Page 57 of Savage King

“So…what was it?”

It took a moment for him to find his voice. He couldn’t believe he’d made such a critical error.

“She wanted to know what was going on. She was there when Bonnie got here to tell me about the girls. I knew we needed to act fast, and I got into the zone—”

“The Grade-A Asshole Zone,” Trouble supplied unnecessarily.

Odin glared at him, to which Trouble shrugged. “Continue.”

“When she asked me what was going on, I…shut her down. You should have seen her, man. It looked like I slapped her.”

He could remember her face, how the hurt and shock and disbelief flashed over her expression, until all that remained was the cold. From warm concern to glacial indifference.

But she didn’t understand….

“You know the reasons we don’t tell club bitches club business,” Odin breathed, leaning his head back to try and stretch the muscles bunching in his lower neck and upper shoulders. He was tense as fuck.

“Yeah, we keep club business from club bitches because, when they are actually being bitches—a brother pisses them off, they get jealous, or they’re lookin’ for a payout from someone lookin’ for information—they have big mouths. Also, you got to know that those women couldn’t handle some of the things we got to do to keep the club runnin’.”

Blackmailing, bribery, the occasional walk into the desert with a shovel and a handgun….

“No woman can handle something like that. There’s a reason none of us have old ladies.”

Trouble barked a laugh. “Speak for yourself, brother. I don’t have an old lady because I’m lovin’ all the pussy without the strings. But you, you were built for strings. And you deserve it. You and Skathi are it, brother. The dream. You ain’t claimed her officially yet, but we all know Skathi is your Valkyrie. And I’m assumin’ that’s the name you’ll be puttin’ on her property kutte.”

“My Valkyrie. My Goddess….” He heaved a sigh. “She’s my every fucking thing, brother. But…I think I fucked up.”

“Yup.”

Odin narrowed his eyes at his friend, pursing his lips. “You don’t have to agree with me, motherfucker.”

“I do. Because you did fuck things up. You forgot that Skathi isn’t like all those mouthy, jealous, bitchy bitches in the club. Not only is she a highly trained soldier, she’s a woman of honor and loyalty. If a Jaegerkorpset can’t handle knowing some of the things we do for the club, they never would have earned their berets.”

“And what if your woman wanted to know club business? What if you told her, she got upset, and she walked away, never giving you a chance to explain. To make things right?”

Trouble opened his mouth to respond but them clamped it shut. A faraway look covered his eyes, his body swaying just enough that Odin knew his friend’s thoughts were far away, too.

Finally, Trouble snapped out of it. “I didn’t give my woman the chance to walk away. I did it first,” he admitted. “So your question is moot.”

Odin sighed. He remembered what Trouble was talking about; he’d been there when his friend fell hard for the waitress at Danny’s, and when his friend got shot by a rival MC, and then when Trouble fucked up a good thing and drove the one person he loved more than anyone away.

Since then, Trouble had lived hard, fucked hard, but didn’t take life too seriously.

“Anyway…you think that if you tell Skathi club business, she’ll run with her tail between her legs? Again, back to the whole super soldier for Denmark thing.”

“So you’d be okay with there being a female at the table, sitting beside me?”

Trouble shrug one shoulder indifferently. “It’s the 21stcentury. There have been women in battle for centuries, and most recently there have been more and more women only clubs, and clubs with female presidents…. Bottom line, I think your fear is unfounded, brother. I think you need to give Skathi a chance to prove your fears wrong. And, if she sticks, riding your cock and your bike as your old lady, our club will be all the richer for it.”

Images of Skathi beneath him in his bed, remembering the feeling of her arms wrapped around him on his bike…. Then he thought about giving her a seat at the officer’s table, where she’d be his equal. A goddess to his war god.

A smile, slow, steady, and eager spread over his face, his chest expanding with the hope in the possibilities. Sure, there was some work to do, he had to run a vote with the club, and he had to get Skathi to talk to him, but all that had to wait until the missing girls were found.

His cell vibrated in his pocket. Pulling it out, his heart leapt when Skathi’s name flashed on the screen. He took a steadying breath to keep himself from demanding she tell him why she’d taken so long to call him, and when he answered, her voice was…wrong.

“They took Tessa. They came here, into my home, and they took her!”

Shock, cold and piercing, slammed into him. He couldn’t get his head around her words.

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