Pagan (The Henchmen MC 8)

"I'm hopin' he's still breathing."

Hoping.

You had to respect Reign for a mindset like that.

Shit happened and lives were taken at times.

I guess, seeing as he had taken his fair share, he got that.

Me, I had mangled bodies behind me, but almost all of them were still breathing. Taking lives wasn't an idea I took lightly, though I did believe some fuckers deserved to die.

"Yeah, he's painting the grass down the alley red for a bit, but he'll get up again. Not to tell you your business, but I'm hoping he ends up nursing his wounds somewhere other than the compound."

"I dunno," Reign mused, reaching behind me for a beer. "I think a man willing to step to someone with your fucking reputation might be worth looking into."

"It was booze bravado. He wants to step to me sober after that ass-kicking, then I'd say you had a point."

"Fair point." He nodded, leaning against the bar, looking out at the sea of people, most of whom were new to us.

"Any finalists?"

"I'm liking the duo from the MC."

"Sugar and Virgin," I supplied, feeling like that event happened ages before.

"Yeah, them. Janie is already on looking into them. Alex is going to check out Roan," he said, using the neck of his beer to point to the man in question. Size-wise, he was solid, wide, strong, even in jeans and a tee there was no way to disguise that. Unlike most of the other newer prospects, he seemed older. Maybe mid-to-late thirties. There was something primal about him too. Maybe it was as simple as the shoulder-length dark hair and the full beard. But it was in the eyes too, light light green and keen.

"What's his story?"

Reign shrugged. "From what he says, ex-CIA."

"A spy?" I asked, turning to look at the man again.

"Again, so he says. We're having Alex check into that story. It's possible. I've been eavesdropping tonight and have heard him speak three languages already." At my brow raise, he shook his head. "English, obviously. Then Spanish with that Roderick guy," he said, gesturing toward a tall, good-looking Puerto Rican guy who was almost as big as Wolf. "Then he walked right up to Edison and spoke fucking Romanian without even asking about Edison's background."

I could see the advantage there. A spy. Ex-spy, whatever. Espionage was a part of every damn criminal enterprise. And spies, since they only worked indirectly with government agencies, tended to be extremely comfortable doing things completely against the law. Plus, Spanish would absolutely come in handy. Maybe less so the Romanian, but Edison was sure to like it. And if he spoke those two, who knew if he maybe had some Russian, Italian, or Polish going on that would prove useful for our contacts.

"Is he tolerable?" I asked, watching him reach out and shake Sugar's hand.

To that, Reign's smile was wry. "Kind of hard to tell, don't you think? If he was a spy, then his entire life was built on lying and creating new identities. If his background check pans out, that is what the probate period is for. See if he gets on with everyone, what his strengths and weaknesses are." He turned half to me again, jerking his chin toward the small circle of Roan, Sugar, Roderick, and Virgin. "Did you fucking hear how Sugar got his name?"

"No." I shook my head.

To that, the prez's smile was fucking brilliant.

"You won't believe this shit..."--"I'm just saying," Maze said as we left her office, flipping her hair over her shoulder.

"What are you saying?"

"That you really need to go and tell them about this," she said with a brow raise. Them meaning The Henchmen.

See, there was a lot I was willing to give them about me. This was not one of them. And I was just starting to see how much of a fucking problem my current conflict of interest was.

I had hired Maze to handle my books years before. She had a reputation for being the best in the area, especially when you had dirty money coming in like I always did from Hex. I had no idea she was even hooked up with The Henchmen at the time. Not that it would have mattered even if I did know. Back then, that didn't matter since I wasn't involved with them myself.

Now, well, it was becoming problematic.

I got an earful every goddamn month when I went to see Maze again.

She didn't like being in the position of keeping information from her loved ones, but she couldn't turn on me either.

"It's not the time, Maze," I said, shaking my head as we moved to walk down the street. "I'll let them in on it when I need to."

"That's just it though, Pagan. You should feel like you need to now. This is a brotherhood. You need to trust them."