“Fucking bitch,” I hissed, sinking down into my chair at the top of the table as Church began. My head ached with a passion, and my mind was screwing with me as I was sure I was seeing double. It was true I had a hard head, but being hit with a bottle of whiskey, only for a lamp to be struck over my head an hour later, it was bound to suffer damage. Not to mention the bitch never held back.

“That looks nasty, Prez.” Jax snickered from his seat two down from my right. “Anna didn’t look happy when she left.”

“Fuck off, Jax,” I snapped, not ready to argue with him.

My mind was reminded of her anyway. My game with her ass had started with my anger, but while I was there, I had slipped my wallet out of her back pocket. I thought I would just get it back, but fuck, seeing her unable to move, her tits pressed up against my chest, made me nearly crazy. I fought not to take her then and there. I was so close to just ripping off those skintight jeans and watching her unravel around my cock, like I had wanted to the second her smart mouth had come strutting through my doors three years ago. But she didn’t let me. She never had before, always teasing me then escaping the second I got close. The woman was fire, and I should have long since gotten bored of her, but for whatever fucked-up reason, I let myself play with the flames, getting burned each time and still coming back for more. I couldn’t be sure if she just loved to tease me or if there was something more behind it.

I shook it off, accepting that the woman was an eighth wonder of the world as I turned back to Jax, all the while trying to ignore the throbbing in my head. “And don’t think I’ve fucking forgotten last night, you bastard. Wait until I get my hands on you for that fucking moonshine,” I warned.

Jax flinched before trying to hide it with a smile. “Oh, come on,” he whined. “It was Pretty’s birthday, for fuck’s sake.” He looked to Pretty for backup.

Pretty ignored him. Mint caught his eye a second later, but his face darkened so quickly that Jax didn’t even consider asking him for help.

“Don’t think it’s gonna stop me from bashing your head against a wall,” I ground out.

Lamb leaned forward in his seat, and I recognized that cruel smile. “Don’t forget the three thousand you just had to pay to bail out their asses,” he added.

“Three grand!” I yelled in surprise, turning back to Jax, Pretty, and Mint. “The fuck did you bastards do?”

“It was fine until that sly fucker”—he pointed to Lamb, who still sat in his Italian suit and tie—“suddenly disappeared and Jerimiah turned up! I call setup!”

Lamb just smiled back. I’d known Lamb for years and trusted him completely as my vice president. But I also knew he had a sadistic streak in him that made him love fucking people over, and a setup with the sheriff wouldn’t have been the worst thing he’d done.

“I don’t think we need to give a fuck about that now, Prez,” Hunter said, his hands balled into fists on the table. He didn’t look happy with this morning’s bullshit, obviously being torn away from his new wife and nephew and getting pissy for it.

“I don’t see why we should give a fuck,” I replied. “We ain’t taking that deal. I’ve known you fuckers long enough to know that you’d have wanted to beat the fuck out of Charon just for offering.”

“True,” Pretty interjected, a hand running through his pale blond hair laced with dirt and blood. “But I still don’t like that Charon was suggesting we’d ever want to be taken over by the bastard.”

I saw Jax and Mint nod their heads in agreement. Obviously, they’d been filled in since managing to stagger their asses onto the compound. From the looks of it, they hadn’t even showered before they all made their way into Church.

“An alliance, not a takeover,” Polo corrected, running his hand down the length of his beard. His voice sounded venomous when he said the words, but his eyes looked considering. “For whatever the fuck reason, he likes you, Wolf. Respects you,” he said as he looked straight at me. “But I still don’t fucking like it. You can’t trust a shady fucker like Charon. Too smart for his own good.”

“What did you think he meant by ‘the time will come?’” Jax asked, looking over to Hunter.

“Charon said it himself,” Hunter explained. “The bastard who killed Spider and put a reward out for info on us.”

I growled. “None of what Charon said fucking matters until we know for sure this info is legit—”

“It’s true,” Lamb interrupted my rant. His voice was dark. None of the humor seen earlier remained. He met my gaze and held it. “Charon’s intel is true.”

“Fuck,” I hissed. I never doubted Lamb’s information. He must have called a few of his contacts straight after Charon left, and Lamb never gave false information. I turned back to him. “What do we know about this guy?”

“Not much,” Lamb growled. I could see his own annoyance and frustration about his limited intel. “The bastard is a ghost. Don’t know why he put the bounty out, don’t know who the fuck he is. Fuck, I don’t know if he actually exists. I only managed to confirm about the bounty because the bastard wanted us to. He wants something from us, but he must be expecting us to know what it is.”

I felt my head begin to throb with an oncoming headache and knew it was only fractionally due to the physical head traumas. This shit was getting out of hand, and I was getting more pissed by the second.

“Right,” I said, sitting up in my chair. “I want everyone to find out anything they can on the moves this guy is making and what the fuck Charon is up to at all times. I want an eye on anything and everything, and if anyone has a fucking clue about what it is this guy is after, I want you to tell me straight away. I don’t give a shit if I’m in the shower or have my dick buried to the balls in some chick. I want to know. Understood?”

Various nods of confirmation came across the table. I picked up my gavel. Before I moved to close down Church, Jax looked to me and said, “What about going into lockdown?”

“I considered it,” I answered, looking amongst my men. “But I don’t want to if we don’t have to. I want to wait until we know something more about this guy, but I want you all on high alert. No slipups. No fuckups. I don’t want anyone getting caught in any shit on this."

I let my gaze hit each and every one of them. Our club might be small, but we were still strong. I had expectations of my men and had no doubt they’d live up to them.

The guys all nodded, and with that, I slammed the gavel down on the table and officially called Church done.

* * *

It had been a day or so since Charon’s visit. I stood in the compound in the middle of the day, filled with brothers drinking and smoking and relaxing, working out the tension brewing with our latest news. It felt too quiet.

I looked to Lamb, who sat behind the bar, rearranging shit like always. Pipe had been in the bar the night before and had slightly shifted a bottle or two, and as usual, Lamb was there to put things back exactly where he decided they were meant to go.

“Where is she?” I asked, creeping my way onto my stool, not without checking all the screws were still in it. It was my favorite stool, right at the end, which gave me a sweeping look of the room, and it was common knowledge this was where I sat. Common knowledge that had landed me on my ass a few weeks ago when Anna had taken all the screws out of it.

“Not here,” Lamb pointed out the obvious, earning a glare from me. He flashed me a grin before sobering. His pale brown eyes looked toward the door as if expecting her to walk through it any second. When she didn’t, he set the last of the bottles down in their correct places and pulled his phone out of his pocket, firing off a quick text.

He didn’t say anything as he got me a cold beer from the fridge and set it down in front of me. I popped the cap with my hand and let my gaze wander around the bar. My eyes landed on Georgia. She sat on the side of the pool table, where a few of the brothers were playing a game, but the second she noticed me looking, she hopped off and moved in my direction.

She strutted up, sashaying her hips in those tiny pink leather shorts, partnered with a cropped top that exposed her tits through the lace. Normally, I bitched at the girls for wearing little shit like that during the day, since kids were in and out of here constantly, but it was a Monday, and if any kid walked in here while they were supposed to be at school, seeing slutty girls would be the least of their problems.

Her long nails slid up my arms, softly scratching across my skin, knowing I liked a little bit of pain to curve off my pleasure. She didn’t tease me with words and pointless flirting; she knew I hated that shit. Instead, she just let her hands skim under my shirt toward my jeans and belt. Her eyes never left mine as she reached down to palm my half-mast erection through my jeans.

Lamb’s phone beeped with a returned text, and I saw him pocket it without looking up.

I was about to ask what he was doing by not telling me when I heard that sound.

Anna’s red boots were the first thing through the door, and the rest of her that followed was just as tempting. She had swapped out her lawyer outfit in exchange for her casual club clothes. Like Lamb, the pair of them had separate wardrobes, one for work and one for the club, but I didn’t give two shits what Lamb wore. I did with Anna, though. Her curved thighs and legs were hugged by jeans like a second skin. The waist dipped low, exposing the piece of skin where her stomach ended and her mound began.

She had on one of those bodice-things the club girls liked to wear, but unlike Georgia’s that was basically just a bra, Anna’s reached down across her ribs and hugged them tightly, and the cups of the front were black leather that hid just enough of her skin so her nipples didn’t show but instead pushed the tops of her globes out like ripe apples. A thin necklace hung in the deep valley between, not taking away the treat of her pale collarbone and the soft curves of her shoulders. Her makeup was minimal, except for the bright-red lips that were plump and rounded, daring to be bitten.

She looked around the bar, running her hand through her hair and exposing some of the tattoos she had inked on her skin. Words were written in Elvish scrolled down her arm and carried on down her side and across her breast. I didn’t know what it meant, and she refused to ever fucking tell me. I didn’t give enough of a damn to learn Elvish to translate it, but the curiosity was still there.

I was acutely aware of Georgia’s eyes darkening at the growth of the erection in my jeans as I watched Anna strut her way over to the boys and start talking and laughing. It was fucking ridiculous that I had to go through this every time I saw her when all I wanted to do was tear a hole in those jeans and fuck her until she submitted to me. But not this girl.

This game with Anna was playing with fire; just a single slipup would put me in a coma. I had only gotten as far as the emergency room at the hospital, but the game had escalated over the years, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she started poisoning my beer. If she did, she would give me the antidote, but not until I begged for it.

It was just the kind of bitch she was.

“Lamb,” Anna called out, moving in my direction. She reached the bar, purposely ignoring my gaze, and leaned over the wooden counter, her tits looking like they were about to pop straight out of that tight-ass corset.

The growl that came out of my lips was conflicted. I wanted her to put her tits away, so no other man could ogle them, but at the same time, hiding those tits would be a sin. I used to be an ass man, figuring a girl with firm tits was as good as any, but when I met Anna, I’d been mesmerized by her tits.

I saw the hair on Anna’s arms stand up as I looked over Georgia’s shoulder. Georgia had taken my growl as a moan from the way her hand had slipped underneath my belt and was rubbing her hand along my hard dick.

In my head, Georgia’s face had long since been swapped out for Anna’s. I was aware of her purposely ignoring me, but I was also imagining her stroking my dick with soft, slow pumps to draw out my growing need.

My eyes looked past Georgia at Anna, who was now talking to Lamb. I could see the fight between her body and mind. Her head’s will to ignore me was conflicting with her body’s heat growing for me, knowing what Georgia was doing, and knowing my eyes were on her. Her long, red nails tapped impatiently on the bar and her thighs were pressed tightly together. Her ass perked slightly high in the air as she leaned forward, her breasts on display. She was a bitch in heat; her body knew it, but her mind resisted.

I let out a small rumble as I thought about Anna’s red nails running up the side of my dick, and I heard a tremor in Anna’s voice as she spoke to Lamb. Lamb ignored what was going on but was purposely elongating their conversation to see more of Anna’s amusing reaction. Of course, Lamb just liked to fuck with people, and although I was his main source of entertainment, always had been, Anna was no exception to his games. Though she was significantly less picked on.

Lamb then frowned as Anna passed him a piece of paper, and he took his phone out of his pocket and began typing something in as he walked away.

Anna proceeded to look everywhere else but in my direction as she waited for Lamb’s return. She could have gone to sit with one of the boys who were doing their best to stay occupied in their own happenings, but she didn’t. She stayed exactly where she was at the bar.

Georgia pulled my erection out of my jeans, and her head went down to the tip as I was growing closer to the edge. She licked the precum and sucked the rest in her mouth. She could only get her mouth around the first half due to my thick width and length, and when Georgia began to groan, things changed.

Anna turned to look at me. Her eyes were narrowed in a glare, but she couldn’t hide the heat inside them. She held my gaze, desperate to battle me in a contest of wills as she fought not to look down and not to look away. She wanted to show me it wasn’t getting to her, but I knew lust. And I saw it in her eyes. I wasn’t the only one imagining her in Georgia’s place.

I saw her lips move as her teeth reached out to bite them but stopped halfway. Her scowl turned into half-lidded eyes as Georgia moved faster and faster on the length of my dick until I let out a soft growl as my hot cum went spilling into the back of her throat.

Georgia licked her lips as she lifted her head, and I tucked my dick back into my jeans and zipped them up. When she looked at my face, she finally noticed what I was looking at, and with a huff under her breath, she flashed her eyes at Anna before walking away.

Anna let her eyes follow Georgia instead of looking at mine, and when Georgia walked out of sight, her eyes moved back to the bar, but on their return trip, they got stuck. Her eyes met mine again, and it was like a flash of heat burst through us both. I saw her thighs tighten, and despite my recent release, my half-mast erection returned.

“Where did you get this?” Lamb said as he stepped back up to the bar, cutting our moment short. Anna immediately cut her eyes to Lamb and the paper he held in his hands. She plucked it back out of his fingers, folded it up, and pushed it down between the valley of her breasts.

“A source,” Anna said, sounding smug that she’d obviously beaten Lamb to something. But Lamb didn’t seem as bothered as he usually did. Instead, his eyes narrowed on her.

“You shouldn’t investigate this any further on your own,” he warned, his voice taking on a tone that I didn’t like.

“Investigate what?” I interrupted, my eyes looking to Lamb’s.

“None of your damn busi—” Anna began, but Lamb cut her off.

“Our new enemy,” Lamb informed me, earning him a betrayed glare from Anna.

I felt my heartbeat increase and a different heat rise up as I turned my gaze toward her. “You’re looking into him?” I repeated, my voice deep and filled with a warning that told her the only answer I wanted to hear was “no.”

“You said you wanted everyone on it,” she snapped, her hands moving to her hips as her blue eyes took on a defensive hue. “I’m on it.”

“I didn’t say 'everyone,' Anna, and you fucking know it,” I argued, rising from my stool. She jumped to her feet but took a step toward me, my extra foot and a half of height not daunting her in the slightest as she was more than ready to go toe to toe with me.

“I don’t know shit, Wolf. And neither do you. That’s the problem,” Anna hissed, her arms crossing over her chest, near pushing her breasts out. “You always forget that I’m this club’s lawyer whenever it's convenient for you. I get to protect this club however I like.”

“No. You don’t,” I growled, my hands itching to grab her by the hair and drag her back into my room to spank her ass until she fucking understood. “I’m the president of this goddamn club. Not you. When I say I don’t want you meddling in dangerous shit like this, I fucking mean it, and all you’re supposed to do is fucking listen.”

“It doesn’t work like that in this day and age anymore, you caveman,” Anna retorted. “I’m not going to sit around like some precious little girl while you big boys go and get dirty for my sake.”

“I’m warning you, Anna. Don’t get involved,” I growled.

“Fuck you,” she spat, turning on her heels and storming out the door with a bang. I listened to her engine start up and her wheels squeal as she spun out of the compound and onto the road, leaving only silence filling the bar.

I looked around and saw that the brothers had dispersed during our little fight.

Only Lamb stood behind the bar, still looking down at his phone and where the absent paper had sat.

“What did she find?” I asked, looking one last time before I turned back to the bar.

“Information on real estate in the nearby area that’s all been bought by the same buyer. Looks like it’s the guy we want. I just made a call to confirm it, and it’s legit. But with the quality of this info, I don’t like the idea of who this source is, nor who they’re connected to,” Lamb answered, typing more letters on the screen of his smartphone. He glanced at me and my silence and then to the door. “You made her so mad she didn’t even think to hit you once before she left,” he added, reading my mind.

I didn’t like her when she got like this. Hitting me to vent her frustrations at least meant I knew her head was screwed on straight and that she’d just clear the tension between us. When she didn’t, it meant she was carrying that anger around, and I didn’t like it one bit.

I just hoped my bad feeling was unwarranted.