Page 35 of Vandal Unbound

She pauses for a second, one longer than I feel comfortable with given I know Sunny and Ridge are watching at the bar. Then she reaches for it and puts her hand in mine.

“So this is the bar,” I say.

The corner of her mouth twitches in a smile. “I can see that.”

For the first time in a while, I’m able to take my eyes off all the bottles on the wall, because there’s someone here with the power to hold my attention instead.

11

DAISY

“I’m not sure what I expected a motorcycle clubhouse to look like,” I admit. “I mean, I’ve watchedSons of Anarchybut wasn’t sure how realistic that was.”

“Honestly, that show got a lot right and some things wrong.” Vandal leads me down a corridor behind the bar. “This is our medical bay.”

I peer in. It looks like a budget hospital. There are shelves with boxes all neatly labeled, and a large medical table lies in the middle of the room. “What did it get wrong?”

Vandal huffs. “Too much drama and not enough business for one. It’s not all chaotic bar fights and impulsive murders. Violence tends to be strategic because law enforcement heat is bad for everyone. Plus, we can barely stand being caged in a car, so who wants to spend time in a prison cell?”

I glance up at him. “That’s a lot more information than I was expecting you to give me.”

“You asked, so I answered. Never gonna lie to you, Daze.” He pushes a set of doors open at the end of the hallway. “This is the kitchen.”

“Wow, this is a big kitchen. I love making bulk batches of food for the freezer, but our kitchen’s too small. What else did the show mess up?”

“Presidents don’t survive by being emotional and reckless. They’ve got to be colder. More logical. They have to manage all the hotheads.”

He closes the door, leads me back into the bar area, and then takes a right down another corridor that has doors spaced out like a budget hotel corridor. At the end, there’s a door that opens up onto a balcony that wraps around the building and has two sets of stairs down to the lot by a dock.

“Thought you’d want to check on Elsie,” he says as we step outside.

She’s sitting next to Maren and opposite Havoc at one of the picnic tables, slurping cola and ice cream.

I smile and wave back when Elsie grins and waves up at me. “I can’t wait to deal with the sugar crash she’s going to have after this.”

“Kid deserves it for drawing me such a cute picture.”

Just as we’re watching her, the big, bald dude from earlier walks up to us, and in response, something makes me slip my hand into Vandal’s. His is so much bigger, and he closes his fingers around mine, squeezing it even as he greets the man.

“It’s not a family day, V,” he says. “Shouldn’t be kids in here.”

I squeeze my fingers even more tightly around Vandal’s and look to where Elsie is smiling at something Maren says. Her hair is blowing in the gentle breeze, and Havoc is dragging an umbrella over to keep the sun off her.

“Then it’s lucky the kid is outside then, isn’t it, Rusty?” Vandal replies. He grabs his phone and types something quickly. Then Rusty’s phone pings, and I see Havoc grab his from his pocket.

Havoc stands and looks up at us, then laughs.

“Fuck you,” Rusty says as he checks his own, then disappears back down the front of the building.

“What did you do?” I ask.

Vandal turns his phone so it’s facing me and I read what he typed.

Vandal:As of ten minutes ago, it’s a family day.

Havoc:Saw that coming from a mile away.

North:Someone should look up what “abuse of power” means