Page 68 of Down & Dirty: Rage

“Hey, girl,” Avery greeted, giving her a quick side hug.

Thankfully, her club sister was in a chipper mood. Avery was drop-dead gorgeous when she was smiling. And scary as hell when she wasn’t. But then, half her genetics were the same as Ash’s. Intolerance to bullshit was in the blood.

“Hey!” Lyric greeted back, then frowned. “Why are you here?”

It was impossible that someone spotted her going in and out of Ashton’s apartment, right?

Heaven’s Angels had been closed and the employee parking lot was hidden behind the club. That was another reason she’d picked that particular time to show up at his door.

Avery set her hands on her hips and acted offended. “I can’t come visit my bestie?”

“Sure you can. And luckily, you caught me betweenclients so I can give you my full attention. So, why are you here?” she asked again, spinning on her chair to face her.

Avery’s loud titter had Carl shooting daggers her way. She must have caught it because, without looking at him, she pretended to twist her raised middle finger like a lipstick tube and mimed applying that invisible lipstick to her lips while smiling even bigger.

Lyric bit back a sigh. “Carl, did you want to go take lunch?” Emphasis on thegopart.

Carl did not bite back his own sigh. In fact, it was so loud the neighboring businesses probably heard it. But without saying boo, he grabbed his car keys and left.

“Good,” Avery chirped as soon as the door closed behind him. “He’s always listening in on our conversations.”

“Maybe it’s because you don’t know how to keep your voice down.”

“If I want to be heard above the noise from the tattoo guns, I can’t exactly be in here whispering, can I?”

“But you don’t have to be so loud you drown them out.”

“Well, unlike what some men think, women need to be seenandheard. Whether they like it or not, women are allowed to take up space.”

Lyric rolled her eyes, despite agreeing with what she said. Avery was all about “fuck the patriarchy.” Which was kind of messed up since the biker culture was all about it.

Avery’s personality had probably rubbed off from her mother, who was DAMC through and through but fought tooth and nail not to end up with a biker.

Spoiler alert: she ended up with a biker. Not just any biker, but Jag Jamison.

Rumor had it that both her parents bumped heads constantly before bumping uglies.

Avery grabbed Carl’s stool and rolled it over next to where Lyric sat at her drawing table.

“Settling in I see.” Lyric wasn’t going to get much work done with Avery there.

“I have important business to discuss!”

Lyric shot her a “sure you do”look.

“I do!” she spouted.

“Shouldn’t you be at the pawn shop?”

Avery flapped her hand around. “Bri asked me to run an errand.”

“Is the errand in the room with us?”

Avery practically shimmied on the stool. “Okay, so listen...”

“Do I have a choice?”

“Chill mentioned that the paperwork for Shadow Valley Enterprises is finished. Did you know that your name is listed on the application for the LLC?”