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He shrugs. “Don't look at me. I didn't encourage him.” He gets a beer from Jewel, then pulls me gently by the arm. “C'mon. The couches are more comfortable, and you're not gonna get any work done with Jupiter around anyway. Snark's got your flash drive—he'll find exactly what you need.”
We drop onto one of the couches, and Jupiter's there immediately, burrowing his head under my hand so I'll get to the scratching, while his tail thwacks against the couch. I lean against Scrapper's chest, mirroring Jupiter until he sighs melodramatically and starts stroking my hair. I can’t blame the dog, it is kinda nice.
One of the other members comes over. He's massive, like he bench presses the whole weight machine while sucking down a protein shake between each lift. “Just gonna check the scores,” he says, grabbing the remote for the big screen TV in the couch area and turns it on.
“Go for it, Bull,” Scrapper says. He's still stroking my hair, and I'm still scratching behind Jupiter's ears. None of us is going anywhere.
“Could you turn it up a little?” I ask, noticing that the tail end of the news is still on.
Scrapper gives me a look. “I never pegged you for a news TV watcher. Just Bull not using the magic that is the internet.”
“Oh, fuck off, four eyes,” Bull replies good naturedly. “You sure you want to stick with that jackass? You know what they say about a man with a big screen…”
“No, we don’t. What do they say?” Scrapper asks.
Bull blinks. “They have a big dick? I don’t know, it was a rhetorical fucking question.”
I laugh. “I’m a journalism student, remember? That doesn’t just mean writing articles for the paper. I’ve studied TV, internet, paper, pretty much everything. I think traditional TV broadcasting is on the way out but it’s still useful. Besides, I know her from my internship at Channel 7.”
Ella Washington is a pretty woman with curly black hair and a great on-screen presence that makes you feel like she's talking directly to you. She was competent when I was there last year, and she sure hasn’t lost her touch.
“…We'll know more once the bodycams are made public.” She shifts the paper in front of her, but doesn't look at it, like it's just a prop and she's already got the news fully under control. “The riot at the State Prison this morning is now fully under control. Officers on the scene aren’t releasing information about injuries or fatalities until all families have been notified, but ambulances are on the premises. There is no risk of escape and those who live nearby have no reason to worry about it spreading beyond the prison walls.”
“Danny. They know about Danny,” I whisper. “They tried for me twice and when that didn’t work they went for him.”
“You don’t know that,” Scrapper says.
“Do you believe in coincidences?” I ask “Because I don’t think I do anymore. I need to find out if he's okay.”
26
MILA
I’m being babysat.
“Come on, sit with us,” says Summer. The pretty woman with wavy brown hair pats the chair next to her. I remember her the most easily because of the drink Jewel made for me. “My boys are watching the triplets and I’m dying to talk to someone new. Nothing personal, ladies. I just feel like I never get out of the house these days.”
Emily laughs. She’s the host for this meeting of what they informally call the Harem Brunch Club—which I admit is kinda funny. She lives with her three men and their two kids in one of the houses inside the compound. “I get it. Grace is a dream, but Tyler and Lucas are little mini bikers in the making.”
“Are you okay?” Summer asks.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I smile. I know the boys are trying to keep me from worrying about Danny while they go talk to some of their contacts, but it doesn't mean it's easy. I've got a glass of what I thought was going to be fizzy water with lime in it, but there's no hiding the gin under the tonic water. Emily took one look at me when I walked in and added another capful.
All the women here have multiple guys they've shacked up with, which seems kind of crazy, but apparently it’s become a normal thing at the club. Emily was the first, and she says Eagle-eye wasn’t happy at all. Partly because he didn’t understand why three of his men all wanted the same woman and was worried it would cause trouble, but also because they kidnapped her! As someone interested in journalism, finding out that I’m in the same house with the old mayor's daughter, the same one I read about in the papers when he tried to have her killed, is like meeting a rock star. In fact, I recognize several of the women here from various scandals in the city.
Their names whirr around in my head, and I'm still struggling to place them all. Alessa is the dark haired one that seems closest to Emily. If I understood right, she was the second old lady at the club to have multiple men. And she has four—four! I got a brief story about Mafia and biker wars and some craziness, but I didn't really catch all of it. The more I'm getting to know these people, the more I understand where Eagle-eye was coming from when he warned me.
A curvy woman across from me with a red streak in her hair leans in. Kaylee, I think. “I hear you're studying to be a journalist. That sounds really exciting.”
“More exciting than I expected, to be honest.” I shrug. “It's gotten a little complicated.”
She laughs. “It always does. When I met Nitro, Wraith and Tank, it was so much fun. I wished my life was more exciting.”
“How did that work out for you,” I ask.
“Well, once I survived the explosion and the kidnapping it got a lot better.”
Emily leans in. “Don’t forget the second kidnapping. When my father grabbed you.”
