TWENTY-NINE
“Un-fucking-believable!” Blake shouted as soon as he stepped foot off his motorcycle.
The women were just stepping out of Talia’s compact car, their faces drawn with equal parts fear and determination. Garrick knew without a doubt, they were prepared for a fight.
He could almost laugh if he wasn’t so pissed.
When Blake had called to let him know that Blaze had called to tell him that Lou had heard a couple of women with Spartan ties had blown into town demanding an audience, Repo hadn’t been sure what the hell to think. Why would anyone from their area be asking questions in the first place? And asking some of their friends, no less, rather than coming to him or any one of the brothers?
Something smelled fishy.
Country and Repo climbed off their bikes and followed up behind a steaming Blake who was, by his puffed-up shoulders and reddish hue, beyond pissed.
“What were you three thinking!” he shouted. “Asking questions, demanding to talk to our contacts, our friends. Do you know what that looks like?”
His shouting carried through the dense trees, and the women visibly shrunk back from him. While Country and Repo knew that they needed to be reprimanded, neither liked seeing their women—any women—afraid like that.
Stepping up, Repo was the first to address the situation. “Hey, prez, let’s dial it back a bit, eh? They know they screwed up.”
“You’re fucking right they did!” he bellowed again. Raking his hands through his hair, the muscles in his biceps flexing, Blake was livid. “What the hell made you think you should go behind my back, our backs, and pull a stunt like this?”
Poor little Gabby was on the verge of tears. Her slender frame trembled, and she held her hands clasped together over her heart. Repo didn’t like that one bit. He knew her as one stern little fighter, a scrapper when pushed to her limits, but sweet as pie any other time. But this was different. She was pregnant, for crying out loud. She didn’t need the stress.
“Blake, chill, bro.”
Blake whirled around on him, fire dancing in those steel eyes. “Don’t fucking tell me what to do,” he snarled.
Repo wasn’t the least bit intimidated by the man. Hell, he’d watched his ass go through puberty. He held out his arm, pointing a finger toward the women. “Look at your wife,” he said simply.
Blake blinked at him a few times, then followed the direction he was pointing. It took a few heartbeats before he drew in a cleansing breath and the tension that was palpable in the air began to recede.
“Shit, teach, I’m sorry,” he said with a trembling sigh. “You just…you can’t do that. Things could have turned out much different and… What if I’d have lost you?”
“We didn’t mean to cause trouble,” Gabby said, her voice shaky. “We were just trying to help.”
“Help with what,” Country asked, his voice terse, “making us look like we can’t keep our women in line? Like we aren’t handling our business?”
Predictably, Talia scowled. “Keep us women in line, like we’re children to be controlled?”
Repo listened to the fight picking up steam in front of him, but his eyes were focused on Ginger, who stood beside the other two listening same as him. She knew better than to pitch in her two cents because she knew the rules better than anyone, didn’t she? A woman had her say, but there was a time and place for it, and that wasn’t in a biker bar, especially one that belonged to another club.
They could very well have stirred up some trouble for everyone in the Spartans, making them appear weak. Of course, being that they had a good rapport, it could all be nothin’, but if it fell on the right ears, it could easily turn into something. Especially when they were already dealing with problems on the inside that threatened everything they’d worked so hard for.
The fact was, they were already stretched thin trying to ferret out a leak and figure out who was behind who’d shot him. They didn’t need the added aggravation.
“Woman, this is the stupidest thing you have ever done,” Country was saying. “I told you I didn’t want you near any of this.”
“Do you forget who I work for? I know what I’m doing just as well as you do,” Talia shot back.
“Except you work for the suits, and while you might be smart, there are some areas that you just don’t need to go, sugar.”
Repo’s brows popped up. The way Country was talking, he was going to need another place to sleep tonight. He might be a bastard on his best days, but even Repo knew better than to insinuate that a woman wasn’t as intelligent as a man.
And Talia was an alpha in her field, so she wasn’t going to take it lying down. Same as Country was an alpha, he wasn’t going to let sleeping dogs lie… At least, he thought that was the proper analogy…? He’d been picking them up here and there from Country over the years, but being he was no Southern gentleman, so he had no real idea how to use them.
Oh well, no skin off his back.
“Did you just call me stupid?” Talia growled.
That’s when Ginger, ever the peacemaker, stepped in. “Hey, guys, that’s enough now. Everyone needs to calm down before they say something they’re going to regret.”
“Did you hear what he just said to me?” Talia asked her, eyes shooting daggers at her man.
“I did,” Ginger said calmly, “but he’s heated, hon. Nothing he says is making any sense, and he’ll realize that later when he cools off. But right now, we all need to shut our mouths and take a deep breath.”
Repo wasn’t the least bit surprised when jaws clenched, everyone did as she advised. Ginger had always had a knack of calming the crowd. She knew which buttons to push and how to speak to diffuse even the most heated argument. Hell, he’d lost track of how many fights she had broken up at the clubhouse over the years.
And it saddened him to know that she’d probably learned those very skills as a matter of survival.
Once heads had cooled, Repo suggested they all take a seat on Blake’s deck and sort everything out. They needed to understand what the women had been thinking, and the women needed to understand why they were wrong to do what they did.
Gabby was in Blake’s lap, still upset and full of nerves, but holding strong. Talia and Country had a gulf between them which, on the outside, might spell doom for their relationship, but Repo saw the love in her eyes. Talia was itching to run to her man. It was pure stubbornness on both their parts that was keeping them away from one another.
Ginger, on the other hand…well, she was harder to read. She stood off to the side, her stance wide, her arms folded across her chest, and her expression hard and impassive. Growing up around the club had taught her some valuable skills. Skills that made it hard as hell for Repo to figure her out.
He was pretty sure she still liked him. Hoped she did, anyway. They’d made some strides recently, and he wasn’t about to backslide now.
Which was why he was playing it cool and keeping his true feelings on this night close to the vest when what he really wanted to do was tan her ass red with his hand.
“Start explaining, you three,” Blake said wearily while pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. It was clear that the stress of worrying about the club and his family had finally caught up with him. The man was exhausted.
Repo, Country, and eventually Blake looked to the women when they didn’t immediately answer, seeing their shared non-verbal communication thing that women tended to do with only their eyes.
Exasperated, Repo said, “Somebody better start talking.” Naturally, he looked to Ginger, who was the coolest of the trio, which made him suspect she had the most to hide. “Give it up, Red. You know this won’t end well otherwise.”
It was a warning for her as much as the other two. They needed to spill the beans, so this could be dealt with and put behind them. They didn’t need any more surprises.
But Ginger just shrugged, her shoulders lifting ever so slightly, her expression that of a contrite teenager. “I don’t have anything to say.”
“Nothing to say,” Repo pondered in disbelief.
“Nope. We were just hanging out, shooting the breeze, and having a couple drinks.”
“That’s bullshit,” Country spoke up. “Red, out of everyone here, you know the fire you’re playin’ with. Don’t dig a hole for yourself.”
“Like I said, there’s nothing to tell.”
“Red,” Blake interjected, “you know you’re like family. Don’t ruin that by lying to us.”
Her expression tightened down like a screw, her lips thinning, and it was easy for Repo to see that he’d hit home. The Spartans were the only family she had, and while losing them would never be an option, once trust was lost, it was near impossible to get back. She knew that, and yet, he could see that whatever she was thinking, she had made her choice.
Her arms went out to her sides, her palms facing the sky. “I don’t know what to tell you.”
Blake shook his head in disappointment and turned to his wife. “You gonna play it the same, teach, or are you going to be reasonable? Because they can leave, but you and I are going to have this out. I don’t care how long it takes or what I need to do. I will get answers.”
Similar to Ginger, Gabby shored up her defenses and petted her pregnant belly, as if she knew she was sitting pretty no matter what threats her husband made. And she was probably right. Blake had never been one to lay a hand on a woman—that he knew of—and he damn sure wouldn’t hurt a pregnant woman. “We just went for a drink and some girl talk.”
“With her,” Blake said, aiming a finger at Ginger. The unspoken “my ex-girlfriend” was thankfully left off, but it still tickled Repo’s nerves. He didn’t much enjoy knowing that his woman had been involved with his president and friend, no matter how long ago it was.
“What? We’re friends,” Gabby defended, her voice a little higher than normal.
“Since when?”
“Since…” She looked to the women for help, but they were unable or unwilling to offer a ready answer. “What does it matter,” Gabby said with conviction. “We’re friends. Or do you have a problem with that?”
Blake bristled, almost falling into the clever little trap she’d set—almost. “Don’t try to turn the tables and distract me. You three are hiding something, and I want to know what it is. Now.”
Country was staring daggers into Talia, daring her not to speak up. And if Repo was reading her right, those curved shoulders and that downtrodden, pained look in her eyes said she was going to fold faster than a house of cards. She just needed a little push.
“You got something important to say,” Repo told her, trying his best to be nice, “now is the time. We promise not to be mad or yell,” he said, swinging a look at his brothers to tell them to play nice, “but if it affects the club like I think it does, then we need to know about it.”
Hesitation was written all over her face, but his carefully chosen words were working. She was going to talk.
“Talia,” he said softly, “I know you’re worried about Tucker, and maybe you’re trying to protect him. But trust me, the best way you can do that is to lay it all out on the table. Being prepared is the best line of defense a man can have. So, if you know something we don’t, we could use the heads-up.”
Exchanging looks with Gabby and Ginger once again, Talia’s gaze flipped to him and Blake, and finally to Country who had enough sense to shelve the chip on his shoulder long enough to ease her worry.
“It’s okay, sugar. Whatever it is, you can tell us.”
And then she opened her mouth, and the words she spilled were like a match to gasoline.