2. Tempest
CHAPTER TWO
tempest
Being the club secretary is the most thankless job in the club. I've said it before, but nobody listens. Probably because they're all relieved it's me sitting here at stupid o’clock in the morning, staring at a stack of vendor renewals and insurance paperwork instead of them.
I take a long sip of coffee and turn the next page.
The clubhouse is quiet this time of morning.
The prospects swept through last night, so it smells like cleaning products instead of beer, which is an improvement.
The stools are all still upright, nobody's asleep on the couch, and I count these as wins.
My phone says 7:50 AM. I've been here since seven. I'll be here until the work is done, which means I'll miss lunch at the current rate. I turn another page and get back to work.
The door bangs open at eight on the dot. "Tell me there's coffee." Venom drops into the chair across from me without being invited, which is standard. He never waits for an invitation. "Please tell me there's coffee. I had a morning."
"You always have a morning."
"This one was worse." He points at the pot on the counter. "Is that fresh?"
I shrug. "I made it at seven."
"So no." He gets up anyway and pours himself a mug, takes a sip, and grimaces. "That's terrible."
"Then make a new pot."
He doesn't. He drops back into the chair with the terrible coffee and starts scrolling his phone. That's also normal for Venom.
Hades comes in twenty minutes later, takes one look at me buried in paperwork, and heads straight for the coffee without comment. Smart man.
"Vendor renewals are due Friday," I tell him.
He grins at me. "That's your problem."
I raise a brow. "It's the club's problem, which makes it your problem too."
"Funny how that works." Coffee in hand, he drops into the chair beside me.
"You look like shit," Venom says.
Hades snorts. "Cheers."
"Kids?" I ask.
"Lily decided she wasn't tired."
Venom grins. "She's four."
Hades sighs. "Exactly."
"What time?" I ask.
"Half one."
"That's not bad," Venom says with a grin.
Hades gives him a look. "She woke Jake."
Venom immediately loses his grin. "Oh."
"Then Jake wanted to know why stars shine."
I raise an eyebrow. "What'd you tell him?"
"I didn't." Hades blows out a breath. "Evie did."
Rogue laughs upon entering. "Poor bastard."
"She turned it into a bloody science lesson."
"At almost two in the morning?" Ghost asks as he walks in, Savage behind him.
Hades nods. "I think Jake was asleep before she finished the first sentence."
Ghost pours his coffee, scans the room. His eyes land on the paperwork in front of me. "How bad?"
"Vendor renewals, three insurance updates, two compliance forms, and the minutes from last week's chapel that you still haven't signed."
"I'll sign them today."
I shake my head. "You said that yesterday."
Savage snorts and Ghost glares at him. "I’ll sign them today," he says again.
"I'll believe it when I see it."
The clubhouse continues filling up over the next hour. Sniper strolls in with Jinx trailing behind him, the pair of them bickering over some new surveillance gear Sniper ordered.
"User error," Jinx says.
"Prospect," Sniper replies, "I'm about two seconds from making you test how waterproof it is."
Jinx laughs, but Sniper doesn't.
Onyx drops into the chair opposite me carrying two folders and a coffee. He slides one of the folders onto my desk. "Fuel costs are up."
I look down at the figures. "I see that."
"I'll renegotiate the supplier contract this week."
"Let me know what you need from my end."
He grunts as he opens his own folder.
Spike appears a few minutes later and starts another pot of coffee. Jinx, Spike, and Tiny are great prospects. They know when to work and when to play, and I don’t doubt they’ll make the cut; they’ll be great brothers.
Inferno comes through the front door, muttering under his breath.
"Forty-five bloody minutes."
Venom looks up from his phone. "For what?"
"To drive twelve."
Venom shakes his head in irritation. "You leave late."
"I leave at the same time every day."
Venom glares at him. "You leave late every day."
Inferno points at him. "I don't need that."
Ghost doesn't even look up. "Inferno."
"Yeah, Prez?"
"Nobody cares."
Inferno sighs. "I just thought someone should know."
Venom snorts. "We all know."
Someone drops a slip of paper onto my paperwork. I look up and see Nemesis is already heading for the door.
I glance down at the number and grin. It's the contact number I've been chasing for the last three weeks. "How did you get this?" I ask.
"Don't ask," he says, and then he’s gone.
I look at the number and put it in my phone.
"Spike." I hold up the compliance form. "Can you run this to the accountant on Fifth?"
"On it." He takes it without breaking stride.
Jinx looks up from whatever Sniper's showing him on the tablet. "I could've done that."
"You were busy."
"I wasn't."
Sniper gives him a look. "You were about to be. Ghost wants the bikes washed before tonight."
Jinx thinks about it for a second, then nods.
"Enjoying the most boring job in the club?" Venom asks with a wicked grin.
"Every single day."
Venom raises a brow. "You could've been sergeant at arms."
"Sniper would've shot me."
"Probably,” Sniper says from across the room without looking up. Hades snorts and even Ghost smirks.
Club life isn't all guns and blood. Most days it's paperwork and lots of coffee.
Inferno’s always complaining about something and Venom gives him grief for it. I wouldn't change any of it.
My phone buzzes. Lorenzo Mariano.
Being friends with the future head of one of Boston's mafia families has taught me two things. One, he never rings without a reason. Two, if he's calling in the middle of the day, it's important.
I answer as I step into the hallway. "What's broken?"
He laughs. "You always assume I've got a problem."
"You don't call unless you need something."
"True. How's the club?"
"Good. Busy. How's Quinn?"
He laughs quietly. "Good. Finished renovating the back room into a nursery."
"Yeah?"
"It looks incredible, although I won’t tell her that."
"Why not?"
"She’s hormonal and will think I’m trying to appease her; I'd rather stay married."
I grin. “I don’t doubt that.”
Silence spreads between us. "I need a favor."
There it is. "Go ahead."
"You remember Omen? Kings of Anarchy, Connecticut."
"I know of him."
"He's been running protection on a woman for about three years. She relocated to Boston after something happened back home. Omen set her up with a new apartment, new job, clean start." He pauses. "The apartment's in your building."
I'm quiet for a moment, something hard twisting in my gut. I fucking knew there was more to my neighbor than what meets the eye. She’s skittish and fucking terrified.
She moved in a few years ago, she’s aways quiet and withdrawn, but smiles whenever she sees anyone in the apartment building and says a small, polite hello. "The florist," I say.
"Yeah, her name's Lilah; she doesn't trust easily, which is fair given what Omen's implied about her situation. I don't have all the details and I didn't push for them. What I do know is that she's still looking over her shoulder three years later and that's not nothing."
"What do you need from me?"
"You're already there. That's the whole reason I'm calling you instead of someone else.
" He exhales. "I'm not asking you to babysit her; she'd hate that.
I'm asking you to keep your eyes open. If something around her building feels off, if a car's sitting somewhere it shouldn't, if someone's paying attention to her routine, call me. "
"And if it's more than that?"
"Then I need to know before it gets worse." His voice drops a degree. "Omen's been good to people I care about. This is a simple ask."
I look at the wall across from me. Fuck, I know Lorenzo wouldn’t ask me if he didn’t need me, but fuck, this isn’t normal shit to deal with; the woman won’t take too kindly to me entering her business, hell, she flinched when I reached out to grab her groceries yesterday.
"Nothing that makes her feel watched," Lorenzo adds. "She's had enough of that."
Some asshole has been watching her, stalking her. "Understood."
"I know it is; that's why I called you."
“I’ll do what I can, let me speak with my brothers and see what we can do. The apartments are secure, but we could get more cameras around the buildings.”
“Do whatever you think best, Tempest; I trust you implicitly.”
His words hit me hard; he’s one of the best men I know.
When shit was going down with his wife’s family, he called on me to help uncover the bullshit, and fuck, it was a whole lot of fucking bullshit, but his wife’s thriving and Lorenzo’s the happiest that I’ve ever seen him.
Helping him out by looking over the woman next door isn’t going to hurt me; I just need to run it by Prez first.
“I’ll be in touch,” I tell him. “If you find out any information on Lilah, let me know.”
“You’ll be my first call. Thanks, Tempest. I’ll speak to you soon.”
The call ends, and I head back into the main room.
Ghost's leaning against the bar with Savage, the pair of them bent over a map of the south side. He looks up as I walk in, one look at my face and he folds the map shut. "Problem?"
"Not yet." I pull out a stool and sit down. "You know Lorenzo Mariano?"
Ghost nods. "Met him a couple of times."
"He called asking for a favor."
Ghost waits.
"A woman relocated here from Connecticut a few years ago. Omen helped get her out. Lorenzo's been keeping an eye on her from a distance ever since." Lorenzo’s wife, Quinn, hasn’t long given birth, he needs all eyes on Quinn, which is no doubt why he’s handing this off to me.
Savage frowns. "What's she running from?"
"He didn't say."
Lorenzo knows I'd never push if he wanted to keep something close to his chest. If he didn't tell me, there's a reason, but it’s still bullshit.
Ghost studies me for a second. "What'd he ask?"
"She lives opposite me." That gets both their attention. "He wants me to keep an eye on her."