16. That Sounds Like A You Problem

Chapter 16

That Sounds Like A You Problem

S abre

My eyes were still closed, but there was a bright light trying to force its way in. Too bright, and it made me question what time it was. Last night, Grace and I had walked back to the clubhouse after I'd shown her the house on the property. It wasn't ready, and I thought she'd be more comfortable in my room. I could have sworn I set an alarm before I had fallen asleep with her in my arms. It was Monday, and I couldn't be late for church.

I wanted to roll over and forget everything, but I was afraid that I was two seconds from being wide awake. That was when I heard it. A wet, sucking noise. I'd had enough blow jobs in my life to recognize where this was heading.

A light laugh bounced around me.

"Am I dead?" My voice was rough with sleep.

"I don't think so," she laughed, stroking underneath my dick. He twitched at her touch. "He doesn't seem to think so, either."

I looked at her through my hooded eyes. "What are you doing, mama?" I rasped.

"Replacing a memory." Grace was sitting on her knees in between my legs.

I sat up and fluffed the surrounding pillows.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Going to enjoy the show."

"Might as well get the full effect." She arched her back and pulled my shirt over her head, not wearing anything underneath. I stretched and locked my hands behind my head. If I got close to her, I would break that promise to wait. The baby would get over it. Eventually.

Her eyes traced over my upper chest. "How come you don't have tattoos?"

"If you do a good job, I might tell you."

"Is that a challenge?" She smirked.

I shrugged. This was one thing I loved most about being with her. I could tease her, and she'd never back down. "It ain't going to suck itself."

"Oh." She made an innocent face, and her lips shaped into an O.

She bent down and licked the top of my dick from my stomach to the head, making a ring around the crown, and licked the underside back towards my body. "Was that alright?"

She was killing me. This was better than any club hookup, and we hadn't even begun.

I pretended to fall back asleep, but my eyes weren't completely shut. I could still see the outline of her body and hear how frustrated she was in the sighs coming from her lips. Me too, mama.

I settled back against the pillows, ready to enjoy the slow friction building. I never expected for her to deep throat me. My body jack-knifed forward, and I caught her off guard. She nearly tumbled backwards off the bed. Instinct made me grab her arms and swing her forward so that she was against my chest.

"You just wanted a feel."

I palmed her breast, swiping quickly at her nipple with my thumb. "Nah, I just didn't want to have to explain the thud to the floor."

She laughed and leaned even closer so that her lips were on mine. "This is not the way I planned it."

"How was that?"

"You weren't supposed to wake until the end." She kissed me, her tongue exploring my mouth.

"Nah, that's a shitty plan." I rubbed two fingers against her throat. "This. This is a good plan. "

Laughing, she pecked my lips quickly and pushed on my chest. Laying back on the pillows, I watched her lean over and take me to the back of her throat. I didn't want to think about who had taught her that, but I'd be the last one to reap the rewards. I didn't know what was better, watching her work me or feeling her mouth surround me.

Hot, wet. When she needed a minute, she'd slid me out of her throat and use her tongue to make circles around my dick. Her heat engulfed me, and I became lost in it.

There was a bang on the wall. "Too loud. Knock it off." I hadn't realized it was me that was snarling and growling.

Someone yelled, "You're just pissed you didn't keep that girl."

The first brother responded, "If she's in your bed, I am coming."

"You wish you were coming." Laughter echoed through the walls.

"We should remodel, starting with the walls," I moaned into the room. I didn't really care that the brothers could hear us, but they'd see nothing. Grace was mine, and I was a greedy bastard. Her body was for my viewing pleasure only.

Grace shifted on the bed and brought her right hand up to wrap around me. She sucked in her cheeks and pulled back off of me, letting her grip slide with her. It was constant friction. I wasn't a praying man, but I thanked whatever god had brought her into my life.

When she pulled away on the upstroke, I pushed forward with my hips, looking for more. She sucked harder, and her grip tightened. I was putty in her hands, and it wasn't long before I was shooting into her mouth.

As I was coming down from my high, she pulled away from me, sitting back on her knees. When she stuck out her tongue, I could see my come. Damn, if I didn't want another round instantly. She made she sure had my attention and swallowed.

Growling, I grabbed her by her hips and pulled her against me as I sat up. Gently gripping the sides of her face, I kissed her with everything I had. It was the alpha male in me that wanted to know what we tasted like, so that I could claim her.

There was a high-pitch scream coming from down the hall.

"What's a man gotta do to get pussy? My hand's tired," someone yelled.

"That's what she said." Another round of laughter followed it.

We both chuckled at the brother's antics. I gently rolled her to her back and returned the favor. When she was screaming my name, I leaned over and whispered in her ear, "I don't like needles."

***

It was a quarter to nine when I grabbed a cup of coffee and walked into the office we held church in. It had been a good morning, and there was a smirk on my face. The brothers trickled in and took their assigned seats. They looked at me. I looked at them, but no one said anything about this morning's fun. We normally didn't kiss and tell.

When the prospect closed the door at nine, the lazy atmosphere of the morning vanished. Cyph walked into the room, placing a folder in front of him as he sat down. It was clear shit was about to go down.

"We all want to know what's in the folder, but we need to get through the club business reports first. Grease?" I started the meeting, hoping the mounting tension would ease.

"Everything's good. We're getting a lot of referral business in the garage and with the restorations," Grease said quickly, handing his report to Count for review. He sat back in his chair, but his fingers tapped on the wood table.

"If you grow anymore, we may need to look for a bigger garage, but there's enough here that I can make it work," Count commented as he flipped through the pages of the report.

No one was paying attention. Every eye was staring at the folder that sat in front of Cyph .

"Chef? What about the diner?" I tried to keep church moving, but it was like pulling teeth.

Someone coughed. There were a few brothers that kept shifting in their chairs. No one asked to speak.

"All my costs are in line. May need another waitress if it doesn't slow down, but I don't want to hire someone and then the summer business goes home." He handed his report to Count, but his eyes were still on the folder.

"Enough. If you have a normal report that you didn't get to present, turn it into Count. If there's an issue, bring it to my attention after church." Looking at Cyph, I couldn't get a read on him. "What's going on, Cyph?"

He looked back down at his folder. Taking a slug from an energy drink, he cleared his throat. "I don't know how the pieces go together, but the strippers from the tit show were here yesterday."

"They're still here," a brother piped up. There was an awkward chuckle.

"I prefer strippers, so I was sitting with them. They thought nothing of it when they talked about our new clients that were coming in. You could tell that they were a little nervous, and I wondered if this might be why our sales were down. So, when I went to bed, I ran through the security feeds from the last couple of weeks." He took another drink.

Opening the folder, he pulled out a few pictures and laid them in the middle of the table. The first couple were of the security footage from the club. There had been a few tables of well-dressed men watching the show with drinks in hand. The second set of pictures were their licenses. This was why I loved Cyph. I didn't have to tell him to take the next step. He just did it.

"Why the fuck do we have cartel members in our club?" Grizz exclaimed.

The brothers all talked over each other. Banging my hand against the table, I instantly shut them up. I felt it in my gut. There was more. There was always more.

"What else is there?" I asked Cyph .

"We always check new employees before they work at any of our businesses. However, there's a few at the tit show I didn't recognize." He laid out a picture of a license on top of the rest of the papers. "This is one of our new employees."

The brothers instantly talked over one another again.

"That looks like Flo."

"Nah, Flo's too classy."

"Prez would know."

Grizz beat me to it again. "That's Clara. Their cousin."

"The one that was getting spit-roasted in the church by the ex-husband and the groom." I finally found my voice to contribute. "What the hell is she doing there?"

Everyone looked at Jigsaw, and I could tell we'd stumbled upon something we weren't supposed to find out. Jig's face had gone pale, and it looked like he was about ready to shit his pants.

"I....I....I...."

One minute, I was sitting in my chair. The next, I had Jig's face pinned to the table. "What the fuck did you do?" I seethed, pulling Jig up by the hair and slamming his face back into the table. No one got up to help him. They knew the club wouldn't tolerate disloyalty and that Jig would face the consequences alone.

I slammed Jig's face again into the table.

"She came in a few weeks ago, asking for a job. I gave her our normal application, but she said she was running from an abusive boyfriend and was afraid he'd find her. I let her work off the books, but I told her I'd have to have a background check. Every time I tried to ask for basic info, she distracted me."

"Help me understand, Jig. While you were getting your dick sucked, you put everyone in this room in jeopardy. Every brother, every one of our family members, and my unborn child." I slammed his head for a third time against the table. "Is she even working?" I asked him.

"Barely."

"So, you're stealing from this club, too. "

Looking at my enforcers, Twig and Pint, I said, "Get him out of my fucking sight. He can stay in the cell downstairs until we decide what to do with him, but make sure none of the women see you."

When the door closed behind them, I walked back to my chair. Looking at Cyph again, I wanted to know what else there was. Matt, Clara, and now the cartel. These pieces connected, but I didn't have a clue how.

"The day we moved Flo out of her house, I started running searches on Fuckface. Anyone who was there knew he was on something, but he came up clean, until now." He stopped, but I nodded my head for him to keep going. He didn't want to talk about Grace, but we needed to know about Matt.

Cyph took another swig, and I wanted to beat him for pausing. "Fuckface actually makes shit tons of money off of his contract signings and bonuses. They paid off their cars, have minimal credit card debt, and their house has positive equity. I was thinking, if they're actually not bad off, why is he trying to take out loans? Payday loans. Loans from the bank. Anywhere that lends money."

"Has anyone given him a loan?" I asked.

"No, because the bank canned his ass over his morality clause."

My eyes twitched, and I rubbed my temple as the vein in my forehead throbbed.

"Matt lost a client on Friday night after Grace outed him for adultery. The bank then received an anonymous email with a video that following Monday. It was the perfect storm to let him go. Too easy." Cyph took another sip of the energy drink, and I wanted to rip it out of his hand and throw it against the wall.

"Where did they get the video, though? The only one I know of is on Grace's phone. She recorded the threesome in the church. Thought she would need proof, but as far as I know, it's gone nowhere." The room was silent. No one wanted to say what we were all thinking. "Is it possible that Grace's phone is being tracked?" I asked Cyph.

"I thought of that, but when I searched it remotely last night, it was clean. I'll have to do a deep dive with it physically. "

"This isn't a coincidence. I can head over to the club today and see if I can find Clara. Since I am acting manager, she won't think anything of it," Count said.

"No, it should be an older man. She'll think she has the edge because she could pull one over on Jig," Thunder said. "I can go over there and see if she'll do the same thing with me."

"Both of you go. Give her options, but if the cartel shows up, you call for backup." I looked at both of them.

They nodded in acceptance. No one was going to play the hero.

"Cyph, see if you can figure out any connection between the cartel and Matt. I don't see it, but I am not ruling it out. I also want to know why Matt is playing hardball over the divorce. Grace filed for half of their marital assets and sole custody of the baby. If he were to just sign over his parental rights, she'd release the money. He has to know that."

"Meredith still talks to Clara. I'll ride down there and see if she has any information," Grizz said, rubbing a hand over his face.

I inspected my best friend. He looked like last night's bender had done him in. "Call her," I said. "You're not fit to ride."

"She won't answer. I'll have to make her talk to me." He didn't look thrilled at that prospect.

"Take a few brothers with you," I told him. "That goes for the rest of you, too. No one rides alone until we know what we're dealing with." Every brother nodded their head in agreement. "I am not losing anyone over this shit show."

***

The smell of breakfast hit our noses when the first brother opened the door to leave church.

I caught Chef's eye. No one used his kitchen without asking permission unless they were getting a drink. He looked back at me and shrugged as if to say, I have been with you this whole time .

As we walked into the main room, I saw there were tables grouped together with a smorgasbord of food.

Eggs.

Bacon.

Pancakes.

Biscuits with gravy.

The brothers helped themselves to plates, but I headed towards the kitchen. As I approached the door, I could hear loud music playing. It was some pop princess that I only knew because we played it to keep the club girls quiet for a few minutes.

Cracking open the door, I paused. The club girls were putting platters of food together. The girls that had stayed over were cooking, and in the middle of it all was my woman, directing traffic. They were all singing as they worked. I took a step further into the room.

It was a domino effect. One girl saw me, and they instantly bolted into the main room. When I caught Grace's attention, she leaned against the counter, crossed her arms over her chest, and looked me up and down. Walking over to her, I kissed her until her arms uncrossed, her hands unfolding, reaching for me.

Pulling back, I asked her, "How did you get them to work together? They don't fight, but they don't listen either."

"That sounds like a you problem," she told me with a wide smile. Kissing me again, she whispered, "I told them they couldn't eat unless they helped. It took little convincing to get them all on the same page."

Pretty burst into the kitchen and shoved me to the side.

Grabbing Grace in a bear hug, he swung her once but thought better of it.

"You made me potato salad with my name on it."