Page 5

CHAPTER 5

Kilo

“ B rother,” I said as I bumped Drifter’s fist. It was early and most of my club was already at the compound. Ruck had gotten a wild hair up his ass once he got a chance to see the Tucson clubhouse. He loved it.

Now we were spending most of our days off building one that was similar. The existing building would still be used for parties and get togethers, but there would be a second building with apartments.

“Remind me what we need apartments for?” Code asked. He wiped his forearm across his brow. It was already hot as balls and it was only seven in the morning. That was what July in Phoenix got you. Heat stroke.

“Damn expensive,” Flir muttered. He was the treasurer for our club and this whole business was making him cranky. He didn’t like parting with money, even if it wasn’t his own.

“It’ll be worth it,” Ruck told him, his tone saying they’d had this discussion more than once before. “It’s so you assholes have somewhere to stay when you get too damn drunk to drive home,” he answered Code this time.

“Floor’s always been good enough before, Prez,” Code said, rubbing the back of his neck. When Ruck straightened up and gave him a grim look Code shrugged. “Whatever you want. It’s not a problem.”

Code had only been patched in about a year ago. He was still young, but he was a damn good member so far. He hardly ever bitched, so to hear him asking why we’d decided—as a club—to do something was a surprise. It was the heat. Phoenix in the summer may as well be the surface of the sun. It was all the damn blacktop. It attracted the heat to this city and made it damn near unbearable.

Ruck didn’t want those apartments for the nights we partied too hard. The man was always five steps ahead of the rest of us. He’d seen the Viking’s Rampage and what they were doing down in Tucson. They were building families. And even though they still fought for their club and their city, those families were having a calming effect on the guys. They were still dangerous as fuck, the battle up in the mountains against assassins, hit men, and sicarios was a prime example of that.

Not one of them had shied away from that fight, not even Butcher’s old lady, who happened to be an assassin herself. They’d loaded up their weapons and taken the fight to the assholes coming for their own. But they had something to fight for . And that was intriguing to Ruck. He knew most of us were getting restless, and as our leader, he wanted to see us content and happy.

I glanced over at Ruck and found him watching me with narrowed eyes. “Sorry I’m late.”

“You’re not even supposed to be here this morning,” he reminded me. “What’s the face for?”

“What’d you mean, Prez?” I asked, feigning innocence.

“That stupid ass grin? Why am I staring at it this early?”

I busted out laughing. Ruck was more of a night owl. Getting up this early was making him a cranky fucker. Me? My eyes opened at five a.m. every day, like clockwork. “How did you make it through so many years of service when you hate getting up early?” I asked, dodging his question. I wasn’t about to tell him that my ‘stupid ass grin’ was because I knew what he was up to. He wanted to play matchmaker and start finding our brothers some women.

Not the bunnies. No one was about to wife up the women who hung around here. Some of them were nice enough girls, but if anyone was into them, they’d have already made them old ladies.

“Persistence,” he muttered. “You asked for the day off, Kilo. Why’re you here?”

“‘Bout that,” I told him. “Have a…friend. Window was broken out in the monsoon the other night.” It’d been three days and Camila hadn’t gotten that window fixed yet. I knew why. It was hard as hell to get contractors out to a small job like that in the dead of summer.

Despite our summers being hell on Earth, with scorching temperatures and scatterings of storms that wreaked havoc around here, it was the height of construction season. Even the smaller handymen were booked out weeks, or months, in advance. If you managed to get anyone to even answer a phone call, you were damn fucking lucky.

“Sucks,” Ruck said, waiting for me to get to my point.

“Wanted to see if I could take one of those,” I pointed over toward the windows and other supplies that were stacked inside the steel building we used as a maintenance space for our bikes.

He looked over at the windows, and I could see the gears in his head turning. He was counting out how many he had versus how many he’d need.

“I’ll pay you for it. I just didn’t want to have to wait in rush hour traffic to make it to the store to buy one.”

“You don’t need to pay for it,” he said, sounding offended that I’d even offer.

That was Ruck. The man would give you the shirt off his back. Even if it was his last. He didn’t even ask which friend I needed the window for. He just knew I needed it.

“Take whatever you need to get the job done,” he told me. “But run it all by Flir so that we can make sure to pick up more later.”

“No problem. Thanks, Ruck.”

“This for your lady friend?” Overdrive asked from behind me.

Ruck’s brows shot up. He’d bent over to pick up a board, but straightened up again. Staring at me, he crossed his arms over his chest. “What lady friend?”

“She lives next door to him. Cooks like an angel,” Overdrive sighed.

Ruck’s amused gaze met mine. “She made you food?”

“Tacos,” Overdrive moaned before I could answer. “Best fucking tacos I’ve ever eaten. Does she have a sister?” he asked, a hopeful look on his face.

“Yeah,” I replied. I grinned at him. “She’s like eleven.”

“That’s just fucking mean,” he muttered. “A mama? I don’t mind my women being a little bit older.”

“Not happening,” I growled at him. “Go find your own woman.”

“Meh,” he scoffed. “I don’t want to be tied down. Just want more tacos.”

A month ago, I would have agreed with him wholeheartedly. Now? I wasn’t so sure anymore. The girl next door kept calling to me. She was fascinating. I often caught fear in her eyes, but then a few days ago she strolled right into my shop and bought a gun. Then had bolted so fast, I hadn’t even gotten to chat her up more. She was a walking contradiction and I really wanted—no, needed—to get to the bottom of her.

“I’ll leave it up to Kilo to make new friends,” Overdrive added.

I glared at him over my shoulder. “Least I have a friend,” I told him.

He grabbed his chest, over his heart, and gave me a wounded look, then he flipped me off with a grin as he walked away.

I looked over and sighed when I found Ruck still watching me with an amused look. “Don’t go getting your hopes up. She’s cute. That’s all.”

“Uh huh,” he replied. “And that’s why you’re giving up a day off to go fix her window for her.”

“I have four days a week off,” I told him. “It’s not exactly a hardship.” The last thing I needed was Ruck shoving me into something I wasn’t ready for. I was handling that part on my own just fucking fine. If I stopped and thought about it, I was going to lose my shit and hole myself up somewhere while going on a bender. I didn’t need, or want, an old lady. It was exactly as I said. Camila was cute. Well, I’d downplayed that.

She’s drop dead gorgeous with a little body that I want to-

Breaking off the thought, I walked away from my president before I admitted something that I wasn’t ready for anyone to know. She’d invaded my mind and I couldn’t evict her. I went over to the garage and started picking through what I’d need.

“You need any help?”

I glanced over my shoulder at Bolo and shook my head. “I’m just framing in a window. You taught me how to do that years ago.”

He grinned. “Didn’t even know how to hold a fucking hammer back then.”

“And I made you a better shooter,” I pointed out. “Made your range masters a lot happier with your scores.”

If Bolo could, he’d just bash the enemy’s skull in every time. He was a big man and could fight like a damn demon. Guns looked like toys in his hands. It was no wonder he’d struggled during qualifications with the pistol. At one point he’d gotten pissed and just chucked the weapon at the target. When it hit dead center, he’d pointed at it. Like, see? I don’t need to shoot shit.

He was great with the shotgun and rifle. But it’d taken some work, patience, and some modifications to his service pistol to get him there with his handgun. Now he was damn near as good as I was. And still he’d choose snapping a man’s neck over shooting him if he had the chance. He was a man who was used to working with his hands.

“Thanks,” I told him. “But I’ve got it. I don’t want to take you away from this place for the day.”

Bolo was the reason this project was running smoothly. He’d worked with his dad at their construction company since he was a kid. Still helped out with it even though it was his older brother running it now.

Not that the rest of us were useless, we just didn’t have the experience.

Bolo nodded and got back to work. I started loading up the materials I’d need into one of the cage rides. It didn’t take long before Flir started hovering. “Go away,” I told him.

“What’re you doing?” he asked, looking at the pile of stuff I was loading up.

“What’s it look like?”

“Looks like eight hundred and forty-three dollars,” he replied, then frowned as he double checked his math in his head. “And thirty-eight cents.”

“Ruck said I could take it,” I told him. “Grab the other end.” Since he was here, hovering, I was going to make use of him. We gently put the window in the back of the truck and I strapped it down.

By the time I jumped out of the truck, Flir was circling like a shark, scribbling on a piece of paper. “Where’d you get that?” I asked, looking around.

“Do you have two, or three of those two by fours?”

“Four of ‘em.” I crossed my arms over my chest, content to sit and answer all his questions now that I was done.

“Why do you need two buckets of nails?”

“In case I need two of ‘em,” I replied. He glared at me, but wrote them down.

“Let me know if you end up bringing anything back.”

I gave him a short wave and headed around the cab to get into the driver’s seat.

“I mean it!”

This time I waved with my middle finger as I drove off. Fuck, I loved my brothers. Each and every one of the crazy bastards.