Chapter Nine
ZZ
I chuckle to myself while the room fills up with brothers and the red ladies. I fucked my woman good in the closet with everyone in the next room. I should be ashamed of myself considering why everyone was in the living room, but I can’t. I saw Melody bruised and beaten down and it reminded me of a time where Storm had looked the very same way. I couldn’t hold myself off a second longer; I had to have her right then, to remind myself she was okay and still here.
“Feel better?” Pyro chuckles when he sits down to the right of me.
I slide my shades down to my eyes. “You’ve got no idea,” I smirk and cross my arms. I have felt so raw and unbalanced over the last few weeks, I don’t care if I’m feeling a little smug. They can all suck my big dick if they have a problem with it.
“Jinx good with last night?”
Pyro lights a cigarette giving me a side grin. “I could do no wrong. She knows I’d never cheat on her, so,” he tilts his shoulders, “she knows she ain’t got nothin’ to worry about.”
Even if I weren’t so obsessed with Storm, I’d never cheat on her. She’d filet my balls; she’d cook em’ up, pour spaghetti sauce on them, and serve them up as meatballs to my brothers.
I love getting her riled up, but not in the way where my dick and balls are at stake.
“I’ll have the wife fix the seatin’ issues,” Braxxon announces when he sits down in his chair and smacks the gavel down.
We have patched brothers standing when they should be sitting around the table. They’ve earned it.
“From now on, the ladies will be joinin’ us for all meetin’s. Their trip home to deal with their personal shit was cut short.” Braxxon shakes his head in anger. “Melody will be stayin’ with us for the foreseeable future.”
“We’ve got enough done to where it’s no rush,” Dizzy offers up from the other end of the table. “We might require a lil’ cash to pay the bills we’ve left behind.”
“Winter and Jinx manage our money now. With the inheritance and all the businesses, it’s easier. We only handle dirty money. Get your bills to one of them.”
“ZZ and Sniper… your ladies are gonna be pissed. They’re bein’ put on lockdown. No more goin’ to Sated until I say otherwise,” Braxxon issues. “Piper’s pregnancy and Storm’s new motherhood should be enough of a reason they don’t throw fits, but if they do, you point them in my direction, yeah?”
Sniper grunts. “Piper wasn’t leavin’ this compound before you made it an order.”
“Storm won’t care,” I offer up. “She’s too busy with Miracle.”
“If they do, don’t take the heat, you push it to me. We got enough spousal issues to last a lifetime. Let me deal with disgruntles, yeah?”
“We hear ya, prez.”
“Layla, at Club Sated, she’s been promoted. She’ll get the dailies done, along with the banking, and twice a week we’ll pick up the paperwork Jinx and Storm need to do their managerial and accounting shit.”
“Fuck. You’ve been busy,” Pyro grumbles when he takes a folder from Brax’s hands. “What’s this?”
“Most of the Gunners are tryin’ to disband,” Braxxon points to the first page, “those are the names and addresses of those who are givin’ the decent brother’s hell. We’re gonna push them into relocatin’. I don’t gotta explain why it’s important we help them. They’re half our fuckin’ problems and if we get the guys who are wantin’ to go semi-legit on our side….”
“They’ll owe us.” Pyro nods in approval. “I like it.”
“I second that,” I add while the room agrees. “It’ll be stress off our backs in the long end.”
“Exactly.” Prez lights a smoke. “I realize I haven’t been sharin’ shit and makin’ calls without informin’ ya.”
I swallow hard and Pyro grunts.
“I’ve made one more call without you.”
Shit.
“Let’s hear it,” Pyro says flipping through the folder.
Brax puffs out smoke. “We’ve ordered 8 small, two-bedroom trailers. They’ll be at my family compound in a week.”
I swallow again because I know how much he prides himself on his family estate. Braxxon calling it a compound again means we’re going to be stuck there as preparation for the Escorpion’s aka Scorpions retaliation.
“Lana,” Pyro murmurs. “She’s gonna have a hard time there, prez.”
Fuck.
“I’ve already talked to her on the phone,” he says to Pyro’s comment. “I gave her the heads up. She was also givin’ an ultimatum.”
“What?” Pyro pulls back in shock.
“She’s to change her tune or not come back at all.”
I’m stunned speechless.
Could he finally be understanding the damage he’s been causing with all the decisions he’s been making without us?
“Has she given you an answer yet?” Sniper asks leaning back in his chair.
“She has.”
“And?” Pyro questions.
“She’s comin’ back.”
Pyro doesn’t let his emotions show with this new information; he’s happily married to Jinx and knowing him, he’s relieved Brax has stepped up with the matter.
“I’ve ordered them back,” Braxxon continues. “Akela didn’t seem shocked, she seemed more relieved actually,” he says, baffled.
“Akela has grown accustomed to our shit,” Pyro laughs.
“I’ll never understand it,” Brax grumbles and snaps his fingers. “Diz, before I forget. I’ve held off on your new HQ. I don’t have time to do a larger screenin’ on the security company and with,” he eyeballs Lyric, “what happened to her sister, I can’t take the chance. They could have infiltrated the crew I’ve hired by now.”
I believe our president may be getting back on his A game.
“Whatever’s safest,” Dizzy responds.
“Y’all will be pissed with me,” Braxxon says next. “When you’re outside of these gates, cuts stay off, and four-wheeled vehicles are to be driven instead of bikes.”
We’re going ghost.
It’s been years since we’ve done it and it’s hard not to be who you are when it’s all you’ve known.
Fucks with your chi.
“They’ll be sendin’ new spotters since we killed the others and their crime Lord’s enforcer. I’m hopin’ the trailers come fast enough to where they don’t learn all our vehicles. We might rent a few more.”
Fuck.
We’ve never gone this far with our ghosting.
The room is very quiet as we take in the new information our president has shared with us. We can’t argue with it. We won’t. He’s gone through the trouble of finding us a solution to finish this once and for all. If we follow his exact orders, we should get through it unscathed.
“Dizzy, you and your ladies are on women and child protection until I say further. I’d appreciate it if you and Lucy were on the pregnant females and two babies.”
“Tea?” I question.
“I’ll put Lyric on Tea. They gel well, and she won’t give Lyric the slip.” Dizzy offers.
“I’d knock her head off,” Lyric confirms. “She knows it, too.”
I lean back satisfied with Dizzy’s plan. Lyric and Lucy are deadly as hell with knives. Guns are more Dizzy’s thing, even though she knows her way around a blade too, but Lyric is a beast with a blade and Tatiana will listen to orders coming from Lyric the best.
“Lyric,” Shadow warns low. “Watch her every move.”
“She’s got it, Shadow. If I’m not worried, you shouldn’t be either,” I growl. “She’s my fuckin’ daughter.”
Shadow still isn’t convinced, and Lyric understands why.
He loves her, even if he hasn’t said it out loud.
“On my life,” she vows.
Shadow turns his attention back to our president seeming satisfied with those three words; three words we don’t say lightly.
“Winter’s already orderin’ everything in bulk. Groceries, toiletries; you name it, it’s bein’ rush ordered. Sniper, Shadow, and Fox, you three will be goin’ to pick up our ammo when we’re done here. Ladies if you need shit, get with my wife.” Brax frowns at his cigarette in the ashtray, shrugs and then lights another. “We’ve ordered an ultrasound machine for the compound. Ripley will be able to keep an eye on the babies when our doctor isn’t available, and appointments will be as limited as possible. I don’t want them off the compound unless it’s fuckin’ necessary. They’ll go in for a check-up right before we leave here and I’m hopin’ that’ll be good for a while. Any questions?”
All you hear in the room is leather moving around, and breaths being taken.
“Good,” he says while he stands. “Go pack as much as you can. The less we leave the compound, the better. We can’t stay ghost if we’re running in and out of HQ.”
The gavel sounds, and no one moves.
It’s a shit ton to process, and we don’t have a lot of time to do so.
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