Duke(74)

Duke shook his head and reached for his phone. “I’ll ask Bash to tell them to leave you alone about it.”

“No, can’t we just go? I have my boots on, we can go through the garage to your bike and go for a ride, right?”

He smiled as he typed on his phone, and then pulled Gen to her feet and into his arms. “No, Beautiful. You have to face them eventually, it may as well be now.”

He walked towards the door but she held onto his arm, and when he stopped and turned to look at her, she asked, “What’s the plan for the evening?”

“I was kind of hoping you’d be okay to hang out here, spend some time with my brothers, and maybe spend the night? I know it isn’t a top of the line mattress with fancy sheets, but I’d like to see you wake up in my bed tomorrow morning, watch you eat breakfast with the rest of us, maybe hang out and just have a lazy morning? You said you don’t have to be anywhere until two tomorrow, right?”

“That’s my first appointment, but I have a few hours of research to do. If Brain can let me borrow a laptop I can log into my computer at the office and still hang out with ya’ll.

He opened the door and walked her through it. “Shouldn’t be a problem.”

Gen followed Duke to one of the sofas and let him pull her down beside him as she nestled into him. He put his feet on a coffee table, but hers wouldn’t reach, so she propped her legs on his thighs. She assumed the kiss to the top of her head meant he approved.

She stayed quiet as she listened to the men talk and cut up, and watched a drinking contest across the room that had something to do with the reality show they were watching.

Brain’s voice came through a speaker in the room, sounding urgent. “McPherson’s pulling in.”

Duke stood and went to the door, pointing at Gen and saying, “Stay put. Don’t get up unless a police officer tells you to, and if they talk to you, follow their instructions. Got it?”

Gen nodded, and Duke was at the door and out of it. The large television showed a close up of him walking towards Mike McPherson — Gen’s ex-boyfriend — and four uniformed officers.

“What can I do for you Detective, Officers?”

“We need to ask you some questions. Either we can come into your clubhouse and ask them, or we’ll be more than happy to escort all of the Rolling Thunder members downtown for questioning.

Duke seemed totally relaxed, but Gen thought she might throw up just watching it play out. “You’re welcome into the front room. Your invitation goes no farther.”

Several members inside had taken their weapons to a safe in a wall, put them in, and returned to their seats. She turned to Bash and quietly said, “I have mine, is that okay?”

He nodded. “You’re legal, they aren’t. No need to sweat anything, Duchess. They won’t even notice you’re here.”

She wanted to argue with him, but didn’t.

The television went back to the reality program, though muted, a few seconds before Duke walked in the door with the officers. As soon as they were in, the officers walked to the men who’d put their guns away, stood them up, leaned them over something, and frisked them.

Gen wanted to be pissed off on their behalf, but tried to fade into the sofa, hoping Mike wouldn’t notice her.

“Most of the members of two of your rivals are out of commission today. A few are in the hospital, refusing to talk about how they got their faces beat in, kidney’s beat to hell and back, ribs cracked, and a variety of assorted broken bones.”

“Yeah,” Duke said. “I heard something about that. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of guys.”

Mike nodded. “Mind letting us take a look at your hands?”

Duke put his hands in his pocket. “You got a warrant?”

“I was hoping we could do this the easy way.”

“You know how this works, Detective. You play nice with us, we play nice with you. You come in with an invitation and choose to frisk my men? I’m not in a mood to be all sociable and shit.”

“I get a warrant, it’s probably going to be for more than just checking your hands.”

“We don’t have anything to hide, Detective. I keep hoping you’ll figure it out, leave us the hell alone, but I’m beginning to wonder if this isn’t personal. Did one of my men do something to piss you off? Because, if so, let’s work that out, make appropriate apologies and put it behind us.”

The door opened and another man in dress pants, dress shirt, and tie walked in. Gen wasn’t sure, but thought he might be a cop, too. Duke’s smile at first made her think she was mistaken, but he held his hand out and said, “Detective Johnson, nice to see you.”