CHAPTER 14
STORM
Dimples and I make it back to Cinder Ridge in record time.
It was freeing riding beside her with our throttles open wide.
I miss riding with her. Miss her. Period.
She worries about me too much, and I know she’s keeping things from me.
Since I’ve been president, she treats me like I’m made of glass.
I think she’s scared the stress will make me snap.
We pull into the Broken Lantern parking lot, being careful to weave around the potholes.
The Broken Lantern tells the whole damn story of the decline of Cinder Ridge.
It was once a hangout for paper mill workers.
With the plant running three shifts, the bar was always full.
Now the lot has only a smattering of cars.
The bar’s sign hangs with a permanent tilt, and the lantern on the sign hasn’t lit for years.
As we dismount, I say, “Looks like we won’t have trouble getting a table.”
Dimples frowns. I shouldn’t have said it, but I do, so I don’t have to think about how bad it’s gotten.
Since Dimples doesn’t respond, I switch to the Graces’ poker run. “About time Wiz got around to sending the itinerary. How many girls are we taking?”
“We’ve got lots of interest, but Wiz asked that we keep our numbers to twenty.”
I smirk. “Thirty it is then.”
Dimples takes off her helmet, lays it on her seat, and shakes out her hair. I’ve already replaced my helmet with a baseball cap.
“Let’s get inside and warm up.” I rub my hands together as we walk. “I want the prospects on the poker run.”
“I don’t think they need to.”
I give Dimples a side-eye. It’s not like her to be anti-prospect, but after her weirdness this morning, who knows. “They need more experience riding in a pack.”
“Prospect One’s got it, but Two needs more work.”
“Both. We’re gonna need to call a vote on One by the end of the riding season, so I wanna know she’s ready.”
Dimple sighs. “Okay.”
When we enter, the locals all stop to greet us. The Thorns are minor celebrities in Cinder Ridge since we’ve brought in enough business to keep things from falling completely apart.
The bar smells of spilled beer and overused frying oil. I’m careful as I walk to the table since the floor slopes, having settled unevenly over the decades. The mismatched tables and stools remind me of how the Thorns’ clubhouse used to look before we earned the funds to upgrade.
We don’t need to check the menu since we’ve eaten here so many times. Still, we glance at the tattered menus, making small talk as we wait for our server.
After the waitress takes our order, I ask, “Why do you seem jumpy today?”
“Were you at church last night?”
I frown. “Unfortunately. But we talked about that last night.”
“We didn’t finish. Frost is gonna get somebody killed.” Dimples’ eyebrows raise with her voice. “You!”
I give Dimples a questioning look.
Her face reddens, and she tears at her napkin. “Put a territory patch on our vests, and it’ll be an enormous target on our backs—you’ll have the biggest one.”
I reach across the table and put my hand on top of hers, stopping her from shredding her napkin. “Since Aces is gone, you’re the only one I trust. Period.”
“Always.” She smiles, and it makes me believe everything will be okay. “I polished my bike last night.”
Anyone else would’ve thought Dimples’ comment was random, but I know her well. Whenever she’s stressed, she polishes her bike.
I grin. “So you’ve figured it all out?”
“Not quite, but I’ve thought about it more than you have.”
“I had plenty of time to think. Nancy wasn’t that good.”
“Naomi.” Dimples gives me a stern look.
“Oh, yeah.” I chuckle. I’d used the wrong name just to get a rise out of her. “Only explanation I came up with is she hates me worse than I realize. She’s not gotten over Aces supporting me for president, but enough to want me dead?”
A lump catches in my throat as I remember the day Aces turned over the gavel and keys to me.
She’d served as president for twenty-eight years, from when she founded the club in 1997 until she stepped down after her cancer diagnosis.
Aces’ words rattle in my head. I’ve led you the best I could.
Now Storm takes the chair. Back her the way you backed me.
And may she serve as long as I did. I love you, kid.
Dimples put her hand on my arm. “She believed in you. I believe in you. Frost can never take that away.”
“But Frost wants to make me look bad. Weak! She wants to fucking make me look weak.” My jaw tenses. “And get the girls to lose confidence in me. But they know putting a territory patch on our backs is suicide. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Don’t shoot the messenger.” Dimples hunkers in her seat.
I narrow my eyes. “What?”
“I was talking to the prospect, and she overheard things last night. Frost’s territory patches have some of the girls thinking—dreaming.”
“The fuck. That’s just dangerous.” I shake my head. “She’s playing with fire.”
Dimples’ eyes flash. “And the bitch played us at the pre-church meeting.”
“You mean she played me.”
“Us,” Dimples repeats. Although we both know the president takes full responsibility for anything that happens.
“We’ve been walking on eggshells all week, hearing she was gonna stir shit up.
I’m thinking she started those rumors just to throw you off.
Then she tossed out the bogus idea of running drugs.
She fucking knows we ain’t into that. So—”
“Fuck me.” Anger courses through me, and I slap my hand against my forehead. “After her bogus fentanyl suggestion threw me off, I agreed to upping our game at Black Briar Motors without taking time to think it through.”
Dimples nods. “We don’t need the law coming down on us if things go south. Especially with the front business doing so well. It could put the girls that work there at risk.”
My face heats. “Aces would be so pissed at me.”
“No, she’d be pissed at Frost.”
I slam my fist against my chest. “I’m the fucking president. And I’m getting it all wrong. I fucking agreed to it. What kind of president doesn’t vet the people bringing business into the shop? I don’t know anything about her Philly contacts. Jesus. That’s a goddamn rookie move.”
Dimples sits back as I rage. After ranting for several minutes, I sigh and lean back against my seat.
“Done?” she asks.
“For now.”
“Good.”
“You know she’s gonna play to the girls who want the club to financially provide for them.” I frown. “What happened to the members supporting the club instead of the members expecting the club to support them? That’s how she’ll convince them I ain’t doing my job.”
“We’ve dealt with that bullshit for years. None of us are living off the club. We got a roof over our heads, but we all have jobs.”
I shrug. “She could argue that the club is supporting me and Nails. But—”
The waitress shows up with our beers and chips and salsa, cutting off my sentence. After we joke for a bit, she leaves to wait on another customer.
“For fuck’s sake, Storm.” Dimples glares. “You just crawled out of the sack with Naomi a few hours ago, now you’re flirting with the waitress?”
“She’s new, so I had to charm her a bit.” I lean out from the table and check out her ass. “Besides, she’s straight.”
Dimples snorts. “When has that ever stopped you?”
I grin. “Very true.”
Dimples shakes her head. “Back to our conversation. You…”
“Right, you’ve got your job at the animal shelter, Halo—”
“No. We were talking about you and Nails. It’s not like either of you are getting paid by the club to be officers. Nails is attracting more and more customers to Black Briar, and—”
“Nails is killing it, but my job isn’t bringing the club any money.”
For the past two years, I’ve been working as a heavy machinery operator for the Black Lantern Development group. The Thorns are twenty-five percent investors in the project to develop the area around the Black Lantern Lake for upscale tourism.
She picks up her beer but doesn’t take a drink as she says, “It’s not bringing in money yet, but when the retreat is finished, it’ll create more jobs for the locals and the girls.”
“Still. That’s a ways off. Frost will argue she’s trying to take care of the girls in the meantime.”
She finally takes a drink before she says, “Yeah, but it could blow up everything Nails has built at the garage. She can grow the front business, so why bring anything more in the back? Especially, with people we don’t know.”
“You’re right, but I already agreed to it.”
“Nothing is irreversible.”
“But either way, she wins. I look weak—indecisive—if I change my mind, but if I don’t, I put the club in jeopardy. So what do I do?”
“Is there any doubt?”
“No.” I drop my gaze to the table. “I’d never put the girls in danger to preserve my ego.”
Dimples gives me one of her best smiles. “And that’s why Aces chose the right person. Frost wouldn’t make the same decision. She’s showed that.”
“I can’t have someone with no loyalty sitting to my right. It’ll destroy the club.”
“Then she has to go,” Dimples says.
I nod in agreement. But I know it’s easier said than done. I can’t just go ousting the VP because she’s an asshole.