Page 33 of The First Cut

I grit my teeth and nod. No matter what, he’s still my president. But now that Lola’s mine, I don’t fucking like him talking shit about her.

“Moving on…G, you’ve been digging. Do you have anything to share?”

G nods, looking pissed. “I’ve been working with Byte, and we’ve managed to find links between Khan and five of the missing girls so far. There’s a lot more digging to do. Doesn't help that the sheriff did dick all investigating the disappearances. Any credible forensic evidence would be useless now, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a paper trail to follow.”

“Not like he was ever gonna see his day in court anyway. If this fucker’s trafficking girls, we’ll bury him our fucking selves,” Circus snaps.

“Yeah, we will. I just don’t have a lot to work with right now,” G tells him. “What we did find was a shitload of money being funneled into an offshore account. It seems Khan was preparing for a rainy day.”

“More like he was preparing for the day he’d need to flee to a country with no extradition laws.”

“Fucker should know that won’t stop us,” Havoc growls. “My gut says if Driller’s still hanging around, then Khan isn’t far either. There's strength in numbers, after all. Right now, Elmo's keeping this quiet. We want as much information as possible before we take down Khan because they’re already going to be pissed that Hannibal's the new president.”

“You ready for that? Might be a good idea to take a brother or two with you, just until shit calms down,” Capone suggests.

“I don’t give a fuck if they like it or not. But they will fucking respect me or they’ll end up breathing through a tube. As for bringing brothers with me, it might rock the boat more. Don’tthink I won’t call on you if I need to, but Havoc says there’s a handful of brothers in the know that’ll will have my back. Elmo’s one of them. If I want the club to respect me, I’ve gotta give it back to them.”

“He’s right. He’s gotta go in strong. Taking brothers from here’ll only make him look weak—and that won’t instill faith in any of them,” Havoc agrees before turning to G. “Keep digging, and make sure Hannibal gets a copy of everything. Can’t watch for shit if we blindfold him.”

“On it.”

“That’s all for now. Unless any of you have something to say?”

Nobody does, so Havoc bangs the gavel, ending the meeting.

“President? The fucking president—and you didn’t tell me?” Midas huffs as we leave.

“I’m sorry, we besties now?”

Midas’s shrugs. “I’m not a fan of all the changes.”

I get it. Being a foster kid, he didn’t have stability or a family. He found that here, but there’s been a shitload of upheaval in the last couple of months. We’ve had Blade and Conan step down, and Havoc and G step up into the president and VP positions. Now I’m leaving.

I slap him on the back. “You’re acting like I’m dying, not transferring chapters. Want me to give you a hug?”

He snorts, then shoves me into the door. “Asshole.”

“Admit it. You’ll miss me when I’m gone.”

“Like a boil on my ass,” he says, and I smile.

I walk out and head over to the bar where Dice is cleaning glasses.

“Dice, two coffees, make one a decaf.”

“Cream, sugar?”

“I have no fucking clue.”

“Three sugars and some half and half,” Havoc tells Dice as he walks up behind me.

“Just in the decaf,” I add Dice as he goes off to make the drinks.

“No second thoughts?”

“You tell me—you’ve been president for a minute. Is it everything you thought it’d be?”

He laughs. “Not even fucking close. But someone’s gotta do it, right? Might as well be me.”