Page 95 of Dark Surrender

Blowing out a breath, he cards a hand through his thick, gray hair. “Yeah. Something fuckin’ big. Call Gunz. I’ll grab our bug-out bags.” Dad spins around and reenters his house, but leaves the front door open.

Calm as I can be, given I don’t know shit yet, I escort Lily home. On the front porch, I give her a sloppy kiss on the forehead and hug goodbye before I return to Kali’s, where Pops is already throwing our bags in the back of his van.

Sliding into the passenger seat, I connect a call to Gunz, the sergeant-at-arms of our mother chapter, as Pops backs outta the driveway.

“You with Sunshine?” Gunz asks as soon as he answers.

I put him on speakerphone and rest the phone on my thigh. “Yeah. What’s doin’?

“We’re on lockdown. There’s a… Imma call you back on a secure line.”

The call ends, and less than a second later, a private, unnumbered call rings through.

“Brother?” I answer and eye Dad as he gets our asses onto the main road.

“I’m here. Sorry. We don’t know what’s been fucked with or not. Before I said anything, I needed to be sure. There’s a summit goin’ down at the border in Texas. Big time shit. We just caught wind of it. It sounds like this has been in the works for months. But they’ve done a damn good job keepin’ it on the DL.”

“So you’re sending the nomads?” I guess, otherwise he wouldn’t be calling us.

There’s a lip smack and a clack of hard candy hittin’ teeth. Given Gunz’s obsession with Dum Dums, the noise tracks. “Mmmm,” he hums. “That’s what Big wants. They’ve got eyes on the chapters, but they don’t know fuck all about the rest of you. Not enough to keep tabs.”

“Alright. So we need to get our asses to Texas. What else?”

“We need women,” he explains.

“What kinda women are we talkin’?”

“The kind with skills and no direct club association. Which means Rosie’s out.”

Right. That’s why he’s calling me.

“You want Kali,” I guess.

“Yeah. We want Kali and whatever sisters she trusts to play these motherfuckers.”

“What’s the job?”

“Resort staff. That’s where it’s goin’ down in a few days. Some fancy fuckin’ place, real exclusive. The kinda place that only employs hot women. If you get what I mean.”

“Rodger that. I’ll talk to her. We’re meetin’ at the cabin right now.”

“Update me when you can.”

“Will do, brother.”

“Later.” The line dies, and I glance over at Dad, who’s choking the life outta the steering wheel.

“They want my old lady,” he snarls.

“Sounds that way.”

“Fuck.”

Fuck is right. Here I am, not sure what to do with my life after the Penelope shit, and now my club needs me again. Til death do us part, I’m in this for life.

By the clench of his jaw, Pops gets it, too. He doesn’t have to like it, but he has to deal.

That makes two of us.