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“Already taken care of,” Dirty said. “You’ve not beenspending a lot of time with them, and we’ve got guys keeping an eye. If we feelthere is any threat, we’ll bring them to the club.”

“Thanks.” Petal sighed. “They’re still my family.”

Dirty knew he couldn’t keep secrets from her. “I …uh, I’ve been helping them out.”

Petal frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I wanted to help them and in doing so, I alsowanted to help you.”

“What did you do?” Petal asked.

“I might have spoken to your father’s supervisorand gotten him that promotion, and also I might be paying them to give themoney to you, to help them out.”

“Are you being serious right now?” Petal asked.

She sat up and lifted the blankets to cover herbody. This is why secrets had to be kept.

“I didn’t want you to go without, but also, yourparents are not bad people. You’ve always said that.”

“But … you don’t need to keep giving them money.”

“I know, that’s why I stopped,” Dirty said. “Anymoney they give you now is from them. They had a lot of debt and bills tocover. Your dad is capable of this promotion. Trust me.”

“Did he earn it?” Petal asked.

“Yeah, he earned it. The company had gotten hisloyalty straight out of high school. He’d worked his way up from the ground,and they refused to give him that final promotion and instead took assholecollege kids that didn’t know the job, and were gone within six months. Theyneeded someone in-house. I helped them see reason, that was all.”

Petal looked at him. “How do you have a say in afactory producing food?”

Dirty shrugged. “Let’s just say we like to investin a lot of different areas, and not in the same jar.”

“You have shares?”

Dirty looked at Petal.

“Wow, you are a man of mystery.”

“Don’t thank me. Thank Fritz, it was his idea tostart investing in certain local companies. Sometimes the payback isn’t large,but it is enough, you know.”

“I had no idea.”

“Not a lot of people know what we do. It wassmall, and it hasn’t brought us a lot, but it helps,” Dirty said.

They had a lot of members, and some of them likedto spend money. Colt, for example,likedto invest his share of the profits. This is what Warden did. They had a clubfund that helped the basic upkeep and running of the clubhouse, the bikes, andany bad shit that went down. If a member got hurt or killed, it came from theclub. They would pay the medical costs, funeral costs, and help the family. Theytook their responsibilities seriously.

Anyone associated with the club got the benefitsof the club. If someone was struggling, the club was there. That was the mainfund. Then they had the funds that were divided equally between all members.Some spent it, gambled it away, partied, and others built a house or saved themoney. Dirty saved his. He had no reason to buy a house, although he waslooking to buy now that he had Petal.

He didn’t gamble, and he may as well drink clubbeer. His expenses were a minimum. The only money he’d spent was paying herfamily to pay Petal. He wanted her to have whatever her heart desired.

“What else don’t I know?”

“There’s nothing else to tell. Everything youknow.” He reached out and stroked a finger down her cheek.

“I don’t know, I reckon there is a lot about you Idon’t know.”

He smiled. “All you’ve got to do is ask.”

“Have you ever owned a dog?” Petal asked after afew seconds’ pause.

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