Chapter Six

CHAPTER SIX

Levee

Raff checked his watch, then looked between the rest of us.

“So… is he always late?” he asked.

Raff and Coach were in from our sister chapter in Shady Valley, California, dropping off guns they’d picked up at various gun shows in the south.

We, in turn, passed off those guns to our international arms dealer, Zayn. Who we were currently waiting to transfer the guns the Shady Valley crew and our own crew had procured.

“It’s his way,” I said, shrugging. “He likes to make an entrance. The first time we met him, he came in on an airboat.”

“Should we be watching the sky for a skydiver?” Raff asked. “A hot air balloon, maybe?”

I laughed that off but went ahead and checked the sky because, quite frankly, I wouldn’t put anything past someone as larger-than-life as Zayn.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. And I had a momentary surge of hope that it was maybe Jade texting me. Even if it had been a full week with no contact from her after the whole thing in the laundry room.

I’d wanted to hang out and walk back to her apartment with her. Maybe finish what we’d started.

But Huck had shot me a text, asking me where I was because I’d somehow forgotten that he’d texted us earlier that week to talk about a church meeting, since we had a few small weapons pick-ups to do ahead of Raff and Coach arriving.

Huck wasn’t exactly a hard-ass leader, but when he called for church, you showed up. Not even the excuse of being with my uncle would be good enough.

Jade had been preoccupied with her neighbors so I made my way out, dropped off the laundry, and headed back to Golden Glades.

I’d been kicking myself ever since, wondering if she’d felt slighted and that was why she hadn’t shot me a text about getting together again.

Which was why I was actually happy about Raff and Coach being in town, and needing to do a drop with Zayn. It meant we would almost certainly be hitting up Miami. Which put me close to my uncle’s place for me to ‘happen by’ the next morning since I was in the area.

“That can’t be him, can it?” Coach asked, nodding down the road.

“Jesus. How many guns did you tell him we brought?” Raff asked as the, I shit you not, party bus rolled up the road toward us.

Yeah, I was pretty sure that was Zayn. It was just his style. Ridiculous.

As expected, the bus rolled up next to us, the door opened, and there was the man in question.

“My friends!” he said, a champagne bottle lifted in one arm.

“Zayn, you don’t seriously want us to put the shit in the bus, do you?” I asked after looking around and realizing I was the most senior member of the club here— when the fuck did that shit happen —and therefore had to ask the grown-up questions.

“Of course not,” Zayn said, that enigmatic smile not falling for a second as he came down the steps, then gestured behind us. “Didn’t you see my men?”

We all turned in unison, watching as no fewer than six men appeared out of fucking nowhere.

“Yeahhhh,” I said, looking at Raff, Coach, Coast, and Kylo. “How about we leave this little part out when we report back to Huck?” I suggested, watching everyone nod in agreement.

No one wanted to fess up to the president that we’d somehow missed that many suspicious men when we were about to do a big drop to Zayn.

“They will handle it from here. And we,” Zayn said, heading back to the bus, “party.”

“Fuck yeah, we do,” Coast agreed, taking the bottle from Zayn, and starting to chug it as he moved up into the bus.

“I like him,” Zayn declared as Kylo, Raff, and Coach followed suit.

I was about to follow them all inside when a figure moved out from behind the bus, making me pause.

Daniyal was the antithesis to Zayn. Where Zayn was extravagant, extroverted, and wholly unserious, his right-hand man was understated, reserved, and sometimes grave.

The older guys in the club said that the strong, stocky man with the dark hair and skin and the almost jarringly gray eyes was clearly some kind of former special forces agent from an overseas organization since he had cut up his fingerprints or some shit like that.

Honestly, I could see that.

I’d been with the club for a few years now. I think we’d been connected with Zayn pretty much all of that time. But I’d never heard Daniyal speak.

I knew better than to ask him where the hell he had appeared from. The man slunk around like a cat. One moment he wasn’t there, the next he was.

One thing I did know, though, was that rarely was Zayn out of Daniyal’s sight. And I guess if you were a man like Zayn who had all the money in the world, and likely more than a few enemies, you wanted to keep your personal security guy as close as possible at all times.

“Hey, Daniyal,” I said, getting a nod from him as I turned to climb into the bus, feeling him move in behind me, shut the door, then slide into the driver’s seat.

The music was already thumping in the back of the bus. And thanks to the blackout windows, the neon lights inside made it look like a damn nightclub.

I’d normally be eating up this shit, talking to Coach about what beaches to hit up to find some girls to bring on the bus with us.

But what was the first thing I did when I sat down?

Reach for my phone to check yet again to see if Jade had texted.

“Really?” Coast asked, shooting me a raised brow look.

“Got a text from Teddy,” I told him, shrugging.

“Teddy, does he want to join?” Zayn asked.

While the two men were from wholly different upbringings, when you reached a certain level of wealth, you ended up rubbing elbows with the same people at the same events regardless. Charity shit, I guess.

So even before Zayn and Teddy met through the club, the two had known each other.

“I’ll ask,” I said as I shot off a text thanking him for having his lawyers working on Curtis’s case so quickly. He’d even gone above and beyond and posted the bail for the man he’d never met. So the man was home with Lily and his kids already.

“Teddy said he’s at a board meeting, but he might catch up with us at the clubs later,” I told the crew who were already several drinks in while I hadn’t touched a drop of anything yet.

With that, I tucked my phone away, determined to put thoughts of Jade out of my mind as we drove down to the beach, then filed out.

Coast, Kylo, Raff, and Coach were quick to make their way over to a group of bikini-clad girls. While my lame ass made my way down toward what looked like a farmer’s market in the opposite direction.

I was only maybe a third of the way down the parallel rows of booths. Some featured overflowing crates of colorful vegetables. Others featured flower arrangements. Others still were full of handmade jewelry or honey.

But then, right at my side, was something I never could have anticipated.

Jade.

Sitting on a chair with a green juice in her hand, smiling at someone who was asking her questions about one of the prints she had hanging up all around her.

I don’t know what I expected when I heard she was an artist. I guess I figured she must have been decent if the women in the laundry room had been gushing about her work. But I never really thought about it beyond that.

But, fuck, she was really good.

And eclectic.

There were a bunch of beach scenes, likely hoping to capitalize on the tourists in the area who wanted to bring a piece of the area back home with them. But there were also ones of mountains, deserts, goldfish, flowers, and even a few less aesthetically pleasing, grittier pieces featuring the apartment building I grew up in as a backdrop as she, I assumed, drew inspiration from her new home. None of them showed any actual faces, but they were all painted in darker colors with one bright focal point. In one, a mom was lifting up a baby over her head with her other kids sitting around at her feet. Another had an older boy helping a younger one learn to use a skateboard.

I figured there were actual scenes she’d witnessed and wanted to immortalize.

Directly behind Jade were two incredibly realistic portraits. One of them looked like an older version of herself. Her mom, I assumed. And the other looked like a more masculine version of Jade. A brother, probably. The sign on them said she was open for private commission portraits.

I waited for the couple she was talking to to move on before I stepped closer.

“If you’re looking for any models, preferably nude, I’m available,” I said, watching as she turned, a big smile blooming across her face.

“It’s you!” she said, climbing off of her seat to come to the other side of the table.

“This is genuinely one of those ‘fancy seeing you here’ moments,” I said, waving back toward the beach. “Some buddies wanted to come to the beach and I decided to check out the market. Are you here every week?” I asked.

“This is my first time, actually. And I’m still not convinced it was worth the booth rental,” she admitted. “But I’m always open to trying new things.”

“You’re not selling anything?” I asked. “Really?”

“I sold five prints and one bookmark,” she said, waving at the table where there were various greeting cards and bookmarks spread out. “I’m not complaining. Money is money. But once I deduct the rental fee, it might just make more sense for me to stay home and work instead.”

“How’re the portraits for Mrs. Jackson coming along?” I asked, moving behind the table to get a closer look at her art.

“Almost done with one,” she said, and I felt her moving closer, but keeping her distance. Like she didn’t want to disturb my browsing. “Which one is your favorite?” she asked when I was done.

“This one,” I decided, moving back toward one that featured an orange and white goldfish with its fanned tail spread wide.

“That’s Swim Shady,” she told me, making a laugh bubble up as I looked over at her.

“Swim Shady?” I asked.

“Yeah, he’s one of my fish. They’re one of my favorite things to paint,” she admitted. “Here,” she said, going back to her table to rifle through a box, then coming back with a print of the same picture set in a see-through protector. “On me.”

“Nah, I have to support the arts,” I insisted, reaching for my wallet, then handing her a fifty.

“I can’t break that.”

“I wasn’t asking you to,” I told her.

“That’s too much. The print is only going for twenty.”

“And, yet, you’re gonna take it,” I said.

I was half a second away from tucking it down into her skirt pocket when fucking Coast appeared out of nowhere.

“Levee, the fuck did you… oh,” he said, stopping short at seeing me standing so close to Jade. “Told you you underestimated him,” he called back to the other guys. “He’s picking up a pretty thing too.”

Christ.

“Coast, this is Jade. Jade, my brother, Coast.”

“Brother?” she asked, her artist eye taking in our different coloring and facial structures in a blink.

“Club brothers,” I clarified.

“Oh, right. The motorcycles.”

“She’s pretty as fuck, man, but she’s busy,” Coast said, his gaze moving over the booth.

“What are you guys up to?” Jade asked as Kylo came up behind Coast, arms thrown over two different women.

“A party bus, if you can believe that,” I told her. “Then likely the clubs later.”

“A party bus?” Jade asked, brows scrunching. “People actually use those outside of bridal parties?”

“I’m afraid we don’t have any penis-shaped straws or hats,” Zayn declared, joining us. “But if it is an absolute deal-breaker, we can surely find some. Is this your art?” he asked, moving into the booth.

“Jade, Zayn. Zayn, this is Jade,” I said.

“Nice to meet you. And, yes.”

“Do you sell originals?” he asked, moving around the booth, seeming to study each painting with a practiced eye.

I mean, this was Zayn. I was sure the fucker had been in every art gallery in no fewer than twenty separate countries. Not to mention having multiple houses where he, presumably, kept artwork.

“I do,” Jade admitted.

“Canvas?”

“Of course.”

“Do you have a website?” Zayn asked. In that posh, yet unplaceable accent of his, he actually suddenly seemed like someone from Teddy’s circle of friends. And less like the larger-than-life arms dealer I knew him to be.

Zayn and Jade continued to talk as I turned to share surprised looks with Coast and Kylo.

“Where did Raff and Coach go?” I asked.

“Back to the bus with a couple girls,” Kylo said. “Which is where we are heading, right, darlin’?” he asked the brunette.

“Hey, what about me?” the blonde asked.

“Right, darlin’?” he asked, nipping her earlobe.

Behind them, some of the other vendors seemed to be wrapping up for the day.

Kylo took his two girls back down toward the bus, leaving Coast to look at me, questioning.

“I’ll be there in a few,” I said, getting a nod from him before he headed back as well.

In the corner of my eye, I spotted Daniyal situated a few booths down. Far enough to be able to scope out the whole area, but close enough to rush toward Zayn if needed.

“Do you see my friend over there?” Zayn asked Jade, pointing toward Daniyal.

“I do,” Jade said, offering him a smile that he didn’t return.

“I want to commission you to do a canvas of him. For his birthday.”

“Oh, that’s nice,” Jade said.

“I would like him to be astride a unicorn with a cowboy hat on,” Zayn said, getting a snort out of me, who knew he was serious, and a bemused laugh out of Jade, who thought he was kidding.

“He means that,” I told her.

“Really?” Jade asked, eyes brightening.

“Really,” Zayn confirmed. “He is young at heart,” he insisted. “Would it be possible to have the unicorn surfing?” he asked.

“Ah, yeah, sure,” Jade said, nodding. “That sounds fun.”

“And could he—“ Zayn started again.

“Zayn, look, there’s a pretty redhead,” I said, turning him to point her out.

“Indeed there is. Jade,” he said, reaching for her hand and bringing it to his lips. “I will be in touch.”

With that, he was gone.

“If I didn’t stop him, he was just going to keep going, coming up with more and more asinine ideas. Next thing you know, he’ll have rubber ducky shoes on and a tattoo of a dinosaur merman on his chest.”

“He does seem very… eccentric,” Jade declared, glancing around, then starting to pull her own pictures off of the walls of the booth.

“He’s richer than God and is used to the whole world being his playground.”

“What I’m hearing is he won’t scoff at the five hundred bucks I was going to charge him for the portrait.”

“Doll, I don’t think he would blink an eye if it was five hundred thousand, ” I told her as I helped her pull down the rest of her art.

“Wow,” she said, shaking her head.

“He also has contacts all over the world. You might be a very busy artist once he has some canvases of yours.”

“I’ll just be happy to make a few sales from him personally,” she said.

The humbleness seemed to be innate in her. She always seemed to be wanting to do good, to offer of herself to others. Without seeming to ask for anything in return.

As much as I’d gone years liking the club girls who were just a little more vapid and seeking their own interests, I found Jade refreshing.

“So what are you doing after you’re done here?” I asked as she hauled the boxes out from under the table to organize her prints.

“Uhm, coming to see what the inside of a party bus looks like, obviously,” she said, shooting me a playful smile. “Though, I have some plans later. So I can only hang for a few hours.”

As much as I’d prefer to spend a few hours alone with her instead of with the guys and whatever girls they’d rounded up, if I was going to get a few hours with her at all, I was sure as hell going to take them.