Page 43 of Jackal

“Of course. No problem.”

We headed back to the Harleys and mounted up. Hawk lit up a smoke, and we waited for his instruction.

“Prez, Scottie may know some shitty street pimps, but I know someone who has a line to a Madame,” I said.

Hawk blew out a plume of smoke. “Who? You?”

“No. We’d be headed there if I did.” I scratched my beard. “Cindy has some connections.”

“Ma? My ma?” he said in disbelief.

“She runs a strip club and she’s been an Old Lady for how long? I’m surprised you didn’t know.”

“I suppose. But how do you know?”

Shrugging, I said, “I’ve been around a while, Prez. Your pops had a lot of connections. And while Cindy doesn’t allow whoring out of the club, she won’t stop the girls from making money elsewhere. But she doesn’t want ‘em getting mixed up with some asshole on the corner. At least that’s how it was. Been a while since I was around regularly enough before...” I didn’t finish. I’d popped in and out over the last few years for short stints, but mostly just to visit. Raven didn’t need me back then and other chapters did. Now I wished I’d been around more. Maybe something would have been different if I had.

“Makes sense. But Pops shared everything with me. At least I thought he did.” He took one last drag then flicked the butt. “Let’s go by that airport, then circle back. Ma won’t be up now, anyway. I’ll talk to her tomorrow once the clubhouse gets quiet.”

We rode over to the airport that shit went down at a few weeks ago. It was quiet and dark. Not even the tower had a light on. The fence was locked up, too, so nobody had been going in or out, at least not easily.

The ride back to the clubhouse felt longer than normal. We didn’t spot the Hellbound Heathens, and all we came up with was more leads. Leads that may go nowhere.

Still trying to keep my eyes peeled for the other club or any tails on us, I also took solace in knowing that I had someone waiting for me when I got back.

Chapter 24

Shivana

Even though I was hesitant to give in to Jackal’s demand to cancel the showings, I did. Honestly, I didn’t have a job offer yet and had no idea where would be most convenient, anyway. And after looking back at the photos online, neither wowed me.

It would be the first time I’d lived on my own. It would be a rental for now, but still, I wanted it to be comfy and homey. Waiting a little longer to see where I got hired made the most sense. The market was crazy and I probably wouldn’t be able to make an offer before they got snatched up, anyway.

It had been quiet the last few days around the clubhouse. Jackal had gone out in the evenings and didn’t get in until late. But we had swindled Eagle and Jackal into bringing us twelve different wedding magazines and we had the internet. Until I heard about work, I had a singular mission–plan Lacy’s wedding.

The weekend rolled around, and I had already narrowed downvenues and we knew her top three dress styles. We also had colors chosen. The next step would be to get permission from ourdaddiesto leave.

Even though they were home, they had been holed up in Church for a while. We couldn’t very well buy a wedding dress online and we were not booking a venue without seeing it. Too many people spent money on good photography but had shitty spaces.

“What if we can’t book that soon? I don’t want to drag this out too long. But I do want a nice party,” Lacy said as we scrolled the websites of the three that made my cut.

“You have a lot on your side. You aren’t inviting your family and I’m your only friend from back home, so we can choose a different evening than your typical Saturday. Plus, Thursday nights, hell, even Friday nights, are all cheaper than weekend days for these spaces.”

“Do we really need something so big?” she asked, pointing to the screen. “It’s really just guys from the club and the bunnies.”

Daisy shook her head. “Eagle said he was inviting other clubs and their Old Ladies or plus ones.”

Lacy’s eyes went wide. “What? When?”

“Falcon told me. He thought I’d be disappointed about our wedding and wanted to know if we needed a do-over.”

We both stared at her, waiting for her to continue.

“Oh, I’m not. I wanted my biker, and I got him. I never dreamed about a wedding when I was little. The courthouse felt perfect to me. And you should have seen what they did to this place, Shiv. I wish you’d been here. It was great,” she said as she popped a pretzel in her mouth.

We’d been spending a lot of our time in the rec room so we could spread out and not worry about filthy men ruining out magazines and my binder. We also had snacks and a cooler full of beer. It was perfect.

“I thought it was going to be a small thing. Who knew he’d be so excited?” Lacy said as she took a sip of her beer.

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