“Okay,” Sara said, “you’re not telling me something. How did you talk to him like that?”
I sighed and decided to tell her. Might as well. She’d figure it out eventually. “Larkin is my father.”
She cocked her head. “Seriously? The president?”
“Yeah, well, he’s my adopted father.”
“Holy crap,” she said. “You’re the president’s daughter.”
“Yeah,” I said, sighing, “sure am.” I sipped my drink, looking down at the bar.
“That’s really cool,” she said. “Guess that explains why you get away with everything.”
“Sure does.”
Sometimes I wished I wouldn’t get away with it. Sometimes I wished someone would put me in my place. I glanced up at Clutch again, caught him looking again, and watched as he quickly looked away.
Sometimes I wished Clutch would get up off his ass, come over to me, and throw me to the floor. His strong arms could rip off my clothes with ease, and I’d moan as he slowly pressed his thick cock between my legs.
But that would never happen. For one, he was way off-limits, as was every guy in the Demons MC. And for seconds, he was one of the biggest assholes in the whole club, a real playboy. He wouldn’t risk getting his balls cut off over me since he had a new girl practically every other night.
“Must be nice,” Sara said.
“Yeah, sure is.”
I frowned down at my drink and thought about all the reasons that it really wasn’t.
A few hours later, most of the place had cleared out. Sara was gone, and I didn’t much expect to see her again. She just didn’t seem like that kind of girl. I was sitting in Larkin’s office in the back of the clubhouse.
Larkin was a hard man. He was cold and calculating, and he had one of the most intense and serious looks you could ever imagine. But underneath that exterior, Larkin was a good man and had always done right by me. He did his best to raise me and to protect me, and he’d even tried to keep me away from the Demons at one point.
That didn’t last very long, of course. I was back in the clubhouse within a week.
“I hear you’ve been talking to that new girl,” he said to me.
I shrugged. “She’s nice.”
“I hear she’s been talking about the war.”
“Hard not to, since everyone else is.”
He gave me a look. “Janine. Be careful. We don’t know her yet.”
I sighed, smiling. “Come on Dad, you know me. I’m a good judge of character. I told you Caralee would be worth keeping around, didn’t I?”
He grunted. “Yeah. That worked out fine. Still, be careful what you tell her.”
“I haven’t told her anything,” I said. “Actually, I told her not to talk about it.”
“Good.” He leaned back in his chair, and I could see the stress clear as day on his face. “You heard about the shipment?”
“Sara mentioned it, sure.”
“That’s a real pain in the ass,” he said. “A real pain. This war is getting worse and worse every day.”
“What happened?”
“Mezcals squeezing our drug supply from the south; that’s all,” he said. “Not something we didn’t expect. Still inconvenient.”
The Demons were involved in all kinds of business transactions. They owned a few real businesses, the clubhouse bar included, but for the most part they dealt in drugs and guns. They bought the drugs from South America in bulk and distributed to dealers throughout the Austin area. It was a good business and was one of the big reasons the Demons were able to grow as large and as strong as they had.
Part of that business was built on a good working relationship with the Mexican gangs, especially the Mezcals. But the past few weeks had shown that the Mezcals were done playing nice and had officially taken the side of the Snake Spit MC.
“What are you going to do?” I asked him.
He rubbed his temples. “Sorry. Don’t worry about it. I shouldn’t have mentioned it.”
“You know you can tell me these things, Dad.”
“I know, honey,” he said, “but this isn’t for you to worry about.”
“Club business,” I said, smiling.
“Yeah,” he grunted, grinning. “Club business.”
I stood up, stretching. “Tell me what the plan is for the war, at least,” I said.
“We got some ideas,” he said slowly. “Some stuff I’ll talk to you about soon. Important stuff.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Why not tell me now?”
“It’s not finalized, and I don’t want to lay it on you just yet.”