Chapter 23
Ricochet
“What the fuck?” I muttered as I got off my bike. My crew was standing around, not prepping for the full day of work we had ahead of us. Meanwhile, a good portion of my brothers were standing around, talking.
It’d been a month since Jordan had stayed with me at the clubhouse and things were going smoothly. We saw each other every day, thanks to Gwen living next door to her. Plus, we texted throughout the day. Everything was going to plan and she was dropping her guard around me.
Static and his friend, who he only called the man from Idaho, had managed to work their magic and had gotten the permitting for the school approved in that short amount of time.
When I’d asked how they’d managed to get an architect to sign off on everything so quickly, Static had mentioned that the man from Idaho had one on retainer.
That when he called, everything had been dropped to get the plans done and signed off.
Apparently, he knew people in the permitting office.
It should have been impossible to do everything in three weeks, but according to Static, this guy had people for everything because he didn’t like waiting.
Lockout had just scowled while we’d marveled over the man’s ability to get things done so quickly. We’d been working here for a little less than a week now. It was nice to be back into a routine again.
I’d needed the break that had sent me back home and still had me living with my sister, but I was slowly starting to feel like myself again. Sticking close to Jordan seemed to be helping with that, and I didn’t plan on letting her go, so it was working well for me.
Walking over, I rested a hand on Hellfire’s uninjured shoulder in greeting. Smokehouse was standing on the other side of him while the rest of my brothers formed a circle. “What are all of you doing here?”
Lock looked over at me, frustration etched into his face. “We’ve hit a snag.”
“What kind of snag?” I asked.
“Permitting got pulled,” Static told me, cursing low under his breath.
I frowned looking back and forth amongst the faces of the men I knew so well. “How the hell did that happen?”
“No idea,” Static said with a sigh. “I’ve got my guy on it. If anyone can work it out, he can.”
“Who is this guy?” Toxic asked, looking tired and grumpy as hell. It was a bit early for him, though he’d never complain since this was club business.
“Nevermind who he is,” Lockout told him. His eyes fell on me. “This is unusual, to have the permits pulled after we’ve already started construction. Especially with Idaho having filed the shit.”
My brows rose. “You know him?”
Static chuckled. “Idaho. He’ll like that.”
“Any ideas what might have happened?” Lock asked the group, looking specifically at Static, ignoring my question completely.
Hellfire and I shared a look. He’d caught on to Lockout’s dislike of this ‘Idaho’.
“It is really weird for permits to have been pulled,” I said in agreement, getting the conversation back in line.
One of the perks of being the boss was Lock didn’t have to tell us shit until he was ready.
I wasn’t going to press him about whatever was going on unless he needed it.
For now, he seemed to be fine as long as we weren’t talking about the man from Idaho.
“Do you know anyone in the mayor’s office?” Riptide asked Lockout. “Dash and I did a little poking around. The request came directly from the mayor himself,” Rip explained.
“Why the hell would the mayor of Tucson care about a charter school?” Hush asked before I could answer.
I closed my eyes and rubbed the spot between my brows as a tension headache began to brew. “I know what it’s about.”
Every eye was on me now. My shoulders tensed as I realized the consequences of antagonizing Trent before were coming back to bite me in the ass.
I’d like to believe that he wasn’t so petty he’d hold what was said at Gwen’s dinner against me.
It’d been weeks. But that was the only explanation that made sense.
“It has to be Trent.” Anger flowed through me like a raging river as I realized he was only doing this to fuck with me. What other reason would he have? If I hadn’t hated the man before, this would have definitely sealed his fate.
“Your sister’s ex?” Lockout asked. He raised a brow. “Why would he be fucking with our permitting?”
“We got into it a while back at my sister’s house. I may have said some shit to him,” I admitted.
Lock let out a gusty breath, giving me an irritated look. “Some shit?”
“It was pretty reasonable considering what the asshole was saying,” Smoke told him. Hell nodded in agreement.
“You two knew about this?”
“Oh look, the sky,” Smokehouse mumbled, staring straight up. They went back to avoiding their president’s gaze. If this wasn’t so damn serious, and I didn’t want to rip Trent’s head off, I would have laughed.
“He was talking shit. I lost my temper and words were exchanged. He left of his own free will, though, and for once I didn’t hit the fucker,” I explained.
Really, it had ended as nicely as it could have.
Things would have been a whole lot worse, for Trent, if I hadn’t kept my cool as much as I had.
“Can’t believe he’s fucking around because of that. And so long after it happened.”
Lockout folded his arms over his chest with a pensive look on his face. “What does Trent have to do with the mayor’s office?”
“No idea, he works with the DA,” I told him. “My guess is it was the only way he could think to get the permits pulled. The DA wouldn’t have any sway over that. Not directly. But they are all chummy with each other. It’s not a far stretch.”
Priest frowned. “Makes me wonder what Trent promised the mayor.” When everyone looked at him, he shrugged. “No way the mayor is doing this guy a favor out of the goodness of his heart. If he’s helping Trent out, there will be a price to pay.”
“Good point,” Butcher muttered.
“Could be trouble for us,” Hush added.
“Well, it’s too late now,” Riptide said. “We’ll keep looking into the mayor, and we’ll add Trent, and even the DA to the list. See how they’re all connected. See if it’s going to be an issue in the future.”
“In the meantime, no one mentions this to anybody,” Lock warned.
“Not even your old ladies. Not until we know what that connection is. See if we can figure out what kind of use the mayor would have with Trent.” He looked over at me.
“And you. Stay away from him. I know what you’re thinking, but it won’t work.
We don’t need you getting into it with Gwen’s ex.
If you get arrested assaulting the DA’s assistant, or whatever the fuck he is, it’s not going to be easy to keep you out of jail. ”
“Got it,” I replied. I was already trying to tamp down the rage.
The fact that Lock knew I had already been planning to pay Trent a visit wasn’t all that surprising.
That I was willing to listen and planned to let this go and let him and the others deal with the permitting the proper way was what was shocking.
Maybe some of Lock’s good sense was rubbing off on me.
Or maybe being with Jordan had me just relaxed enough that I realized it just wasn’t worth the fight and the fallout that would come after. Either way, I seemed to be evolving.
“Static. I know you said your guy was on this. Does the paperwork need to be redone?”
“Fuck no. Paperwork is solid, Lock,” Static responded with a smirk.
“This isn’t about paperwork, it's about influence. Right now, he’s talking to someone who has a bit of pull within the Arizona Charter School Committee.
He’s thinking if they put a bit of weight on the permitting office about needing this school up and going, they’ll cave faster. ”
“You guys need to remember,” Lock said. “This school doesn’t benefit us. It’s for the women and kids we pulled from the cult. They need this. For once in our lives, this needs to be by the books.” He shot me another warning look.
Guilt ate away at me as I listened to him explain the ways it was going to benefit the women and kids. They’d been through so much already, the last thing I wanted was to fuck this up for them. They deserved the best we could give them.
“Shit, it might even benefit us in the future as well,” Rip added. “It’s a school, just down the road from our club, built and run by us. Our kids will go to this place. They’ll be in a safe environment that we can control.”
Everyone nodded in agreement. No one was doubting or arguing the benefits of having this school.
I sure as hell didn’t want to take it away from the kids.
It had just been one momentary loss of control because Trent couldn’t keep his mouth shut.
I was doing my best to put him out of my mind now that Gwen had kicked him to the curb again.
He was just a shit stain on the sidewalk and didn’t matter anymore. I could figure this out.
“Good. Then we stay the course. We’ll have to wait until the permits are reissued and then we can get started again.” Lock gave me a warning look. He didn’t need to hammer it home. I’d behave. He must have seen that from my expression, because he let it drop.
“So…” Butcher said, letting the word hang there in the morning air. When I looked over at him he shot me a smile. “How’s your old lady?”
Narrowing my eyes, I scowled at him. “She’s fine.”
Lock cleared his throat. It was a less than subtle nudge from our president.
“We’re supposed to apologize,” Toxic said, speaking up. “Sorry about the other day…” He trailed off, shooting Lock a quick look, then grinned at me. “Did she like the view?”
“You fucking-” A hand landed on my shoulder. It was Hush holding me back from going after my brothers as they hooted with laughter.
“Sorry,” Toxic said again. “Never meant for your lady to see my junk, but anytime a woman does, I need to know what she thought.” He shrugged as though that were a completely normal thing.