They still had to deal with Sebastian. She didn’t like him. He’d tried to take Ugly Beast away from the club, to serve this fucking mafia. Pulling out of her annoyance, as it wasn’t going to get her anywhere, she went in search of food. Breakfast had already been brought to them by the soldiers who served Carlos.
Freshly baked treats, from cinnamon buns to treacle, and they made her mouth water. Back home, she had toast or cereal, but she liked the treats. The coffee was also a treat and didn’t taste like watered-down piss, which again was nice.
All of that had led to this moment as she stood in his office of one of his nightclubs, looking through the glass mirror that gazed down at the floor below, watching people clean and prepare for opening in a few hours.
Sebastian hadn’t arrived.
Carlos kept on clucking his tongue at stuff, but Raven wasn’t interested in what bad shit was happening in his life. She was only here for one thing, and she wasn’t going to allow the ring, the shared bed, and his life to get in the way of that. Raven had a life back home as a club brother. That was where she belonged.
The clothes she wore were a disguise. She didn’t mean anything to Carlos. She was never going to belong to him. This was all an act.
“Have you never seen a nightclub before?” Carlos asked.
“Very funny. Just keeping an eye. You never know when someone is going to attack.”
“No one is going to attack me here.”
“And how do you know?” she asked.
“Security.”
“You shouldn’t have come to Fort Clover.”
He didn’t get a chance to respond as there was a knock at the door. Carlos called for whoever it was to enter.
Raven tensed up. She’d packed her revolver with her, and it was stuffed in her bag. Yes, Carlos had given her a bag. She didn’t have anywhere to store her knives as her feet had flimsy fucking sandals on. How was she supposed to protect him like this? She was damn good in hand-to-hand combat, but even she had her limits. She didn’t have a body made to dodge a bullet. There was only so much she could do.
Sebastian Drago, the hard-ass asshole she didn’t like, walked into the room alone. He took one look at Carlos, and one look at her, and stopped. “What’s going on?”
“Mr. Drago, I’d like to introduce you to my fiancée.”
“I know who she is, Carlos. What is this?”
“You said I needed a wife.”
“A Hell’s Bastards MC … biker is not the solution to this.”
Raven smiled and stepped forward. “Pleased to meet you, Drago, as always.”
Sebastian looked at the hand she offered and shook his head. “Where’s Smokey? Is he here too?”
“No,” Carlos said. “It’s only Raven, and she is going to stay by my side. As far as any of the capos or their daughters, or anyone should know, Raven is my fiancée.”
“You know this is bullshit, right?”
“The only person to have really seen her is you. You know her real identity. Look at her. She doesn’t look like she comes from the club.”
“And show your respect,” Raven said. “I may not wear my patch, but I still very much belong to the club.”
“Wearing a mafia Boss’s ring.”
“Necessary.”
Sebastian wasn’t happy. She saw it. “We’re going to keep on going around in circles,” Raven said. “Let’s cut to the meeting. Then we can all go on our merry way and we don’t have to worry about upsetting anyone.”
She forced a smile to her lips, hating herself for even trying to be nice. This wasn’t her. This was for the club. Smokey had trusted her with this, and she wasn’t going to fucking let him down, like she had done already. First with Abriana, then with Ava. Not again. Never again. No matter what she had to do for the club, she’d do it.
“I need to talk to you in private,” Sebastian said.
“No,” Raven said. Not when the man before her was a suspect. She had felt Carlos’s reasoning was a bit of a stretch, but now, she was super pissed and happy to point the finger at him. “I’m not leaving him alone. His life is in danger.”
“His life is always in danger. That is never going to change,” Sebastian said. “We live in a very bad world, Raven.”
Carlos held his hand up. “It is fine, Raven. I’ll be okay here, I promise.”
“I’m not taking any chances. Just because you’re afraid to have a woman handle shit like this.”
“It’s not that,” Carlos said. “Sebastian needs to be brought up to speed.”
She looked at Sebastian over Carlos’s shoulder, and the man looked clearly mystified. There was a time she would have accepted the look on his face, but that was when she felt she was a good judge of character. Not anymore. She had too many failures under her belt lately. Abriana … Ava … what more would she miss? Just thinking of the two women made her stomach sink.