“Not putting my life on hold again. I know what I want. Grab Hound. Let’s pay our buddy Ollie a visit.”
East shakes his head and puts the blunt out. He goes to hand it to me, but I shake my head.
“Leave it for next time.”
I go on out to climb on my Road King with East and Hound behind me. Ollie is no friend, but we have an understanding. He can sell his pills long as he doesn’t deal to my men or kids. If anyone has a line on this Cloud Nine, it’s him.
I ride up to the gate and Ollie’s man gives me a chin lift.
“Boss expecting you?”
“Nope.”
The dumbfuck speaks into his walkie talkie, “Got some bastards here to see you.”
“Put’em through,” Ollie’s gruff voice rings out.
He knows we’re an enemy he doesn’t need. We ride through the maze of crushed cars and piles of scrap metal, weaving through the wreckage and debris until we reach his trailer in the back.
Ollie sits in his broken-down recliner weighing a good three fifty. Bet he’s not seen his dick since he hit puberty. A shotgun propped up next to him and a pistol in his lap. You don’t sell drugs unless you’re willing to pay the costs. Spitting a wad of tobacco onto the cement porch, he shifts to sit straighter and taller. “What brings you boys by? You come to scrap them scooters?”
Hound growls.
“We still good on our agreement?”
“Not sold to your men or any school kids if that’s what you’re asking.”
“What about Cloud Nine? You been running that?”
“Nope.”
“You know who’s bringing it in? Gotta be bad for your bottom line having that competition.”
His beady eyes narrow. “I don’t like your tone.”
“Yeah, and I just plain ol’ don’t like you, but I tolerate your presence.”
“We got a problem between us?”
“Not as long as you remember our arrangement. You start pushing Cloud Nine then I’ll burn this shit hole you call home to the ground with you in it. Got me?”
“Don’t know shit all about no Cloud Nine. I hear something I’ll give you a ring.”
“You do that.”
“Now if that concludes are business get the fuck off my property. Don’t bode well for business you sniffing around my lot.”
“Let’s go,” I tell Hound and East. We ride out. East veers off to go home. Hound stays with me till we get to the Devil’s Playground. “Prospect,” I boom as I walk through the door.
“Yeah, Prez?”
“Time to prove your worth. Head to the Kitty Kat and talk to the girls. Find out what they know about the dead girl and where she was scoring. I want names. Get with Viking. I want a pop-up drug test done on every single one of them. Any of them try to get out of it tell them to pack their shit and get gone. And, Rio?”
“What?”
“You aren’t there to stare at no tits and ass. You fuck this up and you’re good as dead.”
“You can count on me.”
“Good that’s what I like to hear, son. Now get the lead out.”
Chapter Three
I finish running my flat iron through my hair, then touch up my makeup. I sense his presence and glance to the doorway through the mirror.
“You cut your hair?”
“You like it?”
“Looks damn good on you, babe, but hell you’d look fit as fuck no matter what you do.”
“Stop sucking up. It’s not getting you anywhere.”
“You sure you can’t cancel,” his gruff tone sends the good kinda shiver up my spine and back down it.
“Pam went to a lot of trouble putting this night together. She’s finally being nice to me. I’m not getting on her bad side again and dealing with her cold shoulder bitch routine for another twenty years.”
“Get that, Lex. C’mere.”
“I need to get dressed. If I come there, you’re going to kiss me, and we both know that it won’t end there.”
“Where you think it’ll end?” he grins knowing damn good and well where it ends.
“Exactly where you’d keep me if I’d allow it.”
“What can I say? I’m addicted to your pussy.”
“That all you keep me around for?”
“Like that mouth. No love that mouth. Them tits. That ass. My woman has it all, but most of all I love the way you love me, Lex.”
“Why you gotta get all sweet on me?” I take the two steps it takes to reach him. “Guess I’ll be late, huh?”
“Yup. Kiss me,” he orders, and I comply.
I touch my lips to his. James glides the tip of his tongue along the seam of my mouth demanding entrance. I give in even though I know he’s going to ruin my makeup and my hair. It’ll be worth it. My man always satisfies me, so I’m thrown off my game when he’s the first to break away.
“Thank you. Now go get ready.”
“Seriously?”
He licks his bottom lip rolling it inward. “Mhmm. Go on and get all worked up watching them strippers or whatever it is Pam has going on. Then when you’re ready, you call me, and I’ll fuck you.”
“You know most male strippers are gay and besides, you have something they don’t.”
“And what’s that?”
“My heart. Your ink on my skin. And...” I trail off and bring his hand to my stomach. His eyes go big and round. “I found out something today.”
“What’s that,” he croaks.
“Sooo, I thought I was going to wait to tell you, but I got to talking with the girls at the salon today and planning our wedding around my period came up. Then it hit me. Honey, I should’ve started last week. I didn’t. So one of the girls went and got me a test. I took it.”
“And?”
“Guess your swimmers and my eggs like each other as much as we do. I’m pregnant.”
“Fuck,” he mutters and a tear forms in the crease of his right eye. “You being real with me?”
“I wouldn’t fuck with you, not about this.”
He nods and tucks my head into his chest, embracing me tight enough to cut off my airway.
“Can’t breathe, James.”
He eases up. “You tell anyone else yet?”
“No. Wanted you to be the first to know.”
“Good. Keep it that way for now. You can tell Wylla Mae if you think she can keep it to herself.”
“What’s going on?”
“Nothing for you to be worried about. Club business.”
“Must be something if you don’t want me announcing this pregnancy. I can’t live with secrets, James. I won’t do a repeat of the past twenty years. There’s always something or someone coming between us.”
“This is different. Less you know the better but there’s some trouble with the Dry Ridge Sinners moving back in with Cloud Nine.”
“Drugs?”
“Yeah. I’m trying to get to the bottom of shit before it gets out of hand. Been losing dancers at the Kitty Kat to that demon. This last one left two kids with only the grandma to raise’m.”