Chapter 25
The door to the meeting room swung open and, although the conversations didn’t die down immediately, several heads turned towards Reeze as he stepped inside, still threading his belt through the loops of his jeans.
His shirt was only half-buttoned, and the white dressing across his forehead looked almost ridiculously bright against the dark tattoos and the bruising that had become increasingly obvious across his face.
Billy was the first to spot him, and the grin that spread across his face was so wide that Reeze immediately knew nothing good was going to come out of his mouth.
“Well, well. There he is. Our very own breeding bull.”
Several of the Assholes members started laughing, and someone immediately pointed out that he was late.
“I was busy,” Reeze replied dryly.
“We noticed,” Billy said, making the laughter around the table grow louder. “We tried to concentrate in here, but it was a bit fucking difficult with the walls threatening to come down.”
“At first I thought somebody had dropped a bike,” one of the Assholes members added.
“Nah,” the man beside him replied. “That definitely wasn’t engine-related.”
This time even Hale laughed, and Reeze sent the entire gathering a dark look as he finished buttoning his shirt.
“Shut the fuck up.”
It probably would have made things worse if Rollo hadn’t allowed them another few seconds before bringing the gavel down against the table.
The blow wasn’t particularly hard, but it didn’t need to be.
The conversations died almost immediately and several of the men straightened in their chairs.
Billy still looked as though he had at least three more comments ready, but a single raised eyebrow from the president persuaded him to keep them to himself.
Reeze pulled out the chair beside Rollo and sat down. His ribs protested immediately, sending a sharp jolt of pain through his side, but he managed to keep his expression neutral enough that most of the men around the table didn’t notice.
Jesse did, of course.
“You look fucking terrible.”
“Heartwarming to hear.”
“That wasn’t a compliment.”
“I suspected as much.”
A few low laughs moved around the table while Hale, who had been sitting with his arms folded across his chest and studying Reeze, pursed his lips.
“You should’ve seen the other bloke.”
“We didn’t,” Billy pointed out.
“No. He was in a hurry to get the fuck out of there.”
Most of the men in the room already knew what had happened in the car park. Some had witnessed parts of it themselves, while the rest had heard the story more than once during the past hour, but the moment the conversation moved towards Dennis and the police, the mood changed.
Not dramatically, and not enough to make anyone uneasy, but enough to remind them that they had considerably bigger problems than Reeze’s bruises and battered ribs.
Rollo noticed it too and leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table.
“Right. Now we start.”
Nobody interrupted him.
“We’ll take Sunkholes first. They’ve already tested the boundaries, and with three of our officers gone they’ve obviously decided Wallhalla was getting weak. Our guys are back now and Hale and his people are here, but that doesn’t mean the problem has disappeared.”
“And Sunkholes sure as fuck won’t turn down the chance to use this other shit against us if they get one,” Hale added.
“Exactly.”
Rollo let his gaze travel around the table.
“So now we’ve got two problems to deal with, and I’m not letting one feed the other.”
He nodded first towards Hale.
“We deal with Sunkholes the way we’ve always dealt with people who think they can push our boundaries. We make ourselves visible, we stay present and we make it damn clear that we’re standing exactly where we were yesterday.”
Then his gaze shifted to Reeze.
“Dennis we deal with legally.”
A couple of men exchanged glances, and Rollo let the silence hang for a moment before adding,
“To begin with.”
That brought the faintest twitch to several mouths, and Billy leaned back in his chair.
“And if he doesn’t get the message?”
“Then we decide what to do when we get there.”
It wasn’t a dramatic answer and it didn’t need to be. Nobody around that table had spent enough time in the club world to believe that every problem could be solved with paperwork, lawyers and polite conversations.
Reeze had remained quiet through most of the discussion. Everything Rollo was saying made sense, even though part of him still preferred the considerably simpler solution of finding Dennis and ending the problem once and for all.
But that wouldn’t help Charlie.
Right now, that was all the reason he needed to keep himself under control.
“Charlie’s staying.”
Nobody in the room looked particularly surprised.
Hale looked almost amused, while Rollo studied Reeze for a moment before answering.
“You sure she understands what that means?”
“Yes.”
“You sure about that?”
Reeze held the president’s gaze.
“Yes.”
There was no hesitation this time.
Charlie had seen more during the past twenty-four hours than Reeze had ever intended her to see this early, and she had still chosen to stay. He wasn’t going to question her decision simply because he was still having trouble understanding it himself.
Billy leaned forward and tapped him lightly on the uninjured shoulder.
“For your sake, I hope she’s made of stronger stuff than she looks.”
“She’ll be fine.”
The answer came so quickly that several of the men around the table grinned, and Hale gave a low snort.
“That was about the sweetest fucking thing I’ve ever heard anyone say.”
Reeze glared at him.
“I hate every last one of you.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Right now, it’s close.”
The laughter had barely started again when Rollo rose from his chair, making it clear that particular part of the discussion was over.
“Right. Hale, your guys take the south side. Jesse, keep the supplies moving and make sure nothing gets left behind. Billy, you start digging into Dennis and his partner. I want to know who they’re talking to, who they’re working with and who’s stupid enough to still trust them.”
Billy nodded, all traces of humour disappearing from his face.
“No problem.”
Finally, Rollo turned to Reeze.
“And you keep your fucking head.”
Several grins appeared around the table immediately, and Rollo sighed.
“I’m serious.”
“I know.”
“Good, because I’m not dragging your broken arse out of jail while we’re trying to keep the rest of this shit under control.”
“You won’t have to.”
“Then make damn sure I don’t.”
Reeze nodded, and Rollo brought the gavel down against the table.
“Then let’s get moving.”
Almost immediately, chairs scraped backwards and conversations started up again.
One of the Assholes members wanted to go over patrol routes with Hale, Jesse had already pulled two of the men aside to sort out the logistics, and Billy looked as though he intended to start his own private war against Dennis without even having to leave the room.
Reeze remained seated for a few seconds as the meeting room slowly emptied around him.
Things had changed faster than he cared to admit.
Only a few days ago, Charlie had been the pretty neighbour who made him forget what the fuck he was doing whenever she smiled at him across the yard. Now two clubs had sat around the same table planning parts of their business around the consequences of her being in his life.
Perhaps that should have frightened him more than it did.
Instead, he thought about her upstairs and the three words she had said before he left.
I don’t run.
He ran a hand over his jaw and rose carefully when his ribs protested yet again.
This was going to get worse before it got better. He was pretty fucking certain about that.
But Charlie was still there, and somehow that changed everything.