“Man up,” Savage told him unsympathetically. “Alright, let’s get this done and over with so we can start getting this place cleaned up. Ice, what are we looking at for damages, financially?”
Ice grimaced and named a figure that had them all wincing. “We got it, but it’s a hit, so we’re going to need all hands on deck to get it finished. For the outlying warehouse, thankfully they picked one that was mostly empty. We were only using it for some minor storage. It’s a write-off, so it’s really our choice if we rebuild it. We could save ourselves some money and leave it as an open space for something later if we want.”
“I say we demo it and leave it if we don’t need it,” Jax agreed. “I mean, what’s the point of wasting money to rebuild something we might not use.”
“But could it be used for something?” Doc asked curiously. “I mean, we have the space, maybe we can build something that will generate some money. Sure, it’ll cost us upfront, but depending on what we use it for, it could pay off.”
“We already got a bar and garage on site,” Rogue said grumpily. “We don’t need any more outsiders coming on to our land. That’s asking for trouble.” Code had to agree with his point.
“For now I say we table the idea and focus on getting everything operational again. We can hash out the non-essentials later,” Steel offered.
“I agree,” Savage said. “Alright, we’ll table that and focus on getting the clubhouse, garage, and bar back in running order. Everything else, we sort out later. All in favor?” Everyone but the Predators, Karissa, and Glitch voted, though Code would be surprised if Glitch even heard anything because she was so focused on what she was doing. “Good,” Savage continued once the motion passed. He looked down the table at Simba. “Thank you for helping us take out the trash and get shit cleaned up.”
Simba gave a nod and said, “Least we could do since you were watching out for our members here.” He looked at both Karissa and Glitch. Karissa gave him a smirk, and Glitch ignored him. “Hopefully there wasn’t too much trouble while we were gone.”
“Fuck off,” Glitch said mildly, not even glancing his way. “We both know you were directing that at me.”
“Just making sure you were paying attention,” Simba replied, unfazed, even as a few people snickered. Glitch turned and fixed him with a narrowed eyed glare. Simba gave her a smug smile and then turned his attention back to Savage. “If you’re alright with it, we’d like to stay a few days, get things sorted and rest up before we head home to clean shit up there.”
“God, I’m not looking forward to dealing with that,” Taz whined.
“The place probably reeks, since they pissed on our stuff and no one’s been there since,” Copper agreed with a grimace.
“Hire someone to go in and clean it,” Fury suggested. “Are there no cleaning companies your way?”
“We don’t let anyone in our space,” Jag told him. “Too much shit for them to snoop around in that we don’t want anyone else to see. We’ll clean it up. We’ve done worse.”
“Speak for yourself,” Taz sniffed. “But if those fuckers touched my toy collection, I’ll resurrect them and kill them again.”
“Toy collection?” Jax repeated with a scoff. “You playing with dolls over there, Taz?”
Taz gave him an affronted look. “Do I look like the kind of man who would play with dolls?” he demanded. He sliced a finger at Glitch and snapped, “Don’t even start.” Glitch snickered, and Code couldn’t help but grin. Yeah, he figured that his woman would have something sassy to say about that. “And no, I actually collect all kinds of different, shall we say, pleasurable toys from our many adventures,” Taz announced smugly.
“It’s so that when he can’t find a woman who wants to put up with him, he has something to help pass the time other than his own hand,” Karissa snickered. “Hope you clean those things with how often you probably use them.”
Taz flipped her off, making her laugh. “It’s times like these that make me glad you found your own man to annoy the shit out of,” Taz sniffed. “I’d end up suffocating you if I still had to put up with your annoying ass twenty-four seven.”
“If anyone killed anyone, it would be me killing you,” Karissa tossed back, but her lips were twitching. The affection in her eyes was clear.
“How about we get back to the task at hand, and you two can finish your weird argument later?” Savage suggested impatiently. He looked at Simba and asked, “So, now that we’ve dealt with your little problem—”
“We?” Glitch scoffed, looking up from her computer and giving Savage a cool glare. Karissa did the same. “What do you mean,we? As I recall, you were tied up in a damn corner and not doing shit whenwehandled it. And bywe, I mean Karissa and I. Not that anyone would admit that, of course”
Savage ground his teeth and Code saw his jaw clench. Code bit back a grin because he knew that would eat at most of the men in here. As much as everyone liked to say they backed the whole women’s progressive movement, when it came to MC life, there wasn’t much movement at all. “Fine,” he gritted out, though it sounded like it cost him. “Now thatGlitch and Karissa handledthings, you guys are welcome to stay here as long as you need, and if you need help with your place, we could send some brothers back with you to help out. Least we can do.”
“Thanks,” Simba said with a nod. “Our team has some things to discuss first. We’ll let you know when we plan on taking off.”
“Alright,” Savage nodded. “Code, since you’re incapacitated for now, how long do you think it will take to get security back online?”
“I swear, it’s like I’m invisible,” Glitch grumbled irritably before he could answer. She turned toward Savage. “Or did you somehow miss the fact that I’m sitting here, working on that very thing, since he can’t?”
“Maybe if you were human sized instead of so damn small, I’d be able to see you,” he tossed back.
To stave off any arguments, Code said loudly, “Glitch is handling it for now, and from what I can see she’s almost done. We won’t have to worry about anyone sneaking back in.”
“Good,” Savage said, ignoring Glitch’s eye roll. Code gave her hip a squeeze in warning, and she glanced back at him innocently. As much as he enjoyed this little display, pissing off Savage wasn’t in anyone’s best interest after everything that happened last night. “Rogue, did you reach out to your contacts in the force to make sure we don’t have anyone sniffing around that shouldn’t be?”
Rogue nodded. “All set. As far as they or anyone else is concerned, the garage had a small accident with a gas tank and we got it under control.”