her father had he known. All of them knew that with certainty.
His jaw hardened. A muscle ticked there. He was getting fired up all over again, feeling the gathering rage pouring off the others that someone dared laid a hand on one of their women.
“She hid it from you?” Maestro echoed, as if he couldn’t quite believe it.
Steele nodded. “Yeah. Pissed me off but made me all the prouder of her.”
“The woman never lacked for courage,” Transporter said. “Everyone knew that. Never could understand what was wrong with the men in that club. I guess when you traffic women you lose sight of what’s important because you rot from the inside out.”
“She know never to do that shit again?” Ink asked, his gaze back to the sky, following the path of the birds until the hawk chose a tree at the back of the house to settle in.
“She does,” Steele assured.
“Hope you reinforced that with a good lesson in what a man does when his woman fucks up,” Maestro said, anger shimmering in his voice.
“He’s pussy whipped,” Savage stated.
“Can’t deny it,” Steele admitted, in no way offended. His woman probably needed him right now to go down to her and wrap his arms around her. He was torn by that. It would only take a moment or two to reassure her and maybe apologize. Maybe he’d scared her. But wasn’t that the point? Hell. He was going to have to ask Blythe what he should have done.
Preacher grinned at him and settled back onto the roof. “I like your woman, Steele. She’s got courage.” He took a slow drink of water and put the binoculars back to his eyes. “Lana’s making her circle, coming back around toward the target. She’ll slow the boat some distance away, drop anchor and sunbathe. Mechanic will listen in for us, see if he can catch anyone talking.”
“Who’s on Breezy?” Steele asked Maestro immediately.
“Keys is with her. She’s in the kitchen fixing food. She fixes any more food and we’re going to have to roll ourselves to the bikes to get home.”
“You could actually skip a meal,” Transporter said. “Leave more for the rest of us.”
“I’m eating for Ice and Storm,” Maestro pointed out. “Someone has to do it when they aren’t around.” He toed Steele. “Your woman is nearly as good a cook as Alena, and that’s saying something.”
Steele nodded. “She is. She likes cooking. I was thinking I’d get a chef for us, but she seems to like to have the kitchen to herself and it’s one less outsider. Don’t want to shock the poor bastard by eating her out on the counter in front of him.”
“Smart,” Transporter said. “Knowing you, a stranger looked too long at your woman, you’d slit his throat.”
Steele sighed. “Yeah, I don’t think I’ve evolved very far. I’d hate to kill the chef. It might become a habit. After losing a few of them, Harrington and Deveau would show up asking questions. They still coming to the bar, Preacher? Asking about those bikers and hit men disappearing?”
“Not for a couple of weeks, but they’re keeping an eye on the place,” Preacher answered, but most of his attention was directed at the backyard pool and cabana area as well as the boat that had dropped anchor a good distance away.
“Czar was going to talk with Deveau,” Steele told the others. “He wanted to make certain Jackson was warned the Swords were making another play.”
“They aren’t going to stop coming at him,” Maestro said. “Or us. We just have to hit them hard every time and keep them weak.”
“That’s a good argument to patch over this other club,” Steele said, “then we’ve got twice the firepower against the Swords and any other enemy. They still don’t know who we are or where we are, but if Breezy found us through process of elimination, the Swords could. By now, Code has all kinds of dope on the chapter. Gavriil did an investigation before he brought us the idea. I’d like to know we’ve got more brothers watching out for those scumbags.”
“The Swords are used to their women doing their dirty work,” Transporter pointed out, contempt dripping from his voice. “They think it makes them stronger to have their women prostitute for them and carry their drugs, but in the end, it weakens them. What the fuck do they do all day? Sit around the clubhouse, drinking, doing drugs and getting a beer belly.”
“You talking about me?” Maestro demanded, patting his flat,