Page 24 of Bond

Noni grins, taking the book from me, and Julia let out a little chuckle, “She’s perfect for the Crows; it’s like she’s Bren point two.”

I knew Bren was one of the Crows in the UK, but other than that, I had no idea why I reminded them of her. “She’s the one who always comes up with our business ideas,” Julia explains at my look of confusion. “Noni, Bella, Avy, and Bren are a force of nature when it comes to driving the different businesses the Crow MC owns.”

“Ah,” I reply with a nod, my attention drawn back to Noni, who was reading through my business proposal. I was so nervous that I started chewing on a nail.

“Relax,” Julia says, patting my leg, “it will all be fine.”

“This is really good,” Noni states, looking up from the notebook, excitement gleaming in her eyes. “Are these projections accurate?”

“Yeah,” I reply with a nod. “I did some research and picked an old acquaintance’s brain. Those are conservative estimates.”

“This is a lot of money to invest,” Noni comments. “Are you sure about it? You know how things can change on a dime in business; it’s a lot to lose if we fail.”

“We’re not going to fail,” I respond with certainty, “and yes, it’s a lot of money, but it’s blood money that I’ll be using. Jared was an idiot when it came to money, so I’ve been stashing away whatever money I could get my hands on for years.

“It’s been sitting in a bank, growing interest for four years. Initially, I was going to use it to get away from him after Daisy was born, but now, I’d like to use it for this instead. Nobody knows about it, not even my dad. It’s under an assumed name, and I opened it with fake identification, so I may need Skinny to work his magic, but it’s all there.

“Dad left everything he had to Daisy and me, so if it does fail, which it won’t because none of us are idiots, we’d still be okay financially because, like you say, we’re a team,” I assure Noni.

“In that case,” Noni grins, standing up and holding out her hand, “welcome to the Crow Ladies Consortium. All the Crow MC businesses are in our names, so that if the shit does hit the fan, we can still run them with no problems from the authorities. It’s one of the reasons we don’t always get told when the men are doing things; it’s best we don’t know anything about.”

There was no need for her to say more; coming from the life I’d lived, sometimes it was better not knowing. Standing up, I took Noni’s hand and shook it. A feeling of rightness flowed through me. It had taken a few years, unhappiness, and hard living, but I was finally home.

Noni squealed happily and danced on the spot, making Julia and me laugh. “I knew you’d be perfect as soon as I met you,” she exclaims, hands thrown up in the air, before getting serious again, “Let’s get this into a PowerPoint, and I’ll tell Bull to call Church so we can let the men know.”

A few hours later, my mind was reeling with figures and ideas. The will had been the easiest part of the afternoon. I’d had to tell Bond about the guardianship—not that he minded—and he seemed relieved that I’d thought about it. Rogue had been stunned, but from the hug I’d received, he’d been happy when asked to be Daisy’s guardian.

Daisy wasn’t christened yet. I was going to speak to Bond about that later, and if he was happy with it, I wanted to ask Rogue and Julia to be her godparents, it made the most sense. I’d like to wait until the situation with the Black Mambas had been put to rest because I’d like my dad to be there if he could.

We’d done Church later that evening after the children were in bed. It had been quick, filled with excitement and laughter. I’d given Skinny the bank details and passwords, and in less than ten minutes, the half a million dollars I’d managed to put away was in the Crow company account, ready for us to use.

Noni and I had a meeting booked tomorrow to get started on the first bit of the plan, which was building the slipway to launch the boats. The first tendrils of excitement filled my belly as we went through the PowerPoint, and everyone listened, throwing out ideas as we went.

They really did work as a team; nobody shot down an idea without explaining why. Just as we had to lay out why we thought it would work, including projections for the future. The revenue raised by this venture, along with the revenue from the photographic and game drives, would more than pay for itself within a year.

I was excited to be part of this, even with the threat of the Black Mambas hanging over my head.

Bond hadn’t mentioned anything to me about them, even though I knew that Bull was in constant contact with those who were watching them. For safety’s sake, I’d not spoken to my dad yet, but I’d been assured that he was comfortable and looked after. You never knew who was listening in or who to trust in the city. Not with how far-reaching the Black Mambas’ contacts were.

I had to have faith that they knew what they were doing and that it would all work out in the end. Bond had assured me that Bull would let us know if there was anything we needed to know about or if the situation changed.

It was hard not to worry, though; I knew what the Black Mambas were capable of. I hoped that Jason was so far gone on drugs that he’d forgotten about me and Daisy. Probably not, though. Not when the next shipment of drugs was due at the end of the month and none of Dad’s trucks would be there to pick it up.

I’d love to be a fly on the wall when he realised that his delivery hadn’t made it. He’d never checked, just assumed that Dad and I were so broken down and scared we’d do what he wanted. He’d not been entirely wrong about that either.

It would be interesting to see how Jason managed it. He was used to using violence to get what he wanted, and I almost felt sorry for whoever was supposed to be watching our old warehouse.

Almost sorry, but not completely!

CHAPTER 12

BOND

Church was loud but happy as everyone discussed Rochelle’s idea. Even if we’d only been together a short while, I knew my woman, and Rochelle was worried about the future. I knew this, and nothing I said would stop that worry until the threats to her and Daisy were all buried six feet in the ground.

While she was uncertain about the future, it didn’t stop her from living her life, and it made me proud that she was mine. Her asking Rogue and Julia to be guardians to our princess had cemented her place in everyone’s hearts without even trying. They would be perfect guardians. She was right; we needed to make sure that Daisy was looked after. I’d been happy to sign the will that Rochelle and Noni had the lawyer draw up. While I had no intention of anything happening to either of us, I also knew that life was uncertain, and situations happened that we didn’t always see coming.

I’d had no idea that she’d been thinking about starting a business with the Crows; why it surprised me, I had no idea. Our women were nothing if not enterprising. From when I’d joined the Crows back in the early two thousands, I’d always thought that the brothers were the muscle and the women the brains.

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