Page 66 of Playing for Keeps

“Dumbass,” West grumbles at me. “You belong in the background until you grow up.”

“Are you angry because I’ll be president before you?”

West snarls at me, but I also get the feeling he wants to laugh at our father’s hysteria.

“You aren’t ready to be in charge,” Pa Emmett insists. “If the Charleston club shows up, is anything different now than when you made this deal with the Blood-Red Suns?”

“Court made the deal. I’m simply reaping its benefits.”

My father scowls hard at me. “You aren’t ready.”

“I think you’re making me sad.”

“You think?”

I squeeze my eyes closed and try to work up a few tears. When that doesn’t work, I shrug. “I’m too happy to be sad, but youaremaking me wonder if you love me as much as you love West.”

My brother instantly asks, “Why would he?”

Pa-Emmett snaps his fingers at my brother and points at the back door.

“I don’t understand,” West taunts. “Besides, if Val’s going to be a club president one day, I should sit in on this.”

“What’s this really about?” I ask my pa. “I feel like you understand how nothing’s about to change leadership-wise. Court plans to wait until West has his family in order before he retires. Ike is talking about wanting the VP spot. Well, his dad won’t drop that workload on his son when Oana is still new to the homestead and preggo. Is Duke the issue here?”

Pa-Emmett steps back and shakes his head. “He doesn’t want you front and center, either.”

“So, what’s got you fussing, Pa?” I ask in a feathery soft voice.

My father rolls his eyes. “That tone only works on me when it’s your ma.”

“Well, then, fess up to what’s bothering you.”

Pa-Emmett sits in his recliner and cradles his head like he’s stroking out on us.

“Growing up in Charleston, I felt like joining the local club was a no-brainer. I don’t regret the years I rode with those guys. I was their friend. But something was always missing.”

West and I don’t dare interrupt Pa when he’s in a sharing mood.

“Prison wasn’t fun, but I met Court there. Then, I came here, and things changed for me. Not just meeting your ma and becoming part of the homestead. The Rawkfist club was about to change, and I was right there in the mix.”

Pa-Emmett studies West and then me. Shaking his head, he sighs deeply as if the world’s problems teeter on his shoulders.

“Rawkfist is my club. I helped restructure it after the old guys retired. Court is a great leader, but he didn’t always know that. Donovan was leaving the law side of things and joining the rebel side. I watched everything come together. Rawkfist feels like my fourth kid.”

West smiles slightly, enjoying our pa’s story. Like me, he also realizes why Emmett’s heart is troubled.

“The Rawkfist club is our family’s legacy,” Pa-Emmett says and meets my gaze. “And soon you’ll be wearing the patch of another club.”

“Doesn’t Court plan to patch them over?”

“Probably not. Florida is the sticking point. He doesn’t want to have to supervise that place if something happens to Duke.”

“Wouldn’t I be the one who supervises it?”

“You’ve never even met Dallas McGraw. He won’t listen to you.”

“If we’re talking about a time when Duke is no longer calling the shots, I’d say we ought to cut Florida loose. They’re a self-sufficient club, but they don’t make the kind of money that streams up toward Basin Rock.”

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