Page 71 of Forty

“I invited him, but he declined.”

See? He’s smart.

“Dizzy drop you off?” I nudge Fay-Lee’s side. My opinion of her has changed these past two weeks. She’s good people.

I really like that Nevaeh’s making a friend. She doesn’t think she’s good at it, but she enjoys people. Me, I don’t care. But I like her happy. She bounces and giggles when she’s happy. It’s cute as hell.

“Yeah. I told him if he kept me locked in the house one more day, I’d break out.”

“It’s dangerous out there now.” I say it for both their benefits.

“No shit, Sherlock. A Raider tried to kidnap me.” Fay-Lee swings her foot and whacks me in the side. “I almost got murdered.”

My blood runs cold. The Renelli problem is close to solved. Heavy’s in contact with Dominic Renelli, and he says it’s personal between his moneyman Carlo and Nevaeh. He wants a call if his guy shows up so he can talk him down. He’s got no interest in Nevaeh outside of keeping his man out of trouble.

The Raiders are a different story. Somehow, they got Nevaeh in their sights. Most likely they had a man on me who followed me to her place from Broyce’s that first night. The Raiders aren’t businessmen. They’re a cult set on doing Knocker Johnson’s bidding, and Knocker came out of lockup a madman. Nevaeh’s not safe until they’re neutralized.

I lean over, let my weight press her back, and I whisper in her ear. “You stay inside or out back. Promise.”

“Promise.” She wiggles her ass and blood floods to my cock. “Ease up.”

“Later, when Fay-Lee leaves, we’ll drive out to the clubhouse, and we’ll do some target shooting. You need a gun.”

“That’s a terrible idea,” Fay-Lee pipes up from the kitchen. She got up to get herself some chips.

The cabinets are stocked now. I had Nevaeh use a delivery service. I think she ordered alphabetically and got distracted. We’ve got apples, bananas, chips, doughnuts, and eggs. And no meat, milk, paper towels, et cetera.

“How so?” I back up, sit on my ass, and draw Nevaeh into my lap. She nuzzles her head in the crook of my neck. “Nevaeh and I used to shoot cans up at the reservoir all the time. She’s a decent shot.”

“Not talking about the gun. Talking about the clubhouse. Steel Bones is not exactly friendly toward your woman, Forty. You know that.”

I do, and it pisses me off. Harper Ruth cheated on Charge. Grinder cheats on Ernestine on the regular. Wall cheated on Mona back in the day, took him four years to fix his fuck up. It’s bullshit, and it’s because Heavy won’t give her the nod. The club follows his lead.

When this shit with the Raiders is over, Heavy and I are gonna have a reckoning. He’s my brother. But he ain’t my big brother.

“They’ll have to get over it,” I say.

“You want to hang out at the clubhouse?” Fay-Lee asks Nevaeh.

I can feel her tense. I wrap my arms around her middle. She nips at my collarbone. “Not particularly, but I’m sick to death of this house. No offense, Forty. Besides, we won’t be there for long. There’s not gonna be that much light left when we get there.”

She falls quiet. I wait.

“It would feel good to shoot shit,” she finally says. “Okay. Let’s go.” She pries my arms loose and hops up.

I didn’t really mean right now. I wanted to haul her upstairs and work out this hard on until she cums on my cock. Get a shower. Eat.

But Fay-Lee is here. I don’t care, but Nevaeh wouldn’t want to be rude. If we go to the clubhouse, I can save Dizzy a trip up the hill. I can also get Nevaeh a piece better suited to her hand. All I have in the house are square butt revolvers, and she needs something smaller.

“All right, ladies. Get in the Jeep.”

Takes ‘em both a good half hour to find their shoes or whatever, but by five, we’re pulling into the clubhouse. The parking lot’s about half full.

Most our men are out looking for Rab or getting some Zs, so there’s been more women around the clubhouse these past two weeks. This is painfully obvious when we walk into the commons, and two dozen females either turn their noses up at Nevaeh or turn their backs.

That’s the last time that’s happening.

I make note of which old ladies decided to make their opinions known so I can beat their old men up later.

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