Page 50 of No Mercy

“Have a good day, buddy.”

“I will, dad!” And he was off and running, his question instantly forgotten.

Would I marry Allie? The question was would she marry me? It was too soon to even be thinking about something as permanent as marriage, even if I already knew that she was it for me. We were just getting used to each other again, and fuck, it was good. I got hard thinking about her tight little body, and how she demanded everything from me in bed, giving me everything in return.

Driving with a boner was uncomfortable, so I willed it down and concentrated on where I was going. Once I’d dropped Sam off I’d gone to the gun range. I didn’t check in often, Martin did a good job of running it and keeping things legal. He wasn’t a member of Phantom Riders, just one of the few civilians I was friends with, and I trusted him. He was a good old boy from Georgia who knew about guns. I dropped by once a week to see what was going on, order supplies, and take a glance at the books. We also sold and traded guns.

Right now we were in the process of adding more shooting stalls. We offered training one night a week and Simon, my instructor, had asked for running man targets. He said that most of the guys he trained were hunters and wanted to hone their skills for deer and moose on the move. I’d smirked at that request, because some of the guys he trained were prospects at the club, and I knew for a fact that they weren’t hunters.

I hadn’t been surprised to find that there were only three vehicles in the parking lot when I got there, and one of them was Martin’s. It was still early. The business was booming in the evenings and on the weekends.

As I’d expected, and one of the reasons I paid Martin so well, there wasn’t anything happening that he couldn’t handle. I’d emptied out the safe, deposited the money into the bank, and then headed back to the clubhouse.

It was going to be a long fucking day. Hawk had called for church at noon. Fuck, since the Blue Knights had come back onto the scene it seemed like we were having church every other day. The fuckers had caused more trouble, and I had a feeling that we were going to be causing them some very soon. The problem was finding out who they were. Fox had pulled up Dirk’s last known location, but when Big John and Clay had gone to check it out, all they’d found was an empty apartment.

I parked my bike out back and entered the clubhouse. Marnie was the first one I locked eyes on because she was at the bar. She looked away immediately. She knew she’d fucked up, and hadn’t even tried to deny that she’d been the one who set up my bed to look like someone had just fucked in it. I’d told her that one more incident like that, and she was out. That comment nearly floored her, because she’d been a club girl for ten years, as soon as she’d become legal.

“Give me a beer,” I said, stopping at the bar. Marnie wordlessly poured me a glass, which I promptly threw back and downed at least half of it.

“Anything else?” she asked quietly.

I ignored the hopeful yearning in her tone. I just shook my head, looking around the room.

“Hey, brother, come play a game of pool.”

My gaze went to Hammer, one of the club’s soldiers. It looked like he already had a game going with Money, who was practically a pro at pool. Some brothers complained they had a scheme going on, but I’d watched enough to know that Money was just that good. “Got church in a few minutes.” I threw back the rest of my beer. “Besides, I’m not eager to lose any money today.”

That got a laugh out of them. “What, our fearless VP admitting that something scares him?” He slapped Money on the back. “Never thought I’d see the day!”

I grinned good-naturedly. “Just be glad I’m in a good fucking mood, or I’d put you through the wall.” I looked back at Marnie. “A couple of beers to go.”

Once she handed them to me I left the room and walked down to the meeting room. Hawk was already sitting at his place, as I’d expected. He had a lot on his mind these days, and the room was always quiet unless we were in church. He glanced up from something he was reading when he heard me get closer. He closed what looked like the books with a heavy sigh and leaned back. I set a beer down in front of him.

“Thanks, brother. I was about to go out there and get one before church.” He gave me a grave look. “Depending on how tonight goes we might be going to Last Hope.”

I just looked at him, unable to reply because brothers began coming into the room and taking their seats. We had taken several trips to Last Hope throughout the year for fights run by Covacks. Hawk had retired from fighting shortly after marrying Audra, so right now Ned was our main man. It was easy money for the club if he won. Usually he did.

“I want to go over the plan for tonight. I want shit to go down hard, fast, and without complications. For some fucking reason Blue Knights has picked on us to make a name for themselves. Until now, all they’ve done is hit a club run once or twice, nothing major, then moved on. They’re making their presence known all over our fucking home. Last night crossed the line.”

“Sounds like it’s personal,” I said, thinking out loud.

“You thinking it’s Dirk’s old club?”

Hawk addressed Clay. “I don’t know, and I don’t fucking care. Dirk’s nowhere to be found, and who the fuck remembers the names of any of his brothers?”

“They were too clean-cut and pretty to take seriously,” Big John laughed gruffly. “And we were deep in shit with Covacks and his situation at the time.”

He wasn’t saying anything we didn’t already know. “What do we know about Blue Knights?” Painter asked.

“Not a whole fucking lot,” I grumbled. “They’re nomads, and they only wear their colors when they strike, which is gonna make them damned difficult to find.”

BK slammed his drink down onto the table. “Fucking cowards. What kind of serious MC does that kind of shit?”

“Maybe they’re smarter than we think.”

All eyes shifted to Fox. He shrugged. “Seems to me they want to do as much trouble as they can before anyone discovers who they are. What happened to our old ladies at Ruby’s . . .” He shrugged again. “Who knows? A threat was made, and Blue Knights name was mentioned but we got nothing else. We don’t know if the five at Ruby’s are part of the Blue Knights, or just fucking friends of theirs.”

“A fucker matching the description Allie gave of us of the guy at the club has been seen with his friends at The Tittie Kittie, Mooners, and Take it Off, all strip clubs owned by Covacks. People who work there said they were being nosey as fuck.”

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