"No way for you to maybe go over and meet this new player?" Laz asked. "Maybe see for yourself his or her plan for V?"
"If we let on that V is a bargaining chip, we will live under this guy's thumb forever," Reign said, shaking his head. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm not about to become the bitch to some motherfucking cocaine dealer."
There was a silent agreement across the room.
"So what now? We wait?" Sugar asked.
"Not exactly known for being fucking patient." That was Pagan, who had been uncharacteristically silent, not beating his chest and looking for blood as he usually would, always ready for a fight.
"It's the best move." Roan, speaking for the first time, making everyone turn to see him standing by the door to the hall that led up to his little glass room thing, arms crossed, stance somehow both tense and casual at the same time. "Don't know the enemy? Watch them."
"That out of the spy handbook?" Sugar teased, sending the older man a friendly smile.
"Something like that. You don't want your dick shot off, don't get in their crosshairs. Really just more common sense than anything else."
"So what? Hole up?" Repo asked, sounding as tickled at the idea as he would be about getting five root canals in a row.
There had been a lot of holing up. A lot of shipping the women and kids up to Hailstorm. A lot of disruption to daily lives.
"I want Roan leading up a team to get some details," Reign surprised everyone by saying, making even Cash look taken aback. Guys who aren't patched didn't get jobs like that. "He has the most experience at this type of thing, and I don't have enough men to not give a fuck about one of you getting a casket for a bed. Roan," he said, giving him a chin-jerk. "Who do you want?"
"Edison," he said easily. That one wasn't surprising. When it came to stealth, the man walked like a fucking mouse. "Reeve." My head shot to my brother, finding no reaction whatsoever to that. "That should do it. Too many men makes too much room for fuck ups."
"Alright. And I want Wolf, Pagan, Virgin, and Sugar living, breathing, eating, and shitting guard duty around here."
"And the rest of us?" Roderick asked, maybe somewhat off-put at not being named for any specific duty.
Maybe I should have been offended as well. But I was too thankful for the freedom to be able to move around, to go see Reese, to give a shit about my pride.
Besides, it didn't mean shit. Cash, Repo, Duke, and Renny weren't specifically called out either.
"You want to be here, be here. Otherwise, live your life."
That, apparently, concluded church.
Reign moved to the side, talking low to Cash, Wolf, and Repo.
"You okay with being on Roan's team?" I asked Reeve as he moved in beside me, handing me a beer.
"Yeah, it's fine. If anyone can not get us dead, it's Roan. You wouldn't believe some of the shit he's done in his day."
I shocked back at that slightly, knowing that, to all the rest of us, Roan had been tight-lipped, never giving a single detail about his life before. But maybe in the case of Reeve and Roan, similar personalities just clicked, and they had opened up around each other.
"How'd it go?" he asked when I had no comment. "I'm gonna go ahead and assume that this friend of yours was the coffeeshop girl."
"Not exactly a friend anymore," I admitted, not able to hold in the smile as it pulled at my lips.
And, incredibly, I got a very rare, very telling smile back from Reeve. Wasp got one or two of them when she visited. But as a whole, Reeve simply didn't smile. Even when he did, it didn't touch the haunted look in his eyes.
"Good. I'm happy for you. I hope you can someday deign to deserve her."
With that, he walked away, leaving me smiling still.
Leave it to Reeve to tell me he was happy for me, then follow it right up with a ribbing.
That being said, he was right.
I did hope to deserve her.
I didn't.
I still recognized that. I had no right to put my hands on her. I had no right to let my fingerprints mark her perfect, beautiful life. But I apparently did not have as much willpower as I had been thinking I did. So, while I was going to put my hands on her. Often. Thoroughly. Until I knew every single inch. I was going to work at it. Work at deserving her. Work at being the kind of man she deserved to have in her life.
"I know that fuckin' look," Reign declared as he moved up beside me, giving me a somewhat bemused smirk that made the skin next to his green eyes crinkle up. "This friend of yours isn't just a friend. You fucking kids are dropping like goddamn flies," he said with a chuckle. "At least in your and Pagan's cases, you had enough debauchery all through your twenties to last a lifetime. She didn't get marked up tonight, did she?"