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Maureen returned again with our food, and I took a few bites before turning back to Jasper’s angry glare. “I’ll deal with it, with whatever happens Jasper, but I’m not handing her back to the Jacks, and she doesn’t want to go back to Ronan.”
She was angry and hurt, and I was about the only damn person she trusted, even though she hated me. Not that I wanted to share that juicy tidbit with Jasper.
“It’s not just you, Charlie. Don’t you get that? This puts all of us at risk.”
I sighed. “Bull shit. Your feud with Rhymer and The Crusaders has been going on long before I happened upon Savannah, so don’t put that shit on me. Is Ronan becoming a bigger threat than you anticipated? Then, deal with it. Put the old man down. Make an example out of him.”
“What is it about her that has you so willing to risk the lives of your men and mine, just to keep her safe?”
I shrugged because the truth was, I didn’t know. “It’s the right thing to do. Her own family sold her out, Jasper. However bad she once was, she became a victim when they sold her out and her own fucking brother flat out sold her.”
Jasper nodded and let out a long, worry-filled sigh. “Then I guess we should both get ready for the shit to hit the fan.”
“Guess so,” I told him and finished off my lunch and my beer. “Only you and my MC know where she is at the moment, and I’m the only one who knows exactly where she is.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“I do,” I told him and stood. “Thanks for lunch, Jasper.” He gave me a curt nod, and I walked away, heading out to my bike where I took the long way to visit Bungalow Nine, on the edge of Glitz and Mayhem, just outside the Green Zone.
The place was done up like all the rest, a tropical theme that allowed all the girls to dress up in tiny bikinis and other tropical scraps of fabric that enticed the clientele. A few of the girls had gone MIA in the past week. I wanted to check in with Melody, the aptly named House Mom, because she oversaw the girls and managed all the Bungalows, and because she looked like a mom straight out of a 1980’s sitcom.
“Charlie! What do we owe the pleasure?” she smoothed her brown bob and walked around the thatched covering of the reception desk.
“Hey Mel, just checking in. Any word from Tianna or Angel?” It wasn’t strange for our whores to disappear now and again, but rarely did two girls leave at once and never the ones not battling a drug problem. Or a boyfriend problem.
“Yeah, Tianna came back with a poorly covered up black eye. Newly single. Again.” Melody rolled her eyes like the exasperated mother she signed up to be when she took the job ages ago. “Angel is back in Minneapolis. Has it in her head she’s gonna be a nurse. She’ll be back.”
“Good. Everything else normal around here?” I couldn’t deny that Jasper’s words had burrowed deep into my brain, and that worry had acid doing backflips in my stomach.
“Normal, no. I thought you came because of the message I passed on to Chickie?”
“No. What’s up?”
Melody nodded for me to follow her as three men wearing suits walked in. They were the kind to be intimidated by bikers, so I followed Mel down the hall to the office at the rear of the building.
“Aries and Gemma have gone missing, and this isn’t just young whores going on a shopping spree on Rodeo Drive for a week. Look.” Mel held her phone up and swiped through image after image of their shared apartment, tossed and wrecked. “Looks like a struggle of some sort, right?”
I nodded and grabbed the phone from her, sending the photos to Jag and Wilder. “Yeah. How long have they been gone?”
“Hard to say. I give the girls two days to be flighty and frivolous before I start to worry, but this is what I found when I went to tear them both a new one.” Mel looked away and blinked back tears. “Poor girls.”
I wrapped an arm around the older woman and pulled her close. “I’ll take care of this, Mel. Thanks for letting me know.” I’d have to have a word with Chickie about why she didn’t let me know, but that would have to wait until later.
“Of course. I worry about my girls. Always.”
That was why business was booming and our girls were the hottest and cleanest in the Tri-City area. “Some shit is in the air though, Mel. Check in on the girls regularly and let me know the minute something doesn’t feel right. Don’t worry about bothering me. I want to know. Yeah?”
