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Encouraged by Eight’s quieter tone, Cooper nodded. “I know. I’ll put it on the table when we get back from this run. I’ll make the case. I’ll be persuasive. But I need you to tell me we’ll still be Bulls if the vote doesn’t go your way. Tell me you respect us—thatyourespectme—enough for that.”
Now that he’d laid it out for Eight, Cooper saw it for himself: this was the core of his men’s resistance in the chapel: that Eight had handed down a commandment. He’d treated Laughlin like his employees. They hadn’t really balked at the job, but at their implied lack of choice. When he brought the question up for a vote, he’d make it clear it was a choice.
Eight finally sat back. “Okay. You’re right. I do respect you. We need this, you know we need this, but your table is as much a democracy as mine. Make your vote, and we’ll work with the result.”
Cooper smiled and stood, offering his hand. Eight stood and took it, then pulled Cooper in for a quick, frankly pretty awkward, hug instead.
“Can we party now?” he asked.
With a laugh, Cooper patted him on the back. “Let’s party. We stocked up on the good shit.”
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~oOo~
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It was a pretty goodparty. Their sound system was prime, the booze was good and plentiful, and there were plenty of girls to go around—though wow, most of the Tulsa Bulls were locked down hard, with old ladies and kids and dogs and shit, so there were a lot of middle-aged men enjoying the view with their hands firmly wrapped about their drinks.
Cooper counted a couple dozen nubile young women, only a handful of whom he’d met, but he trusted his men not to bring trouble into their house. Most of the women seemed to be Mojave, which both made sense, seeing as three of the seven Laughlin Bulls were also Mojave, and seemed doubly secure for the same reason. These women weren’t randos. They were known, even if he didn’t know them.
Reed had invited some of his friends, and Cooper had caught him giving him a sidelong look or two, as if waiting to see if he’d make a fuss about it, but Cooper really was fine with a gay patch—and he liked Reed personally. He’d simply needed some time to get his head straight about something he hadn’t seen coming.
Kind of like all of Laughlin needed to do before the first run south.
Zach and Lyra were ensconced in a big, cushy armchair by the window, making out like oversexed teenagers. Even as the party started to wind up to rowdiness, Cooper found himself noticing that pair over and over again. The way they held each other, touched each other, was different from the way JJ, for instance, was pawing at one of the girls. Or how Duncan had two girls under his arms. He couldn’t quite understand what it was, but there was a difference.
Then he saw it. Despite all those deeply attached Tulsa old men, Zach and Lyra were the only actual couple at this party. What he was seeing was love. Not sex. Yeah, they were about three moves from public fucking, but it was different. Because they were in love.
Feeling strange suddenly, restless and almost like ... almost out of place? Cooper pulled his phone out and held it for a minute. He’d told Siena that Tulsa was coming in, but he hadn’t said explicitly that they’d be partying. He was navigating this extremely new girlfriend situation, with a pretty fucking intense girl, and it had seemed wise to let the party element be implied.
Now, though, he wanted her here. Would she want to be here? Did she party? He didn’t even know. She had Geneva, too, and didn’t like to leave her alone more than she had to.
Probably she wouldn’t be able to come. Or want to come. It was probably a stupid idea. Too soon, at least.
But he wanted her here.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Just as Siena feltthe first twitchy threads of worry that Google Maps had led her astray, she noticed a glow in the distance. That glow seemed consistent with the red pin on the map. Fingers crossed, at least. Cooper had told her they were out in the desert a ways, but it had been more than twenty minutes since she’d even passed a streetlight. She’d lived in this area all her life and was perfectly aware how much ‘nowhere’ surrounded Laughlin—hell, was part of Laughlin—but still. This was out a ways indeed.
Truly, her nerviness didn’t have all that much to do with a fear of being lost. Getting back home would take a U-turn and like three more turns after that, so even if she didn’t know exactly where she was, she wasn’t lost.
Her nerves had a lot more to do with ... just ... everything. The fact that after so long out of the game, thinking she was benched forever, she’d now had sexmultipletimes, each time having at least one orgasm. And the fact that she and Cooper were now a couple? Like, serious? She was serious with a biker, aclub presidentkind of biker? A totally hot biker who somehow seemed to think she was hot as well?
