Page 31 of Their Princess

I gritted my teeth and kept shading my drawing. Decisions about that weren’t made outside Church, so we needed to buy some time. Rafe probably understood that with the hierarchies in the military.

“Back down,” Ward ordered Rafe, but the Marine captain shook his head.

“Enough,” ordered Sas, cutting them off. His expression had returned to complete stone, letting Cazador Rojas’s insults wash off his back.

I scratched a jagged lightning bolt down the center of my drawing, between the MC and the cartel, reflecting the way his single booming word sliced through the thick tension in the clubhouse. At some point, Duchess, the only one of the club girls who’d stayed, left the room.

Good thing too. This mess was for the men, and especially the one who’d gone rogue and made the deal in the first place. I liked Sas well enough, but his ambition before had landed us in this mess.

Thankfully, Adelina wasn’t here.

El Fantasma—the phantom—slapped his hands onto the table. “Where’s the toilet?”

Sas stepped in front of him when he headed toward the door to the bunnies’ rooms.

The phantom grinned. “Unless you want me pissing on the floor.”

“Do it, dog,” muttered one of my brothers, and somehow, the Rojases didn’t chomp. They were bloodhounds that had only scented Sas’s blood and thirsted for more.

“By the entrance, first door on the left,” said Sas, and el Fantasma wandered off, glancing at the walls like it was an art gallery.

The only art was mine. Most of my brothers didn’t pay attention to it, but Duchess told me everyone liked it when I added a new piece. It added some color to all the gray, most of the time. Except that one piece on the wall in the stairwell down to the gym and prisoner hole. I never looked at that one, because it reminded me too much of where I grew up.

“So.” Caz clapped his hands and rubbed them together. “We have a deal?”

“No,” said Rafe.

Sas raised his hand to cut him off. Maybe this was how the Mafia operated, but Rafe needed to keep his mouth shut. Hedidn’t get a vote here. Not, at least, in front of the cartel. No one did.

“We need to talk it through with the officers,” said Sas in an even tone.

Caz laughed along with his brother Acero. “I didn’t realize you had a little democracy here. I thought you did whatever the putas wanted.”

A roar rose up amongst the guys. We didn’t speak Spanish, but everyone in LA knew that word. Caz referred to our sweetbutts as whores, and no one talked about our property that way. The MC members faced the Rojas brothers, ready for a fight.

Me included; I let the pencil and earbuds drop and joined the line of my brothers. The Rojases were outnumbered, but cartels and gangs weren’t unusual in the LA area. We’d faced the AX3 before, and these three wouldn’t be too hard to take down. But no one wanted the mess in our house.

If a fight broke out, there would be far more carnage than a few drops of blood.

“Oh, look.” Caz chuckled and Acero’s laughter howled behind him. “The putas travel in a pack.”

Ah, hell. He wasn’t referring to our bunnies, but us. One of the prospects—fucking Ghost again—took a step forward.

Sas slammed his hand against his chest, backing him up a pace. “Hold it, prospect.” At least our VP had leveled his temper.

When el Fantasma returned from the restroom and joined his brothers, they stood off against our riders. I had a flashback that almost made me laugh out loud. That stupid movie my mom used to love. What was it?

Oh, yeah. The Jets facing off against the Sharks inWest Side Story. Maybe they’d all break out in song. Rumbled whispers started going up around the room.

Until Sas shouted again, “E-fucking-nough!”

Silence settled over the warehouse.

Sas continued, “No deal until we can hash it out with the other officers.”

The brothers mumbled in Spanish amongst themselves, then Caz said, “Can’t do anything without the Prez’s blessing. Guess I gotta respect.”

The same could be said for the cartel. The Rojas brothers were only the mouthpiece for El Tigre, but they were at liberty to act on their own—vigilante style.

---