“Abigail,” Abs said, giving her a wobbly smile.
“Shit’s about to get loud and weird in here,” Layna warned. “That’s Vi,” she said as we heard more footsteps on the stairs.
“How do you know?” Abigail asked.
“Vi takes her time. Hope charges. You get used to shit like that when you grew up with them. Hey, bitch. Nice eye,” she added when Vi walked in sporting a shiner around her honey-brown eye.
Vi, like Layna, was tall and long-legged. She had a soft face with a cleft chin and strong brows.
“Can you believe this shit?” Vi grumbled, waving up at her face. “I’ve taken down mountain-sized men without a scratch. But some scrawny-ass nineteen-year-old with a mullet and a pathetic excuse for a mustache did this?”
“Did his face accidentally collide with the doorjamb of the car when you hauled him in?” Layna asked.
“No, but the ground must have reached up and grabbed him, sending him face-first into a gravel driveway.”
“Good girl. Alright, go,” Layna said, shooing me. “We have it from here.”
And, well, they did.
I noticed on my way out that not only was Layna strapped, but Vi had a gun under her jacket as well as one in an ankle holster.
Hope, when she arrived, would be armed as well.
“Don’t leave, okay?” I asked, looking at Vi, trying to get her to see how serious I was about it.
“Yeah yeah yeah. Get.”
So, yeah, I got going.
I was pulling away from the curb when I saw Hope’s car pull up and park.
She was in good hands.
Great ones, even.
Still, I was uncharacteristically anxious as I sat through the church meeting, listening to everyone’s assignments, getting the details about a new, valuable shipment coming into the port in a couple days.
Luckily for me, Brooks—whoever had likely worked out the schedule—only put me on a guard shift for a few hours near the end of the week.
Brooks wasn’t known for being accommodating. He was strict about the rules, about everyone needing to pull their own weight. So I felt like it said something about his opinion of me that he let me have a bit of a break to spend my time on Abigail’s issue.
Which, admittedly, I’d barely given any thought to. I’d been too wrapped up with her general wellbeing, with getting her settled, with trying to work through my increasingly complicated feelings toward her.
“Hey, yo, Cary,” Niro called, making me turn back to face him.
“Yeah? What’s up?”
“Fallon was telling me about your situation with your girl. That still going on?”
“I’ve barely had a chance to get her settled, let alone figure out how to fix the problem,” I admitted with a shrug.
“I might have a suggestion for that,” Niro said, leading me over to the bar. “So, don’t remember if you were around for it, or if you remember it. I swear to fuck, it is a new disaster every couple months around here. But, yeah, back when Andi first came home, she’d accidentally gotten herself wrapped up with a new cartel that moved into town,” he told me, recapping what had been a complicated situation a while back.
“Yeah. A, right? Andres, I think?”
“Yeah. But the way I hear it, A is from the general area that your girl was in Mexico. The way I’m thinking, maybe A could help you figure out how to handle that shit.”
“Why would he do that?” I asked, shaking my head.
A was a major player in the area who also happened to be an almost complete enigma to most of our organizations. But what mattered to most of us was that he minded his own business, and his problems didn’t spill over onto our turf. Which had been the way of things since he’d come into town.
“He’s inclined to help sometimes. I mean, he helped Fallon and Danny hide a body a while back. For no reason and without any expectation. Think maybe you could get him to at least give you some information that might be valuable. Doesn’t hurt to try,” he added, shrugging. “You got nothing to go on now, right?”
“Right,” I agreed, nodding. “I’ll call him for a meeting.”
“Bring dog treats,” Niro suggested before clamping a hand on my shoulder and moving away.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about involving one cartel leader to try to take down another. But Niro was right. I had nothing else to go on.
It was worth a try.
So I added a trip to the pet store to my list of shit I needed to pick up before heading back to the apartment to talk it over with Abigail.
Who would probably be dazed from her little get together with some of the club princesses…
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Abigail
I felt a little dizzy.
That was the best way to describe it.
It was like these women came in and knocked the world a little off-kilter.
Maybe it just felt that way because it had been so long since I’d been around any women, let alone a group of them. And I wasn’t sure I’d ever been around a trio like Layna, Violet, and Hope. All of whom were strong and opinionated, who were connected in a way I wasn’t sure I’d ever actually connected with another woman before.
I was instantly jealous of their bond.
“So, wait,” I said, interrupting Vi. “You’re not actually related?”
“No,” Layna said. “Well, I mean, some of the cousins are related. Like Andi is actually related to Luna because their fathers are blood brothers. But most of us are just honorary cousins. Club cousins, if you will. We all grew up together.”
“One giant, loud, badass family,” Layna agreed as she grabbed another slice of pizza.
“So, Hope,” Vi said, and something in her tone made Hope immediately tense. “Care to tell us why you were suddenly available to come hang out with us when none of us have been able to see you in over a month?”
“She did take the time out to scream at Fallon,” Layna interjected.
“I mean he needs to get his cocky ass scolded from time to time, so that doesn’t count,” Vi said, shrugging.
“I’m just not busy right now,” Hope said, and even I could see that something was off with her, and I’d barely known the woman for half an hour.
The three women were very similar in their style choices. They were almost utilitarian with their clothing that neither clung nor hung too loosely. You could tell they had womanly curves—including Layna’s enviable ass and Vi’s impressive chest—but didn’t overly advertise any of it.
Hope was a little more petite than Layna and Violet with black hair that, oddly enough, almost seemed to have little highlights of red in it somehow.
Where Violet and Layna seemed a little more extroverted, more open, Hope seemed to like to play her cards close to her vest, and didn’t go out of her way to share too much personal detail. It was possible that was just because I was an outsider, but I got the feeling it was just how she was.
The way she looked away from a direct question like that further confirmed my suspicions.
“Come on, Hope,” Vi said, head cocking to the side. “You can tell us. We won’t tell anyone else.”
“I’m on suspension,” Hope admitted, a muscle ticking in her jaw from clenching so hard.