Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
Titan
Iignore Steel’s side eye when I settle back into my seat after giving the council a talking to about how they were treating Dalia.
I didn’t like it, and I knew I had to make it stop—so I did.
But I also know I could’ve put us in hot water with Iero’s council, which is what Steel’s worried about.
At least that’s what I think he’s worried about. Maybe he’s just as worried about Dalia as I am.
Yeah, that’s probably what it is.
This woman has the three of us in a tizzy—not a word I ever thought I would use to describe the three of us.
After all, we’re hardened reiters. We don’t do tizzies, but here we are.
“They’re here.” Steel sits up straight, eyes moving to the door.
It takes another moment before the sound of motorcycles rattles around the room. “So they are.”
“Excuse me.” Steel pushes to his feet. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but the rest of the MC has arrived. I need to go down to greet them and figure out where the hell we’re all staying tonight.”
“I’ll come with you,” Dalia says, shooting to her feet. “I’ll see what’s available so we can get you all situated tonight. My sisters can catch me up on everything when they return home.”
Morrigan makes a noise but says nothing. The look on her face makes it clear she thinks this is a bad idea.
Dalia shakes her head. “Don’t do that. I know you’re mad at me, but this is my job. It’s what I always do. You don’t need me here for this part of the conversation. If I happen to think of something that will help, I’ll let you know, okay?”
“Yeah, fine.” Morrigan dismisses her sister with a wave of her hands, and my mouth stretches into a snarl before I’m shoved from behind.
Steel raises his eyebrows when I turn back to him, and I bite back on the anger building inside of me.
I don’t like the way Morrigan treats her sister, but it’s really none of my business, is it?
It’s not like there can ever be anything between the three of us and Dalia. Nothing more than friendship, anyway.
“Are you coming?” Dalia asks with a grin, and I gesture for Steel to go ahead.
As the pres, he should be the first one out, anyway. It’s his face they’ll want to see after a long ride—especially since we left them alone for hours.
“You three go ahead. I need to grab something from my office, so I’ll meet you down there.” She moves toward one of the doors before pausing. “How many of you are there?”
“Forty, including us.”
She nods slowly. “Okay. We’ll get this figured out, I promise.”
When she steps into what I’m guessing is her office, Steel starts down the steps. By the time the three of us make it outside, the entire club has pulled up outside the town hall. They let out a cheer when we step outside.
Steel shakes his head with a laugh, raising his hands to quiet them. “Welcome to Iero. We have delivered the warning, and they’ve accepted our offer to help.”
They let out another cheer as everyone climbs off their bikes—some removing their helmets, while others keep them on.
As Steel is settling them down again, the door swings open, and Dalia steps out holding a binder in her hand. She smiles as she joins us.
“This is going to take a bit of planning, so I’ll need to go over that with you and whoever you’d like to join us.” Dalia holds the binder against her chest as she turns her face up to look at Steel.
He nods. “Drag and Goat, get your asses up here!”
“Drag and Goat?” Dalia questions, and I have to hold back a laugh.
“They’re road names,” Blaze explains. “We all had real names at some point in time, but most of us don’t remember them. So we just stick to our road names.”
She nods slowly. “Okay.”
“Dalia.” Steel starts to reach out toward her, his eyes going wide when he realizes what he’s doing. His arm drops to his side instantly. “Umm…this is my VP, Dragon, and secretary, Goat. They’ll be the ones who will make sure everyone ends up where they should.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Miss Dalia.” Dragon leans forward, bowing to her and making me see red.
I scoff. “Stop being a kiss-ass.”
Dragon tosses me a smirk but steps back so Goat can greet her as well.
“Is there anywhere in particular you’d like them to wait?” Goat asks, nodding toward the thirty-five reiters waiting for their next instructions.
“Umm…well, they can go to the cafeteria and get some food. Dinner wasn’t that long ago. I’m sure they still have leftovers.” Dalia smiles. “I can radio over to let everyone know they’re on their way.”
“Are you sure, doll?” Blaze asks. “Our MC is pretty well-behaved, but we’ve been known to cause some trouble from time to time.”
She laughs. “I think they’ll be fine. If they keep heading the way they’re pointed, it’ll be about a half mile up the road. It’s an old strip mall. We tore down the walls to make it one big room, so they can use any of the doors to enter.”
Dalia steps back, lifting the radio to her lips and proceeds to let someone know they’re about to get an influx of people to be fed.
“You heard the lady, Goat,” I grumble, jerking my head toward the others. “Get them on their way and meet us inside.”
“Sir, yes, sir.” With a mocking smile, he flips me off as he heads down the stairs.
Dragon shakes his head as Dalia leads us inside. “Are you sure he’s the one we should have as our secretary?”
“Oh, hush.” Steel knocks his shoulder against Dragon’s. “You love that man, and you know it.”
He gets a dreamy look on his face. “Yeah, I guess I do.”
“We’ll use this room.” Dalia opens a door and gestures for us to head inside. Before she joins us, Goat comes running inside. “Okay. So. The first question is, does everyone want to stay together? Are there people who will want to pair up?”
Steel and Dragon exchange a glance as Goat pulls out his notepad.
“Do you remember how we said our touch kills the living?” Steel asks, smiling when she nods. “That means the only way we don’t all end up touch-starved—among other things—is we turn to one another.”
“That makes sense.” She hesitates. “I feel like you’re trying to answer my question, but you’re being very vague, and I’m not understanding.”
A bark of laughter escapes me before I can stop it.
“Is something funny?” she asks as she turns her head to face me, looking like she’s ready to tear my head off. You know, if I had one she could see.
“What Steel is pussyfooting around,” Blaze starts, ignoring the glare I shoot him.
“Is that most of us fuck each other. It’s not like a giant orgy where we sleep with everyone in the club.
We tend to pair off or group up. That’s how we’ll need to divide the rooms up.
Not that any of us have a problem being together in the same house, but we prefer privacy from other groups. ”
Dalia’s face is bright red, and her breathing has picked up a bit as she nods her head. “Okay. We can do that. Although I’m not sure if we’ll have beds big enough for more than one of you if everyone is as big as they looked.”
I don’t bother hiding my snicker. “That’s okay. We’re a nomad MC, so we’re used to providing for ourselves. We have air mattresses and sleeping bags, so we don’t really need to worry about beds.”
“Oh, okay. That’ll make it much easier—especially since we don’t know how long you’ll be staying.
” She flips open her binder, glancing through the pages quickly.
“When we accept people into Iero, we make sure they have everything they need—including a furnished home. Since you’re only here temporarily—”
“Who says we’re only here temporarily?” Blaze asks, leaning forward.
I raise my eyebrows at the idiot, while Steel clenches his jaw.
“Aren’t you just here to help with Renwick?
You said you’re a nomad MC, so I assume that means you’ll move on when you’re done.
” She shrugs, still flipping through the pages.
“If any of you decide you’d like to stay when everything is said and done, we can go from there.
Okay. It looks like we still have three of the large homes available.
They have six or seven bedrooms each. We also have some smaller homes where we can put some people.
How many groups of people are we looking at? ”
We all look at Goat, who flips to a page in his notebook. “It looks like we have six groups of two, five groups of three, two groups of four, and one group of five. That will be fourteen groups.”
“Oh, well, in that case, we can fit all of you into two of the houses—assuming you all want to be together.”
Steel chuckles. “If possible, we prefer if the officers have a place of their own. We’ll share the same home, but we try to stay out of the mayhem that is the main club.”
“Ahhh, okay. We can still make that work. So how many groups will that be? Two? Three?”
Dragon leans back in his chair. “Let the enforcers stay with the rest of them. That way, there’s someone there to keep an eye on them.”
Steel considers it for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, that’s a good call. So it’ll just be the five of us—me, Titan, and Blaze in one room with Dragon and Goat in another.”
Dalia’s eyes shoot up, her cheeks flushing slightly as her eyes rove over the three of us before she nods. “Okay. How close do you want to be to them? Two of the houses are close together, and I have a three-bedroom available about a ten-minute walk from there.”
“That sounds perfect. Thank you, Dalia.”
She flushes at Steel’s words, ducking her head. “It’s my job, but you’re welcome. Why don’t we head to the cafeteria, and then I can show you where you’ll be staying?”
“Sounds good. Do you think they left us any food?” Steel jokes.
“Oh, don’t worry about that. We have plenty. We can always make more if they’ve eaten everything.”
Steel’s face softens. “Don’t worry about it, baby girl. They won’t eat more than they need, and they’ll save food for us.”
“Oh. Okay. Well, that’s good then. Come on.” She leaves the binder sitting on the table, and we follow her outside.
Standing beside our bikes is the most beautiful black Arabian mare. She flicks her head, hair flying as she stomps her hooves, as she watches us approach.
“Seraphina, how did you get out of the stables?” Dalia asks, walking up to pet her head. “Did you know I needed you?”
Dragon’s eyes go wide. “A Kappi? How?”
Dalia turns to him with a frown. “What?”
“You called her Seraphina?” At Dalia’s nod, Dragon smiles.
“This isn’t an ordinary horse. She’s a Kappi.
They used to serve the valkyries. They would ride them onto the battlefield, and it’s been said that the Kappi would help choose the warriors to send to Valhalla.
When the gods disappeared, the valkyries and their steeds did too. How did you come about her?”
“She appeared to me, along with my sisters’ horses. The three of them just walked up to us.”
“They chose you. You have been blessed—somehow, even with the gods gone, you were blessed.”
Dalia’s eyes dart toward us before returning to Dragon. “Oh, that’s interesting. Umm…shall we go?”
“Yeah, let’s go.” I climb onto my bike and start it up, keeping an eye on Seraphina to see how she reacts, but she doesn’t.
“Huh. I guess a Kappi would need to be steady around sounds since they were on battlefields,” Dalia says with a laugh as she climbs onto the horse. “Follow me.”
And follow her, we do.