Page 19 of Levee

We, in turn, passed off those guns to our international arms dealer, Zayn. Who we were currently waiting to transfer the guns the Shady Valley crew and our own crew had procured.

“It’s his way,” I said, shrugging. “He likes to make an entrance. The first time we met him, he came in on an airboat.”

“Should we be watching the sky for a skydiver?” Raff asked. “A hot air balloon, maybe?”

I laughed that off but went ahead and checked the sky because, quite frankly, I wouldn’t put anything past someone as larger-than-life as Zayn.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. And I had a momentary surge of hope that it was maybe Jade texting me. Even if it had been a full week with no contact from her after the whole thing in the laundry room.

I’d wanted to hang out and walk back to her apartment with her. Maybe finish what we’d started.

But Huck had shot me a text, asking me where I was because I’d somehow forgotten that he’d texted us earlier that week to talk about a church meeting, since we had a few small weapons pick-ups to do ahead of Raff and Coach arriving.

Huck wasn’t exactly a hard-ass leader, but when he called for church, you showed up. Not even the excuse of being with my uncle would be good enough.

Jade had been preoccupied with her neighbors so I made my way out, dropped off the laundry, and headed back to Golden Glades.

I’d been kicking myself ever since, wondering if she’d felt slighted and that was why she hadn’t shot me a text about getting together again.

Which was why I was actually happy about Raff and Coach being in town, and needing to do a drop with Zayn. It meant we would almost certainly be hitting up Miami. Which put me close to my uncle’s place for me to ‘happen by’ the next morning since I was in the area.

“That can’t be him, can it?” Coach asked, nodding down the road.

“Jesus. How many guns did you tell him we brought?” Raff asked as the, I shit you not, party bus rolled up the road toward us.

Yeah, I was pretty sure that was Zayn. It was just his style. Ridiculous.

As expected, the bus rolled up next to us, the door opened, and there was the man in question.

“My friends!” he said, a champagne bottle lifted in one arm.

“Zayn, you don’t seriously want us to put the shit in the bus, do you?” I asked after looking around and realizing I was themost senior member of the club here—when the fuck did that shit happen—and therefore had to ask the grown-up questions.

“Of course not,” Zayn said, that enigmatic smile not falling for a second as he came down the steps, then gestured behind us. “Didn’t you see my men?”

We all turned in unison, watching as no fewer than six men appeared out of fucking nowhere.

“Yeahhhh,” I said, looking at Raff, Coach, Coast, and Kylo. “How about we leave this little part out when we report back to Huck?” I suggested, watching everyone nod in agreement.

No one wanted to fess up to the president that we’d somehow missed that many suspicious men when we were about to do a big drop to Zayn.

“They will handle it from here. And we,” Zayn said, heading back to the bus, “party.”

“Fuck yeah, we do,” Coast agreed, taking the bottle from Zayn, and starting to chug it as he moved up into the bus.

“I like him,” Zayn declared as Kylo, Raff, and Coach followed suit.

I was about to follow them all inside when a figure moved out from behind the bus, making me pause.

Daniyal was the antithesis to Zayn. Where Zayn was extravagant, extroverted, and wholly unserious, his right-hand man was understated, reserved, and sometimes grave.

The older guys in the club said that the strong, stocky man with the dark hair and skin and the almost jarringly gray eyes was clearly some kind of former special forces agent from an overseas organization since he had cut up his fingerprints or some shit like that.

Honestly, I could see that.

I’d been with the club for a few years now. I think we’d been connected with Zayn pretty much all of that time. But I’d never heard Daniyal speak.

I knew better than to ask him where the hell he had appeared from. The man slunk around like a cat. One moment he wasn’t there, the next he was.

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