Ding-dong, the witch has arrived.
Steel spine time.
I don’t bother searching for Gray. No matter how much he wants to protect me, he can’t rescue me from this showdown.
Trinity squares up next to me, shoulder to shoulder.
“Hey, Tawny. So glad you joined the party,” she says in a phony syrupy voice. She slides her arm around my shoulders and squeezes me to her side. “Lots of things to celebrate tonight.”
Tawny’s face screws into a scowl that used to sear my skin with fear. “Look how chummy the two of you are,” she says in a slow, sarcastic tone. “Figures you two would—”
“What?” Trinity raises her eyebrows. “We would what?”
“Find common ground.” Tawny’s hate-filled eyes land on me. And I don’t even have the heart to take pleasure in how worn-down and tired her face looks. Ten years of baggage seems to have landed under her eyes since the last time I saw her. “Proud of yourself, aren’t ya? Finally, after all these years on your knees, found a brother desperate enough to patch you.”
How dare she say something so vile about my man. I swallow hard and will myself not to look away. My heart pounds and beads of sweat slide down my back. Unfortunately, no clever comebacks come to mind.
“I’d watch your tone, Tawny.” Trinity leans closer, all amusement gone from her usually angelic face. She’s turned into a she-devil about to spew some fire. “Grinder won’t take kindly to anyone showing his ol’ lady disrespect.”
Tawny snorts. “Grinder and me go way back, honey.”
The casual way she says it sends a shiver of disgust through my stomach.
Oh, Lord. Please don’t tell me she slept with Gray once upon a time. Of all the women in the world, not this one.
“I know him better than you ever will.” She flicks one long, red nail against the collar of my vest. “He hasn’t had a woman in so long, of course he’s ready to patch the first pretty young pussy he stumbles into, but I bet you didn’t tell him every brother in this clubhouse has taken a turn.”
I roll my eyes. That’s not even true. “Do you ever get tired of repeating the same lies?”
“Maybe he doesn’t care since he was locked up.” She flicks her hands in front of my face again. “Enjoy that patch while you can. Being pretty won’t satisfy a man like him long-term. He needs more mental stimulation than you can give him.”
“Well, I see why you two didn’t end up together, then,” I quip.
She glares at me. “You know his first wife was going to be a doctor, right?”
I open my mouth to tell her to fuck off, that I know all about Rose. Or defend myself by saying I actually finished my degree—except, I don’t want Tawny to know one damn thing about my professional life outside of the club.
Trinity lets out a long, dramatic sigh. “Do you have a point?” She circles her hand in a wrap it up gesture. “You’re jealous, we get it.”
“Jealous?” Tawny’s theatrical outrage belongs on the set of a bad soap opera. “Of what?”
“Off the top of my head,” Trinity pauses dramatically and taps her chin, “that our men aren’t playing daddy to porn stars?”
Boom. Talk about dropping a conversational bomb.
Tawny’s mouth snaps shut. Everyone knows how Sway catered to porn star Stella before he got shot. A lot of the girls speculated the only reason Sway got the club to back Stella’s porn movies was because he was planning to leave Tawny for Stella.
Tawny’s eyes bug. She sputters. I’m pretty sure steam billows from the top of her perfectly laminated helmet of hair.
“If you stopped being such a bitch, we’d have your back, Tawny.” Trinity’s tone turns a shade more compassionate.
“I don’t need your sympathy.” Her blazing eyes leave Trinity and return to me. “Enjoy your moment in the sun, buttercup,” she sneers. “It won’t last. I can’t wait for Karma to have her way with you.”
“There you are, Tawny,” Lilly purrs. She hooks her arm around my waist. “Isn’t this great? We have so much to celebrate tonight.” She pulls away and strokes her fingers over Z’s patch on my side. “Aw, my man’s patch looks good right next to Rock’s and all the upstate officers. I need to ask him what font that is, so I can incorporate it into the tattoo Bronze is drawing up for my back. Oh! Look! Rooster and Jiggy added theirs too.” She levels a pointed look in Tawny’s direction. “I love how close the two clubs are now.”
Trinity turns to the side and snort-laughs into her elbow.
Lilly’s comments might seem random to anyone else, but each word hits Tawny like a bullet. I don’t know all of the history between the upstate and downstate clubs, but I always thought it was weird having two charters not that far away from each other. Not to mention how differently the two clubs operated. Z must’ve shared some of the club’s history with Lilly to give her the ammunition to push Tawny’s buttons.