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Ignore, ignore, ignore… I found my forever, and I’m not fucking that up for a quick fuck in the stock room. Those days are done.
Twenty
TAZ
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Ending my day at the garage early because the possibility of setting eyes on my tornado had me too damn distracted and hard as fuck all morning. My ass was like a teen boy checking my phone every few minutes for a text. I didn’t get one. So I said fuck it.
Pulling up to the main gate, I give the prospect a chin lift. Scanning the gatehouse as I drive by, I see it’s empty, which immediately raises my hackles because the prospect standing outside is new. And new prospects should never be at the gate alone, ever. The simple reason is that they don’t know who can and can’t be let into the property.
The mother chapter is the largest charter of LSMC, with nearly one hundred brothers. We have a lot of people coming and going from the compound at any time of day. So, the prospects are our first line of defense and receive the training necessary to ensure that no one enters the property that isn’t supposed to be here. That training includes learning to use the software we implemented a while back. It’s probably far more high-tech than we need, but it makes shit much easier. It uses facial recognition, but not FBI level; it takes a pick and pulls up the person on the computer, and they are cleared or denied entry. It’s a two-man job. After a while, prospects know who is good and who isn’t, but a new prospect doesn’t, hence my irritation. I chuckle at what we had when I was a prospect. Those fucking binders were a pain in the ass back in the day. Flipping through the pages when you didn’t know someone had you getting your ass chewed out, and then if you were lucky, you had to wash fucking bikes for making brothers wait, and if you weren’t lucky, let's just say shit wasn’t a walk in the park.
I’ll have to deal with who the kid was supposed to be shadowing later. I pull out my phone as I coast up the driveway. Sending a text to Bull and Vex.
I stare down at my phone and shake my head. Fucking emojis.
They switch shifts mid-day, so I’ll need to find out who took over for the prospect earlier. I’m half tempted to turn around, find out who was supposed to be at the gate, and hand both prospects their asses. For now, I got shit to do. But later, I’ll have them scrub the communal toilets for their fuck up.
Notice a familiar black Humvee parked at the clubhouse entrance. Two figures stood at the back of the vehicle, looking deep in conversation. I don’t immediately recognize the second of the two. There is no mistaking Blaze’s big, burly, imposing figure. That motherfucker is just as big as his father and brothers. I’m not a small man, but the Churches are a different breed. They all have an air about them that makes them opposing and larger than life.
When the figure I didn’t immediately recognize turns at the sound of my pipes, I realize it's their cousin Pain. From what I saw of him the night they were here, he seemed like a good guy. Unlike his cousins and brother, he is unassuming. He may look like a regular guy, a pretty boy, but that fucker has done and seen some shit, even if he tries to play off like he’s just a spectator. It's all in the eyes, and his eyes say he’s a killer.
I pull up slowly, taking my time watching the two men as they interact with one another. My Harley Dyna Glide slowly eases into my designated spot. I continue to watch them as I dismount from my bike. My strides toward them are purposeful as I remove my glasses. Both men watch me with blank looks. I don’t take offense, holding my hand out. Gotta keep it cordial. “Fellas,” I shake their hands and signal them to follow me towards the clubhouse entrance. Before I take more than a few steps, Blaze stops me with his request.
“We’d like to walk around the perimeter to look at your gates, see your current security measures, and see what we will have to fix,” Blaze speaks in a matter-of-fact but open tone.
I look at him, studying him. He seems relaxed, but men like him are never fully relaxed. It’s an illusion. I would know I’m the same way. With both men now dawning their sunglasses, I can't get a good read on them. Wordlessly, I nod, changing direction, and lead them toward the main gate. I notice some trucks and SUVs pulling toward the entrances, and my eyes narrow. They look like work trucks, but I know we have nothing going on right now. I look back at Blaze, whose hands are raised towards the vehicles. Before I can speak to ask, Blaze does.
“That’s our crew. We’ve had all the checks done on them through your guy in the club. Granted, we do our checks, but I figured you all would feel better doing your own. My guys work for the organization. So they travel where needed to do security upgrades for homes, buildings, businesses–shit like that. It’s what they specialize in. And they are trustworthy and discreet about it. We’ve sent all the information over to your enforcer.” That is news to me. Bull has said fuck all about it. There is also the possibility that Blaze sent the info to Turbo. I wouldn’t put it past Blaze to do everything he could to avoid his family. He’s made it clear he gives two shit about them. I sigh, pulling my phone out of my pocket and texting Turbo.
What the fuck does that even mean? I swear I’m going to ban these fuckers from sending me emojis. I sent a text with fucking words. Is it so fucking hard to send a back with fucking words? And do not fucking get me started on fucking ‘k’ because if I get another fucking ‘k,’ I swear I’ll slit someone's throat.
I scowl down at my phone. My head snaps up when I hear a chuckle. “Fucking emojis,” I say as I put my phone back in my pocket. Blaze and Pain both laugh at my annoyance. I shake my head at how ridiculously irrational I get about the damn emojis. But fuck, talk-to-text is better than that shit, even if it fucks up what the hell you are saying with the damn auto-correct shit. Releasing a frustrated breath and shaking my head,
Blaze smirks. “I’ll remember your clear disdain for emojis for future correspondence.” He nods at me, clearly finding my annoyance amusing. Fucking emojis. “I’d like to have my guys get started on the gate. We did a preliminary look around over the last two weeks. I know this may piss you off. But hear me out… we may or may not have broken in a few times to see how easy or difficult it would be to get in and out of this place undetected.” I stop in my tracks and stare at him and Pain. They are on our side, but that is another thing I heard nothing about. And it pisses me off. Fuck, everyone is on a damn roll today.
“I can see it on your face. No one knew we were here, or she was here, rather. I have to say Sin had a hard fucking time, but she did it.” He chuckles like that shit isn't a slap to the face of the club and me. My eyes narrow.
“Aww, come on now, my friend. Don’t look like that. I know it pisses you off. Blaze warned you it might. But it was all for a good cause, yeah. I told you when I introduced you that Sin is a sneaky kitty. That girl can get in anywhere. Very few in the world like her, and those known to our… organization work for us. So you have that going for you. Anyway… Don’t be pissed. We just did it to understand your security and stuff like that. And look…” Pain shifts, waving his arms, “we brought all the super smart people here to fix what’s fucked around here. So no harm, no foul.” Pain slings his big ass arm over my shoulder, and I stand unmoving, giving him and Blaze a side-eye. Blaze stares at me through his tinted glasses, observing my reaction to the bomb they just dropped.
I shift away from Pain, stepping away from them, facing them, and staring them down.
“I get you are here to help; I respect the work you want to put into doing your jobs. I respect that. I need to make something clear. This is my family. And until this moment, I’ve been very chill with the shit that has been going on. I’ve let a lot of that have been said and done slide. I’ve played referee and tried to be the middleman, keeping my focus on keeping Princess’s ass contained within these walls and keeping my club out of shit. But that shit of you sneaking one of yours in here without my knowledge is not cool. If you had come to me and let me know you were pulling shit like that, I would have been cool with it. I don’t have a problem with you checking to find holes in our security measures. My problem is… with you not letting me know about it or keeping me informed. And most of all, you were all playing your little cat-and-mouse game that could get that girl hurt or worse. So next time you have any bright ideas, run that shit past me at the fucking least.” I say with a calm voice that I don’t feel.
Both men stand and stare me down briefly, but I’m serious. I have let shit slide for the sake of keeping the peace. But this is still my club. This is still my family, and I, as the VP, am responsible for every damn person associated with the club.
Blaze nods his head. He takes his sunglasses off and steps toward me. Pain stands to the side, looking back and forth between us, and I don’t think he is even sure himself what the fuck is about to go down. But I’m not backing down as Blaze and I stare at one another.
Blaze shakes his head slightly, and a slight smirk makes its way onto his lips. His hand raises and reaches out to me. I look down at it and then back up at him. I shake my head when I see the amusement in his eyes. Stepping closer to Blaze, I raise my hand to shake his. Of course, as soon as we are in each other's grasp, we do what men like us do and try to break each other's hands while staring one another down.
“Alright… alright, you big motherfuckers back to your corners.” Pain says from beside us, snapping us both out of our staring and strong-arm competition we had going on.
Blaze steps back and rubs his hand down his face. And his face becomes a stoic mask. “I have to admit, we went a little far. And from now on, I’ll ensure we respect you and your club by informing you of any surveillance we have in play. But to be clear, we needed to do what we did so that today could go smoothly and get shit going quickly and efficiently. As I told you earlier, the Rossi’s have had some movement, and I want to ensure we shore up as much as we can before they make their move. Because they will make a move sooner than we may think, and the Rossi’s are brutal.” His eyes are clear and show me the truth.
Nodding in understanding, we walk around the club grounds, discussing what will need to be done and what they could find by breaking into the building.
A lot will have to change, but it needs to be done not just because of Princess’s situation but because of the recent shift we’ve made in the club. The club was due to upgrade, and this opportunity to have high-tech equipment and skilled laborers will be well worth the headache. It will also give us ideas about what Spider may need for our security business. It’s ideal for us to gain as much knowledge as possible from Bellamy, Blaze, and their team while they are here, even though I intend to keep my tornado here. But her brother doesn’t need to know that yet.
