Kellan (5 page)

Fuck. She was just some chick. No different than the dozens who hung around the club. Pretty. Big tits. Looking for a good time. But somehow, something had felt different about this girl. Like she was hiding something or trying to cover some secret. She looked the part, all right, but I had the sense there was a hell of a lot more to her than what I saw on stage and on that beach. And dammit if I didn’t want to be the one to peel back all those layers.
 

 I could have tried to call her. Getting her number from the bartender would have been easy enough. He swore he passed the info about the house band gig to her people. If she was smart, if the rest of her band was smart, they’d be here tonight. And if
I
was smart, that would be the end of it. Mallory and her band were good. More than good. The rest of the club were about to see what I saw if she showed up. An act like that would be the last piece of the puzzle for making this place great. The draw would line our pockets for years to come. Taking things any further with the lead singer would be bad for everyone’s bottom line.
 

“I’ve maybe got something cooking for tonight,” I said. It was a half-assed answer and I hoped Brax wouldn’t call me on it. I needed something to distract me from thoughts of Mallory’s sweet scent and the memory of how wet she got for me with just my slightest touch. God, what would she be like if I had her for the whole night?
 

“You get a hold of Colt?” Brax asked. He spun his empty glass around. I started getting thirsty myself. Tonight was all about business, no hard shit for me either.  But with the way my heart pounded, I was thinking about making an exception.
 

“I think he’s pretty booked all day. He’s got some new trainers coming in at the gym.”
 

The gym was the club’s other legitimate venture. Over a year ago, when we voted Colt in as president, I hadn’t dared to hope things could turn around so quickly. Before Colt came along, we were mired in the shit we inherited from a string of bad presidents and all the club’s ancient history that came before him. Shakedowns. Gun running. The kind of shit that kept it dangerous for everyone in the club. Colt was helping us change all of that. Now, we ran a state-of-the-art gym
and training center for MMA fighters down by the docks. Colt managed the day to day down there.
 

But
The Wolf Den
was my baby. I’d leveled our old clubhouse and all the memories I could of our time in the darkness. Now, the
Den
was shaping up to be a place the whole town could take pride in, just like the gym. It was critical for us if we wanted to move our club and this town fully into the light. It was all right there in front of us if we could keep our heads and take it. Getting involved with the help—if that’s what Mallory ended up being—was the last thing I should be thinking about.
 

“Check your phone, man,” Brax said. “Didn’t you get a text from him earlier?”
 

Narrowing my eyes at Brax, I got up and went behind the bar. I’d stashed my phone back there when I went out to help unload a new beer shipment earlier in the day. When I clicked it on, sure enough, I had a missed call and a text from Colt.
 

“Shit,” I muttered. “You could have told me the prez was trying to get a  hold of me.”
 

“I think I just did,” Brax said.
 

I read through the text. Trouble. Or at least it could be. Colt was on his way to the bar now and was bringing the rest of the membership with him. He wanted a quick meeting before we opened for business.
 

“You got any idea what this is about?” I waved my phone at Brax. He shook his head.
 

“I got the same message you did. Be here. Clear the back room. Full membership.”
 

I didn’t like it. Unscheduled meetings were almost never about anything good. Then again, maybe I was just gun-shy about how things went under the last regime. Before Colt came along, meetings like this usually had to do with some new criminal investigation or rival club shit. We were past that now. Thank God.
 

“Well, I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” I said. And fuck it, I thought, and grabbed a beer. It was just five. We opened in a half hour. I told Jeanette and the two bartenders to look sharp. Colt trusted me with his life and our business, but I wanted tonight to go perfectly while he was here.
 

“Relax,” Brax said. That damn Viking could practically read my mind. “We’ve thought of everything. It’s going to be a good night. Quit worrying about everything.”
 

I heard the rev of a Harley engine outside.  Colt and the rest of the crew had arrived.
 

***
 

Colt looked grim when he walked into the bar. His dark eyes looked almost black as he said hello to Jeanette and nodded toward Sonny and Lou, our new bartenders. They were both prospects and looking better and better for potential membership. We’d culled the herd when Colt took over and if we were going to survive, along with financial stability, we were going to need numbers. Soon.
 

“You got things under control out here for a little bit?” I called to Jeanette. We needed the back room.
 

Jeanette smiled and nodded. She was pert, pretty with short blonde hair and a pair of the deepest blue eyes I’d ever seen. Brax had a little bit of a crush on her and I hoped like hell he wouldn’t make a problem of it. Finding good, responsible help wasn’t easy. As he passed her, I saw him trail his fingers across her back and figured that ship might already have sailed. Jeannette’s face colored and her smile widened. Fuck. He had a long reputation for breaking the hearts of good girls like her. She was great at her job and we didn’t need the turnover on top of everything else that could go wrong. I was thinking of promoting her to head hostess even. Looks like I was going to have to have a talk with Brax soon.
 

The second I thought it, Mallory flashed in my mind again. If she showed up tonight, if her band impressed the rest of the members as much as they had me, I might need to remind myself of that little talk before anything else happened.
 

Colt slapped a hand at the center of my back as he walked by. “It’s good to see you,” he said. I had to agree. Over the last year, we’d both been busy as hell getting the gym and the bar off the ground. It didn’t leave us much time to hang out the way we should. But we both knew it was for the good and the future of the club. Turning these businesses into real money makers was all that mattered. Between the two of us, we held the financial future of every member of this club by the ball sack. I didn’t take that responsibility lightly.
 

We gathered around a long table in the back room we used strictly for club business. I was in the process of building a proper office for myself but for now, I
had shit stacked in the corner, including a small desk and computer. Colt gave me a look. I smiled and flipped him off.
 

“Give me a break,” I said. “It’s still taking me some time to get used to the idea of us being a corporate franchise. Catman didn’t exactly make us keep receipts, you know.”
 

Catman, our past president, kept us in the black using off-book tactics. Together, Colt and I ended that shit, but I was still getting used to the transition. White-collar shit wasn’t my strong suit. Leather and army fatigues were more my style.
 

Colt took his place at the head of the table and I took mine on his right side while the rest of the crew filed in. As sergeant at arms, Brax sat across from me. Filling out the rest of the table were Joker, E.J., Mac, and Tate. We’d lost three other guys during the bloody regime change. Necessary, but it left our numbers small. Recruiting was our next priority after we got the businesses firmly off the ground. While Colt was here, I had a mind to talk to him about Sonny and Lou.
 

“So what’s up?” I said, rapping my fist on the table to get the rest of the guys to quiet down. I still didn’t like the grim look on Colt’s face one bit.
 

“Maybe nothing,” Colt said. “Hopefully nothing. But there’s been some rumblings at the docks down by the gym. There’s some stuff I need to make sure everyone’s aware of.”
 

“Like?”
 

Colt ran a hand over his day-old stubble. He had a thick head of black hair and dark eyes to match. When he scowled like that, it made him look like a damn pirate. Chicks went crazy for it. He’d settled down now and finally found a good woman willing to put up with his sorry ass, but when we were kids, the guy had tail chasing him day and night.
 

“Like I said, it might be nothing, but it might be something. There was that shooting near
The Shires
last week. Shook Ricky and the rest of the bar owners up pretty bad. Last night, a couple of the businesses had their windows busted out.”
 

“Okay? I mean, but that’s not out of the ordinary for that part of town. Before we came in with the gym, the place wasn’t exactly thriving.”
 

“I know,” Colt said. “And I get it. But there might be a pattern starting to take shape. At least, that’s what I’m hearing.”
 

Colt got quiet. He didn’t have to remind me who his source was. He had an identical twin brother on the Lincolnshire, P.D. Colt’s brother Jase never won points for having family connected with the club, but he had our back and had occasion to prove that time and again.
 

But I didn’t like where this was going. “Look,” Colt continued. “We knew there was a risk of this. When we gave up the dirty shit and went clean, you gotta expect there might be a power vacuum down there for a while. Certain people were going to start thinking they could move in on territory we used to control.”
 

“Which people?” Tate said, but we all knew. Although we hadn’t been involved in an all-out club war in decades, the Devil’s Hawks M.C. had a pretty firm foothold in Detroit. Forty miles over the Michigan line maybe wasn’t far enough to keep them from trying to take a piece of Lincolnshire.
 

“I’m not saying it’s the Hawks behind this,” Colt said. “At least not yet. We’re gonna just have to watch and wait.”
 

“What’s going on, Colt?” I said. “There’s a reason Jase sat down with you on this one. What’s he know?”
 

Colt chewed on his bottom lip. I knew the line he walked bringing information from his brother to the table. There was a time that even the mention of Jase would have sparked mistrust. But the old days were gone. Everyone at this table knew exactly where Colt’s loyalties lie. He’d proven it in a big way not so long ago.
 

“He sees some fire power in the city that’s new.”
 

Shit. “And he’s hoping we might be able to figure out where it’s coming from.” That was a fine fucking line indeed. Club rule number one, protect the brotherhood at all costs. Club rule number two, we don’t rat. Not even against another club.
 

“Look, there’s no reason to assume anything. But we watch our backs and keep an eye out. That’s all I’m saying. If we get solid information that the Hawks or some other outfit is trying to move in on Lincolnshire, then we’re at this table having a different conversation. Everyone clear on that?”
 

Everyone at the table rapped their knuckles against the wood in assent. I met Colt’s eyes and did the same. Still, a cold, hard pit formed in my stomach. Things had finally settled down around here. We were getting a solid foothold on a real,
legit future. I’d maybe been a fool to think things would stay calm as long as they had.
 

Colt’s face broke into a wide smile. But it didn’t reach his eyes and I knew him better than anyone else in the room. He was worried. Really worried.
 

The meeting broke up with a soft knock on the door. Colt yelled out and Jeanette poked her head in.
 

“I’m really sorry to interrupt.” The blush on her face deepened when Brax turned toward her. I gave him a sharp kick under the table that made him grunt. “That band you asked to audition? They just showed up. Are you ready for them?”
 

My heart flipped and all the blood in my body seemed to rush straight down to my dick. Apparently I had no fucking cause to give Brax an ounce of shit.
 

Mallory. She was here. She was just outside that door. Something must have shown on my face because I caught Colt’s eyes. He cocked his head and drew his brows together. Yeah, fuck. No way I was gonna get through the next half hour without him knowing exactly what was on my mind when I saw Mallory Rhodes again.
 

“Tell them to go ahead and set up,” I said. I checked the wall clock. The bar was open and I could hear the hum of activity outside.  The meeting had run far longer than I’d expected. I got up and pulled back the blinds.
 

“Looks like we might get a decent crowd tonight,” I said. “It’s been like this for the past three weekends.”
 

My heart settled a little. We hadn’t even had our hard launch grand opening. Right now, we were just running on word of mouth as we tweaked the menus, the specials, and now the weekend entertainment.
 

“That’s good news,” Colt said. “Best damn news I’ve heard all day, actually.”
 

Brax was next to me and thumped me on the back. He beamed just like a little kid. Like a giant, Nordic little kid. His hopes were as wrapped up in this place as mine were. Other than Colt, I’d known him the longest since joining the club. We were true brothers and it did my heart good to see him smile like that. In a lot of ways, he’d had to take on the heaviest load to usher in our new leadership. Two members were in the ground because of him. There’d been no other choice. Colt’s life had been on the line. Still, taking a man’s life takes a toll. Brax had done it twice. He deserved something good more than anyone.