“A traitor rat bitch,” Eric corrects. “Don’t forget it.”
I glance at Cora across the room. If she heard, she doesn’t show it. Her mouth moves as she counts quietly to herself, and she looks beautiful lost in concentration like that.
I turn my glare back on Eric.
“We spoke about this.”
“You spoke. I listened. I still don’t agree.”
“Enough. Cora’s working for me now. You can always leave if that’s what you want. Go beg the bosses up north to move you into someone else’s crew.”
Everyone stares between us. The tension is thick and the vibe is icy. Eric’s my best friend in the world and I’d do anything for him, but I also know he’s stubborn as hell and holds grudges for longer than most folks. He won’t ever let this Cora thing go, not without me forcing it on him.
I lean toward him. “You know this ORB thing is about more than her.”
“They’ve been getting aggressive.”
“They think they’re big enough to make serious moves. Otherwise, they’d never allow that dumb biker idiot to do something so damn stupid.”
Eric grunts in agreement. “We’d have to do this sooner or later, I just don’t like that we didn’t get to choose when.”
“I agree but it doesn’t matter now. We can either roll over and let ORB keep on fucking us, or we can hit them back and make sure they understand that they made a very bad mistake.”
“I’m all for hitting back, boss,” Troy says, grinning huge, and nudges Alex. “What do you think, yinzer?”
“I don’t like those biker assholes.”
“Glad I got your approval.” I drum my fingers on the desk. “We need something that’ll send the right message, but won’t escalate. Dead bodies will draw too much attention from the sheriff and I don’t need that kind of heat right now. We want to hurt them, but we don’t want to shoot ourselves in the foot doing it.”
I look at my guys and nobody speaks up, at least until Cora’s voice cuts in.
“Y’all could smash their bikes up. Feels like it would be pretty even, considering what Craig did to my truck.”
Everyone looks back at her and a heat rolls down my back. I hoped making her do the count would mean she’d stay the fuck out of this conversation, but clearly she didn’t understand.
She looks up happily, grinning like she made a great suggestion at some fancy business meeting. I glare back at her and take a calming breath. “Everyone, out. I need to explain some things to Cora.”
Eric rolls his eyes and goes first. He doesn’t bother glancing in her direction—he’s aware of what I’m about to do. Alex grins at me, and Troy and Tom drag him along, all three of them trying not to laugh like they’re schoolboys watching a friend about to get punished by the teacher. Once the door’s shut, I stand up and walk over to the card table.
Cora watches me, not counting anymore.
“What’d I do?” she asks and her eyes narrow. “Is this some stupid sexist bullshit? Like I’m a woman and I can’t make comments while the men are talking? Because this shit affects me too, you know, and I don’t want you to leave me out of it just because I don’t have a dick between my legs.”
“Cora.”
She glares at me. “What?”
“Stop talking.”
She leans back, arms crossed over her chest, giving me a look that might wilt other men.
I lean down in her face. “This is not about your gender. This isn’t about you being an outsider, even though you fucking are. This is about your safety.”
“How the hell is that?”
“What we do in here, what we talk about in here, it could land any one of us in prison, including you. Worse than that, if anyone finds out that you’ve been sitting in on our meetings, you’re going to have a second target painted on your fucking face, and I’m going to have to deal with my bosses asking some very uncomfortable questions. All of which is to say, the less you know, the better.”
“Then why even bring me in here?”
“Because an ORB member rolled up to your house last night and blasted out your tires, and I don’t want you left alone for a while.”
She chews on her lip. “I think you’re full of shit. You just want to put me in my place.”
“Yeah, Cora, that too. You know I love putting you in your place.”
“You asshole.”
“And you like it just as much as I do.”
“Fuck off. Now I’m thinking I’d rather take my chances with the ORB.”
She tries to stand but I press down on her thighs, digging my fingers into her legs and pushing her back down. She glares hate at me but I leave my hands there, touching her like this for the first time in a very long time, and a thrill runs down my spine.