“I’m not going anywhere. It takes more than Viking’s scowls to get rid of me,” Phoebe teased.
Peanut watched her turn around and walk over to the counter, grabbing the cups she’d stacked together and moving to walk into the living room, expecting him to follow with the cookies and lemonade. Peanut stood there staring at her retreating ass encased in green cargo pants that only hinted at her tender curves, wondering what the hell had just happened. He trailed after her feeling a bit territorial all of the sudden. Not that it was any different than how he’d been feeling since she’d arrived, but it was getting a hell of a lot stronger.
“Peanut, set those down over here so everyone can get some,” Phoebe said as she unstacked the cups and reached for the pitcher he was carrying. Viking was watching her with a wary look on his face as she handed him a glass of fresh lemonade. He didn’t take his eyes off her as she poured some for Jasmine and Phoenix.
“Yummy. I love lemonade,” Jasmine exclaimed, grabbing three cookies off the plate.
“Hey, not so many, you will spoil your dinner,” Phoebe scolded.
Jasmine sighed and put one back without complaint, surprising Peanut and his brothers with her easy compliance. She normally tried to convince whatever adult told her not to take so many relentlessly until they let her have three cookies. Viking frowned at Phoebe. Peanut knew that he didn’t trust easily, and Phoebe was hard for him to accept, but he needed to stop scowling at her. Phoenix grabbed two of the cookies and stuffed them into his mouth.
“Wow, these are fantastic. I need to get the recipe for these for Sin. She might manage to make them. Maybe,” he snorted at his own joke.
Peanut grinned, knowing that he wouldn’t be saying that if Sin were here because she’d have punched him in the balls. Sin didn’t put up with any of Phoenix’s bullshit. She’d even left some sappy note he’d given her in the clubhouse once in revenge for something he’d done to displease her. She wasn’t one to pull punches or hold back when she was pissed off. It was good for a man as arrogant as Phoenix to have an old lady willing and able to give him his comeuppance.
“You better not let her hear you talking like that or you might get more than you bargained for,” Peanut snorted as he took the glass of lemonade that Phoebe handed to him.
“Can we take care of what we came here for or do you two want to chit-chat some more?” Viking asked. Peanut noticed that he was refilling his empty glass with an eye roll. Viking would never admit it, but the freshly squeezed juice was damned good and he knew it.
“Yeah, we might better talk about that. Sorry to eat and run. I’ll have Sin call you later for that recipe, Phoebe,” Phoenix muttered, grabbing three more cookies and stuffing them in his mouth. Thankfully, Jasmine was engrossed in the TV show she was watching or she might had demanded more cookies.
“It’s fine, I understand. You have better things to do than hang around with the nanny,” Phoebe said laughing.
Phoenix winked at her, making Peanut’s eyes narrow on the other man. He didn’t like him flirting with Phoebe. If he didn’t know that Phoenix was mad about Sin, he’d think he was trying to get into her pants. He led the men back into his room where they shut the door. He watched as Phoenix took the only chair in the room and Viking leaned against his dresser. Peanut had long ago had this room sound-proofed because of Jasmine. He didn’t want his daughter waking up in the middle of the night to hear him having sex across the hall with some random hook-up.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“A few things actually. The first is we have a lead on the people we’re trying to ferret out. It’s not solid but we think it warrants investigating. It’s a two-day trip to Greenville to check it out. Rage wants you and Viking to go. Is that going to be an issue?” Phoenix asked, looking first at Peanut before turning to Viking.
“No,” Viking responded.
Peanut wasn’t so sure, but he shrugged when Phoenix looked to him with a raised brow. Peanut didn’t think there would be an issue unless Viking started talking about Phoebe. If they avoided the subject, everything should be just dandy.
“You sure? Cause that shit out there was intense. I don’t know what the fuck is going on between you two but get that shit sorted. We don’t have time for shit to be fucked up when we’re trying to find a shady mother fucker in our backyard.” Phoenix finished that statement with a hard look. Peanut knew he was right about them not needing this shit right now. Lord knew they had enough on their plate with the club’s issues. The one with Phoebe and Viking had to take second fiddle.
“As long as he doesn’t bring up Phoebe, we should be golden,” Peanut stated, eyeing Viking.
“Yeah, whatever. It’s not like you’d listen anyway.”
“About that, I know she seems sweet and all but are you sure she isn’t a plant? We have shit going down in our house that might mean she isn’t on the up and up. I’m not saying that she’s on the take. Maybe someone’s forcing her to be here or maybe she’s just on the run from whoever left those nasty bruises from
