Page 23 of My Dream

I held up a hand, not in the mood to relive the circus, and kept moving back toward the meeting room.

“Yeah,” Poppy giggled behind me, “definitely not good.”

When I stepped back into Church, I let the door swing shut behind me. “He gone?” Yarder asked.

I dropped into my seat with a huff. “I didn’t walk him to his car, but he’s not in the clubhouse anymore.”

“Good enough for me,” Throttle said with a chuckle.

“That guy is going to be a problem,” Dice grumbled and leaned back in his chair.

“He knows where we stand,” Yarder said with a shrug, like it was all settled.

“Yeah,” I grunted, “but you basically told him all he’s gotta do is sit back and wait for the excitement to happen.”

Cue Ball nodded in agreement. “And let’s be real, the kind of ‘excitement’ we’ve got brewing is the last thing we want on camera.”

“It’ll happen,” Yarder said and leaned back with the kind of calm that only came from having a plan. “But here’s the thing—we’re not going to sit around waiting for shit to hit the fan. We’re going to give them a show on our terms. We’ll write the script. Control the narrative. Keep them happy enough to stay out of the real shit.”

“Like what?” I asked, raising a brow.

“The Cakery,” Yarder said.

Aero jumped in. “Garage build?”

Yarder nodded.

“They’re solid ideas,” Throttle said, “but I don’t think baking cakes and fixing bikes are gonna make for riveting TV.”

Yarder smirked and pointed a finger at me.

I pointed to my chest. “Why are you pointing at me?”

“You and Fallon,” he said. “You’re going to be the other excitement.”

“What the hell does that mean?” I asked. Sure, we’d agreed on the cover story of Fallon and me being together, but I didn’t see how that turned into entertainment. All that was meant to do was explain away to Clay why she was here so he didn’t try to mess with her.

“Poppy was watching some trash TV the other night,” Yarder said, “and she kept talking about this one on-and-off couple. Ten other people on the show, but all she could talk about was them. You and Fallon are going to bethatcouple.”

Aero tipped his head and considered it. “Argue on camera, makeup on camera—audiences eat that shit up.”

Smoke raised a hand like he was in class. “Did we just cross into porn territory while I wasn’t paying attention?”

Pirate smacked the back of Smoke’s head. “No, dumbass. They won’t showthat. They’ll just insinuate it.”

Cue Ball grinned at Pirate. “Insinuate it, huh? That’s a big word for you.”

Pirate flipped him off. “I’ve got bigger words for you if you want to keep pushing your luck.”

“Enough!” Yarder snapped, his patience running thin. “Can we have one meeting where you idiots don’t act like five-year-olds?”

Dice shrugged with a grin. “We can try next time.”

Yarder ran his hands through his hair like he was two seconds away from snapping. “I need a vacation. When all this shit is over, Poppy and I are headed to the beach, and none of you assholes are invited.”

Stretch perked up. “Like the beach at Morris Pond, two counties over, or like a real beach beach?”

“Fucking Cancun, Stretch. Far away from all of you,” Yarder groaned. “Now, can we focus? Let’s talk about Russ. Once the cameras are rolling this afternoon, we can’t touch this topic anywhere but in here.” He turned to Throttle. “Talk to Dove. Iwant a list of every place they went as a family. Anywhere he might’ve talked about. We need to find him.”

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