Page 88 of American Hellhound
The Saints prez gave him a small, knowing smile. “Guests first, then,” he said, and took a healthy sip. He nudged his VP – a thin, cagey-looking guy with a bad hairline – and he took a swallow of his own. “Alright,” the president said on a satisfied breath. “Like I said: we don’t mean to start nothing by coming here.”
“Like you said, right.” Ghost took a sip of his own beer. “If you know Roman, then I’m guessing you know my name.”
“Don’t go getting big-headed, but everybody in the underground knows who Ghost Teague is.” He grinned, wiped the condensation off his hand onto his jeans leg, and reached across the table to offer a shake. “Badger Enright.”
Ghost accepted the shake, testing the man’s strength. He had rough, working-man hands, riding calluses and badly-healed, once-broken fingers. There was a weakness, arthritis, probably. By the time he let go of his hand, Ghost knew he could beat him in a fistfight, if it should come to that. If this didn’t turn into an all-out club bloodbath.
“This is the mother chapter?” Ghost asked, inclining his head toward the rest of the Saints.
“Yeah. My hometown crew.” Badger sounded proud.
Ghost nodded. “How’d you come to know Roman?”
A cloud crossed the man’s face. Ghost could sympathize. “He was a prospect for a while. A hangaround before that.”
Ghost shouldn’t have been surprised, but was. It made sense that a man would have a hard time going back to the civilian life after being an outlaw for a time. Getting booted out of one club would send him running to another. But how did you go fromtheclub to a lesser one? That wasn’t Roman’s style. At least, not on its face.
“What happened?”
Badger sighed. “He didn’t agree with the way I was running things. Spoke out of turn more than was healthy.” He sent Ghost a look that said,you know how itis. “I warned him. And the next morning he was gone – and not alone. He stole a significant amount of club property.”
“What kind of property?”
Badger flashed a dark grin. “You don’t expect me to answer that.”
“No,” Ghost agreed. “So you, what, chased him all the way to the east coast?” That seemed extreme. If someone wronged you, you sent a Michael or a Mercy after him. You didn’t drag your whole crew along.
“I knew we’d be passing through your territory. I decided to bring the boys with me and turn this into a diplomatic mission. I’ve found negotiations work best face-to-face.”
Or – he didn’t trust anyone in his crew to handle things by-proxy. A micromanager.
“We’re negotiating?”
“I’d like to set up an east coast chapter. Thought you and I could talk about a location. There’s no reason we can’t be allies.”
Ghost shared a look with Walsh.
The Englishman’s brows twitched once in silent question. Did they mention the kids they’d met from Spring City?
Ghost recalled the feral gleam of fear in Boomer’s eyes. That boy had nothing to do with these men in his parking lot. Something was up, but there was no sense tipping his hand this early in the game.
And whatever it was, itwasa game.
This whole thing stank of Roman. And something more sinister. Something growing out of control.
Ghost said, “Yeah. I don’t see why not.”
Badger grinned.
~*~
Out in the real world – the non-club world – Ava had been on the receiving end of many definitions of the phrase “growing up.” Did growing up involve drinking, smoking, voting, having sex? Knowing right from wrong? Drinking and sex had never been what anyone would call determining factors in her life. In her mind, growing up had a lot to do with realizing there was a difference between what you wanted to do, and what you had to do. Sometimes, if you were lucky, those things coincided.
She’d styled herself a novelist when she was younger. Now, as an MC old lady and mother of three, she operated a literary blog – under a pen name, of course – and taught online writing workshops. She published the occasional short story and had a manuscript file buried on her hard drive, awaiting time and divine inspiration. She’d never be James Patterson, but it paid the bills. And most days, she had no idea how she would have juggled a more conventional job. She loved being home with her babies.
And everyone knew she did, which was why her very extended family tended to drop by unaccounted frequently. Some members were more welcome than others.
Ava jumped when the doorbell rang.No oneused the front door. The last person to do so had been Colin, and that had ended in fisticuffs.
