I led him into my great room and flopped onto the chaise on my giant sectional. Lord jumped up beside me and settled his head in my lap, leaving Scooby no choice but to sit two cushions away from me.
“Oh, I see how it is,” he grumbled, and I couldn’t stop a small smirk as I stroked Lord’s head.
“It’s his spot,” I explained with a shrug. “So what do you want to talk about?”
“I guess that depends on you.”
“Explain, please.”
“How much do you want to know?” he asked.
“About what?”
“Me. My club. What I do,” he said.
“All of it.”
He shifted in his seat. “You sure about that?”
“Why wouldn’t I be sure about that?”
“Because what happened outside isn’t a unique thing for my club,” he said. “We’re one-percenters, Rowan.”
I’m not gonna lie. I’d watched the first two episodes of a biker show on cable a few weeks ago and it had scared the crap out of me, so I’d stopped watching and tried to forget about it. “Does that mean you’re criminals?”
“It means we skirt the law on occasion,” he said. “Cannabis is our main avenue of income, and although we operate a legal business, we run up against street gangs and organized crime syndicates who do not. We sometimes have to defend our club, our people, and our product against those threats. We rarely lose.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever jaywalked, Scooby, let alone known someone with ties to the criminal underworld.”
“Yeah, baby, I get it. Which is why we’re talkin’. You have some decisions to make, because you’re either all in or all out.”
“What does ‘all in’ mean?”
“If you’re with me, club business stays club business. You don’t talk about the club outside of the club. You sure as shit don’t talk to the cops about anything, and there are gonna be times I can’t tell you what’s goin’ on. There might be times when I have to tell you to do something and you need to do it, no questions asked.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Yeah, I’m not really good at that.”
“Already figured that one out,” he retorted. “We’re gonna need to work on that.”
“What if I’m ‘all out’?”
“Then I’m out, honey. We’ll walk away. My club’s still gonna protect you, but it won’t be me doin’ it.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because there’s no way in hell I can be this close to you and not have it all.”
“Have you ever killed anyone?” I whispered.
“Not gonna answer that question, until you make your decision.”
“Well, that’s obviously a yes, because if it was a no, you’d just say no,” I mumbled. I met his eyes, but he said nothing, and his expression gave nothing away. “Have you ever gone to prison?”
“No.”
“Have you ever been arrested?”
“Yes.”