“Rooster’s my old man,” Shelby says. “We got up here late last night. I’m sorry we missed ya.”
“That’s all right, sweetheart. I wasn’t up for a lot of socializing.”
“Can’t blame ya.” She flashes a warm, serene smile. I’ve only met Rooster a handful of times when Z sent him to visit me in prison. It’ll be nice to finally see him on the other side. “Where’s he at now?”
She gestures to the hallway where I just came from. “I reckon they’re down in the war room?” She raises an eyebrow and turns toward the other girls.
“I think so,” Trinity says.
“Actually, I was looking for Z first.”
Lilly stands and threads her arm through mine. “I think he’s in the office. I’ll walk down with you.”
Chance skips around us the whole way, and I can’t help laughing at his antics.
“He must keep you on your toes,” I say to Lilly.
“Oh, you have no idea.” She laughs and reaches out to knock on one of the doors in the living room.
It opens in Murphy’s ginger beard comes into view. He grins, wide and easy. “Morning. How’d you sleep?”
“Good.”
“Hey.” Z pushes Murphy aside and squeezes my shoulder.
“I’ll leave you guys to it.” Lilly pats my arm and takes Chance’s hand.
“Hang on, siren.” Z steps past me to talk to Lilly and his son.
Murphy shakes his head. “What’s up?” He opens the door wider and motions for me to come in.
Z returns to us. “We’ll be having breakfast after church,” he says to me.
Not sure the club will want me sitting down with them for church yet, but I nod, anyway.
“I needed to talk to you,” I say to Z.
“Heidi still down in the dining room?” Murphy asks.
“She was a minute ago.”
“Cool.” He slaps my back. “I’ll see you in a few, Grinder.”
“Didn’t mean to kick him out,” I say to Z after the door closes.
“Don’t sweat it. I do it all the time.” He plops down at the desk Murphy had been leaning against. “This is my old desk, and I kick him out of it whenever I need to.” He grins the same devilish smile that used to get him attention from all the ladies back in the day. “What’s on your mind?”
“You still able to find addresses and track people down?”
He turns toward a slim black machine on the desktop. “Hell yeah. Who you need to track down?”
“Rosie.”
The cheerful expression slides off his face.
“I don’t want to hear it, Angus,” I warn.
He holds his hands in the air. “I didn’t say anything, brother.”
“I need to see her…to talk to her.”
“Is that why you scared away all the eager ladies dying to welcome you home last night?” his tone’s almost accusatory, and I don’t care for it one fucking bit.
“Fuck off,” I growl.
“Grinder—”
“It’s not your concern where I stick my dick.”
He frowns. “Didn’t say it was, but—”
“Can you get me an address or not?”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll get you the address. Just tell me why you want to see her?”
Ah, I get it. He’s worried.
“I ain’t gonna hurt Rosie,” I assure him.
“She did ya pretty fuckin’ dirty.”
“That’s not your concern,” I snap.
“What’s going on?” The door swings open, almost bumping into me, and I jump out of the way.
“Easy.” Rock holds out his hands. “Sorry, Grinder.” His gaze swings from Z and back. “What’s going on?” he asks again.
“I asked him to get Rosie’s address for me, and the fucker’s throwing me attitude.” I shoot a glare at Z. I’m probably gettin’ more pissed off than I should, but I can’t help it. “Don’t give a fuck what patch you’re wearing now, Prez. I ain’t taking shit from you.”
“All right. Simmer down.” Rock uses one of those whoa hand gestures like you might try to calm a wild horse, and it’s having the opposite effect on me. “Z, will get you the address.”
“Here.” Z bumps my hand. “This should be it.”
I glance down and take the piece of folded over paper he’s offering me.
“Thank you.” I snap it out of his hand.
I should apologize. By all rights, Z should kick my ass for showing him so much disrespect.
“You want one of us to go with you?” Rock offers.
“No.” Even though it hurts like hell to say the words out loud, I explain, “I just need to talk to my wife.”
Crown of Ghosts (Lost Kings MC #19)
is coming this summer!
Pre-order here.
EXCERPT from Kickstart my Heart
After Alvin’s toast, I probably should’ve included the Blue Alien Incident scene here, but I was worried about spoilers! So here’s an excerpt from Kickstart my Heart. If you want to go right to the story, you can download Kickstart my Heart here.
CHASER
Life changing events rarely announce themselves. More often, they slip into your world without warning and shred everything to pieces.
This video is supposed to be a game changer for my band.
Unfortunately, the headache to end all headaches has been fucking with me all day. Between the ridiculous strobe lights and cheesy video concept for a song I already hate, I’m ready to quit, hop on my bike and ride the three thousand miles home. This is supposed to be our big break. I should be more excited. Our manager assured us this video will be in heavy rotation on MTV. What she promised in order to secure that favor, I have no idea.
My bandmates are equally annoyed. They’re just better at hiding it. Growing up in an outlaw motorcycle club the way I did, concealing my irritation isn’t something I ever bothered to learn.
A few minutes later, when the “actress”—hired to play I’m not sure what in the video—steps onto the set, I’ve got a whole new problem.
She’s half-naked. Not uncommon in Hollywood. The odd part is how uncomfortable she looks in her own skin. Especially when you take into account that she’s set-my-blood-on-fire hot. Not your typical bleached stripper look most chicks seem to sport in California. White blonde hair down to her ass, lightly tanned skin and a decent-sized rack. Like a curvier version of the skinny blonde chick on Dynasty. I’d been jerking off to posters of that actress for years. And here’s my very own version.
So my new problem involves my dick getting way too excited for the tight leather pants the wardrobe person squeezed me into.
I haven’t gotten laid since I returned to L.A. Obviously, I need to fix that. Blondie’s exactly my type.
Watching her make out session with my friend Jacob, pisses me off. It’s a ridiculous reaction since I haven’t even talked to the chick yet. But there it is.
After we soak her with the firehose—and I’d love to know who came up with that bit of phallic symbolism, because I certainly didn’t vote in favor of it—she runs off the set, before I have a chance to sexually harass her properly.