We laughed into each other’s face as we hugged and for a moment, the world felt right again.
“Only known him ’bout a fuckin’ week,” Nova muttered. “But whatever.”
“Yeah, whatever, Nova,” Cress said, bumping him gently with her hip as she crowded around us. “When you know, you know.”
Nova looked to King for help, but he only shrugged one shoulder and smirked, “Sorry, man, my woman speaks true.”
“She does,” Lila told just me, her huge hazel eyes bright with joy. “I never thought I’d find someone who loved me back, but I have and he’s everything.”
I shook her slightly to confirm I got where she was at. My girl had been in love with her best friend, Nova, since she was a freaking girl, but the loveable slut was too busy looking pretty and getting with any woman who threw themselves at him to notice her unrequited love.
So, finally, she’d moved on.
I was happy for her, happier than I could express with my poor lexicon of emotive words so I just gave her that gentle shake.
She was my girl, so she got me and smiled big.
“Right, eat while I talk,” Dad ordered as he ushered us to the living room where we all took up seats on available surfaces to eat and listen.
There was a look on his face that I knew well, a troubled kink in his strong brow and glint in his silver eyes that spoke of unease and fury. He waited until Lou was settled half on top of him on the couch to begin but before he even spoke, I knew it was bad.
“This is club business, don’t need to tell you women that normally, this shit doesn’t extend to you, but for reasons you’ll soon fuckin’ understand, I gotta loop ya in on this. We’re been threatened on a coupla sides right now and I need you to be vigilant.”
“Javier?” Cress asked immediately, smart enough to understand that just because our one time enemy had been dormant, playing mayor of Entrance docilely for the last three years, it didn’t mean he was done being our enemy.
“The cops been sniffin’ ’round more than normal, no big deal but they’re pullin’ over brother’s wives and girlfriends, showin’ up at our legit businesses trying to hassle employees got nothin’ to do with club shit. We’re keepin’ vigilant but need you to be careful, yeah?”
The guys gave chin tilts, but the women, we looked at each other because we knew by the electric feel in the air that a storm was coming.
“What else?” Cress asked, leaning forward on the arm of the chair she perched on to give my brother’s a back rub.
This time, surprisingly, Lila spoke up, her gorgeous tattoos glowing brightly in the early morning light shifting through the windows. “Irina Ventura’s started a pornography company outside Entrance.”
I frowned. “Okay, why do we give a shit?”
“She’s using Javier’s drug dealers to get local girls hooked on meth, coke or heroin and then forcing them to perform. You remember Talia Jenkins? She went to EBA, but she dated Aaron, remember?”
King laughed. “I remember her.”
Cressida huffed, which just made King laugh hard and lean back into her so he could tilt his head to grin at her.
“She never had anythin’ on you, Cress babe,” he said.
“Talia got hooked, she’s working for Irina now,” Lila continued.
“How is this our problem?” I asked, somewhat callously, but it was true. We weren’t the police, we weren’t vigilantes so what did this matter?
“They got Honey,” King said, his eyes on me even as he absently, gently bit at Cress’s fingers.
Honey.
Fuck, they got Honey.
I closed my eyes for a second and let that rock me. Honey was our half-sister through our mother. The most time I’d ever spent with her was the nine months Mum was pregnant with her while Zeus was in jail, her cheating ass having waited not even a few months after he was incarcerated to shack up with another guy. Since then, I’d seen her a sum total of three times and it was clear, Farrah had raised her like a miniature version of herself, and both bitches hated The Fallen and the Garros.
But still, Honey was all of sixteen years old.
“She’s making porn?” I asked without opening my eyes, hating the visuals.
“Not yet, Farrah called Dad demanding he deal with it,” King replied, an edge to his voice like a serrated knife.
“She’s not even his kid,” Nova spoke for the first time.
“Still, family’s family and she’s a fuckin’ kid. Can’t have that in our town and ’sides, I wouldn’t mind takin’ those cunt Ventura’s down,” Dad said, and not for the first time I was reminded that heroes come in many different shapes and sizes, and just because Zeus Garro was an outlaw motorcycle club Prez with a rap sheet didn’t mean he was all kinds of good.