Page 14 of Property of Rio

My face heats up because Ididtell him that during one of the rodeos we attended. He had barked at a stableboy when he saw what he was going to feed Starlight, then told him that unlesshe was directly asked, he was to keep his hands off of my horse. Since neither Pancho nor Luis go with me since they have responsibilities here at the ranch that can’t be ignored, it was Rafe who took care of my girls.

“No, you’re sometimes blunt to the point of being brutal,” I admit. “Not that it’s a bad thing,” I hastily add, not wanting to pick any arguments with him. Sometimes it can be a touchy subject with him. “I know Paps was the same way, especially around the club.”

“So, if you were cramping my style as you call it, do you honestly think that I would keep my mouth shut?” he queries.

“No,” I slowly say, tucking my lips into my mouth, sure I’m about to fall into a trap of some sort.

“Good, then it’s sorted. You’ll stay here. If there’s shit you need from your place, I’ll run you over later, okay?”

My head’s spinning because Iknewhe would do something like this, and I fell for it anyhow. Huffing out a breath in exasperation, I decide to focus on my food. I’ll give him the good ol’ silent treatment. At least until I’m finished eating because I honestly can’t keep from talking to him for very long.

Several long minutes pass before he chuckles and states, “The silent treatment, huh?”

I can’t help it, I burst out laughing. “You big jerk! I knew you’d figure out a way to get what you wanted, and I felt like I was falling into a trap of sorts with all of your questions. I was right, too!”

He shrugs then takes my empty plate and stacks it on top of his. “You act like you think you’re a burden to me, Issy, and that is sofar from the truth it’s not funny. Now, I have some club shit to do. Can I trust you to stay out of trouble?”

“Yeah, I think I might go and rest for a bit, maybe make a list of things I want from my place,” I reply. “Even if we can’t go until tomorrow, it’ll be easier to have one, so I don’t have to keep going back and forth. But, Rafe, I really don’t have to stay in your room.”

“How about we table this discussion for now and talk about that later, Issy. I really do need to take care of some stuff for the club,” he says, shaking his head.

“Fine,” I grumble. “But don’t think I’m gonna forget!”

EIGHT

Rio

I’m back in the underground bunker finalizing the counts for East Texas when my phone rings. Sighing, I put my clipboard down and pull out my phone to see my cousin and president of the East Texas chapter of the King’s, Riptide, is calling.

“Hey, Brother,” I say once the line connects. “Wrapping up the counts now. Had an issue we had to take care of here before I could get things wrapped up.”

“Yeah, heard about that, Rio. Anything we can do to help?” he asks.

“We’ve found one of the assholes who thought they could touch what was mine, but we’re looking for the Mojave Devils fucker that was involved as well. Pokey’s running some facial recognition software through the web or some other platform shit to see if he can spot him on any of the cameras coming or going. So far, we’ve tracked him heading back toward where they hide,” I reply. “Do me a favor, have Booker reach out to Poke so he can put out the word. Our fucking truck is still MIA, whichbaffles me seeing as we’ve reported it stolen. You’d think the cops would put that shit out there, y’know?”

Most of our vehicles that we use on the ranch, have been specially modified since sometimes, it’s better to handle things as stealthily as possible. Brothers will ride in front of and behind the truck, but not close enough to be connected. That way, if the driver of the truck gets stopped, we know about it and can step in if necessary.

“I’ll shoot him a text now. You gonna have a problem with the wash?” he questions.

I chuckle then retort, “Have we ever?”

“Not so far. Got another one coming in two weeks,” he tells me.

“No problem, send Pokey the deets,” I say.

“You and Issy ever gonna make things official?” he asks. Nosey fucker.

Since his father was originally part of our chapter and both of us were groomed to be presidents at some point, he opted to take over the East Texas charter, which works for both of us since it meant we weren’t battling over who took the mantle for Paps. While I trust my brothers implicitly, I know that with Riptide being blood related, he’s got my back in a different way.

“Working on it, fucker,” I growl out. “She’s so fucking hardheaded sometimes it makes me wanna scream!”

His laughter booms through our connection, causing my lip to curl. “About time she ran you through your paces.” Then he grows serious and asks, “Need me to come down to talk to Gage?”

Yeah, no. That fucker’s all mine as far as I’m concerned. “Naw, we’ve got it.”

“If you need me, just call.”

“You got it. Let me wrap this shit up so the guys can get on the road. With one truck down, they’re having to do double duty.”

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