Page 54 of Collect the Pieces

Margot

After dinner,a group of guys head out into the woods to start the bonfire. Others stick around to help clean up the dining room. Trinity and a few other women pack up food and drinks to go. Parents gather up their kids and all the supplies that go with them.

I curl my hand around Jigsaw’s arm. “Do you mind if we run upstairs for a minute? I want to drop off my purse and maybe grab a sweatshirt.”

“Yeah. Let’s go.” He stops to say a few words to Rooster and then we leave the dining room.

“Shelby gave me a short tour.” I draw a line with my hand. “Well, of this hallway.”

“You all right?” he asks. “Dinner was okay?”

“It wassogood.” I rub my stomach.

“No, I mean everything else.”

“Oh, yeah.” I lower my voice as we climb the stairs. “I just didn’t want to…you know, insult anyone accidentally.”

“Rav had it coming.” He turns right at the top of the stairs with the familiarity of someone who’s spent a lot of time here.

“Do you stay here a lot?” I ask.

He stops in front of one of the doors. “Not alot. More often, lately. I don’t always get a room near the presidential suite, though.” He tilts his head toward the door at the end of the hall and winks at me.

“Is that my doing?” That seems to be what he’s implying.

“Maybe. The rooms at this end always belonged to officers or were saved for important out-of-town guests. The ones at the other end share a communal bathroom.”

“Ohhh.”

“But now that most of the officers have their own houses on the property, they usually assign these to downstate officers or couples.”

“That’s sweet.” On second thought, though, “A lot of organizing and planning has to go into assigning all those rooms every time there’s a party up here.”

“Trinity and Hope take care of most of it, I think.” He shrugs as if he’s never given it much thought. “At our place, Lilly oversees room assignments now.”

“Do all of the wives have a role in the club that sort of matches their husband’s?”

He frowns and tilts his head. Oh, boy. If being with the road captain means I’m supposed to handle anything trip-related, the club’s in for a rude awakening. I’ve always taken my car to a mechanic. I don’t ride and I’m scared to evensiton a motorcycle. Considering he’s the one who maintains the vehicles, plans, and leads the club’s trips, I’d be absolutely useless.

“Interesting question,” Jigsaw finally answers. “From what I understand, Trinity already ran the house before she and Wrath got married. But with him being the enforcer, it makes sense she does that stuff. And I think she just really likes planning and organizing things.”

“That’s what I’m good at.”

He gives me a soft smile. “I’m happy you’re thinking about stuff like that but tonight is just about you having fun and getting to know everyone.”

Why do I always have to overthink things?

He punches the code Trinity gave him earlier into the silver keypad. A green light flashes. Jigsaw turns the knob and opens the door.

“Wow, I’ve seen hotels that aren’t as nice as this.” A large king-sized bed takes up one whole corner of the room. Our bags are on a chair in another corner. But it’s a silver basket on the nightstand next to the bed that grabs my attention.

“What’s that?” I ask.

Jigsaw glances at it and frowns. “Not sure. I didn’t get a chance to look when I came up earlier.”

I move closer to the nightstand. It’s not actually a basket, more like a miniature steel tub. A sheet of white paper sticks up in the center. I pluck it out.

Welcome.I glance at Jigsaw. “I guess it’s a gift basket?”

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