Chapter 5 #2
The man had always been sharp, possessing keen observation skills and the ability to piece together fragments of issues until he had a clear picture.
It was one of many reasons why his books were so well received.
And that he wove facts together with humorous anecdotes that kept them from being dry, boring reads people had to slog through if they wanted to finish them.
The only reason Danger knew half the words he did was because Pope had taught them to him, and when the truth had come out about Danger’s affinity for numbers, he’d been the first one to press for the club to pay for the classes for him to get his CPA.
He’d never wanted to be an accountant. The title alone made him think of guys with closets full of suits and a tie collection to rival the drawers full of t-shirts back in his room.
Nevertheless, the club had a need, and he’d had the ability to fulfill it, since aside from his way with figures, he’d also possessed one other thing necessary to make him perfect for the job.
A clean record.
So, he’d taken the courses, passed the examinations, and settled into the role grumbling the entire time.
When his club brothers had been unable to rein in their jokes when they’d caught him behind the desk in the office Mark had set up for him, half buried under mounds of paperwork and project proposals designed to guide them towards more legitimate means of earning, he’d blamed Pope.
And in a way, he’d never forgiven him.
Instead of bringing paperwork back here, he’d chosen to hunker down in there, glower at everyone who heckled him, and help Mark establish business after business until the only time Pope looked at him was with fury in his eyes.
When he wasn’t downright ignoring him.
There had been no public breakup, no disavowing of their ties, nothing but Danger quietly cutting Pope’s Pup patches off all his clothing and laying them on the table in front of him in the bar one night before retreating up into the hills for a long ride.
And he’d regretted it ever since.
“The overlap in the first month threw me off until I went back and looked at the dates. After Mark removed Teddy, he took over the office there for three weeks before they brought the new manager in. It wasn’t until his second month running the place that I caught on to anything being off, and only because Mark was already starting to hear whispers by then, so I pulled out the recipes and took a closer look. ”
“And during that time, how many other projects did he have you working on?” Pope asked.
Frowning, Danger inhaled and let the buzz help him dial in on those specific months. Where some folks kicked back and vegged when they smoked, something about THC had always sharpened Danger’s brain, allowing him to dial in on one thing and stick with it until he’d finished his task.
“The metal fabrication shop, the ironworks studio, the expansion for the garage, Mable’s Drag Boutique…”
“Basically, the entire factory row expansion,” Pope said, cutting him off.
“Well, yeah, but…”
“No buts,” Pope interrupted again. “You accomplished a lot in a short time with no reason to suspect that someone would be stupid enough to try to steal from us. Trust is never weakness. I thought I taught you that years ago?”
“There’s a difference between trust and business,” Danger grumbled. “In business, just because you trust somebody doesn’t mean you fail to check the bottom line.”
“Did you?”
“What?”
“Check the bottom line,” Pope asked, as patient as he’d always been.
Danger huffed, smoke pouring from his nostrils before he answered.
“Several times, it never lined up, so I started pulling everything, let Mark know right away, and kept him updated every time I found another piece that didn’t mesh.
I made sure to highlight it too, since we both know he’s a bottom-line guy and hates when someone overcomplicates shit. ”
The words spilled out of him in an indignant rush, because despite how much he hated being tasked with the job, he took pride in how well he did it.
“Then what the hell are you beating yourself up for?” Pope asked.
Danger’s knee bounced up and down, the chain connecting to his wallet jangling with every restless motion.
“I don’t know. I don’t know. I know I did everything right, yet everything felt wrong afterward, and I still can’t shake it.
Then the ride got fucked up, and I saddled myself with that damn Roan, who half the time I want to spank the hell out of because I’m constantly getting complaints about him.
He’s been on his best behavior since the accident, though.
Maybe it finally rattled him enough to act right. ”
“Or maybe seeing you get hurt shook him enough that he doesn’t want to be away from your side,” Pope pointed out.
“You ordered him out to the beach the other day. On one hand, I’m glad you were thoughtful enough to free him from that dank shit you’ve been smoking in there; on the other, I wish you’d come down with him.
Ocean was sharing stories about his time in Australia.
Said there were kangaroos out there just hopping along the side of the road.
Apparently, one of the other surfers got it in his head that he was going to go try and get a selfie with one until the tour guide asked if he’d ever seen those cartoons with boxing kangaroos.
The guy had, and the guide told him to believe it. ”
“Damn. I’d have tried for one too. Fuckers look too cute to be dangerous.”
“Says the man who hates when anyone calls him cute.”
“Because I’m not…”
“To me, you have always been and will always be both deadly and adorable,” Pope declared, cutting him off once again.
“Being our number cruncher just makes you more dangerous in my eyes. At the drop of a hat, you could bankrupt this whole operation, and every single member of the club knows that. Them giving you shit never bothered you when you were earning that patch. It shouldn’t bother you after all these years of being a brother and knowing where you stand with them. ”
“And yet I always have to keep my hands clean,” Danger snapped, “which means that every time it comes down to things getting bloody, I have to stand down and stay back at the clubhouse to stand guard or pull an escort duty.”
“And you think that’s less valuable than splitting your knuckles open?
” Pope replied. “Think again. We serve the club in whatever form and fashion it needs serving. There are no small parts, no weak links, and no worthless tasks, which is what you are supposed to be drilling into our prospect’s head. ”
“I have, when he chooses to listen.”
“From what I saw the other day, he listens just fine, as long as you reinforce that good behavior with a bit of praise and a little attention from time to time. I doubt he’s had much of that, being bounced around the way he has.”
“Bounced around?”
“He didn’t give much detail besides that the state stepped in when he was a kid and sent him to live with his grandparents and that things between them weren’t the best, since they’d hated his mother and never let him forget how pissed they were that their son had run off with someone from a family they despised.
It sounded like some real blood feud shit, from what he mentioned of it later in the night.
Shit took a serious turn, and some of the conversation out there got a bit uncomfortable for Kazzy, and he took off, but Ocean, Roan, and I sat around the fire until after midnight.
“I wasn’t in the mood to sit around watching everyone else enjoying those waves,” Danger admitted. “It looked gnarly out there.”
“It was, but you wouldn’t have been alone in the sand,” Pope replied.
“Roan doesn’t swim so well, so he watched from the dunes, making sand sculptures, or at least that’s what I think he was doing before he wrecked them.
You could have kept him company, maybe gotten to know him somewhat away from everyone else.
Out there, he was willing to engage in genuine conversation with us instead of snarking off the way he usually does around the bar. He’s not the asshole you think he is.”
“I never called him that.”
“You’ve never corrected anyone else, either.”
“He’s never given me reason to.”
“Well, he’s given it to me. The offer still stands, by the way, any time you want to take me up on it.”
“What, you’ll take him off my hands?”
“I’d prefer to help you train him properly, not take over,” Pope admitted.
It was on the tip of Danger’s tongue to tell him that wasn’t what he wanted, that it would be better for everyone if he’d just take over at this point. Only Pope was offering him the gift of time spent in his company, and his inner pup begged him to accept.
“I’ll think about it,” Danger said, willing to concede that much.
It was one thing for his inner pup to beg, but giving in meant dealing with the inevitable fallout when things crumbled, and Danger’s heart was still broken enough from the last time.