Page 17 of Cannon

*~* Barbara *~*

Getting kidnapped and then being held in Cannon’s room at the clubhouse is not my idea of fun. Cannon is going to pay for this. Molly and Jamie are firing questions at me a mile a minute, and two other women, who I’ve never met before are sitting on the floor, listening to everything that’s going on. If they are club women, they can get their dirty, skanky fannies off my carpet.

“Stop. Silence. Quiet. The answer to your questions are, I don’t freaking know. Those two Neanderthals turned up this morning and literally took me from my own doorstep and dumped me here. I was so busy trying to get my hands on Vortex for throwing me over his shoulder, I didn’t bother listening to a word they had to say. Not that they said much. Cannon spluttered something about me being a problem, but I didn’t give him a chance to say much more, and Vortex didn’t give me a chance to say much. Vortex packed me those two garbage bags and claims he even put my feminine products in there too. How I’m going to look him in the face ever again, God only knows. And he’s been in my panties, too.”

One of the women on the floor laughs and says, “Vortex has been in your panties?”

“Yes. No. Not like that. In my panties to pack them. Just who in the hell are you two, may I ask?”

They both jump up and step closer. I scuttle across to the other side of the bed to keep my distance. I’m not letting them touch me until I know where their hands and other bits have been.

“I’m Marci, Bank’s old lady, and this is Bri. She’s Saddle’s old lady. We heard you were going to be one of us, too. Cannon’s old lady. Welcome to the club. There have been only the two of us for ages, but now there’s five. It’s so cool getting to do stuff together. Not that it wasn’t cool when it was just Bri and me.” Marci looks at Bri as though she had just sold her out.

“I get it, Marci. You were getting boring too you know.” Bri laughs, and Marci looks relieved, and then hurt when she realizes what that meant.

“It sounds to me like you’ve been brought here for your own protection,” Jamie states, looking at Molly. “We’ve both been there, haven’t we, Molly?”

“Oh yes. They may be Neanderthals, but they are protective Neanderthals. The first sign of a threat and you’ll be in lockdown before you know it, and the brothers are all as bad. They won’t let any harm come to any of us. It’s sweet when you get used to it.” The face Molly pulls when she says this depicts anything but sweetness. The others all pull a similar face, too.

“My advice would be to speak to Ghost and maybe Hellion. Ghost will teach you self-defense, you know, hand-to-hand stuff, and Hellion will do weapons training with you. We’ve both done some with them and they’ve been very patient and very helpful.”

“No one told me any of this stuff,” Jamie blurts out.

“Well, you and Molly were pretty handy already when you became old ladies. We didn’t think you needed any help.” Marci gives them a look with eyes as round as saucers. “Besides which, when trouble came your way, you had a stunt double! She was fucking awesome, too.” Bri laughs at Jamie’s shocked expression.

“Yes, and you know how I feel about that, so just shut the hell up!” Jamie sounds serious but she still has a twinkle in her eye so I’m not sure what happened there.

Molly fills me in on the details, and everyone laughs when she describes someone, Fury’s father no less, getting blown away with a shotgun by a club whore. They laugh! What the fuck! It’s not a clubhouse, it’s a freaking madhouse. The inmates are running the asylum.

Marci says she’ll be back in a moment and disappears from the room. Bri sits on the edge of the bed. “She’s gone to find out why you’re here other than being Cannon’s old lady. That’s not a reason to be brought here normally. She’ll get it out of Bank in no time. One thing they all have in common. They can’t resist sex. You’ll learn that about Cannon, if you haven’t already. They can’t say no to their woman. Threaten to cut off their sex supply chain, and they always cave in.”

“I don’t want to learn about his supply chain of women, thank you very much,” I say, wrinkling my nose in disgust.

“No, silly. You. You’re his supply chain. Cannon has never been one for screwing around anyway, but he’s your man now. None of them mess around when they find their one.”

“I’m surprised that Cannon let Vortex get hands on you to be honest. That’s not normal for these alpha males.” Molly giggles.

“I don’t think he had a choice. He didn’t strike me as knowing anything that Vortex was up to. Pretty much a deer in headlights if you ask me. That was probably my fault, too. I laid into him as soon as the door opened. He never even got a foot across the threshold the whole time they were there.” I grimace as I remember just how I did lay into him.

Marci reappears, looking a bit disheveled I must say. “You have a meeting with Whack, our president, in ten minutes. He’ll explain why he’s put you into ‘protective custody’. Bank wasn’t going to divulge even after I…”

“Stop there. I don’t need to know the gory details.” I can’t help but be a bit prudish around women I don’t know yet. Jamie and Molly I’m okay with, but I don’t know Marci and Bri that well yet.

“Oh, it was definitely gory. The damn fool pulled out at the last second. He likes to see me wearing it!”

“Oh, yuck. Too much information on our first meeting.” Marci and Bri are laughing their damn tits off at me. Molly and Jamie aren’t far behind, either. I can’t help but join in.

Killing time until I meet with Whack, who I have only seen a couple of times at the practice, I ask about Vortex, Ghost and Hellion. Vortex is apparently lethal with any kind of bladed weapon and does tricks with most of them, too. Ghost has a son called Thorn, who he has only recently reconnected with. A whole separate story there, I’m thinking. Hellion is a brother who is a joker but one who keeps his secrets, such as his life, close to his chest.

Even though Vortex was an ass this morning, I find myself liking him. He certainly gets things done quickly and without fuss. I can imagine me and Cannon still being at the damn doorstep arguing if it had been left to the two of us.

Time’s up, and I go for my meeting with the president. The women all accompany me to his office door, and they hover to see if they are going to be allowed to support me. Whack stares at them for a few seconds and then nods. They rush in and grab seats, leaving me the one directly in front of his desk. They are like a flock of birds, chirping away. Whack silences them with a slap of his hand on his desk. It sounds like a gunshot and scares the bejeezus out of me. That’s something my grandma used to say. That’s a blast from the past.

“Right, I don’t have a lot of time, so be quiet, all of you, and let me explain this shit to Barbara. Cannon has had a run-in with an asshole who wanted to buy his truck. Steal it would be a better way to describe it, with the offer that he was making. Anyway, turns out that the guy making the offer works for a ‘criminal organization’ and they don’t like taking no for an answer. He had a second run-in, and they basically threatened Cannon and the club. If they know about you, Barbara, and if they don’t already, they soon will, your life could be in danger just to get to Cannon. So that’s why I said you had to come here. This wasn’t Cannon’s doing, it was mine. He would lay his life down for you, you should know that, but I don’t want anyone to lay their lives down. Unless, of course, it’s the scumbags that started all this. Now, all of you women could become targets in this mess, as one of this criminal organization's sidelines is trafficking. You will all need to be accompanied wherever you go. I will have brothers stationed at and around the practice, and Marci and Bri, you’re here for the duration. Any questions?”

“Erm, I have one,” I say rather timidly for me. “Can I have the services of Ghost and Hellion while I’m here, please?”

“I’m not sure Cannon is going to like that. Why do you need their ‘services’?” the president asks.