Page 39 of Rook

“The original crew, no. But me, Judge, Coach, and Colter all came from there. Slash keeps an eye on who is getting out when, then runs the file by the rest of the club to see if we all agree on anyone.”

“What is the decision based on?”

“Part of it is skill set. Obviously, a hacker is valuable. And Colter was ex-military, so he’s someone who knows his way around weapons, can fight, can follow orders, and knows a thing or two about loyalty and brotherhood. Judge worked for an organized crime crew before he got locked up. That kind of thing.

“But we also just go with people who we think we can chill with. And we give a shit about what crimes they’ve committed. No drugs, no crimes against women or children, that sort of thing.”

“The club cares about that?” Tessa asked, seeming almost confused by that fact.

“Yeah. I mean, if someone has been clean for a long time, that’s different. But addiction would be… problematic for many reasons.”

“I meant the… crimes against women thing.”

“Of course we care about that.”

“That’s not, you know, common with clubs. At least, it doesn’t seem that way.”

“It’s common with our clubs. Goes back two generations with the mother chapter. That place is full of badass women. Paramilitary leaders, bomb experts, all that kind of shit.”

“Kind of like Murphy and Morgaine?”

“Exactly. All our girls are badasses in their own way too. And we all respect the fuck out of them.”

“Doesn’t that kind of clash with the whole… clubwh—clubgirlthing?”

“Not really, no. We’re not abusing the club girls. We’re not taking advantage of them or promising anything to them. We all know we are just having fun. We all want that. That’s all it is.”

“But don’t the club girls get jealous or possessive? Their hierarchy has to be—”

“What hierarchy?”

“The club girl hierarchy.”

“They have no hierarchy. The club girls are only around when we have a party going on. They’re not just hanging about all the time.”

“Oh.”

This wasn’t the first time I wondered about her life before, about the clubs she’d been around, about the men and women there.

From what I’d heard so far, it sounded like everything and everyone was toxic. Which made sense with the knee-jerk trauma responses I’d seen from her already a few times.

Maybe, eventually, she’d feel comfortable telling me more about it.

But that day was not today.

“You’re planning on working today?” I asked.

“Oh, uh, yeah. I like having something to do. But I will make sure I’m done around five or six, just so I can be here if Nancy shows up again.”

“Sounds good. We can order in.”

“Is this town even big enough for take-out?”

“Well, we have… the diner.”

“Do they have curly fries?”

“They do.”

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