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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CY

“I don’t like this,” I announce to my brothers all gathered around the room after getting back from the meeting. The owner took the deal Rebel offered him that Malice told her to offer, but Alanna’s mother had also been there.

I don’t know what I was expecting of the woman, but the cold-hearted look on her face and the icy expression she delivered to all of us wasn’t one of them.

“I don’t either, but the fact we got that land ordeal handled is a win,” Hammer remarks looking at Malice. “You good with that?”

“Yeah, I’ll give Wesley a call later and tell him the club now owns that part of the land,” my VP states, nodding, knuckles tapping the table. “Think maybe we can put that land to use?”

“What do you have in mind?” Gunner asks.

“We’ve got business coming our way from all directions. We’re the middleman between the Mississippi Charter now and both Virginia Charters. That land can be used for storing guns and other shit. With the compound butting up against it, we’d have security detail on it. Wesley could even put up cameras and explain the compound he’s got going on right now.”

“We leave our guns in the hands of people outside the club?” Dagger asks, brows furrowed.

“No, we make a rotation for someone to be out there when we know we’ve got something on the property. He’ll put a safehouse out there in the middle of it. No one will know about the damn place, except for anyone in this room and those we let know about it.”

“I gotta agree with VP on this, it would be a good idea. Keep others from knowing what we’re up to. Cops could search our businesses and the clubhouse without there being a chance of them finding a damn thing,” I say, my mind already compiling a list of all the shit I could do to ensure the security and help Wesley in enhancing his own. Granted, that man and those a part of his militia were damn paranoid enough as it was and took security to a whole level of its own, but I could make it even better.

“I like the idea of a safe house out there,” Hammer agrees. “We’ll talk more about it later. If we’re gonna store other charters’ shit, we’ll have to run it by each charter. Get their thoughts on it. Maybe even get them in on the rotation if they agree.”

Malice nods and leans back in his seat, eyes coming to me. “What are we gonna do about Alanna’s family?”

“Gotta admit, her brothers are something else,” Bruiser speaks up, getting my attention. “Don’t think you’ve got anything to worry about regarding them, brother. Only thing they want is to be able to see their sister and know she’s safe.”

“What makes you say that?” Rogue asks.

“Spent time in their presence, and all they wanted to do was talk to Alanna. Davis brought some shit for her to make hot fuckin’ chocolate of all damn things from fuckin’ Germany.”

At this tidbit, a grin pulls at my lips. “My woman loves her hot chocolate. Hell, think she puts the shit in her coffee.”

“Yeah, well, she tried to give them the cold shoulder, but they wore her down. They didn’t get close to her, it seemed they were respecting her space, but they didn’t want her out of their sights. Davis had gotten a phone call from one of the three phones he pulled out of his pocket, showed his brother, looked at me, shook his head, and ignored it the first time it rang. It rang again, he took the call. Was from their mother. Straight up told her he had nothing to say to her and that if she continued to call him, he’d make sure she learns not to do it again. I’m thinking with all this shit, Alanna’s brothers are done with the mom completely.”

It doesn’t surprise me what Bruiser shares about the brothers. They’d done everything they could to keep themselves deployed as much as possible to be away from her. I’m guessing this was also their way of protecting Alanna.

“What were you able to find out before all this shit?” Hammer asks.

“The dad is in debt up to his eyeballs. Seems he’s also gotten into a human trafficking ring, nothing like what we’d experienced or witnessed already where they all seemed to be within the country. No, he’s got a buyer lined up for Charlotte in Hungary.”

The fuck?” Rogue snarls.

“Hungary, seriously?” Savage growls.

“That’s where the trail into him has led me so far,” I tell ‘em and finish giving them all I have on the man who was supposedly Alanna’s father. I end my report with a simple, “The mother is just a piece of work all of her own. She wants back what she claims as hers. Alanna because that’s her daughter and Charlotte because she claimed she was going to raise the child as hers after Alanna refused to tell her who the father was.”

A terse silence fills the room once I finish speaking, and I look straight to Hammer to see him visibly grinding his teeth.

“You know I’m tempted to ride the fuck out, go find both that bitch and her weaselly dickhead of a husband and end this bullshit for Alanna right fuckin’ now,” my Prez states through gritted teeth.

“We ride out and take care of it, Charlotte and Alanna are safe. Nothing to worry about,” Savage grunts.

“Except we don’t do it right, things could go seriously wrong for us. That bitch is high profile. We don’t need to put a target on our backs,” Malice reasons.

“Maybe so, but we do it right, it could work out,” Gunner notes.

“We deal with the father first. He’s more of a threat to my woman and little girl,” I state, fingers clenching. “He’s already tried to take Alanna. Wrecked my fuckin’ truck, for that alone, he’s going to suffer. But I want him to know pain unlike anything he’s ever experienced in his life.”

“What about the mother?” Hammer asks.

“I’m thinking we hit her where it will hurt more than just death alone. I’m thinking total destruction. She’s a controlling bitch, everything from her family she thinks she can control to her work. Destroy from the outside in.”

My brothers look at me a beat before each and every one of them starts either laughing, chuckling, or just grinning.

“Sounds like you’ve already got something ready for her,” Malice notes.

“Damn right, I fuckin’ do. I intend to make it known she doesn’t fuck with what’s mine without retaliation. Or, in this instance, full-on destruction.” No way was I letting that bitch get away with anything without feeling it. She’s going to pay just like the father was gonna pay. I didn’t care how I had to do it so long as I did it. I just wanted to find out a few more things before I set plans into action.

One of them being who Alanna’s real father is. The other being why she refused to see what was going on in her own home.

“We’ll come back to the table tomorrow. For now, let’s go eat. Clubhouse was smelling damn good when we got back here.”

“Alanna made fuckin’ chili, enough to feed an army,” Bruiser announces.

Fucking hell. The woman should be working in a damn restaurant with what all she does instead of as a receptionist for my cousin. If her chili is anything like what she baked, then I might have to talk her into doing just that.