Chapter 9
Idaho
Iignored Static's mischievous grin as I sat next to him.
"You look tired."
Glancing over at him, I arched my brow. "Okay."
"Just wondering how much sleep you got."
"Fuck off," I muttered, shifting in my seat. It wasn't like I needed his reminders of the woman sleeping up in my bed. I couldn't get my fucking mind off her.
Everyone shuffled inside the meeting room, forcing Static to keep his mouth shut. We were prospects. The only reason we were in church today was to tell the others what happened last night.
Lockout sat down at the head of the table. His gaze fell on us. "Give us a rundown."
I let Static take the lead, listening as he explained what had happened.
I searched the room, watching the expressions of the other men.
Hush was furious. Jo was his sister-in-law.
Her being in danger was going to worry Seek, which made all of this his problem—and by extension our problem.
Riptide looked even more tired than the rest of us.
It probably had something to do with his wife, who was pregnant and ready to pop any day.
Toxic and Butcher were wearing blank expressions as they listened.
Everyone else looked more and more pissed as Static spoke.
"Then Thomas showed up here," I added when Static finished speaking.
"He's not her cousin," Lockout said, voice low.
"Nope."
"Who is he then?"
"Don't know," I replied. "Yet."
His eyes met mine. "Let me know what you find out."
"Sure thing, Prez," I told him with a grin. It disappeared as I thought about the situation. "I don't know what your plans are for the rest of them, but I want to keep Eva here until we figure out why those guys singled her out last night."
"You think they singled her out?" Lock asked, leaning forward with his elbows on the table as he focused on me.
"Sure sounds like it from what Jo told us," Hush answered. He looked over at me. "Did Eva tell you what happened at the bar?"
"I didn't ask," I told him. "She was already in shock from everything. I didn't want to make her go through it again."
Hush quickly explained what Jo had relayed to him.
"If Eva didn't tell you all this, then how do you know they singled her out?" Lock asked once he was finished.
"Just a feeling. Why would they try to take her off the streets?
Why would they want to 'teach her a lesson'?
" I mused. "Because she rejected one of them?
It's possible that's all it was, but that's a pretty extreme response to a woman not wanting to dance with you.
Just seems to me like something else is going on.
Add to that a 'cousin' that's built like a brick shithouse who’s tracking her location…
" The whole thing seemed suspicious, and that was before I knew that her rejecting the guy started the whole thing. Now that I did, I was even more wary.
Everyone was silent as they considered my words. Lockout finally nodded. "I trust your instincts. She can stay until we're able to get to the bottom of this."
"Thanks," I said, then fell quiet. This was their meeting. I'd just gotten what I wanted, so I was fine with listening from here.
"What about Jo?" Lock asked.
"Seek is tryin' to convince her to stay here for a few days," Hush replied. "I doubt she will."
Lockout nodded. "It's her choice. Toxic, how did it go last night?"
Toxic yawned before answering. He and Butcher had been up all night, watching over the compound and Thomas.
"Dash is up there standing outside his door now.
" He shrugged his shoulders. "Once he figured out we hadn't taken Eva he was willing to cooperate with whatever we asked.
You'd think he would be more suspicious of, well, all of this.
" He gestured to the group. "But I think seeing how the other girls relaxed with us turned his alarm bells off.
Though he wasn't very happy about Idaho carting Eva off with him. "
Lockout glanced over to me. "I doubt he's going to be thrilled when you tell him that Eva will be staying here."
I snorted. "I doubt she's going to be thrilled. Too fucking bad."
Lock's lips quirked up into a grin. He shook his head. "She's going to be your responsibility while she's here."
"Wouldn't have it any other way," I told him.
"Static." My friend straightened up next to me and focused on Lock. "What about the problems you were having with the school?"
Static glanced over at me and grinned. "The inspector is set to come back out after Christmas. I have a feeling that the bogus violations are going to disappear."
Riptide was grinning as well when he added, "We've already gotten calls from a few different teachers as well. They're interested in this new opportunity."
Lock's eyes narrowed as he looked between them, then back at me. "How?"
I arched my brow. "How what?"
"It's been less than two weeks. How did you swing all this?"
Shrugging, I folded my arms over my chest. "Someone owed me a favor. I asked him to look into the inspector and see what he could do."
"And he jumped on it that fast?" My twin asked. I stared at him, letting my silence be the answer. He sighed. "And the teachers?"
"I have a contact who is heavily involved in humanitarian efforts," I replied.
"A contact?" Lock accused, more than asked.
"Rhymes with Senator Gonzalez," Riptide coughed.
Lock narrowed his eyes on me. "A Senator?"
"His entire campaign was centered around education, and I have a partial ownership in one or three of his companies that focus on donating.
Once I told him you guys were creating this school for underprivileged youth he was more than happy to put the word out to see if there was anyone who would be interested in being involved.
Of course, I told him that these would be paying positions. "
"Of course," Lock said. Judging by the look on his face, he wanted to ask more questions, but knew there was only so much I would tell him when it came to my business affairs. The club, and the kids, were benefiting from all this so he was willing to drop it and just accept what was happening.
"I'll take care of that," Riptide told us. "This is my project."
I had something in the works to help out with that, but I didn't mention it yet.
I wouldn't until it was a done deal. This was going to be a charter school, so parents would be paying for their children to attend.
Once that happened, the salaries of the faculty would be taken care of, but who knew how long it would take to fill the school?
There were plenty of people who would be happy to help pay for an education for the cult kids in the meantime.
I just needed the time to meet with some of them. Maybe host a fundraiser.
Lockout's eyes narrowed as he studied me. He'd been able to read me better than anyone when we were kids and it looked like he hadn't lost that ability. "What are you planning?"
"Nothing." I kept an innocent expression on my face, but I knew he wasn't fooled.
He knew me too damn well. What they did for the women and children from the cult was a good thing.
And it was easy to see not one man here had a problem with housing and feeding all those families, and while Rip paid for the bulk of it, I knew the others pitched in as well.
If I could make things easier for them, I would. I had a soft spot for kids. Not that I'd admit it to anyone. I'd already been out to see where the families were living. It was a nice building. The club had done well by them, but I wanted things to be better.
"Does that mean it's all taken care of?" Lock asked.
"I'm sure more will pop up," Static told him. "But now we can handle the problems as they arise. There won't be any more bullshit issues though."
Lockout nodded, then turned to the others and they began speaking about other club issues.
My mind wandered as I listened. I made a mental checklist of what needed to be done over the next few days.
My assistant, Andrew, was going to be incredibly busy.
I had a couple last minute ideas that had come to me once I'd gone with Static to see the school and the apartments where the families were living.
One idea had already been put into motion, but in order to pull the other off, there was one person I needed to speak to.
After another thirty minutes, Lockout released us. I frowned as I realized I was scheduled to watch over the perimeter of the compound today. It was going to be tough to convince Eva to stay here with me if I left her alone to stew. A hand landed on my shoulder and I glanced over at Priest.
"You're off for the day."
My brows pulled together as I frowned at him. "Since when?"
"Now."
"Who's taking over my duties then?"
"Ricochet offered to do your patrols."
My eyes searched the faces as they passed by and they locked with Ricochet's.
I gave him a nod of thanks, since there were too many men between us.
They were all talking and laughing, making it impossible to speak over the noise.
He returned the gesture before heading out of the room and into the hallway.
"Thanks, Priest." It was obvious the man had already considered my predicament and asked our brothers if someone would be willing to take over so I could speak with Eva.
That was something I was quickly realizing about Priest. He was always one step ahead of everything around here.
I would hire him in a heartbeat if I didn't already know he'd refuse.
Lock had hired him to keep the club running smoothly, not only because it helped the club, but because it helped Priest. He was always here for anything his kids might need.
He had his hands full with those little girls, but every person on this compound was head over heels for them.
All the children here were loved. It was really fucking nice to see.
My brother had done more than create a brotherhood. He'd created a family.
"Anytime." He paused then shot me a grin. "Good luck."
I chuckled as I walked away. I was going to need it.
Something told me I was going to see more of the fiery side of Eva than I had even last night.
She'd been exhausted and shocked about what had happened and it had mellowed her out.
Walking past my door, I continued down the hallway until I reached the area that the larger apartments were in.
These were earmarked for the men with wives and families.
I knocked, then leaned against the doorway with my arms folded over my chest.
"Hi, Lock." Sloane sounded surprised. She hesitated when I didn't say anything, then sighed. "We need to put name tags on you two," she declared. "Sorry, Idaho."
I laughed because technically we had nametags on our cuts, and Lock had a full sleeve tattoo on his right arm, but with my arms crossed it covered my name tape and no one had clued into the tattoo difference yet.
"No problem. I'm used to it. Can't expect you to be able to tell us apart if no one else can. "
"What can I do for you?"
"Can I come in for a moment?" She hesitated, looking torn. I wanted to kick myself. Of course a woman with her background wasn't going to want to invite a stranger into her home. Especially not when her husband was still downstairs. "Actually, here's fine," I told her.
"Oh... I-"
"It's okay," I assured her. "I just wanted to see if you could do me a favor?"
"Sure," she said with a genuine smile. Her bright blue eyes were eager as she agreed to help me without any kind of hesitation. "I've been meaning to have Riptide invite you over for dinner," she added. "It's just been a little busy with Christmas approaching."
Fuck. She was sweet. I didn't know Rip very well yet, but I knew he was a lucky fucker.
Here she was, nearly ready to give birth and she was worried because she hadn't had me over and welcomed me to the club yet.
This was the kind of woman ancient wars were fought over.
Not that I wanted her. No, my head was too filled with a pair of big green eyes.
And despite what my brother thought of me, I wasn't the kind of guy to take another man's woman.
Didn't mean I couldn't appreciate quality when I saw it.
In fact, that was exactly what I did with my business every day.
Found quality people and recruited them into my employ.
From what I'd seen so far, and read in their files, most of these guys had found themselves incredible women. The few who were still single seemed to enjoy bringing women home, except my brother and Static. They were as bad as I was about remaining alone.
Butcher and Toxic were the only two keeping the wild times rolling around this place, it seemed. Though, much to Scarlet's dismay, neither would touch the sweet butts. Only the nomads and some of the guys from The Berserker's Rage guys paid attention to them when they came into town.
Shaking myself from my thoughts, I asked, "Would you be able to get me a complete list of everyone living over at the apartments?"
Her eyebrows winged upward. "Do you need it to help with the problems at the school?"
I didn't want to lie to her, but I also didn't want to ruin the surprise I had planned. "Yeah."
"Okay, I'll get it to you as quickly as I can."
"Thanks."
"You're most welcome." She shut the door with a smile and I grinned as I walked back to my room. I was hoping my surprise would gain me some points with the women, and by default their men, but mostly, I just wanted to make sure those families had a Christmas they wouldn't forget.
Pushing thoughts of the upcoming holiday aside, I smiled and opened my door, preparing for the upcoming fight.