Page 39 of Flint

Nat doesn’t look up from her coffee after that. Ruby keeps staring at her and frowning, but I’ve got to say, I like that she ain’t ball-busting like she usually does. I feel this might be the first friend Ruby’s had outside the club. She’s got to learn how not to demand shit like I bet she’s used to doing. I mean, she’s the president’s daughter; it’s in her blood to yell and demand.

Izzy, Abigail, and Maddy keep the conversation going for the group. They’re all actually younger than me, apparently, but they’ve sure got their shit together better than me, that’s for damn sure. Not one of them even giggles when someone says the word penis. They act like it’s a normal thing. Maybe it is, but come on, it’s penis. It’s funny. Once again, I’m the only one laughing, and I really have no idea why, but it’s funny.

When my chauffeur comes to get me, I’m almost sad to go. But he’s got a way to cheer me up.

“Bailey called,” he tells me.

“She did?”

I keep forgetting to keep my phone on me. I just don’t see what the need for it is. More times than not, Gator collects my messages for me. Not sure how he got Bailey’s number. I know she didn’t give it to him, as she’s been adamant about not talking to him. Must be really important if she’s reaching out to him and not just waiting for me to check my messages once I care enough to look at my phone.

“Your friend’s got a table reserved at Dexter’s tonight. You up for a little reunion?”

“Really?” I’m bouncing up and down and clapping my hands in his truck cab. And it’s a mistake because I hit my head. Ow.

“Fuck, Jules, put your seat belt on. I promised Flint you wouldn’t get hurt anymore. Don’t need you knocking what you got left in that brain completely out.”

I hold my head with both arms. My shoulder is mostly healed, so no sling is needed anymore. Those physical therapy sessions really helped, I think. “I know, I know. What can I say, though? You make me lose my mind.”

“Fuck. What the hell did I do to deserve this? Your jokes are getting worse every day, I think.”

“Well, the joke book you got me sucked, so you just get me and my own humor.”

“Lucky me.”

Yes he is, because everyone needs a bestie like me. I’m fabulous.

Chapter 16 – Flint

L

aw nods. “Good to have you boys back.”

“Good to be back, boss. I didn’t miss the sand, but got to admit, it was good being back out there, doing something that mattered. Not that what we do here doesn’t, just different,” I say for the group.

Law shakes his head and sits back in his chair. The last two and a half weeks were intense. Not hell, but close. It was fucking awesome. We were back on the ground, doing intel, tracking, targeting. You name it, we did it. Got all three priorities back in the safe hands of their church. I may have put the fear of God into them with a few choice words on the return flight. You know, how maybe it wouldn’t be wise to just randomly go into the Middle East and preach their beliefs to others. Not saying they can’t do it, but there are ways to go about it so they won’t get kidnapped. Like, I don’t know, maybe not go into a zone that’s being highly advised against by, like, everyone. But hey, to each his own. Doesn’t matter to me what the hell they do. If we have to go get their asses again, we will. It pays well, and we’re prepared for it.

On top of that, we had zero casualties on our end. I think we had a very successful mission. Only minor, itty-bitty, small issue we had was… well, me. My mind was on the mission most of the time. But when it wasn’t, yeah, that’s when the problems started. Not that I caused an issue for the team, just never had a woman on my mind like this for this long. I even did a few check-ins with Gator.

We created a back channel to talk on, and I don’t know why, but one night, I changed his handle to Gator as a joke. But now I just keep thinking of him like that instead of Prospect. Not ideal since he’s still not been voted in yet. But I know he will be. Soon.

He watched out for the club, and Kitten, while I was away. I’m a bit shocked at what he can do. Not that he’s better than me, but the boy’s got skills on the computer. Even thinking about taking him on as my second around here, if the boss allows it. Pretty sure he will since the kid was meant to be a replacement for my fuckups anyway.

Gator has proved himself to me, and to others. We haven’t let on that we notice, but we have. Him taking a bullet and not backing down like a bitch was a big sign that he was one of us those few months back. But he still has time to do.

“You don’t got to sell me, boy. I know what we got here is a little slice of heaven, but it don’t compare to being in the field. I might have gone the JAG route when I left the service, but it don’t mean I don’t get it. Sometimes I wonder if I should trade one desk for another, but I know I’m too damn old to be trying the shit you boys do on the regular.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, Prez.”

“Nah, you guys have been training for this even before the club agreed to go down this route. Always running drills and shit. I might be there and take part, but you guys run circles around me. Now, enough of this shit. Tell me, you think we got a shot at making this a go for the long-term with the boys?”

I look to Bulldog for the lead on this. It’s just the three of us in here. I know he’s itching to get back to his woman. He wasn’t in deep like me and the other guys. Was even able to call Lady nightly while the rest of us had to maintain almost radio silence except for the back channel. Not much could be said, and even then we covered our tracks and spoke in code. Never talked about the weather and getting pizza so much in my life, but each word meant something. A random person who could have stumbled upon it if shit went wrong would only assume we were obsessed with bird-watching and couldn’t decide what pizza toppings we liked best. They would have never known that the eagle taking off was really us going farther inland or that a pineapple with extra cheese meant all was quiet on the home front.

“Yeah. We’re ready for the next one. Give us a week of downtime, and then we can start prepping the next shift. Think we should start doing rotations on who goes and when. Even figured we could have some required downtime for long stints. No need to force the back-to-back like most of the boys had while in the service. A bit more say for them, but in the end, it needs to be what’s right for the club. The money’s good, and we might bring in a few of the other chapters’ brothers too. No reason to keep this with the mother chapter only.”

I nod in agreement with the VP, backing him a hundred percent on this.

“Agreed. Was actually thinking about sending a few prospects and Bass out to do a bit of recruiting and training. Already got calls in to chapter presidents, and they’re interested in hearing a bit more.”

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