Part 26 (1/2)

”You'd probably make s.h.i.+t money there. You're not nice enough to work the bar or any of the tables. The only thing you could do is cook, and we already know you don't do that,” Loki returned.

I looked at Loki and winked at him. ”Cleo's a nice man. You just have to appeal to his sense of interest.”

Trance, who'd been quiet up until now, snorted. ”I'm not sure that's the way most people work. I, of course, am a people person. Day in and day out I make an effort to at least appear like I care. That's the problem with Cleo-Patrick. If he's not interested, he's not going to try. Cleo-Patrick doesn't care enough about other people to waste his effort.”

I turned to Cleo. ”Why do they call you Cleo-Patrick?”

He rolled his eyes down to mine. ”That's just a nickname I got when I first entered the club. They said I resembled an Egyptian pharaoh or some s.h.i.+t, and started calling me Cleo-Patrick as opposed to Cleopatra. Name stuck, but I wasn't answering to Cleo-Patrick, so they shortened it to Cleo. Cleo I can handle.”

I giggled. ”That's cute.”

He squeezed my waist. ”I'm not cute.”

”Of course you're not,” I lied.

Cleo ”Silas didn't sound like he was going to let you quit work, though, from what he told me.” Tunnel said. ”What he made it sound like was that he had plans in motion, and that you were supposed to go to your a.s.signed s.h.i.+ft like normal.”

”I'm not going back to that f.u.c.ked up place,” Cleo said darkly.

”No, listen. If you do go back, you pretend everything is normal.” Tunnel said waving his hand in the air. ”Just think about you being on the inside; you'll be right there, privy to all that goes on. Alonzo will slip, I'm sure of it. You'll be there to catch it. There won't be a better opportunity to get some ears in there, either.”

Loki concurred, ”Yeah, that'd work really well. I have some new toys we can throw in his office. Just got them from Jack and Max.”

Jack and Max were two of the founding members of Free.

Free was a custom bike repair/motorcycle design shop in Kilgore, Texas.

Sam was the owner of the shop and the president of that chapter of the Dixie Wardens..

He was the brother of Sebastian and son of Silas from our motorcycle club.

Apparently, the two brothers hadn't even known about each other until just a few years ago.

I'd been in the Air Force at the time, so I wasn't as in the know to some s.h.i.+t, such as how they were all lovey dovey all of a sudden, as the others were.

However, I did know that Jack and Max's s.h.i.+t was quality, and that whatever they'd have, would work perfectly.

”Well, I guess we'll be going then. I'll run by there on the way home, and then go from there. You ready?” I asked Rue.

She looked at me and nodded. ”Yep, just let me go say bye to Audrey.”

I nodded and Rue got up to leave.

We all watched her go before we moved on to another hard topic.

The rape of a member's sister.

”You okay?” I asked once the door closed.

Tunnel, the one I'd been speaking to, looked up, and I could see the barely contained fury that lit his eyes. ”No.”

I understood that. Or at least tried to.

Nothing beyond a few broken hearts had happened to any of my sisters.

I don't even know what I'd do if I found out that one of them had been violated in such a way as Tunnel's had been.

”The DNA, what little of it there was, was sent through the police database early this morning. There weren't any matches,” Loki informed us.

I had a feeling that Tunnel already knew that; which happened to only add to his bad mood.

And who could blame him?

”I know, just f.u.c.k. She had no physical description of the man. She was in the dark, and didn't see a G.o.dd.a.m.ned thing. That f.u.c.king hospital is about to hear it, too. I'm so f.u.c.king mad that they make their 'valued' employees walk that far away in the G.o.dd.a.m.ned dark,” he growled, throwing his hands up in frustration. ”Then she told me what she did today, and, just f.u.c.k!”

His yell reverberated through the night.

I silently agreed.

The night I found Rue in the parking lot, I could've just as easily been someone else.

I could've had her before she even realized something was wrong.

Then my stomach started to knot.

”That could've been her,” I said aloud, but not meaning to.

”That's something else I wanted to talk to you about,” Loki said quietly. ”That's why I invited myself over. Audrey said something to me today. Something you're not going to like.”

I closed my eyes and waited, knowing down deep that it was going to be bad.

”Audrey said today while she confirmed her statement that the man said something,” Loki said quietly as he watched the door where Rue had disappeared earlier. ”Audrey and Rue were seen together the day it'd happened. Audrey was a message...to Rue.”

The men surrounding me stayed silent as I processed what was said.

”She got punished for being friends with Rue,” I stated softly.

Tunnel's face was set in stone, and Loki's was just as hard as he nodded his head in confirmation. ”Yeah.”

I took a long, deep breath. ”Don't let Rue find out. That'd gut her.”