Pagan (The Henchmen MC 8)

The only one of them I had ever really had a conversation with was Bethany, who was Laz's girl. And that was because Laz had joined the MC around the same time as Cyrus, Reeve, Edison, and Pagan, so he had a tight bond with them.

I had to admit, it was nice to have another girl around.

There were so many men, and there were only so many dirty jokes and messes one could clean up before you started really craving the company of a fellow female.

Bethany was pretty laid-back, down-to-earth, and sweet. She was also the only person who could truly understand how I felt about Pagan's fights at Hex because Laz had been fighting there for almost as long, though he spent most of his time as a guard.

Just as I thought her name, I saw her turn, her short, dark hair catching the light. With them was one redhead, three blondes, Maze with her purple, then four brunettes.

"Take a deep breath," Benny said, coming up behind me, putting his hands on my shoulders. "It's like... meeting the parents. Times five. No biggie."

Then, just as the (dis)comfort of that sank in, Maze reached for the door, and they were filing in.

"You couldn't avoid it forever," Bethany said with an understanding smile. "Once they realized Pagan was the kind of serious that said he was willing to drop damn near a million dollars on you, they all got to talking, which led to them deciding to ambush you so you couldn't run away."

"I, ah, I wouldn't have run away!" I insisted. It was a lie. Faced with ten women who I knew to be various levels of badass, yeah, I was pretty sure I was chickenshit enough to run away.

Don't ask me why that was my reaction since I had faced up ten of the actual Henchmen without feeling that way, but it was what my instincts were telling me to do.

"You still get to keep the token redhead title," one of the brunettes said, tall and lean, all legs with hair that brushed her shoulders, dark eyes, and perfect porcelain skin. She was speaking to the, of course, redhead, who I knew was Reign's woman. Summer.

"That's Alex," Bethany offered. "Let's get this part out of the way. Next to Alex is Janie AKA Jstorm, she is a bomb expert, hacker, and all-around badass." She looked like one too with her long black hair, colorful tattoos, and keen light eyes. "Beside her is Summer who was mentioned already. She likes guns. Too much, if you ask Reign. Next to her, we have Mina who is a profiler up at Hailstorm.Then there is Penny who is just a normal girl like you and me. As is Amelia, who is a drug counselor, but she is married to a sniper. And Elsie who does some job that makes her rake it in. She is married to Paine who is a tattoo artist and ex-gang leader. Then, ah, where am I..."

"That'd be me," one of the blondes piped in. She was gorgeous, a bit older than the others, but tall, lean, and with an epic rack. "I'm Lo. Cash has told me a lot about you. Including how that Roderick guy got you to wear Pagan's name on your back."

"That was pretty slick, I have to admit," Janie piped in, smiling. "He knew he wouldn't have gotten away with that with anyone else."

"So, that's the girls club," Bethany concluded, exhaling like it took a lot of effort to explain it all, then moving past me to drop down into one of the chairs.

"We didn't mean to ambush you," Mina said, giving me an understanding smile, like she was picking up on my discomfort. Being a profiler, I guess that made sense. "We were just all curious. And once one or two of us get something in our heads, we all kind of just tag along too. Though I did tell them to call you ahead of time and let you know," she said, giving Janie a look.

"What? It totally just slipped my mind."

"Yeah, sure it did," Maze said, rolling her eyes. "So, we hear you are expanding, and that this place is going to be friggen amazing in just a couple months. I think you will have to get used to all of us gracing your chairs from time to time. Except Janie," she added before said woman could interrupt, "who abhors all things girly and dies her own hair from a box."

"It's not a cheap thing," Janie insisted. "It's a 'I don't have the time to sit in a chair and be fawned over' thing."

"Okay, I have to ask," the pretty, petite, blonde who had been introduced as Penny, one of the normal girls, asked, "Pagan? How... I mean, seriously, how? He seemed, next to Cy, the least likely to ever settle down."