Page 66 of Jackal

He pulled up the newly vacated chair and sat next to me. “I know, Lil Bird. Hopefully soon we won’t have to keep doing this,” he said as he tucked some hair behind my ear.

Jeannie’s chair moved over the floor. “I’ll leave you twolove birdsalone. I’m gonna grab some food. Maybe something else, too,” she said with a wink.

Jackal put his beer down and grabbed my hands. “We’ll talk later, when I get back. Promise. But rest up. I haven’t touched you enough today.” The heat in his eyes was enough to melt my panties right off.

“Such a tease. Try not to show up shot this time.” I tried to joke, but it didn’t come out as snarky as usual. Honestly, I was worried.

“I’ll be careful, Lil Bird. Let’s grab some food and chill for a bit.”

He stood, putting his hand out for me. Once I stood, he tucked me next to him and led us outside to grab food.

I couldn’t stand close enough to him. Every time he left, I worried more and more. The longer I was here, the harder and harder I fell.

Chapter 36

Jackal

The next week, the officers rode every night. We gave vague details about it to some of the seasoned guys and made sure to put new members around the property, at all entrances and exits of each building on the property, and Hawk told Keys he’d have a watching partner going forward.

Keys didn’t seem to mind, but I still wondered about him. He set up a whole spot for Coop after giving him strict instructions about food and beverages near his gear. Did it give me a small amount of joy to see Keys bossing Coop around? Maybe. But he was never a threat. It mostly irritated me that Shivana led him on to get under my skin.

But the likelihood of both of them being a rat were slim, and this way if something was missed by one, their reactions could say a lot. But that was only two of them. We had a lot of guys on site all the time, and plenty that lived elsewhere that showed upregularly or when called in.

Knowing these fuckers weren’t opposed to traipsing through the woods had us keeping more eyes on the grounds and even planted in the woods around us. We always had guys camped out by the entrance, but now they were scattered all over.

Keys had already put extra cameras all around. Since the last attack, he added some motion sensor cameras deep in the wooded area. We didn’t tell the guys where they were placed, so Coop and Keys would see every time they walked past if they wandered by one.

Our rides had been uneventful. It was a little unsettling since they had been popping up everywhere we went. I hoped they’d show up, but so far, no hits. We were tired and frustrated. Now that they knew about the wedding, it seemed as if they were laying in wait.

I had to tell Shivana something that day we went to speak to Angie, so she knew the wedding wasn’t exactly off for now, and we planned to take them dress shopping soon. We had to let these assholes believe we didn’t know shit. Shivana was getting tired of the secrets, but we couldn’t have her telling Lacy or Daisy. We hoped to shut this shit down before that day came, but the way things had gone so far, we had to acknowledge we may end up with Hawk’s secret plan. Were they crazy enough to attack us at a wedding?

The clubhouse was well off the beaten path, so it wasn’t odd that the shootout we had nearby wasn’t reported. We had no close neighbors, and even if anyone had heard, gunshots weren’t unheard of in the country. Some people mistook them for fireworks and around here, and people didn’t call the police for that sort of thing. Even if they knew it was gunshots, they’d assume it was someone hunting in the woods or maybe even just partying. We weren’t the type to do celebratory gunshots, but it wasn’t uncommon down here. Dangerous as fuck, but we’re notthe gun police, either. We didn’t fuck with anyone around, and they didn’t fuck with us. We definitely weren’t calling the cops for anything.

We rode over to Peaches-N-Cream to talk to a few guys. Looking around the parking lot, there were a few bikes. Falcon pointed in that direction and Eagle stopped, snapping pics of the license plates and likely sending them to Keys to run. It could be just random dudes blowing off steam, but at this point, we were leaving no stone unturned.

Heading inside with nothing but a nod to the doorman, Hawk led the way through the club. We all looked around like we were searching for a table, but we were really looking for Hellbound Heathens, or at least anyone familiar. I expected to see Scotty, but he wasn’t there. There were other dance clubs, and he was a mid-level dealer, so he moved around a lot. But he seemed to be at Peaches-N-Cream most often.

“Not to be a dick, but does the talent seem…different?” Eagle asked.

Scanning the stages, the women weren’t ugly, but they definitely didn’t have the normal look of the dancers. “Yeah, different crop of ladies for sure.”

“Let’s go talk to our friend, Blue,” Hawk said. Blue owned the place. He was your typical sleazy salesman type.

We followed Hawk down the hall, but when we got close to the office door, a big guy stepped out of the shadows and scanned Hawk like he was sizing him up. Falcon pushed past Hawk and stopped just short of tackling the guy. “Wanna go again, bitch?”

I must have missed something, because apparently there was beef. Another guy came from behind Falcon’s bitch, so I pushed past Hawk and pulled my pistol out. “Take another step and I’ll shut this club down.”

Behind me there was a scuffle and some ladies squealed before a loud thump hit the floor. “Everything’s fine here, ladies,” Eaglesaid. I wanted to turn to see what the fuck happened behind me but I wasn’t moving my eyes from my target.

He had his hands up. “Blue wasn’t expecting visitors.”

Hawk casually walked through the standoff and knocked on the door. “You fellas really need to work on how to treat a guest.” He pushed inside without an answer from the other side.

Waving the gun toward the door, the man grimaced but stepped inside before Falcon pushed his friend inside.

Looking over my shoulder, Eagle was propping a guy from laying on the floor to sitting against the wall. He shrugged. “What? He’ll wake up soon. I just let him have a little nap.”

Waiting for him and Rooster to head in the little room, I followed them inside. Red was covering the bar. With all the extra security everywhere, we were running out of hands to work while we were out in the evenings, and the non-members who worked there couldn’t pick up every shift.

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