Page 4 of Patchover Fright Night
I shrugged, tugging my arm free, because nobody fucking grabs me, and he should know better. Especially since he grabbed my long term injured arm. If it spasmed because ofhim, I’d drag him on his face behind my fucking bike. Which, of course, I wouldn’t be able to ride back if he set it off.
“He’s paranoid, man. Thinks this is like some big scary mafia shit.”
Ryder cast his eyes around, watching the prospects closing the gates, and locking them.
“Maybe we should do a perimeter check, just to be sure nothing’s up.” Jesus, now we were all doing it.
“Yeah, you manage that shit, while I check in with captain paranoia. Fuck me,” I watched Micro slapping Reacher on the back as they chatted, “how the fuck is he alive, and running a fucking second chapter? I still wanna put a fucking knife in his so-called heart.”
“Ice, please, just give him a chance,” Lissa said, having appeared at the wrong fucking moment. As if that wasn’t bad enough, I had to watch her approach the fucker, and then she hugged him. Hell to the fucking NO. I stormed over to drag him away from my old lady.
“Shit, here we go,” Ryder cursed as he followed me.
Micro
It was actually unnervingas fuck, having the whole club here at our little secondary chapter, especially since Torch and Grace had come along too. They hadn’t come anywhere near me, but I really wanted to try and catch a word with Torch at some point, because surely, after all this time, he might feel willing to at least talk to me. I mean… wait, what thefuck was wrong with me? He’d been my closest fucking brother, and I stuck a knife in his back. I left him for dead. There was no way in hell he was ever going to let me anywhere near him, and he fucking shouldn’t.
“All set,interimpresident?”
Every time Stitch spoke to me, he emphasised that part, like he couldn’t let me forget, for one fucking second, that I was just their figurehead here. No matter how hard I’d worked, for the last seven months, to get the old Rogues club cleaned out, and rebuilt to fit the ethos of Phoenix MC.
“You know what,” I started, finally ready to fucking call him on it, but he jumped right over my words.
“I know you’re not about to give me some shit right now, prick. You’ve done okay so far, so don’t fuck it up now.”
Asshole.
I forced out a deep breath and nodded at him, swallowing several months’ worth of rage and frustration.
“All set, VP. Just tell me where you want me, and we’re good to go.”
“Drink delivery arrived!” Harley yelled, heading for the gates, while I frowned at Stitch. What fucking drink delivery? We had beer kegs, and bourbon, stockpiled already, and the plan was to get rat-arsed after the patchover ceremony, as much as it’d be any kind of ceremony with these two. They’d probably just yell to drop our old cuts, and hand out new ones. Who fucking knows.
“Drink delivery? You spending our budget on shit we don’t fucking need?”
Fucking hell. I couldn’t put a foot right with this fucker.
“Leave me to sort this. I have no fucking idea who ordered these.”
“Great work managing the place, fuckhead.”
Sophie caught my arm as I spun to react to his badgering, stroking my shoulder as she leaned close.
“He’s trying to get a reaction out of you. Just breathe, Micro. Today’s too important to let this ruin it. Let’s go and sort out this drink situation.”
We followed Harley to the gates, where he and two prospects were speaking with the delivery guy.
“We didn’t order anything,” I barked, as soon as we were within range, and Harley turned to me with a bemused grin.
“Compliments of Mr Rossi, apparently. A ‘surprise’ for us.”
“Look, just sign the form, please, I’ve got other deliveries.”
I rolled my eyes, and nodded at Harley to unload the crates of some pretentious fucking microbrew crap we’d never have ordered. You don’t turn away mafia gifts though, right?
Sophie smiled, turning to cup my face with both hands.
“See? All okay. It’s fine. Now, look, we both know I can’t drink tonight, but you can. So I want you to enjoy this night, because look how hard you worked to achieve this. How many fights and beatings it took, how many fucking dramas you had to smooth out. This club is Phoenix MC worthy now, and it’s because ofyou. So Stitch can be a prick, and surprises from the mafia can get in the way, but none of it can take from you what you achieved. You earned this, baby, and I’m so proud of you.”
