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What that said about me as a person, as a man, well... fuck if I knew.
And I was going to do my best to not harp on that.ThreeMazeI let out the breath I felt like I was holding as Repo walked away.
"Barbie, you're so not getting a patch before me," Moose said as soon as Repo was out of earshot.
"I dunno. If you can't keep a muzzle on that big fucking mouth of yours, I'm liking my chances."
To that, Duke snorted, giving me a lip twitch that I figured was his badass equivalent of a smile. As per my training, I sized up Duke and Renny as fast as possible.
Renny would be a friendly. He was a kid, laid-back, not overly ambitious. He was either unconcerned about a position in the MC or he had some reason to believe he didn't need to see all of us as competition. If I rubbed elbows with him a little, he could be a good ally to have on my side. Especially since I knew Moose and Fox were going to be an issue.
Moose because he was a dick.
Fox because he looked at me like a piece of meat.
Duke was pretty much guaranteed a patch so long as he didn't fuck up royally and he knew that so my presence wasn't a threat to him. He might not go out of his way to make my life easier, but he wouldn't do anything to make it intentionally difficult either. I doubted I would make a friend of him, but he wasn't an enemy.
And seeing as I didn't exactly have the favor of the president, I needed all the non-enemies I could get.
"Listen, bitch..." Moose snapped, moving toward me in what he probably thought was a threatening way. To anyone else, it would have been scary. But my training had involved being attacked by men a lot bigger and badder than his immature, surly ass.
"No, you listen, bitch," I said, approaching him so fast that he actually went back a step before my hand slammed into his chest and pushed him back another foot. "You and I don't have to be friends, but you're going to learn real quick that I'm not going to put up with your bully bullshit. Get used to me because I'm not fucking going anywhere."
"Alright, alright," Renny broke in, climbing off the picnic table with an odd sort of grace. "Maze, wanna come see where you're staying before you take off to get your shit?"
"Sure," I said, keeping my gaze on Moose for a long minute before turning and following Renny into the back door of the compound.
The door led right into the great room, a big open space with couches, a pool table, a full bar, stereo system, and massive television. It looked like, because it was, a place for men to hang around and have a good time. The couches had stains. The walls had scratches and even the occasional fist-holes. The back bar was full of Jim, Johnnie, and Jose.
"It's really a glorified frat house for grown ass men," Renny said, as if sensing my analysis. "Through here is the kitchen," he said, waving a hand toward a room on the left. He kept walking, leading me into a hall with a dozen or so doors. "These are the rooms for the patched members. Obviously off limits. And we, like the lowly peons we are, are relegated to the basement." He flicked on a light switch and started down the narrow stairs, leaving me to follow behind.
The basement was, well, a basement. There were cinder block walls, cement floors, and a marked decrease of temperature. Straight ahead toward the back was a room with a steel security door.
"The gun safe," Renny explained, nodding toward it. "Forbidden except for the top five."
"Top five?" I repeated.
"Reign, Cash, Wolf, Vin, and Repo."
Repo? He seemed young to be considered a higher-up.
I nodded to Renny as he waved a hand toward a dark corner where there was a chair with cuffs hanging off of it. "For obvious reasons," he said, then waved a hand to the right of the room where washers and driers were situated. "Get intimately acquainted with those. They make us do all the laundry," he explained casually. Grunt work, it was to be expected of the low men on the totem pole. I was sure I would also spend a lot of time scrubbing bikes and fetching drinks. "Here we are," Renny said, moving us toward the corner on the left where two sets of metal bunk beds were situated along with an old recliner. "Home sweet barracks."
"There's only four beds," I observed somewhat unnecessarily.
"I sleep here," Renny explained, throwing himself in the chair.
"You sleep in a recliner?"
"It's weird as shit, I know, but I can't sleep when I lay flat," he said with a shrug. He waved a hand to the bunks that were pushed against the wall on one side. "That's you and Duke."
