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He’s not a part of those that I am starting to see as family. I wish Connor would throw him out on his ass. Anger seizes me as I look at his face, the same one that led Ruby out that side door at Club Belladonna that night, and fury rolls through me. Connor says he didn’t know what he was doing. Who knows what the truth is? I only know that I need somewhere to focus my rage, and he’s as good a place as any right now.
“But I don’t know that it’s smart to be meeting here. We don’t know what Lucas might have said about us or anything we’ve talked about.”
“You’re right,” Connor says, nodding and acknowledging the truth in the statement. “We must be careful and act soon.”
“Is that a good idea?” Ginny asks, chewing her gum loudly.
She blows a bubble, and it pops. I watch her suck it back into her mouth.
She’s different from the women I’ve met so far. She portrays herself as someone who doesn’t give any fucks about anything. Connor told me she was raised to be more male in this life than a female. She was a hoped-for son that came out with a vagina, and her father didn’t accept that. But I like her attitude. In another world, she would be my friend, and I would invite her over for wine and movie nights, and we would go on road trips.
But now, she can’t be seen with me. The other four men know that Connor was planning something. Or maybe they think he lost his mind outside of Fleur, but either way, we are the black sheep of the families now. The New Order has a bad apple in its barrel, and we need to cull the rotten fruit. Viktor saved Connor. We don’t know how. But Vincent, Paul, William, and Antonio won’t open their arms to us again anytime soon. Things have been strained since Bertrand died, but now, the tenuous line between the five families has snapped, leaving us on one side of the burned bridge and those four on the other side.
“Won’t they be expecting you to retaliate?” Ginny asks. Her legs are thrown over the armrest, dangling as she kicks one foot back and forth.
I take a sip of my tea for lack of something to do. I can’t really contribute anything to this conversation.
“They will expect it for the rest of their lives. Whether we act now or later doesn’t really matter,” Geo says. He’s twirling a ring around his finger. “We only need to remember we have one chance to get it right.”
“What do you know?” Dean asks Connor.
We all look to him. The leader. The one everyone expects to have an answer.
“I’ve read through the materials that were released to me,” he says.
Materials he still hasn’t shown me even though I’ve asked about them. Maybe it’s not good, and he doesn’t want to tell me. He could be trying to save me from something. He still hasn’t brought up Ruby. Every day that passes, something chips away at the hope inside me and causes my chest to ache.
“Are you going to show us these so-called materials?” Dean asks, pushing for his reply.
Would he show them and not me?
“Not yet,” Connor says. “I need to figure out a few more things. Meanwhile, do you know anything about the old Lions MC clubhouse?”
“The one your old man shot up and took over?” Geo asks, raising his eyebrows and leaning forward.
“Yes, that one,” Connor says, nodding.
He rubs his bottom lip with his thumb, deep in thought. I find myself sitting forward as well, waiting for what he’s going to say.
“I haven’t been there since I was in high school. But it’s still listed in my father’s assets, which means he never got rid of it. And to my knowledge, he never did any demolition to get rid of the buildings.”
His eyes meet mine, and my hands shake. I think I know what he is saying, but I don’t know if he will confirm it out loud.
Does he think it’s a potential place where the trafficked women are held? Does he think Ruby could be there? After a year and a half, I know it’s a long shot that she’s not far away from here, but maybe, just maybe, luck is on our side.
“Have any of you ever been out there?” Connor asks, and the room goes quiet.
Everyone shakes their heads.
Connor nods. “I think it might be a holding cell of some sort. Something our fathers didn’t want us to know about.”
“Why wouldn’t they tell us about something that is family business?”
Connor glances at Geo. “With the exception of Geo, we all are firstborn here. But it seems we aren’t as in the loop as we like to think we are. It doesn’t make sense because we’ve all been involved in our fathers’ businesses since we were children. They have raised us to take over one day. Except for this one thing. And I’m not sure why they are keeping it hidden. But I think that is the very thing that would break this wide open. We find out the motive behind the secrecy, and maybe we have them. Maybe we can take them down with it and start over.”
“You are being just as secretive,” Ginny says, and I find myself nodding along with her.
“Not secretive. I’m sharing what I know,” Connor says.
