Page 9 of Stripping Keys
“And they agreed?”
“Of course, they did. They’re not stupid men.” Calyx scoffs and jerks his chin toward the door. “Come on inside, Mar, let’s get some coffee in you, get this done, and you can crash out in one of the guest rooms.”
“I’ll take the coffee, but I’m not crashing here. I’ll go back to the hotel,” I mutter, stepping past him.
“Doubt you’d make it to the hotel.” As softly as the words are on his lips, I almost question if I heard him correctly or not.
Regardless, I brush them off and head inside.
Time to get this done with and hope like hell there’s no more surprises in store for me.
Calyx follows behind me. Close behind me. Guess to make sure I head for the kitchen and not for any other way to escape this meet altogether.
Knowing there’s no way to get out of this, I head for where West is standing against the counter and the coffee he’s holding out toward me.
“No reason to fight it, Mar. Leave the bitch out of this one, just like if it were just another day of us meeting with Calyx,” he states, eyes locked with mine. “You playing bitch doesn’t need to happen here.”
“You two sit down,” Calyx orders quietly and takes a seat himself.
West moves to take a seat that leaves me seated between him and Calyx.
Interesting.
Not really.
He’s got a way of making sure I feel safe and secure when I’m not feeling that way in the least.
Across the table sit Nines and Blow. Both men were watching me closely. Eyes assessing. I could see the wheels turning in their heads. They had a lot of questions, none of those questions were any I wanted to answer.
To make matters worse, I knew what they saw when they looked at me right now. I thought this meeting was just with Calyx or maybe his team. It’s why I didn’t put makeup on while we crashed out at home. I washed what I’d had on off and moisturized. Meaning now they could see the scar on my face I’m always careful to hide.
I just hope they’ll be able to keep it to themselves. The last thing I want to do is answer a bunch of questions from people who don’t need to know anything about how I got them. My secrets are mine, not theirs.
“Gentlemen,” I mutter and take a sip of my coffee. At the first taste of the heavenly elixir, I moan. There was no way I couldn’t. It was that good. “What type of coffee is this? It’s heaven.”
“Right!” West states enthusiastically. “I’ve got to have some to take home with me.”
“Coffee is a local,” Nines states. “Meadow found it, and now, it’s the only thing she’ll drink. Thankfully, they also had a decaf version of it.”
“Right.” I nod and look at him. “Congrats on the baby. I’m sure you two are thrilled to become parents. Had Chelsea had the baby yet?”
“Yeah, little boy,” Blow answers. “Lucky made the error of allowing Chelsea to name him without discussion. She’d gone with Sterling.” He grimaces after mentioning the name.
“What’s wrong with Sterling?” I knew several men named Sterling, and they were all nice and respectable. One of them was even a mercenary who could kill without batting an eye.
“Girl name,” Nines mutters.
“How about we not debate a name that can be both,” Calyx remarks. He darts a sideways look at me, knowing me all too well. I could’ve debated the name thing until I was blue in the face, or one of them learned to agree.
“Fine, let’s get this started,” I huff and take another sip of the coffee in my hands.
“First things first, why did you help the club?” Blow asks.
Straightening in my seat, I hold the other man’s gaze. “You might be surprised, but I do care about my sister, and she’s now hooked up with a member of your club. I heard things in passing over the years, especially in the past year and even more in the past few months. I wasn’t going to let my sister be taken off guard. So, I went underground searching for what I was looking for. I found it. Dug deeper, got more. All that I found, I gave to you yesterday.”
“That group was taken out. How is it you found more of them?” Nines asks.
“You only took out a fraction of them. You didn’t take the head off the snake as you thought. They’re all connected to a much larger network. One that deals in trafficking and breeding.” I look between both men. “You realize that both Meadow and Storm are looked at as some of the prized women they could gain? Two women protected not just by an MC but also by the Romanian Mafia. They could make a mint off them. Meadow alone would force the hands of not just an MC and the Romanian Mafia, but she’s also the sole daughter of a man who runs a group of mercenaries. Think of that. As for Storm, she’s not just the woman to the President of a club, but the daughter of a member, a sister to a member, and the granddaughter to the Romanian Mafia. They’d eat that up. Not to mention what they’d do with Olive, whose sister was crazy and an associate. Or Chelsea, who’s all but an MC princess. Don’t even get me startedon my sister, who can be pretty badass in her own right. That is, if she’d think sometimes before acting. Granted, think she’s learned that lesson.”
