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The chastity belt would have been a waste of money, she groggily told herself. She was fully capable of curbing the attraction she had for the hunk of masculinity outside her bedroom door… As long as he didn’t call her honey. Some torture would be too hard to endure.
CHAPTER 42
THE QUESTION
“Arden, wake up! Come on, honey, wake up.”
Startled awake, Arden sat up, clawing at her throat, feeling as if she was being strangled. The bedroom was so dark she could only make out a shadowy face in front of hers.
Screaming, she tried to throw herself out of the bed.
“It’s me—Doom. You were having a nightmare.”
Doom’s voice managed to cut through the nightmare battle scene she had been fighting in.
With her legs dangling off the bed, she let him pull her back to the middle of the bed.
“I’ll turn the light on.”
She shivered as she felt his weight leave the bed and pulled the covers back over her.
The light filling the room had her eyes adjusting to the change. She opened them and saw Doom returning to the bed, wearing a pair of gray sweatpants barely hanging on to his hips. Her hands went to her throat, still feeling as if she were unable to get a deep breath.
“Stop.” His hands pried hers away from her throat. “You’ve scratched the fuck out of yourself.”
“I did?”
“Yes. Must have been a hell of a nightmare.”
Arden nodded, staring down at the hands still holding hers. “I was having a nightmare about Lizzie being hit with that pipe.”
Doom grimaced. “I had a feeling you would. Hell, it was pretty fucked up what they did for a hunk of metal. I’m sorry I wasn’t there sooner.”
Arden wrapped the blanket around her tighter, feeling as if she would never be warm again.
“I’m just grateful you showed when you did. Usually, you’re still at the club at that time of night. Luckily, you left when you did.”
“I don’t know about luck. I only left the club to see you.”
Arden frowned. “Were you going to throw me out of the club again because of the argument we had?”
“No, I was coming to tell you Wizard was going to give you the rest of the votes you needed to become a Last Rider.”
Her jaw dropped. “Why?”
“For fixing the beer.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
She started laughing. “Beer is considered more important than sex?”
Doom rolled his eyes. “Apparently.” His expression grew more serious. “Wizard let you have the votes because you were the one who made the effort to fix what was wrong with the beer. Just like the wiring, which needed fixing before the whole club caught fire. We’ve become so used to Viper coming to handle anything messed up, and his absence caught up with us. He kept telling Wizard the club was his responsibility, but Wizard is easily sidetracked.”
“Then why do you all keep him as president if he isn’t taking care of the club?”
“Because he might not be taking care of the maintenance of the club, but Wizard is busting his ass doing the rest of the shit that goes along with being president. He’s helping Burn getting custody of his kid. No lawyer in town wants to represent him because Moon, one of the brothers you haven’t met yet, had the mayor’s daughter chasing after him. The mayor blames Moon for his daughter trying to commit suicide after Moon didn’t want to become serious and wouldn’t let her hang out at the club anymore. Moon finally had to leave for Treepoint when charges were manufactured against him. Celine pressed charges saying Moon raped her and she was pregnant. We don’t know how, but the charges against him were finally dropped. Which was great for Moon, but the mayor still uses his power to browbeat anyone from doing business with us locally. The warehouse is always short-staffed because no one wants to work for us. Wizard can’t get permits to expand the club by adding more bedrooms and enlarging the kitchen, the mayor is trying to have it classified as a historical building. So, until the council decides, he can’t do shit. Every council meeting, one the mayor’s flunkies pushes the discussion back to another date.”
Placing her pillow behind her back, Arden relaxed into a more comfortable position. Listening to Doom helped take her mind off Lizzie’s death.
“Has Wizard thought about getting a lawyer?”
Doom lay down sideways on the bed, putting him at her feet.
“They take his money and do jack shit.” He casually started massaging her foot that was peeking out of the blanket. “Just like Burn’s lawyer.”
“I can see how Wizard has his hands full.”
“I wasn’t even counting the number of shifts he pulls at the warehouse when we’re short-staffed.”
Arden started to feel ashamed of herself for assuming Wizard always appeared so exhausted when she saw him at the club because of his partying lifestyle.
