Page 6 of Deadly North

“Oh yeah? Prez say what it’s about?”

“Nah. He’s in his office with Norse and Fury.” Reed grunts. He’s never much for small talk. “They weren’t exactly havin’ a tea party back there. Looked kinda serious.”

I’m right in the middle of adjusting my clutch lever. But Magnus doesn’t like to be kept waiting, so I wipe my hands off with a rag and head inside. Just like Reed said, I find him in his office, huddled in a serious-looking discussion with Magnus and Fury.

“Hey.” I address them all at once. “Prez, you wanted to see me?”

“Yeah. Come on in. Have a seat.”

I glance over at Fury, but my best friend’s face doesn’t give anything away, other than that he’s looking not all that happy. I grab a straight-back chair, flip it around, sit down, and wait for someone to start talking. To my surprise, it’s not Magnus, or our VP Norse, who does. It’s Fury himself.

“It’s about Gigi,” he says. “There’s a problem.”

“With Gigi, there’s always a problem,” I crack, but Fury doesn’t smile. I cock a brow at him, then glance at the others. Shit, did whatever I said to Fury’s little sister last weekend at the rally ruffle her ass feathers more than usual? But that doesn’t make sense. Gigi’s a lot of stuff— mostly annoying stuff — but she’s not exactly the type to go crying to her brother.

“Okay, I’ll bite,” I reply. “What about Gigi?”

“I ain’t feeling good about what happened with those Scorpions at the rally.” Fury frowns.

Of course, Fury wasn’t all that thrilled to hear that Rocky from the Knoxville chapter had to help me get those two Scorpion assholes away from Gigi’s bus. That girl was lucky we happened to see what was going down. Much as I downplayed it to Fury at the time, their intentions were pretty fuckin’ clear. Looks like he’s been lettin’ it get to him enough to talk to Magnus about it.

“You think that was something more than them just being assholes, per usual?”

“At first I did. But then my brain wouldn’t let it go. It started weighin’ on me. So I did some digging.”

“You find out anything specific?” I ask.

“Couple of my CIs got in touch,” Fury tells me.Confidential informants. “Told me they heard a Scorpion running his mouth at a bar about what happened. Not sure if it was one of the ones who was there, or just someone who heard about it later. But I guess after the fact one of ‘em figured out Gigi’s my sister.”

I suppress a groan. Yeah. That’ll make things worse.

“Fury’s sister needs protection,” Magnus adds turning to me. “And since you’re the one who saw which Scorpions were involved, you’re the one who’s gonna do it.”

Well…

Fuck.

To say this ain’t good news is a goddamn understatement. For one thing, Gigi is a colossal pain in the ass. For another, she hates my guts.

But those aren’t the real reasons.

I know better than to argue with my prez. He’s decided to assign me to be Gigi’s personal bodyguard, so that’s what’s gonna happen, whether I like it or not.

But I’ll be damned if I’ll show any of them how I really feel about it.

“Fuck, seriously?” I gripe, rolling my eyes. “Babysitting duty ain’t my style. Especially when the baby’s stubborn and mouthy as hell. She ain’t gonna listen to a word I say. I’m gonna have to tie her up to get her to mind.”

Tie her up.My stupid, stupid cock jumps a little at the thought.

“She doesn’t have a choice,” Fury says. “This is her safety on the line.”

“You don’t have a choice, either,” Magnus tells me. “Your job is to make sure she does listen. Unless we got a problem?”

“No problem,” I say immediately. Like I said, Magnus is my president. What he tells me to do, I do it. No matter how I feel about it.

Now Norse speaks up. “We know the Bloody Scorpions have been getting bolder lately. And now Gigi’s mobile tattoo business is a sitting duck. So you go where she goes. Until further notice. That starts now.”

“Understood. That it?”

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