to Axe who was acting as Secretary until we picked a new one. He read through some of the shit we’d discussed last time, things we were supposed to have resolved by now but hadn’t. It had been a fucked-up couple of weeks thanks to Lucie, and that point was rammed home by how little we’d achieved since last church.
Time that was unaffordable to lose.
I rubbed my nose as I slouched back in my seat, not paying as much attention as I should while I stared at my brothers. I had a feeling that we had a dirty rat among our kind, but nothing solid to suggest who.
Someone had told the Knights about our shipment, but it could have been someone with eyes on the compound.
My distrust and unease was one of the reasons I hadn’t selected brothers for the open roles on my council. They were all having to earn their spots.
“—before we get started on other business,” Axe drawled, “anyone have anything they need to bring to the table?”
The table was set in the back-right corner of the basement, so we could twist around and look out to the hordes of bikers down here. We were a large club, had doubled our numbers in the early nineties, thanks to the uptick in demand for cocaine. With our proximity to the border, calling on us for transport was pretty standard. Back in the day, we’d run lines for the Bratva up in Brighton Beach and a Mexican Cartel over in Chihuahua.
“Why’s Bomber’s daughter back?”
I pinpointed the brother who’d asked the question and narrowed my eyes at him. “She’s come home.”
“For good? Not sure what Bomber would think—”
“Who says I give a fuck what your opinion is?” I snapped back. “I don’t need a vote to take an old lady.”
Before anyone could say anything, utter another word that would break the sudden silence my declaration had triggered, Flame’s lighter hissed and popped. “Nor does Dagger, Axe, or I.”
I felt the other men’s confusion. My nostrils flared in irritation at being cornered like that, but fuck, I got it, and if it meant being undermined by the other members, then I’d just have to prove to them that I was still as much of a cunt as ever.
“You’re sharing her?” Rodeo asked, his eyes wide.
I dipped my chin. “She’s ours. So, watch your fucking words.”
“She’s a traitor!” Locke spat from his position in the middle of the crowd. Apparently the dick felt passionate enough to leap to his feet.
“She’s also the mother of my daughter, Locke, so like I said, watch your fucking words.”
More whispers fell at that.
“Her girl, Amaryllis, is yours?”
“You see any other new kids hovering around the place?” I snapped, leaning forward in my seat as irritation hit me. When I saw the mixture of anger and confusion on my brothers’ faces, my mouth tightened. I hated having to answer to anyone, but that was the problem with being a leader sometimes.
Sure, I could tell them what to do. Bomber had done that, and he’d done it pretty well, but he hadn’t been popular. They’d been loyal to him through fear.
I wasn’t as bad as Bomber, but they knew to be scared of me. They knew that the MC would have sunk into shit if it weren’t for Flame, Dagger, Axe, and me.
After the shit had gone down with Lucie, the cartel had pulled the plug on working with us. I wasn’t even sure how they’d found out about the situation, considering what Lucie had stolen had been retrieved, but ties had been cut and we’d had to find another source of income to feed the many mouths in our club. As I hated drugs, I hadn’t been too unhappy with the change, but coming up with new sidelines had made the months after Lucie’s departure even tougher.
It had been Flame’s idea to go into hits for hire, and we’d made a tidy profit ever since. Everyone from the Bratva to the Families used us for their dirty work when they wanted to kill someone and they couldn’t have ties to the murder. They all had their own men, of course, but sometimes, they needed anonymity to the nth degree.
On top of that, it had been my idea to start transporting cigarettes, and that earned us a shit ton of money that had kept us flush for a good, long while.
Still, the money didn’t match what we’d earned with the drugs, and with a war on my doorstep,