"I need a drink," Fallon declared, moving behind the bar as a chorus of bikes made their way down the street.
It was a sound that never used to phase us. Until the Vultures moved into town, making it impossible to tell if it was our brothers or our rivals coming in our direction. So we all stiffened until we heard them pull up and park outside, and heard the chorus of familiar voices as they made their way inside.
"Fallon's drinking," Sugar declared. "Was my daughter just here?" he asked, smirking.
"Don't ask," Fallon said, taking a shot.
To that, Sugar let out a chuckle as he moved to sit down in the space Hope had vacated before. "Any idea what's on the docket for tonight?" he asked. "Aside from them," he added, waving at the new prospects.
"What it's always about," Fallon grumbled. "That woman."
"What woman is that?" Dezi asked. "One that isn't related to the club for a change, I hope."
"She's not related," Cash confirmed.
"But you can't fuck her anyway," Fallon added.
"And we're going to pretend he's saying that just because she's a rival," Seth said, one of the few of us who pushed Fallon's buttons. "And not for any other possible reason," he added, smirking.
"Got the hots for your rival, huh?" Dezi asked.
"Don't make me regret going to bat for you," Fallon shot back.
"How is she a rival?" Cary asked, looking over at Cash.
"She runs another MC in town. And she stole a sizable chunk of our business when they moved into town. That's what that club does. Comes in and steals someone else's shit."
"Female MC president," Dezi mused. "Maybe I joined the wrong club."
"If you think that, get the fuck out now," Fallon demanded, pointing toward the door.
"What are we fighting about now?" Reign, our president, or co-president, I wasn't exactly sure how the power dynamic worked with him and Fallon at the moment, asked as he moved inside.
"Vultures," Seth supplied. "What else?"
That was fair enough. Most of the discord in the area lately stemmed from our rival club. Because they'd stolen business. Because they'd stepped on our toes. And, let's face it, because Fallon and Danny—the Vultures' president—seemed to get their rocks off by snapping at each other.
After some shit went down a while back, the club had decided not to swoop in and annihilate the entire rival club. Because in doing a little research, we'd learned just how big the Vultures club was, how many chapters there were, how much we would be outnumbered if they chose to come to town for revenge.
It had to have been humbling for Reign to make that decision, knowing that while we were a much larger club now than we had been years before, that we still paled in comparison to other organizations.
So he'd been working with his son in changing that.
There had been a new chapter opened up in Florida. There were talks about starting new ones in other big port areas. California, New York, Georgia, and Washington state were all in the running, just waiting for Reign to find men he trusted to open new chapters.
And he'd been steadily adding to our numbers. In the coming years, more of the legacies—the sons of current club members—would be growing up like myself, Fallon, Finn, Niro, and Seth had already done. But they didn't want to wait years. So they were adding on now.
Rowe.
Cary.
Dezi.
They were just the start.
More were going to be coming if we wanted to stand a chance against the larger Vultures organization should they decide to make a move against us.
"Yeah," Reign said, sighing. "I heard about you getting into some shit with their members last weekend," he said, giving his son a hard look.
"It wasn't 'some shit,'" Fallon insisted, putting down his drink, moving out from behind the bar. "It was a... discussion."
"That very nearly came to blows," Reign said. "What? Did you think I wouldn't hear? You were at Chaz's for fuck's sake," he said, referencing the local bar that was run by a family of loan sharks who we'd always been allies with. "I got a call from Ryan Mallick himself about it. I don't give a shit who you get into fights with. But we don't know if Danny would take that as an offense or not, so until we know that, learn to fucking control yourself."
"They were provoking," Niro said, moving in behind Reign. "Don't know if it was because they wanted us to make a move against them, or just because they're assholes, but they were itching for a fight," he told Reign as he moved inside, nodding at the new prospects.
"Might be hard for you all, but try to be the bigger men then. At least until we can figure out what Danny is up to now," Reign said, shrugging. "And while we're on that topic, is everyone here?" he asked as the OG members started moving inside.
It was right then I realized the clubhouse was getting a bit smaller as our numbers kept growing. Reign had built on several times over the years. It looked like Fallon would need to do the same eventually.
"Looks like it," my father said in that rumbling voice of his, moving over toward me.
"Alright. Let's talk about the schedule," Reign said, waving toward Fallon, giving him the power he was going to hand over fully one of these days.
"Right. We're on a rotation. Those on guard shift here, and those on the lookout at the Vultures compound. We also have a drop this week. Wolf, Pagan, Edison, Niro, and Mal, I have you on that..."
"Fall, mind if I give my spot to Finn this once?" I asked, watching as his brows raised. Because no one turned down a drop. There was excitement and uncertainty about being on the road, about dealing with strangers, about evading the law. Everyone would pick it over babysitting the Vultures, or walking the Henchmen grounds.
"You sure?" he asked.
"Yeah."
"Alright. Suit yourself. You want the mornings then, right?" he asked, knowing I was an early riser like my old man.
"Yeah, that would be good," I agreed, even if the reason I wanted morning shift had nothing to do with liking to wake up early, and more to do with the fact that I wanted my nights free to check on Holly.
After that, it was more shit about the Vultures, about what action everyone had seen going on around there.
Then everyone got some drinks, ordered some food.
I was in the middle of talking to Cary about the time he served when my phone started ringing. And since all my biker brothers were here, and I wouldn't be anyone else's emergency contact, I reached for it just to silence it, figuring it was some bullshit robocall.
But then I looked at the screen.
Holly.
I'd never swiped to answer a call so fast in all my life.
"Are you okay?" I asked, holding a finger up to Cary who shrugged.
"Hey, ah, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have called," she said, getting ready to hang up.
"No. Wait. What's going on?"
"It's probably nothing," she insisted.
"But?" I asked.
"But there's just... there's this guy," she said, sounding a mix of confused and scared.
"What guy? What's he doing?"