“So, you’re not a patched member of the girl club then? Just a bartender for them?”
“That’s the gist of it,” she offered as she leaned in, allowing her cleavage to spill out all over the top of the bar. I held in a chuckle, because Stella knew exactly what she was doing, and Sweet’s dick was leading him right in the direction she hoped he’d follow.
I just did catch my dad’s muttered, “idiot,” before Sweet spoke up again.
“So, then you aren’t off limits, sweet thing. What do you say you come hop on the back of my bike, and we take a ride?” Sweet plopped down a twenty-dollar bill to cover his one beer and a huge tip. Stella swiped the cash, stood abruptly so her cleavage was mostly tucked away behind her Paramour tank top and smiled innocently up at Sweet.
“Oh,” she cooed. “I didn’t realize…” Then her bottom lip poked out in a pouty gesture. I’ve seen her little miss innocent act before, and it never failed to amuse. “I don’t think my girlfriend would like that at all.” She turned to saunter away while Sweet tried to pick his jaw up off the floor.
“You can bring her along,” he tossed out the offer with one of his infamous winks.
“And I wouldn’t like that at all. Neither of us is a big fan of cock.”
“Fuck my life,” Sweet muttered before walking away to go join Quickshot and the boys while Tash and I both burst out laughing. My dad glanced over with amusement dancing in his eyes.
“You obviously knew how that scene was going to play out,” he laughed good-naturedly.
“Oh, we’ve all witnessed many a manly meltdown after the idiots get shot down by Stella. She knows how to play the flirting game for tips, but she’s completely serious when she says she doesn’t do dick.”
“Ugh,” my father coughed out. “I don’t know if I can get used to shit like that coming out of your mouth. Hell, when you took off you were barely 18 and I think I’d heard you cuss all of like five times.” He shook his head in disbelief; regret washing over his features again before he could school it back to a mask of indifference.
“Yeah, a lot has changed though.”
“Do you have a man in your life these days?” He asked me, while staring down at his beer.
“Nah. The last guy I dated seriously ended up in the hospital, and we were just never the same after that.” I snickered as Tash full out laughed from behind me.
Ghost’s eyes immediately picked up to mine. “What the hell, kiddo? You leave your man when he was injured?”
Tash started laughing so hard she had to put her drink down, and that was only after she sprayed a mouthful out on the bar. “More like she injured him then left him there to suffer the fallout alone,” she managed to choke out.
My dad’s eyebrows nearly met his hairline. I sighed and finished the explanation. “I came home to find him with some blond bimbo in my bed. He didn’t even live with me, because I was still on the fence about whether I was really serious about him. I snatched the bitch right up off his cock, and then grabbed, twisted, and punched him in his nuts. I then proceeded to beat the ever loving shit out of the bitch who had the nerve to fuck in my bed.”
“Shit!” My dad sputtered. “And neither of them pressed charges?”
“Not considering they broke into my house. Plus Tash here punched me in the face for good measure. I told the cops I came home to find my apartment broken into, a couple fornicating in my bed, and the woman tried to attack me. Then her man tried to help her when I beat her down. It was this whole thing.” I waved away the explanation of how I wiggled my way out of criminal charges. “Anyway, they both ended up with probation, community service hours, and the beat down of a lifetime to remember it by.” I smiled sweetly as I finished telling the story to a very loud and boisterous round of laughter from all the men in my dad’s club who had all gathered around after Tash’s spewed drink and laughter had drawn their attention. My own father was doubled over the bar trying to catch his breath.
“I’m pretty sure I heard he can’t have kids now,” Tash added. I turned to look at her and see that she was serious. When she nodded in my direction I just smiled bigger.
“Good, douche bags should never be allowed to father children. They fuck ‘em up.” I was saying it at the same time my dad spoke.
“That’s my girl,” he said as he rose up and clasped his big hand on my shoulder to give me a squeeze. I didn’t fail to notice the ashen tone his skin took on as my words hit their mark. He brushed it off, like he hadn’t heard my last comment though. “To think, all this time, we’ve been worried about you.” He just shook his head. “Damn, if I had a lick of sense I would have just broken all the rules and had you patch into the club right behind Quickshot. Better than half the men in the charter, I tell you.” That comment earned a collective gasp from the men around him. He snickered before tossing his hands into the air and waving them around indicating my clubhouse.
It was pretty damn impressive. Our clubhouse was a defunct ski lodge in the mountains of Georgia. I’m not sure what kind of idiot attempted to make a go of a ski lodge here, considering there were only about five days of snow in a good year here, and those were only at the higher elevations. Their bad business decision worked in our favor though. I purchased the place for what was owed to the bank, a fraction of the list price. It was all timber and stone construction with more space than we actually needed.
My father carried on with his praise. “Look around, boys. Half our chapters aren’t even coming close to doing this well, and they dabble in shades of gray to deepest black where the law is concerned. Fucking beauty and brains. Best of both of us,” he mentioned again before bowing his head. His lips were still moving, and I knew he was sending up a silent prayer to my mother. He may have gone crazy with the club whores after she died, and being older and wiser I now understood he was trying to drown his pain and anger over her death, but he loved my mother with everything he had while she was still here. It was clear that hadn’t changed.
“We’ll let you know as soon as we get everything straightened out with the change ups, and hopefully have at least one more sit down meeting before I head back to Cedar Falls.” My father didn’t bother with trying to hug me. While I felt better about his quick explanation for what he tried to do in regards to setting Sweet and me up together, and my heart wrenched from all the years we’d missed out on, I had to take some time to feel my way through the situation before I could put it behind me. No matter the good intentions, my dad had tried to take away my free will, or at least bend it to a breaking point. In the process he broke our relationship further than he did after dragging all those whores through our house.
“I can’t believe they’re all lesbians,” I heard Sweet muttering to Quickshot on the way out. “Explains a lot about Jamie though.” That fucker!
Quickshot just laughed at Sweet. “You do know most of them were lying to you right?”
“What? Why the hell would they lie when they could have all this?” He pointed at himself.
“I’m thinking Jamie made sure they knew the score before we ever got here, numb nuts.”
“Idiot,” my dad muttered again as he popped Sweet upside the head with his open palm.
“What did I do?” Sweet complained as the door shut on them. I didn’t get to hear any more of their conversation. Within minutes the roar of motorcycle engines drifted through the air to my ears and then I listened to the distinct sound of each engine, as they pulled further away from our compound.
“Well, that was definitely interesting,” Tash commented.
“All right ladies, gather round, we’re going to have a little powwow. Brady, Stella, you guys can head back to Paramour if you want. You already have replacements for the rest of the night, but I’ll be by in a bit with special pay for tonight’s work. Thanks again for hauling ass over here.”
“Any time, Angel.” Brady gathered his things and asked Stella if she needed a ride. She accepted and then they were gone. Our security team had made themse
lves scarce earlier, once all the frisking was done.
“Keys, Legs, you ladies want to do a scan of the room real quick?” They both nodded and went to grab their equipment. We never had an open chat about business in the bar room, so we usually didn’t have to worry about listening devices being dropped in here, but no time like the present to err on the side of caution.
When the girls were done their sweeps of the room we all pulled chairs and stools nearby in a circular formation. Sure, it was pretty grade school of us, but I liked the fact that we could all see each speaker’s face as they said their peace this way. It allowed me to watch body language as a person spoke too. Sometimes, people said more with their bodies than they ever managed to get across with just words. Besides, words could be lies. It took a lot of work to train the body to lie for you. Overcoming instinct wasn’t an easy thing. Damn near impossible, actually.
“So, what did we all learn today? We’re going to just do a round robin, in the circle. Tell me if you interacted with any of the guys, and what that interaction was like.”
Chrissy, one of the new girls who had been rescued with MiMi, looked at me nervously. “That Sweet guy was hitting on me.” Her voice trembled a little as she said it, but she was also rolling her eyes at whatever shenanigans he had been up to in order to convince her.
“Why are you nervous?” I asked her, trying to figure out why it was such a big deal that she was freaking out.
“Um, because, you’re…” she bit into her plump lower lip as she twirled her damn near white blond hair around her fingertip, released it, and twirled it again. “Betrothed. He said you guys were going to get married someday, but that he was a free agent until then. I just didn’t want to hurt your feelings by telling you.”
I laughed at her response, which both stunned her and made her noticeably lighten up in response. “How many of you heard a similar story as he propositioned you?” About sixty percent of the girls present raised their hands. He never approached the women who were known to be closest to me, and he went for the ones I would automatically categorize as high risk for talking first. “Mmm,” the non-committal noise left my throat before I could pull it back. “Don’t any of you take this the wrong way, but he was searching for a weak link. Someone who would talk to him, or take him up on his offer despite knowing that he and I had some perceived link.”
I saw one or two eye rolls from girls who thought they were sincerely being hit on, and a couple of disappointed faces showed in the crowd too. Damn that man’s charisma. “I need to know now if any of you took him up on his proposition in any way. Exchanged phone numbers, offered to meet up later, anything that would let him know you were down for a hookup. I promise you, I will find out, and it’s better if you tell me now rather than me finding out later.”
One girl, Jesamine, held her hand up like we really were in grade school. “He got my number,” she all but whispered. Everyone was quiet as they all looked around for anyone else brave enough to admit they screwed up.
“It’s okay, Jesa, but you need to see Keys about your phone before you go. We need to be able to monitor that situation if he contacts you.” Jesamine was a cute, petite little redhead – her hair color was from a bottle though – with curves in all the right places. I had no doubt that Sweet’s interest could have been real if I wasn’t already aware of the games my dad’s MC masterminded. I also knew that, like me, when those guys were at work, they were working, even if it appeared they were at play. Most of them were still ever watchful.
“She’s just trying to make sure he isn’t getting with any of us.” One of the newer girls I hadn’t taken the time to get to know yet was saying to the brunette beside her.
“I don’t understand why though,” another girl was trying to whisper, and failing. “It’s not like she wants him. I mean, she could have had him right? He said they were supposed to get married. If I had that stud in my grasp I would hold on and never let go.” Both girls giggled to each other before realizing we were all silent and watching them.
“Let me reiterate something here,” I started. “If you are here as a member of our club, you are here for a reason. Whatever your reason, let it be known that we can just as easily show you the door as we can welcome you inside.” I pegged both girls in question with a look. “Not that it’s at all any of your business, but my father tried to arrange a pairing for Sweet and me when I was 17. He, of course, said we had to wait until I turned 18 to make things official and legal. By the time I turned 18 I packed my shit and left. My reasons for that decision are my own. Today was the first day I’ve seen or talked to my dad in seven years. It’s the second time I’ve seen Sweet in that time. If I wanted him, I could have stayed my ass back home and had him. Instead, I got the freedom to choose my life, and the path I took with it. The only ulterior motive I have with questioning everyone on their interactions is to find out what information they were looking for, and if they accidentally said something that will give us a clue as to why it’s so important for them to start a chapter of Aces High in our town.
“Besides Sweet, I’m also going to go through the list of the other five men you all might have had the opportunity to speak with.”
“Six,” Jesa corrected me. “There were seven men here total from Aces High.”
“Yes, and one of them was with me the entire time, so that leaves five more besides Sweet and Ghost. I’m capable of counting,” I finally huffed out while Jesa blushed furiously at her mistake in questioning me. I flipped my hand about in the air as if to dismiss the mistake. “It’s been a long night already. No worries.”
We systematically went through each male from my dad’s entourage and found a few themes in the questions they were asking the girls. They were very curious about our involvement in taking down Winter’s Renegades for one. They were also curious about our security firm, Redemption Inc. and how it was run. If a girl stated she knew nothing about those things the man talking to her generally changed focus and moved on to someone else. None of the men from my father’s chapter spilled any secrets, other than the fact that they are fantastic flirts. Those guys also prodded the girls for information about me. What was I like? Did I rule with an iron fist? Did I have a significant other hanging around? That was also a question my own father had slung my way. So, it seemed maybe he was still trying to play matchmaker after all.
The local boys, having allowed themselves to get a bit cozier with the beer freely flowing from our taps were a bit looser of lip. A couple of the girls reported hearing them laugh about how they were going to sweep up all the cash, because this area was basically untouched and was going to allow them to be sitting pretty in no time. Normally, I would say that was just the guys trying to peacock with an impending windfall to impress girls and get pussy. Something in what they were saying started ringing true though, and that worried me. Winter’s Renegades had chosen this area because it was remote and quiet. In some places, like where we’d found MiMi and the girls, there weren’t neighbors to be had for ten miles in any given direction. It made things far too easy when you didn’t have to worry about people hearing the screams of the women they were keeping against their will.
That being said, something else was drawing Aces High to the area. I would guess the proximity to Atlanta, Georgia; Chattanooga, Tennessee; and Asheville, North Carolina had something to do with it, considering each major city was just a short two-hour ride away. Hell, that’s why we chose this place. We had business dealings in each of those cities as well as Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina. We sat in a sweet spot a stone's throw from three of the states that sat a short ride away from us. Alabama wasn’t too much further either. “Shit,” I whispered. “Tash, Keys, Legs, JoJo I need you all in the office.”
Chapter 3
We weren’t in the office for more than two minutes before I pulled down an old map that had been left hanging from the wall when we bought it. “They’re trying to build a central hub.”
“What?” Tash ask
ed as she looked between the map and me like I had lost my mind.
“We’ve been trying to figure out why this area is so damn important for them to settle in. Then, there’s the huge warehouse they purchased, which seems overkill for a fledgling startup chapter. I mean, I’ve seen the kinds of joints chapters are usually made to start with. They get a small amount of seed money from the mother chapter and then they’re on their own to grow it, or stick it out in limbo. You know? So, it’s nagged at me that they would start out with the purchase of a huge warehouse.” I pointed on the map to where we were and then grabbed a sticky note to plop on top of it with the word warehouse.
I then grabbed another sticky note and wrote, “Knoxville – guns” on it and stuck it up in that quadrant of Tennessee. Then I wrote “Atlanta – Drugs & Guns” on a sticky note and popped it up over that city. “Asheville and drugs” went up in its place and “Birmingham – Drugs?” was placed over the corresponding town in Alabama. “Look,” I finally stated, “What do all of these Aces High locations have in common?”
“Son of a bitch. So, they’re what? Trying to make a middle man location for hiding product?”
I shrugged. “This could be a way-station or perhaps the supply depot for all of the other cities. As a way station, we wouldn’t have to worry about too much dirt falling in our laps from their dealings. As a supply depot, they’re painting a target on our town for any of their competitors who get wind of it and decide to cut the supply train off.”
“But how would they be getting the supplies in here to begin with? I mean, they’d basically have to go through one of the major cities to get them here. What’s the point?” Legs asked.
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