Chapter Twelve

Dominic

“And then, I wrapped my arms around both Apple and Lemon and held on tight.” Ringo relayed the story of how he’d gotten the keys to his and Calista’s house the month before from the two sisters. Piston and Venus listened with equal expressions of amusement to Ringo’s retelling of the encounter. His gleeful exuberance amused me to no end. Especially since I knew he wouldn’t have the last word in this no matter how embarrassing he tried to make it for the twins. OK, so mostly he wanted to tell on Lemon. Still wasn’t going to end well for him.

We were at the new clubhouse in Riviera Beach. The club had a private beach adjacent to the property. Annie needed to get out of the compound and start to live as normal a life as she could considering she was going to be the old lady of Grim Road’s sergeant at arms. Which was to say, her life would never be “normal,” but the club was pulling together to help her settle in and we were all doing our best to show her how different her life was going to be. Everyone in this club had come together as a family and Annie was part of that family.

“Like, you hugged them or something?” Piston’s lips twitched, but he seemed to be doing his best to keep a straight face. Venus just shook her head.

“Yep. Totally did. Thought Lemon was gonna freak the fuck out.”

“Apple didn’t stab you?” Venus raised one pink eyebrow. She wasn’t smiling, but I could see the humor dancing in her eyes. Funny she hadn’t asked if it was Lemon.

“Well, I don’t think she was actually armed at the time, but that’s not the point.” Christ. Ringo was my enforcer and a fucking good enforcer, but sometimes, he was just a dumb fucking shit. Then I glanced down at Annie. She had a smile on her face and was paying rapt attention, eating up every single word Ringo uttered.

“What exactly is point?” Venus crossed her arms over her chest as she leaned casually against a tree.

“The point is Lemon did an icky dance. An actual icky dance. She shook out her hands like she had shit on them and did some fuckin’ little shimmy” -- whereupon Ringo demonstrated -- “and started whining about Ringo germs.”

Piston and Annie cracked up. Ringo looked supremely pleased with himself. Unfortunately for Ringo, Lemon had been approaching and saw the whole “icky dance” thing. She just happened to be on his blind side so Ringo didn’t see her. When she smacked him in the back of the head, Ringo flinched and ducked a little, wincing before whipping his head around to see who’d attacked him.

“The fuck, Lemon?” She held up her index and middle fingers, pointed from her eyes to Ringo, then kept on going without a word. Annie was now rolling in the sand laughing her ass off, and Piston was wiping tears from his eyes. Calista was next to Annie in the sand, laughing just as hard as the other two. “Way to throw a guy under the bus, Calista. You’re supposed to be on my side, not the hellion’s.”

“You’re my man, and I love you, Ringo, but you will never get the best of Lemon. I’m not sure why you try so hard.”

Ringo gave my daughter a disgruntled look. “Your daddy needs to catch up on all the spankings you missed out on as a child.”

Calista grinned up at him. “Tell you what, baby. If you’re good, I’ll let you spank me.”

“Oh, no you don’t,” I snapped. “No having kinky sex with my daughter. Which means no kinky sex for you at all since you can’t have sex with anyone other than my daughter, Ringo.” I thought about that for a second, then decided to add something. “In fact, you can’t have sex with my daughter since my daughter is too young to have sex, so no kinky sex at all. Ever.” I glared at my enforcer, daring him to try and get out of this one. “You’re just shit the fuck outta luck on this one, you bastard.”

“Dad, I’m old enough to have sex.”

Ringo winked at me and I knew this whole thing had likely been staged for Annie’s benefit. Which had most likely been suggested by Calista. The two women were solidly fast friends now. In fact, every single woman in Grim Road had welcomed Annie into the fold. The club girls even stayed away from the catty behavior around her. Which might have been Lemon’s doing, but I’d noticed more than one of them sharing a laugh or smile with Annie. One or two had some serious conversations with her. Not of a mean nature, but I knew most of the women here had fled some pretty bad circumstances. While I didn’t like digging into anyone’s private lives, Crush and Byte fully investigated every single person we’d ever brought into our territory. They’d passed on pertinent information to me about everyone. At least one of the women had come from a cult as well.

“No sex.” I pinned Ringo with my fiercest stare.

“Wouldn’t think of it, boss.” Ringo had a shit-eating grin on his face. Probably because, despite what I was willing to admit, he was about to get laid if the look on Calista’s face was any indication.

Christ! My life!

“Where’s my little chica ?”

I turned to see Elena and Tito headed in our direction. Lemon was talking with Tito as she led them to us. When Elena saw Annie, her face lit up and she hurried to my woman. They embraced and began a spirited conversation in Spanish.

“You should be proud of that girl.” Tito greeted me with a smile and a warm handshake. “Elena says she’s close to fluent in Espanol . She learned quickly.”

“Venus says the same,” Piston offered as he reached for Tito’s hand. “Those ain’t the only two languages she’s learning either.”

I grinned at them. “Nope. Girl’s learning the most common ones. Seems to love languages.”

“She’ll be a good hidden asset.”

“Don’t plan on usin’ her as an asset, Piston.”

“Nope. I never planned on usin’ Venus either.”

“You’re not using Venus.” I was confused as to where he was going with this.

The bastard clapped me hard on the shoulder and chuckled. “Exactly.”

I barked out a laugh. “I’d love to say my woman didn’t have that in her, but I’m seeing glimpses of what she’s like deep inside. She’s a warrior. I just don’t ever intend for her to have to be a someone we use. For any reason. I’ll fuckin’ kill anyone I have to keep her from being an asset.”

“You realize you sometimes don’t have a choice in the matter. Right?” Tito chuckled, shaking his head. “I never wanted to own a diner. Hated the thought of it.”

Piston snorted. “You think I wanted to have to make nice with people? That’s what ambassador means. You make nice with people.”

“I’m pretty sure there’s more to it than that, old man.” I felt a smile tugging at my lips.

“Not much. Luckily, Venus handles everything and other than Thorn and El Diablo, the others pretty much live in fear of her. Mama and Pops have encouraged the fear.” Piston looked like he couldn’t be prouder. “So far it’s not been too bad. Right now, you guys are the subject of her focus because of your woman.”

“Oh? How’s that?”

Piston leveled a look at me. “She’s making sure you do things right with her.”

“Ah. So Lemon and Calista got her away from me to interrogate her.” When Piston grinned, I flipped him off. “You turned my own daughter against me. Some things gotta be sacred, Piston.”

“Take it up with Venus.” Piston pulled out a joint and lit up. “I’m just here for the pot.”

Yeah. This place was one big family. Brothers and little sisters all. I loved it. I think everyone else did too.

The women sat at a stone bench under a huge beach umbrella, talking and sharing a bottle of Crown Royal. It was something Lemon had picked up and fallen in love with. Last time she’d brought it out, Annie had been drunk off her ass. She’d had an amazing time and, surprisingly, hadn’t been hung over the next day. Probably because I made her drink a bottle of water for every two shots she did. Overkill? Maybe. But for her first stem-winder, I figured the extra water would not only help her stay hydrated, but fill her up so she didn’t drink as much.

“They’re here,” Piston said, his gaze was lasered on the entrance to the beach. A small group of men approached them with Bear and Spike flanking them with Rattler leading the way while Leather and Rocket brought up the rear.

“Took them long enough.”

Piston shrugged. “Chief said they debated on leavin’ her be. She did a number on their leader, though. He’s the tall son of a bitch in the middle of the group. Not sure how much function he’s got left in his dick after she got through with him. Includin’ not bein’ able to piss standin’ up.”

“That’s my girl.” I kept my tone light but I was readying myself for a fight.

I glanced over at the women. Looked like they’d multiplied. All of them surrounded Annie in a protective ring. They were still laughing and talking and seemingly oblivious, but Cecilia and Evelyn glanced at the incoming group more than once. Luke, Evelyn’s oldest child, positioned himself in the sand on a beach lounger between the visitors and his mother. That kid was going to be a force to be reckoned with when he grew up.

Rocket hung back while the rest of the group walked up to me. A tall, slender man in the middle stepped closer, moving between the two men in front of him. He was thin but wiry and very aware of his surroundings. I saw the exact moment he spotted Annie, and he hid it well. But I was very good at my job. He carried himself like a man who knew what he was doing and I had no doubt he could hold his own in a fight. Was he the most dangerous man in the area? No. Besides our guys, the man immediately to the left was the one to take down first in this group. He was also the most likely to draw first blood.

Everyone in the group dressed in black jeans and black shirts. Which kind of surprised me because they didn’t really fit the classic cult profile.

Rattler brought the guy to us. His entourage followed only a couple of steps behind their leader. The only guy who seemed uncomfortable with the setup was the man I’d identified as the one to watch. Yeah. He knew something was up. He touched the leader’s shoulder lightly but said nothing. The other man acknowledged him with a slight tilt of his head.

“I’m here for Annie.”

I said nothing. Piston took another draw off his joint.

“I see she’s here.” He waved his hand in the direction of the women. “While I appreciate you looking after what belongs to me, I’m here to collect her now.”

I still said nothing. Piston passed me the joint. I took my own hit and passed it back.

The cult leader raised a hand and signaled to the men in his group to go to Annie. Leather, Spike, and Bear formed a wall between the women and anyone trying to get to them.

“Not your best move.” Venus approached from the other side. By now, there was no distracting Annie. She saw the commotion and was trying to head in this direction. Lemon and Apple spoke with her, encouraging her to hang back. Apple tracked the movements of the men in question. She and Deacon had come for an extended visit. It wasn’t long before Deacon joined the men standing in front of the women. “You should sit with Rocket. Talk.” Venus’s voice was lightly accented Russian. She sounded reasonable, but anyone would have to be a fool to think she wasn’t ready to kill a motherfucker. “Will be, shall we say, enlightening conversation.”

The same guy I’d pegged to watch earlier leaned in and whispered something to his leader. The man smiled at me, apparently assuming I was the one in charge. “Forgive me. I should introduce myself.” He had a slightly Asian look but appeared to be more of an ethnic blend. A couple of the men with him were similar. I could tell they were speaking to each other softly. Since I could read lips, I knew they weren’t speaking English. “I’m the Divine One, leader of Grace of the Divine. You have one of our family in your midst. In fact, she’s my wife. I must insist you return her to me.” His accent was slight, but still there. It was definitely some relation to an Asian dialect, but I couldn’t place it.

I glanced at Rocket who stood with the other men in Grim between the cult and our women. Lemon approached from behind the men with Annie in tow. Lemon refused to let the younger woman past her but didn’t try to keep her away from our visitors as I’d have liked. I saw Annie say something to Lemon and the VP gave her a crisp nod in acknowledgement.

“Ah, my wayward bride.” The creep smiled at Annie. She flinched, but held her ground, putting her chin up. “Come then. Tell your new friends goodbye and we’ll go home.”

Annie found and held my gaze for a moment. I gave her a nod. “I am home.” Her voice was clear and strong. I could tell she was nervous, but she was facing her nightmare. I was incredibly proud of her.

“Don’t be silly, child. You don’t belong here.”

“Yes, I do.”

The Divine One smiled, then spoke to his guard. “ Dāng wǒmen líkāi shí, bǎ tāmen dōu shā diào .” The guard nodded and stepped away from the Divine One, to the center of the eleven-man group.

Annie’s eyes widened and she found my gaze. Her breathing quickened, the pulse fluttering at her neck. I narrowed my eyes and tilted my head slightly, not understanding what I’d missed.

“Is there anything I can do or give you to make you give her to me?” He still addressed me but I wasn’t saying anything. Something felt off. Maybe I was hypersensitive to Annie’s obvious distress or maybe there was something I wasn’t seeing.

Annie’s gaze darted to Venus. “ Oni sobirayutsya ubit’ vsekh !” she yelled in what I assume was Russian across the gathering. Venus immediately pulled a knife and charged the group…

And that’s how the fight started.