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ChapterFive
NYX
Trust was no simple thing.
No simplefeat.
Immersing yourself in an unfamiliar reality – one where trust was not only coveted, butnecessary–was a challenge that easily rivaled some of my most harrowing missions inThe Garden.
I’d been conditioned to expect attacks from all sides.
The same person I relied on to cover my ass in one operation could be the wielder of my demise in the next, best not to gettoocomfortable, with anybody.
Here?
That was blasphemous.
“You ain’t tell me boss lady made you get your ink alone,” Ozias hollered across the room at me as soon as I walked through the door of the clubhouse, a nondescript building tucked into about a mile of self-storage. From the outside, it was aggressively ordinary, brilliantly camouflaged to the stranger eye.
Beyond the gates though, concealed in an outer façade of run-down aluminum siding and ragged garage fronts, was an impressive sprawl of motorcycle lots, shooting ranges, bunkhouses, an arena – and a training area for it – and of course, the clubhouse.
It was decked out with tables, couches, TVs, a stocked bar; everything you could want to maximize kicking it without ever leaving the clubhouse, if you didn’t want to.
I guess for when the club was in a more insular mood.
“I didn’t think it was something I needed to lead with,” I answered, stopping at the pool table that was essentially Ozzy’s desk. I’d quickly realized he was always either here, or on the road, rarely any in-between. “It mean something I don’t know about?”
“It means she doesn’t fuck with you,” he chuckled, in the grizzled rasp I’d come to expect in my short time of knowing him. AsPredatorsroad captain, he was the one who gave everybody their marching orders, even though that wasn’t a “typical” structure.
Not that they did much in the “typical” way.
“So does that meannobodyfucks with me, since she doesn’t?” I asked, watching as he lined up a shot in his solitary game.
He took his shot before he answered, picking up a fat cigar from a nearby ashtray to accompany his words. “That ink means can’t nobody fuck with you, butweall fuck with you, you know what I mean?”
“No.”
“Really?”
Shaking my head, I chuckled as I answered. “Nah, I follow you, but… I need to know what Tatiana’s approval means around here. Obviously y’all respect her, and her word is law, but if she don’t fuck with me…”
“Just means I shouldn’t have sent you to check in on her, better if you keep your distance until she mellows out.”
I raised an eyebrow. “How long does that usually take?”
“Well…” Ozzy stood back, surveying the balls still scattered on the pool table before he laughed. “She’s been pissed at me sinceThe Fall, and I’ve known her most of her life, so depending on what you did… might be a while.”
“I haven’t done shit to her,” I immediately replied, shrugging. “What did you do?”
He pushed out a heavy sigh, then shook his head. “I didn’t have a crystal ball.”
“What does that mean?”
“I didn’t anticipate the attack that took her daddy,” he explained. “And some others. The only reason I wasn’t out there too is ’cause I had a bum leg and couldn’t ride. Otherwise…”
He drew a thumb across his neck, indicating that he would be dead too and I nodded.
“I thought it was out of the blue, no intel could’ve predicted it?” I asked.
