Page 33 of Keys

I laughed at that. “Well, I guess I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“What?” He asked, incredulous over the fact that I laughed at him.

“Just North Georgia? Not the whole state? The country? The world even?”

It was his turn to laugh. “Think highly of yourself, do you?”

I cocked my head to the side and decided to offer the poor youngin’ a bit of advice. “When complimenting a woman who you want to hook up with, go big or go the fuck home, Prospect.”

A few of the men who were lingering close by guffawed at my response to him. I patted the younger man on his head and then took off for the bar to join JoJo. I didn’t fail to notice the smirk on Quickshot’s face as I moved away from the prospect who told me his name was Snake. Bastard. He had no right to enjoy anything about me anymore.

“Let’s do this,” Sweet called out and suddenly the key figures from both of our clubs made their way to the meeting room the guys had set up. I wasn’t sure if it was their church or something else. Seemed like something else if I had to guess. I waited outside for their men to enter first and waited for them to take their usual seats too. When the only seats available in the end were near Quickshot and Spike, I chose to stand against the wall in the far corner. JoJo joined me out of solidarity.

“Take a load off,” Sweet directed with a tip of his chin toward the last two empty seats. I refused and didn’t say a word in response. He wasn’t my damn President, be damned if he’d be ordering me around.

“We’re fine right here.” JoJo was the one to speak. Angel Girl threw me a look that promised we’d speak about this later, but she hadn’t given the command, so fuck her boyfriend. Hell, fuck her for thinking I was going to bow down just because he was her boyfriend.

In all honesty, we normally had someone on their feet during meetings with other clubs, or clients even. It was an intimidation thing as much as it was a security issue. A person reacts faster from a standing position than a sitting one. If we’re all flat on our asses, then we have a problem getting the jump on someone else.

“Does someone want to go ahead and point out why we’re all gathered here tonight?” Legs finally asked. She was in rare form, showing her intolerance of the situation. That usually meant that a lead about her daughter had fallen into her lap, and not panned out again. I locked eyes with her as she sat back, pink tinging her cheeks with embarrassment that she’d allowed others to see her frustration. I gave her a quick nod, letting her know silently that I’d help as soon as this bullshit meeting was closed.

“We have a few runs coming up that will involve our guys from the Tallahassee Chapter coming into town.” Sweet glared over at me and then went back to it. “It’ll probably be a fairly frequent thing, but we wanted to give you all the heads up, so you aren’t worried about the new guys coming around.”

“That’s what we were brought here for?” I asked, turning toward Angel Girl with a grim look of disapproval.

“No. Shut your damn mouth and take some notes,” Angel Girl commanded. It was the first time she had ever spoken to me that way, and it put my hackles on edge immediately. I wouldn’t put up with her bullshit because she felt I’d disrespected her boyfriend’s reasons for us being here. Legs stood and moved to stand with me, a clear sign for Angel Girl that she was drawing lines in the sand that she wouldn’t be able to remove. Tash sat at Angel’s right hand, eyes wide, and a look of horror on her face as she realized what might be happening too.

Angel Girl huffed then turned to Sweet and snapped at him too. “Can we get on with the real reason we’re here?”

Sweet gave her a look that promised he wasn’t pleased with the situation and that she would be getting an earful from him later. “We’re hearing a lot of chatter lately. I don’t think the human trafficking issues are cleared up the way we thought they were. It would be best if all of your women continued to be vigilant.”

“What chatter exactly?” Angel Girl asked the question that was on the tip of my tongue.

Sweet shook his head. “It’s all unconfirmed whisperings. The guys have been heading into Atlanta weekly on a recruitment mission, and from what they’ve been hearing there’s a huge ring that wants to push further north so that they have a foothold far enough outside of Atlanta to ride under the radar. They also want solitude for the operation. It might not be right here this time. Could be over by Wolf Creek University or near Dahlonega. Either way, they’ll be operating close enough that it would be a problem for all of us, but especially you ladies.”

A collective sigh ran through the assembled group. When I glanced up, Quickshot was watching me with worried eyes. I averted my gaze quickly and started planning an information deep dive. “Do you have any substantial information that can be used as a jumping off point to track them down or is all this just conjecture based on some pillow talk your guys are obtaining from an Atlanta strip club?”

“You better check your fucking attitude with me, little girl,” Sweet growled as he came to his feet.

“She’s right,” Angel Girl told him as she also stood. Only she put a hand out to touch the man’s shoulder, as if to hold him in place. “We need to know if there’s anything real to this, or if it’s just talk from strippers. From personal experience, we know they like to blow shit out of proportion in order to cause drama sometimes. Atlanta tends to end up with some of our castoffs since there’s no competition around here for them to roll into when we discard them.”

Sweet returned to his seat but gave a pointed look to Quickshot who nodded his head and then pulled a folder out and tossed it to Angel Girl. “We’re still digging, but it looks as though they have someone pretty high up the chain in their pockets. I’m thinking a state-level politician, but I haven’t been able to confirm that yet.”

Angel girl took a cursory glance at what was in the folder and then held it back over her shoulder for me. “We’ll have Keys look into it.”

What she couldn’t know was that my stomach dropped at the mention of a state-level politician possibly being involved. She wouldn’t know though, because I had never told any of them exactly who my father was. It couldn’t be him, could it? Shit! No. He was a dick of the highest caliber, but he couldn’t be involved in something like that.

All the women I’d seen him with in my recent check-ups on my parents made me wonder though. It also ramped up my queasiness. Was my own father involved in human trafficking? Yeah, the possibility was there. It also meant that I might have to come forward with the information about who my father was sooner rather than never.

I turned to leave, to go get started and see exactly where this would leave me in the end. But Sweet’s temper tantrum stopped me in my tracks. “Get a fucking hold of your people, Angel Girl. This shit won’t fly in our clubhouse.” He was pointing an accusatory finger at me for some reason.

“What are you talking about?” Angel asked him.

“If she can’t pull herself together and be professional about shit, then she doesn’t need to be here. Sorry that her regular dick decided her pussy wasn’t worthy enough to claim, but either she gets over it or she doesn’t come around again.”

“What the fuck did you just say?” That was Quickshot, who was now on his feet too. Sweet took a step back, surprised for some reason by the angry outburst from his VP.

“You have lost your damn mind!” Angel Girl shouted at him, also on her feet. “Keys is our information security person. She’s going to do her damn job now that she has the information in her hand.”

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