Gray pulled on Beast’s arm. “Come on, I gotta show you something,” he said in a tone indicating that the conversation he’d started was far from over.
Jake approached the snack table with a heaviness in his heart. Enough was enough. He needed to somehow show everyone that Vars wasn’t as clean as they all thought. Having experience also meant having a past, and Vars’s past meant trouble.
He wasn’t of course about to tell on Vars in any way, he wasn’t childishly petty, but if Vars had a reason to leave the club before being patched in, wouldn’t that be for the benefit of everyone? One day, Vars’s past would catch up with him anyway, and it would become much more problematic once Vars was actually a patch.
Having him gone would also mean Jake could regain his self-respect, go back to a state when he wasn’t day dreaming about polishing Vars’s boots, doing chores for him naked, or sticking his ass in the air saying ‘yes, sir’ or ‘please, sir’.
If anyone found out about those secret fantasies, he’d be dead to the club. No one would respect him again if they knew he’d willingly submitted to a new prospect and thanked him for the hard fuck.
He needed Vars gone if he wanted to remain sane.
Jake’s gaze settled on Gray’s cell phone, which lay on the table, between the box of nuts and the collection of energy drinks. His entire chest ached as if he had a vacuum instead of a heart.
With sweat rolling down his back, Jake glanced toward the door Gray had led Beast through. Knowing Beast, he’d try to make that conversation as brief as possible, and so if Jake was to act, he needed to do so immediately.
He picked up the phone, but even before he tapped the side button, slimy, cold guilt was already pouring all over his flesh like the disgusting goo that Vars had saved him from. Was this important enough to throw Vars under the bus? At the end of the day, Vars was new here. He could have a fresh start anywhere. Jake on the other hand had given three years of his life to the club. He couldn’t risk being shunned.
His fingers moved on their own, and after the brief panic that entered his brain when he saw the PIN field, he tapped in the date of Mike’s death, and faced the dark blue of Gray’s unlocked screen.
The nasty feeling didn’t leave him even as he found the text message from ‘D.’, and the name of the contact only provided further evidence of Gray’s partner and Vars’s ex being the same person. He quickly copied the number into his own phone and put Gray’s away as if it were on fire.
This was the right thing to do. A pushy, annoying ex would drive Vars away, and no one would get hurt.
He would once more have his peace.
Chapter 10 - Vars
Vars looked out the window to distract himself, and it was a great choice, because hardly anything amused him more than watching Laurent’s attempts at driving. The green car was a bright dot in the snow, speeding up only to abruptly stop a few paces later.
Vars envied Beast his patience.
Fox came up to the window next to Vars with a beer in hand, with Hound, Beast’s rottweiler, following him as if he expected to get a treat. “I just imagine teaching my kid how to drive in a few years.”
Vars snorted when the vehicle spiraled over the icy road that was thankfully devoid of trees. “You think it’s gonna be that hard?”
“I doubt it. Laurent doesn’t seem to know what the fuck he’s doing. He could sleep on silk pillows all day and have cakes handed to him on a silver platter if he wanted to, but no, he wants to drive. He wants to get groceries. The other day he was excited about taking cardboard boxes out to the recycling center.”
Vars shook his head. “I’m surprised he isn’t a member of the Green Front yet.”
Fox scowled. “Don’t tell him about them. It would end in heartbreak. They aren’t pro-plastic. He’s already demanded for all the wedding food to be ‘ethically sourced’ and ‘local’,” he said theatrically before patting Vars on the back.
It felt good. An easy camaraderie between men.
“I also had to talk him out of a neon-colored waistcoat. He wouldn’t listen to Beast. It was hilarious,” Nao said from the hammock Joker had set up for her in the corner earlier. She now hung in the air with an e-reader, and three cocktails in, her tongue was getting looser than usual.
“Are you gossiping about my future brother-in-law?” Knight laughed from the couch.
“Why? You wanna join the fun?” Nao asked, giggling so violently she spilled some of the drink over the front of her top.