As Rebel took a deep breath and let it out slowly, Ranger took the opportunity to be a dick. “‘O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou, Romeo?’“ Ranger cooed in a high-pitch voice.
Rebel stood up and headed back around the table, since that was where the door was located, shooting them the finger over his shoulder as his ‘friends’ laughed their asses off.
“‘Parting is such sweet sorrow,’“ Ranger shouted as Rebel approached the door.
“We’re not done, Rebel,” Axle said through his laughter. “Sit back down.”
“We’re done discussing Ruby… for now,” Rebel insisted, hand on the doorknob.
Axle gave a nod. “Okay. We have club business, though.” He waited while Rebel returned to his seat. “Pike?”
Pike cleared his throat. “Okay. So, I’ve talked to them and so has Axle and Rebel. We think the best thing for the twins would be to prospect, and they’re interested. I would be Ross’s sponsor.”
“I’ll be Ryker’s sponsor,” Ranger stated.
“Anyone object?” Axle looked around the table. When no one said anything, he gave a nod. “Get them cuts and put them to work.”
“Nice,” Ranger commented with a smile.
“Emerson,” Axle said.
It was like all the happiness was sucked out of the room at the mention of the young wolf.
Days ago, Axle’s sister-in-law died in the war with the Hell’s Dogs MC. She had married Emerson only weeks ago. The pain and grief Emerson was feeling was something not many of them would ever understand.
“He’s not ready,” Axle commented. “When he is, I need one of you to sponsor him. We need to keep an eye on him. I think the best way would be to let him prospect.”
Top cleared his throat. “I’ll sponsor.”
“Any objections?”
There wasn’t even a cough. The room was silent. They knew the struggle with Emerson was going to be keeping him from doing anything crazy, and the best way to do that was to put him in a position where he would be taking orders from them for most of the day. Eliminating his free time would limit the amount of time he had to drown in his grief.
“I’ll update you all when the time comes.”
Messer
Looking around the room at the group of wannabe badasses, Messer barely resisted rolling her eyes. The group consisted of the elderly, the weak, and the dumb. If she was reading them right, they were hoping she’d do their bidding.
Messer could play along, but there was no way she was going to be a pawn in their game. She was there for information gathering, and this group of inflated-egos seemed like a great place to start.
“So, what do you think?” The man with the buzz cut and the polo shirt, who introduced himself as Daniel, one of the owners of the hardware store, was giving her an appreciating glance that made her skin crawl. She didn’t do pretty boys.
Resisting the urge to roll her eyesagain, she pasted a smile on her face and fluttered her lashes a bit. “I’m blown away. It’s a great plan.”
She could almost see the man’s ego inflate even more as he straightened and puffed out his chest. “We’ve already started the boycotting phase. We’re boycotting their businesses and any business that they support or that has shown support to them. We also plan to pull funding from places where theirfamilymembers work. They call them family members, but they’re really their women.”
His brother, Charles, nodded his head and scowled at the floor. “If those whores choose to open their legs to those…monsters, they can take the heat for them, starting with that damn librarian.”
“Leave it to me.” The elderly woman across the room from her had a self-satisfied grin on her face.
Not knowing what the hell they were talking about, Messer just nodded and listened while they shot encouragement around the room at each other.
“Bobby’s Bar is a target, too,” the woman who introduced herself as Gladys Smith uttered.
Her husband nodded and replied, “Yes, Bobby may not employ them anymore, but he would and has in the past.”
“Thosemonstersfoundthreeof their whores there!“ blurted the man who said he owned the largest farm in the area. She was pretty sure his last name was White, and he was married to the librarian harasser.