Jackal (Heartlands Motorcycle Club #12)- Frankie Love Page 0,9

he says to Maddox. "But Jackal, you never go out. Hope it was worth getting on my bad side.”

“Again, I’m sorry, sir. It's the end of summer. Everyone was headed that way. I figured I might as well see what the fuss was about."

"Well, Ranger and I are done with you young guys getting into trouble. It's time to clean up your acts. Why don't you both start thinking about settling down?"

"Settling down?" Maddox says with a laugh. "Dude, I'm 25."

"So? Grow up, Maddox. I heard about your threesome."

"Who told you about last night?"

Conley laughs. "Damn, boy. I was talking about something that happened a week ago. What were you doing last night?"

Maddox laughs. "Sorry, sir. I don't kiss and tell."

"Like hell you don’t. I'm telling you, it's going to get out of control. I'm hearing some stories about the Blue Devils. They're getting messed up in some shit too. There were some arrests of some of their younger members last week. I don't know, maybe it's the heat. Summer can end as far as I'm concerned. People start acting crazy when it gets this hot out here in the desert."

"The Blue Devils?" I say, my heart started to pound, sweat in my palms. “There were a few of them at the lake last night.”

“Fuck,” Conley says, "haven't heard about those guys for years. It's crazy but I don't know, a few buddies out at the California branch of Heartlands were talking about them. And now they are encroaching on our territory. I just wish I knew what they wanted. Maybe I will have Beckham and Chains go do some recon.”

“Be careful,” I say, forcing my voice to stay even. “The Blue Devils are trouble from what I’ve heard.”

“And what have you heard, exactly?” Conley asks.

I shrug it off. "I don't know. I've got to get to work," I say, grabbing the tablet from Maddox's hands. "Enjoy your breakfast and tell Ranger hello."

Conley laughs. "What aren't you saying?"

But I just keep my head down and walk toward my station.

He thinks what I'm holding back is that I was with Lydia last night.

The truth is, I have a past with the Blue Devils that I sure as fuck don't want my motorcycle club president knowing anything about.

Lydia

"I don't know what the big deal is," I say to Ruby as she slams around the kitchen making coffee and eggs, toast. The babies are awake and fussing in their highchairs, and it looks like she didn't sleep very well. "It’s not like I was even out that late. I was home before 11."

"But where were you?" Ruby says. "That's the problem. You show up on a motorcycle. We don't know who the driver was and you won't tell us where you were. Ranger's pissed. He's going to find out who you were with last night. You understand?"

"Oh, is he?" I ask, crossing my arms, glaring at my sister. "Maybe I should just move out so I can start being treated like the adult I am.”

"Maybe you should tell me who you were with, and then it won't be an issue. It's not like you, Lydia, to sneak around like this. If you're seeing someone, let me know. Because the honest truth is a guy on a bike around here could very easily mean bad news."

"You fell in love with a guy on a bike. Why can't I?"

"Oh, so there is a guy that you're in love with?"

Ruby spreads jam on the toast hastily, burns the scrambled eggs, and dishes up our plates. The babies are still fussing, but they calm down when they get bread slathered in jelly. They begin gnawing on it happily, giving their mother time to argue with me.

The toast is dry and it's lodged in my throat. I take a sip of coffee, wishing it were a latte. I need to get out of this house. My sister seems to have forgotten what it is like to fall in love, to act recklessly and with abandon.

I know her past with Ranger. They met and fell in love, and all in one night. And now she's giving me a hard time for having a little bit of fun?

"There was a party at the lake last night," Ruby says, frowning as she adds a lump of sugar, then another to her cup of coffee.

"Oh yeah?" I say. "Sounds fun."

"Well, the cops showed up. It was a whole bunch of people buying and selling drugs out there. It's insanity. That's the kind