Page 25 of The Biker and the Professor
This is crazy, and insane, and I’m pretty sure I’ve lost my damn mind.
Yet, I’ve never felt more alive.
Chapter 9
Nero
I wait untilshe’s asleep before I ease out of bed. There’s nothing I want more than to lie here in her warmth and fade into unconsciousness with her, but there’s something I need to do first.
Quiet and mindful, I dress and head downstairs. I’m pissed, that Cookie would even take it upon herself to bring Toni into this environment. It’s bad enough that her meddling ass lives right next door to my woman. Now I’ve got to deal with this shit?
Breaking my stride, I fish a cig from my pocket and light it up. After taking a long, calming pull, I carry on to the bonfire.
“Yo!” Scratch yells when he spots me, jogging through the throngs to get to me. “Wanna tell me who that was?”
“No one,” I clip, breathing smoke through my nostrils.
He scoffs. “Didn’t seem like no one to me. Kenny says she’s the owner of the Porsche you’ve been slaving on. That true?”
“No,” I lie. But they’d find out the truth soon enough, so long as Cookie’s her neighbor. “Where’s Cookie?”
“Up front. In a meeting with Judge.” He swigs his beer. “That chick, you sharing? She’s shit-hot, man. That’s some posh pussy right there. Where’d you find her?”
Blood boiling, I lock eyes with him so he’ll know how serious I am when I warn, “You so much aslookin her direction, and I’ll gouge your goddamn eyes out.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” His hands go up in surrender, a shit-eating grin on his face. “Why so violent for this chick who’s supposedlyno one?”
When I make to advance on him, he shoves my shoulder and laughs. “Just messing with you, man. Figured she was someone important once Cookie asked me to babysit. Just didn’t know she was yours.”
Asshole. He baited me and I played right into it. “Gonna find Cookie,” I grumble, leaving the bonfire.
Smoke and cigarette ash in my wake, I head straight up front to the bar, then to the back where Judge’s meeting room is. On purpose, I bang on the door with unnecessary force.
“What?” Judge’s gruff voice reverberates from the other side.
Without answering or waiting, I break the rules and wrench open the door.
Judge glares at me from the head of the table, his gray eyes like ice, his long, red beard twitching as he booms, “Someone better be dead, boy.”
There was a time when I feared his wrath, but not anymore. I was sick of all this club shit.
Ignoring him, I search the office for Cookie. She’s sitting backward on a chair. Propped up on the table beside her is Onyx, her nephew, Judge’s son.
A family meeting.
She smirks at me. Of course. She knows why I’ve sought her out.
“What. The. Fuck?” I growl at her.
She merely shrugs. “She wanted to see you.”
“It’s not your place to bring her here, Cookie,” I grit out.
“What’s the big deal?” she argues, challenging me. “This is your home, isn’t it? These are your people, aren’t they? What, you ashamed of us now?”
At that moment, I realize what’s happening. Why she did it.
It’s not going unnoticed that I’m pulling away. There’s probably even talks and meetings behind my back. But what the hell do they expect? Countless times I’ve voiced my thoughts about all the illegal shit the club is involved in. Countless meetings we’ve had about going straight and disentangling ourselves from the bullshit so less of our brothers would end up dead or sent to the pit. But all those meetings have been just that,meetings. All talk, no action.
