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Zoe’s lips spread wide, her dainty hands coming up to cup either side of my jaw. “Yes. They are our family.”
She closes the distance, her soft lips pressing to mine, and I growl with want as I hook my arm around her back and tug her flush with me, deepening the kiss.
“Get a room,” Slasher chuckles as he brushes by us in the hallway, and I sigh into Zoe’s mouth, wishing we were back upstairs in bed again.
“Come on,” Zoe giggles, breaking the kiss and pulling back to take my hand. “It’s time for church.”
Church doesn’t have such a serious vibe since we obliterated the Reapers. Mostly, we’ve been focused on ways tobring back a sense of safety and security to the Santa Cruz community.
We assisted Loretta and Gertie in the cleanup of the Sleep-Eazy after the Reapers trashed it when they killed Erin and kidnapped Loretta’s whores. The two women will never admit it, but I know it’s taken a toll that their women were taken without them noticing. Fucking serves them right and maybe now they’ll keep a better eye and not go to the back to get high for hours. Probably not, though.
Maude’s house has been returned to normal in Watsonville, and with any cash we recovered in the Reapers’ safe houses, we donated to the hospital’s ER. What the staff did for us that day we took Rocco in, practically dead, and what the doc did by coming to us with information about the Reapers living next door to his mom, well, how could we not repay them by giving what we can?
We could have kept the cash for ourselves, especially since we haven’t been able to recover what the Reapers stole from us, but we’ve accepted that the money is gone. It just doesn’t mean what it did in the beginning. As far as we’re concerned, it’s tainted, and if we were ever to get it back, I’m pretty fucking sure my club brothers would happily have us donate that, too.
“What’s on today’s agenda?” I ask Slasher, who leaves the cigarette he’s smoking hanging from his lips with smoke billowing up into the room as he reads the sheet of paper.
“New prospects, honorary tattoos, and this week’s run.”
I nod, all eyes on me as I address the group.
“As most of you know, we are getting daily walk ups for guys wanting to join us. I don’t want to get too big too quickly, so I’m thinking three prospects for now.”
“Sounds good, Prez.” Munroe nods as Slasher passes a stack of papers to Tex, who’s sitting next to him.
“Here’s the list of candidates,” Slasher rasps, before blowing out the nicotine cloud he was holding in his lungs. “Have a read through and bring us two preferences by church next week. We start the official process with the voted chosen prospects at the start of February.”
Fists thump on the table in agreement, and I can’t help but smirk at Titch, who still can’t wipe his fucking grin off his face every time he gets to sit in on church now.
“There’s another thing we should discuss,” I say, lighting up another cigarette. “This is something I want everyone’s input on, so the vote needs to be unanimous.”
I pause and inhale deeply, letting smoke fill my lungs before I blow it into the air. A part of me didn’t even want to hear about it when Slasher mentioned it. But as the days passed, I realized he had a point, and as Prez, it’s my duty to find out if it’s an issue, even if I don’t think it should be.
“Gunner was a big part of designing the club patch we have, and—”
“With all due respect, Prez,” Doug says, interrupting me. “I, for one, don’t wanna hear it. That patch isoursand not Gunner’s. There’s nothing to discuss.”
“Second that,” Munroe agrees.
I never get to finish the question before they all make it clear that there’s no issue with the club patch, and that it’s ours.
“To the matter of honorary tattoos,” I say, leaning back in my seat and taking Zoe’s hand in mine, resting them on my thigh.
She’s so fucking quiet in these meetings that I wonder if she even likes coming to them. I could probably tell her she doesn’t have to come anymore if she doesn’t want to, but I’m a possessive fucker. I want her by my side every fucking minute of the day.
“I would like to put forward a vote to offer the Cunts honorary Cruz Kings tattoos in recognition for their dedication and the sacrifices they made by fighting the Reaper war with us.”
Zoe sits taller next to me, and I bite back a smirk.
I didn’t tell her we were going to be considering this.
“Yays?” I ask, and one by one, my club brothers say “Yay,” before thumping their fist over their heart.
“Yays have it,” I declare before turning to Zoe. “Mrs. Black. Can you please present that offer to the Cunts? We will arrange to have them done next week.”
“Yes.” She rolls her eyes at my use of Mrs. Black before nodding, looking excited. “Of course.”
Shooting her a wink, I turn back to the table, discussing this week’s run up to San Francisco, allocating men before I slam the gavel to close church.
