JON

 

Everybody had their attention on the president.

“First shipment is this Sunday,” Garnet announced. “Lin says he wants to test the waters, so it won’t be a big one. Ghost… You’ll take it up with Brawn and Needle watching your back.”

“What about us?” Sully asked.

“You stay back here with me and Petey. Like I said, it’s a small shipment.”

“Are you sure about that? It seems like it’d be a lot safer if there were more guys riding out together.”

“More guys means more attention,” I said. “We’re being watched. We roll out of town together, it’ll be obvious to everybody.”

“Besides,” Garnet added. “You’re gonna have a more important job.”

“And what’s that?” Sully said.

“You’re gonna be responsible for maintaining the clubhouse. Any cops, any feds… They come around here and start sniffing their snouts, you’re the reason they’re not gonna suspect we’re up to something. How’s your poker face?”

“Terrible,” Needle interrupted.

“Shut up,” Sully responded.

The two of them glared at one another. Needle chuckled to himself in the cocky way he always did before Sully eventually rolled his eyes in response.

“It’s a small shipment,” Garnet said to me. “It’ll be easy to dump if anybody’s on your ass but I don’t see any problems.”

“I got it,” I said. “This isn’t my first rodeo.”

“Things go well, this won’t be your last.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Needle said. “We’ve done this before. We take the product, we take it up to the big city, we come back. Watch out for the cops. Watch out for the feds. Anything else?”

“There is,” Garnet continued.

He stood up from his seat and leaned over the table with his palms pressed flat against it. Garnet was always serious but the way he looked at everybody know, I knew he wasn’t fucking around.

“The Chinese came to us first,” he said. “Lin trusted the Reapers more than any other club in Ivory. He’s got a lot of faith in us.”

“He should,” I said. “Our relationship has been good so far.”

“Our relationship has been good. Some of the other MCs aren’t too fond of the Triads taking sides.”

“What are you saying?” Brawn said. “You thinking we might get some trouble from the other clubs?”

“Maybe,” Garnet replied. “Nobody fucks with the Triads but they might be willing to fuck with us.”

“That’s just fucking great,” Needle sighed. “First we’ve got the cops to deal with. Then we’ve got the feds. Now other clubs might be out to get us.”

“What’s wrong?” Sully said. “Scared?”

“Fuck you. You know damn well the Reapers run Ivory. I just don’t like having so many people aiming at us. The target on our back is big enough.”

“You got nothing to worry about,” Garnet said. “Ghost will take the lead. You ride north with that shipment fast and meet the supplier then come back. That’s it.”

Garnet snapped his fingers to reiterate his point. Needle sighed again and crossed his arms as he leaned back in his seat. He was in one of his moods but he didn’t say anything more.

“Next order of business,” Garnet said. “Ghost?”

“Right,” I said with a nod.

Everybody turned their attention to me.

“We talked about doing some charity work,” I said. “Letting the whole town know that the Reapers are involved with the community. I talked to someone with the homeless shelter. The place could use some renovations. A donation would be nice.”

“That’ll be no problem,” Garnet said.

“They also talked about volunteering some time.”

Everybody looked at me skeptically. Even Sully, the most upstanding man out of all of us, wasn’t buying it. But I knew I could convince ‘em to see things my way.

“If we volunteer, we’re letting the whole town know we’re directly involved with what’s happening in this town. The cops. The feds. The other MCs can’t say shit about it. We’re better than every club in town. This is our chance to prove it.”

“Our chance to prove it, huh?” Needle said. “And I guess this doesn’t have anything to do with Anna now, does it?”

“Anna?” Garnet said as he raised an eyebrow at me. “Your Anna?”

“She works at the shelter.”

“Is that right—”

He smirked at me but I put my hand up to cut him off.

“It’s not like that,” I said. “It’s just business. That’s all this is. We volunteer along with our donation to the shelter, it’ll take some of the heat off our backs.”

Garnet stopped smiling and nodded.

“I agree,” he said. “No vote. We’ll make a donation to the shelter and we’ll all donate some time when we get the chance. End of discussion.”

Nobody objected though nobody was enthusiastic either.

“One last thing,” Garnet said.

“What is it now?” Needle said.

“Get together this weekend. Michelle was in the mood. She said she thinks the club needs it after all the shit that went down with Char. It’ll give us a chance to relax. Any objections?”

“Can’t object to a cookout,” Needle said.

“Meeting adjourned.”

Garnet snapped his fingers to end the meeting. Needle and Sully jumped out of their seats and started bickering like the schoolgirls that they were over their card game. Brawn and Petey laughed together at the arguing couple.

I got up out of my seat and Garnet put a hand on my shoulder.

“So…” he started.

I watched the smirk reappear on his face. I rolled my eyes and sighed a deep breath.

“Hey,” he said. “You’re my VP. When the love of his life rolls back in town, I’d say that’s a pretty big deal. With the shit going down on Sunday, I gotta know where your head’s at.”

“My head’s just fine where it is. Both of ‘em. You don’t have to worry about me.”

“Were you planning on telling me?”

“I figured Michelle would tell you.”

“I let Michelle keep her secrets. She knows better than to tell me anything if it would make me upset.”

“I don’t see how Anna coming back to town would make you upset.”

“It’d make me upset if my VP wasn’t getting any from the pussy he put on a pedestal.”

“It’s not like that. It’s just a business relationship. We’ve known each other since we were teenagers. We’re friends.”

Garnet shook me in his hand and cackled to himself.

“Sure,” he said.

“Whatever.”

He patted me on the back and put his arm around me as we walked out of the chapel. The meeting was over but Garnet insisted on staying in my ear. Considering he was the president of the club, Garnet was the only man I would put up with for this long. It wasn’t that I couldn’t handle him trying to tease me. I was too old for that shit. It was that he was enjoying himself too much.

When we stepped out back into the clubhouse, I thought it would end. But standing right next to the bar was the woman I’d just spoken to the night before.

Anna leaned up against the counter. A tight pair of jeans that hugged her curves and a modest white top that still made me crave her. She wasn’t dressed like a slut. But she always made me think the worse thoughts more than any other woman I’d ever met.

She spun around and greeted both of us with a smile.

“Hey,” she said.

“Wow,” Garnet said as he slowly walked toward her. “I heard you were back in town but I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it with my own eyes.”

“It’s good to see you, too, Declan.”

She said Garnet’s real name like he was a brother. In her case, with as close as they’d been before she left, that was almost the case.

Garnet leaned forward and gave her a tight hug.

“Welcome back to the clubhouse,” Garnet said.

“Actually, I was just visiting. There was some business I needed to talk about with Jon.”

“Business, huh?”

Garnet eyeballed me. He was a few years older than me but you couldn’t tell at the moment. I suppose I would’ve seen the humor in the situation if he wasn’t so obnoxious about it.

“Yeah,” I said. “Business. So, why don’t you excuse us? I’m sure Michelle’s got some shit for you to do.”

“I’m sure she does,” Garnet said with a laugh.

He slapped me on the back as he started walking away.

“You’ve always got a place here, Anna,” he said. “You know there’s no home like The Grindhouse.”

I shook my head as soon as Garnet was gone.

“I see he hasn’t changed,” Anna said with a giggle.

“Why would he? You think five years would mature him or something?”

“I guess not.”

She smiled at me. That smile of hers was enough to make me forget about all the shit we just talked about in the meeting.

“Have a seat,” I said. “You want something to drink?”

“Jon. It’s the middle of the afternoon.”

“That never stopped you before.”

“Before. Things are a little different now.”

“Okay, okay,” I said as I put my hands up.

“Actually, I’m heading back to the shelter now. I just wanted to stop by and talk to you.”

“What is it?”

“I talked to Jackie. She’s the one in charge of the shelter. I told her about having some of the Reapers stop by and volunteer.”

There was a bit of concern on her face that confused me.

“What did she say?”

“She has some reservations,” she said. “She knows what kind of reputation the clubs have in this town. The Black Reapers are not an exception.”

“That’s fair.”

“She’s willing to let some of you volunteer on a trial basis. I figured you would be the best candidate to let her know that the Reapers aren’t all bad people. Maybe you could bring someone along with you.”

“Sully,” I said without hesitating. “He’s already a volunteer with the firefighters. The guy’s a town hero. He’s done a lot of good in Ivory already. I’m sure Jackie wouldn’t mind having someone like him around.”

“Okay… That sounds like a good deal.”

Anna smiled at me, biting her lip to stop her grin from growing even wider. I would’ve been just fine standing right in front of her and staring at her. She knew she had a spell on me. But the way she looked at me told me she wasn’t completely against it.

“Well, I should probably get back to the shelter. I just started and Jackie won’t be too happy about me not working my hours.”

I grabbed her hand just before she could walk away.

“Wait,” I said. “There’s something else.”

“What is it?”

“The club’s having a cookout this weekend. Friends. Family. They’re all invited. I want you to come.”

“Cookouts… You guys still do that, huh?”

“Why would we ever stop?”

“Does Declan still think he knows how to cook?”

“He does. But Michelle is always there to keep him in check. You don’t have to worry about eating anything undercooked or overcooked.”

We shared a laugh.

“Yeah,” she said with a nod. “I’ll talk to Jackie and see if I could get some time off—”

“You can invite her, too.”

She shook her head.

“I don’t know,” she said, giggling. “Inviting an old woman like Jackie to the clubhouse… I doubt she’d be comfortable.”

“You and I both know there’s no safer place to be than in The Grindhouse.”

Anna sighed a deep breath and nodded.

“I’ll talk to her,” she said. “No promises.”

“That’s all I want.”

I kept her hand in my grip. Her cheeks started to blush as I tried to pull her close to me. I should’ve forced her. With any other woman I would have, but not with Anna.

She tugged her hand free from mine and slowly backed away.

“I’ll see you this weekend,” she said. “You can stop by the shelter if you feel like volunteering earlier though.”

“Yeah, maybe I will.”

Anna kept her eyes locked on me before turning around. I watched her hips shake with every step as she left.

A sudden hand on my shoulder broke me out of my daze. I turned and saw Needle smiling at me.

“We need a fifth,” he said.

“I’m not in the mood right now,” I replied.

“Small shipment this weekend means we’re all gonna be making some money. Why don’t you spend some of it ahead of time?”

“It’s not spending it if I take it from you.”

“Big words from a little man.”

“Meet me at the table. You know you can’t beat me at poker.”

“We’ll see about that.”