"Haven't seen his ugly mug in a days. No one in his club has. Lucas took the chair last night, club vote." I looked over at Tick. Presidents didn't just disappear, and a club sure as fuck didn't vote away his chair after only two days.
"Lucas just took over? Just like that?"
Marcus spit on the ground. "Not our circus. I need you both to ride with me and Charlie to meet Lucas."
"Once this meeting's over, we're done." Tick pointed a finger at Marcus.
"You'll get your vote. How's that girl of yours?" His lips twisted to the side of his face when he smiled.
"Doing just fine." Tick had set her up in his ma's house. The girls' weekend ended quickly when he called her to ask her to stay with Massy. Massy didn't take very kindly to having a babysitter, but in the end she stayed put. Tick knew Massy could handle her own, and would be fine at their house, but he also knew she had an itch to go find Lucy and drag her home. He couldn't risk having her out playing hero.
"And your short haired girl?" He waggled his eyebrows. I ignored the question and swung at the bag again, cursing at the tenderness starting to settle into my knuckles. "Ah, that good. Pussy dried up, did it?" We heard his laugh as he walked away. Tick jumped on my back, stopping me from charging that prick down.
"Knock it off. Just another day."
"Then what?" I shook his ass off me.
"Then we go up north, start that bike shop."
"Right, just us two." I tore off the wrap covering my hand, blood soaked the wrap on my right hand.
"No, us four. I told you, I saw the bus she got her ticket for. Once this is done, we go get her ass."
"She made her choice," I said. After he dropped her at the bus station he went on and on about this bike shop he saw up near Massy's grandma's place for sale. I was with him about his plan for the bike shop, that made good sense for guys like us, but then he started in on first swinging by Lucy.
Massy had jumped all over me when I wouldn't hear him out, telling me Lucy loved me and was just scared. When I turned my glare on her, she finally backed down, but didn't count herself out. Tick started up where she left off until I flicked him off and went to bed.
Not that I slept. Fuck, not a blink of sleep hit me since that pixie got on that bus.
"Right." Tick followed me out into the clubhouse. I needed a shower, and the one in my room would do just fine. "So if that's the case, how about I send Brandy to your room. She's been licking her lips since you walked in this morning, just waiting to get your cock in her mouth."
I stopped short, looking over at the girl he was referring to. A new girl. Long red curly hair, and a pretty hot body. Her eyes roamed over my sweaty body, and sure enough, her tongue darted out licking her lips.
"How's about it? She'll be waiting for you when you get out of your shower." Tick started to walk over to her. I knew it was bluff, knew he was testing me.
"Fuck off," I growled, and stormed off. No longer feeling like a run, I slammed the door behind me and locked it. I didn't need any surprise visitors creeping in while I washed my sweaty ass.
***
Riding into Disciples territory made me uneasy. Having Marcus being the one leading us only made it worse. I reminded myself this was the last thing I had to do, then I'd be free. Whatever that meant now. Before, it meant free to make a life with Lucy. Now, I just wanted to crawl into a cave and forget the world outside even existed.
Fuck. Pretty soon I'll be eating ice cream out of the carton and crying to Hallmark commercials.
We were brought to the back room. Passing the bar where I first saw Lucy soured my mood even further. Everywhere I looked in that clubhouse I saw her, felt her presence. I should have gotten her out of there faster.
Lucas sat in Jayson's chair at the helm of their table. Julio stood sipping a drink in his tailor made suit. "Mason, Tick. Hello, my friends." He tipped his glass to us. "I hope you aren't angry about what happened. Carmella wouldn't stop jabbering on and on about getting rid of Bernardo. So, I killed two birds with one stone. I'm sorry I didn't give you all of the information, but I thought having you in the dark would be best. So as not to tip off Carmella. You understand." He frowned.
"Sure." I nodded, but I didn't understand anything. I didn't give a shit who killed how and why, I just wanted to be done with the mess. "I get it. No problem."
"Good. Then let's get started. We are all here, yes?" he asked Lucas.
"Everyone who matters." Lucas nodded.
"Where's your VP?" Marcus asked.
"Don't have one yet. Still working out everyone's loyalties." Lucas leaned back in his chair. "Some of the guys didn't take nicely to my opening up the gates to the whorehouse and letting out the women. A handful of the girls stayed, on their own accord. Been promised good wages and a decent living. But the cost of it comes out of the clubs cut of the profit, so some of the guys are a bit pissed. Had to clean house a little."
"These women were severely abused under Jayson's ruling." Julio waved his glass in the air, nearly spilling some of his drink. "Lucas made them good offers. The ones who left have been given enough money to make their way home. Or wherever they want to go."
"You funded this?" I couldn't help but ask. Why would Julio give a shit about some whores in the back of a MC clubhouse?
"Ah, no." He laughed. "I'm not that generous, much to my mama's dismay. No, it was taken from your cut of the last run."
Marcus stiffened, but didn't outright react. "Our cut? Why?"
"I don't like you." Julio shrugged. Marcus's fists closed, but still he remained quiet.
"We only had you here as a courtesy." Lucas leaned forward, his fingers steeped. "This is my club now. I don't want the Reapers. Separate clubs. We stay out of your way and you stay out of ours."
"What about the deal we made with Bernardo?" Marcus slapped his hand on the table.
"Died with Bernardo." Lucas smiled. "You get to keep your club, your territory, but the cartel deal, that stays here. Now, if you'd rather go to war, blow up each other's houses, tear apart our clubs, that's fine, but the cartel deal stays here."
Marcus looked back at me, like I should do something. What did he want me to do? I didn't give a shit what happened now. The club going back to how it was in the beginning? Shit, sounded just fine to me. If he wanted guts and glory, he picked the wrong guy to bring to the meeting. Once look over at Tick and I knew he had the same mindset as me.
"This is bullshit. You overthrow your president and go back on deals made?"
"I didn't overthrow anything. Jayson walked out on this club. That asshole is crazed, mumbling to himself over the past few days. He's obsessed with finding Lucy, can't see straight or think straight. When he walked out of here two days ago, everyone in the bar heard him say he didn't give a shit about the club, he just needed get his hands around that girl's neck."
"He was probably drunk." Marcus snorted. My hands gripped my knees hard. If he was missing, he could have trailed Lucy.
"Probably. Doesn't change what he said, or that he went off the grid the next day. Won't answer his cell. Abandoned his chair." Lucas grinned. The man may have had a soft spot for Lucy, helping her the way he did, but he was all MC in that room. He was a lifer, not like me. I lost the hunger, probably long before Lucy walked into my life. But it took meeting her to see there was a life worth having outside the club.
"He didn't abandon nothing," Marcus yelled. "If he walks back in here, he's got the chair."
"He's not going to be doing that." Lucas narrowed his eyes. "Unless you know something we don't."
"He aint dead. He's over in Springgrove holed up with that Lucy bitch." My full attention snapped to Marcus. "He grabbed hold of her two days ago."
"How the fuck do you know that?" I pounced on him, grabbing his cut and pulling backward. His chair flew out from under him, his back bounced off the floor.
"Fuck." He coughed.
"How do you know where he is, where she is?" I pulled my pistol from my back pocket, cocked it, and aimed it between his eyes.
"You were going to leave the club!" He put his hands in front of his face, like that would stop my bullet from blowing out his brains. "He knew Lucas was up to something. When Bernardo was killed he reached out. I didn't know their plans. Fuck." He winced as my knee pressed into his stomach. "He took her, she's just bait, Mason."