Page 8 of Ethan's Sky

“Did Cash finally get chained down with an ol’ lady?” I ask Walker, and Xander who are both shoveling food into their mouth. Walker’s eyebrows crease, while Xander’s eyes grow wide.

Hawk looks over at the table, and shrugs. “I don’t see a property patch.”

Xander opens his mouth to speak, but the back of Walker’s hand slapping into his chest halts him.

“She’s a friend,” Walker says. Xander’s brows crease at Walker’s response, but he gives a slight shake of his head. Xander shrugs and tucks back into his food.

What the fuck is that about?

“Yeah. Looks like Lisa knows her. Jayde and Sadie seem friendly with her too,” Hawk says glancing over to where Sadie’s sitting and scowls then shrugs as he grabs a plate, surveying all the food, ignoring the rest of us. “Patsy? Have I ever told you how much I love you?” Hawk asks. He puts his plate down, walks around the bar in a flash and scoops her up in a hug. She swats at his shoulders in protest.

“Put me down,” Patsy fusses, but her laughter tells of her amusement.

“She complains, but she loves it when you boys manhandle her.” Gus smirks over his cup of coffee as his wife scowls back at him for not rescuing her, but instead encouraging Hawk.

“Maybe you should manhandle her more often, old man, then she won’t need us to get her so excited,” Hawk teases, then winks at Patsy who blushes.

“Fuck off, One Eyed Jack,” Gus snaps.

“It was Jack Sparrow. When are you going to get it right?” Hawk protests.

“When I decide I really give a shit. Which, in case you were wondering, is never.”

Hawk’s known for being one to experiment in the bedroom. The guy has a laundry list of kinks. I don’t know if he has any limits to be honest, but I’m also not curious enough to ask. His one wild night of playing dress up in the bedroom always comes back to bite him in the ass. Hawk’s not the only computer savvy one around here. He can thank Ghost for the show we all got to see. He’s the one who played the live feed on the clubhouse TVs without Hawk’s knowledge. He’s lucky that’s all Ghost did after the stunt Hawk pulled at the Christmas party. Ghost was passed out drunk on the stage at the clubhouse and woke up drooling, clutching a dildo in his hand near his mouth. It wouldn’t have been so bad except Hawk hand also taken pictures of the scene, hung them up all over the clubhouse, then proceeded to text them to the rest of the club. The girls and brothers gave him shit for weeks.

With Ghost’s particular set of skills, and his love for revenge, it could’ve been a lot worse. The whole town could’ve been watching his shit on a live stream. Until Hawk figured it out and pulled it down anyway. Between Hawk, Ghost, and Gabe’s niece Sadie and their tech wars, there’s never a dull moment around here.

Hawk verbally sparring with Gus draws attention our way. Everyone except the blonde sitting across the room. She seems engrossed in her phone. She seems to have tuned everyone in the room out. She’s got her head resting on her hand, keeping her profile from view, as she slides her finger to scroll along on her screen.

Walker and Xander have made their way over to stand with Cash off to the side of the table where the women are sitting talking quietly.

The guys standing around her are talking quietly amongst themselves. She seems somber and each of their attention is hyper-focused on her. She’s not interacting at all, even when Cash nudges her. She shrugs her shoulder. When she turns her head, looking over her shoulder at him, I get a minimal view of her profile, but not enough to really see who she is.

Curious, I nudge Hawk again. “You sure she doesn’t look familiar to you?”

Hawk glances at the women sitting around the table for a second time. “I can’t generally tell a woman by the back of her head unless her ass is bare and she’s on all fours.”

I shove my shoulder into his. “You’rean ass. You better keep that shit to yourself. If she is one of theirs, you’ll be swallowing your own teeth for your next meal.”

“What?” Hawk gripes. “You asked me to look at a woman and see if I know her by the back of her head. I’m just saying, she doesn’tlookfamiliar. Without seeing her face, I’d need to see her naked body from the back. If I could see her face or her tits, then I could probably tell you for sure.” He shrugs again, looking at me like what he says makes perfectly good sense. “Ow!”

“Shut up asshole! Or Ethan’s right. You’ll be eating through a straw soon enough,” Liz says slapping him on the back of his head. She must’ve been in the kitchen because she’s swinging a towel in her hand, smells of bacon, and looks ready to murder Hawk. She may be small, but she’s feisty. Her man wouldn’t hesitate to shoot any one of us for her, and she knows it.

“What did I do?” Hawk whines.

“Be glad it was me who heard you and not Ghost or Gabe. They’d have your ass for talking about his girl like she’s a whore.”

His girl? Who’s girl? Ghost?It would have to be, since Gabe hasn’t taken a woman as his own since his wife and child died years ago.

“She’s one of Ghost’s girls? A stripper?” I ask. Liz’s eyes cut to mine and the fury I see looking back at me would scare the hardest of men. I’m half tempted to cover my junk, just in case.

“Who is she?” Because now I really need to know. I’ve never seen Ghost with a woman who wasn’t a club whore or a stripper, and certainly not one so young. Not to say he wouldn’t be interested in a younger woman; I’ve never seen him with one like her.

If she was a stripper, it could explain how Cash knows her, since he owns a strip club himself. It’s not uncommon for the girls to move from one club to another. They like the protection the MC offers them, so they often trade between towns. Ghost’s been known to give jobs to some of Cash’s girls from time to time. They move here having gotten tired of Mountain Heights, or just the cheap clientele then come here looking to make better money. New faces tend to make more money… in the beginning. When the tips dwindle out the ladies move on.

But then why would Lisa hug her? And why bring her in for an emergency meeting?

It doesn’t make sense. And Liz called her “his girl.” Now I’m genuinely intrigued. And a little jealous. Even an old bastard like Ghost has someone to call his own.

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