“Tan, you in there?”
Brooks’ voice woke me up before his fist connected with my door.
“Dude, it’s almost noon, and your girl’s out here starving.”
I rolled over onto my side. “First off, not my girl. Secondly, someone fix her something, damn.”
Then, Brooks opened my door. “Get your ass up and cook for her. Trust me, you’ll thank me later.”
As he closed my door, I rolled onto my back. I stared up at a hazy ceiling, trying to get my bearings as the foggy, listlessness of sleep slowly rose from my view. I pressed myself up with my elbows and looked around as everything came rushing back.
And as I clamored off the bed, I tried my best to look presentable before heading out into the kitchen.
“I told him he didn’t have to wake you up,” Summer said.
I waved my hand at her as I made my way to the stove. “He’s fine. You’re fine. Let me get something whipped up for you.”
“Really, I can make it,” she said as she came to stand beside me.
I nodded. “Then, you can help, because cooking pre-caffeine isn’t a good decision for me.”
Her cute little giggle flooded my ears as it fell from her lips and I thought my heart might shoot into the heavens. I peered down at her and watched as she dug around for pots and pans. She walked over to the fridge and looked to me for guidance, like we always used to do whenever we had her parent’s kitchen all to ourselves.
“Ready when you are,” she said.
I had a miniature flashback to when we were teenagers. I remembered back to the first time we ever cooked together. We had come back from playing around in the ocean and she had on nothing but a bikini top and the skimpiest little shorts I’d ever seen in my fucking life. With salted hair caressing her skin and a glistening tan against her skin, she looked to me for direction and guidance.
Just like now.
Guess some things never change.
“I’ll need some eggs, cheese, and any vegetables we’ve got in there that might be on their last leg,” I said.
She dipped into the fridge and I couldn’t help but stare at her ass.
“All right, we’ve got half of an onion, one more carrot left, half a red pepper, lots of shredded cheese, and… oh! We have to use this.”
When she raised up and dumped the arm-full of food she had onto the counter, I saw what she was talking about. She had found her favorite food, corn on the cob, and it was apparently left over from something one of the guys brought in. I wasn’t sure whose it was, but the rule of the clubhouse always stood tall and strong for the compound.
If their name wasn’t on it, then it was fair game.
“Did any of that come out of anything labeled?” I asked.
Summer peeked back into the fridge. “Nope. Everything came from the veggie drawer down here, except for the corn on the cob. That was just in a Ziplock bag in the door, of all places.”
I grinned. “Fair game, then. I’ll get started on the omelets, but I want you to put some toast in the toaster and see if you can find me some bacon. Or sausage. Or something to go along with everything.”
We danced around each other in the kitchen like we hadn’t skipped a beat from our teenage years. It felt familiar and comforting, especially during this tumultuous time for the crew. Every time she brushed by me, my cock jumped. Every time she smiled up at me, my heart leapt in my chest. Electricity sizzled through the marrow of my bones every time her eyes met mine, but for the life of me I couldn’t get my walls to come down.
The rebar and cement walls around my heart had hardened over the years, and even after our conversation, I still didn’t understand why she didn’t show up.
She’d never been one to listen to her parents, ever. She had never been one to give into her parents demands in fear of their punishments.
So, what changed?
Breakfast moved by in a blur. Summer met the rest of the women staying at the compound, and after twenty minutes of talking over breakfast, they already had plans for a girls’ movie night, complete with snacks. The rest of the guys trickled out one by one, and I whipped up as much food as I could before I slipped away. I picked up a piece of bacon I fried on the stove and shoved it into my mouth, but that was about all I could stomach.
Especially since Brooks beckoned for me.
“We need to talk,” he murmured in my ear.
I nodded my head as I watched him walk out of the kitchen, and I knew that meant that I needed to follow him. Molly was already roping Summer into helping set up a nursery for their impending one once we all got ourselves out of this mess, and it shocked me that Summer agreed to help.
But everything fell to the wayside once I slipped into Brooks’ room and found the rest of the guys there as well.
“Wait, we’re having church?” I asked.
Finn furrowed his brow. “Didn’t you see Brooks rounding us up?”
I shrugged. “I was lucky if I slept three hours last night. No, I didn’t see Brooks rounding you guys up.”
Brooks drew in a deep breath. “Well, what we have to do now is figure out our next steps. We have captives in the basement that I’m assuming none of the girls know about?”
We all shook our heads before he continued.
“Perfect. That means we have to keep it that way, then. I’m not sure the girls would take well to living on top of a few battered men.”
Porter chuckled. “You’d be surprised about Astrid. She’s about as ruthless as you are sometimes.”
Brooks grinned. “Trust me, I know. She tortured me just about as much as I tortured her growing up.”
I snickered. “So, should we vote?”
“On what?” Archer asked.
I shrugged. “On whether to keep using those guys for information or simply holding them here until we can get the girls out? Something like that?”
Brooks pointed at me. “That’s actually not a bad idea.”
Cole sighed. “All right, then let’s put it to a vote.”
Brooks looked around at all of us. “All in favor of keeping them hostage for information until they are no longer useful, raise your hands.”
My hand went up, along with Porter and Brooks, but none of the other guys voted.
“All in favor of cutting them loose and killing them? Raise your hands,” Brooks said.
And when the other three guys raised their hands, I rolled my eyes.
“Fabulous,” I murmured.
“Has this group ever had a tie?” Porter asked.
I threw my hands up into the air. “Fine, all right. Let’s say we let these guys go. You know they’re just going to go back and tell Chops more information than he already has.”
Brooks nodded. “Which is why the vote was to release them long enough to kill them.”
Cole chuckled. “I’m sure the girls would love living upstairs from the scene of a bunch of murders.”
The argument that kicked up swirled around me as I closed my eyes. All of the guys had great points, but none of them helped in a situation like this. We were better off keeping the guys for valuable intel, even if we did have to beat it out of them.
Besides, it wasn’t as if the basement door was anywhere inside. Someone had to go outside and take the cellar doors out back into the basement. So, that lowered the chances of the girls finding out since they weren’t allowed to go outside in the first fucking place.
But Brooks’ bellowed over our heads, silencing everyone in their tracks.
“Enough!”
Everyone looked at our president as he sighed heavily. “We’ll hold another vote in a few days once everyone’s had time to think about what they want to do. But it seems as if the vote is whether or not to keep them for intel, or kill them to keep them hidden from the girls. So, however you vote in a few days, make sure you understand that if we have another tie, the decision will fall into Tanner’s lap.”
I blinked. “Wait, why me?”
Brooks peered over at me. “Because we’re in this mess right now due to protecting Summer. And while I’m never one to place blame, nor do I get mad at victims, she’s the reason why we’re here. Her, you, and your daughter. So, you get the last say in how this pans out if we can’t come to a majority agreement.”
I let that weigh heavily upon my mind before I nodded. “All right, I’ll be prepared.”
And after Brooks dismissed church, I walked over to a chair in the corner and eased myself into it.
Before Finn came up to me. “Hey there, my dude. You okay?”
I shrugged. “Had better days.”
He perched on the bed in front of me. “Have I ever thanked you for sponsoring me yet?”
I grinned. “I told you that you didn’t have to. You showed promise when I first found you. It was an honor to be at your prospecting ceremony.”
He smiled brightly. “Well, I want a way to become more involved. I want to be a fully-patched member. And while I know that’s the last thing on everyone’s minds right now, it’s not with mine. I want you guys to be my brothers, for real.”
I leaned forward. “You became our brother the second you put on that prospect coat. Full membership doesn’t give you brotherhood. You already have that.”
“I know, I know. But I want more out of this group. This crew is my life. You guys are my only shred of family. I want to be more than what I am.”
“And in time, you’ll get there. You just have to prove yourself to the club.”
He furrowed his brow. “What do you mean?”
I chuckled as I stood to my feet. “Finn, we all had our moment. That one moment where we all stood out while we were all prospects and our president finally made the decision to fully patch us. Just be there when we need you the most, and your moment will come. I can promise you that.”
He sighed. “Yeah, yeah. I can do that.”
I smiled as I patted his shoulder. “Come on, you look like you could use some food, and God knows we made a lot of it earlier. Get yourself a plate and rest for a little bit.”
Because I knew none of us would have long to rest before war descended into our laps again.
And this time, we needed to be prepared for it.
