Page 52 of Treachery

They walked into the common room hand in hand, and immediately they were surrounded by smiling fools, eager to bust his balls and monopolize his woman.

“Back the fuck off, assholes, give her some breathing room!” Locust snapped good-naturedly, actually fucking happy his brothers were showing Nadia what it meant to be part of the Unchained family.

Cilla and Emily came over, pulling his woman away from the rabble to the bar, where they’d probably make Tony number one mix her some pansy-ass, fruity drink.

“Locust! My office!” Frost bellowed. Locust grunted as his brothers all flinched, their expressions all saying the same thing,“Glad it isn’t me.”

Slapping Patriot then Tornado on their backs as he walked by, he cast a quick glance to Nadia, who was sitting in the corner with Cilla, Emily, and now Tasha, who’d been hanging around the clubhouse again after she’s been banned for six months after her twin betrayed the brotherhood. Tasha and Tornado, her twin’s ex-boyfriend, seemed to be getting close—but that was none of Locust’s business.

His business was waiting for him in Frost’s office.

He didn’t bother knocking on the slightly opened office door, pushing through, his gaze clashing with that of his MC prez, andthe man who’d saved his life ten years ago. The man to whom he owed a life debt.

Thankfully, that too cheerful club girl wasn’t sitting on his desk this time, because Locust didn’t want to deal with that drama, too. As the club enforcer, he preferred his life as drama free as possible, so unless it had something to do with safety of the club or one of its members, he’d ignore it until it blew up in his face.

“Take a seat,” Frost ordered, not taking his eyes off Locust.

Locust did as he was commanded, taking the chair across from Frost. He sat back, giving off the air of a man without worry or care, but he did worry…he did care. But he wasn’t going to let Frost give him shit; Frost needed to take some responsibility for the clusterfuck that happened with Nadia and Ratchet. Thankfully, the patch over with the Bone Dogz was almost complete. The few members who’d traveled down from Erie to Wilkes-Barre, had returned to Erie to get their shit packed up and ready to move to the houses they were renting. From Locust. He owned the duplex he lived in, and two others on the same street. He also owned a condo in the Poconos he rented out as an Air BnB, and a small apartment complex in King of Prussia.

Frost’s voice pulled him from his thoughts.

“You want to explain what the fuck you were doing?”

He didn’t need to elaborate; Locust knew exactly what the man was talking about.

He answered honestly, “I was choosing my woman over the club.”

Frost seemed to freeze, like he couldn’t believe Locust just came out and said it. Suddenly, his face twisted into a sneer.

“Putting pussy over your duty to the club?” he asked, his voice dripping with menace, but Locust was beyond giving a fuck. He loved the brotherhood, would die for them, but therewas a line he refused to cross again. He assumed that a man, married twenty-five years, would understand Locust’s choice.

Guess not.

Sitting forward, Locust met Frost’s gave head on.

“Maybe if you chose your woman over the club, you wouldn’t be lookin’ down the barrel of divorce.”

In a flash of red and black, all hell broke loose.

Nadia didn’t know how long she was sitting with the other ol’ ladies before the pounding, slamming, and shouted started.

She shot to her feet, her heart in her throat, as she peered down the hallway where James had gone.

“What the hell is going on?” Emily boomed, every inch of club queen coming to the fore. Her head snapped to Patriot who was standing behind his woman, his hands on her shoulders. “You know what the hell is going on in there?”

Patriot shrugged, not a single concern in his demeanor. As the club VP, Nadia assumed he’d be more agitated than he was at the sounds of his prez and his enforcer beating the shit out of each other.

“They’re working shit out, no need to worry,” he replied, then squeezed Cilla’s shoulder, before lifting his gaze to meet Nadia’s. “Let ‘em be. I know it sounds bad, but they need to get it out.”

“Getwhatout?” Nadia practically shrieked. “It sounds like they’re killing each other in there!”

Cluster sauntered up then, a half-eaten hot wing in his hand. “Nah, they’re just having a discussion. Long time coming, actually. Surprise it took ‘em this long to have it out. Lots of history there.”

Patriot and Emily both nodded at that, and Nadia remembered exactly what that history was.

Shit.

Sitting down again, she tried to drown out the sounds of battle, her chest aching with worry for her man. She hoped he didn’t hurt Frost too badly.

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