FLAME
Two weeks. For two fuckin’ weeks, Willow has been in another country, and I have slowly been losing my goddamned mind.
I know she’s alive, but only because Smoke has been texting her since she left.
I know it from the scraps of information he’s been throwing me the few times I was able to ask him about her, without tipping him off about my small obsession with his new sister.
He already asked me about how I acted when I first met her, but I brushed it off, saying that I wanted her to feel “welcomed to the family.”
That was the closest that I ever came to lying to Smoke.
I need to know her better, but that’ll take time if I have to do it without going through him to get her number.
I need to know if she was being safe while working her job.
I need to know if the asshole that was waiting for her on the plane treated her with the respect that my woman deserves.
I need to figure out if she’s single; I mean, it wouldn’t matter, really.
I would just let any boyfriend know that it would be in his best interest to stay the fuck away.
I saw how the guys at her dad’s house looked at her when she stopped to talk.
I didn’t see her react to them like she had a history with anyone, only speaking to a few people on the way to find her dad.
But I made sure to give “back the fuck off” looks as we walked away from the ones that were looking at her like she hung the fuckin’ moon.
After we dropped her off at the airport and left her with the asshole—which Smoke and I both had a problem with after the way that he spoke to her—we went to the shop to try and get some work done.
I don’t think I was the only one avoiding my dad back at the clubhouse, either.
Smoke looked pissed when he got pulled into a conversation with Griz while we were trying to leave.
At the shop, I left him alone with his thoughts and got lost in the bike that I was finishing up the paint on.
Who would have thought that the dark and slightly fucked up art that I create would be in high demand for bikes?
We worked for hours, with the speaker and tools making the only sound in the shop.
Around ten that night, we decided to call it a day.
I guess we were hoping that it was late enough and our dads would already be back in their homes for the night.
Pulling up to the clubhouse, we noticed that only our members’ bikes were in the parking lot, and there wasn’t a random party for some stupid shit that didn’t actually need celebrating.
We got out of the truck and passed everyone without greeting them so they would get the hint that we aren’t in the mood to hang out, which is unusual for me.
I love to shoot the shit with my Brothers and let the club girls hang on me.
Smoke is the opposite; he will hang out, but he would rather relax or work from his room instead, and wouldn’t fuck a club girl with a ten-foot pole.
There were a few Brothers scattered around, hanging out and enjoying a drink or a club girl, or both. We started walking through the main room towards the hall that leads to our rooms when we both heard, “Boys, come in here for a sec,” from my dad’s office that had the door cracked open.
We both paused and exhaled heavily, turning back to the door at the beginning of the hall.
When we opened it the rest of the way, Griz and Buck were both lounging comfortably in the chairs in front of my dad’s desk.
Smoke and I walked over to the empty worn, black leather couch that sat along the wall on the far side of the office and took a seat.
“What’s up, Red?” Smoke asked once we were both sitting. I know he was annoyed with my Dad and testing his patience on purpose, but he would never disrespect our President. Showing respect is one of the biggest rules in the Brotherhood.
“Glad you two could make it to the meeting after all. Is there a reason that you decided to leave after you were invited to stay and in front of people not associated with the club?” my dad asked, keeping his voice even.
He keeps his feelings locked down, so I can’t really read how angry he is.
But I knew he was pissed that we made him look bad in front of an outsider; he always wants to show a united front.
“I told Willow that I would drive her to the airport the night before. I wasn’t going to cancel on her the day of, especially because you were meeting with her dad anyway. I already met him and his sons, so I didn’t see the need,” Smoke explained, trying to keep the irritation from his voice.
“You met them the night before?” Griz asked.
He wanted more information about Willow and probably her family, but he knew that Smoke was not about to share.
Not sure if it was to punish him for being a piece of shit to him and his mom, or because he was respecting Willow’s wishes.
Smoke just shrugged his shoulders and kept eye contact with my dad, brushing off Griz’s question.
“We waited for you two to come back so we could fill you in on the meeting. We didn’t think you would take that long at the shop, so we will keep it short.
Michael’s business, Vital, is strictly contracted.
We made the deal that they will not offer any security to the businesses that we already provide for, or any that are in this territory.
Apparently, they don’t work or take jobs for MCs, or do any business with them.
They are close with Blitz’s chapter, but besides that, they don’t fuck with them.
“They did mention that Willow works the same way and that we are to not approach her or her ‘businesses,’ but he wouldn’t go into more detail about them,” my dad explained.
I felt like he could have waited to give that info tomorrow, so I am guessing that they were fishing for more.
They didn’t know that Smoke had dinner with the family recently.
They wanted to know what was going on with Willow and him.
“Sounds about right. They are okay with Blitz’s chapter because everyone considers her a friend to the club, and they are okay with me from this chapter. I’m pretty sure that is all they are open to right now…” Smoke trailed off and looked at Griz, trying to get his point across.
I had no clue what Griz wanted in that situation.
While Smoke and I were growing up, he was an asshole to him, always brushing him off to hang out with the Brothers, go handle club business, or even to fuck a club girl.
He never took an interest in getting to know Smoke, just seeing him as another Brother.
Now that he was going to retire, everyone started noticing how he was changing. He was trying to insert himself in his family, acting like he was always there. It wasn’t just Smoke, either; he never acted like he was interested in spending time with Andrea or Maggie either.
“Do you know what other businesses the girl is going to open up? With what she does for the business that we know about, who knows what else she does? We don’t need that much attention in town that is closely associated with the club,” Dad told Smoke.
They sat in silence, staring awkwardly at each other.
“From what I know, it has nothing to do with being the Fox. She mentioned a grand opening. Maybe the officers currently in charge of collecting information that could become a threat to the club should look into it,” Smoke carefully replied, not showing his full hand.
I made a mental note to ask what the fuck else my little Fox was hiding.
I felt like I was going to have to spend all of my time trying to figure my woman out, once she figured out that she is my ‘Ol Lady.
I can see his concern, though—if there was an MC, mercenary business, and some other barely legal business in the same small town, the feds were definitely going to start looking into it.
“As the next VP, I think it’s best if you do the recon for this one.
You already have an opening. I want you to figure it out and report back to us when you have solid information,” Dad said, clearly laying down a test for him.
Everyone in the room got it: he wanted Smoke to put the club before the family that he just met.
He knew Smoke felt betrayed by the club and wanted to test his loyalty.
Smoke continued his stare-off with my dad and completely ignored Griz.
“I’ll see what I can figure out when she gets back from the job.
She doesn’t have a timeline from what she told me,” Smoke said in a dark voice, and I could tell from his tone that he was pissed.
He was trying to get out of that room with the officers before he said something that he couldn’t take back.
His restraint blew my fuckin’ mind; I would have already pulled a gun on someone if I was in his shoes.
Dad nodded his head. “Let us know when you get the information, and then we will let the rest of the club know if it’s something that we need to look into.
” He seemed to have accepted Smoke’s response.
“That’s all we have for the meeting. You guys can head on out for the night.
” He dismissed us, and we walked to the door, not saying another word.
We finally made it to our rooms, and I opened my door to see Brandi sprawled across my bed, naked and getting herself off.
She let out a moan that sounded fake as fuck right before she looked up at me with a false look of surprise.
That is why I had the “only fuck a club girl one time” rule.
After that, they start to get clingy and think that they have any business walking into your fuckin’ room, especially when they want to be the next President’s ‘Ol Lady. I understood why Smoke always locked his fuckin’ door.
“Baby, I waited for you at the bar, but you took so long I decided to be here for you when you got home,” she said in an annoying, high-pitched voice that women think we like.
She looked up at me with lust in her eyes and continued to finger herself.
I looked up at the ceiling for answers, hoping that when I looked again, she would be out of my fuckin’ room, and I could go to bed like I had been trying to after this long ass day.
I lowered my head from the ceiling back to the bed, where she was still going at it, and sighed deeply. “Brandi, get the fuck off my goddamned bed, grab your shit, and never step foot in this room again,” I said in an irritated, low voice.
She looked up at me with surprise. “But baby, I thought—"
“Don’t call me ‘baby.’ We fucked twice. There is no ‘us.’ You are never going to be my ‘Ol Lady. Grab your clothes and go,” I snapped, hoping that she would get the hint that I was about to lose my shit. A man can only take so much in one day.
“But we had something. You loved it when we were together, I could tell,” she said as she finally got off of my bed that now had a wet spot. Damn it! Now I have to do laundry to get the smell of her out of my room. I would never want Willow to sense that there was another woman in here.
“Do you understand your role at the clubhouse? I thought that since you have been around for a while now, you would get the hint. You can be with any of the Brothers anytime that you want, but I’m done. I’m not going there again,” I said, trying to make it as simple as possible for her.
“You don’t have to be so mean,” she said as she slipped back on her shorts that could pass for a thong and a bikini top.
“You’ll come back to me when you’re ready, and I’ll be waiting for you, baby.
We can make this work,” she cooed with a smile as she grabbed her shoes and walked past me to the open door. Thank fuck.
I was going to talk to Smoke when we got back to the clubhouse that night, after he had enough time at the shop to work on the bikes and collect his thoughts.
I knew that he liked to take his time, but after our Dad’s meeting, I knew he was going to have to start the whole fuckin’ process over again.
I knew I wouldn’t get anything out of him until later.
I ripped the blanket off the top of my bed and threw it on the ground.
I wasn’t sleeping on the wet spot from another woman.
I turned to the closet and grabbed a new blanket to replace it, then I got ready for bed.
After I threw my clothes on the floor in the corner of my room, I realized I was going to have to let the club girls in to get my dirty laundry now that I had to lock my door.
I was used to coming back and they are clean, folded and waiting on my bed for me.
Once I slid into bed, all I could think about was Willow, and I hated the fact that I let her get on a plane with a guy that she obviously doesn’t like.
As I drifted off to sleep, I told myself the only reason that I didn’t step in was because she knew him, and because my baby was holding her own against his shitty attitude.
He’d better not have given her any trouble while she was working.
He may be bigger than me, and probably has some fancy ass mercenary training, but I didn’t see the same twisted shadows in his eyes that I knew danced in mine.
He fucked with my baby, and he will not see the hell that I will rain down on him.