Brain let Duke back in, and he prowled to her, pulled her out of the chair, and wrapped his arms around her. The rest of the room filed out, and Duke collapsed into a chair with Gen in his lap.
“I need some time to pull myself together, Beautiful. Brain will stay outside the door, and will have my back while I recharge. I need a short nap, can you lay with me?”
“Yeah, but I have questions.”
“And I’ll have answers, but three changes and then powering the binding drained me. Twenty minute nap and I’ll be good. Promise.”
* * * *
When Duke awakened, he did indeed seem to be back to normal.
He sat up, put his boots on, and said, “Something’s wrong. Can you open the door and let Brain in, please?”
She opened the door to see Brain leaned against the wall, working at his phablet. When he looked up, his eyes left no doubt something was wrong.
He looked at her a few seconds and asked, “You holding it together okay?”
“I think so.”
Brain nodded and walked into the room, “We need to get back to the compound. Duchess needs to be either here, her brother’s house, or the compound.”
“I can go home, if there’s something ya’ll need to do.”
Duke looked at her, back to Brain. “Status update?”
“Two of the girls were beaten. Doc’s taking care of them. Bash and Gonzo recognized the smell of the attackers in the room. All family has been ordered on lockdown.”
Shaking his head, Duke muttered, “Knew this was going to cause problems.” He looked at Gen. “Brain’s right about where you need to be. Safest place in the city is where you’re sittin’ now, but I’d prefer you at your brother’s house or the compound. Your choice, Beautiful.”
* * * *
Duke drove them all to the compound in her car, and surprised her by driving into the garage, following Brain’s instructions to a parking space. Gen thought it funny the club had assigned parking, but deemed it an inappropriate time to laugh about it.
The men were talking in code, trying to keep her from figuring out what this other ‘income stream’ was, but she had a sinking feeling she knew. After all, there were only so many money-making ventures a bunch of bikers could go into, and she’d been assured they didn’t do anything involving drugs, nor were they involved in the illegal gun trade. That pretty much only left prostitution or something else involving sex.
And, he’d as much as told her it was something he felt he needed to be upfront with her over. Oddly enough, she wasn’t ticked at him for keeping it from her, though she was pretty pissed they were using women this way.
Gen went to get out of the car when Duke parked, but he touched her forearm and she stopped. “Some of the wives and girlfriends know the score, others don’t, so the women never talk about club business amongst themselves. Still, they’re gonna assume you know, so if you don’t want to know, you may have to stop them from talking. None’ll tell you up front, but may say something as an aside they’ll expect you to understand.” He glanced at Brain in the backseat, then looked back to her. “You find out something you’re pissed about, keep it to yourself and take it out on me in private when I get back. Okay?”
“I think I’ve figured it out from hearing the two of you talk, and yeah, I think I’m pissed, but I’ll wait and hear you out when you have time. I know you don’t now.”
He nodded. “Fair enough. As my woman, you’ll eventually be expected to take a leadership role amongst the other women. We’ve brought food in from a bunch of restaurants, if you want to jump in and organize how the tables are put together for a buffet style meal, no one will stop you. If you’d rather let the women who’ve already been doing it handle it, that’s fine, too. My guess is you’ll be happiest behind the bar, but you’re gonna have to find your own place.”
Brain spoke from the back seat. “If someone gets in your face, don’t back down, but it might be good not to take a swing at someone unless they swing first.”
Gen looked at him, insulted he’d think she’d handle conflict with her fists, but he smiled and said, “You throat-punched our president, and we’ve all seen the video of you taking the asshole down in the bar. Odds are, most of the women will give respect right off the bat, but there are two who may try to push you into a fight. I’m just about positive neither will throw the first punch, but they’ll do their damnedest to get you to throw one so they’ll have an excuse to throw the next.”
The clubhouse at first seemed to be in chaos, but Gen soon learned it was organized chaos. Some of the women were indeed handling the food, others had the small kids in a side room organizing little-kid activities. The older kids were in another room playing video games or tapping away at tablets or cellphones.