Page 45 of The List
Cypher shook his head. “They know better than to talk to her. I’ve made that known. She would’ve told me if there was a problem.”
“Getting tight with her?”
“No.” Cypher scoffed. “That girl’s not tight with anyone but Cleo.”
“Even that’s questionable,” Wraith added.
“Why’s that?”
“She only gets together with Cleo at the motel. Won’t come to our house. Cleo’s invited her a few times, but Jane refused, so she let it go. She doesn’t fully trust Cleo with her ties to us.”
No one blamed her. Jane had been through a lot. Or so they imagined. The club was still in the dark about what had gone down. The only person with details was Inez herself, and the woman was a vault when it came to Jane. Cross suspected Ace knew more, but he hadn’t said anything.
“She taking over for Cleo at the clubhouse?”
Ace nodded. “Comes in three times a week and cleans. The last month she’s been coming to the parties.”
“Really?”
“To clean. Keeps to herself, a low profile. Barely know when she’s there, but Joker keeps tabs on her.”
Gent snorted. “Like it’s his fucking job. He’s giving me Wraith vibes.”
“Fuck off,” Wraith snapped.
Cross wouldn’t join in on the taunting, but it was accurate. Joker, the newest member of the club as of six months ago, had taken on watching over her. As far as Cross knew, they’d had very little interaction, but he stayed close when she was around.
“I’m thinking our boy has got a little crush on her,” Gent smirked.
“Well, you let that motherfucker know he better not act on it.”
“He knows,” Cypher said.
Inez nodded, taking a drag from her cigarette.
Cross folded his arms. “You got a plan for her?”
“Yeah,” Inez said but didn’t elaborate.
Ace scoffed. “Keeping this one close to the chest?”
“I have my reasons,” Inez said, leaving no room for discussion.
“And would you like to share them with the class?” Gent teased.
Inez took a deep drag from her cigarette, directing the smoke toward Gent. “Baby, you’ll know when I want to share.” She sighed. “Anything else?”
There was a long stretch of silence before Ace looked over at Wraith. If the president was waiting on the enforcer to come forward, he’d be waiting a long time. Wraith continued to scowl but made no move to speak. They’d brought it to Inez when they found out about Cleo writing to Addison. They’d already done a deep dive into her, so they’d laid everything out for Inez. Surprisingly, she didn’t seem bothered by it. Cross had expected a concerned reaction. Inez gave the opposite.
“Cleo’s pen pal,” Ace said, not elaborating further.
If he had to guess, Ace was going to give the least amount of information necessary for Cleo’s sake. If Inez shut it down, Addison would be on the next flight home.
“Still doing that?” Inez rolled her eyes. “Goddamn it, that girl loves to write a fucking letter, doesn’t she?” Inez shook her head, grabbed her glass, and finished off the last of her vodka.
“It’s gotten a little more complicated.”
Inez slammed the glass on the table and pointed at Wraith. “I fucking warned you if this became a problem, you’re shutting it down.”
