Shade (The Last Riders 6)

Shade smiled, taking a beer from Nickel. “Viper just made Lucky his vice president.” Shade purposefully left out the issues with the Freedom Riders.

“Oh.”

Shade had thought she would be relieved the meeting was over; instead, her troubled gaze went to Lucky who was being congratulated by the other brothers.

“I take it you don’t agree with Viper’s choice.”

“I guess I was hoping Lucky would eventually realize he missed the church.” Lily shrugged sadly. “I miss having him as my pastor; a lot of the church members do.”

“Angel, the only reason he remained a pastor so long was for his investigation.”

“Perhaps, but I think it was an excuse, too.”

“For what?”

“For what he was called to do,” Lily answered softly.

“Yeah? Well, he’s getting called to do something else now, and he looks a lot happier doing it.” Shade motioned to Lucky, who was opening his beer and kissing Raci on the mouth as she congratulated him.

“Does he?” Lily said.

* * *

Shade and Curt Dawkins looked around the heavily wooded property in Jamestown that Friday. It would be useless to The Last Riders.

Shade didn’t like the thought of forcing the man not to sell, but he really didn’t want The Last Riders to spend half a million dollars on a property which would take years to resell.

“What do you think?” Curt asked.

“I think you need to reconsider putting it up for sale,” Shade told him.

“Why would I do that? I have an offer for the asking price—”

“From a buyer who belongs to an anti-government organization. Think you’ll be able to keep coaching if the school board finds out?”

“If I sell this land, I won’t need to work,” Curt boasted, but Shade didn’t miss the glint of worry in his eyes.

“You get to keep the money all to yourself, or do you have to split it?” Shade asked.

“I have to split it. My mom gets the biggest chunk then my brothers and me.”

“How much is your part?” Shade questioned.

“Sixty thousand.”

Shade stared back at him. Sixty sounded a hell of a lot better than five hundred thousand.

“The Last Riders will give you seventy-five for your part.” He shrugged. “That way, we get what we want, and you get some extra cash and keep coaching.”

“What will I tell my family?” Curt frowned.

“That’s up to you. We have a lawyer who can draw the papers up. You can sign and have the money in your hands by tomorrow. Of course, the stipulation will be that the rest of the property can’t be sold for five years.”

“Make it three, and we have a deal.”

“Fine.” Shade would have gone down to a year. He didn’t think the Freedom Riders were going to hang around that long and wait for the property to become available again. They would either move on or try to find another piece of land. This was going to get expensive if they did the latter.

The men shook hands, and then Shade, Lucky, Rider, and Cash walked back to their bikes.

“That was easier than I expected.” Cash nodded his head as Curt drove away.

“I’m just grateful we didn’t have to drop that kind of cash on this place.” Shade started his bike. “Lucky, when we get back to town, call Knox and tell him to have Diamond draw up the papers. Make sure she puts in there that we have access to hunting up here.”

“Damn, this might have a bright side after all,” Rider said. “I saw a couple of deer trails while I was looking around.”

“Not only that, but we can take it as a tax deduction.” Shade grinned. “We can have survival workshops out here.”

“Damn, Shade, I like the way you think,” Lucky laughed.

“Let’s head back to town. Since I saved the business so much money today, you can buy my lunch.”

They were still joking around when they went inside the diner. Shade had turned to say something to Cash when his expression went cold. He was staring at a table by the window where Rachel and Willa were sitting with a group of bikers Shade recognized from Cash’s files.

They took a table themselves. Unfortunately, it wasn’t close enough to hear what was being said, although Rachel was smiling and talking and Willa seemed her usual nervous and shy self, uncomfortable with the attention the men were showing her.

The waitress came and took their order. Shade and Rider both ordered sandwiches and fries, while Lucky and Cash only ordered coffee.

“I thought you two were hungry?” Rider said, putting sugar in his coffee.

“I’ve lost my appetite,” Cash said.

Shade ate his sandwich thoughtfully as he watched the table. He knew of only one thing which made a man lose his appetite, and that was a woman. . He decided it had to be Rachel he was interested in; not because of the looks, but because of the attitude. Cash had never been attracted to shy women; the bolder a woman was, the more Cash liked her.

Shade turned his attention to Lucky who was talking to Rider without looking at the table at all. As vice president, he should be studying them and memorizing the faces of the men with Scorpion and Vaughn.

“Did Willa just give her card to one of those sons of bitches?” Lucky snarled.

Shade looked up, understanding dawning on him. Lucky had been watching the table using a mirror placed in the corner of the ceiling for the waitress to see if anyone had come through the door when she was out back.

“I believe she did. Maybe he wants to get something sweet off her.” Shade picked up his coffee cup to take a drink.

“Shut up, Shade. Willa isn’t that type of woman.”

“Brother, they’re all that type of woman; it just depends on who’s asking.” Shade picked up the check, tossing it toward Lucky.

As the women left, Shade could see Rachel holding a to-go order he was sure was for his wife. It better not be another burger and fries. The woman was constantly craving hamburgers and junk food. He had put a strict limit on how many she could have in a week, and she had reached her quota when she had sent him out at one a.m. for one the previous night.

“Rachel should know better than sitting with strangers. Someone should tell her brothers.” Cash looked toward Shade.

“If you’re wanting me to tell ‘em, you’re shit out of luck. I’m not pissing off Rachel—she’s the one who bags our weed. I’ve heard they add stuff when you piss them off.”

“I’ve

heard that, too,” Rider confirmed, dropping another sugar in his fresh cup of coffee.

“With your sweet tooth, I’m surprised you aren’t chasing after Willa,” Shade said to Rider, watching Lucky’s reaction from the corner of his eye.

Rider sat back in his chair, as if considering the thought. “I’m not into virgins.” He grinned cockily. “They get too serious, and I don’t want to set a standard another man can’t match.”

“Jesus,” Lucky said, looking heavenward.

Shade stood up. “Rider, I’m going to leave because I have nothing I can say to your asinine remark.”

Shade had passed his chair, headed for the door, when he heard Rider’s next comment.

“He’s lucky I didn’t fuck Lily first,” he boasted.

“You did not just say—fuck, Shade, let him go!” Lucky yelled as both he and Cash tried to pull him off Rider.

Shade threw them off him, banging Rider’s head on the table then putting his hand in his hair to jerk his head back so Rider was staring up into his deadly eyes.

“Do. Not. EVER! Think it’s okay to mouth off like that again about Lily, you got me? Brother or not, I will take you out.”

“Shit, Shade, I was only kidding around!”

“Don’t care.” Shade released him, still furious.

“What in the fuck are you smiling about?” he snarled at Lucky.

“Because you can dish it out, but you can’t take it,” Lucky laughed.

Shade took a second then regained his composure. “I was trying to get one of you jackasses to make a move on her.”

“Why?” Lucky asked with a puzzled frown.

“Have you tasted her cupcakes? None of the women at the club like to bake, and I’m tired of running out in the middle of the night for cupcakes and hamburgers.”

Chapter 80

The women were standing at the counter when Shade entered the church store, his mouth tightening into a thin line when he saw Brooke was standing beside Lily. He took off his glasses as he went behind the counter, placing a kiss on his wife’s lips while ignoring Brooke.