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“That if a jackass like him can love a delicate flower like Selene, then Goose should have no problem making things work with a gal like Coco.”
“I think you got high on those big-city fumes,” Ruin mutters while Armor seems curious about his sister’s romantic options.
The club’s VP walks off without saying a word as Ruin and I eyeball each other.
“If you push too hard, this woman will break.”
“She was grinding her pussy on me last night, but I kept my dick tucked away in my pants. So, fuck off with this shit about me having no self-control.”
Ruin exhales like a pissed-off bull and runs his hands through his shaggy blond hair. I feel him revving up to another complaint-filled pile of shit.
Instead, he says, “Selene’s struggling after what happened. I want to tell her how everything is handled, but I’m afraid it isn’t. I don’t feel comfortable having her go into town without me.”
Ruin glances over to where Hobo and Xenia wander away, holding hands and looking relaxed.
“And it’s not just Selene. I can’t tell Nomad to let Landry and the kids off their property. Yazmin is staying at my house all day with Gavin. Eagle’s locked down with Irina and the baby.”
“I bet he likes that part.”
Ruin grudgingly smiles. “Yeah, but it’s only been a week. People are bound to get restless soon. Wynonna’s already giving me endless grief.”
Finishing my meal, I rest the plate on a table and look over the serene day. “Those guys are dead.”
“So says some fucking bikers.”
“Yeah, it’s true men who ride motorcycles are usually shady,” I reply, and Ruin narrows his blue eyes at me. “Even if the Backcountry Kings were willing to bullshit us, there’s no way they’d lie to Suzanne Knutsen. It’d be like you claiming you’d handled a threat to Todd Rogers’s daughter, knowing the problem will bubble up later and hurt her. There’d be hell to pay for those lies. It’s the same way in Banta City.”
Despite my logic, Ruin can’t relax. He’s seeking an unattainable reassurance.
“Look,” I say, still hoping to calm him enough to back the fuck off, “when Chip Edwards started prowling around McMurdo Valley, we didn’t wait for him to misbehave. When Marky started shit, we tried to finesse the issue. But finessing men like him doesn’t work. That’s why when Eagle thought Jimbo was a threat, he ended him. But when Halvorson’s ranch hands started shit, we just kicked their asses and assumed the problem was handled. Maybe we need to be colder.”
Ruin doesn’t show any reaction to my words. I suspect he blames himself for getting distracted by Selene and the baby. He was a cold motherfucker before he fell in love. He killed people who likely wouldn’t have challenged the club in a real way. Always brutal, Ruin got even meaner once Joie was born. McMurdo Valley needed to be safe for his kid, so that was that.
However, Selene got under Ruin’s skin, blinding him to things and making him doubt himself.
“Even if we kill anyone who so much as looks at us wrong,” I continue when he allows the silence to linger, “there’ll always be threats. Random people who freak out. Or thieves who mug the wrong person. Bad shit happens. Locking down forever isn’t the answer. But shit went down only a week ago. Everything is fresh. Wounds haven’t healed. Things won’t be okay around here until Yagger is back here and on the mend.”
Rubbing his eyes, Ruin shakes his head. “It felt different in the past.”
“Because you were different. I already feel different after only a few days with Austen. People change us.”
Ruin remains pessimistic and mutters, “I fear what this town will be like when my kids get older.”
“You’re getting bogged down with worries. But we’ve always been a small club. We chose not to recruit more members. Unless you’re second-guessing that choice, we need to consider hiring men like Todd Rogers has. Armor once suggested getting people to patrol the town. We could build housing for them. They’d be part of our team without wearing our patch.”
Ruin considers Armor’s suggestion made years ago. We were in our late thirties and another group of young bucks took a run at the club. We thoroughly fucked them up with ease, yet there were a lot of them and far fewer of us. There was an unspoken worry back then. Now, we’re giving voice to those fears.
“Without Rogers’s help,” Ruin admits, “we’d have been fucked. I hate how we needed to rely on that asshole.”
“Fiona will run things one day. Until then, we can take steps to stand on our own. You and Armor have big brains. Come up with what will work when we’re fifty, sixty, and so forth. We might be ballers in our old age, like your dad and uncle. Or we might get feeble and need to tie walkers to our hogs. The goal should be to keep McMurdo Valley in our hands until younger men, like your boy maybe, can take control.”
Wearing a dark frown, Ruin grumbles, “I don’t feel old.”
“Neither do I. But our age isn’t really the problem. It’s our club size. You know the problem and are usually good at fixing shit. I think Selene has got you doubting yourself.”
Ruin watches me through narrowed eyes before muttering, “You might be taking this benevolent-dictator thing too seriously.”
“I want this town to be safe for my people, especially since I’ve talked Austen into coming here. Besides, I’m just telling you shit you already know. Fuck, man, you became mayor so you could better control the town. You’re always thinking of ways to make us more powerful.”
