Zane puts both his hands up. “Look, I’m not shuttin’ Vixens down. Y’all know O’ would castrate me if I ever tried to tell her how to run her business but, I didn’t just come here to tell y’all about our contract with the Steeles. I wanted to give y’all a heads up. I’m debating pullin’ Chaz from Vegas and sending him to Mexico. Amara needs a solid VP, and I think he’d be a good choice. I spoke to Damon about it briefly and he has no problem with it. Nothing is solid yet, ‘cause y’all know how much of a wildcard Chaz can be.”
Furrowing my brows, I’m the first one to speak. “Everything cool with him?”
Zane nods. “Yeah, everything is fine. It’ll be easier if he’s helping Amara with her charter,” his tone drops to something a bit more serious, so I pick up on his que and know not to irritate him further. I drop it and accept his answer for what it is. “Our newly contracted runs won’t start until mid-February, but I’ll run down shit with you when I have it figured out. O’, Neo, and I will be flying out to Atlanta in the beginning of February to meet with Jordan personally. Now, Blackjack will be in charge while I’m away, so do me a favor and don’t fuck up my club.”
With that, Zane slams the gavel down on the table and we all file out of the room. Everything that’s been said behind church’s closed door won’t be muttered off to the prospects, or our ol’ ladies. Well, that’s a lie. I’m sure some of the guys will open their big, fat jaws.
Chapter Five
She’s mad, but she’s magic. There’s no lie in her fire
~ Charles Bukowski
Ruby
Mid-January
“This is the last one, I swear.” Ashley’s trying to convince everyone she’s not having any more kids after this, but who can really believe her? Blackjack gives her one glance from across the room and she practically melts into a puddle.
Octavia gives her a glance that says it all, nods her head up and down while raising her brows. “Uh-huh, and the sky isn’t blue either, right?”
Ashley rolls her eyes at her sister-in-law but waves her hand in dismissal. “Don’t even act like you wouldn’t be doing the same thing I am. You love my brother so damn much. If he wanted another ten, you’d give them to him.”
“Ten? I don’t think so. I might stop at three, max, but Neo is enough for us right now. Everything is so perfect and I don’t want to risk another baby . . . not messing things up but changing our routine just yet. Instead, I want to live in the honeymoon stage a little while longer.”
It feels weird being seated at this table with the two of them. They’re Reapers royalty and I’m . . . two of their guys’ little sister? I’m not trying to put myself down or anything, but they have a solid place here and sometimes I get the feeling like I’m replaceable. I guess I can give credit for having those issues, to my father. He really did a number on me as a kid, going from city to city, never around enough to come to a birthday party or even show up for the holidays. I thank god every day my brothers’ moms were close. If they weren’t, I don’t know where I would’ve ended up. Especially after my mom died. God, I don’t even want to think about the routes I would’ve gone down without my family.
“Ruby, did you hear Rosa?” Ashley asks while Noelle shrieks in the background. There’s a part of the clubhouse that’s like an open playroom for the kids. Since the club is growing, they needed something a little bigger, especially with these babies on the way too.
“Huh? No, sorry.” Turning around in my chair, I look for Rosa. She’s one of the women who work for Octavia’s company, also known as one of the Vixens. They take artistic nudes of themselves and post them online under a secure website. Rosa pays a fee to Octavia for being one of the Vixens, and Rosa gets a percentage of fees from her subscribers, as do all the Vixens.
Rosa’s near the front of the club. I can tell because she has this rich dark green hair, a little darker than emerald and it makes her olive skin pop. In front of her is a short, curvy woman I didn’t ever think would actually show up here. Sure, I invited her to come and visit . . . but I never thought Portia would actually come.
This isn’t her type of scenery. She’s more into going to Vail for drinks, or Toronto for the food. If it’s a big city versus a small town, Portia is always going to choose the city.
“Portia, what’re you doing here?” My shock is made very known by the tone of my voice, which I guess I should’ve thought about before I spoke.
She puts a hand on her hip and comes strutting up to me, dragging her luggage along with her. “If I can remember correctly, you were the one who invited me up for a visit anytime, remember?”
Yep, that was me. “Sorry, I’m just so glad to see you. I didn’t know you were coming so—”
“Cut the bullshit, Ruby. Just tell me where I can put my bag,” Portia snaps, not that I can blame her. I’ve barely spoken to her since Halloween and I’ve been dodging her texts, needing to work through my head by myself before I put any sort of burden on her.
“We have an open bedroom in the red barn house, next to the white one,” Rosa adds, talking about the new construction the club had built not too long ago. There were two houses added in addition to the updates around the club. I’m pretty sure I remember Grim saying something to me about friends of the club, allies or something, staying there from time to time.
“Cool. Thank you. I’m Portia, by the way.” Portia extends her hand to Rosa and Rosa shakes it.
“Nice to meet you. I’ll get one of the prospects to take your bag over,” Rosa tells Portia but a second later she’s hollering over to Bama to take Portia’s shit in the house. He of course bends to anyone’s will. The guy seems to be really trying to prove his place here, at least, it’s what I think.
Heaviness swarms through my chest at Portia’s sudden arrival and feeling the need to get out of here I clear my throat. “Do you want to go for a walk and catch up?”
Sassily as ever, Portia nods. “I think it’s about damn time we do.”
I nod, understanding her frustration and head for the front door of the club where I have my winter coat. Sliding my arms through the sleeves, a group of men come inside. They’re wearing cuts like all the Reapers’ guys do, but instead of it saying ‘Reapers’, it reads ‘Corrupt Kings’.
The group of men pass us but one of them holds open the door for me so Portia and I can get outside. “Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome,” the guy responds while we make our way out of the clubhouse. I immediately walk to the right, down toward Ashley and Blackjack’s house. Maybe I can take Portia to see the lake. It’s really beautiful when it’s frozen over. Zorro took me and showed me the other day, even brought a canister of hot cocoa and everything.
“I don’t get why you’ve been so damn quiet. It’s like after Halloween you barely wanted to talk to me,” Portia speaks up out of nowhere while our boots crunch on the day’s old snow underneath our feet.