Page 21 of Smoke

Smoke

The clubhouse is quiet as most of my lazy ass brothers are still sleeping off last night’s drunkenness or from overindulging in whatever pussy they got to share their bed last night.

Me, I’m up, dressed, five smokes down, in my office and going through some of the club ledgers that Blackjack asked me to check over. I have every faith in his accounting ability, but he fails to have it in himself. So, every couple of months, he insists I cast an eye over them in case he’s made an error. I’m halfway through them when my phone pings to alert me to an incoming message.

HEY, IT’S TENLEY.

NO SHIT SHERLOCK! YOU DO KNOW THAT THIS BURNER PHONE IS FOR COMMUNICATION ONLYBETWEEN YOU AND ME SO I DON’T NEED A PHD TO KNOW WHO’S CALLING ME.

WHOOPS! FORGOT ABOUT THAT.

Whoops. Fucking whoops? I shake my head and snort at her craziness. I can’t deny it. I kinda find her funny.

ANYWAY. THE REASON I’M MESSAGING YOU IS TO LET YOU KNOW THAT I’VE MADE CONTACT.

I hit the call button. She answers it almost immediately, but I sense she was taken by surprise or was hesitant about speaking to me directly.

“He took your call?” the surprise is clearly notable with the higher than normal pitch in my voice.

“Eventually, yes, I’ve spoken to him and we’re meeting today,” she announces triumphantly.

“You mean tonight?” I counter.

“No today, in about thirty minutes, to be exact, so I can’t talk for long. I don’t want to risk being late and him not hanging around until I get there.”

“Okay, so it’s a little early. Which bar are you meeting him in?” I push her for more information because I’m not aware of any bars open quite this early on a morning. While I wait for details, I grab a club phone and send a message to both Rex and Cub to get their asses out of bed. If Tenley is going to be in close proximity to Dunne, I want eyes on her. The two prospects are more than capable of shadowing her without being seen.

“D’s diner. The new one that opened this week on Darian Street.”

“You’re having coffee with him?” I’m surprised but bizarrely solaced that it’s going to be in more amiablesurroundings rather than a bar that potentially could be full of drunks and several of Paddy’s associates.

“Ice cream actually, but I’ve not yet had my caffeine fix, so coffee is more than likely to be on the cards, too.”

“Fuck me,” I let out a ruckus laugh, and I have no doubt that she’s had to move the handset away from her ear as the noise echoed down the line. “You’ve convinced Paddy Dunne, the leader of the Death Valley Irish, to go for fucking frozen dessert?” The laughter takes over me again, reminding me it’s been some time since I laughed like this.

“When you put it like that, I guess it is laughable,” she giggles along with me.

“It’s fucking hilarious.” We continue to ride the joke for a minute or two more before Tenley gets a hold of herself and speaks up.

“Anyway, I gotta go. I’ll text you when I get back. Let you know how it goes.”

“Do that.” My instinct is to cut the call and leave it at that, but I can’t, and I hear myself calling out her name. “Tenley,” I wait to hear if she’s still on the line.

“Look, I really need to go,” she huffs out. I’m not sure if that’s because she’s nervous, frustrated or excited to be meeting the fucking Irish man. The thought that it might be the latter pisses me off. “What is it?”

“Be careful.” With that, I cut the call, already hating myself for being weak and letting the green-eyed monster of jealousy simmer in my gut along with the painful punch of disloyalty to my beautiful Violet’s memory.

Chapter

Fourteen

Smoke

“You got eyes on her?” I ask Cub when I pick up his call. I told Rex and Cub to ring me as soon as they’d found a spot to hunker down that gave them a view without being seen.

“Clear as a bell, Prez. Lucky for us, she’s sat next to the window, so we have the perfect view. No sign of him yet.”

The prospects know the score and that Tenley is, for all intents and purposes, working undercover in the hope that she can get the much-needed information we seek on Paddy and the Death Valley Irish. I’ve also clarified that, although unbeknown to her, Tenley’s safety is paramount.

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