Chapter Five

Fade

"Church."

I waved my hand at Dice. "Yeah, yeah," I called. I watched the bulldozer for a few more seconds before turning on my heel and heading toward the clubhouse.

Garett and Mark walked out and headed to their cars.

"Done for the day?" Dice asked them.

Mark nodded. "Calling it an early day. We'll be back in the morning."

Dice nodded. "Have a good night." Dice wasn't a fan of the camera crew, just like I wasn't.

I moved next to Dice and watched Garett and Mark leave.

"What are the odds that they don't ever come back?" I asked.

"Slim to none, man. Pretty sure our asses are fried if they don't get the footage they want." Dice nodded to the back of Mark's disappearing car down the road. "I heard those two saying they're way behind on the needed footage."

"Sounds like their problem, not mine," I grunted.

"Excuse me," a soft voice called from behind us.

Dice and I stepped to the side, and Adalee sneaked between us.

"Sorry," Dice muttered.

"All good," Adalee replied. She headed to her white Volkswagen Beetle without glancing at me or Dice.

"She's kind of cute," Dice remarked.

I scoffed. "More like annoying, brother. Fifteen minutes ago, she was begging me to do a damn interview with her."

"You tell her just to find Pirate?"

I nodded. "Sure as hell did. Told me she didn't want any more footage of Pirate. I think there might be trouble in paradise between those two."

Dice chuckled. "I don't think there ever was paradise between those two. Pirate tried to get with her, but she shot him down. Said she didn't mess with people she worked with."

"Then why the hell is Pirate still sniffing around her?" I asked.

Dice shrugged. "No fucking clue, man. He must be a glutton for punishment or something." He clapped me on my shoulder. "We better get into church. Yarder hasn't been in a good mood since the shooting."

I nodded, and we headed into the clubhouse.

Sloane and Dove were on the sofa, while Olive and Poppy were in the kitchen.

"We're making dinner," Olive called.

"Tell Yarder to hurry up church. It will be ready in half an hour," Poppy said.

Dice tipped his chin to them. "Yeah, that is the last thing I will be doing today. Telling Yarder to hurry up is the stupidest thing we could do."

Poppy laughed. "Then I'll be barging in half an hour from now, okay?"

I nodded. "We'll make sure to take cover."

Poppy shooed us away with a wave of her hand and a smile on her face.

"You really think she is going to barge into church?" I asked.

"More than likely," Dice laughed. "None of those chicks are afraid of us."

"You're probably right," I agreed.

We walked into church, and I took my seat next to Smoke.

"He finally managed to pull you away from the bulldozer?" Smoke joked.

I shrugged. "I was put in charge of ensuring the new garage build goes smoothly. I'm just doing what Yarder asked me to do."

Yarder was seated at the head of the table, with Compass to his right. The rest of us were gathered around the table.

"We good?" Yarder asked.

We all quieted down.

Dice raised his hand. "Your beautiful girlfriend informed us that she is making us dinner and will be walking in here in half an hour."

Pirate raised two fingers. "She informed me of the same thing, but I wasn't going to say anything."

Yarder thinned his lips and glared at all of us. "We're in church. I don't care about anything outside of this door right now."

"That might be a mistake," Stretch whispered.

"I'm an idiot when it comes to women, and even I know that is the wrong answer," Smoke mumbled under his breath.

"We don't have much to discuss anyway," Compass interrupted.

Yarder sat back in his chair. "We're going to reach out to Russ. We've exhausted all of our resources trying to figure out how to get to Boone and Gibbs. They're out in the public, but we can't get to them. They know we're going to come for them, and have so much fucking security around them, it's like Fort Knox."

"Dove good with that?" I asked.

Throttle nodded. "She knows if it weren't for her dad, this shit wouldn't be happening to us right now. She knows we'll do what we can to make sure nothing happens to him."

Yarder nodded. "As much as I hate this guy for bringing this shit to our doorstep, if it wasn't him, they would have used someone else to get to us."

"What is Russ going to do for us, though?" Smoke asked. "I doubt he has much connection to either Boone or Gibbs. Doesn't he have one foot already out the door?"

"Or one foot in the grave," I added.

"He knows how these guys operate. He can help us figure out what they are doing and help us know their next move before they do it." Yarder nodded to Compass. "Compass is going to reach out to Russ today, and hopefully, that means we'll be moving on Boone and Gibbs soon."

"If they don't move on us before Russ can help us," Dice muttered.

"Which is why I'm going to call Russ right after this meeting," Compass retorted.

Dice held up his hands defensively. "Okay, okay."

"Next thing we need to figure out," Yarder moved on. "Filming."

I would rather talk about Boone and Gibbs for the next half an hour than talk about filming for two seconds.

"What about it?" I asked.

"They need more," Yarder grunted.

"I got married, the garage blew up, and Fade shot a guy. What more could they want?" Aero asked. "Pretty sure my marriage should be the highlight of the whole show."

"All of that is good," Yarder replied. "They want more of us talking about it. Interviews."

Son of a bitch. This was about me.

Adalee had just been on my ass to be interviewed, and now this.

Bullshit.

"Pirate can't be the only one doing interviews," Compass pointed out.

"Throttle, Dove, Sloane, and I did interviews about the wedding. We did our part," Aero preened. "I think you guys need to step it up to help the club."

"I didn't sign up for a fucking reality show when I joined the club years ago. Pretty sure I am doing everything I need to be doing for the club," I growled.

"If we don't give the TV crew what they want, then we are going to have to give them back all of the advance and then be expected to be sued for breach of contract. Being interviewed is non-negotiable." Yarder's eyes connected with mine. "If the crew approaches you to be interviewed, then you slap a smile on your face and get your ass interviewed."

"You want me to tell them what's going on?" I asked. I cocked my head to the side. "Or am I spinning some bullshit to them?"

"Spin the bullshit on them, Fade. You're not the only one who doesn't like the cameras. Just suck it up."

I held up my hands. "Fine, fine. If that chick wants an interview, an interview is what I'll give her."

"Oh boy," Smoke laughed. "Something tells me this is going to be interesting."

"Adalee," Pirate added. "Her name is Adalee."

I glanced at him. "You got a thing for Adalee?" I asked.

Pirate shook his head. "Nah, just think she deserved to be called by her name, not chick."

"I'll see if I can remember that," I drawled.

"While Compass gets in contact with Russ, the rest of us just need to keep our eyes open. You see even the smallest thing as off, fucking find out what is going on. The girls don't go anywhere unless one of us is with them. I don't think it's beneath Gibbs and Boone to go after the girls to get to us." Yarder made eye contact with each of us. "Boone and Gibbs are not going to get one up on us again." Yarder slammed the gavel on the table. "Stay safe, guys."

"Safe my ass," Dice mumbled. "We need just to blow up these guys' mansions and call it a fucking day."

I patted Dice on the shoulder. "If only this shit were that easy," I laughed. If we just blew these guys to oblivion, we were going to have the police on our asses.

"Fade," Yarder called. "I don't expect to hear from Adalee again about not being able to get an interview from you."

I saluted Yarder.

"Oh," Dice laughed. "She fucking ratted you out to Yarder."

I pulled my shades over my eyes. "If she wants an interview, I'll fucking give her one."