I started chewing my fingernails, which was a nervous habit I detested but couldn’t seem to get rid of. I’d run the gamut of treatments to make me stop, but nothing did the trick. “You’re right,” I admitted eventually. “He’s gonna blow his stack. But I have to talk to him. I’m not some princess in a tower. If he wants me to be happy, he’s going to have to lighten up at some point or another.”
“There you go,” Lori exulted, throwing her hands to the ceiling. “Praise the Lord, she finally starts speaking some sense! Hallelujah!”
“Enough already,” I snapped as I pretended to be angry. “You’re too much sometimes, you know that?”
She dropped her voice low and gave me a teasing, sultry glance. “Baby, this is only a taste of it.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oy, you’re ridiculous.”
“I’m just getting started, babelicious.”
“I’m going home.”
Lori smacked my ass jokingly as I climbed off her bed and bent over to pick up my backpack from the floor. I yelped and jumped straight into the air. “What on earth was that for?” I screeched.
Lori rolled on her back, legs kicking in the air, cackling her ass off. “I just wKisha get you ready for Danster,” she teased. “There’s a whole lot more where that came from!”
I muttered, half to her and half to myself, as I turned to leave the room, “I can’t believe I’m friends with you.”
“You love me and you know it.” She leaped off and planted a friendly kiss on my cheek. “Let me know how the talk with your dad goes.”
I swallowed hard. It was not going to be a pretty conversation.
Chapter Two
Ben
I brought the stacks of cash to my face and took a deep inhale. Nothing in the world was better than that crisp shit. Brand new bills were like an aphrodisiac. Hell, the smell made me hard all by itself. Good thing I was in my office alone or I might have gotten some weird looks.
I set down the first two stacks and picked up two more. These I hefted in my hands. The weight, the clean edges—there really was nothing in the world that felt so immediately right when I held it. In this life, there were rare moments of perfection, and this was one of them.
I sighed like a fat man after a big, delicious meal and leaned back in my chair, folding my hands behind my head. I surveyed the room. It was my office, fairly plain and Spartan, just the way I liked it. Painted on the far wall in a massive mural was the crest of the Dark Knights MC. My MC.
“Hey, prez,” said a voice at the door. I looked over and saw Slick sticking his shaved head just inside the cracked doorframe.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Got a few more with me. You want to take a look at ’em?”
A huge grin spread across my face. “Does a bear shit in the woods?”
Slick chuckled as he opened the door farther and dragged in two more heavy duffle bags overflowing with bound stacks of dollar bills. With a grunt, he hefted each of them on top of my desk, next to the two that were already there.
“Goddamn,” he said with a low whistle, shaking his head side to side in disbelief, “what a haul.”
“Ain’t it beautiful?”
“It sure is, prez; it sure fuckin’ is. Can’t believe those jokers were dumb enough to keep it all in one place.”
“A fool and his money are soon parted, amigo,” I said wisely.
Slick snorted. “You sound like a goddamn fortune cookie.”
I laughed. On a day like today, I’d let his comment slide. I was just too damn happy to worry about something as petty as an insult from one of my men. Other times, he might not have been so fortunate as to avoid a classic Ben Killmore storm of wrath. But with all this money in front of me, I was like a virgin teenager at the whorehouse. Where should I even begin?
“Slick, my good man, this calls for a celebration.”
He raised an eyebrow. “What you got in mind?”
“The works. I want a fuckin’ blowout. Pack this clubhouse full of pretty sluts and enough liquor to kill an army. After pulling this off, we deserve to treat ourselves.”
“Couldn’t have said it better myself.”
“Of course not. That’s why I’m the president and you’re the one dragging these heavy-ass bags down the hallway to my office.”
“You’re an asshole, Ben.”
“The richest one you know.”
Slick laughed as he turned and headed down the hall to assign men towards getting ready for the party tonight. Just before he walked out the door, he paused. “Oh, prez, I just remembered. Jay said he wanted to talk to you. Wanted to debrief the raid.”
“Always business with that guy, isn’t it?”
“You’re tellin’ me.”
“He’s probably right, though. Send the bastard in.” I heard Slick step into the hallway and shout Jay’s name down towards the bar area.