Page 17 of Eagle

“Yeah. Guess she was helping her pack or something.”

I pushed my fingers through my hair. “Yeah, well, I didn’t ask her to leave.”

Falcon huffed and rolled his stool to grab something behind him.

“What? Seriously, we left the wedding, and Lacy tells me she’s moving out of my room.”

“And this was a total fucking surprise I’m sure.” Sarcasm dripped from his words.

I took a big chug of the blue drink. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

He shook his head as he started setting up his tray for his appointment. “Look man, your hookups are none of my business, but she stuck it out longer than I expected is all I’m saying.”

“You think this is my fault?”

“It is.”

This mother fucker.“You know what, I don’t need a lecture from you. I need to go setup my shit.”

“I wasn’t lecturing you. You asked a question. I answered. Don’t ask if you don’t wanna know.”

“So you’re the authority on women now that you’re married, is that it?”

“I’m the authority on Daisy. And I fucking pay attention to her. Therefore, I know that this is your fault. You can either fix it, or get over her. Daisy will chill out eventually, but right now, to her, you’re public enemy number one.”

“I’m yourbrother.”

“And always will be. But this isn’t club business. It’s her friend. You made your bed, now lay in it or whatever the fuck they say.”

I jerked the door open and went back to my booth.What a fucking day and it’s not even lunchtime.

To pass time and try to keep my mind occupied, I cleaned my booth. Like a deep clean, down to the baseboards. Finally, I saw it was almost time for my first appointment of the day so I washed my hands and prepped the tray. It was a simple touch up to an older tat for Jackal. The color had faded, and he wanted to brighten it back up.

It was a few minutes past the time he was scheduled, so I went up front to see if he called, but he was standing there looking at photos of our work on the wall. “Hey man, didn’t know you were here,” I said as I looked over at Daisy.

She just shrugged and Jackal smirked when I waved him back. “She’s full of sunshine,” he said as he sat and took his shirt off. The work was on his bicep and up his shoulder. He was older than us, closer to Raven’s age, but he was still in good shape. He was a nomad, but he’d been around the last couple of months since shit went down.

“She’s full of something, that’s for sure.”

“Hey, be careful what you say about an Old Lady. You youngsters.”

“Okay, old man. Thanks for the tip. Since when were womenso in control of everything?”

He laughed, the faint lines around his eyes crinkling. “Boy, as much as we try to act like they ain’t shit, they run it all. The good ones do, anyway. You’ll do well to remember that.”

Everyone has a fucking opinion today. “You don’t have an Old Lady, so you must have not come across too many good ones,” I said as I disinfected his arm then got my ink ready while it dried.

“I’ve had some good ones, but none ready for my lifestyle. It’s different when you don’t belong to a chapter. Even when you do, she better understand how it works. Some say they do, but when shit gets real, well, they take off.”

“Mmhhmm,” I agreed. But honestly, Lacy seemed to understand the life better than Daisy. Daisy had a lot of questions and fought Falcon on some things. Lacy just helped me clean up my cuts and was there when I needed her. She was a good one.

“Any new info?” I asked as I worked. Jackal had been staying in town to help us find Raven’s killer and see if we could get a lead on this new crime ring that seemed to be snatching women.

“Nope. But Hawk mentioned going out this weekend.”

I contained a moan. I just wanted to talk to Lacy and get some sleep. But if the prez wanted to go out, we’d go out. “Just keep me posted.”

“Hey, how’s that little pocket warmer of yours?” he asked.