CHAPTER 8

Taz

By the time I’d dropped Flick back at her car and made it to church, I was cutting it fine. Tossing my phone and keys into a locker, I rushed into the meeting room.

“Sorry, prez.”

Everyone was in their places and it looked like they’d been waiting on me. Dammit. Scout gave me a knowing smirk.

“Figured you might be late in, considering who you got to take home with you. Tell me, she drop you on your ass again after you fucked her?”

That had me smiling. I knew I’d be copping shit over that stunt of Flick’s for a while yet.

“Nah, I just lowered the risk of her tossing me again by making sure I fucked her till she couldn’t walk.”

Everyone laughed as I found my seat next to Eagle and Mac. Mac gave me a raised brow and I gave him a look I hoped he understood meant we had shit to discuss privately. Fuck, what a mess. Why couldn’t Flick just be a nice chick? Well, a nice, tough, chick who refused to take my shit and would literally put me on my ass if I stepped out of line. Yeah, okay. So my woman wasn’t ever going to be some freakin’ hothouse flower that needed pampering twenty-four/seven. But still, a girl like Silk, who’d been raised in the club would have done the job. Why’d she have to be a fucking fed?

No matter how I tried to look at the situation, I couldn’t see a way of fucking keeping her. I’d known her two fucking days, only started screwing her last night and I already didn’t want to let her go. This was bad, so fucking bad.

A jab to my ribs from Eagle had me nearly crashing off my chair.

“What the fuck?”

“You done daydreaming, Taz? Because this shit’s serious and I need your full fucking attention on it.”

Shit. “Sorry, prez.”

Pushing all thoughts of Flick aside, I locked that shit down and focused on club business.

“Right. Now we’re all here, and paying fucking attention, we got shit to discuss. As most of you know, we’ve always fallen under the Satan’s Cowboys jurisdiction. Basically, we exist because they allow us to. In the past, they’ve let us do our own thing and haven’t bothered with us. We’ve been friendly, hosted their members when needed and paid our dues. Unfortunately, the down side to dealing with that fucking mess down in Galveston last year was that we’ve come to their attention. Especially the fact that we ain’t running anything for them.”

I bit back my groan. How had Flick known? Or rather, how had the FBI brass known this shit was coming? I rubbed the back of my neck as Scout turned his gaze on me.

“How’s it coming along with Old Gus? He ready to retire yet?”

“I’ve mentioned that I wouldn’t mind running a place like his one day, and he didn’t shut me down. I’ll be honest, he’ll never sell to the club. But I think I can get him to sell to me. Especially if I tell him he’s welcome to come in with his mates for free whenever he wants to use the range. Why the sudden urgency? What do the Cowboys want us to run for them that we need the range and shop to do it?”

It had to be guns or drugs–the shit-storm that went down with the Iron Hammers proved that the Cowboys weren’t involved with human trafficking. So other than guns or drugs, there wasn’t much left. And it was a fucking gun range and shop, so I guessed it was firearms, but I wanted to be sure.

“They know we’re a drug-free club, and for the moment Viper is willing to let us continue that way, but only if we step up and help with the weapons.” Scout paused to look around the room. “Basically, if Gus won’t sell out to us legally and soon, they’ll arrange an accident for him.”

Viper was their president and wasn’t known for taking his time with shit like this. The fact he’d all but ordered a hit on Old Gus left me cursing, along with several others. Gus wasn’t a bad bloke, just old school and anti-gang. He refused to see the MC as anything but a bunch of thugs. But he’d served in Nam and was a decent guy. He sure as fuck didn’t deserve to end up in a pine box because he happened to own shit the Cowboys wanted under their control.

“I’ll head over there this afternoon, see if I can push him into something. I’m guessing they’re more interested in the gun shop than the range? Just in case I have to compromise to get something out of Gus.”

The range didn’t take a whole heap of upkeep, just a lot of time to hang around and watch those shooting. The shop, on the other hand, had to be a pain in the ass to run for an old man. I could see it would be easier to convince him to let go of the shop if he could keep the range.

“I came to the same conclusion. We let him keep the range if it means we can have the shop. I’ve had our lawyers draw up all the paperwork required already. I’ll just get them to change it from the club to you personally.” Scout held my gaze steadily. “I need to have some kind of news to report back to Viper by the end of the weekend, feel me? If not, shit’s gonna go south in a bad way for Gus real soon.”

Considering it was currently Friday morning, that didn’t leave me a whole heap of fucking time.

After that, we moved onto other business and I only half listened as I tried to work out what the fuck I’d say to Gus, without coming straight out and telling the man his life depended on him signing over his damn shop to me.

Flick

Having decided it would do me good to get to know Mac and Eagle’s women, I headed into Marie’s Cafe for a late lunch. I’d left it late in an attempt to avoid the bulk of the lunch rush. I didn’t want to catch Zara when she was so run off her feet, she wouldn’t have the time to be friendly.

The moment I entered, I knew I was in for it. Scout was there, with another man wearing a club vest, along with two women. I recognized the younger one as Eagle’s woman, Silk, and she looked very pregnant. The little bell on the door had chimed as I’d entered, and naturally Scout looked up and caught my gaze.

“Hey, Flick! Go order, then come over here and let me introduce you around.”

With a nervous smile, I headed over toward the back counter where an older woman was watching me a little too closely.

“So you’re Flick, huh?”

I winced and rolled my lips in for a moment. “Yeah, but I have to say I’m a little worried what you’ve heard about me.”

The woman waved me off. “Oh, sugar, don’t be worried. You’ll learn soon enough, nothing spreads quite as fast as gossip does inside an MC, let me tell you. And you putting Taz on his ass over at Styxx last night is the talk of the town today.”

I buried my face in my palms. He was going to be so pissed off at me for that stunt.

“Shit. I didn’t even mean to do it! He surprised me and I just reacted, you know?”

The lady shook her head on a laugh. “I sure as hell don’t react like that when a handsome young man grabs me, but your generation is a different beast than mine, that’s for sure. Now, what can I get you?”

“Um, just a coffee with cream, thanks. And maybe one of those muffins.” I pointed to the covered plate of what looked like homemade apple and cinnamon muffins sitting on the counter.

“Sure thing, sugar. You go on and sit with Scout and the others and I’ll bring it over to you in a bit.”

“Um, what do I owe you for it?”

She gave me a cheeky smile. “Oh, you paid for it when you put Taz in his place. I’ve been waiting for a woman strong enough to tame that one. You’ve got one hell of a task ahead of you if you want to claim that man. You’ll need more than a coffee and muffin, but it’s a start. Now, off you go.”

In a daze, I headed over to the table where an extra chair had been added between Silk and Scout.

“Here she is, the woman of the hour. So, Flick, tell me. How’d your night end?”

My cheeks heated and I kind of just sputtered a little when I tried to respond. I mean, really, what the fuck was I going to say to that?

“Oh, quit it, Scout, you’ll frighten the poor girl off. Hi, Flick, I’m Rose and this is my old man, Bulldog, and this one is our niece, Silk. She’s with Eagle and they live right next door to Taz so you’ll no doubt be seeing each other around.”

I’d read in my search for information about MCs that bikers called their spouses either their old man or old lady. I really wasn’t sure how I felt about those labels. But like Scout had told me, I was club property now I worked at their bar. I was me. Owned by me. I wasn’t a pet or a piece of furniture. However, I needed to push aside my issues and deal with it while working this assignment.

Unsure what to say, or how much they all knew about me, I focused on Silk and the fact she was pregnant.

“Hi, everyone.” I nodded to her belly. “How long have you got to go?”

She caressed a palm over her swollen belly as her face lit up with a grin of pure joy. “Still have three months to go. Some days that feels like forever, and other days it can’t come fast enough.”

I sat down and a younger woman, who I guessed was Zara, brought over my order and set it in front of me.

“Here you go. Have to say, it’s nice to actually meet you, after all we’ve heard.”

Glancing around the table with a raised eyebrow, I knew I had to handle this head on.

“And what exactly have y’all heard about me? I haven’t been in town that long to create too much drama.”

That had the whole table laughing, before Scout spoke up.

“Honey, you caused quite the stir at the gym the other day, then again last night when you put Taz on his ass–literally. It’s not every day that shit happens, especially considering he’s a bloody Marine. That shit’ll spread like wildfire and you’ll be the talk of the club, and town, for a while yet.”

Bulldog cut in. “Even more so because you went home with him, and he was late to church this morning because of it. He won’t be living this one down for a good, long while.”

My face heated again as I felt Silk and Zara’s gazes zero in on me. “You stayed the night with him? Like in his bed, at his house?”

I frowned at Silk. “Um, yeah. Why is that a surprise?”

“Because in the eighteen or so months I’ve known that man, he’s never spent an entire night with any woman. I’ve actually never known him to do more than mild flirting with women outside of the clubhouse.”

Zara laughed. “And the flirting is generally with one of us that’s spoken for and he only does it because he knows it’ll rile up his brothers. He doesn’t mean it at all. But you, you he not only flirted with, but he took you home with him. Interesting.”

I picked up my coffee to take a drink, unsure what they wanted me to say. The whole girlfriend/boyfriend plan had sounded great on paper, but if Taz was a man-whore who never did relationships, it wouldn’t work. No way would he remain faithful to a pretend girlfriend, if he’d never had a real one. Our chemistry was off the fucking charts and we were a great match in bed, but could I be enough to keep him satisfied if he was used to such variety? Would he feel too tied down by having to stick with the one woman if they continued this ruse? And what would he do if he did grow to feel that way?

I needed to get away from these people and do some serious thinking. Maybe try to pull together a backup plan. Although, I wasn’t sure what that would be. Fuck. I needed more time with Taz to ask him how he really felt about going into this mission as lovers. He was a man of his word, and if he said he was in, he would honor his commitment.

Wouldn’t he?

And so what if I wanted the ruse to be real. It wasn’t an option so I had to keep my heart out of this whole thing.