Page 29 of Out for Blood

“Careful, darlin’,” I said in her ear. “You start looking at me like that and I’ll take you against every wall in this damn place. I don’t care who’s watchin’.”

She chuckled before she pushed me out of the kitchen and resumed her duties. Hawk was busy with the prospects when I returned to the main part of the bar. Everything was in order.

“Where are the girls?” I asked Bear who came into the room with a crate full of alcohol.

“Chains took them out to the movies,” he said with a grin on his face. Chains hated going out, especially in the town.

“Why?”

“So they can get a surprise. Think the two of them are growing on the uptight fucker.”

I had to agree. I’d seen him with Shauna, playing pool, teaching her everything there was about the art of sinking more than one ball in a shot. I even saw him showing her darts at one point. The girls were settling into club life rather well, and so was Sheridan, it seemed. All the girls and old ladies’ liked her, and that was important in the club.

The bar was filling with people, friends of the club and club members alike as the party got underway. Sheridan was having a good time with Shona and some of the other girls, Hawk and the prospects were running around, looking busy but I knew they were slacking off. That was okay. Tonight wasn’t going to be about club business. It would be the last for a while, I knew that. The fucker, Sheridan’s ex, was a problem. I already knew he had his hooks in the city.

My city.

I had to put our stamp on Kilkenny again.

In the only way I knew how.

With blood and bullets.

Music pumped through the clubhouse just as I heard Ryleigh and Shauna coming through the front doors. Chains looked positively drained as he moved to the bar and barked at Kirby to get him a drink.

“Party girls are here!” Shauna exclaimed as she raised her hands in the air and started dancing with a giggling Ryleigh. The bunnies all escorted them into the clubhouse to start partying with them. I moved over to Chains who was downing his second shot in as many minutes.

“Looks like you’ve been at war, brother,” I smacked him on the back.

“They wanted to see a damn romantic comedy,” he growled. Kirby and I howled out in laughter as I bent over at the look on his face. “Those kids are menaces, man.”

“They’re hardly kids,” Shona said from the other side of the bar. “And they knew exactly what they were doing. I have to say, those brats are growing on me.”

I continued laughing as I moved toward the back of the club to check over things with Eagle. He was always here, his cottage on the outskirts of the compound, but he didn’t like the goings on inside. He’d hated it when my dad was in charge too, but they were different times, and this party wouldn’t be like every other one we had.

“Eagle,” I greeted the old man on the back porch. He looked up from his phone and nodded, putting the thing away.

“Damn grandkids insist on using these damn things,” he grumbled.

“How are they?” I asked him.

“Getting older,” he sighed. “Wiser. Hate to see it, but soon they’ll be grown up, just like Harvey.”

I knew he’d hated leaving his son with his ex-wife when we’d left Kilkenny. Harvey was younger than me and had an entire brood of kids that Eagle never got to see. It was hard for most of the guys. It took a lot for a woman to sign on to our way of life, especially when we were on the road so much. Being back would help, but it was still a tough life…a life Sheridan never wanted before.

I was still a little scared she would run when she saw what I was capable of. I hoped she’d never see it, but I knew to defeat the danger she was in, I was going to have to go full Ace.

“I see your woman’s kids have been running the boys ragged.”

I nodded. “Yeah, it’s entertaining as fuck.”

Eagle chuckled. “It’s been a while since they’ve been pushed to the limits. It’ll be good for them.”

“We’ll see how long it takes for them to crack.”

“Why are you out here with an old coot like me?” he asked. “Go inside, fuck your woman while the girls are distracted, and enjoy.”

“You can come inside, you know,” I said. “It’s not like the normal parties tonight.”

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