“How big is the risk? Should I go on my own?” Gray asked. Despite being the youngest patch, after being trained for his job since early adolescence, he was one of the club’s major assets, and so he was often the person of choice for solo work. Particularly when said work required for him to silently dispose of problematic people.
Fox licked his lips, as if the reddish stones made him thirsty. “They are natural rubies. High in demand. Expensive as fuck.”
Within the past two decades, natural rubies had upstaged diamonds in price due to a curiously dwindling supply. There were artificially produced gems, of course, but their worth remained steady. No wonder Mr. Magpie was ready to pay elevated prices for genuine pieces.
Beast lowered his voice and leaned forward, looking at Gray. “Fox could go with you. I think he might need a break from the kids—”
A loud, particularly nasty bundle of swear words flew from the office nearby where Fox was trying to get to grips with their finance records, without much success.
“And the accounting,” finished Beast, prompting all of them to nod.
Rev tapped his thick fingertips, yellowed from his smoking habit, against the table and looked at his son with pride. “Gray needs no backup. But a man can’t always work alone.”
“I’m fine,” Gray was quick to say, sinking back into the chair.
Knight dove his hand into the box of rubies and watched the gems slide between his fingers. If he had a girlfriend, he might have tried to negotiate keeping one for her, but after the recent relationship fiasco he decided women were more trouble than they were worth. He’d much rather spend his hard-earned cash on a new sound system. Pretty ladies were still queuing up for his dick, so there was no point in seeking another girl of his own anyway.
Beast put his hands on the table and leaned closer to Gray, frowning slightly as he pondered both options. The frown looked menacing on his face, twisted by burn scars and boldly tattooed, but Knight knew him well enough to read the expression as concern. “You’re fine now, but we need to make sure you don’t always have to deal with this stuff on your own. You’ve been giving Jake some kickboxing lessons. Maybe you could intensify those, train him up a bit?”
Rev snorted. “We all know Prospect’s dying for attention.”
Beast harrumphed. “We should vote him in soon. He’s been waiting for his patch long enough and showed dedication throughout that time.”
“Once he’s a member, will he still suck my dick when I ask him to? I might decide my vote based on that information,” Joker said. With his unnaturally wide mouth stretched into a smile and pale hair formed into spikes he did resemble a scary clown, and he had a personality to match the looks.
Beast’s lips trembled in a way they always did when he tried to remain serious in face of dumb comments. “I don’t know, brother. I suggest you ask him.”
Knight was sure Jake would still come running any time he asked. When Jake had first become a hangaround at nineteen, he had that all-American boy-next-door look Knight didn’t usually care for, but two years on, the muscular boy was slowly coming into his own as a man with some ink and a few scars to show for it. He was a good lay, devoted like a puppy, and always ready to do what the club needed. Knight supposed the guy deserved a reward for all this wait, even if he wasn’t sure whether Jake was mature enough for all the responsibilities that came with being patched in.
“Yeah. Let’s vote once everything calms down.”
“Agreed,” Gray said, and all the others voiced their approval.
Rev lit himself a cigarette. “At least with the cops and archaeologists gone from the property, we can do business again. Mr. Magpie wasn’t happy with the wait. It was unnecessary hassle to dig up those corpses.”
Joker grinned. “Oh, come on, indulge Knight. He’d wanted to get his hands on those deadies for months.” He wiggled his eyebrows at Knight. “Did you get to touch the bones you really liked?”
The snorting turned into a choir, with the quietest sound coming from the office. It seemed Fox wasn’t as focused on the accounts as he ought to be.
Knight straightened his back, deflecting the mockery with a wide smile. “Laugh all you want. This was a monumental discovery. One of those bodies was missing an arm, exactly like Laurent told us.”
Beast locked his lips and leaned back in his chair, no doubt thinking about his partner, who knew more about the sinister forces living in their clubhouse than anyone else. He was also the reason why they were all stuck in the somewhat desolate former asylum. Out of solidarity with their prez though, no member would dare complain about it.