“We didn’t mean to forget you,” I insisted, pressing a hand to my heart as I looked at Danny.
“You didn’t,” she admitted. “Gracie texted me. I wanted to listen to some of the talk at church since I know a thing or two about the up-and-coming organizations in the area. I did a lot of research when we’d decided to open up the club here.”
“Oh, good. I don’t want you to think we didn’t think of you. You’re just…”
“New,” she filled in. “It’s okay. I’m not always down for girls nights anyway. The karaoke in particular. But if you guys are drinking hard like this again, I will be game for that.”
“We also… hold on… I’m ringing,” Vi said, patting at all her pockets until she found her phone wedged down into her bra for some inexplicable reason. “My tits were ringing,” she declared, letting out a high, girlish giggle as she slid her finger across the screen to answer. “Violet’s tits,” she answered. “Who may I ask is…whoa, that’s loud. You’re being very loud right now,” she said, voice sluggish. “Fine. You don’t have to yell at me, assface,” she declared, then held out her phone. “The assface you call a partner wants to speak to you,” Vi said, handing Danny the phone.
“Assface?” I asked, giggling with her when she broke into a fit of giggles.
“What?” Danny barked, the sound loud and sharp. “Are you sure? No, we’re all here. Everyone is safe. Well, we have three vodka casualties right now, but everyone is inside and safe. Oh, wait, Layna, get your head in the apartment, shut and lock the window,” she demanded, and the firmness in her voice made Layna suddenly seem a lot more sober as she said goodbye to my neighbor and followed orders, closing the curtains for good measure. “Okay. Yep. I’ve got it. Yeah, I, ah, I…love,” she said, voice really small, like she was embarrassed to use the word in front of us, “you too.”
“Something happened?” Layna asked, reaching for a coffee on the table that had long-since gone cold, and chugging it back.
“There’s a box outside the door,” Danny told us, and it was like an ice bucket had been poured over all of us who were still conscious, making us a lot more sober in a blink.
“What? How? Did they see who dropped it?” Hope asked, likely the most sober of all of us next to Danny.
“They caught a shoulder of someone on the video, that’s it. But they want us all to stay right here until they get some of the guys over here. I know,” she said with a smirk when Vi grumbled. “But we have to admit that, as a group, we aren’t going to be the most effective at fighting off a threat right now. On a normal, sober day, we would be every bit as good as the boys.”
“Better,” Layna insisted. “Our moms and aunts were ruthless with our training,” she added.
“But a little spinny right now,” Violet agreed.
“Armed and spinny,” Layna agreed, reaching for her own gun.
“Why don’t you move your peace and love ass a little further from the door,” Hope suggested, waving me over toward her side.
Not ten minutes later, the apartment was swarmed with men. Our fathers and uncles, our cousins too.
But not, I noted with a sinking sensation in my stomach, Rowe.
I mean, I shouldn’t have been surprised. He wasn’t as mobile as the rest of them. Of course they would leave him home. But still, I was more than a little disappointed at his absence.
“I’m sure he would be here if he could,” Hope said, wrapping an arm around my waist and leading me back toward my bedroom where the guys had barricaded my windows with furniture since I’d told them I needed some sleep.
“Who?” I asked, slow blinking at my cousin as she led me over to the bed and half-dropped me down next to a sleeping, and empty-stomach’d, Willa.
“Rowe,” she said, rolling her eyes at me. “I know something is going on there. And I will say… it’s about time. But he was probably ordered to stay at the clubhouse with the others. They need to protect their home base too with all this nonsense going on. I’m sure he will find an excuse to be here as soon as possible.”
As it would turn out, though, as soon as possible wasn’t soon enough.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Rowe
“You’re going to fuck up your back worse than it already is,” Pagan’s voice called from behind me after I waited for all the others to head out before I made my way toward my bike. “Trust me, kid, I know a thing or two about fucked up body parts,” he added.
It was no secret that Pagan was probably the most rough & tumble of all the OG members. He’d been a cage fighter for shits and giggles. And then he’d joined the MC to become one of our fiercest enforcers when a situation called for it.