Chapter 20

Chapter

Twenty

LEAH

I t's a madhouse inside, just like Phoebe said. Every square inch of the main room is filled with club members. The music that normally fills the room has been replaced with the many different voices of people organizing supplies and barking orders to move furniture to make room for cots.

"Hey, Prez," Cowboy calls to Seer, who is across the room speaking with his mothers.

Miya is sporting her everyday leather outfit of pants, a white tank top, and her Cut. The patch over her left breast proudly shows her road name, KARMA, and a rocker above it, ORIGINAL CHAPTER. Her wife, Judge, in her signature power suit, scolds their son.

Her finger whips up into the air to signal Cowboy to wait as they finish their conversation.

Karma's long, poker, straight black hair is wrapped around what I know is a dagger to form a messy bun on the top of her hair. Her tattoo, muscled arms were on full display. She has a gun holster under her Cut, but I can't see the weapon from where I am.

Anyone stupid enough to think she's unharmed deserves to find out differently.

"Leah?" Phoebe grabs my attention.

"Sorry, how can I help?" She smiles and takes my hand in hers.

"We get out of their way. Let's go find a room to crash in before the good ones are taken." She pulls me playfully to the stairs, but Kai stops us from going up.

"I think Fabien is going to want us all in Church." That makes Phoebe wrinkle her nose.

"Why, we aren't members." He rolls his eyes at her.

"This involves the family, though." She sighs but nods.

"Fine, but under protest." We all walk over to the conference-style room the club uses for the meetings, which they call Church.

It's really just a huge dining room with an oblong table that seats twenty or so people. It'll seat the club's leading members and however many prospects they may have at the time. Seer apparently is very particular about his members. Prospects get turned away at an alarming rate.

As far as I can tell, they have ten officers and four prospects.

That's half the size of Paradise, the original chapter, and Reno, their sister chapter. Seer seems to be able to weed out the people who are looking to join for the wrong reasons. That's how he got his road name.

He can see into their souls. That's also why everyone calls his bike Ghost—something to do with a comic book I've never heard of. I shake my head as we all pile into the room. I can't help but feel like it's more like a fraternity house than a club.

They're the same thing, Leah.

My inner voice is such a bitch sometimes. I snort to myself, bringing Kai's attention to me.

"Something funny, Cher?" He raises an eyebrow at me.

"Nope," I pop the P with a grin.

"Naughty little vixen." His words cause a tingle that starts at the nape of my neck and leads straight to my core.

You have no idea.

Annie calls it my inner hussy. I've been hornier than a bitch in heat. The number of times we've gotten hot and heavy and then had to cold stop over the last few weeks has been utter torture.

"Yeah, well, slow burns aren't my thing," I mutter and then cover my mouth.

Oh. My. God.

"Really? Good to know." He chuckles, and Phoebe giggles, having heard me too.

Kai moves us into the room further down the wall to an oversized chair that I know is meant for the President only. It's not a throne per se, but it's certainly out of place. It's tall, black, and has a purple velvet cushion seat.

"I made that for him. Christmas present three years ago. He kept complaining about the chairs hurting his ass." Phoebe whispers in my ear as I survey her work.

"Can't have that now." She snorts, and Kai pinches her arm.

"HEY!" She yells up in his face, but he puts his finger on her lips to keep her quiet.

"Hush now. Here they come." He nods in the direction of the opposite wall, where Seer is walking, followed by Cowboy, Glitch, Mayhem, and Nova.

"Alright, settle down. We have a few things to discuss before we go into storm prep mode. So let's handle that first. Where are we with supplies?" Seer sits in his chair and flings one leg over the arm.

He rolls one of the many rings he wears around his finger as he listens to his members give their reports one by one. By the end, he's assigned the prospects to board up the first-level windows and put down sandbags.

All while looking like a sexy pirate from one of my romance novels.

"You're drooling, Baby," Kai says in my ear.

"And you aren't?" I counter, sending him into a fit of laughter that draws everyone's attention to me.

Shit.

I shrink back, trying to hide, but Kai pushes me forward into the limelight, which I avoid at all costs. I stumble and end up on Seer's lap to which everyone gasps.

"Mm," he moans and pulls me into him to settle on his lap more comfortably.

Mutters fill the room, and I glance around, confused by everyone's reaction. I open my mouth to ask Seer, but he shakes his head and speaks over me.

"Next on the agenda. Kai was arrested but not charged tonight for terroristic threats. Ma," he motions to Judge, who steps forward with her wife on her right like a sentinel.

"What have I always told you if you're in lock up?" She leans over the table and taps her long red painted nail on the table, staring her son down.

"Keep our mouth shut until you or Abel arrive," Kai says from our left.

"Exactly! And you follow directions well, Cher." The members seated around us chuckle.

"Ma," her hand flies up to stop her son from speaking.

Seer lets out a rumbling noise of annoyance that runs down my back.

"Fabien Alexander Fukama, did you just growl at your mother?" Karma's eyes narrow.

Oh shit.

I feel like I'm in the direct line of fire and attempt to use this as my excuse to get off his lap, but his arms form a vice around my waist, and I glance at him.

"Are you using me as a human shield?" It comes out louder than I meant, making the people closest to us chuckle.

"Yes, baby. Do not move." He kisses my nose and then turns to his Ma.

"I'm sorry I didn't follow protocol." She straightens at his words but does not stop glaring.

"Cher, what the fuck were you thinking!" Her shout stops all other speech in the room.

"That my partner was being accused of something he didn't do." He shrugs behind me.

"You told that cop you sign all your threats." Every single head turns to us.

"Yes?" I close my eyes.

His mothers are going to kill him.

"Bête! ARIA, call Abel." Judge's voice activates the AI system.

Mutters start as I stare at Seer.

"Evening all. Fill me in on what I've missed." Abel's voice sounds downright cheery.

"We have a possible murder being pinned on my idiot son and partner. What did you find on Charlotte Monroe?" She crosses her arms, and Karma rubs her shoulders.

Neither of them have stopped watching us.

"Not much. Charlotte Monroe, twenty-three years old, with no family to speak of, lives alone in the Garden District; she was reported missing and presumed dead after neighbors called the police about a weird smell three days ago. Nobody has been recovered, but it's the bayou, so the chances of that happening are slim if whoever did this is a pro." Abel trails off as the speaker fills with sounds of tapping.

"Now that is interesting." He sounds amused.

"What Cher? I'm not in the mood for your theatrics tonight." Judge's voice is clipped.

"Seems Ms. Monroe isn't as squeaky clean as she portrayed." He lets out an evil laugh that makes me widen my eyes.

"Cannibal, what did you find?" Seer sighs in annoyance and pinches the bridge of his nose.

"Seems Ms. Charlotte is an alias. Let me do some more digging." The line goes dead, leaving us all looking around the table with more questions than answers.