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“What’s goin’ on?” he asked as he came up to the bar, alongside Mel.
Before anybody could answer, Badger shouted, “Zaxx! Let’s go!” He stood at the head of the hallway that led to his office and then to the Signal Bend Construction warehouse.
“Missed a helluva night,” Mel muttered as Zaxx pushed off the bar. “But I guess you were pretty damn busy yourself.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
Still smirking, Mel shrugged.
Zaxx gave them all up for useless and followed Badger to his office.
~oOo~
Double A, the club vice president, was already in the office, sitting on one side of the sofa. Shit, was this some kind of tribunal? Was Tommy on his way in, too, to put the screws to him? All of this because he liked Gia, who was both legal and age appropriate? Not to mention, you know, capable of making decisions for herself?
Would she make the right one, though? If they got serious and she stayed in Signal Bend, would she someday resent him for it? And was it completely insane to be worrying about such things after one night together?
“Sit,” Badger said and waved sharply at the other side of the sofa.
Zaxx sat. As he did, he clocked Double A’s expression—the guy was exhausted and looked shell-shocked. What the fuck was going on?
Badger turned his desk chair to face them. “I cannot believe I am here on a Sunday morning and not with my family, all because you two decided to get reckless with your damn dicks. I cannot believe I’m sitting here having to deal with bullshit about where you put your reckless damn dicks. When the fuck did the Night Horde MC turn into a fucking soap opera?”
“What is goin’ on right now?” Zaxx asked, because he was very confused. Double A had been married for years. Had kids, a house, did Boy Scouts and Little League with his son, went to his daughter’s piano recitals, the whole Family Man package. Double A had a reckless dick? Since when?
This was all bizarre as fuck.
Turning to the club VP, he asked, “What did you do?”
Double A didn’t answer. He sighed heavily and let his head drop to the back of the sofa.
“I’ll answer since he won’t,” Badger snapped, clearly disgusted. “Double A fucked Mindy Jasper last night. And I know this because Candy was in here an hour ago with a handful of Mindy’s underwear.”
Zaxx was stunned. He turned to Double A. “Mindy? Dub, that’s fucked up.”
“Fuck you,” Double A grumbled without giving up his focus on the ceiling. Badger sat where he was and stared at his right-hand man, letting enough strained quiet pass that Double A finally lifted his head and faced the president. “I’m not talking to you about my marriage, Badge. Not your business.”
“It is my business when it blows up in my goddamn house.”
Zaxx’s personal buzzed in his pocket. His first thought was to ignore it, but then he thought it could be Gia—they’d exchanged numbers before he’d left—and maybe she’d had trouble with her mom. Or her dad. Or both parents. Because of him.
He pulled his phone and checked. Not Gia; Zelda: Where are you? Haven’t heard from you since we got my car. Did you fix it with the shithead?
Dammit, Zel. It was Sunday. Morning. No, he had not fixed all her problems in the past twenty-four hours of a fucking weekend.
“Are we boring you, asshole?” Badger asked, his voice dripping acid.
Zaxx shoved his phone back in his pocket. “No, sorry. Family shit.” The club was supposed to help him help Zelda, but it wasn’t the time to bring that up.
“This whole mess is family shit.” Badger dragged a hand through his hair. “Jesus. And you”—he turned on Double A. “You’re supposed to be at my back helping me keep shit straight, not wadding it up.”
“I fucked up, okay?” Double A shot back. “It’s not like I don’t see that. But this is not a club thing. I don’t want to fucking talk about it here.”
Badger leaned in. So did Zaxx; he was only a spectator for the moment, and he was deeply curious about how Double A had blown up his long marriage over Mindy Jasper—who’d been causing problems at No Place, too. Damn, that girl had made the rounds last night.
“What goes down in this clubhouse has consequences for the town, Dub,” Badger said, his tone more measured now. “You know that as well as anybody. You’re right, I don’t have business sticking my nose in your marriage, but it’s playing out right here, which is my business. So tell me enough I know how to handle it from the club side.”
What goes down in this clubhouse has consequences for the town. As Zaxx replayed that sentence in his head, it weaved through what Lilli had said. Did that count for him and Gia, too? If they did get serious and then break apart, if Gia were hurt by being with him, how far would the ripples play out? And how much did that matter?
