Chapter 6 #2
“Promises, promises.” Slater grinned as he began to stroke the length of his wayward beard.
“Are you here for anything else, or just to flirt with me?”
His rough laughter broke free, and even though I knew I wanted him gone, that sound was exactly what I’d needed to hear to cut through the dark thoughts that lurked in the back of my mind like a never-ending horror movie.
“Actually, I am. Yeah.”
Turning my palms so they were face up, I gestured for him to go on.
Slater’s eyes found the sole of his boot while his free hand reached out to pick at the worn edges of the rubber.
“Few things. I’ve checked around, still no sign of Cortez.
From what I can gather, even their wives and kids don’t know where they are.
There’s rumors that there was a mass ride out the night of the fire, which we already knew of, but then the second wave of riders took off three days after the girl went back.
Or, at least when we assume she went back.
I’m still not certain we can be sure she went anywhere near them.
She was pretty messed up when we dropped her. ”
“She went back.”
“She did?”
“Yep.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Call it a hunch,” I answered, running my tongue over my bottom lip to try to gain some movement.
“Okay,” he mumbled. “Then as far as that front goes, we’re still waiting. No news is good news, right?”
“Sure.” I smiled tightly, not wanting to tell him that no news in the MC world was the worst fucking thing that could happen. Plans of destruction were never made in the hustle and bustle of a crowded bar, and we both knew it. “It works for me.”
He moved forward, rolling his shoulders in his cut before sniffing up and half grinning like he was just about to tell a rude joke. “We got another little problem, too.”
“What kinda problem?” I frowned, my body instantly tensing under the desk.
“A kid kinda problem.”
“What?” My eyes searched his face as I continued to stare him down. “Tate? Or, shit… You…” My mind immediately went to Ayda, and just the thought of kid and her in the same sentence had my balls shriveling up to the size of two peanuts and the nausea roaring to life in my stomach.
“Jesus, calm down, Drew.” He laughed, clearly amused by my not so hidden look of horror.
“I didn’t mean that kind of kid, and if I knew before you, I’d imagine that was a bigger fucking problem than anything else you got at your feet right now.
Tate’s fine, although I think you’re gonna have trouble with him soon.
I know Ayda is set on his schooling, but I dunno.
He’s all over Kenny, and he’s asking question after question after question about this life.
And he’s looking real antsy right now, stomping around and asking if anyone saw Ayda le—”
“Just get to the fucking point, Slater,” I snapped, cutting him off as my shoulders sagged with relief.
“We got some copycat kids riding around.”
“Copycat kids?”
“That’s what I just said.” He nodded slowly before landing both his feet back on the floor and leaning forward again.
“We don’t know where they’re coming from, but they’re not just in our town.
They’re everywhere, moving from place to place.
They’ve been on the news, according to Deeks and Harry.
Jedd has spoken to a couple of the cops he’s got on the payroll these days, and they’ve said there have been a few incidents of minor theft, gang related petty crimes, that sort of thing. ”
“In Babylon?”
“Just once. The old man at the barber store got held at gunpoint by some boy that he thought was fifteen, sixteen at best. Unloaded gun dumped by the door, group of assholes running away and high fiving the shit out of each other down the road.”
“Fuck,” I whispered, shaking my head and looking back down at the pawn shop figures. “Just what we need, kindergarten clean up.”
“Want me to take care of it?”
Looking back up at him, I gave him another flat smile before raising my hands in the air again.
“We’re not the baby police. Let’s just keep our eyes and ears to the ground.
If they have any kind of markings on them, we need to know what it is and who it belongs to.
Tell everyone out in the club, too. Even the women.
They could be a target for the wannabes.
Ain’t nothing like getting your cock sucked by an older woman to make you feel like a man.
” I leaned back in my chair and let my hands fall to my stomach.
“Just make everyone aware. Sounds like something anyone of us could squash if we needed to.”
“Got it.” He nodded again, motioning to stand up before I called out.
“Is that what you wanted to tell me about yesterday?”
“Yeah. Harry told me it was no big deal and it could wait until today. Sorry about that.”
“Can’t blame you for being jumpy these days.
” I smiled flatly, glancing towards the door before the conversation we’d just been having began to replay over in my mind, the single point I’d somehow missed hitting me square in the jaw like it had the force of a bear behind its swing.
“Hold up. Did you say Tate was looking for Ayda this morning?”
Slater perched back on the edge of the seat and raised both his brows. “Yeah.”
My frown was instant. “She’s not in the club?”
He didn’t have to answer. His face told me it all.
I was up and out of my chair within seconds, and I didn’t miss the way it slammed against the wall, or the way Slater told me to hold up and calm down before I marched out of my office and into the bar, leaving my growl of annoyance to echo around the whole fucking club for everyone to hear.