Page 6 of Cocked Hammer

“I got the others boxed up,” Alek called into the back, pulling me back to the here and now, and the bag of frozen mice smacked the hard floor.

“Shit,” I murmured, quickly picking them back up and headed out to deliver them to the insanely good-looking biker.

The two men and Alek were at the counter, almost huddled together. Whatever they were saying over the box of live mice was very hush-hush. Clearly, it was something they didn’t want me to overhear.

“Your pinkies.” I cleared my throat, stepping behind the counter, and totaled his purchase on the register.

“You’re as sweet as sugar,” the man said with a wink as he paid in exact change.

I bit my tongue to stop my mouth from blurting out what was on my mind. His statement was so unbelievably far from the truth. I was the opposite of sugar. I was vile, wretched poison, and every person I talked to suffered.

“Sledgehammer.”

“Excuse me?” I coughed, trying to pinpoint what kind of code he was speaking in right now.

“My name is Sledgehammer.” He smiled wickedly and hesitated, waiting for me to respond. Only, I couldn’t remember how to speak words. There were too many questions swishing around in my head to sift only one through and grab it.

This was ridiculous. I was behaving as if I had never been around a good-looking man before. He was sin and sex, and it was as if I starved for the danger radiating off of him. It was unbelievably stupid of me. If I was right about him, I shouldn’t want anything to do with him. Given my family, the only thing that would come of mixing the two would be chaos. None of that logic changed my mind, though. Luckily, most of this encounter was more than likely in my head, and I probably didn’t have anything to worry about. It was maddening to overthink everything, but it was who I was, and there wasn’t anything I could do to change it.

“Lina,” Alek spat out. The disgust in his voice didn’t go unnoticed by any of us. I couldn’t see my own facial expression, but both the men’s eyes burned with hate as they darted their gazes over to him.

“Alek,” Sledgehammer growled in a deeper voice than he’d used since they’d entered the store, and my insides shook. Perhaps I’d misjudged him. He could be the one who was a match for my family. Alek bit the inside of his cheek as I stomped on top of his foot before he had the chance to say anything else.

“Thank you. Have a lovely day, Sledgehammer.” I smiled, still digging as hard as I could on his shoe with mine. “Sir.” I nodded to the other man.

“Sleeper,” he articulated the very short word.

5

Sledgehammer

“Everything seemed normal. Well, as normal as a pretend business can be, I guess,” Sleeper filled our brothers in as soon as we got back to the clubhouse. “Sledge might have found an in if we need it, though.”

“I did?” I asked, having no idea what he was referring to exactly. “Buying mice for Ezzy?”

“Yeah, that and Lina. She clearly wants to get hammered.” His eyebrows waggled playfully.

I didn’t deny it because being coy wasn’t who I was at all. “Might have to give it to her,” I admitted, and as the words passed through my lips, they sounded wrong. She wasn’t a club whore, and never would be if I had anything to do with it. Would I fuck her? One hundred percent without ever second-guessing it, but the way she carried herself, one thing was without question: she had more self-respect than any sweet ass to ever darken our clubhouse door. Her curves swaying back and forth as she walked through the store was an image stuck on replay in my head. The woman was beyond gorgeous, and it took everything in me not to convince her how good of an idea it would have been to go into the alley to fuck.

Ghoul’s hands flipped outward with his palms upward. “Enough about Sledge’s dick. So, we still don’t know jack shit about shit, right?”

“Guess so.” I shrugged and gritted my teeth, wishing I had asked more questions.

“Sounds as if a visit to Monty Cat is in order. Sac could grab the prospects and head down to the docks, see if he could get something from him,” Spider suggested.

“Fuck,” Sac complained, pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and pointer finger. “That wouldn’t be an easy visit, brother.” He told the truth, and we were all aware of it. Monty Cat was a slimy fucker, but he was good to the club.

“What did you expect when you fucked his girl?” Spider interjected with a hint of humor in his tone.

“To get off?” Sac laughed. “She came to me, and who am I to deny a pussy in need?” He had a point. Sac and I were known for the amount of ass we pulled into the club, only I had the ability to fuck someone without the perpetual urge to tell every person I talked to. Not that it never came into conversation with me because it frequently did, just not as often as it did with Sac.

“We need to approach this from every angle until we find the truth. A war with the Russians isn’t one we want, but if they brought it to us, get ready to enlist brothers,” Wily piped up for the first time tonight and saluted us for added effect.

“Sledgehammer…” Ghoul turned his attention to me, his fingers running the length of his beard.

“Boss?”

“I want you to see if Lina knows anything. Get close to her.”

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