“Ryder, why are you tripping? Nothing is going on.” She crossed her arms over her chest, causing her tits to push against the thin fabric.
“No? Then what the fuck is Pinky doing behind the bar by herself? I may not be fucking einstein but even I can see that we’re fucking swamped in here.”
Cherry looked over my shoulder to see what I was talking about.
“Ryder, Toya is downstairs getting more stock, and Lemon is due to start her shift in twenty minutes.”
I turned around at the very second Toya decided to walk through the employee only doors with three cases of booze in her arms.
“Fuck that, get your shit together, make sure there are at least two people behind the bar all the fucking time Cherry, you got that?” I barked.
Cherry nodded her head and I tried to move around her. I had four more stops to make before I could get back to the clubhouse and relax. She grabbed my kutte and moved close to my face.
“What the hell is that?” She used the pads of her delicate fingers to caress my cheek, the same one Valentine smacked.
“It’s nothing, Valentine got a little out of sorts, it’s handled.” I shrugged and moved my cheek away.
“The fuck? You mean she hit you?” Cherry dropped her hand to her side, her brow furrowed causing me to feel bad that I told on Valentine. Cherry was as sweet as pie, literally, but do something to her family and she will come for your throat.
Cherry tried to push past me and go to the back rooms where I was sure Valentine was still crying or whatever the fuck these women did when I told them I wasn’t interested in them. The same shit I told them in the very beginning when I told them I just wanted to fuck.
I grabbed her arm pulling her back towards me roughly, “I said don’t fucking worry about Cherry.”
She stared at me and raised up on her tiptoes to get closer to my face, “Don’t bite so hard daddy, you gonna make me cry.” She pouted a bit, waiting for my response.
I peered at her, waiting for her to crack and give up, but I knew she wouldn’t. I was always the same with Cherry, I growled and snarled but she knew I never wanted her to cry. “Shit babe, I’m sorry, don’t fire her ok. It’s on me.” I whispered in her ear, trying to take the anger out of my voice but make sure no one saw me do it. She had me wrapped around her finger. Cherry was the only one who understood that even though I’m the big bad wolf, snarling and snapping at everyone in sight, sometimes I just wanted something soft and sweet to hold onto.
Cherry dropped back down, “Fine, I won’t, only on the strength that you asked though, but I’m going to have to knock her down a few pegs. No one lays a hand on my Ryder and gets away with it.” She stared at the door behind me.
“Whatever girl, just get the staffing under control in here.” I brushed past her and walked out the door. I didn’t know what she had in store for Valentine, but I didn't need to be around to see it. I turned on my ride or die and peeled out of the parking lot and headed to the next pick up.
Chapter 2
“Wire, let me meet with you for a minute,” I said as I walked into the main room of the clubhouse. It had been months since Alejandro Vilanuevas was in our lives and even though we rebuilt everything that he took from us, we were still always on edge. Not a hundred percent sure who we could really trust. There was no way I was discussing the pickups out in the open, not with all this new blood here.
Wire and Keeley were sitting in the main room with Lily at their feet playing with some type of rattle and pulling on Max’s fur. For an attack dog, he sure let that baby do whatever she wanted to him. Wire had spent most of his life as a cold-hearted bastard, who liked peeling the skin off of folks just for the hell of it, but when he met Keeley he was able to get a bit of happiness.
“Give me a minute, Princess.” He kissed Keeley and stood up to follow me towards the church.
We walked into our sanctuary, I always felt at ease there.
“Everything good Ryder?” Wire asked right away, never one to mince his words.
“Yeah, boss. Shit is right. That’s the problem, Uncle Sam going to come knocking soon.” I opened the duffle bags I had strapped on my shoulders and emptied them out on the table. Stacks and stacks of cash bound as tightly as possible came tumbling out. I would bet anything that it was at least two hundred grand in the bags, this was more money than we knew what to fucking do with, the clubs could only flip so much.
“Fucking hell.” Wire smirked.
“Yeah, brother.” I clapped him on the back. “I wasn’t playing about the taxes though, we got to find a way to hide all this fucking scratch.”
Wire sat back in his chair, those black eyes focused on the pile of money in front of him. As far as problems went this was the best kind of problem to have. “You know Archer has been talking about maybe investing in some of the casinos down there where he is. Maybe that could be the solution to this shit.” He shrugged and picked up a stack of cash and tossed it like a ball between his hands. “You,” he tossed the pack of money at me, “are going to need someone to ride with you on your pickups from now on.”
Wire was my president, so I had to
