Seven

Vale

"Reporting for duty as ordered, sir, yes sir!" I said with a mock salute.

My brother looked up from the paperwork on his desk with a huffed scoff. "If that were the case, you'd be moving back into your suite. You had your own space—"

"—and I don't know why you had to move out," I finished for him.

"Yeah. Well," was his only response, the two words saying I rest my case without him really arguing anything. He scooped up his papers and locked them away in his desk drawer before standing and coming over to me. I was glad he hid away his work. I didn't want to know what he and the club got up to.

"You don't have to be a smartass about coming to dinner," he said, hooking an elbow around my neck and pulling me in for a quick hug.

"Being ordered to come to dinner?" I clarified.

"What can I say?"

"That you're sorry for not considering I might have other plans?"

"You didn't," he said with enough confidence to make me suspect maybe he had been surveilling me beyond having his guys show up every day.

"Kale…" I warned.

"Did you bring cake?" he asked, obviously side-stepping the initial conversation and an argument while we headed toward the main gathering room of the club. The place had once been a small, four-floor hotel on the outskirts of town. Kale had bought it when he'd left the military six years ago. I wasn't sure what he'd done for the country to have come up with that kind of money after his stint. From the veiled things the guys said—all of them being in the same unit—I guessed he'd been on some sort of elite team.

I'd asked once if they'd been SEALs, and Wrecker had laughed so hard he'd almost fallen off his chair. "Those pussies? Please."

That was the last I'd asked anything about their service, especially since I wondered if Before-Vale knew all about what Kale and the guys had done. I didn't need to draw any more attention to the fact I had no memory of anything before five years ago. They all knew, thinking I had some sort of amnesia, but I didn't want to send up beacons to remind them.

I already flummoxed them since Before-Vale couldn't bake or speak other languages. She'd been an expert pianist and artist, though, and I messed up Chopsticks and barely drew stick people. I'd watched videos of her on her phone that I'd inherited—after Kale's tech guy, Planny, had gotten it unlocked for me. Without any overstatement, Before-Vale and I were as different as night and day.

"Vale? Cake?" Kale prompted when I didn't answer him. He bumped his shoulder into mine but whipped out his arm and slung it around my waist, so I didn't stumble. "Don't tell me you didn't bring treats. The guys will mutiny."

"I brought the goods. Biter asked for the chocolate. I brought that strawberry whipped cream dessert you like, too," I told him. Of course, I'd brought more cookies, as well. Some of the guys would turn me right around and push me out the door, telling me to correct the situation, if I tried to come in without them.

Truly, it was shocking they all maintained such buff physiques. Wrecker would take credit for that, though. The guys—Kale, Biter, Wrecker, Turk, Prick, Planny, Glare and Ice—all had insatiable sweet tooths. Frankly, I wasn't so sure the desserts I'd brought would be enough.

"Cookie!" Biter yelled when Kale and I walked into the main room where raucous rock music played through an overhead system. The space had once been a lobby, but you wouldn't know it now. They'd taken out walls to make it bigger and the old reception desk was now a bar. Couches abounded all around, and three arched, double doorways led into a room they called ‘the mess hall' where there was a huge table, more than adequate to seat the entire club, plus a few more.

When all the doors were open, it was an extension of the main room. When they were closed…church.

"Biter," I responded. "Sink your teeth into anyone today?"

"Not yet. You volunteering?"

"Hey!" Kale growled before I could say anything. "You know my sister's off limits."

"Sorry, Spear," Biter said, holding up his hands. "Just messin' around."

"Well, go mess around with someone else."

"Ah…with who?" Biter looked around. Two of the guys were off to the side cleaning their guns. Planny was scrolling on his phone. Another two were off at the far end playing pool with several guys I didn't recognize standing nearby, leaning on cue sticks while they watched—they were probably prospects or friends from out of town. I suspected Wrecker was in the kitchen finishing up the meal. There were no women around. The club had a marked lack of the proverbial hangers on—AKA sweet butts, mamas or club whores. And none of the guys had an old lady.

Though I'd seen women around here occasionally, I swore the Ghosts of Vengeance were the least Sons of Anarchy MC around. Still, I also knew they dealt with some dark shit if I understood the ‘code words' they used around me. And church tonight probably meant they'd be planning some sort of run.

"Prez, I need to talk to you and Biter about this situation, sooner rather than later at church," Planny told Spear, holding up his phone.

My brother crossed his arms over his wide chest.

"It can't wait?" he asked with a quick side-eye to me.

"Not really."

I quickly tapped Kale's arm. "I'll go check in with Wrecker. See if he needs anything and make sure the desserts are in the fridge."

Kale was already indicating for Biter and Planny to follow him over to a quiet corner beside the bar. Happy to leave club business to them, I headed toward the kitchen.

When I walked in, Wrecker stood in the middle of the room and I swore I saw an onion, knife and bowl moving through the air around him, but when I blinked, the bowl was on the table and he had the knife in his hands.

"Crap, I need to get more sleep," I muttered.

Being so close to yet so far from Dayton again kept me awake night, as did worrying about Kale and my friends because I knew they were involved in dangerous things.

That was one of the reasons Kale wanted me at the club where it was secure. But being here, and not in my new home, I'd lose access to Dayton, and I'd waited for far too long to get him—and Brennan—back into my life.

Shaking my head, I smiled Wrecker's direction. "What can I help with?"