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“He asked if I wanted to get out of here, but I told him I was getting married. That had him backpedaling.”
My eyebrows shoot up. “How noble of him.”
There’s a snort in my ear, and a pool cue appears in front of my face.
“Bullseye doesn’t need some pissed-off fiancé coming after him for banging his missus,” Justice chuckles. “You’re up, fairy princess.”
“I’m no good at pool,” I protest. He grins back at me.
“I’ll teach you.”
“I’m not going to have sex with you.”
Justice turns to study me, his eyes darting over my head, locking on something. A slow grin crosses his face.
“How about I teach you for free? No expectations?”
I close my hand around the pool cue. I think I can live with that. Justice moves to rack up the balls, grinning, while I turn back to Sophie, waggling my eyebrows.
“I won the dare, by the way.”
Giggling, Sophie smacks my ass. “Good for you, girl!”
Poking my tongue at her, I cross to where Justice demonstrates how to ‘break.’
“Shots!” Lana squeals, coming up for air. Sophie adds her assurances, and Justice and I throw a thumbs up in her direction. She and Bullseye must disappear to get them because Sophie starts calling out encouragement.
Lining up the shot, I keep Justice’s tips in mind as I aim and jab the cue at the white ball. I miss. I miss so badly that the white ball jumps off the table and bounces along the ground, coming to a halt when it hits the bottom of the jukebox. Justice is laughing so hard that he has to hold onto the pool table. Asshole. Even Sophie is giggling. Traitor.
Eyes narrowing, I retrieve the white ball, squaring my shoulders and slapping it back down on the felt. I’ll show them. Bending down, I carefully line the shot up again. Moving the cue more smoothly, I tap the white ball. It rolls and hits the ball at the tip of the triangle. A perfect shot. Pity it was such a weak tap that the ball sits there, having done nothing else.
“That’s better,” Justice chuckles. “Here.” He hands me a vodka shot. “Drink this and try again.”
Snatching up the shot, I drink it in one swallow, grimacing and turning back to the table. This time, I’m going to do amazing. I’ll be a pool shark before I leave.
Chapter 6
MERCH
Palmer emerges from Lisa’s office as I’m striding past. Smirking, he falls into step with me.
“Really? You couldn’t wait until after the meeting for a fuck?”
Flipping me off, Palmer grins at me. “Oh, I’ll be having one after too.”
Insatiable prick. Rolling my eyes, I grab the door handle, holding it open. Bruiser looks over, grunting and nodding as we slide into the room.
“Hold the door!”
Palmer grabs it, holding it open as Fangs strides in, Killer hot on his heels. Killer stops chatting with Palmer, but I follow Fangs to the table. Aric stands next to Bruiser and nods when I drop into my seat.
Holton and Archer are standing at the head of the table, near Holton’s chair, deep in discussion. Even from here, I can see the tremors running through Archer. No longer confined to his hands, his head is jerkily nodding along to Holton, seemingly out of his control. It’s a nasty bitch of a disease. Archer is a good man. He doesn’t deserve this fate.
One by one, the officers enter, dropping into their seats. Finally, all ten of us are seated. Archer, as club secretary, called the meeting, but he never mentioned what was to be discussed. It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out watching the man jerk around in his seat.
Holton stands, casting a regretful look at Archer. The two men are of a similar age. They, with Fangs, represent the old guard at this table. Slowly, they’ve all stepped back. Now it’s Archer’s turn.
“Thanks for coming in, boys,” Holton’s gravelly voice has an underlying thread of emotion. “Tough one today.”
