Page 17 of Two Tricks

I stopped on the steps up the porch to the house so I was eye level to him. “If Eagle had been there, he would have. Just because you treat women with respect doesn’t mean this club does. Everyone takes note from the president on how to act.”

“Don’t you fucking talk about my brother like that!” Picasso snapped, getting right up in my face. “He takes care of everyone in this club, and I won’t stand for you slandering him.”

Here I was thinking he might be the nice one out of the group. Seeing the tinge of crazy going on in his eyes, I decided for once to keep my mouth shut on the subject. I knew Picasso had been too perfect, but now I knew what made him tick.

Don’t fuck with his brother.

He took a deep breath and seemed to shake off his rage. “Stay here, relax, take a nap, whatever you want—as long as it’s in this house. Remember, we can tell exactly where you are, and I am changing the geo-fencing so you will get shocked if you leave the porch. I’ll be back after the meeting.”

I watched her walk into the house, not trusting that she would believe me about the ankle tracker. This small woman packed more punch to her than a category five hurricane, and she was going to blow through this place if we didn’t get her on our side. Making my way back to the clubhouse, which was now full of all the men in our club, I hurried over to the bar where I knew Eagle and the others would be waiting for me.

“She at the house?” Eagle asked, his phone in hand.

“You tell me—you’re the one tracking her,” I said as I sat down next to him. “Don’t forget to switch to the small fence around the house. Let’s see if she’ll listen to my warning.”

Void scoffed as he took a sip of his whiskey. “That little demon, she won’t listen to anyone but Two Tricks. It was a mistake to bring her here.”

“Not here,” Eagle snapped. “We will talk about this when this is over. Phantom Saints leaders don’t argue in front of the family.”

I scanned the room and saw that everyone but the few we knew wouldn’t be here were ready and waiting. Eagle stood from his stool, took his gavel, and struck the bar soundly, alerting everyone that church was now in session.

“Today will be quick. Not too much to go over, but what we do have is not great news,” Eagle said, his voice booming through the space. “The mover we had is squeezing us for more money because they don’t want to be caught dealing behind Two Tricks’ back. We are scouting out new options for this problem, but if anyone hears about more of our connections getting cold feet, we want to know. Business is fine, and we have other areas that Tricks has no hold over, so be assured there is still work to be done and money to be made.”

The room rumbled with talk and uncertainty as they took in that information. Our group had been around for ten years and survived the loss of our sister club, the Blackjax, six years ago. This was another bump in the road, but it would be one that we could weather if Eagle would get out of his own way. As he said, we didn’t need the Hidden Empire’s help to grow, even if it would make it happen faster— damn Mad Dogs trying to box us in.

“On another note, I have a guest that you will be seeing around the next few weeks. She is off limits.” Eagle gave the men a hard look. “I need her to be on our side to broker a deal, and she wants to see how things run on our end. Let’s show the little lady just how the Phantom Saints became the top dog on the West Coast,” he said with a smirk that had the guys getting to their feet, hooting, hollering, and whistling their agreement.

I was shocked to hear Eagle talk about her in church. We had all agreed that we would have her keep a low profile and let them think she was his newest side piece. Had something changed on his end? Why didn’t he tell us? We never made choices like this alone. We always worked as a team.

“Now I’ll open the floor for any new business,” Eagle said and sat, looking over the group of men.

Tapper stepped forward, and the room fell silent again. “One of my snitches said that one of Tricks’ competitors on the East Coast was getting ready to make a move. Word on the situation is that he let his enforcer go too far and they killed his son without provocation.”

My brows shot up my forehead, and I looked over at the rest of the guys. I could tell from their faces that none of us had heard a peep about this, and we’d been keeping our ears glued to the ground for any news when it came to Tricks and Dax.

“Does your snitch know the name of the rival?” I asked.

“They didn’t know, but it happened last year. It just took them a long time to find out it was a hit by Tricks. He didn’t leave his usual calling card of a double ace playing card,” Tapper said, shrugging his shoulders.

Why would he have a hit then not take credit for it? That made no sense—if it’s a rival, then you make sure they know you won. Was it a rogue hit? Did Dax act out on her own and try to cover it up?

“Bring your snitch in, we want to talk to him,” Eagle said, giving me a look. He didn’t think it added up either. “Anything else we need to know?”

When no one spoke up, another rap of the gavel sounded, and the men drifted off. Eagle signaled us to follow him to the office in the back of the clubhouse, and everyone sprawled out into their usual spots as I shut the door and locked it. I trusted every member of our club, but that didn’t mean I would be stupid. The things we talked about in here we sure as hell didn’t want anyone else knowing about.

“Do you really think she would take out a rival’s kid without claiming it?” Sprocket asked, chewing on this thumbnail.

“Abso-fucking-lutely I believe that,” Void said. “All he would have to do is call her a bitch to get punched. Imagine if he called her a twat or something. From what I’ve seen in the twelve hours she has been around, that girl is a loose cannon.”

Cognac just chuckled. “You’re just pissed because you got your ass handed to you twice by our little loba.”

Void snarled, baring his teeth. “Don’t you fucking name her. We can’t keep her.”

“Why not? It seems our leader might have changed his mind on that,” Cognac said, winking at Eagle.

He was one of the only people I knew who could get away with shit like that. When Eagle didn’t deny the accusation, the room paused, and we all looked at him. He was sitting behind his desk, leaning back in his chair, rubbing his chin, not even paying attention to what we were saying.

“Eagle,” I called out, grabbing a pen from his desk and tossing it at him.