Duke (The Henchmen MC 5)

Summer nodded. "Well, we are giving you the bed right here," she said, gesturing to the one right inside the door. "It will make it easier for you to come and go as you please without worrying about waking anyone up. Lo said we have free rein of the place so long as we stay inside unless told we can go out. Though, I still get lost when I try to do it without someone to guide me."

"It's like a corn maze in here," I agreed.

"I hate corn mazes," she added and I nodded.

Behind me, another voice broke in, familiar. "See, they never tell me when they're on the way so I'm a bad host and don't get to greet you," Lo said, shaking her head.

"Hey Lo," I greeted her, smiling slightly.

"So I see you've met the troops. Nice dinosaur-girl," she called to Ferryn who lit up under the praise. "She's going to be working for me one day, mark my words," she told Summer.

"I'd like to say that no, she's going to be something tame like a school teacher or tax consultant. But I think we all know better."

"Alright, you want to come and get some real coffee? They're all drinking that preggo, no-kick crap. Figure you might need something stronger."

And I did.

So I followed her through the endless hallways until I found myself in what was, for all intents and purposes, a normal living space. There was a kitchen that melted into a small living room, all comfortably furnished so you felt less like you were in a fallout shelter and more like you were in a home.

"It's a weird mix of people I have here. Some of us need a homey atmosphere at times, but many are so used to barracks-style bareness that this actually makes them uncomfortable. So we have a mix of both styles. I tend to spend more time here than most of the others. So," she said, turning to the coffee pot and pouring two cups, "what was Duke's fallout shelter like?"

"Surprisingly well stocked," I said, accepting the coffee and going to the fridge to get cream. I found a bottle of french vanilla creamer and thrilled a little. It wasn't the kind of thing big, bad men like The Henchmen kept stocked. Small comforts sometimes made a world of difference.

"Well, it would be. His family were a bit of doomsdayers. They made survivalism into an art."

"You know about his family?" I asked, surprised. It didn't seem like information he would freely share.

"Oh, he didn't tell me," she said, brushing off the idea. "I employ a lot of people here and we do a lot of different jobs. As such, we like to know who all the players are in town. Well, across the country really. Just so we know who is a threat and who isn't. When Renny, Duke, and Maze became probates, I had Janie look into them. She got all the ugly details about his NeoNazi family. Real purists, they are," she said, talking about hate groups like they were a common thing. For all I knew, they were.

"I mean the white supremacists are, by far, the biggest hate group in the country. And they really branch out from the KKK to biker gangs to prison gangs. They're all different too. Well, aside from hating blacks, latinos, Jews, gays, and women who like having a choice. Most are all bluster, don't actually do anything. Thank God."

"But his family does things," I said, knowing about the kid who went to jail for false rape charges and the almost-bombing.

"Yes and no. They have grand ideas that they only rarely follow through on. They are more about building their little hate family up. That farm of theirs has expanded to insane proportions. But with the expansion will likely come a rise in actual violence. Especially given all the conflicts going on lately. Prime time for hate crimes unfortunately."

"They're not like... interested in trying to..."

"Take Duke back by any means necessary?" she asked, obviously able to read me easily. "No, babe. Duke has five other siblings. Three of them are boys. And the next oldest from him is a real mean son of a bitch. Their father likes him. They've just washed their hands of Duke. Good riddance to bad rubbish or something."

"Well, that's a relief I guess."

"Duke is a good man," she said, somewhat unexpectedly. "I know he comes from a shady situation, but he's a biker. You don't usually become a gun running biker when you grew up the typical boy next door. It doesn't mean there is any evil inside of him. I really believe he's one of the good ones. So if you were maybe having any reservations because of his past, I just wanted to clear that up."

I swallowed hard, glad for the confirmation. "I know he's a good man. He's been nothing but good to me and he didn't have to be."