Page 29 of Vapor

“Always.”

My phone buzzes. I check the screen.“Ice says they should be back in twenty minutes. Any grub left?”

“You didn’t eat at the fancy-schmancy shindig? Where’s my to-go box?” Fang snickers as he pushes his glasses up his nose.

“Fucking nerd.”

“You know it, baby!”

“I’m going to see if Babet’s around.” I push out of the chair and head toward the door.

“She made some jambalaya earlier. And skillet cornbread. Oh, and those green beans with bacon.” Fang imitates a chef’s kiss.“Perfection.”

“Right on.”

I head downstairs toward the kitchen. One of the club sluts blocks my path.

“Vapor, baby. Want to go upstairs and fuck like minks?” Jolene asks.

“No.” I brush past her, but she grabs my wrist.

“I’ll let you put it in my ass if you want. I know you like that.” She gives me a coy smile.

In the past, I would have tossed her over my shoulder and taken her upstairs to rail all night. But not tonight. I’ve got someone else on my mind and Jolene doesn’t appeal to me at all.

“No, thanks.”

“Are you tired, baby?” She walks up behind me and grabs my shoulders, massaging them.“I could make you feel so good.”

“Fuck off!”

“You’re such a fucking asshole. I don’t know why I even bother,” she whines.

I don’t know what the hell I ever saw in her. Sure, she’s got a nice tight cunt, but that’s the only thing she’d got going for her. She’s catty with the personality of a viper. Not my type at all. But I’ll admit, I did fuck her more than a few times. Sometimes a guy’s got to nut in someone, which is why we keep the club sluts around.

When I walk into the kitchen, Babet’s standing at the stove, smirking her ass off at me.“Never thought I’d see the day. So, who is she?”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lie as I take a seat at the long kitchen table.

Babet’s a fixture in the house, but not because she’s a young piece of ass. She’s fifty-five and acts like a grandmother to everyone in the club, even the sluts. I’ve seen her giving those chicks advice that they should take, but they never do. But I listen to Babet all the time. She’s seen a lot of shit, which makes her wise as fuck.

She’s wearing one of her wildly colored muumuu dresses. Her spiky white hair is gelled up, giving her a punk-grandma vibe. And if that’s not a thing, she’s sure as hell going to make it one.

Despite the hell she’s been through in her life, she’s the most caring, compassionate woman I’ve ever met. She was working as a madam in a local brothel when we met. Drugged out of her fucking mind and a total mess. I guess you could say we saved her.

We shut down the house of prostitution she was running and gave her an ultimatum. Get clean or die. She got clean. We kept her locked up for a few months until we were sure she was over the addiction. She’s been clean for eight years now and has never looked back.

Something bad happened to her a long time ago, but she’s never told me about it. You don’t get that hooked unless you’re trying to outrun your demons. She’s got them. I just don’t know who or what they are. Maybe one day she’ll tell me.

“Cornbread’s in the oven. Popped it back in there when I heard you come home. It’s still warm.” Her deep brown eyes study me before she goes back to stirring spices into the gumbo she’s making for tomorrow.

“Anything going on in the house I should know about?” I ask her.

The woman’s got eyes in the back of her head and misses nothing. I check in from time to time to make sure I’m not missing anything. There’s so much shit going on outside the clubhouse that I could miss something happening here. Because of that, I don’t like to be gone too much.

“Tank and Vicki are fucking like rabbits. He’s going to knock her up if he doesn’t watch it.”

“Can you talk to him about it?” I ask.

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