“That’s what a first date is for, to find out the other person’s interests and see what they like.” She sighed as if she was schooling me. “I’m having a good time right here with you. I hope you are too.”
“I am. I’m shocked to tell you the truth. You seem a lot different when you’re at Red Stone.” Some of her bluntness had rubbed off on me. I didn’t want to come off sounding too harsh. I wasn’t a cruel guy, but when someone tried to mess up what the Rebel Saints had planned, I would defend my territory.
“Everybody is different in the light of day,” she said brashly.
“There’s that.” We’d both finished our nachos and I was feeling a nice buzz from the drinks and from her.
“Ink, are you going to keep coming after me in the casino? Can’t we just get along?” She leaned forward with her chin in her hand and her other hand on top of mine.
A rippling sensation of hunger for her rushed through me. “I’m not coming after you per se. If you stop cheating, I won’t be after you. It’s as simple as that.”
“I think we should finish up now. I have some other things to do, but it was an interesting first date that’s for sure,” she said abruptly, her cheeks red from being put in her place. “Thank you for asking me. I’ve enjoyed getting to know you,” she said with a voice like butter.
Hmm. I was struggling to not grab her face and kiss those cute lips. “Likewise. I’m going to wrap up the bill.”
“Okay.” She got up from the table and waited for me to pay. We walked a little along the pier as the seagulls cried out. I slipped my hand in hers and brought it to my lips. She didn’t pull away. Our energy together felt right and now, I felt more torn and tortured than ever about catching her out. This wasn’t going to be easy.
“I’m right up there in those apartments for now.” She pointed to the luxury waterfront apartments behind the wharf. She lunged towards me, standing on her toes and tilting her face up.
I complied. This was the moment I’d been waiting for. A fire ignited inside of me. I bent my head down to her and kissed her lips. Soft. So Soft. Her arms linked around my waist as I probed her responsive mouth with my tongue, digging for the truth and asking silent questions that only our bodies could know. Together, we were straight fire. She panted into my mouth and I found a clue to her underlying desire for me. It wasn’t one-sided. She gasped as I let her up for air and ended with a soft interlude of our lips touching.
“Let me walk you to your door,” I said with jagged breath.
“I think you all know why I called you here,” Bones said as he looked around the table at the other Rebel Saints.
It felt, good to see all the boys together. I’d been working so hard between the two jobs I barely had time to scratch my balls.
“We got problems with the cartel, yeah?” Bear confirmed.
“Yep. The good old cartel coming back to haunt us. The other casino issue, I’ll let Ink fill you in on.” Bones rubbed his knuckles together. “I say we pay them and shut them up. We have Mia as our club lawyer, and she has some tricks up her sleeve as to what we can do if they try the extortion route. Our priorities have changed as a club and we need to think about our long-term future.” A pregnant pause filled the space as Bones looked around. “I want to put it to you all for a vote. Majority wins. I’m passing my cap around. I just want you to put yes for paying the cartel or no, for not paying the cartel. I’m all for democracy.”
Numbers raked a hand through his hair in agitation. “Mia’s not going to let the cartel just come in here and extort us like that. She’s doing some digging on their shady history and gathering intel on them.” Mia and Numbers were going strong. They were a really nice couple together. Both of them were smart alecks and they played off one another well.
The cap went around the table and everyone dropped their votes in the cap. I voted yes to get them out of our hair and for everyone to move on with their lives. We couldn’t afford warfare, given the new route we were attempting to take as a club. As far as I could remember, we settled any debts we had with them, but apparently not.
The cap got back around to Bones. He pulled out every piece of paper smoothing it out in front of him. “Ok, we have a total of 10 votes and all of them are a yes. If we don’t pay, we would run the risk of going to war. If we do pay, then we have the chance of continuing to be extorted. All in all we’ve made the right choice,” Bones said grimly. “We want to go with the paying option, however, and keep it as peaceful as possible.
“Good to know the risks,” Numbers added. “Let’s hope they take the money and leave us alone.”
“We’re going to have to talk about artillery soon, just in case they want to keep pushing the limits.” Hawk dropped the bombshell no one wanted to hear as the gravity of the situation set in.
Bear’s thick eyebrows arched. “Agreed. We are going to have to talk strategy.” He looked straight at Bones for clarity.
“We can do that. Let’s assess this, set up another meeting and see what we’ve got. Is everybody a hundred percent on this decision? It’s a game-changer,” Bones delivered the blow.
Everyone in the room nodded back at Bones.
His gaze touched everyone, and no one budged on their call. We were going to hold it down as a club.
“Over to you, Ink.” Bones passed the baton over to me.
“We have a problem with a cheater at the casino,” I explained hesitantly. “She’s placing post bets down and she’s got a few other tricks. I’ve learned that she used to play at Biloxi casino. I haven’t looked into it, but I thought I could start to build a case to see if she’s linked to a larger organization. If she is, it could pose a major problem for us.” I felt like I was snitching a little due to the feelings I had for Jaz, but I kept it as neutral as possible.
“She winning?” Coyote asked with a wide grin.
I scoffed. “Yeah, man. She’s a badass,” I replied, proudly.
Coyote winced with an, ouch face. “Hot damn. That’s magic?I mean. Hey, that sucks. I’m not judging. Can you get her to stop?”