high alert and everyone was brought in. Gonzo brought Hailey. She’s in the front room.”
Fuck. She was here by herself, when all the ol’ladies were going to treat her like a whore. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I slammed out of the garage and across the parking lot, fully understanding they hadn’t told me what was going on so I’d stay focused on the job at hand. Under normal circumstances it would’ve been the right call, but the timing royally sucked. My fault though, for not telling my brothers what was going on. If they’d known, they’d have still had to bring her in to keep her safe, but likely would’ve made sure she was okay.
Fuck.
I expected to walk in to see her in the corner by herself, miserable, and I was shocked to see her sitting between Pebbles and Harmony. She still didn’t look happy, but she was putting on a brave face.
She came running to me when she saw me, though, and I opened my arms to hold her as she reached me. I put my mouth to her ear and said, “I’m so sorry. I was on club business and just found out they brought you in. Are you okay? I have to handle a few things, but I can take you downstairs to my room when I finish. You have to be with me if you’re in the back, though. I can’t take you and leave you.”
“Can we talk a minute, somewhere else?”
I looked around, found Bash, and told him, “I know ya’ll need me, but I need five minutes away from the crowd.”
“I have a key to Duke’s office.”
I told her his office was soundproof as we walked down the hall, and as soon as the door closed, she said, “Please tell me who I have to be nice to and who I can be a bitch to. God, everyone was a bitch until Pebbles arrived, and Gen whispered stuff to her, and she seemed to tell Gen off before she came to get me. Harmony sat with me when she got here, too. Pebbles, Harmony, and Sheila are being nice, but everyone else seems pissed Pebbles brought me into their… circle? I dunno. I have no idea what’s going on! Why are we here?”
“There’s a gang war, and the MC isn’t part of it but we need to make sure our people stay safe if we get dragged in. My guess is Gen told Pebbles what you used to be, and Pebbles probably informed her she used to be a stripper who gave the occasional happy ending. Harmony belongs to Brain, and I’m glad she’s being nice. Pebbles isn’t an ol’lady, but the MC will keep her safe. Gen is Duke’s wife, and she’ll probably eventually warm up to you, but she’s a bit of a prude so it may take a while.”
“Angelica?”
“She’s Bash’s ol’lady, and her dad’s the president of the Atlanta RTMC, so she grew up in the life.”
“Sheila?”
“Tiny’s ol’lady.”
“Sheila didn’t get here until later, but she hugged me and welcomed me to the clubhouse.”
I sighed and told her, “Your old coworkers from the hotel are in a side room off the garage, so none of the ol’ladies see them but we can still keep them safe. Not everyone knows about our illegal ventures. We keep our employees safe, but…” I shrugged. “You’re here because you’re my family.”
“You haven’t told them about this morning?”
“There hasn’t been time. I’m sure the wolves have smelled us on each other and know, but the others won’t know.”
I walked her back out, and smiled at Pebbles, Harmony, and Sheila as I told them, “Thanks for taking care of Hailey. She’s important to me.” I looked at Gen. “I’m needed downstairs, but if ya’ll can welcome her, I’d appreciate it.”
I kissed Hailey’s forehead and left before Gen responded. I heard Angelica telling Hailey, “I know you had to be worried about him. I’m glad he could reassure you he’s okay. It always kills me when Bash is out of communication and I just have to trust he’ll come home to me in one piece.”
Despite our truce with Jiminy, I noted Duke didn’t take him downstairs, but to one of the upstairs back rooms for our talk. I knew this room was also capable of emitting an EMP, so I followed the instructions about leaving my cellphone in the outer room before going in. I felt the pulse a few seconds after I walked in, but I kept from showing the shiver my wolf gave from inside me.
I found out Jiminy’s men knew who Wildboy was, and they took him into custody a block from the salon. I didn’t ask what they’d done to him — I figured Wildboy would be in a world of hurt until he gave up all his secrets, and then he’d be dead.
Things weren’t looking too good for RayRay, either. My guess was he was a dead man walking.
Jiminy thanked us for the heads up, and shook his head as he said, “My superiors have pressed for me to revisit the terms of our truce. However, I’ll recommend we redraw a whole bunch of lines as a result of this. The MC’s territory will hold, but if I don’t get some kind of concession, it’s possible my bosses will send someone else in to check out the landscape. None of us wants that, so when the time comes, I hope we can all sit down and work towards a resolution I can take to my bosses.” He tilted his head. “I owe the MC for taking care of Pebbles. It won’t be forgotten.”
“You’ve proven a friend of the club,” Brain said. “I don’t know what concession we can offer, but we’ll figure it out. Meanwhile, we need to deal with the immediate problem.”
“Will the MC back the Playas, or are you going to try to stay neutral?” Jiminy asked.
“We’d have stayed neutral had they not gone after Marlin’s son,” said Duke. “As it is, we’ll need to call a vote, but I’m guessing we’ll all want to send a clear message that our families and children aren’t to be brought into the battle.”
Someone knocked on the door, and Bash opened it and stepped out. When he returned, his face was solemn. “Hasn’t hit the news yet, but the control room tells me there’s activity around Needles’ son’s house.”
Jiminy nodded. “My intel tells me Needles is telling RayRay what to do from jail. He called the hit on Pebbles, so I called a hit on his son.”
The room was s
ilent, and I said, “His son is an adult with an OKM tattoo on his neck. He’s chosen the lifestyle, so it isn’t like going after a seven-year-old child. Seems like a parallel call to me.”
“As long as the Playas aren’t blamed for it in the media,” said Brain. “We all know the CPD chooses their response based on the community’s reactions.”
Duke looked around the room, and his gaze landed on Jiminy. “We need to have a discussion and a vote. If you can step outside, Knife will escort you to the main room so you can check on Pebbles. He’ll let you know when we’re ready for you again.”
Jiminy stood and left the room, and Duke slammed the side of his fist on the table since the gavel was downstairs. “I’m calling church to order. I’d have made the same damned call Jiminy made about hitting Needles’ son tonight, and there’s a damned good chance I’d have started making arrangements to have Needles’ hit in prison, just to make sure I made my point.”
He looked to Brain at his right, who said, “No argument, but how’s the MC going to react? Jiminy’s interests are different than ours. He supplies the majority of the drug trade to our city, and we’ve lived with the truce, but… are we going to keep it up? A truce with him and the Playas makes our lives easier, and if we get rid of them, someone else will supply the drugs.” He shrugged. “Is it enough to just keep them out of our territory?”
“We can’t save the world.” Gonzo was next around the table. “We take care of ours. I’d like to see us form a truce with the OKM as well as the Playas. We know the OKM has their own stable of whores, and we know they can’t keep them safe — because Slick says their women keep applying to us with the smell of fresh bruises. Maybe we can work with that? Help them keep their women safe for a price? If we get in bed with them, maybe they won’t want to kill us.”
“Find out who took a shot at Marlin’s son — and be sure beyond a shadow of a doubt — and I’ll take care of him.” This from Nix, and he looked to Viper beside him.
“Pebbles’ and Gen’s friendship is responsible for our truce with the cartel,” Viper pointed out. “Jiminy will do just about anything for his wife, and he wants her to keep her friendship with Gen, Bethany, and the rest of the ol’ladies and their friends. The women have a big shindig coming up this weekend, right? Queen Sophia, Tyler’s wife, and Bethany are invited, which guarantees Aaron Drake and his people will help us keep them safe. Gen and Cassie are coming, which means we’ll have Isaac. Queenie’s presence means Gavin will be around. I still haven’t figured out who the crazy transvestite they all seem to love so much belongs to, but I’ve noted Kirsten and Sam Levi seem to make sure no one fucks with her.”
Viper had been a friend of the club forever, and was the third non-wolf supernatural we’d voted in. He seemed to have more of a handle on some of the politics than I’d expected, and I leaned back as he spoke.
“And, of course, with Pebbles going, we’ll have Jiminy’s people,” Viper continued. “It’ll give us an excuse for a joint training exercise tomorrow, and if we let Drake run the exercise it shouldn’t cause friction between us and Jiminy’s ex-special-forces security team.”
Viper looked beside him to Horse, who said, “I don’t do politics, but sending our women out to party tomorrow night sounds like a recipe for disaster. Maybe just let them go to Abbott’s club, and then come to our place? I know they wanted to see the band playing at the huge-assed club downtown, but I’d just as soon Gabby not go there, where we can’t control as much as we can at Abbott’s club and ours.”
He looked to Bash, who said, “We could send them to Abbott’s billiard club to start, then to the Diamond Club, and then to our place. We’d have to cover them with a heavy presence in between, but we could control the crowd at all three places.”
I know The Abbott doesn’t do anything for free, so I lifted a finger with a request to make a point out of turn. Bash nodded and I asked, “What will we owe Abbott for keeping our women safe in two of his establishments?”
Duke chuckled, “Kirsten will be with them. We won’t owe him anything.”
I thought the two of them were history, but I trusted Duke to know better so I nodded and leaned back again.
“We’re missing too many of us for this vote to count long-term,” said Brain, “because so many are on patrol, or guarding the gates and front room. However, we need something in order to have a meaningful conversation with Jiminy, so we’ll have to go with the general consensus as it stands with those present.” He looked at Duke and back to us. “What do we tell Jiminy? Are we with him? Are we with the Playas? Are we neutral to the OKM, or are we against them?”
“I vote we help Marlin avenge the shots to his son, but otherwise remain neutral,” said Duke.
The vote went around the table and most agreed with him. Duke thumped the table again and said, “So be it. Next up, what do we do with the women tomorrow night? If we can make it work, I vote we go with Viper and Bash’s plan, and work with Drake and Jiminy to keep them safe at TBC, The Diamond Club, and then our place.”
* * *
Hailey
At first, I thought Dare had made things worse, because the look Gen gave me as he walked away had so much venom it made me want to puke.
But then Angelica said something nice about understanding how relieved I was to know Dare was okay, and Pebbles hugged me and said, “Gen liked me when she first met me because I was wearing a couple-thousand dollars’ worth of designer clothes. She didn’t know until tonight that I was a stripper who gave happy endings for a substantial price when Jiminy first met me.”
I wanted to dig a hole and crawl into it, but Harmony said, “I don’t exactly have a squeaky clean past either. When I hit rock bottom, I was willing to give blow jobs to random truckers for a ride to another city. Sometimes, you do what you gotta do to survive.”
“I have nothing to add to that,” said Angelica. “Maybe Bash isn’t too far off when he calls me Princess, but everyone knows I regularly engage in threesomes with Bash and Dawg, so you’ll get no judgment from me, either.” She looked at Gen and back to me. “Gen will come around. We’re all bitches, just in different ways, but we all eventually work through our shit.”
Gabby chuckled and told me, “Hell, I’d love to have a sixty-nine with you, if you’re up for it. No judgment from me, either.”
I grinned and said, “I’m flattered, but Dare and I are still figuring things out.”
“Dare?” asked Harmony. “I just realized I have no idea what his legal name is.”
“Darius,” I told them, hoping it wasn’t a secret.
“And you’re his stepsister?” asked a woman who hadn’t spoken yet. She was so pregnant, she looked like she might pop at any moment. God, I hoped she didn’t go into labor during this mess. Gen’s baby was beside her, asleep in a carrier with a little shield thing to block the light from his eyes.
“I was. Our parents split years ago, but he was around for most of my teenage years.”
“Guys, she just told us whatever they have going is new,” said Pebbles. “Let’s move to another subject, because we’ve been planning tomorrow night for weeks, and I hope to hell this gang war doesn’t fuck up our plans.”
I didn’t pay too much attention to their conversation because I assumed I wasn’t invited, until Harmony asked what my favorite drink was.
“Ummmm, I usually just do rum shots, and drink lemon water in between to stay hydrated so I’m not hungover the next day.”
“Well, I do Long Island Iced Tea, which has rum in it, but it sounds like you’re way more hardcore than me.”
I smiled. “I actually love Long Island Iced Tea — I just can’t do many or I’m wasted.”
Pebbles laughed. “If we aren’t all wasted by the time we leave our first venue, the evening’s a dismal failure.”
Chapter 7
Ghost
By the time we went back to the common room, we’d been on the encrypted app with Aaron Drake, who’d walked next door to talk to T
he Abbott, and we had everything planned.
When we walked out, Duke stepped up on a table and the room quieted.
“Tomorrow night’s festivities for our ol’ladies have been altered a little, but will still happen. Your men will explain the changes. We’ve gone to a medium alert tonight, which means we aren’t all stuck on the lowest level of the compound sleeping together.” He looked around the room before saying, “If you’re in this room, you’re important to the MC. We didn’t start this fight, and we hope to mostly stay out of it, but we’ll certainly leave our mark if we’re dragged into it. Many of you are worried about your men who are still out on patrol, and the control room tells me everyone is safe at the moment. We’ll be rotating people in and out of patrol and guard duty throughout the night. My Duchess and I are retiring to my room because I’ll be taking a shift in a few hours, but Brain and Bash will stay out a little while, so if you need anything, let one of them know.”
I had Hailey in my arms by this time, and I leaned in to whisper, “Unless something breaks lose, I should be in until the four a.m. rotation. Are you ready to go down?”
She nodded, and I led her to my room.
“Humans can’t hear us,” I told her as I closed the door and sat to take my boots off, “but the other supernaturals can. I can’t tell you who is and who isn’t, so just be aware our conversation might be overheard. If you need to tell me something in private, I have a way.”
She shook her head. “I’m exhausted. Can we just go to sleep?”
“I need a shower, but yeah, sleep sounds good.”
“How often does this happen?”
“Being called in for a threat like this? I dunno. Couple times a year, maybe?”
“Pebbles seems to have invited me to the thing tomorrow night. Should I go?”
Ghost: The Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club, Book 8 Page 5