Page 45 of Cognac Secrets

Bennie came up to me as I got my helmet off and I smiled and said, “So this big surprise is that you felt good enough to bring me around the club?” I asked quietly.

“No,” he said with a grin. “We passed the surprise a few blocks back. We’ll get to that in a bit, I just thought we’d have some dinner and you could meet the guys and girls of the rest of the MC.”

I smiled and laughed a little and asked softly for his ears only, “Why does this feel far more important than friends-with-benefits shit?”

He cocked his head and looked over my face, and smiling that infuriating secretive little smile of his, grasped my hand and towed me across the fenced-in cracked cement yard over to the rest of the men out here.

“So, this is her, the Dancing Queen?” the bald man grumbled darkly and those alien eyes fixed on mine.

I blushed, I didn’t know what to say about the strange nickname, and I didn’t want him to think or to know how intimidated I was so I stuck out my hand and said, “Sandrine. Sandrine Starkweather.”

Saint and Hex exchanged an amused look with Bennie and each other, and the bald man slipped off the table, his booted feet hitting the cracked pavement as he loomed, taller than me – sure, but honestly who wasn’t when I was only like five foot five?

Still, he wasn’tthatmuch taller than me. Five foot nine, maybe ten? Still, I swear his shoulders were as wide as he was tall and heloomednone the less.

“LaCroix,” he said flatly, unimpressed and I put my hand back down to my side when he ignored it.

“LaCroix is our president, Sandy,” Bennie said.

“Right,” I said. “I know that commands respect, but I’m not sure what to do here… do I bow or do I curtsey?”

Hex barked a laugh, and Saint looked surprised.

LaCroix’s face remained stoic, but for a slight twitch at the edges of his lips that said he was trying not to smile.

“She’s got balls,” he said to Bennie.

“That’s why I like her,” Bennie said and LaCroix chuckled.

“Welcome in Dancing Queen,” LaCroix brushed past us, Saint falling into step beside him. “Welcome in.”

They went through the door into the cinderblock clubhouse and I stared after them.

“I hope I didn’t just do something wrong,” I said worried.

“Naw, I reckon you did exactly right,” Hex declared, reaching out a hand and putting it on my shoulder, giving it a squeeze.

“I was just trying to be funny,” I said turning to look at Bennie who was grinning.

“Oh, you’re gonna need to keep that energy with Axeman and Chainsaw, for sure,” Bennie declared.

“Don’t let Jessie-Lou scare you off with her hard ass attitude,” Hex said, “She don’t take kindly to outsiders and it takes her a mite to warm up.”

“Cor and Alina are nice though,” I turned at the voice and smiled, waving at Louie. “I mean, Jess is nice too, once she’s warmed up to you.”

Hex steered me around toward the door and I leaned a little into Bennie who had his arm around my waist.

“I’m still wondering what this surprise could be,” I said.

“All in good time, babe,” Bennie told me. “All in good time.”

Easy for him to say. I was going low key nuts wondering what it was we could have passed that would count.

We chatted amicably with Hex and Louie as Hex and Bennie led me through the barroom up front. It had a sort of living room set of an old couch, and a couple of love seats that were leather, sure, but were cracked, tired, and had a few swatches of black duct and electrical tape covering gashes in the seats and the backing.

It smelled of metal, booze, engine grease, and rubber in here, which I mean, it seemed like they were leading me back into a garage area, so that tracked. We went down a short hallway, bathrooms on one side just past the bar, and an office on the left, through an open door. On the right was a narrow but long room with a long table, chairs around it, and the table intimidating.

We went through an archway set in the back wall down that hall, and into an almost antechamber that was dimly lit and had an empty storeroom feel. Through another door and we were out into the back of the building where things became elevated, the ceilings soaring to almost a third-floor level, where the building we’d just come from while attached, only felt like a one story, but from the outside I knew it to be two.

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