Page 111 of The Trust We Broke
Saint and Spark step out of the second truck.
“Fuck me, it’s cold,” Vex mutters.
“Can we go inside and talk?” King asks.
“Of course. Let’s meet in my office.” This feels like a meeting that needs to be held in church.
It takes a few minutes for us all to sit. And through all the welcomes and joviality of seeing one another, tension hovers in the air.
Lucy brings in mugs of coffee with cream and sugar. She’s wearing one of my T-shirts, tied in a knot at the waist, and thetight-fitting jeans she wore yesterday. In other words, she makes me want to fuck her all over again.
“Thanks, Luce,” I say as she puts the mugs down.
Spark does a double take and raises an eyebrow, and it’s hard to eat the grin that’s brewing.
“My old lady. My ex-wife, working on theexpart, given her father made her divorce me in return for a reduced sentence that should never have been a sentence at all, given he set me up.”
Lucy places her hand on my shoulder. It feels right: me in the president’s chair, her by my side.
Saint chokes on his coffee. “And I thought we had some fucked-up love stories in our club.”
Vex looks over at Saint with wrinkles in his forehead. “Please don’t ever say ‘love stories’ again.”
Saint puts his cup down. “You want me to text Calista and tell her you don’t believe in love stories, Mr. Second-Chance Romance?”
Vex flips the bird at Saint. “I’ll fuck with every electrical web-based appliance in your home, if you do.”
The stranger sitting in the corner smiles at that. Their head is down, they’re biting on the skin down the side of their nail, but I see the corner of their mouth turn upwards.
“I’ll let you know when food is ready.”
I pat Lucy’s hand, and then, kiss it like she’s my queen. “Thanks, Bug. Tell the rest of the guys to wait outside until I open the door.” I track her ass to the door, then wait for it to close behind her.
“Bug?” Vex asks when she’s gone.
“Not explaining it,” I say. I’ll never hear the end of it if they know it’s short forlove bug.
Vex rolls his eyes. “We’re surrounded by living-creature pet names.”
“Dangerous territory, dissing Little Chick,” King says, tipping his chin at Spark who uses the pet name for his old lady.
Spark flips the bird across the table. And I see what Butcher meant when he told me there’s a way these men are together. So at ease.
“What is all this?” I ask.
King rests his elbows on the table. “A trade of favors.”
“Okay, I’m intrigued,” I say.
Vex sighs. “In looking up the shit about your bank account, I found some other chatter. Your club, for whatever reason, is in the crosshairs of the Feds.”
“I mean, aside from the obvious, why?” I ask. “We haven’t changed a thing in how we do business. Everything has remained the same. But they raided us not long ago.”
“That’s what’s odd,” Vex says. “It looks like the initiation of the investigation came from outside the club. Everything is encrypted, right now. There are code names being used for the individuals involved that I haven’t been able to solve yet. But it’s as though someone doesn’t want your chapter, specifically, to exist.”
I glance at the stranger again. We haven’t been introduced, yet, and I’m cautious about saying things I shouldn’t in front of them.
“I’ll introduce Wren in a second,” Vex says, noting where I’m looking. “But they’re cool.”
