Page 12 of Mac (Demented Souls #7)

M ac changed shirts and pulled on his kutte, wishing he could have stayed at Elyse's house.

For the first time in longer than he cared to remember, there was something he wanted more than he wanted to keep Tuck happy.

Still, he didn't want to end up on the prez's shit list, so he was doing as he was asked.

Being on Tuck's shit list would only cost him more in the long run.

Time that he might be able to talk his fucking hot neighbor lady to spend with him.

On the road, he let his time with Elyse replay through his mind, the sultry sway to her hips when she walked.

The light, sweet, teasing scent of her as she moved past him.

The swing of her hair as she flipped it out of her face.

He didn't think she was even aware of that last one.

It looked like a habitual move, one she'd done for so long, she didn't think about it anymore, it just happened.

The trip didn't take long and less than fifteen minutes after he left his house, he pulled into the yard at the clubhouse.

As he walked his bike backward into its position in line, he pushed Elyse from his mind and turned to what was coming.

All Tuck had said on the phone was that the new prospect had arrived, and they were calling everyone in to meet him.

Well everyone who could. Not everyone could drop everything and come in.

There were some with businesses that needed their attention, even at this hour, and others who were busy on club business.

They'd get their turn to meet the new guy later.

Mac left his helmet on his bike and glanced down the line of bikes.

There wasn't one he didn't recognize so maybe the new guy didn't have one yet, or maybe it just wasn't here yet.

Either way, the best way to find out was to go inside, so that's what he did.

He stepped in the door and let it swing shut behind him as he went to the bar and motioned to Jailbait.

"What can I get you?" she asked, her tone as sweet and pleasing as always.

"Give me a bottle of the Glenfiddich 12 and a couple glasses.

" Mac scanned the room while he waited for her to bring those to him.

It looked like most Saturday nights in here.

A few guys watching tv, a couple watching one of the whores spin around the pole in the corner, a few more playing pool at one of the tables at the far end, and more scattered at the tables that filled most of the room.

Some of the men had women with them, more and more of that happening as his brothers found women to share their lives with.

Mac shook his head wondering when he'd become the minority as a single man.

He wasn't really a minority, but sometimes it felt that way.

He spotted Tuck sitting at one of the tables, a kid sitting at the table with him, but no one else nearby.

"Here you are. Can I get you anything else?

" Jailbait set his bottle and glasses on the counter and flipped her ponytail, making Mac shake his head.

She belonged to their newest patched member, Dumbass, but there was still that element of flirting with everyone she hadn't lost from her days as a hooker.

He didn't blame her, but he wasn't going to engage her.

The last thing he wanted was for Dumbass to come after him for disrespecting his girl.

"Thanks." Mac picked up the glasses then grabbed the bottle by the neck and headed over to where the prez sat.

"Who's this?" He nodded to the new kid as he pulled out a chair with one foot and set the pair of glasses on the table. He sat and twisted the lid off.

"This is Savage," Tuck said as Mac poured two fingers of whiskey into a glass.

"Nice to meet you, Savage. You drink scotch?"

"Sure, why not."

Mac pushed the glass he'd just poured toward the kid and poured more into the second glass before re-capping the bottle. He might have offered some to Tuck, but Tuck already had a bottle of Jack and he knew, Tuck didn't drink scotch. That was fine by Mac, more for him.

"So, Savage huh? How'd you come by that name?"

"I was born into it." Savage picked up the glass Mac had poured him and took a sip. "My parents call me Tom, but I've been Savage to the rest of the world since before Boot Camp."

"Boot camp, huh? So, you're a squid?"

"They called me that for a while, but squid stopped after BUD/S."

"So not a squid but a frogman? I'll drink to that." Mac took a swallow from his glass without waiting for Savage. If the new guy had been a SEAL, he didn't have much left to prove to Mac. But Mac didn't make the decisions to patch someone in. "Why'd you leave?"

"Why does anyone leave? I got hurt."

"Too bad." Mac glanced around the room, there were too many present who weren't brothers to ask for much more.

There was no way he would ask what his agency was here.

He'd have to wait until later, when they were in the back room, to ask Tuck or Gizmo.

They wouldn't have let him even show up here if they hadn't already checked him out.

"Did you serve?" Savage asked.

"Once upon a time, a long time ago, yeah. But I was a Joe and I only did one enlistment." Mac shrugged. "It got me out of the hole in the wall in the mid-west and let me see the world."

"Mid-west?" Savage's brows lifted. "That doesn't sound like a mid-west accent to me. Where you from?"

"St. Louis, by way of Inverness. My da was from Scotland. We lived there until I was ten, then my ma's folks got sick and we came to the US. I spent the rest of my childhood in Missouri, but I never quite lost the brogue." Mac shrugged.

"You should hear him when he gets pissed," Tuck said to Savage, but tilting the top of his head toward Mac. "That brogue gets so thick you can barely understand every third or fourth word, to hell with trying to figure out all of it."

Savage looked at Mac with wide eyes while Mac just chuckled and shook his head.

He'd like to argue but the president was more than a little right.

Any time Mac let his emotions get the best of him, whether it was anger or something else, his Gaelic came out, as his mother used to say.

Personally, Mac thought it was hard to hide with his hair, but Ma used to say the same thing about Da when he got upset too, though Mac could only remember that happening a couple of times in his whole life, well the whole life when he'd had them.

He didn't know if it had happened more and he had just forgotten it or if he hadn't seen it very much.

Maybe he hadn't noticed it until he was older and didn't have as much of the accent anymore.

Either way, there was no one for him to ask anymore, so no use in wondering.

"Where are you from, Savage?" Mac was tired of being the subject of the conversation, so he tried to turn the topic onto something else.

"Most recently from California, but I grew up in Las Vegas."

"So, you're not too far from home here." Mac nodded, it was only about an eight-hour drive to get from here to Vegas, and an hour and half if you flew. No not too far at all.

"No, but there's nothing left there anymore. Not in Vegas, nor San Diego."

"At least being from Vegas the heat here won't be a shock. It's actually a little cooler here than Vegas."

"That's good to know. I'm not as used to it as I once was. I got a little spoiled by the ocean. It keeps the worst of the heat at bay, but damn it gets humid. and sometimes the wind coming off the water is downright cold."

Mac chuckled. He wouldn't tell the kid that they sometimes got snow here.

He'd let him find that one out on his own.

Besides, it wasn't often, not even something you could count on getting every winter, not down here.

On the mountains surrounding the town, there they usually got snow, but in town, only once or twice every few years.

He tipped up his scotch again, wondering if this was why Tuck had called him in or if they were going to have a more formal meeting too.

He wanted to ask but then again, he didn't. Especially not since he'd had to give up an evening with Elyse just to meet the new kid, though really, if they guy had been a SEAL, he was older than a lot of their usual prospects, and not really the kid Mac thought of him as.

"I'm going to give the rest of the guys about ten or fifteen minutes to show up, those who can, then we'll go in the other room and we can talk more," Tuck said, standing.

His chair scrapped the rough cement floor, making a loud screeching sound.

"I'm going to check in with Jailbait then go upstairs for a few things.

I'll let everyone know when I'm ready to start the meeting.

" Tuck's gaze swung to Savage. "I'll want you in there this time. "

Savage nodded, and Tuck left the two of them sitting at the table as he went to do his business.

"Jailbait?" Savage's question brought Mac back to the present. He gave his head a shake to knock his errant thoughts away then glanced toward the bar.

"Yeah, that's her." Mac tilted his head toward where Tuck was talking to the girl in question. "She's not only old enough to be in here legally, and to serve that booze, she's Dumbass' ol' lady."

Savage looked at the girl, narrowed his eyes, then blinked. His brows almost to the hairline of his shaggy, overgrown blond hair. "She's twenty-one? You're sure?"

"Twenty-two or twenty-three by now, actually.

" Mac watched her a moment. "She was twenty-one when she got here, we checked.

She was part of a group of hookers that had been dropped in our territory by a rival club.

We picked them up and kept them, but not really.

We helped the ones who wanted out, sent them home if they wanted.

That kind of thing. Jailbait's the only one who hung around. "

"Your guy know she was a hooker?"