Without overthinking too much, I quickly typed out a message. Hey, Kent. We’ll definitely have to chat once you get back in town. x Fancy
I hit send before I could delete it. Maybe following some lame dating rules was ruining my chance at finding Mr. Right. I hadn’t shouted from the rooftops that I was interested in Kent, but messaging him back right away was something I never would have done. It showed I was a little bit interested. As interested as one could be about a person they had never met or talked to.
Once I started my car, I checked my face in the rearview mirror and shifted into reverse.
“Keep your mind open, Fancy,” I muttered.
Kent could be my knight in shining armor. Time would tell if his stead was a horse or a turtle.
✽✽✽
Chapter Six
Debts need to be paid…
Dyno
“This shit is for the fucking birds,” Core grumbled.
I stood back and took in all of the drywall hanging. “Yeah, it’s hard fucking labor, but that’s why we’re going to be able to charge a good bit for it.”
Zephyr, Rhino, and Point finished taping up a wall while Quinn, Sledge, and I grabbed the next sheet. Core grabbed the nail gun and stood behind us.
We had a pretty good process going that had gotten more than half of the drywall hung today.
It wasn’t mentally hard, but damn if it wasn’t physically hard. I should have skipped going to the gym this morning. It had been a couple of months since I had worked like this, and my body was feeling it.
“This will be the last sheet for today. We should be able to finish up tomorrow.”
We lifted the sheet to the wall, held it in place while Core and Rhino screwed it in place, then we stepped back.
“God damn, but it’s nice to have walls again.” Sledge clapped Quinn on the back and smiled wide. “I’m gonna get to sleep tonight without having to listen to Zephyr snore all night.”
“I don’t fucking snore,” Zephyr protested.
“Right,” Quinn laughed. “Keep telling yourself that.”
Zephyr snored like a fucking freight train. The first night we had all stayed in the clubhouse, we had all stood over Zephyr as he slept. None of us could believe the sound that was coming from him.
I snorted. “It’s like you’re fucking dying, brother. You need to get that shit checked out.”
We filed out of the back bedroom, down the hallway, and into the common room.
“I still can’t believe you know all of this shit.” Rhino grabbed an overturned bucket and sat down.
“Electrician, plumber, and just straight up building walls and shit,” Sledge laughed.
Zephyr grabbed some beers from the cooler and passed them out. “So, when do you think we can get some real fucking furniture and maybe a fridge?” he asked. “I’m getting sick of running to the gas station for fucking ice twice a day.”
Quinn popped open the top of his beer. “A chest freezer and refrigerator should be here the day after tomorrow.”
“One more fucking day of ice runs,” Zephyr laughed.
“What I really want to know is when we are going to get a couch? My ass can’t take sitting on overturned buckets for much longer.” Sledge fidgeted on the bucket and rested his elbows on his knees. “Something with a little padding would be nice.”
“There’s a discount furniture place in town. Maybe we can find some shit there,” Rhino suggested.
Quinn nodded. “I figured this weekend when Kimber has off that we’d head over there.”
“I don’t care what the hell you guys get as long as it’s better than that air mattress I’ve been sleeping on.” Point bumped fists with Zephyr. “Can’t exactly be bringing chicks back to my room and having them hold on for a second while I air up the bed.”
“Amen to that,” Zephyr chuckled.
“What the hell chicks are you guys talking about?” I asked. “The only chicks that have stepped foot in here have been Kimber, Petra, and Fancy.”
“And Petra and Fancy were only here one time, and they haven’t been back,” Rhino pointed out.
“How is Petra?” Quinn asked Rhino.
He shrugged. “She seems fine. Keeps to herself. The only times she leaves is for work or running to the store.”
“No one sniffing around?” I asked.
We didn’t expect anything to happen with Petra, but we wanted to make sure she didn’t decide to run to the police about what happened with the Rolling Devils.
“Not that I can tell.”
“Stay on her for a little bit longer. If things keep quiet, we can just let it go.” Quinn’s phone rang and he pulled it out of his pocket. “Surprisingly not Kimber,” he laughed. He put the phone to his ear. “Hello?”
Quinn listened for a few seconds.
“What?” he thundered. “Who the fuck is this?” He listened again then pulled the phone from his ear and glared at it. He hit a couple of buttons and put the phone back to his ear. “Son of a bitch,” he muttered.
“Prank call?” Point chuckled.
“They ask you if your refrigerator was running?” Rhino added.
Quinn’s eyes connected with mine. They were dark with anger, and I knew it wasn’t a prank call from some punk.
“What was it?” I asked.
“All they said was ‘You may think you got away with it, but you’re wrong. Debts still need to be paid.”
Everyone went on alert. Quinn jumped up from his seat, and my hand went to my side. The feel of the hard metal under my fingers gave me a sense of security even if I wasn’t sure what the hell was happening.
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Point shouted.
Quinn paced in front of the door and ran his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know. I didn’t recognize the voice either.”
“Is this about the Rolling Devils?” Zephyr asked.
“They’re all dead,” Core insisted.
Quinn stopped in his tracks. “We let those two prospects go.”
Core shook his head. “I knew those two. There is no way in hell they would call about unpaid debts. They were only with the club for a couple of months.”
“What about the girls?” I asked.
“Girls?” Rhino asked.
“The girls the Rolling Devils were going to sell. Who were they being sold to?”
We all turned to Core.
He held up his hands. “I don’t fucking know. By the time they decided to make the deal, I was on the outs with them. All they had me do was take care of Kimber and Petra. I sat in on the meeting when they discussed it, but they never said who the buyer was.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Quinn thundered. “You don’t even have a clue who the guys were?”
Core shook his head. “I got no fucking clue who they were.”
“Well, seeing as these assholes were into buying women, you gotta think they’re gonna want what they might have paid for,” I pointed out.
“They did pay,” Core added. “At least half of it.”
This was not good. These guys might not have paid in full for three girls, but they must have paid enough that they weren’t going to let this shit die with the Rolling Devils.
I sighed and leaned forward to rest my elbows on my knees. “I don’t want to ask, but how much does three women go for on the black market these days?”
Point pulled out his phone.
“You really gonna search that shit on your phone? We’re gonna have the FBI beating down our door by morning,” Rhino chuckled.
Point typed away on his phone then shook his head. “No real set price, but this here says it can be anywhere from four grand all the way to fifty grand. It all depends on where they are from and where they are being sold to.”
“Let’s say this is on the high end then. Whoever these guys are might have paid Major and the Devils a cool twenty-five grand already.” Quinn ran his fingers through his hair again and growled. “Not a small amount of
money.”
“So, what the hell are we going to do?” Core asked.
Quinn glared at him. “Well, if you had a fucking clue who these guys were, we might be a little better off.”
Core tossed his hands up in the air. “This isn’t my fucking fault. The Devils stopped trusting me once you stuck up for me in that fight.”
“You’re right. I should have just let them beat the shit out of you and minded my own business,” Quinn growled at him through clenched teeth.
Core clamped his mouth shut. His fists were clenched at his sides, and a vein in his neck was bulging.
Headlights flashed through the windows of the clubhouse.
“No one speaks a word of this to Kimber. Understood?” Quinn thundered. “As far as she knows, the shit with the Rolling Devils is behind us, yeah?”
We all nodded slowly.
“We heard you, brother,” I replied quietly. “This is club business.”
“And club business doesn’t leave these walls,” Zephyr finished.
Kimber bounded through the front door and skidded to a halt. “Whoa there. Badass meeting going on or something?” she chirped.
Quinn shook his head and dropped the scowl on his lips. “Nah, babe. We were just talking about all of the work we got done today.” He held his hand out to her. “Come see.” He lead her toward the bedrooms and out of earshot.
“I can’t believe this fucking shit,” Zephyr cursed. “I thought we were free and clear of the Rolling Devils after we blew them the fuck up.”
I sat back in my chair and kicked my feet out in front of me. “We all thought that. We didn’t take into account the deals we fucked up that they had with other people.”
The Rolling Devils had been in some major shit that was now trickling down to us.
“Where the fuck do we even start with this?” Core asked.
I glared at him. I didn’t know what to think about Core. He had been one of the Rolling Devils. He had been part of the reason Quinn had gotten on the bad side of Major. Now, he was here trying to be one of the Kings of Vengeance. He seemed to be the type of guy who went wherever he would be safe for the moment. “I think if we knew the answer to that, none of us would be sitting here like bumps on a fucking log, Core.”
Core stormed out of the clubhouse growling under his breath, some bullshit about not doing anything wrong.
“I don’t trust him,” Rhino piped up.
“Me neither,” Point agreed.
I didn’t either, but I knew if we became divided this early on in the club, we were never going to make it. “Quinn trusts him.”
“Didn’t sound that way a minute ago,” Sledge disagreed.
He was right, but I couldn’t let this become something it wasn’t. I had already decided I would keep an eye on Core, and I still planned on doing it, but I didn’t want everyone else to not trust him. “Shit hit the fan and emotions are running high.” I grabbed my beer and took a swig. “We sleep on it tonight, and then I’m sure we’ll all be more clear headed to figure out what to do next. We beat the Rolling Devils. We can beat whatever is coming for us now.”
“Let’s fucking hope so.” Zephyr slammed back his beer and grabbed another. “We are the Kings of Vengeance, after all.”
Point and Sledge clinked their bottles of beer against his. “Amen to that, brother,” Rhino smirked. “Nothing can stop us.”
That was the optimism I was hoping for, but I didn’t feel quite the way they did.
Something told me we were about to deal with something a hell of a lot bigger than the Rolling Devils.
The problem was, we had no idea what was coming for us.
✽✽✽
Chapter Seven
Serial murderer and serial daters…
Fancy
“Ice cream?”
I nodded. “You know where it is,” I called to Kimber.
“Right next to the TV dinners and frozen pizza,” she called.
I flipped through the channels and rolled my eyes. “Don’t act like you know me.”
She totally did know me. I just didn’t like the fact that I was so predictable.
I listened to her rummage around in the kitchen then she padded into the living room and flopped down on the couch next to me. She held two spoons in her hand and offered one to me.
“You know you want some,” she teased.
“You’re kind of annoying, you know?” I grabbed a spoon and dug into the container of ice cream she set between us.
“Eh,” she shrugged. “But you still like me.”
I rolled my eyes and continued to flip through the channels. “I’m surprised you chose to hang out with me tonight and not Quinn.”
Kimber shoved a spoonful of ice cream in her mouth and pouted out her bottom lip. “Quinn said they were having a meeting when I called him after work.”
“So I’m your second choice.”
“No,” she gasped.
“You’re making me roll my eyes quite a bit right now.” I dramatically rolled my eyes and couldn’t stop from laughing.
“I just got used to you always having a date with some guy that…”
The Golden Girls flashed on the TV, and I dropped the remote on the couch. “You’re good, Kimber.” I patted her on the leg. “I was just giving you shit.”
“You were?”
I laughed and nodded. “I totally was.”
She sighed, relieved. “Good. Because you know I’ll always be there whenever you need me.”
“Aw,” I sighed dramatically. “Are we going to be sappy right now?”
Kimber bumped me with her shoulder. “That is about as sappy as I’m going to get.”
We watched TV ‘til a commercial flashed on the screen.
“So, you wanna tell me exactly why you’re suddenly not dating?”
“I am dating,” I insisted.
Kimber glanced at me. “It’s been at least a week since your last date. The longest you have ever gone without a date is five days. Maybe six.”
I scooped a large mouthful of ice cream onto my spoon. “When you actually have a number for me, I feel like a serial dater.”
“Is that like a serial murderer?”
“Except I’m not breaking the law,” I chuckled.
“Just breaking hearts,” Kimber laughed.
“I am talking to a guy. Well, sort of.”
“Sort of?” Kimber parroted. “Do tell, girl.”
I rolled my eyes and wondered if I really should have mentioned Kent. I had only exchanged one message with him and that had been more than a day ago. “His name is Kent, and that is honestly the only concrete thing I know about him.”
“Fancy,” Kimber warned. “What in the hell are you doing?”
“Breaking all of my stupid dating rules and hoping it turns into something good.”
She shook her head. “I don’t get you.”
“What is there you don’t get?” I asked.
“All those dating apps and rules. I don’t get why you just don’t let it happen.”
“We’ve gone over this,” I droned. “I’m not as lucky as you to have the man of my dreams literally walk into my apartment and then steal my heart. That shit only happens in the movies.”
Now, it was Kimber’s turn to roll her eyes. “We are not talking about Quinn and me. You do this all the time.”
“Do what?” I asked. I finished the ice cream on my spoon and tossed the spoon on the coffee table.
“Divert any and all attention from you onto me.”
“I do not,” I insisted.
“Ya do,” Kimber countered. “You just did it.”
I pursed my lips and sighed. “Okay, so, maybe I did, but talking about you and Quinn is way more interesting than talking about me and my dating disasters.”
“Now that you have admitted it, we can move onto Kent. Tell me what you do know about him.”
“There isn’t much else to tell. His name is Kent. He’s from Marion, and he’s tall. A
t least, he says he is. He has blond hair and appears to be loaded.”
“Fancy,” Kimber warned. “It doesn’t matter if the guy is loaded.”
Hmph. That was what Kimber thought. In the end, it really didn’t matter, but it sure did make it easier to go to nice restaurants and buy cute handbags if the guy was loaded. “Well, as of right now, I don’t know if anything I told you is actually true because I’ve only messaged with the guy twice. He’s out of town right now and said he’ll message me when he gets back.”
“So you’re actually going to wait for him?”
“Yes.” I turned down the volume of the TV. “Why is that even a question?”
“Because you never wait for anything, Fancy. You’re always onto the next guy before the one you’re with even messes up.”
“You really do make me sound like a serial dater.”
It wasn’t that bad. At the end of the day, it just came down to the fact that I knew what I wanted and every guy I had been with prior to Kent just hadn’t worked out.
Simple as that.
“I think of you more as chasing happiness and it always being just out of your grasp.”
I sat back on the couch and sighed. “You’re boarder-line sappy again, Kimber.”
Kimber sat forward and turned toward me. “And you’re pulling on your bitch britches, Fancy?” A silly smile spread across her lips.
“But they fit so good,” I laughed. “It was like they were made for me.”
Kimber fell back onto the couch in a fit of laughter. “Oh, God, it feels good to laugh,” she sighed.
“Well, being kidnapped and almost sold on the black-market can put a damper on a girl’s sense of humor.”
Kimber tapped her finger to her nose. “You might be onto something there.”
“Though that isn’t as bad as being the best friend of a chick who gets kidnapped and then almost sold on the black-market.” A smirk spread across my lips. “Things were much harder for me.”
Kimber slugged my shoulder. “Those bitch britches are completely on now, huh?”
Lean Into It (Kings of Vengeance MC Book 2) Page 4
