But the guys had been relentless and they’d pushed the point the entire night after their group huddle at Curves, and when logic and rational argument hadn’t worked, they’d resorted to begging. Not literally on their knees, but metaphorically, and in a few cases, they had damn near fallen to the floor on their knees. They’d begged the women to please do this… they’d begged them to listen to what was being said.
It was only when the women had seen how genuinely worried the men were – how legitimately afraid and frantic they were – that they had finally agreed. They hadn’t been thrilled, naturally, and they’d muttered darkly about King’s Men getting on top of this damn mess and making it right double-time – but in the end and at long last, they had capitulated.
Sadly, Jax, King, and Aidan had been so relieved at winning the battle, that they had almost lost the war and completely undone all their good work by being stupid in that way that men sometimes are.
“Just think!” Jax had exclaimed to Sarah. “You and Gabi and Naomi will be able to plan your weddings full-time. You can exchange ideas, share magazines and look at online stuff together… it’ll be great, baby!”
Aidan and King had obliviously uttered similar phrases reflecting the exact same sentiment – and to a woman, Sarah, Gabi, and Naomi had responded in exactly the same way: by shooting the men that they loved looks that would have melted steel beams.
And to a man, Jax, Aidan, and King had taken one look at their future wives and slammed their big, fat mouths shut. Good and tight.
**
“So that’s everything,” Valentina Mirova said to the women as they re-entered the living room. “That’s the whole house and all the security things you need to know about.” She lifted one perfectly-arched eyebrow over one perfect Slavic cheekbone and narrowed her perfect dusky purple eyes as she regarded the ladies and smiled with her perfectly-shaped mouth. “Questions?”
“How many of you will be staying here with us?” Naomi asked Val, trying hard not to hate her too much for having legs that went up to the goddamn ceiling – even without those outrageously gorgeous high-heeled boots she was wearing. “I mean, at any given time?”
“Four are always here, with some people coming and going,” Val said, her words still carrying musical traces of her upbringing in Russia. “Tonight, it’s me, Tank –” she gestured at a man who was, roughly, the size of a tank. The human tank nodded; the women nodded back. “– Dillon, and Dallas.”
Sarah, Mirrie, Naomi, Gabi and Maria all smiled at the last two men more readily than Val or Tank. They knew Dillon well, of course, because he was Maria’s boyfriend, and although they’d never met Dallas Foreman in the delectable flesh before, they had heard about him from the guys. King especially had talked to Naomi about him, since King and Dallas had teamed up and joined forces on more than one occasion.
“Ladies,” Dallas said now in a deep Texan drawl that seemed designed to just stop the female heart. “It’s a pleasure.”
“No kidding, it’s a pleasure,” Gabi said, taking in his height and width. “You gonna be guarding my bedroom door?”
Dallas laughed, dark blue eyes flashing. “As you wish, ma’am.”
“Gabi,” Sarah reproved. “Don’t harass the hot bodyguard.”
“Can’t help it,” Gabi protested. “My own hot Texan is at Curves tending bar tonight, and who knows when I’ll see Aidan again?” She grinned at Dallas and he grinned back, more than game for some teasing in what was a pretty crap situation for these women. “You mind being my hot Texan substitute?”
“No problem,” Dallas said cheerfully. “I’m just here to help any way that I can, ma’am.”
“Your wife won’t mind?” Gabi asked.
“Oh, I’m sure she’ll understand. Olivia’s pretty cool.”
“Anyway,” Val interrupted, clearly done with the jocularity. “Any other questions? Maybe ones not to do with the hotness of the people protecting your lives?”
The women were silent, shaking their heads.
“OK, then.” Val glanced at her watch. “So the four of us will be guarding every floor, and one of us will always be on the front door. We work in shifts, so we move around the space constantly on a grid and schedule. The next shift arrives in the morning at 8 a.m. sharp, and they’ll pick up our positions then. What we need you to do is this, and it’s important: never enter a room without announcing yourselves, alright? We’ll probably see you before you see us, but our backs may be turned, or we may be distracted. Make sure we know you’re there, OK?”
“Because you might take us down?” Mirrie said jokingly. “With extreme prejudice?”
“Yes.” Val’s answer was flat and clipped. “We might, and if we do that, you might get hurt. We don’t want that, none of us. So you do your part to make sure it doesn’t happen. Yes?”
“Yes,” Mirrie whispered. “Sorry.”
“No need to apologize,” Val said coolly. “But this is a serious matter, ladies, so I do hope you can take it seriously.”
Confronted by a stern Russian kick-ass bodyguard who could easily pass as a supermodel, the ladies were appropriately abashed. Again, they all nodded, and Val studied them closely. She didn’t smile – she hadn’t smiled yet, and Sarah for one had started to wonder if the woman even knew how – but Val did seem to thaw a bit. Maybe.
“OK, then,” Val said. “You’re free to do as you please, and we need to get to work.”
As one, Tank, Valentine, Dillon, and Dallas left the living room. The women heard faint voices in the kitchen next door, and they gazed at each other, a bit taken aback.
“Uh,” Maria said, speaking for the first time. “Maybe you guys want to… have some coffee?” She nodded at the loaded tray on the low table. “Looks like someone made tea and coffee, and brought us some pastries.”
“Damn right I want a coffee,” Sarah said, plunking herself down on the sofa and reaching for a chocolate-chip cookie. To hell with her already-generous ass and thighs, and besides, Jax loved ravishing her curves. “And I wouldn’t object to a shot of Bailey’s in mine.”
“No alcohol!” Val called from the kitchen, making the women jump. “Non-negotiable!”
“Jesus,” Mirrie murmured. “Does the woman have bat hearing, or what?”
“We all do!” Dillon was the one shouting now. “Careful what you say, ladies!”
With huge eyes, they all silently stared at Maria, who shrugged and grinned.
“Yeah,” she said casually. “The man hears a kleenex drop on the floor six rooms away. He’s hell to live with sometimes.”
“Love you too, babe!” Dillon called back. “Now enjoy that brownie!”
Maria stared down at the brownie in her hand, stunned, and for no reason that made any earthly sense, she quickly hid it behind her back. That broke the tension at last, and all the women laughed and settled down on the sofas and chairs. Coffee and tea were poured, milk and sugar were added, various pastries and sweet things were selected. And they started to talk, not at all concerned about the badass squad in the kitchen hearing them. They knew that they had to get used to being watched like hawks, their every word overheard, their every move noticed and catalogued, and they might as well start now.
“So, Mirrie,” Naomi said, wondering if this was a bad time to bring up the topic. “Are you OK? About the news about your brother?”
Mirrie sighed. “It’s not like it’s a big shock, hon. I know that Donovan has wanted to properly advance in the MC for ages… it’s why he made Enforcer at the age of twenty-two. He’s ambitious, though I don’t care much for his ambitions.”
“Enforcer?” Sarah echoed, a bit lost. “What’s that?”
“Enforcers are the guys who enforce the club code,” Mirrie explained. “They keep their brothers in check, but they’re also the ones who get asked by the President to go out and deal with external threats. The
y beat up suppliers who haven’t paid or baby competitors trying to cut into their business or territory. They’re basically the ones who do all the heavy physical and intimidation stuff.” She hesitated. “They – they take it as far as the President says, and they never question that command.”
“So… so they…” Gabi bit her lip. “Enforcers kill people if they’re told to?”
“Yeah,” Mirrie said tonelessly. “An MC member can’t be an Enforcer for a one-percenter club if they aren’t willing to do that.”
“Oh,” Sarah said in a small voice. Mirrie’s brother Donovan – better known to her as Joker – had once held a knife to her throat and in that moment, Sarah had known that he’d slit her throat without a qualm. She had exactly zero good feelings about Joker Kane, but she knew that being born and raised into the MC life had taken its toll on Mirrie in many ways. “I’m sorry, Mirrie.”
Mirrie looked down and away. “So you see, the fact that he’s just been promoted to Vice-President under Nails is no big surprise. Considering the current climate, Nails is going to want a warrior watching his back – and nobody’s more vicious than my brother. Nobody has more kills than he does, and he’s nothing if not loyal to the Angels. No goddamn way Donovan’s going to do anything that works against the interests of the club. He will, quite literally, shoot himself in the head before he lets down his brothers. He’ll die for them, and Nails knows that. After Ace’s betrayal, Nails is going to be looking for unquestioned loyalty to the MC – and Donovan’s nothing if not that.”
“And then if something happens to Nails –” Sarah’s words trailed off.
“Then my brother takes over as President, yes,” Mirrie said, her voice hollow. “And if that happens, God help us all, because he’s a brutal, violent beast of a man with no conscience or compassion. None.”
The women watched as Mirrie fingered the forget-me-not tattoo on her neck, and they knew what she was thinking about. When she’d decided to leave the ownership of the MC once and for all – since she’d been born into the club, she was considered club property – she’d gone and asked to be released. Her payment for freedom had come in the form of a severe beating, with every single patched-in Fallen Angels member being permitted to hit her as hard as they wanted, anywhere on her body – including her own father and brother. She’d survived it, barely, and it had brought Mac into her life, first as her doctor then as her boyfriend.
But if Joker Kane could do that to his own sister, then he could do anything to anyone, and the women had no illusions about that. The man was, indeed, an animal. A cold, hard, ruthless, calculating animal… which made him the worst possible kind.
“So,” Mirrie said briskly. “I’m OK about the news about Donovan being promoted to VP, Naomi. I’m OK because I’ve been expecting this day for a long, long time… and now that it’s finally arrived, I don’t mind telling you that I’m actually thanking Christ and all the angels above to be in this safe house.”
“Really?” Sarah said, thinking about Jax. “You’re fine with being away from Mac and having to close the café for an unforeseeable length of time?”
“Yes. I am.” She met Gabi’s eyes, and saw understanding there at least. If anyone else had reasons to want to be protected by a wall of solid muscle and steel, it was the woman who’d been thrown into a shallow grave in the Rockies. Gabi knew what she was hiding from. “I mean, Spider was planning to close The Web for extensive renovations anyway, so we just threw some money at it and shoved everything up by four months. No biggie, frankly.”
“Really?” Naomi said.
“Really truly,” Mirrie said. “And I think you guys need to understand something: if Nails and Joker are running the slash-and-burn revenge show, then we want to be right where we are, which is somewhere that nobody knows about except the people carrying guns around this place, surrounded by ex-military types trained in combat and security.” Mirrie twisted her fingers together. “Because honestly, the only thing that’s going to stop my brother from coming to finish the job on me that he started all those years ago is a gun pointed at his head. The only thing that’s going to stop the MC from finishing what they started with Gabi or Maria is a loaded gun. The only thing that’s going to keep any of us safe from harm or worse is standing out there in that kitchen… and we’d be damn good and smart to remember that when we start to feel frustrated or impatient.”
She took a deep breath, and in the silence, they noticed that all was quiet in the kitchen too – it seemed that everyone was listening to Mirrie. She continued:
“I know what’s coming for us, guys, and believe me when I say that we can’t handle it. Our men are tough and strong and some of them have military experience, but they’re not an organized team the way that King’s Men are. The only people who can handle what’s coming need to be as feral and fearless as the MC. They need to know how to shoot to kill, and can pull the trigger without hesitation or guilt, because what’s coming for us can do that so fast, it’d take your breath away. More importantly: these people standing between us and what’s coming need to hit their mark strong and true every single time – because if they miss and we get taken away? We’ll be put through something that will have us begging for the one thing that will make it all stop… death. And that’ll be the one thing that they’ll hold away from us. They won’t give us that sweet reprieve until they’re absolutely sure that we’ve suffered as much as they think it’s possible for us to suffer… and maybe they won’t even give it to us then.”
“My God,” Maria whispered, beyond horrified at what Mirrie’s early years must have been like. Maria had always thought that as an unwanted orphan bounced between orphanages and foster homes, she’d had it pretty rough, but it looked like she needed to reevaluate the meaning of that word. “I didn’t – I never thought – Mirrie –”
“We hear you, sweetie,” Naomi said softly. “We get it.”
“Yes,” Sarah said, touching Mirrie’s wrist. “We do. We’ll manage things from here, for as long as it takes for King and his people to fix this mess. We have laptops, we can stay in touch with our guys safely through King and his people, we can work if we want to. We’re grateful to be safe, and no complaints from any of us. It’s all going to be OK.”
“Maybe it will,” Mirrie said, still not really comforted. “But don’t kid yourselves… before it gets even in the neighborhood of OK, it’s going to get bad. And when a one-percenter MC is involved, ‘bad’ is the same as saying ‘hell on earth’.”
Chapter Six
Four days later
“Can everyone hear me?” King said, sitting down at the massive table in the back of King’s Garage. “Sound off, guys.”
“Tex and Jack here,” Jack said, his voice warm and clear over the speaker set in the middle of the table. “Honey’s on front door guard duty, so she won’t be joining us.”
“OK,” King replied. “Everyone else?”
“This is Tank and Luke,” came Tank’s guttural growl, his Cajun accent more pronounced over the speaker. “Valentina and Dallas are in position around the house, keeping an eye on the ladies.”
“And at this end, besides me, we have Lilly and Knox,” King said. “Nobody else is back from assignment yet.”
Murmurs of assent came over the speaker now, and King leaned back in his chair, gestured at Lilly and Knox to sit.
“So,” he drawled, already anticipating the answer to his question. “How goes it with Spider and Ace, Jack? Tex?”
“Jeeeeesus,” Tex said right away, and King grinned. “Can I switch out, boss? Maybe go and take care of the women? Never-ending and bewildering wedding talk aside, it’d have to be better than watching these two.”
“No fuckin’ way,” Tank and Dallas barked out quickly, and in unplanned unison.
Everyone laughed, even Tex.
“They fighting again?” King said, remembering the confrontation that he
’d witnessed outside Spider’s bedroom door a few nights earlier. “Verbal altercations and the like?”
“Nope,” Tex said. “The opposite. They won’t even be in the same room at the same time. They eat in shifts, they watch TV in shifts, they avoid any all contact, even eye contact. Spider gets up early, Ace sleeps until noon. Spider goes to bed at ten, Ace is up half the night. It’s like living with two ghosts drifting around, is what it’s like.”
“And that’s a problem why?”
“Oh, it’s not a problem,” Tex said. “I mean, it’s a hellava lot better than having to break up fights and constantly step between them. But it’s… well. It’s – what’s the word, Jack?”
“We’re waiting for the other shoe to drop,” Jack supplied. “It’s like an approaching storm, rolling in over the Rockies… you feel it long before it breaks. It’s in the air, King.”
“What is?” King asked. “I still don’t get what we’re talking about here.”
“I’m not sure yet.” They heard Jack shift his weight back on forth. “Something.”
“Something bad?” Knox asked. “Pistols at dawn in the field outside kind of stuff?”
“I dunno,” Jack replied. “On the whole, I think not. I think it’ll be alright in the end. But right now, they’re like two animals circling each other, watching and waiting, but for what, I don’t know. Maybe softening and a chance to talk at long last. Or maybe the polar opposite… maybe weakness and a chance to go for the jugular.”
“Great,” King muttered. “Leave it to Ace to make shit more difficult.”
“Oh, it ain’t Ace,” Tex said, catching them all by surprise. “Ace is making an effort. Or at least, he was, until yesterday. I think yesterday, he kinda gave up a bit because Spider’s been such an asshole to him.”
Extreme Curves (Dangerous Curves Book 7) Page 8
