Page 32 of The Price of Love

“You mean she played me.”

“Us,” Dimples repeats. Although we both know the president takes full responsibility for anything that happens. “We’ve been walking on eggshells all week, hearing she was gonna stir shit up. I’m thinking she started those rumors just to throw you off. Then she tossed out the bogus idea of running drugs. She fucking knows we ain’t into that. So—”

“Fuck me.” Anger courses through me, and I slap my hand against my forehead. “After her bogus fentanyl suggestion threw me off, I agreed to upping our game at Black Briar Motors without taking time to think it through.”

Dimples nods. “We don’t need the law coming down on us if things go south. Especially with the front business doing so well. It could put the girls that work there at risk.”

My face heats. “Aces would be so pissed at me.”

“No, she’d be pissed at Frost.”

I slam my fist against my chest. “I’m the fucking president. And I’m getting it all wrong. I fucking agreed to it. What kind of president doesn’t vet the people bringing business into the shop? I don’t know anything about her Philly contacts. Jesus. That’s a goddamn rookie move.”

Dimples sits back as I rage. After ranting for several minutes, I sigh and lean back against my seat.

“Done?” she asks.

“For now.”

“Good.”

“You know she’s gonna play to the girls who want the club to financially provide for them.” I frown. “What happened to the members supporting the club instead of the members expecting the club to support them? That’s how she’ll convince them I ain’t doing my job.”

“We’ve dealt with that bullshit for years. None of us are living off the club. We got a roof over our heads, but we all have jobs.”

I shrug. “She could argue that the club is supporting me and Nails. But—”

The waitress shows up with our beers and chips and salsa, cutting off my sentence. After we joke for a bit, she leaves to wait on another customer.

“For fuck’s sake, Storm.” Dimples glares. “You just crawled out of the sack with Naomi a few hours ago, now you’re flirting with the waitress?”

“She’s new, so I had to charm her a bit.” I lean out from the table and check out her ass. “Besides, she’s straight.”

Dimples snorts. “When has that ever stopped you?”

I grin. “Very true.”

Dimples shakes her head. “Back to our conversation. You…”

“Right, you’ve got your job at the animal shelter, Halo—”

“No. We were talking about you and Nails. It’s not like either of you are getting paid by the club to be officers. Nails is attracting more and more customers to Black Briar, and—”

“Nails is killing it, but my job isn’t bringing the club any money.”

For the past two years, I’ve been working as a heavy machinery operator for the Black Lantern Development group. The Thorns are twenty-five percent investors in the project to develop the area around the Black Lantern Lake for upscale tourism.

She picks up her beer but doesn’t take a drink as she says, “It’s not bringing in money yet, but when the retreat is finished, it’ll create more jobs for the locals and the girls.”

“Still. That’s a ways off. Frost will argue she’s trying to take care of the girls in the meantime.”

She finally takes a drink before she says, “Yeah, but it could blow up everything Nails has built at the garage. She can grow the front business, so why bring anything more in the back? Especially, with people we don’t know.”

“You’re right, but I already agreed to it.”

“Nothing is irreversible.”

“But either way, she wins. I look weak—indecisive—if I change my mind, but if I don’t, I put the club in jeopardy. So what do I do?”