Duke (The Henchmen MC 5)

"No? Because Duke seems to have that post-fuck glow about him since he went off with..."

"Say one more thing about Penny and you'll be eating through a straw," I warned.

"Did these two prospect together?" the chick asked, directing the question to Reign.

"Yeah, babe."

"Don't call me babe," she said immediately, but with no inflection, like she was used to telling men to not do it. Looking like she looked, I bet she beat off men with sticks.

"Fine. Yeah, Mina."

"She has a name," Renny said dramatically.

"Only child," she shot back oddly.

That, apparently, was the one thing that could make Renny stop thinking with his dick and start using his head. Because Renny, while he stuck his nose in everyone else's business, didn't like anyone in his. And he damn sure didn't like being profiled. That was immediately clear.

"Takes one to know one. Army brat," he shot back at her, making one of her brows raise like a question. "That accent is non-distinct. You have a hint of France in there and Japanese and there's just something else. I can't quite..."

"Dutch," Mina supplied.

"That explains your face."

"My face," she prompted.

"Japanese mom. Dutch dad."

"And you..."

"Okay, foreplay at another time you two," Cash said, walking in from the kitchen. "Renny, you have blood in your fucking teeth and you're trying to get in her pants?"

"Gotta seize every opportunity. Seems like we're all on borrowed time lately."

"Alright, let's not plan our fucking funerals before we try everything we got to keep us all breathing," Reign reasoned. "I filled Duke in briefly, but just to go over. Everyone, save for Wolf, is gone. Renny, Reign, Cash, and I spent the morning talking to the cops and trying to chase down next of kin to those who were still in contact. Which was about three of them. The rest, we will be planning the arrangements for. The cops found fingerprints, but only one was in blood and didn't match any of us. But of-fucking-course it didn't match anyone in the system so we are no closer on that front."

"That's why Hailstorm is here," Repo put in, nodding his head to Mina who moved away from the wall to address us.

"Yeah, you guys have a safe full of guns in the basement, a fence, and a windowless building. And, well, that's about it. I'm shocked you haven't had people get in before this. So we are going to do the works. Surveillance in here, first of all. So in case anything does happen, you can see who did it. Surveillance outside as well. But that is just the beginning."

And it was.

The plan they laid out for us would take weeks to complete, hundreds of thousands to do, and keep me especially, with my construction background, too busy to do much more than shoot off a text or two to Penny. And her answers were short and non-descriptive, leaving me worried that she was unhappy and resentful. But there wasn't much I could do.

I had orders to be on the grounds until all the work was completed.

We all were.

"Mother fucker!" I growled, throwing my hammer at the wall for the fourth time that morning.

"Hey," Cash's voice called, making me turn to find him standing there with two beers. "Take a break," he said and I reached for my beer and got back onto my feet. "Know it's been nothing but hard work, but it's to a good cause."

"I don't give a fuck about hard work," I scoffed, shaking my head. "I'm used to this shit. Different materials than I am used to, but same work."

Cash nodded. "I know you're worried about your woman. But we're all worried about our women. That's why we're doing this. We can't have them all living up at Hailstorm indefinitely. That's no life for us. But we can't bring them back here until we know there's no chance of anything happening to them. So we just gotta power through the frustration and get the job done."

"Easier for you, Cash," I said, shaking my head. "Lo is here all the time." And she was. Lo, being the badass she was, scoffed at the idea of staying away because it might not be safe.

"If they'd wanted to pick me off, they'd have had ample time to do it while I was having coffee with Elsie last week. Or when I was at the playground with Alex and Junior. Or, hell, even when I was walking down the parking lot at the food store to get supplies for you here. No one wants to kill me so I am going to come and go as I damn well please."

And she did.

So Cash got to see his woman all he wanted. She hung out and worked beside us. She slept in his bed some nights.

It wasn't the same.

"Reign barely..."

"Reign and Repo have both been up there a couple of times," I added, me, Cash, and Renny being the only ones never to leave. Cash was fine with it because he saw Lo. Renny was fine with it because he was relentlessly chasing the wholly unaffected by his charm Mina. Me, yeah, I wasn't happy.