“Wait, what?” Ariel turned to face her friend.
Joey laughed. “Yeah Moose told me there’s a pool going on how long it’ll take.”
“That’s bullshit,” Ariel spat.
“Nope, that’s Mayhem shit,” Juliette said deadpan. “Trust me, you get used to the freakish brotherhood mentality, and it becomes old hat.”
“Well, it won’t for me,” Ariel said.
“Hmmm,” Juliette and Joey tilted their heads toward each other.
“You guys fucking suck,” Ariel said.
“I definitely missed the first part of this conversation,” Evonne said taking a seat beside Ariel.
“They’re giving me shit about Hawk.”
“Oh, there’s a you and Hawk now?” Evonne arched a brow.
“What? No. that’s what I’m trying to explain.”
“Aaah, I see, so you’re still in denial.” Evonne pattered her shoulder. “Don’t worry, it’ll come out in the wash soon enough. The man looks at you like you’re a buffet and he’s starving.”
“That’s all sexual. It’s a need that gets fulfilled and you move on with your day,” Ariel huffed. Her face heated and she rolled her shoulders.
“Me thinks the lady doth protest too much,” Evonne said.
“You guys are starting to piss me off,” Ariel said.
“Look we don’t want to rile you up. We just want you to open those brown eyes and see what may just be in front of you,” Evonne said.
“Point taken. Now can we move on to something else?” Ariel said. “Joey’s pregnant; how’s that going?”
“Way to throw me under the bus,” Joey said, delivering a playful wink. “It’s good. I’m less sick now, still crazy as hell thanks to hormones. I figure it’s training for when the little one arrives.”
They all laughed, and the mood lightened as they played catch-up and waited for their men to finish up with business.
* * * * *
“I called you here because we got some interesting news from the prospects,” said Tiny. “The Angels of Death our now under new leadership, due to mutiny. The vice president rose up, put Riker down and decided to change their entire operation. They’re out for territory, by any means necessary. They’ve already rolled a few of the smaller M.C.s and now they’re circling us like sharks. The dealing they’re doing is a test to see how strong we are.”
“Do they know we have the Eights behind us?” Hawk asked.
“No, and I think if word gets around they’ll back off. Now I’m not afraid to go to war, but we all know we got our hands full at the moment. At the very least let’s put this shit off until later,” Tiny said.
“I hear you. What do you have in mind?” Hawk said.
“I want to keep the prospects with the Angels of Death feeding us info from the inside. We’ll put the word on the streets Eights and Mayhem have declared one another brother charters. That should make them think twice,” Pres said.
The men barked out their agreement.
“Another thing…your girl’s house got ransacked last night,” Tiny said, looking at Hawk.
“I figured they’d pull some shit like that,” Hawk said. “Anything else going on?”
“We’re bringing the witnesses in. I know they wanted to hold off on that, but it can’t be helped. I told them Mayhem would keep them safe. I stick by my word. I can’t do that when they’re not properly protected. We’re going to put them up in a cabin together. They can come and join us, or keep to themselves.”
“Fair enough,” Hawk said.