Sugar (The Henchmen MC 12)

And while our old president had absolutely been violent, he had never been, well, crazy.

Now, that had seemed to change.

"And there is at least one link that puts us here," he added.

Heavy D.

While we generally would trust the man to have our backs, shit had changed. Family was a factor when it never had been before. If the prez put the pressure on, took one of his loved ones, he would give us up.

"The shit that makes no sense is why he's so pissed. So we left. So did every fucking one else. There isn't anyone left at that compound, in that club. I'm sure we aren't the only ones to have jumped to a new club."

He stayed silent at that because there wasn't much left to say.

And we had both agreed that until we got wind that he had found us out, we weren't bringing this to Reign.

So all we could do was put out feelers. Buy burners to call old contacts, try to see if we were the only ones hearing from ghosts, why those ghosts were coming back to haunt us in particular.

But we had come up dry.

"Thirsty Thursday," Adler announced, walking in from who-knew-where. The man was an enigma. He was there, then he wasn't, usually without saying shit to anyone. "And I dunno about ya guys, but I am sick as shit of sitting around on my arse doing nothing. Roan, Reeve, Cy, Repo, and Cash are all here tonight. Why don't we all head out?" he asked, meaning me, Virgin, himself, and Roderick. "Lenny's place," he added.

"What is it with you and that hellhole?" Roderick asked, looking disappointed. Likely because the place in question was the dive bar to end all dive bars. Which meant that no women - at least no hot and single women - hung out there.

"Reminds me of some places I used to frequent at yer age," he shrugged.

"Overseas," I said, half a question.

His eyes cut to mine, but he had the best fucking poker face I had ever seen in my life. "Right," he agreed with a nod.

"I'm game," Virgin said, nodding. He was getting cabin fever. He'd been on guard duty every day for the past five, not scoring any chances to hang out and keep an eye on one of the women. And while protecting the girls might not have been the most exciting job in the world, it was out at least.

I had been put on Kennedy's once, then again with Maze the next day. There was no real rhyme or reason to who got picked for what. Generally, Reign just threw out names at church. I had been strapped to the club for a week and a half in the past.

But it was unnatural for us. We were used to being out, doing shit, living life, taking rides, whatever.

It was wearing on him if he was agreeing to go to a dive bar full of old, crotchety men.

At least Lenny would be there. She was a bit surly at the best of times, but generally in a pretty hilarious way.

"Ya in?" he asked, giving me a chin-jerk.

"Yeah, I could use a drink," I admitted.

"What are..."

"Yo," one of Lo's guys came in, AK-12 strapped around his back, casual as if it was a backpack. Generally speaking, those of us here at the compound never showed off our illegal guns. What Lo had on the police force that allowed her and her people to do so right in plain sight with absolutely no fear of incarceration was beyond me.

"'Sup?" I asked since no one else did, and he seemed to be looking at me.

"Someone here to see you."

My gut dropped for a solid three seconds before I realized that if our old prez was going to show up in Navesink Bank, he wasn't going to fucking politely come knocking.

"Yeah? Who?" I asked, brows knitting.

He didn't give me an answer, some kind of amusement pulling at his lips as he turned and pushed the door open.

Then I remembered.

Not that I forgot her.

Not for more than, oh, thirty seconds put together.

Yeah, that was how in she was, apparently. Not more than a handful of seconds would go by before she was right there at the forefront of my mind. And, for maybe the first time in my life, it wasn't just the sex. Though, let's be honest, there was a lot of sex. A woman who let you fuck her in the stacks of an open library where she worked? Yeah, that was highlight reel material. That I played over and over and fucking over in my head.

But it was the other shit too.

The just her shit.

That was the weird part.

It was her books - like the one I maybe forgot to even check out of the library. And a part of me wondered if I 'forgot' to do so just so I could 'remember' and return it someday soon.