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“Ain’t we a pair, brother?”
The teen glanced up for a split second before returning to his computer. “I ain’t earned the right to be called brother by you, but I will. I promise you that much.”
Reaching over to grasp the young man’s shoulder, Ace said honestly, “When you make the cut, I’ll be proud to call you a brother.”
“Thank you, sir. I tracked down some intel on victims from the Seven-six. I’m transferring the file to the desktop for you.”
“You do good work, Peb. Get some sleep, in case things pop off later.”
“Yes, sir. If you need me, just holler.”
Once the door to the tiny office shut behind Peb, Ace flipped through all the active cameras. Everything seemed to be going smoothly. Barbara was seated in the kitchen writing on a sheet of paper. He zoomed the camera in to see if he could tell what she was making for dinner. The breakfast she’d made left his taste buds screaming for more.
Shock ripped through his chest when he realized it wasn’t a grocery list. It was list with their names in a heart at the top, a line down the middle with pros on one side and cons on the other. It was the kind of list a woman made when she was trying to decide whether to take a man on for real.
Squinting, he could barely make out the words. On the con side, there were two things written. One was “not pretty or interesting enough to hang onto a hot biker.” Ace chuckled at that ‘cause she was way off-base. When she moved her hand, he read something about him not loving himself as much as she did. It was kind of cute that she considered that some kind of drawback to being with him.
Meanwhile, her hand was flying down the pros side of the paper, as she wrote mostly one-word items. He tilted his head, making out the words: warm, friendly, funny, down to earth, sexy, handsome, cool tattoos, nice rod, incredible in bed, protective, honest, good-looking, sexy, good at snuggling, great kisser, beautiful eyes, sexy, nice teeth, fun, talkative, likes my food, funny, safe with him, and drink-making god. She scrawled “can’t live without him” when she was running out of room at the bottom of the page.
Ace sat with a big stupid grin on his face, feeling like a teenager all over again ‘cause she’d accidentally put sexy three times without realizing it. He watched her read over her own list, frown, and quickly mark some things out and scrawl some other things down. Reading over it again, she smiled, wadded it up, and tossed it in the trash. Finally, she got down to the task of making her grocery list.
Opening the file Peb had created again, Ace perused everything from her grade school yearbook pictures to clips from her social media accounts. She seemed so clueless about how horrible the world could be. He reminded himself that she was a grown woman, capable of and willing to make her own decisions in life.
A little voice whispered in the back of his mind that if they were together, he could offer her the kind of protection most men couldn’t. He could see her flourishing under his gentle praise and loving protection. That was something her high-class husband never managed to give her. Ace would never be stupid enough cheat on her, that was for damn sure.
After he finished her file, he gave the others a quick once-over. The girl was all alone, since her grandmother passed away a year ago. She was taking heavy financial aid to pay her tuition and fees. It seemed a shame to see her go into debt that way.
Two of the three men were spoiled little rich boys. Jack, of course, was a horse of a different color. It looked like he might have gotten the boot by his family after getting thrown out of high school, the military, and two colleges for fighting, and in one case, instigating a riot. Ace smiled to himself, wondering what that was about. Darkness had called him “prospect” out in the open, and Jack had done his bidding. Of course, that was no guarantee the man knew what any of that meant.
Standing up, he eased out of the security room and walked down to the armory. Placing his hand flat against the safe, he dialed in the correct sequence and pulled the heavy door open. Reaching inside, he grabbed what he came for and shut the door. Slinging it over this shoulder, Ace went in search of Jack. Finding him shooting pool with the other students, he tossed him the heavy leather vest.
“You ain’t got time to be shooting pool, prospect. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re on lockdown at the moment.”
Jennifer spoke up. “We’re willing to do whatever needs done. Just tell us.”
“If you want to help, my old lady is making a big meal for the brothers. She could probably use some help.”
One of the other men asked, “What about us?”
Ace pointed a stern finger at them. “You two stay right where you are. I don’t know you or trust you. Just shoot pool, watch the big screen, or play video games. Hell, get shit-faced at the bar for all I care. Just stay the fuck out of our way, ‘cause we’ve got serious shit going down right now.”
Pointing at Jack, he intoned, “You, put the fucking cut on and get busy earning that bottom rocker.”
The young man’s eyes lit up. “You want me to join your MC?”
Darkness called you prospect last night and you didn’t object. It’s a done deal, unless you officially back out.”
“Fuck no, I want in. Does this gig pay any money?”
“You get a grand a month and free room and board. When you earn your bottom rocker, you can times that amount by four, and you get a fair cut of any extra jobs we do.”
Quickly pulling the vest on, he asked excitedly, “Does this mean I get to ride the open road, make drug runs, and do all kinds of dirty deeds?”
“Hell the fuck no, it does not. We own a total of four separate businesses.” Holding up his hand, Ace counted them off on his fingers. “The garage outside, a parts store in town, a hair salon, and—”
“A barber shop, you mean.”
“Rule number one. Don’t interrupt a brother when he’s speaking. You will learn to manage that mouth or suffer the consequences.”
