Chapter 11
ELEVEN
JINX
“You know they won’t let up.” Loki traces a crack in the top of the timber meeting table with the end of his pen knife. “If Matthias has promised the Devil’s Breed an income stream, they’ll hold him to that.”
“Or take the idea and run with it themselves. Why do they need Matty to do it if they supply the girls?” I lean back in my chair and fold my arms. Riddle me that. What does Matthias have that they need?
“I’m not sure why they’d think he’s necessary,” Chaos answers. “But I’d hazard it has something to do with this sister of his. Did you find out anything about her?” He directs the question toward Darko.
Our secretary and resident hacker shakes his head. “Other than what he already said. She worked at a massage parlor for six years, but she wasn’t always the manager. Started off as the secretary and three years in got promoted to management overnight.”
“Slept her way to the top?” Fang asks.
“It’d be the obvious answer,” Darko cedes. “But I don’t think so.”
“Interesting.” Chaos frowns at Loki until the guy stops his mutilation of the table. “Keep looking and let me know what turns up.”
Darko nods.
“What concerns me is his declaration that he already has the girls,” Highway says. “It gives the impression they’re already in the area or at least nearby.”
“I’d had that thought, too,” Chaos agrees. “No murmurs in town that could be linked?” He looks to Circus for the answer.
The man gives a single shake of his head. He’s been lurking in the shadows and catching fuck all.
“None of my network has said anything about Devil’s Breed stepping out of their territory before now, either.” Loki shrugs. “Maybe Matthias was bluffing?”
“Or maybe they’ve managed to stay under the radar.” I jerk forward, setting my elbows on the table. “I don’t think we can dismiss this as settled simply because we haven’t seen the evidence yet.”
“I agree.” Chaos nods. “Circus. Crow. I want you two to keep shaking the branches in town to see what falls out. Darko. Keep digging on that woman. And Fang. I’ve got shit I need taken down to the Amish. You can ride out there tomorrow.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” His eyes widen before a stunted laugh escapes his pierced lips. “Why me?”
“Because you’re the asshole who needs to regain their trust, not me.”
“Gee, thanks.” He sits back, arms folded, and one eyebrow raised as he stares at the table before him. “I’ll be lucky if I make it out of there intact if Andy catches sight of me.”
“I think you’d need to worry about her new husband more,” Loki teases.
We all know Fang’s dubious history with our Amish contact, Andy’s sister, a young woman who ran wild during Rumspringa.
You’d think he would have learned the hard way about sticking his dick places before he’s thought through the consequences, but the daughter he shares with one of our club bunnies says otherwise.
“You’ll be fine,” I assure the idiot. “They’re hardly likely to shoot you on a Sunday of all days. ”
“Wow,” he sasses. “I feel so much better.”
“You made your bed, Fang,” Chaos says on a sigh.
“And then you lay in it.” Loki grins, earning a flying drink coaster to the chest for his trouble.
“No throwing shit at each other,” I snap. Swear to God, they’re like fucking children. “Anything else that needs discussing before we wrap this up?” I cast a glance at Chaos, who none-too-subtly thumbs a message beneath the edge of the table. “Pres?”
He snaps his head up. “Huh?”
“I said, is there anything else we need to cover before this gets wrapped up?”
He chews his bottom lip, casting his eye along the men at the table.
“I don’t think I need to state the obvious, but I will anyway.
We don’t have the numbers we used to. Should this mess with Matthias escalate, we’ll be outnumbered roughly two to one, and that’s if they don’t ask for help from outside chapters.
” Solemn nods move in a wave around the table.
“Way I see it, we have two options. One—we ask for help from our outside chapters. But since that means we draw them into our shit and risk escalating any beef with the Breed to their home states, I don’t favor it.
” The muscle in his jaw flickers. “Yet.”
“Two?” I prompt when he appears lost in thought.
“Two.” Chaos swallows. “We pull some of the old boys back in and hope we can kill this before it even starts.”
Highway groans, head lolling over the back of his seat, and Fang drops his forehead to his hand. Have to say, I share the sentiment. Giving those old bastards even a sniff at the reins promises a whole lot of meddling and several wrinkled thorns in our sides that’ll take time to remove.
They’re life members. Always welcome. But we’ve done a good job of keeping the old boys separated from the actual running of the place for years now. And for good reason.
Half the assholes don’t agree with how we do things. And they’re not shy about showing it.
“To be fair,” Highway says. “Expecting a bunch of pensioners to wield weapons is asking a bit much, don’t you think?”
“Don’t know,” Fang replies. “Pretty sure my old man could still shoot the grays out of your beard at a hundred yards.”
Highway drags a hand over the carefully groomed facial hair, eyes narrowed. “Jealous of why I have them?”
“Why do you think I keep myself clean-shaven?”
“Because if you didn’t,” Loki states, “you’d look like fucking Santa with all the feral pussy you eat.”
Fang narrows his gaze on our enforcer. “It’s always more fun when they bite and scratch, buddy. Not everyone likes them submissive and boring like you do.”
He gets a steely smirk in response.
And all the while, Darko continues to record the argument in the minutes. Can’t say we’re not thorough.
“You two finished?” Chaos sets his phone screen down on the table. “Because if you have better ideas, I’m all ears.”
At last.
“We’re stuck when it comes to solutions,” Crow responds, seemingly happy to have moved on from the pissing contest. “It’s not as though we can do a recruitment drive and boost our numbers when the county is so small.”
“You didn’t come from around here,” Fang points out. “Why do we have to stay local?”
“Because if we scout outside the area, we let the Devil’s Breed know that we prepare ourselves for something. Something we’d rather avoid. Am I right?”
“We do,” Chaos agrees.
“So, we borrow a couple of members from each of our chapters and slap a Minnesota patch on their back. How the fuck would the Breed know any different if they look like us?”
Chaos leans back to study me with a slight furrow in his brow as he thinks it over. “You might be onto something there.”
“I’d rather do that than bring in the old boys.” I hold his gaze a beat, silently saying what the table doesn’t need to hear. You were there. You know. Bringing my father back in would be the worst mistake of all.
“What about your new friends in Nebraska?” Circus rasps.
The whole fucking table turns their head toward the guy.
“The Fallen Aces?” Chaos asks.
Circus nods.
Chaos sighs.
“They do have history with the Devil’s Breed,” I point out. “And they did willingly help us with the loading dock.”
“I know.” Chaos taps his pointer finger on the back of his phone.
“What’s the hesitation then?” Loki twists to face our president a little better.
He shrugs, peering up at his officers from beneath his brow. “Let me think on it.”
Not that there’s much to think about. They’re willing allies.
We’ve already discussed aligning ourselves more closely with them, given how similar our values are.
I don’t get why he holds back on the obvious answer.
The Fallen Aces MC would be the closest club in membership numbers to the Devil’s Breed—we need that behind us if we find ourselves backed against the wall.
“I’ll reach out to our other chapters and get a feel for who’s willing to help first,” Chaos says, placing his palms on the table.
“In the meantime, we dig around and find out what the fuck the Breed have been doing behind our back.” He clicks his fingers at me.
“You know what? Maybe getting friendly with Kyra is good timing. You can ask her to keep her ear to the ground and tell us anything her old man might say about them.”
And there it is. The muddy water. “I guess.” Didn’t expect the shit to get stirred up so soon, is all.
Chaos continues his speech, oblivious to my lack of interest in the idea. “This is our town. Our land. Our home. We’ve kept people like the Breed out of our state this long. I’m not about to let some fucking devil’s dog go changing that.”
The room erupts with the booming rhythmic thud of fists atop the table. All but mine.
Temperance belongs to the Kings.
Everything belongs to the Kings.