Epilogue - Atom
What the hell is she doing here?
I glare at the woman by the gate as I make my way over. I was just out to take a call without the fuss of the club inside when I noticed her walking up. Reina, the sister of Peaches’ roommate.
My eyes sweep over her body, not in arousal but in assessment. Tight jeans, skimpy top, and too much makeup for my taste. It’s a weekend afternoon, not a Friday night, but you wouldn’t know it from her look or the way she’s embarrassingly flirting with the prospect on the gate.
“Yo,” I call out, getting both their attention. Her eyes flutter to me in what I’m sure is a go-to move. Might make someone trip over their feet, like the prospect seemed to be when I walked up. For me, I just get annoyed.
“Hi,” she says in some breathless tone that I’m sure she thinks is hot, but it just makes me want to roll my eyes. She’s got an exotic Asian look to her, but all I see is “priss” written across her face, not hotness. “Ruby said I can get the key to her old place. I’m moving into her old room.”
I stop right on the opposite side of the gate. The prospect might like the girl, but he knows better than to open it for anyone, especially on a family day. “Natalie’s okay with that?” I ask, knowing they aren’t on good terms.
At first, her eyes narrow at the mention of her sister’s name. Apparently it’s not the one Reina calls her. Something about the stepmom changing it because she could, and Natalie refusing to use it. But then her eyes go wide in innocence. She might think she covered it up, but I saw it.
“My sister? Why wouldn’t she be?” She tilts her head and takes a step forward as she wraps her hands around the gate with a shake of her head.
“We might have a lot of history, but I want her to know I’m here for her.
That starts with me being here, not back home.
Figured I’d stick around for a while.” She shrugs as if that explains it all, but I just have a dozen more questions.
“Oh, hey. Didn’t expect you so soon.” Peaches’ voice pulls my attention. She and Kooper are walking up to the gate as a few others come around from the back.
Reina smiles as her focus shifts to Peaches. “I was in the area and thought I’d stop by. This place is so cool,” she squeals, waving dramatically at the compound.
Peaches looks at me, then her man, as they stop beside me. “Yeah, I guess.” She hands over the key through the gate, and Reina takes it quickly even as her eyes stray to those behind us.
“You guys having a party or something?”
“Family event,” Kooper barks, and I don’t hide my grin at the instant shutdown he gives her. Especially with the shock clearly on her face. She expected to be let in. Not happening.
“Oh, I didn’t mean to intrude.” She sounds contrite, but no one falls for it. Not even the prospect.
When no one contradicts her, she takes a step back, finally realizing she’s not wanted.
“Maybe we can get together sometime. Catch up. I can bring my sister. We never got the coffee that I offered you last time at the hospital.” Her eyes go to Peaches, a plea bordering on begging in them.
It’s a peace offering wrapped in a land mine if I ever heard one.
I don’t get her. She’s working an angle I can’t read, but I know I don’t like it. And half the club sees it.
The rest? They’re like the fucking prospect, all goo-goo eyes and shit.
She turns to leave with a wave to us and a look at said prospect. “See you Tuesday.”
“Tuesday?” I ask before she’s even out of earshot, not giving a fuck if she hears me questioning him.
“Hot date,” he says with a wide grin.
“You’ve got gate patrol that night,” Kooper adds with narrowed eyes, and I look at him out of the corner of mine. He gives me a subtle chin lift. He also isn’t a big fan of Natalie’s sister.
“Oh, come on, man. I haven’t gotten laid in a week. That’s a sure thing,” he says, gesturing to the car she climbs into and drives off, waving at all of us as she goes.
“Not my problem,” Kooper says with a finality to it as he pulls Peaches back to the club.
I step in line with them as we head in. “Did Gator find anything yet?”
“No.”
Which means more than it should. If our guys can’t find something this fast, even if it’s not a priority, it means someone’s doing a good job keeping shit hidden.
“Think we should have OHH do a deep dive?”
We don’t bring in our mercenary gig to do shit like this. But I know it’s been slow for them. Plus, they have a handle on the international side of things more than we do lately. We keep our noses local; they get their fingers in globally.
“Do you think we should?” he asks with a raised eyebrow.
I simply shrug and feel the pull from the gunshots. They’re “healed” if you ask the docs, but there are still twinges. And they itch like hell. General says it’s just in my head. Sure. Right.
But what’s also in my head is what Peaches said when Natalie woke up. How she wasn’t only pissed to see her sister but also panicked. Nothing too much, but enough that Peaches noticed.
Add in that Natalie always said she was an orphan, and we’ve got a mindfuck of epic proportions when it comes to understanding what’s going on.
I don’t like being in the dark. I get used to it at times. Sometimes it’s for the club. Others for something else. I never learned to like it, just live with it.
But Law had a point the other day at Church.
The same day he put a claim on his old lady, talking about how shit in the past needs to change not only with how the club saw him, but how the club does things.
We’re heading in the right direction with setting up the national chapter and that whole process, but we also need to start thinking of problems before they happen.
No more learning as we go; we should be preventing before we get there.
We can do this. We’ve done it before. We just got lax.
Let too much shit slide. We went from one ordeal to the next, and we were just surviving. But now we need to make changes.
Like me being voted in as an enforcer, along with King.
Two. Not something that normally happens in clubhouses, but it’s time for a change.
The point is for one to question the other.
If someone has a thought that a plan could go rough or some shit, then we need to look in on it.
No more just seeing how it goes. We take life by the balls and run with it.
Law and Casper are going to brief the rest of the sister chapters in an online meeting next month and tell them their thoughts on the changes going on. I think it’s the right way to get us moving into the national chapter angle. Start with open transparency and go from there.
But till then, till all chapters are on board, we’re the guinea pigs.
We’ll see if it works or if King and I will just get in each other’s way.
It’s a temporary thing just to get us all thinking about the one thing we might not say out loud but still question.
It won’t last forever. It can’t. Clubhouses don’t work with too many people in a single chair.
But the club agreed that it’s what we need right now, just to make sure all the shit is settled.
Then we’ll focus on prevention more than anything going forward.
And that starts with Natalie and Reina. Something’s off with them. We might not need to get involved, but I’d rather know more than what we do now, which is nothing. Might not use the knowledge we get, but it’s better to have it in our back pocket than not.
“All right. I’ll set up a call with OHH in the morning,” Kooper says as he walks back inside with Peaches.
One day I’ll have that—a good woman at my side, a reason to celebrate with the club. Life isn’t bad, but I know it can be better. I just have to wait for my time.
No matter how long it takes.