Man of the House: A Dark Bad Boy Romance(172)

“What did you guys do?” Janine asked me.

“Club business,” I said.

She rolled her eyes.

“We all know you’ll tell us later,” Caralee said. “Why not skip to that now?”

Ford laughed. “I’m not telling you shit, woman.”

She smacked his arm. “You better, and you better not call me that again.”

He gave me a sheepish look and went silent.

I sat back and looked around the bar. It was slowly filling up with more guys, most of them Rebels. There was an undercurrent of something in the guys, murmurs and dirty looks. I frowned and realized that Burke must have told them about what had happened with Lavoy. I’d known that would happen sooner or later, but I hadn’t expected Burke to make the call while we were still riding back.

The place felt bad. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but there was an undercurrent of violence all around us. The girls chatted absently about life, mostly talking about the kids, and I gave Ford a look.

“Help me at the bar,” I said to him.

“The f*ck you need help for?”

“Fucking help me, *.”

He shrugged and followed me as I got up. The girls watched us go but said nothing.

“You feeling it?” I asked him softly.

“Not sure,” he said, “but I think I know what you mean. The Rebels.”

“Yeah. They seem unhappy.”

“Think they heard?”

“That’d be my guess.”

“Fuck,” Ford said. “That * Burke.”

“Think he’s trying to stir shit up?”

“Can’t be sure. I don’t see what he’d have to gain.”

“Could be he’s making a move on the whole club.”

“We can’t be having that.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head, “we can’t.”

“Listen, you leave, take Janine home. I’ll stay around, make sure nothing happens.”

“What about Caralee?”

He shrugged. “She’s fine. She’s heading out herself soon anyway.”

I nodded. “All right.”

I turned back away from him and walked over to the table. “Janine,” I said. She looked up at me. “We got to leave.”

“What?” she asked.

“We got to head out,” I said. “It’s not safe here right now.”

She laughed, not sure if I was serious. “This is our clubhouse.”

“And we’re outnumbered by Rebels right now. Listen, Janine, don’t fight me on this.”

She opened her mouth, about to say something, but suddenly she stopped and took a deep breath. She stood up instead. “Okay,” she said.

“Is everything okay?” Caralee asked.

“They’re fine, babe,” Ford said. “You should get going soon too.”

“Okay,” she said, frowning.

“Good to see you,” I said to Caralee.

“Bye, guys.”

Janine just waved as we walked off and pushed through the front door.

As we headed toward my bike, Janine walked next to me. “You going to tell me what that was all about?” she asked.

“Maybe,” I said.

“Clutch, I’m a part of this,” she said, getting angry again. “You can’t keep me in the dark.”

“Back at your place,” I said, and she stopped pressing.

We got onto my bike. I kicked it into gear, slowly backed out, and then rode off into traffic.

I hated leaving Ford there to deal with that shit alone, but he was right. I had to get Janine away from there, just in case. I wasn’t sure any shit was going to go down, but it felt like a strong possibility at the time. Janine was my responsibility and was still an important part of this whole f*cking deal.

It didn’t matter that I felt like a coward. I had to put that behind me.

I had to do what was best for the club and for Janine. I didn’t matter.

We headed back toward her apartment, moving through traffic. I parked the bike out front in the usual spot and kept her behind me as we moved back toward her apartment. I had my piece out, ready for whatever was coming.

But there was nothing. We got into her apartment and I cleared it with no problem. She walked inside and tossed her keys onto the kitchen table, sprawling out on the couch.

“Well?” she asked.

“Well what?” I grunted.

“Tell me what happened.”

I leaned up against the wall and crossed my arms. “Maybe I don’t feel like it.”

“Don’t play games, Clutch.”

“I’m not playing shit,” I said. “Maybe I want to make you work for it, like get you on your hands and knees work for it.”

“That isn’t happening,” she said.

“Maybe not, but I think we both want it to.”

“Where’s this coming from?”

“Nowhere,” I said. “Just was thinking about you earlier.”

“During your job?”

“Yeah, during the job.”

“Why did we have to leave the clubhouse?”

I sighed. “Fine. You want to know? Shit’s not going well with the Rebels. Something bad happened this morning. One of their guys got killed, and they think I did it.”