Page 87 of Sweet Pea

“Gracie, if we’re gonna go, we should go now.” Katie peeked her head into the room. “Otherwise, I’ll never get out of here.”

“Okay,” Grace said. “I’m taking her to lunch, and she’s mean when she’s hungry.”

I chuckled, hugging Grace, and then once she left, I closed the door, opened the food bag and set all manner of surprisingly delicious food on the table.

“What did you bring me?” Sweet Pea asked.

“Breakfast burrito with extra bacon.”

“And this is why I love you.”

I grinned, pulling his tray over him. “Yeah, yeah, I know. You feel ready for tonight?”

“Nope.”

“Well, don’t try to sugar coat it on my account.” I laughed nervously.

“Normally, I wouldn’t give a second thought to going toe-to-toe with Wolf. Don’t get me wrong. He is a dangerous psychopath who could easily kill me—”

“Again, no need for flowery speech to spare my feelings.”

“You said you were one hundred percent in, remember?”

“You’re right, and I am, but I’m still freaked out, and knowing you’re afraid makes me want to freak out even more.”

“I’m not afraid, Callie. It’s worse than that. I feel helpless.”

I’d never seen Sweet Pea look so vulnerable before and couldn’t imagine ever loving him more than I did at that moment. I was also more terrified than I’d ever been.

“It’s my first sit down, and literally all I can do is sit down.”

“What exactly is a sit down?” I asked.

“Basically, it’s a meeting where two bikers can hash their shit out without the fear of getting shot to death.”

“Well, that sounds promising,” I said.

“Normally I’d agree with you, but Wolf and the code aren’t exactly best friends.”

“The code?”

“Outlaw bikers are... funny,” Sweet Pea said, with a chuckle void of humor.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“They spend their lives avoiding the rules and regulations of ‘the Man’ only to live under a self-imposed biker code of conduct, which has its own set of rules and regulations,” he replied.

“I assume the two rulebooks are quite different.”

“Sure. Break the Man’s law and you end up in jail. Break the code and you end up in a hole in the desert.”

“At whose hand?”

“Motorcycle clubs can only co-exist in an area if a certain level of cooperation happens between them. If one club or member continually steps over the line, other clubs will band together and deal with it. Sit downs are sacred and to spill blood at one, tends to bring hell from other clubs. War is bad for business and nobody wants to be on the cops’ radar, so most clubs fall in line...more or less.”

“So why does Wolf want war so badly?”

“I don’t think he does. This is personal for Wolf. It was Char’s vision to expand the Gresham Spiders’ territory into Portland, and then up into Washington. For him it was a business decision, and he didn’t expect any resistance from us.”

---