Chapter 30 Stan #2
“Bet your ass you will. Now, what the fuck kind of mechanical issues, and how long until you’ll be leaving my turf?”
“Wolfe!” someone chided in the background. I heard a brouhaha, then the woman popped on the line. “Hello, Custanzu.”
“Lucifer?” Kitty shot me a startled look at the woman’s name. “Is that you?”
“It had better be or I’ll have to kill the bitch who stole my man’s phone from his ear while sitting on his lap.”
The lilt of her accent was thicker than grits. I’d come to learn that she put it on when talking to us. She liked to play up the city slicker vs. country bumpkin act.
Worked, too.
If Rory hadn’t told us the bitch’s game, we’d have been paying an extra five grand per crate.
“Always a pleasure, Lucifer,” I greeted, words that’d have my mother anointing herself with the cross. “How are you doing?”
“I’m fine, but you know I don’t like it when my men get tetchy, Custanzu. What’s this I hear about mechanical issues?”
“The pilot didn’t give me details other than ‘throttle stagger,’” I admit. “I’m no engineer. I know that we had to make an emergency landing, and I asked him to fly us here seeing as we’re business partners.”
“You landed?” I heard the note of warning.
“First thing I did was contact you,” I assured her truthfully.
I hadn’t bothered contacting my siblings because they had no idea where I was.
Each of us used the jet whenever we needed it, but the last thing I wanted was them checking the flight log and monitoring my movements.
“That’s what I like to hear. I know you mobster types look down on us MC—”
“Not this mobster type, Lucifer,” I countered before she could continue. “You know very well that my sister and brother-in-law are godparents to the Satan’s Sinners’ Prez’s kid.”
“Oh, yeah. I heard about that.” She hummed in my ear. “You needing somewhere to stay while your plane gets fixed up?”
I closed my eyes with dread. “Yes.”
“That’s fine. We can send over an escort for you—”
“You know the field we landed in?”
“Of course we do, honey. I also know you have three women with you. Who are they?”
“Family.”
“Really?”
“Se.”
“Which one’s yours?”
“Kitty.”
Another hum. “The others are taken?”
“No, but I don’t think their family would appreciate the commute from NYC to Texas.”
Lucifer cackled. “I’m mighty glad I don’t have to go on runs. Though, one of those pretty girls could join their Old Man if they feel like a bit of rough...”
Because I knew she was teasing, I muttered, “They’re under my protection, Lucifer.” I already had Neev sniffing around a Lobo Rojo. The last thing I needed was Raisin getting it on with an MC brother.
Jesus Christ—Raisin was right.
No more girls’ weekends.
Only the fuck knew what might happen if they headed off again on their own. Maybe they’d end up like Lucifer—four men and a bunch of kids. Each.
“You know my boys,” Lucifer jibed. “They ain’t about to stop themselves from sniffing around pretty girls if the pretty girls enjoy being sniffed around.”
I rolled my eyes. “Reassuring.”
“Your escort will be with you in ten minutes.”
“So soon?”
“So soon,” she half-purred. “See you in a half hour.”
When she ended the call, I heaved a sigh.
“Lucifer?” Kitty sputtered. “Someone named their kid that?”
“Apparently her father wasn’t Catholic.” When that had her cackling, I grinned at her then hollered, “Raisin, Neev, get over here, please?”
The other women peered at me, but they did as I asked.
Raisin stared uneasily between us. “What’s wrong?”
“We’re going to be escorted onto an MC’s compound—”
“OMG, that’s so fucking cool!” Neev pumped the air with both fists. “Kitty, you plan the best trips ever!”
“This wasn’t intentional,” Kitty sniped.
“First class, then a real-life showdown and—”
“What kind of MC?” Raisin croaked, butting into a recount of this ‘epic’ weekend. Clearly, Neev needed to get out more. Or stay in more. I wasn’t sure which yet. “Are they dangerous?”
“I wish I could tell you that they weren’t, Raisin, but I’d be lying.”
Kitty shot me a dirty look before she attempted to comfort her sibling. “We’ve watched Mayans MC, Róisín.” Ouch. Big guns. “We’re not snitches. We’re cool.”
Neev twirled a strand of hair around her finger. “Damn straight we are. I wonder how easy it is to become a club girl.”
I cringed. “What about Miguel?”
“I wasn’t asking for myself. Raisin needs a good fuck.”
“NEEV!” the sister-in-need-of-a-good-fuck screeched, loud enough to startle a plagiary of mockingbirds from a nearby tree.
“It’s the truth.”
“You know what’s also the truth?” Raisin shoved her arm. “Me. Plucking both your eyes out, pickling them in vinegar, then packing them off to Miguel.”
Neev sniffed. “The truth stings.”
“Not as much as that goddamn vinegar will.”
“Imaginative, Raisin,” I praised. “I’ll be sure to add that to my arsenal.”
She shot me a horrified look. “I wasn’t being serious!”
“I was.”
Raisin, the least violent of the bunch, outright punched Neev in the shoulder, hard enough for her to yelp. “How dangerous are these fucking MC people, Stan?”
“How many episodes of Mayans MC have you watched?” I commented, my amusement impossible to hide.
“All of them,” they chimed in at once.
“They’re the Sesame Street version. You don’t want to fuck around with the Hell’s Rebels.” The three of them stilled. Even intrepid Neev gulped. “So, stick with me. We’ll enter their compound, potentially have to stay over if the plane isn’t fixed by tonight, and then we’ll get out.”
“Can’t we hire a car?” Raisin rubbed her hands over her arms. “This is giving me the creeps.”
“You girls genuinely aren’t clued into what your brothers do, are you?”
Kitty sighed. “We steer clear of it.”
“I have no desire to know what they get up to,” Raisin groused.
Neev tossed her hair. “I’ve tried to listen in, but they’re too good at catching me.”
I bet.
“Well, we can keep it that way if you stay with me.” I compounded the warning with a firm look.
I knew I hadn’t triggered a rebellion, but stirred a natural caution when Neev nodded at me and didn’t answer back—had a miracle just happened?
Hoping to God that I wouldn’t lose an Irish girl to an MC in the next twenty-four hours, I listened for the roar of a dozen motorbikes heading our way while Raisin chirped at Neev for being a bitch and Kitty played the part of ref.
Could this day get any fucking worse?