Page 17 of Chef
“Oh baby, I would never get Barbara to domydirty work. My bebe is an angel on earth,” he whispers so Chef can’t hear.
“That is gross and thank you?”
He leans in close. “Cher, I planned ahead. Mattress protector and all. Only a little damage. I’ll go clean it up after Church, make it pretty for him.” He gives me a wink and I can’t help but laugh.
Patting his shoulder on the way past I make a note never to enter into a prank war with this man. Not if he’s willing to pee on a bed. Ew. Shoving open the clubhouse doors I enter into a cacophony of noise and smells and it feels just like home.
Chapter Six
Chef
“What did you do?” I ask Damian, crossing my arms over my chest and staring down my nose at him.
Damian raises his brows, giving me an innocent look? “Mon cher?”
“You, you -” I look him up and down. “You big fucker, what did you do to my bed?”
“Hmmmm,” he says, tapping his chin. “I’m not sure what you mean.” A smirk slowly grows on his face and before I can punch him in his smug face, he sobers up. “You gotta keep Sage close, brother.” The quick change of demeanor catches me by surprise.
“Have we got a problem?”
He stares up at me, blue eyes flashing. “Ashfall.”
Fuck. With all this Hitchens’ bullshit and then helping the Originals with Petrov and keeping all the little girls safe, I hadalmost forgotten about Ashfall. I think we all did. Since we came here we’ve been busy working our asses off to not only get The Keep up and running, but also to keep enemies at bay. Justice can attest to that.
“How big a problem?” I ask in a low voice.
“I been asking around the bar crowd, there’s been whispers of something coming.”
I run a hand down my face and nod, straightening up my cap. Fuck. I don’t know what it is about the club, but we always seem to be knee deep in shit. As per usual not only do with have this Nathaniel Mercy to contend with, the guy who is not only ex Eden’s Keep but also one half of a fucked up black market partnership, but we also have those religious fuckers that don’t think twice about torturing and murdering people. Great.
Closing my eyes I take a breath then crack my neck. “Thanks for the heads up.”
“Anytime, cher, anytime.”
Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I walk into the clubhouse and I’m met with a wall of noise. The little girls are sitting at a small kids’ table in the corner, giggling over their pancakes. Sage is sitting with Joe, Loyal, River and Nell laughing, probably about my wet fucking bed, and my brothers are dotted around eating TumTum’s breakfast. Everyone seems to be in a fairly decent mood, but looks can be deceiving. The Matrix twins are at the end of the table, frowns on their faces as they stare at their laptops. Dex and Sniper’s heads are close together as they’re deep in conversation and Justice is looking more tense than usual. And that’s saying a fucking lot.
“Looks like we got trouble,” Vex says, stepping up next to me as I pile eggs on my plate.
“So I heard. You think they’re gonna make a move?”
“Nah. That’s not Eden’s Keep style. But they will be recruiting.”
I glance at him, noting the serious look on his face. As the eldest Landry I can only imagine the shit he’s seen go down. Looking around, I see it clearer now. My brothers may be tense, but the Landrys, Justice and Loyal? They have a completely different demeanor. They’ve seen more shit than we can imagine. If they’re nervous? We’ve got problems.
“You need to keep Sage close. Whatever the fuck happened between you, you need to bury it.”
“It’s done. We’re moving forward as friends,” I reply, the word only a little bitter on my tongue.
He stares at me, a slow grin growing on his face. “Whatever you say, brother.”
Fucker. He walks away, looking slightly less wound up than before. Moving to one of the long tables I take a seat next to Jason. His daughter Izzy sits quietly beside him, leaning on his arm and the man leans down to press a kiss to her dark head before carrying on with his meal.
“We got Church this morning.” Flack starts, looking between me and Jason, before pointing his fork in Jason’s direction. “You good to open this morning?”
“The garage? Hell yeah,” Jason says, wiping his hand over his mouth.
He’s a good steady worker, and trying really hard to get back on his feet after leaving some fucked up cult up north. I don’t know what all went down up there, but Jason, Nell, and the teenage boy River they brought with them, are some of the most broken people I’ve met. Jason tries not to show it, but I’ve seen the man jump a mile when people approach him from behind, I’ve seen his hands shake from time to time, and how fucking scared he is to make a mistake at the garage. Whatever he went through has given him some severe PTSD, similar to what I’ve seen of some of the men I’ve served with, but funnily enough, he’s calm when he’s at the clubhouse.
