Page 24 of Tank

“Accidentally ran into Old Man Matheson on my bike,” Lovely reads out loud.

“He would have deserved it too. That Old Man Matheson is a total asshole,” Blanche loudly adds, causing Lovely to gasp.

Both of them are sitting side by side on the small two seater couch, Nat, Ana and their babies are sitting on the other. Chewy is sitting on the floor cross legged with Chomper on her lap. Remy is perched on a bar stool between the two couches and Mama Debs is on Pops’ knee in the recliner.

“Blanche is right. He is an asshole,” Pops adds over a yawn.

“Can I ask you all a question?” I say, looking at eight pairs of eyes. Or sixteen eyeballs. Seventeen if we count that I can only see one of Rosie’s, the other side of her face nestled into her mom. Who has a fantastic rack. I wonder if it was like that before Rosie?

“Nah, they were way smaller. Ana here has an amazing rack both pre and post Junior.” Nat says, giving me a wink. Dag nabbit, why inner monologue, why!?

“Oh yeah, she does too! Here, look, poke her in the boob,” Chewy says in what I’m guessing is her excited voice. “They feel amazing.” Ana slaps her hand away and Chewy frowns at her.

“You wanted to ask us a question,kotiro?” Mama Debs asks gently, getting everyone back on track.

“Oh, yeah. Were you all friends before becoming Ol Ladies, or did you become Ol Ladies and then friends?”

“I didn’t have any friends when I first got here. Then Rider and Wire became my besties and Rhodie became my lover,” Chewy says, side eyeing Ana.

“Ugh! Stop referring to him like that. It grosses me out.”

“Why? He is my lover.” Chewy answers in her flat voice.

“ANYWAY, I met Chewy when she freed me from a trafficking ring,” Nat says. Wait, what? “And Remy and I werefriends because we came from the same MC.” Remy nods in agreement, smiling at her friend.

“I met Chewy when the MC and Bratva were working together,” Ana adds.

“I met all these women pretty much at the same time. Including Lovely. I didn’t even know she existed until she broke out of Eden’s Keep.” Hold up, aren’t they sisters? Between that and Nat’s revelation, we are definitely circling back to this conversation.

“And now we’re all part of Chewy’s girl gang,” Lovely beams.

Chewy stabs her finger in her direction. “Yes! We need to induct Mira into the gang! Pops?”

“On it girl.” Pops answers in his rough voice, like he’s been gargling rocks all his life.

“Wait, what are you planning?” Remy asks, looking a little worried about the whole thing.

“A surprise. Trust us,” Chewy says and I can see everyone does not, in fact, trust them.

“Every time we let you and Pops organize girls’ night we get into trouble,” Remy replies.

“Oh it was one time I hired police strippers. You make out like I hire them every girls’ night,” Chewy huffs.

“I double dog dare you to. With the brothers being taken in all the time and Mira’s body parts they’ll be all on edge. Police strippers would be the perfect way to settle everyone down,” Blanche says with a sly grin.

“You really think so?” Chewy asks, head tilted.

Blanche nods her head vigorously up and down while Ana and Remy try to hold her still. From where I sit I can see Pops’ phone screen and it looks like he’s researching male strippers in the area.

I’m very intrigued and kinda want to see how this turns out, but my brain is screaming that we should be working onthe matter at hand. I don’t really want any more body parts turning up. Especially not here, they’ve already got a mystery person trying to frame them for things. An evil doer trying to destroy what the men have built here. An unscrupulous person, a formidable foe that we’ll all have to pool our resources and fight on all fronts to keep the MC safe. Oh that’s good stuff, I quickly note that down.

Putting my pencil down I turn to look at the people still arguing about police strippers. After a long time alone, and a lifetime of very few real life friends, I’m really hoping I can keep these women. I peek around and note they haven’t paused their bickering, meaning my thoughts must have stayed in my head that time. Yay for me! I don’t want them to have to be my friend just because my brain can’t use an inside voice. Anyway, I shake that off and turn back to the whiteboard, racking my brain for other weird happenings. I guess I could add the time I met Tank, so I do. Only the incident, not the actual meeting. The meeting is something I like to keep to myself. For a short moment in time that big, blonde sexy biker man was part of my life. I mean, he kinda still is, but I enjoyed having him all to myself. Men like him don’t look twice at a woman like me, so to have him to talk to, and then help me home, well, that was the highlight of the year, maybe even decade. I may have even bashed out a novella with a sexy blonde convict and tall, curvy woman. Shoot, I better get back to the task at hand. It’s bad enough these people have been lumped with my crazy fan. They don’t need Brain Mira drooling over their quiet MC brother at the same time. I take a breath and think.

“Oh! I remembered another one!” I definitely say out loud and write ‘Accidentally killed a chicken escaping from a bad date’, the whiteboard pen making an annoying squeaking sound.

“No, like seriously, what is your life? How does all this weird stuff happen to you?” Nat asks.

“Did you take it hostage, threaten to kill it and when the bad guy called your bluff you were forced to kill the chicken?” Chewy asks, almost looking more excited than when she sees her gator.

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