Page 81 of The Good Girl

“Apparently, my old lady got some people in town to talk.”

“Of course she did. Her daddy’s a preacher. She must’ve inherited some of his ‘confess-your-sins’ magic to make people want to spill their guts to her,” Toot says with a grin.

“You keep your sins away from my woman, Toot.”

His grin turns cocky, but he doesn’t say anything.

“You believe them?” Kruger asks, nodding to the door and changing the subject.

“My gut says they’re telling the truth. And if they don’t know, then my guess is most of the others don’t either.”

“Not sure you’ll have to deal with Khan when they hear the truth. They’ll probably handle him themselves. He’s made a fucking joke out of all of them.”

“On the bright side, I don’t think you’ll have a problem changing the leadership,” Mac says. “I was worried they’d fight for him. But if they lose faith in him when they find out that everything he stands for is a lie—and that he’ll turn on them in a heartbeat to suit his needs—they’ll vote him out in a second. The only question is, who’s gonna take his place?”

“Nobody,” I answer. “Not from here, anyway. I want the men to follow the rules and respect their president, but this just shows that following someone blindly isn’t the way to go. We’re an MC, not a fucking cult. Do you think G won’t call me out? Or Midas or Hannibal? Even you three would question mydecisions if you felt you needed to. There’s a difference between loyalty and stupidity, but these guys are fucking sheep.”

“Do you know who you want to fill the role? Because whoever you choose will have a hell of a time. They’ll need thick skin. After a betrayal like this, it makes you question everyone. Trust me, we all felt it after what went down with Bear,” Kruger states.

“Oh, I know.”

He looks at me for a moment before cursing. "Shit, right. Sorry, Havoc. I forgot."

“No worries. But yeah, I have someone in mind. I just don’t know if he’ll go for it yet. I need to think about it some more. This place needs to be whipped into shape, and the last thing I want to do is put someone in and then have them change their mind six months down the line.”

I’m saved from saying anything else when there’s a knock on the door. I turn and pull it open.

“Hello, caveman.” Nevaeh grins before jumping into my arms.

She wraps her legs around me and holds me tight as I carry her inside. Crane follows us in, and I hear him close the door behind us.

“You okay?” I ask, looking at her.

She lifts her head scrunches her nose. “I think I messed up, and I’m scared you’ll be mad.”

I brush her hair over her shoulder and sit down with her in my lap. “I can’t promise I won’t get mad, but I swear I’ll never take it out on you. The last thing I want is for you to be scared to tell me things. I'd never hurt you, you hear me?”

I know the others are listening, but I don’t give a fuck. The last thing I want is for Nevaeh to be afraid of me.

She nods.

“You won’t ignore me, though, right?” she asks softly.

I frown, wondering where this is coming from. “Cupcake, I couldn’t ignore you if I tried.” I make a mental note to revisit this later, but now’s not the time or the place.

“Okay.., so...um…I told them you were planning on getting rid of Khan and Driller.” She bites her lips and tenses, but doesn’t say anything else.

I look at Crane, who’s watching Nevaeh with a soft look. “What happened?” I ask him.

“Folks are scared,” he says. “Like Mac and Toot said, and the ones that aren’t are pretty fucking pissed. The club basically told the town to fuck off and said the missing girls aren’t their problem. When they pointed out that some of the girls were last seen here, they were threatened. Folks want the club gone. There’s definitely no love lost there, that’s for sure.”

“They call the cops?” Kruger asks.

“Not sure if the sheriff’s on the club’s payroll, but the guy’s near retirement and likes to ignore anything that might actually involve work.”

“So, no help from him, then.”

“If it’s the same guy that was here when I left, then no. Jenkins was a lazy bastard back then. If he’d done any work, he would’ve known I wasn’t guilty.”

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