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“How did you earn your votes from Puck and Buck?” Wizard asked.
“Exactly how did they say I earned them?” she hedged.
Dourly, Wizard unwrapped a sucker he had removed from a cellophane bag to place in his mouth. Arden was sure he was doing it to prevent himself grinding his teeth together. She could tell from the moment she had walked into the club that Wizard was in a foul mood. Andy had told her The Last Riders were throwing Doom a going away party. From Wizard’s appearance and the state of the bar, there must have been a free-for-all at the end. Bluish, purple swelling surrounded his left eye, and Wizard had tissues poking out of his nostrils.
“Did Puck and Buck lie when they said you earned their vote, or did you buy them by giving them Super Bowl tickets?”
“I was going to give them the tickets regardless.”
Her knees started shaking inside the slacks she was wearing at the way Wizard glared at her.
“Which still doesn’t answer my fucking question.” Taking the sucker out of his mouth, he used it to point at her. “Go sit your ass down. Buck, front and center,” Wizard ordered sharply.
As Buck got off the stool, Arden knew he was going to maintain their lie. Puck didn’t even glance as his brother when he got up. He was going to lie too, when his time came.
“Wait.” Arden remained where she was. “I begged them to give me their votes. They didn’t want to lie to any of you, but I begged them. Don’t be mad at them. It’s all my fault. I’ll take any punishment you want to give them. You can even take back all the votes you have given me and throw me out of the club if you want.”
With Doom leaving this morning, it was hard being here, anyway. She kept looking around for his face in the bar, and each time the door opened, she felt a piece of her heart die when it wasn’t him coming inside.
“You’re willing take the punishment I would have given Buck and Puck?”
“Yes.” God, she hoped it wasn’t too bad.
“At least you didn’t make it worse by lying to me, I’ll give you that.” Wizard drummed his fingers on the table. “Concerning your punishment, I have a question.”
Arden stared at him questioningly.
“Were these knuckleheads worried about us finding out they lied for you?”
Arden felt the color drain out of her cheeks. “Yes. They knew I would be the weak link.”
Wizard rolled his eyes at her then grimaced. “Don’t give them so much credit. If they were so fucking worried, they shouldn’t have fucking accepted the tickets!”
“They had me agree to a stipulation.”
Wizard’s interest piqued, and his jaw punched out with the sucker. Well, either it was the sucker, or he was furious. Arden really wanted to sit before she fell.
“What was the stipulation?”
“That I couldn’t ever tell how they gave me their vote.”
Folding one leg over the other, Wizard folded his hands on his stomach to stare over her head at the two men who had come to stand behind her. She couldn’t tell if it was to show their support or to strangle her.
“What if she told?” Wizard asked them.
“We told Tink that we would expect her to earn our vote the way we said she did,” Puck spoke up.
“Hmm…” Wizard nodded. “Technically, the votes wouldn’t be a lie if you three have sex. We could say the votes were a loan until you were ready to earn them. There, problem solved. You three get busy.” Wizard reached for another sucker.
“Celeste, bring me a fucking beer. Church over.”
“Wait!” Arden objected loudly. “I don’t understand.”
Wizard gave a loud groan, staring up at the ceiling as if his patience was exhausted. “What’s so fucking hard to understand? I’m trying to be fucking nice,” he snarled. “Save two knuckleheads from being thrown out of the club because they misguidedly got a fucking hard-on and lost their judgment when you dangled those tickets in front of them instead of your tits and fucking lied to us!”
Arden winced as Wizard’s voice rose in volume to a shout.
“You can throw me out of the club—”
“Did I fucking ask your permission as to what I can do?” Wizard looked as if he was about to strangle on his sucker.
“No…” Arden took a step back to save her hearing.
“I was beginning to fucking wonder if the brothers voted you in while I was fucking sleeping. Did you, fuckers?”
“No, brother,” The Last Riders chorused. “You’re the president.”
“Good, now that’s settled, are you prepared to repair the damage you’ve done to Buck’s and Puck’s loyalty where the club is concerned, or are they saying their goodbyes?”
What was she supposed to do? She couldn’t have sex with them, but she didn’t want them thrown out of the club either. Luc would lose their friendship too…
