Page 49 of Malice and Surrender
“Naw, man, I’m going to ask you to lay off until Chase is back and proves one way or the other that he’s a leader, and I’m asking this as a favor to me.”
“Fuck,” I swore under my breath. He knew I would never say no to a personal favor. This was a sneaky tactic, but I wouldn’t be alive without Mannix, and I respected the fuck out of him. “Fine, but know this. I will follow you wherever you need me to go, but if Chase gets back and it continues to be this dog and pony show, I’m done. You can beat the shit out of me and break both my legs. I don’t give a fuck. I refuse to follow someone as spineless as my father was.”
Mannix nodded, and I turned and stomped down the hall, so absorbed with my thoughts that it took a moment to register the yelling. The shrill sound out in the main club room nearly had me turning around and going the other way.
Almost anything was better than dealing with Naomi. Now that she was pregnant, she was more annoying than ever. At least before, her rants were just irritating. Now they ended in tears and her rubbing her belly as she demanded things like cocoa butter. It was ‘cringe worthy’, as she would say.
All the sweetbutts were gathered like they’d been herded, and Naomi screamed at the top of her lungs as she pointed at them.
“What the fuck is going on here? You sound like you’ve been possessed by Satan.” I stared at her red face and messy blonde hair, which was normally neat and perfect. “You kinda look it, too. Are you sure it was Chase that knocked you up?”
A few of the girls appreciated my sense of humor and smirked or laughed, earning a glare that could’ve shattered glass from Naomi.
“And what fucking part of no drama by the old ladies do you not understand? Do you need it read slower to you?”
Her face turned a fiery shade of red. “I’m not an old lady!” she wailed, and I cringed. “I’m in my prime. I’m too young for this,” Naomi said and looked like she was about to burst into tears when her face shifted as fast as a transformer, and she stomped in my direction.
“You, it was probably you,” Naomi said, and just like that, the finger swung in my direction.
“Be careful where you point that thing. Something may bite it off,” I growled and stepped farther into the room.
I had zero intention of hurting her shrieking ass. As far as I was concerned, old ladies, even ones causing drama, were the responsibility of their man. Chase wasn’t here, but if Beast were reporting back, he knew what was going on, including any of the shit Naomi pulled.
She tried to give Chase’s office a freshening-up paint job a week ago with a color called wheat fairy. She said the simple, grey walls were depressing and looked dirty. I left when Beast finally called Chase to talk her down.
But I also didn’t have to put up with her antics. She wasn’t my old lady. We had one sexual interaction when she gave me a blowjob to piss off Chase, and I honestly have had better from my bike.
Three things kept her breathing and acting like a raving lunatic. The first was that she was shacking up with Chase. I may not be happy with his leadership qualities, but to kill his old lady, fuck no.
The second was that she was pregnant. Only a real piece of shit killed a woman while pregnant. I was a grade-A asshole and had killed a long list of women on missions for the club, but only a man with no morals would do that crap.
The last was that as much as I didn’t like her ninety-nine percent of the time, the one percent was mad respect. I’d watched her step off a boat onto a dock and do the thing that Chase needed to do and couldn’t. Killed his brother. Point blank range, she walked up and pulled the trigger like she was swiping her credit card at Versace. That right there earned her a free pass for life unless she came at me for some reason. Any bitch who could do that was a bitch worth keeping.
She looked at her finger and then up into my face. “Whatever,” she said but put her arm down. “Just tell me where she is.”
My brow furrowed. “Who the hell are you talking about?”
“Don’t play stupid with me. I know you know where she is.” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at her blood-red nails. Had the pregnancy hormones gone to her head? A voice in my mind warned me to keep that thought to myself unless I wanted her to go all banshee again.
“The only girls I know of are in this room and Raine,” I said.
“Who’s Raine?”
“My point exactly.” I mirrored her pose and even added the foot tap she had going on just so she knew how ridiculous she looked.
Naomi looked me up and down and huffed out a sound that sounded more like a rabid squirrel, but I was sure it was her version of annoyance. “I’m talking about Bailey. She’s missing, and I know one of you assholes took her.”
I held my hands out. “Who the fuck is Bailey? And why the hell would we want her?”
Naomi chewed on her lower lip. “Bailey is my roommate.”
“The blonde? I thought her name was Ava,” I said and wondered if I’d been calling that girl the wrong name all this time.
“No, not her. My other roommate.”
I shook my head and stomped toward the exit. “I have no idea who the hell you’re talking about, but maybe you should visit the amusement park next door.”
“What? Why?” Naomi gasped, her face horrified.
