Page 23 of Vapor's Blaze

“Fuck yes. As always you get ten percent of the cash and your pick of the guns, because it was your idea. You can tell Scrapper that he’s back in my good books and welcome back at the clubhouse.”

“He’ll be real happy about that, sir. He’s been going stir-crazy since he got suspended from the clubhouse.”

“Well, the rest of the weapons are going into the club’s gun safe. I looked them over last night when you dropped them off. Most are new and good used weapons. They’ll come in handy in a firefight. And the cash would go a long way in gearing us up for what’s coming with the Legion.”

“My thoughts exactly, boss. Just a reminder that when we busted in on those two drug dealers, there might not have been much cash, but the drugs should net us a tidy sum. The meth and assortment of pills should bring in around a hundred and fifty grand once it’s all sold at street value. Are we keeping the marijuana for party favors?”

“Like always.” King responds happily. “We don’t make enough of marijuana to worry about selling it. Besides we gotta keep the girls happy. I sure as fuck don’t want to encourage a meth habit among the whores. It’s bad enough that several of the brothers are using off and on all the time.”

“Good call on the marijuana. Can I suggest we spend the money on Kevlar for every patched member and prospect.”

“Maybe,” King responds in a cagey voice. “We also need to upgrade security. We should keep about fifty grand in the safe because I don’t like to be cash poor.”

Jinx breathes out a sigh of relief. “Sounds good to me. You got a head for business, King. Me? I just feel like I did right by my brothers by gathering resources for our coming battle.”

“You’re a good VP, Jinx. I’m glad we had the forethought to pick you for that position, I know you’ve always got my back.”

Their brotherhood is still shooting the shit when a car pulls up, one that I recognize. Trix jumps out. Instead of being dressed like a hippy the way she was at the rave and when I saw her the other night, she’s wearing tight black leather pants, a belly shirt, and a short black leather jacket. My heart starts beating wildly in my chest but I’m very conflicted. It sounded a lot like Trix has been spying for the Hounds, and that would make her the enemy. I have an awful thought, was our meeting at the rave orchestrated? She now knows I sometimes pull in shifts at our bar, but does she know I’m a patched in member? What if it was all a fucking set up. Fuck…

I focus my binoculars on her slim form and snort a laugh when I see that she’s wearing a delicate, ornamental lock through the end of her zipper and the buttonhole of her pants. I can barely see it for the jacket. I can’t only imagine that it’s her way of communicating that her pants are staying on.

Seeing that gold lock dangling from her waistband make me wonder why her man doesn’t have her in a property cut. There is no way she would be safe at a club like this without her man remaining at her side, or her being in his property cut. When we hooked up again the other night she said she was single, but now I know she’s more involved with the Hounds than she let on, I’m not sure I can trust anything that comes out of her mouth.

A sick feeling swirls in the pit of my stomach when I realize that she could be a club girl, playing coy. I dismiss that idea almost as soon as it pops into my mind. Trix doesn’t seem the type and I don’t want to think that she’s slept with all the Hounds because they’re garbage in my mind.

I try to track her through the building. She stops by their bar for a minute and talks to the bartender, then she’s off to the back of the building. She’s gone from my sight and I’m not picking her up on any audio because we only get that through King’s phone. A few minutes later a prospect comes running out front, jumps behind the wheel of her car and pulls it around to their tire center. Ah, she’s getting new tires. Maybe they have an area sectioned off for customers. If so, maybe she wouldn’t need protection.

After about thirty minutes they bring her car back out and she exits the building a few minutes later. Tracker follows her, jerks her by the arm and spins her around to scream at her. She shoves him back with both hands, barely moving him and yells back at him. Eventually, King comes stomping out of the clubhouse and I can finally hear what they’re saying.

Tracker says, “You’re a fucking liar. I know someone was at your apartment that day. The whole place smelled like sex.”

“That’s none of your damn business.”

I freeze in place when King grabs her by her hair and jerks her around to look at him. “The hell it isn’t our business. Tracker is your fucking brother and I’m your grandfather. That makes everything you do, our business.”

Shock roils through my gut. How did we not pick up on the fact that King had a granddaughter?

“I’m a grown adult. That means I can do as I like,” she says stubbornly.

King growls, “We’ve spent your entire life making sure no one could put your face together with the Hellfire Hounds specifically for the marriage alliance. The Grave Diggers are willing to trade their support for a clean, decent woman who is wife material, not some fucking whore, who puts out at the drop of a hat. In case you haven’t noticed, our clubhouse is full of whores who would love to get hitched to a patched brother. They want you though, and right now you’re letting your club and your family down.”

“I know all that. You’ve got my whole life planned out for me and never had the decency to even ask what I wanted.”

“Be that as it may, you know that you’re not supposed to have men over at your place. That was part of the deal when I let you move out.”

“Yeah, but I was only seventeen then. I’m a grown woman now.”

“You need to stop fucking around before the club president of the Diggers decides you’re not good enough for his fucking son. You’re meant for Decker. We already talked about this.”

“I’m not interested in being Decker’s old lady. I’ve told you that million times and I haven’t changed my mind.”

Fury surges in my chest when King backhands her across the face. Then his hand came up to wrap around the back of her neck and he jerks her forward. Trix immediately starts trying to wrench herself from his grasp. I could tell the moment he squeezed her throat because she froze in place. King is an absolute bastard, always has been. I suddenly remember something she said to me at the rave about her grandfather and it all makes sense.

I toy with the idea of stepping in to protect her but that would only get me killed and verify that she was indeed fucking around, and with a member of the Savage Legion no less. That might get her killed as well, considering how unhinged her old man is. I want to grab her up, throw her over my shoulder and take her away from all this shit. The problem is, I’m a good fighter but even I couldn’t hope to take on an entire MC and survive.

King leans close and whispers something. But before I could turn up the volume on my earpiece, he’d had his say.

Tracker takes a step back, looking a bit mortified. King drops his hand from her neck and states flatly, “Do we have and understanding?”

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