Page 70 of Amy's Santa

“Hey, Lady. You now a minister?”

As the man in question’s still trying to regain his breath, Joker answers for him, “He is. Paperwork came through yesterday. He’s just got to clear it with the Tucson authorities but that should just be a rubber-stamping matter.”

For a second, I stare at the brother who’ll be marrying me to my old lady. His new certification means he can officiate over funerals as well. Hopefully we’ll have more call for his services with matrimony, but it’s good to have a brother who can do such things.

“Hey, Lady. Your new religion got any practices Prez and the VP should know about?” Marvel leans forward and stares down the table.

Lady, straightening, spares a glare at Joker that promises retribution later, and then turns his attention to Marvel. “Like what?”

“Like having to have all the wedding guests witness the consummation? You know,” he goes on to spell it out as if we hadn’t already cottoned on, “watch their first fuck as married couples?”

“Whether it does or does not,” I call out, loudly, “that will not be happening here.”

Lady’s answer isn’t very reassuring. “Satanism’s easy, Brother. Basically it’s whatever you want.”

Blade’s looking from Lady to Marvel, then to me, and finally Hawk. Unfortunately he’s too far down the table for me to attempt to stop him with anything other than my death stare which still can’t be quite as good as Drum’s. It doesn’t have the effect I wanted, as he opens his mouth. “So, you’re saying, we could all agree we want to witness them fuckin’ to make the weddings legal?”

Hawk speaks up from beside me. “You want to retain what use you have in those hands of yours, Brother?” His voice is deceptively even. But it changes as he snarls, “If you do, then you can shut the fuck up. I’m not fuckin’ my ol’ lady for your entertainment.”

“Spoilsports,” says Rock who I thought would be on my side. “We could have had bets on who’d last longest.”

Hawk happens to catch my eye at that moment and damn me, for a second I wonder who’d win and then pushing down my competitive streak fast, I bang the gavel. “No fuckin’ in public. No baptism in blood, urine or whatever else you’ve a mind to come up with.”

“I’d have a twenty on Hawk,” Marvel mutters to Rock out of the side of his mouth.

What the…?

“Oh, Prez, your face.” Drummer’s pointing and doubling up.

“Why the VP?” Wraith wonders aloud.

“Age, of course…”

“Shut. The. Fuck. Up.” I bang the gavel a few more times. God, they’re going to kill me. “I’ll move a motion to ban F.O.G.s from this table if you don’t zip your fuckin’ mouths shut.”

My lips twitch as Drummer makes a show of pinching his finger and thumb against his lips and making a zipping motion. In all the years he was sat at the head of this table, I would never have expected him to be so relaxed as to do that.

“Right,” I start, my voice loud enough to cut through the laughter. “Let’s get back to why it’s necessary to have the wedding here, behind our gates.” I turn to Mouse. “Any more chatter?”

“Suspiciously quiet, Prez,” my brother-in-law respectfully replies. “You found anything?”

He’s right. I’ve been trying to find what I can too. Something like this needs both our minds on it. “Apart from that initial whisper two weeks back, nothing.”

We’d picked up a reference linking two things together. Satan’s Devils and Archangel. But whether a promise or a threat, we couldn’t be certain. We’re treating it as the latter.

The double wedding for me and my VP is a massive occasion, and Satan’s Devils will be coming in from all chapters, all Prezes and VPs as well as other senior officers will be present. It hadn’t taken more than a minute for it to dawn on us that should anyone want to damage the club, a direct hit on all the top men at once would be hard to resist.

“I’m in discussion with the sergeant-at-arms and enforcers of the other chapters,” Hound puts in. “They’re bringing extra members to beef up our security. I want the whole perimeter monitored with eyes as well as cameras before, during and after the festivities.”

“Mouse and I have discussed putting in more pressure sensors, further out from the current ones. We’ll need early warning if Archangel’s managed to pull together an army.”

“They don’t even have to be loyal to the cause,” Peg puts in, grumpily. “Or to be paid. Many would jump at the chance to act violently, don’t need anything other than the opportunity to smash a few heads.”

“Won’t be smashing heads if Archangel’s coming for us.” Throttle stares at his dad. “It will be war. What they’ll want is us dead.”

“That’s if Archangel knows we betrayed him,” Rock says.

“You want to take a chance he doesn’t?” Throttle shifts his gaze across the table. “I don’t, and I won’t.”

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