Chapter 13

13

RIOT

I stare at Cash. "What do you mean we've got a problem?" I don't want to be here. I want to be back with Halo in her apartment with Cookie.

I got called away an hour after we got back, and it's not like I can blow off the Prez when he calls, and on a Sunday?

"You look like shit," he says.

"Thanks. I had a big night."

"Not accordin' to some," Bronco puts in. "Rumor has it you were sober and left with Star's friend."

I turn to him. "She has a name, asshat, and it's Halo."

Not all the guys are here as it's highly unusual to call a church meeting on a Sunday, so this must be serious.

Bronco made it, as well as Priest, Ryder, and Manny, who brings us all croissants, which makes me question why he's in such a good mood.

Aside from dancing with my girl last night, he shouldn't have too much else to smile about.

I frown. "Why you so chirpy?"

He meets my gaze. "Says you who left here with the prettiest girl in the clubhouse."

"Bet you say that to all the girls," Bronco snickers like he's funny.

"Didn't see you makin' any moves on Payden," I toss back.

"Payden?" Cash and Manny say in unison. Prez doesn't usually keep up with who's doing who around the clubhouse, though he likes to pretend he knows everything, but Bronco's had a crush on Luna's best friend forever; he's just too chicken shit to do anything about it because she's some fancy lawyer, and he doesn't think he's good enough. I've tried to tell him numerous times that she wouldn't be hanging around the club if she looked down on bikers, not that I'm such a genius in the love department myself, but I like to think I know a thing or two.

"Shut the fuck up." Bronco points at me.

"I'm gonna let you boys fight it out, I've got muffins in the oven." Manny takes off and nobody's gonna stop him if muffins are involved.

"Thought you and Amber were a thing?" I ask. Amber works behind the bar and is one of the few in the club who keep work and play separate.

"Amber?" His eyebrows raise. "She say somethin'?"

I laugh. "Dipshit, Amber wouldn't fuck a brother, she's too pure for that."

"Maybe you need to learn a few things about women before tryin' to snag Payden," Priest adds to Bronco, like he's some big expert. "What they want, for example."

"Hey, some of us are already married." Ryder waves his hands. "And I ain't got no problems with my ol' lady."

"That we know about," I chime. Any excuse to tease Ryder is a good excuse since he was the first brother to get married a few years back.

"Sorry I'm late." Nevada swings into the chair next to me, making a big ruckus.

I side-eye him. "Since when did you make church on Sundays?"

He shrugs. "Ol' lady's havin' brunch with the girls and frankly I ain't got nothin' better to do."

I snort. "Brunch?"

"Yeah, you know, breakfast and lunch combined."

"How's your mom and Hustler?" Bronco gives Nevada a chin lift and I don't even hold in my laughter. We all love teasing him about his mom and Priest's dad. Apparently they've been seen around the clubhouse together and Audrina, that's his mom, has been seen bringing in baked goods.

"Why, you know somethin' I don't?" Nevada tosses back.

"Is it too soon to be callin' Priest ‘brother' for real?" Bronco laughs.

I pat him on the back. "Good one."

"Dad's got a thing for Audrina, we know that," Priest interjects. "But he's respectful about it, which is more than I can say for some of you chumps."

"Hey, I had to wait months before doin' my woman," Nevada informs us.

I look his way. "That's because she wanted to chop your dick off when she first met you."

"Patience," he tells me. "That and she digs my tattooed?—"

"We get the idea," Cash grumbles. "For fuck's sake."

I'm one of the few who know that Bronco was the one who tattooed Nevada's dick. How the fuck he agreed to that I'll never know, and frankly I don't want to. It's always nice to have intel like that up your sleeve in case you need a favor down the track. Not that Nevada wouldn't agree, but after the shit he's pulled over the years, I'm just biding my time until I can return the favor.

"Hey, speakin' of things that glow in the dark, how was the fleshlight dick sucker?" Nevada clearly wants to keep the topic on dicks.

A few chuckles go around the room, and that reminds me that I want to go get the damn thing and take it back to show Halo. It seemed to get her going when I was explaining about what I did to myself, picturing her. Now I want her to see it.

I have a vision of me using my fleshlight and her getting off with a vibrator as I suck her titties until she's wailing.

Of course, I'm not gonna admit to these assholes how much that stupid toy is gonna come in handy. "Yeah, real thoughtful, asshole," I mutter. "Like I don't get enough snatch as it is."

Okay, Nevada may have stepped down from being the resident fuck boy, but there ain't no way I'm taking his place. I'll save that job for Pipes since he's recently patched in and working the sweet butt circuit.

"Star said you picked up a stray dog last night, spent the night at Faux paws." Of course, he has an ol' lady with loose lips. They're best friends so obviously Halo is gonna tell her shit. I wonder if she said anything about me?

"Got that right. Some dickface left this dog in the dumpster with a broken leg, should've seen the poor thing."

"Assholes," Priest agrees. "Who would leave a dog in a dumpster?"

I shake my head, remembering the sight. "Not sure, but I'm gonna get the boys to check the footage outside Halo's buildin' to see if we can find anythin'. He's the sweetest dog, too, wouldn't harm a fly."

"Takin' it the mutt's gonna be okay?" Ryder asks.

"Yeah, he's doin' good. We picked him up this mornin'."

" We ?" Cash raises a brow.

I palm the back of my neck. "Well, yeah, he needed a place to crash so his leg can heal, so me and Halo are gonna share custody until he's better."

A few chuckles ring around the table, which I don't appreciate.

"How long've you known this girl?" Bronco taps his chin.

I can't help but puff my chest a little. "Long enough for her to wanna be my ol' lady."

"What? When the fuck did this happen?" Nevada looks incredulous.

"Last night." I shrug like it's nothing. "We bonded."

More laughs ensue, but I don't care. I've always kinda worn my heart on my sleeve, so the boys are used to this with me.

"Bonded?" Nevada guffaws.

"Yeah, you heard me. It's a thing." I double down.

"The man's got a point," Priest chimes in. "It's not like you can pick and choose who you fall for, it just happens sometimes. You have no control over it."

It didn't take long for Priest to knock up his ol' lady, and now they're expecting, he's trying to play matchmaker all the way to heaven.

"Exactly. I mean, take Prez here, it's not like you knew you'd be makin' your best friend's daughter your ol' lady that first night she stepped into the clubhouse, right?" Nevada is seriously looking for a bitch slap pretty soon.

"Watch your mouth, pretty boy, I'll still kick your ass all the way outta those doors," Cash warns.

It's not like Nevada would care. We've all taken turns punching him in the face. I think Tag's was the worst beating he took, but it clearly didn't knock any sense into him.

"We here to discuss business?" I check my watch. "Gotta get back to Halo and Cookie."

"I wanna talk more about this fuckin' ol' lady shit?" Bronco titters.

"Wait, Cookie? " Nevada looks at me like I've grown another head. "You named the dog Cookie?"

I roll my eyes. "No, Halo named him. It's cute, it suits him."

Nevada reaches to press a hand to my forehead before I swat him away. "You're burnin' up, bro."

"Like you didn't agree to shit snaggin' your ol' lady." I point at him. "Your balls were gone when we were in Mississippi."

"And I'm proud of that." He pats his chest. "Nothin' wrong with a man surrenderin' his balls if it means he gets the girl."

"Looks like Bronco's the only one here who might need a nudge in the right direction," Priest laughs.

"Blueberry muffins!" Manny sing-songs, swanning in the door with a plate full of freshly baked muffins.

"This is gettin' weird," Cash grumbles. "First croissants, now blueberry muffins? On a Sunday? What's goin' on?"

"Can't a boy just be happy?" he chirps.

"Not usually without good reason," I point out.

"Spring is in the air, chaps, and there's no time like the present to be lettin' those love handles loose and just enjoying the fruits of our labor." Manny waves his hand around as he sets the plate down.

We all reach forward simultaneously and snag the muffins before Manny can smack our hands. Well, once they're out of his grasp, it's fair game.

"Love handles?" Cash scrunches his nose. "Should I know what those are?"

"The only fruits you're gonna be enjoyin' are the ones in these muffins," Bronco mutters as he chomps two big bites into the piping hot ball of goodness.

"That's what you think." Manny gives Bronco a wink as he leaves the room again.

I turn to Cash once I've devoured one and reach for another. "So, what's goin' on?"

The reason we were all called in here in the first place at this ungodly hour.

"Remember the job you did back in Chicago?" If I expected Cash to say anything, it definitely wasn't that. I also know who he's talking about.

"Did a lot of jobs in Chicago," I remind him. "Gotta be more specific."

Cash levels me with a look. "You want your ass kicked by an old man?"

I chuckle. "Right now, you're makin' no sense. Assume you're talkin' about the crime lord and his posse who tried to overrun the Bratva some years back?"

Well, they never called themselves crime lords, but other than a powerful underground syndicate, there really is no other word for them.

"Got it in one."

"Why you bringin' that up?"

"Got news. There's some business execs who are lookin' into things a little more seriously."

I pat a hand on my chest. "You almost had me goin' for a second. I thought you were gonna say the Feds." Although, I know there's no way shit could ever get traced back to me. It's why I was the best at what I did. A ghost. I conversed with one person, Lars, who got me jobs, and he's dead. Still, that old feeling in my bones, that shit can catch up with you at any point in time and tries to force its way through, but I don't let it.

"You so sure about that?"

"Positive."

Cash fixes me with another look. "Then explain why all of the men who were associated with the Chicago underworld at that time, and went against Mancini, are now dead."

Mancini . I'd forgotten his name.

I blink, the adrenaline spiking through my veins. "Maybe they were in the wrong place at the wrong time?"

"Someone's been takin' them out, one by one, and it ain't the Russians. Some are sayin' the Bratva could be next."

"How'd you hear this?"

"I got friends in low places, reliable low places and when I heard, it started addin' up that this could be some payback shit. The Mancinis were terrorists on the streets for years until you took their leader out, it gave the Russians access to eradicate the rest of them."

"So, that's a bad thing?"

"It is when anyone who went against the Mancinis is showin' up dead."

Nobody else knows about who I assassinated, but I told Cash. Not even Charles knows. I wanted to keep as many people safe as I could, that way, worst case scenario nobody knows shit if you're a ghost. Cash can be a persistent asshole when he wants to be, and part of my initiation into the club was telling him about the worst things that I'd done in my life. He knows what happened to my family, and he's always been gracious about it. When I went inside and shared a cell with Priest, I vowed I was never going back inside again. Sure, my sentence was for some petty shit that caught up with me, but if the authorities knew what I'd really done, they'd be giving me a lethal injection. That's not to say those assholes didn't deserve it. Taking out men who took from the poor to make themselves richer, or underworld figures who excelled in mastering slavery and child labor, aren't things I'm gonna lose sleep over. They deserve to be six feet under.

"This is serious," Cash barks. "Six dead in Chicago, they're callin' it a payback killin' spree."

"Wait, who did you shoot?" Nevada scratches his chin.

"Someone well known, let's just put it at that," I mutter. I look back at Cash. "That shit can't get linked back to me, I made sure of it."

"That's good, because I don't want shit turnin' up on my doorstep."

It's always been a fear of mine that one day Cash might kick me out. Deep down, I know he never would, but this is the only brotherhood I've ever known.

"It won't. I made sure I covered all my tracks. The only man who knew who I was died years ago in a car crash."

All eyes are on me. There's been one drama after another in the club with outside influences these past few years. Until Nevada and me went to Mississippi, we'd had six months of bliss. No revenge attacks. No mafia to kill. No one getting kidnapped or tortured or shot. I get that all of us want peace and to go back to doing what we do best; being a club.

"Seems kinda uncanny he'd die in a crash," Ryder says. "Sure he wasn't taken out?"

I shrug. "I've no clue. Like I said, I got outta the game years ago. Made enough money to live off, then joined the MC. Until Mississippi, I haven't had my rifle out in years."

"How'd it feel?" Priest lifts his chin. "To hold a rifle again."

"Exhilaratin'." I grin. "But I also remembered all the reasons why I stopped. The carnage that night was crazy."

"It got outta hand fast," Cash says. "If I'd thought for one second that it was gonna be that bad, the whole club would've been there."

Cash sent reinforcements in the way of Harlem and Tag, and we also had the help of Bane and his men from the Ridgehaven Hellions. It was all under control.

"I know that," I assure him. "I'm gonna need to take a look further into the men that were killed in Chicago, see if any of them look familiar."

Cash nods. "You do that. Rock's workin' on it now, he's gonna email you the file."

"Okay." I really don't know why he's looking so worried. Nothing is gonna come back to haunt me. "But we've nothin' to worry about here. If there was a slight chance that this was gonna go south, I'd be fuckin' speakin' up. Puttin' this club at risk isn't what any of us want, Prez."

"Glad to hear it. The assholes who were taken out all had links to Mancini, that's why it found its way on my radar," Cash explains. That makes sense. "I want you to look at the files and make sure that you didn't know any of the men. If you do, we need to take this a little more seriously."

"So in the meantime?" Bronco looks from me to Cash. "We just sit tight?"

"No point jumpin' the gun," Ryder says. "But it's best to be aware of the situation. We don't want or need any more fuckin' mishaps or paybacks anytime soon."

"Amen to that," Priest mutters.

"I'm on it." It'll be some light reading while I get back to Halo and Cookie.

"Need you at the Vault this weekend," Cash tells me.

Normally, I'd be delighted with that kinda news. The Vault is the gentlemen's club we own downtown, which is a polite front for a high-class strip joint.

Something about being around naked women all weekend doesn't sit right now that I'm with Halo. In fact, it turns my stomach.

"Fine," I mutter. It isn't like I can argue with the boss or say anything with my brothers present. Maybe I'll see if someone can swap shifts and I could man the shipping yard or even the Grill.

We get up to leave and I shove Nevada into the door when he tries to get past me first. It's a ritual that we're both used to, and it's an excuse not to get peppered with more questions when we leave. Just as he shoves me back, I see my sister over by the doors to the kitchen and she's… really fuckin' close to Manny. They're both smiling and I narrow my eyes. To say I'm protective of my little sister is putting it mildly. She's been through a lot, the post-traumatic stress took years for her to break through. Hell, she hardly spoke a word in the months after our parents were gone.

I watch them for a second.

Manny boops her nose and I narrow my eyes.

What in the ever-living fuck?

I start moving toward them before I even know what I'm doing. Okay, my sister may be old enough now to know what she's doing, but I can't exactly see her with Manny. He's been around long enough to know getting involved with a brother's sister isn't exactly the way to keep your face from being rearranged. My sister has never been much of a wild child, at least, she didn't act that way growing up. I guess sometimes it really is the quiet ones you have to worry about.

"Lace?" I call out.

She jumps at the sound of her name, her hand moving to pat her chest. All the while, Manny's still looking down, smiling lazily while he gets a full view of her rack. Jesus.

"God, Riot! You scared me half to death!" She rolls her eyes, but my gaze is fully trained on Manny. Why is he so happy? Is this why? Oh God, did he and my sister…

"You good, brother?" I eyeball him, but as usual he just looks amused.

"Yeah, how'd you like those muffins?" He winks, then to my sister he says, "I just fluffed up the best recipe of my life, wanna try?"

My sister, of course, jumps up and down with glee. When the fuck did this happen?

"I'd say that's a hard yes from me." Lace beams.

Wait, is that innuendo?

Manny grins. "I like how your mind works."

"Wait, are you guys…" I palm the back of my neck.

I feel my sister's glare, but I don't meet her gaze. I want to see Manny's reaction.

He gives me a deadpan look. "Jeez, Riot. Every time I so much as look at a woman, there you are, appearing in front of me like I Dream of Jeannie . Time to chill a little."

"So that's a no, nothin's goin' on?"

"Riot!" Lace whacks me in the chest. "Stop being so rude. And I'm twenty-seven years old, I don't need you telling me what I can and can't do!"

This time, I do level her with my gaze, and it ain't pretty. "You do if you're in my clubhouse."

Manny waves his hands in the air. "Woah, this is getting really heated really fast." The asshole has the audacity to slap me on the back. "We're just talking and I'm about to go make pigs in a poke."

They share a look, and I know that's code for something disgusting.

I turn to my sister, ready to blast her little socks off. I point in her face. "You told me you were seein' someone."

Her cheeks flush pink. "Riot, shut the hell up! I told you, it's new, and frankly none of your business. Is it because you're a year older now, and grumpier than usual, you're riding my ass for no apparent reason other than to embarrass me?"

"I'm not grumpy." I point at Manny. "But I don't need you gettin' involved with a brother?—"

"Technically I'm not a brother nor am I patched in. I just work here." Manny shrugs. "And I think we can both agree that I'm probably the most trustworthy of all the brothers in this clubhouse. I mean, you wouldn't want your cute little sister to be left in the hands of some of the single men in this club. Let's see… Pipes. Bronco. Chains. Bandit. JJ. Hustler…"

"Hustler? He's older than Cash."

"Yeah, and rumor has it he's been spendin' a little bit of time over at Audrina's place." Manny taps his nose.

Oh, no. Not this again. I don't need any more visions of Nevada's mom and Priest's dad going at it. Gross.

"You've made your point," I bark. "Just remember she's a club sister, and that means she's off limits."

"You're so embarrassing!" Lace hits me again.

Manny laughs, saluting. "Yes, sir. Now, Lace, would you like to come and stuff my pastry?"

"I believe I would."

I open my mouth and close it again as they both laugh and disappear into the kitchen.

I lean my forehead on the door and bang against it.