Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 117494 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117494 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
“Wait. So he’s helping you with something? Why you?”
Aly answered that with a knowing snort. “Because she’s Connor’s favorite. Duh.”
I gave Harper a small smile.
His eyes narrowed, and he dropped his shades on the table. “They’re helping out the Demon and Spawn?” His names for Claudia and Ruby. He wasn’t real original with his naming.
“Yeah.”
Aly frowned. “How are they helping them?”
I told them, and immediately Harper rolled his eyes. “Why is Connor so nice? I know your sister never visits him, and he’s always emailing you and asking you to handle something for your mom, so that’s her interaction—she asks him to do shit, knowing he can’t because he’s in prison, but he’ll still want to help and so he turns to you. And you do it, because you love your brother, not for that Demon.”
Have I mentioned how much Harper enjoys my mama and sister?
He shoved back in his seat. “Ridiculous, if you ask me.”
“So you’re going to think of something?” Aly asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. They’re one percenters. Like, the real kind of one percenters. That’s terrifying, you know?”
“But you know Shane.” Aly was being all gentle with me, speaking in a soft tone.
“Does that matter? I mean, look what happened to Gloves.”
I should also clarify here that I interchanged calling my brother both Connor and Gloves, but Aly and Harper did not. They didn’t know the reason he had that nickname, and both had known him as Connor before he went to prison, so it was out of respect that they continued to call him Connor. I asked my brother once if that was okay with him, and he said he liked it.
“It makes me feel like a person,” he’d said. “In here, it’s not always like that. I’m still Connor to someone, you know? It’s like someone remembers me for me.” That sealed the deal. He’d always be Connor to them.
After my reminder about Gloves’ fate, they both made the same hmm sound, nodding in unison.
They got my point.
My brother had seriously bad luck. And once Connor went inside, his same luck kept striking—a fight here, a fight there. His time kept being extended, not that it mattered because he was in for life, but now he had a motorcycle club doing favors for him. I wanted to scream when I thought about what he must’ve done for that to happen.
I did know one thing.
No way was any of this going to end well.
Not going to happen.
It wasn’t in our DNA.
I had a feeling we were well and truly fucked, and no matter how I tried to shrug it off, I couldn’t.
What did I do instead?
I finished my drink, and Aly made me another.
Then another and another until I stopped counting.
And then I was doing a dance routine with them. It was going to go on one of Aly’s lives.
I hit call on my phone.
“Daughter!”
It was late, super late, but he still answered and he made me smile. “Hi, Dad. I’m drunk.”
“Oh, no.”
“And we did dance routines tonight.”
“Ooh. Tell me more. With Harper and Aly?”
“Yep. It was fun.”
“You know,” his voice dropped, getting serious. “I could do dance routines with you, too. Might not be moving as fast as those two, but your pops has some skill.”
4
SHANE
My phone started buzzing and I headed out to Ruby’s parking lot.
Since we’d come to town, the bar’s regular crowd had thinned. Gloves’ mom had expressed concern about that a few times, but I told her the word would spread, and we’d be taking off. The regulars would return, but she also needed to remember we were sharing about her place to the other charters, other bikers we knew. They’d produce a decent amount of revenue for her bar, so this would be something she’d need to get used to.
Stepping out to the back, I could see only a few people at the tables. I answered the phone, stepping down and starting through the bikes. “Yeah.”
Maxwell Raith, the Red Demons’ national president, was on the other end. “How’s it going out there?”
“Good. We’re squared with Gloves’ family, except for the older sister.”
“The older one? I wasn’t aware she was there.”
“Neither were we. I’m not sure if Gloves knows or if he was keeping her away from us, but she’s here. She’s not married either. Working in a grocery store.”
“Really?”
“Of all of them, she’s the one I’d worry about. The dad gave us a pass. The mom’ll be under our thumb, and the other sister, she’s been cozying up to Roadie.”
“Cozying up?”
“Yeah. He’s having fun, but she wants more. I’ve seen the look before.”
“He’s not interested in an old lady?”
“No.”
He grunted. “Right.”
Sometimes that happens—girls who want more than a fun-time, want the old lady status, and don’t take to a guy’s no. An old lady was the equivalent to a wife in our world.