Chapter 11
Fox
“What?” Mac asked.
“Holy shit. He’s not joking,” Snake said.
“Harlow fucking Carmichael. You were with Harlow fucking Carmichael?” Hawk asked.
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me this on the phone? I’ve would’ve let you get back to your shit!” Mac said.
“I didn’t know her last name when you called,” I said.
“You should’ve called me once you did,” Mac said.
“You got her number, right?” Talon asked. “You can easily contact her. Like right now, if you wanted to.”
“Yep. Promised I’d call her and everything,” I said.
“Did you know her before?” Snake asked. “This isn’t you being a dick?”
“Fuck no, I didn’t know her before,” I said.
“So, you just met tonight. Like just now,” Hawk said.
“Yeah. In Chester’s. Like I said.”
“What does she look like?” Mac asked.
“Hot as fuck and ready for my cock,” I said with a grin.
“That would be an easy way to turn her,” Snake said. “If he knows how to wield that thing.”
“No, no. I’m not willing to fuck her to turn her. That shit’s staying separate from this shit,” I said.
“That doesn’t even make sense. Snake fucked Laiken, and she came back,” Hawk said.
“Not how that happened,” Snake said.
“And even if it was, Snake had a history with her. I don’t with Harlow. I’m not ruining my chances with her because you guys wanna get this going quickly,” I said.
“He’s right. We can’t do this quickly if we’re gonna get a daughter to turn on her own father,” Mac said. “But you’re willing to keep this at the forefront of your mind when you two are together, right?”
“Oh, of course. I think we could definitely turn her in our favor. Just by the way she was tonight. I think she’s rebelling against him already,” I said.
“Who?” Talon asked.
“Her dad, you idiot,” Snake said.
“Why do you think that?” Hawk asked.
“She was very out of place in that bar. Prim and proper. Soft-spoken. She made it clear she’d never been in Chester’s and had no idea of the reputation of the place. She was drinking a beer but admitted she’d never had one. I offered to take her on a bike ride, and she admitted she’d never been on one. Everything about her screamed ‘the first time,’” I said.
“You think she’s a virgin?” Mac asked. “That would really attach her to you if you could take her virginity.”
I tensed at Mac’s statement. I liked this girl. I wanted to spend more time with her. But I didn’t want to hurt her. That wasn’t the point of this. No familial threats and no hurting Daniel’s family to dethrone him. That was the decision we’d made. And I didn’t like how the guys were talking. About how I was supposed to use her innocence and ‘attach her to me.’ She was her own person, even if she was a bit naive.
And I would protect her. Even if it was from my own club.
“No, she’s not a virgin,” I said. “That much was obvious from the way she kissed.”
“So, things did get a bit heated. Come on. What happened?” Talon asked.
“Not much since Mac interrupted. But we had some time on a bench in the desert with the mountains back dropping us,” I said.
“Sounds romantic,” Snake said with a grin. “Didn’t take you for the type.”
“I’m not. Just because you fucked them and left them doesn’t mean I have to do the same,” I said.
“You watch your fucking mouth. I treated those women with respect,” Snake said.
“If licking their pussies and feeding them cereal for breakfast constitutes ‘respect,’” I said.
“Enough, children. Settle down,” Mac said. “Look, all we’re asking is for you to do a bit of undercover work. Like Talon had to do. Schmooze her. Get to know her. Spend time with her like you were already planning. Just keep the undertone of it turning her to our side. If she’s out experiencing a lot of firsts, it means her father kept her sheltered. Which means he knows the kind of people he’s dealing with. But that also might mean she’s starting to question the lifestyle her father raised her in.”
“At the very least, she’s getting curious about other ones,” I said. “And that could work. This might be as simple as getting close enough to expose to her what her father’s doing.”
“And if she’s as innocent and wide-eyed as you paint her to be,” Snake said, “just hearing that her father’s defending cold-blooded psychopaths would be enough to put a dent in their relationship.”
“Which I could use to persuade her to help us when she finds out we’re trying to take The Devil’s Saints down,” I said. “There won’t be any need for any sort of manipulation or shit like that. This can be done smoothly and easily.”
“That your technique in bed?” Hawk asked with a grin.
“Let’s just say the women appreciate it,” I said.
“Fine. Whatever. I agree that going in hot and heavy could really backlash in a situation like this. Especially if this girl is excited at her first time drinking fucking beer. You guys remember that shit?” Mac asked.
“Had my first beer when I was twelve,” Snake said.
“Fourteen,” Hawk said.
“Not until I was seventeen, but still. How old’s this girl gotta be?” Talon asked.
“Around twenty-three or twenty-four,” I said.
“Damn. That’s a sheltered fucking life,” Mac said. “Which is another reason why you need to be careful, Fox. If she finds out who you are, it could spook her.”
“Trust me, I know. I didn’t wear my leather cut out like we’ve all put forth, so she doesn’t suspect anything like that,” I said.
The guys continued to talk around me about swaying Harlow in our favor. But when it came down to it, I had the last say in how this went. There was no reason to thrust this girl into the darkness that was our lives. Especially with the light of innocence that sprang from her presence. Her warmth against my skin was unlike anything I’d ever felt before. It was like she was reaching down into my soul and pulling out all of the deep, dark, dank shit I’d ever been through. Not asking me to talk about it and not poking it with a stick, but simply bathing it in her warmth and reminding my body how good the sun felt again.
I wanted to feel that again with her, and I wasn’t going to allow this mission to taint what I wanted.
“Okay, Fox. Here’s the deal,” Mac said.
“I’m listening,” I said.
“Call her tomorrow. Anytime you want, but make it tomorrow. Just meet up with her and let things flow naturally. Do whatever the fuck it is you do and keep her around. Get close to her, but let it grow naturally. And push the conversation into her father when the time is right. Act shocked like you know him, but you didn’t put two and two together-”
“I’m not an idiot, I know how this is gonna work, Mac,” I said.
“You’ve got two weeks to either get us the information we can use against her father or to get her to turn on her father completely,” Mac said.
“Two weeks?” I asked.
“Now you know how I felt,” Talon said.
“This woman just experienced her first fucking bike ride, and you want me to turn her against her father in two weeks?” I asked.
“If you don’t think you’re up for the task, I’m sure another guy in the club is up to trying,” Snake said.
“If you even so much as think that idea again, I’m gonna rip your dick off and feed it to the birds,” I said.
“Sounds like someone’s gotten attached,” Talon said with a smile.
“I didn’t think innocent girls were your type,” Hawk said. “You gave me shit over Syd for months.”
“Syd was far from innocent,” I said. “She looked the part, but she wasn’t the part.”
“And that’s what I love about her,” Hawk said.
“You’re lucky he took that as a compliment,” Mac said.
“I’m not getting attached, but we did make a pact. No threatening or harming his family in any way. And that doesn’t stop at the physical. This girl is emotionally invested in her life, and she’s probably close with her father. I’m not gonna yank her around on a chain and piss her off and make her cry just to expose some dank truth about daddy dearest. I keep women at arm’s length because of the life we live, but I’m not a fucking monster,” I said. And that really was true. Even though Harlow was the ticket to fixing the whole fucking mess I got myself into, part of me didn’t want to see her get hurt in any way.
“Two weeks,” Mac said. “However you choose to do it, that’s what you’ve got.”
“Fine. I hear you,” I said.
“Anything else?” Snake asked. “Because Laiken’s body’s mighty warm and I’m feeling a chill come over my body.”
“You be careful with that shit. If someone started to tail her, she’s going down in a bad way,” Hawk said.
“I’ve got it,” Snake said. “I protect my own.”
“We got the plan, we got the timeframe, now let’s get some rest,” Mac said.
Church was dismissed, and everyone headed back to the lodge. Everyone except for me, of course. I went and leaned against my bike, making it look like I was contacting Harlow or some shit.
But I was really answering a text message from Calais.
He had messaged me as I was on my way back to the lodge, and Calais was someone I didn’t want to keep waiting. He was asking for an update on my supplier issue, and I had to tell him I hadn’t come up with one yet. I told him I was at Chester’s scouting out potential people to hook up with, but I knew if we could take out The Devil’s Saints, my issues with them would be fixed. If the Saints were taken down for good, their drug suppliers would scurry underground to take the heat off them. They would be looking for any way to unload the drugs they had off them, which meant I could swoop in and get good shit for a bottom-bargain price.
I could re-cut the stuff, repackage it, and re-negotiate a short-term contract with the KG9’s on the assumption that I would use them and continue paying ‘rent’ if and when I found more shit to sell. I would make good on my word, I’d give them plenty of shit to sell, and I could drop off the planet if I had to roll with the club for a while to keep the heat off my back.
It would all work out if we could take out the Saints.
But if the situation with the Saints didn’t get fixed, then things would go to shit. If I still had to run this side-business with the club breathing down my neck and Mac instating all these bullshit rules, then shit would blow up in my face. That was not what I needed, and that was not what the club needed. What I did during my personal time was my business. It wasn’t like others didn’t have side-businesses going.
What they did was they made sure it didn’t backlash on the club. And in return, Mac turned a blind eye to that shit.
Why wouldn’t he give me the same courtesy?
Calais wasn’t happy, but he was off my back for now. It bought me a few more days to figure this shit out while we were still peddling the drugs we had to offload our own backs. I still had two more paydays as well as ‘rent payments’ coming my way, which meant my dad was good where he was for the next eight weeks.
After that, though, I’d have to get creative.
I knew I could get close to Harlow. That wasn’t the issue. The issue was keeping these three juggling balls into the air without them dropping or colliding. My club couldn’t know about the KG9’s, and the KG9’s couldn’t know about Harlow or my club. Harlow couldn’t know about either the club or the KG9, and to top that plate off she also couldn’t know about why I wanted to get close to her.
Fuck. When did my life become so damn complicated?