Boz
I LEAVE Trix sitting with Brew and Addy then walk over to the bar. “Bring me a cold one.”
The prospect lifts his chin to me then grabs a beer from the fridge. Bringing it to me, he smiles. “Here you go, Pres.”
I nod at him but don’t respond. My conversation with Hoss keeps running through my head. The way he talked to Trix; Hoss didn’t sound like a man that knew anything about my guns. If he did, he would be delivering that shit to my front door right now. Hell, he’d do anything to get his girl home. Something just isn’t right. I have got to find a way to get to the bottom of this.
“Looks like Grim is trying to steal your girl,” the prospect says with a chuckle, bringing me back to the here and now.
I turn my head and watch as Trix strokes Grim. Hell, my damn dog has been attached to her hip since we came out of my room. He seems to like her as much as I do, and Grim is a damn good judge of character. “Looks like it.” I don’t even bother correcting him about calling her my girl; all the brothers have heard that I don’t want anyone but me getting near her.
Taking a swig of my beer, I look around the clubhouse. My eyes zero in on Cherry as she heads my way. Fuck, I didn’t want to deal with this shit today, but it doesn’t look as if I’m gonna have much of a choice. As angry as she looks, maybe she’ll spill all her secrets as soon as she opens her mouth. One can hope.
She struts over to me, a hand on her hip, and tosses her thumb to the spot where Trix is sitting. “Who the hell is that bitch?”
“That’s none of your business,” I reply, taking a drink.
“So you have a new whore on your dick,” she shouts, drawing Trix’s attention.
I can see the fire in Trix’s eyes, and it pisses me off. Right then, I decide I’m not willing to play nice with this bitch anymore, even if she is Smoke’s little sister and my ex. That doesn’t change a damn thing. I grab her and motion for one of my brothers. “Take her ass down to the basement. I’ll deal with her later on.”
Fear flashes in her eyes, and I can’t keep the smile off my face. “Yeah, bitch. You and I are gonna have a long, hard talk.”
“We have nothing to talk about anymore, Boz,” she says as she tries to pull away from me, but my hold stays firm.
I lean forward and whisper in her ear. “You were seen in my office, babe. We know you were digging for something, and I’m gonna find out what.”
She shakes her head manically back and forth. “Please, Boz, don’t do this.”
Shoving her away, I make sure someone has his hands on her before I look around the room. My eyes land on Crank, and he has a smirk on his face. Something about that look pisses me the fuck off, and I come to a decision. It’s time to deal with him.
I walk over to Brew and the two girls. Looking at my brother, I lift my chin just a hair. “Call church. I want every patched member here by dark.”
It’s time I get this shit straight with both Crank’s fuck up with the kidnapping, the shit with the shipment, and Cherry. Cherry I can handle any way I want, but out of respect for her father, I’ll let him have his say. Doesn’t mean I’ve got to listen to him, but he can give me his opinion. Crank’s fuck up, on the other hand, has me itching for his cut. That will mean a vote, and that’s what’s going to happen tonight.
Turning away from him, I grab Trix’s hand. “Come on. Let’s go get something to eat.”
“Wouldn’t you rather eat with that jealous bitch that just called me your new whore?” she asks, shooting daggers with her eyes.
“Nah, I’ll deal with her and her bullshit later,” I reply as I pull her along with me toward the kitchen. Grim follows closely behind us.
“What do you feel like eating?” I ask her as soon as we step inside.
The clubhouse kitchen was the first thing I fixed when we started getting some extra money coming in. Before, there was only one old, avocado green stove to service over a hundred men. With parties and meetings, that number sometimes reached nearly three hundred, so the old ladies had to make shit at home and bring it in. We now have three brand new, stainless steel, six-burner stoves. We also have three double-door refrigerators and a deep freeze. The rest of the room still looks like shit, with peeling paint and broken cabinets, but the old ladies can now cook a feast without having to run shit back and forth from their homes.
I go to the first fridge and start looking around to see what we have, doing my best to put both Cherry and Crank out my mind. My eyes land on the deli meat and my mouth waters. “I’m not much of a cook, but I can make a mean sub. If you don’t want a sandwich of some sort, you’ll have to fix something yourself.”
She looks at me with a funny look on her face and starts laughing. “I don’t think you want me to fix anything. My cooking isn’t anything to brag about. You’re probably a better cook than I am. Most people are.”
“It can’t be that bad. You’re a woman. You have to know more about cooking than me,” I tell her as I pull out the sliced ham and turkey.
She shoots me a glare and asks, “What the hell is that supposed to mean? Just because I’m a woman, it means I’m an expert in the kitchen?”
“I wasn’t being a dick. I just figured your mom taught you this shit,” I say with a shrug, then look back in the fridge to find the cheese.
When I find it, I pull it out and turn around. Standing a few feet from me, Trix looks like she’s about to cry as Grim whines at her feet. I watched her cry when she talked to her dad, but this is different. She looks like her entire world has just ended, and I can feel her pain down to my soul.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, setting the food down and walking over to her.
She blinks away her unshed tears and tells me, “My mom died three months after my fourteenth birthday. Before that, she kept telling me she would teach me to cook when I got a little older. Without her, I never had the urge to learn.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck! How the hell could I forget that Patty was dead? I didn’t know her that well, but enough to feel the loss when I heard about her death. According to the rumors, she had breast cancer. By the time the doctors found it, the shit had spread through half her body. She died a painful death in a matter of weeks.
Pulling her into my arms, I whisper, “I’m sorry, darlin’, so fucking sorry. I didn’t even think about what I was saying.”
She lets me hold her for a second, then pulls back and asks, “Are you gonna make me one of your killer subs, or what?”
I nod, glad my girl can shake such deep shit off so quickly. As soon as the thought crosses my mind, I realize where my mind is leading me. My girl. Shit, how did that happen so fast? Hell, who am I kidding? I’ve wanted her for as long as I can remember. Something about her just pulls me in, and makes it hard to walk away. It happened in just a few hours last time. Why should now be any different? I want her just as bad as I did back then.
“Chop, chop, big man,” she says, snapping her fingers. “I’m hungry. In case you’ve forgotten, you brought me breakfast but didn’t give me a chance to eat it.”
I lift her chin so her eyes are on me and say, “You know I kinda like you, right?”
She gives me a shy smile and says, “I like you, too, kidnapping aside, but I’ll like you even more if you make me something to eat.”
I chuckle, then let her go. “I will, but remember, it was your choice not to eat your breakfast. I tried to get you to, but you were in too much of a hurry,” I say as I start to put the sandwiches together. It only takes a few minutes and only a few more than that to gobble them down. As soon as we’re done, Trix gets up and starts putting the food away, dropping little bits to Grim as she goes along. After that, she loads our dirty dishes into the dishwasher.
When that’s done, she looks around the room and shakes her head. “Someone needs to clean this pig sty every once in a while. I don’t mind picking up after you and me, but I’m not playing maid to the whole damn club.”
Something about her words hit me in the gut—you and me. She said you and me. Even if she doesn’t know it, she’s coming to think of us as a pair. She’s feeling it, too. Nothing has changed since the night I almost had her. Almost nothing. Only difference is, now I have her here with me.