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CHAPTER NINETEEN

CY

“What do you know about the property?”

I glance at my cousin as she stares at Alanna’s brothers in disbelief.

“What property are you talking about?” I demand, not liking the fact I don’t know what they’re talking about.

I glance between Alanna and Rebel and see them share a look. What neither of them do is answer my question. Instead, Rebel looks back to Alanna’s brothers.

“I’m waiting,” she mutters, Jett snuggled close to her chest.

I remember when she found out she was pregnant. She’d been happier than I’d ever seen her. Even more so than when Rogue and her got back together. What was hilarious was the fact that she’d been told she was having a girl during one of her ultrasounds. For the rest of her pregnancy, she and Rogue were looking forward to a girl, only for Jett to be a boy. Rogue thought it was hilarious and said that his boy was just toying with his momma.

I thought it was funny because they decked the baby’s room out for a girl and overnight, we transformed it into a boy’s room. We took and put motorcycle shit everywhere in there at Rogue’s request. He didn’t want Rebel worrying about anything other than taking care of their boy.

Since then, she’s done that and more.

“The people you’ve been speaking with work for the company our mother is now the owner of.”

“I know that,” Rebel mutters, standing straighter.

“You do?” Alanna’s response fills with disbelief.

Rebel nods, not taking her eyes away from the two men. “Yes. But that’s not important. What is though is the fact. . .” She hands Jett over to Rogue. “These two seem to think they’re going to be in on a meeting they should know nothing about. I want to know what they know and why they seem to think they’re going to be in this meeting.”

“Don’t know you, don’t care you’re Alanna’s brothers.” Rogue grunts. “You need to start talking. We’ve had enough bullshit in the past few years to go around. We don’t need more. Considering what happened this past weekend, we definitely don’t need more fuckin’ surprises.”

“Agreed,” Hammer states.

“Rebel,” I call, getting my cousin’s attention. “Get you have to do what you got with clients and confidentiality and all that shit, but right now, it can’t be about that. You need to share.”

My cousin looks at Alanna then back to me.

“Let me make a call. If my client agrees, then I’ll share. Okay?”

Not okay, but it was the only answer my cousin was going to give us for now.

“While Rebel gets on the phone, let’s move this party out of the way of the door,” Hammer commands more than suggests.

Those who know Hammer know not to speak against him when he makes an order. With what my Prez has experienced in his life and as a part of this club, he knows what the fuck he’s doing and talking about.

Keeping Alanna at my side, I shift us out of the way and watch her brothers staring me down as they move, walking past me and my brothers.

“I can’t believe they’re here,” Alanna whispers.

I’m not sure if she meant to say that aloud, but I heard her, and it pisses me off because she shouldn’t have to be in shock to see her brothers. Being pissed about that doesn’t help the fact I’m annoyed they’re showing now instead of doing more to protect her four years ago, they gave her money and sent her away.

Dipping my head down, I murmur for only her to hear, “I don’t like the fact they’re here. Until I know they’re to be trusted, you stay close to me. Charlotte isn’t to get near them. Got me?”

Alanna nods and tilts her head back. “Okay, but please give them a chance. I’ve missed them. I want Charlotte to know her uncles more than just in the emails they’ve sent.”

“I get what you’re saying, baby. I want to give that to you. You gotta trust me to do what I’ve gotta do for you and Charlotte. I don’t know them. Just what I’ve dug up. When it comes to the two of them and you, they are virtually strangers.” I don’t want to hurt Alanna, but she’s gotta know that I’ll do whatever it takes to keep her safe.

Besides my brothers and the club, the two of them are the most important people in my life. Hell, they’re at the top of that list, with the club coming second, and that’s something I’ll admit to myself but never aloud. I’m pretty certain it’s the same with my brothers who have women. However, no one voices it. It’s something we just all know. Then again, if something happened to one of the women that belonged to the club, shit would implode. No one fucks with those who belong within the club.

“I understand, Cy, but?—”

“No buts, Short Stuff,” I interrupt her and pull her even closer to me.

Alanna stares up at me for a long moment before finally nodding. “Fine, I’ll follow your lead on this, but just so you know, what Charlotte said, that’s not going to happen. I don’t want or need a cake. And you and me, we’ll see where this all goes. We didn’t get to finish our talk the other day.”

“Baby, there’s no seeing where this goes between us. You’re mine. You know it. You can’t deny it. When this shit’s over, I’m moving you into my place. Charlotte’s going to have her own room and we will have ours. No more you sleeping on a fuckin’ couch every night. No more you keeping your shit in closets in order to give Charlotte her own space. Until then, we’re here. Hopefully, though, we can get this shit resolved sooner rather than later.”

Rather than giving her a chance to come up with a response that will likely piss me off, I step away, take her hand, and follow the rest of the group to a table. I don’t know what the fuck’s in her head about why she seems to think she doesn’t need a cake. Or what she spewed about us seeing where it goes. No fucking way am I going to let her think she can say something like that and get away with it.

I’m not going to regress on the progress I’ve made with her. She’s shown me trust, and I’m not about to let her destroy the ground we’ve both made.

“Okay, so he’s given the go-ahead,” Rebel states, eyes on my woman.

“He knows what’s going to happen?” Alanna asks, her voice filled with concern.

“He knows.” Rebel nods.

“How about you two share who you’re talking about?” Hammer demands, losing patience.

Rebel takes a seat, and Alanna moves to the one next to her. I decide instead of sitting, I stand behind her like a fucking sentry.

“Our client is someone you all know,” Rebel starts, takes a breath, and looks directly at my VP. “Wesley Swann.”

“What the fuck is going on that he’s keeping from Willow and me?” Malice demands.

Rebel and Alanna quickly explain about the land that sits next to the compound. “Evidently, Wesley owns a partial amount of it to keep it from being sold as pertaining to a will of the previous owner. The son of the owner is trying to sell it and is claiming Wesley has no ownership of it. Considering I know the lawyer who wrote the decease’s will, he made sure it was written tight with no way around his wishes. Wesley doesn’t want the land sold unless it’s to him. And the son is wanting to sell to a company.”

“That company is owned by our mother,” Davis puts in.

Now, it’s making sense—all of it. Somehow the mother found her through this bullshit, and in turn, the father did. To make matters worse, Rebel’s smack in the middle of a land war, doing what she does best to help secure it for Willow’s grandfather.

Fucking hell.

It’s not something I’d want either her or my woman in the middle of.

“Why the fuck would you go meet with these people without someone at your back?” Rogue demands, eyes locked on Rebel. “You know you’re not supposed to go to meets like that without me knowing the dangers of it.”

“For your information,” Rebel snaps, coming to her feet. “I did have someone backing us up.” Her body goes tense, and she knows that tone. She’s about to get herself into a world of trouble with Rogue, and she knows it. “Since I could take you or have anyone here, I asked Grant to lend me someone. He sent his right-hand man, Calder Blanche.”

“What the fuck?” Rogue snarls and slams a fist on the table. “Have you lost your fuckin’ mind, woman?”

It’s a good thing that while Rebel was making her call, she took Jett to one of the other ol’ ladies.

“You had Calder Blanche watch out for you and my woman? I add in my own anger. I know exactly who Calder is. He’s a cold-blooded killer, but there’s only one time of year that he does it, and that’s December. Some joke around and say he’s like the Santa of hit lists. Instead of him having a naughty or nice list, he’s given a list of names for him to take out. He’s not a man you want to cross. And he’s Grant Devore’s right-hand man.

Fuck.

“Calder wasn’t anywhere near us. He stayed in the shadows and made sure that nothing happened to us,” Rebel argues.

“I don’t fuckin’ care.” I snarl, beating Rogue to it. “By not coming to us, you put yourself and Alanna in the line of fire. And because you didn’t have me do a check on any of this as you’ve done in the past, you’ve allowed Alanna to be targeted.”

“Don’t you yell at Rebel,” Alanna snaps, coming out of her seat and whirling around to face me. “She was doing what she needed to do. It doesn’t matter that I was found out. Or how. They’ve already found me.”

“Alanna,” I call in warning, not in the mood to hash this out with her right now.

“No, don’t Alanna me, don’t nothing. Damnit, just stop. Everyone. Just fucking stop.” Stepping around me, she stomps off, shouting over her shoulder. “Don’t you dare follow me. None of you. If you do, I’m going to scream and slap whoever gets near me.”

No one says a word until she’s well out of sight. Only then does Rebel whisper, “Do you think she means all of us or just you, Cy?”

“She means all of us,” Willis mutters, speaking for the first time since Rebel informed us about the property details. “One thing about Alanna is when she explodes, she goes off the handle. She hid it growing up from everyone but us.”

“She’s never done that before,” Rebel remarks.

“Gotta let her roll with it, get it out. Surprised y’all haven’t seen her do it in the past four years,” Davis grunts. “Way she’s written in her letters, I’d have figured you all would have seen it by now.”

It just goes to show how much I missed with her. If I’d gone after her when I first met her instead of giving her time to get used to me, trust me, I’d know this shit about her.

I’m going to seriously have to fix this fucked up shit. The sooner it gets taken care of, the sooner I’m able to get her to fully open up to me before she ends up self-destructing completely.

“I still have to go to this meeting, whether Alanna comes with me or not. I can’t let them win. I refuse to allow it.”

“We’ll go with you to the meeting,” Malice declares. “As Wesley’s my father-in-law, and he’s letting you handle this, I’m getting involved. They want to start a war? I’ll give them one. But you can also give that weasley S O B who wants to sell it an offer I’m sure he won’t refuse.”

“And that would be?” Rebel asks.

“I’ll write the number down. You give it to him. If he accepts, tell him it’ll be a cash offer, money in hand today.”

Oh fucking hell, Malice is going to dip into an account he’s said he wasn’t going to touch. Fucker’s got enough money, he nor his kids would ever have to work, but he’s refused to touch that money. I don’t blame him since it’s blood money.

There’s a difference in how we earn our money and his family. His siblings died because of that shit.

“You sure about that?” Hammer asks, and I shift my gaze to him seeing the way his brows are drawn together.

“Yeah, if it puts an end to this shit, then I’ll do what it takes. It’ll be one less thing we’ll have to deal with. Got enough on our hands as it is.”

“VP ain’t wrong.” I hate to admit it, but he’s right.

“Your call, Malice,” Hammer agrees and looks at Rebel. “You handle business, but we’ll be there to back you. From now on, woman, you best come to the club with this shit instead of letting someone else take your back. Got me?”

“Fine.” Rebel nods, eyes shifting to Rogue.

“We’ll discuss this later,” he growls, jaw ticking.

Oh yeah, my brother is fuckin’ pissed.

“If the club’s going to the meet, we’ll hang back and keep an eye on our sister.”

“No,” I grind out. “You aren’t staying here to watch her.”

“What the fuck is going on here?”

I turn at the sound of Bruiser’s voice coming from behind me. There’s no stopping the grin that slides in place at the sight of him and his woman. They’d been out of town for the past two weeks after getting hitched. I forgot he was due back any day.

“Brother, swear you got impeccable timing,” I tell him, chuckling.

“Yeah, why’s that?” His gaze goes past me, scans over our faces, and jerks his chin toward Alanna’s brothers. “Who’re the two clowns?”

“Bruiser,” Gwyneth snaps quietly, slapping at Bruiser’s chest. “Behave.”

“Glad you’re back, brother,” Hammer remarks, stepping around the table. “Would stick around and catch up, fill you in, but we’ve got shit to take care of. Need you to hang back with Dagger and the prospects,” he says and jerks his chin toward Davis and Willis. “And these two. Keep an eye out for anything to happen. Don’t let Alanna leave the clubhouse.”

Bruiser’s gaze swings to me, brow cocked. “You two finally workin’ your shit out?”

“Yeah.” It’s the only answer needed right now.

“About damn time.” He chuckles and shakes his head. “We’ll stick around here.”

“Appreciate it,” I tell him, shooting a glare at Alanna’s brothers. I still didn’t like that they were going to stay here, but with Bruiser and the others remaining back, I at least know they’ll keep an eye on Alanna and Charlotte. They won’t let anything happen to either my woman or the little girl who’s got me wrapped around her finger.