Smoke and Steel (Wild West MC #2)(23)

Each brother didn’t have a private room, like Chaos’s clubhouse (this was something they were going to see to with a huge-ass addition when Rainman said they had enough money to do it and do it right), so if a party turned into a private party, you had to stay sober enough to drive the bitch to your house, or hers.

But their meet room was even more awesome than the common room. They had a large, fully stocked weight room. They had a big kitchen with all the top-of-the-line appliances.

And their fortified artillery vault was the shit.

He caught a couple eyes, sent out a couple chin lifts, headed to the bar and asked Hellen, “Why you calling, sweetheart?”

“Eleanor.”

“What?”

“My cousin,” she reminded him. “My dad’s picked this stellar time to come back into my life, so we’re having a family dinner tomorrow to talk about it. I need to know what’s up with Eleanor so I can share with Mom.”

Her dad wasn’t in her life?

He knew she was Archie’s stepsister, so they weren’t blood.

But beyond that, he didn’t know dick about her.

And he didn’t like this news.

“Where’s your dad been?” he asked, deciding against grabbing a beer and instead leaning into an elbow at the bar to focus on listening to her.

“I don’t know. Just not around me. And that was my preferred state of our relationship. But apparently my granddad is sick, and he misses me and my sister. Though don’t believe that. I don’t. He called Mom to get her to extend an olive branch. By the way, I love my mom, but I’m heading to dinner tomorrow with a lighter.”

Fuck, she was funny.

He started chuckling.

“Wild stab with all this info, you don’t get along with your old man,” he joked.

It was the way of some people’s worlds, like Core’s.

His dad was an asshole, deadbeat, alcoholic bum. He embodied everything a man shouldn’t be. He was a total piece of shit.

So Core got where she was coming from.

What he forgot, in having her in his ear, having her reach out to him, call, connect, and how good that felt when it shouldn’t, was the fact she was not him.

She was Hellen.

And evidence was suggesting she was getting under his skin.

“He treated my mom like shit. He treated my sister like shit. He treated me like shit. Fortunately, he wasn’t around much to be that way with us. Unfortunately, when he was around, he doubled down to make up for lost time. He accepted the challenge when Mom divorced him, and he made every day they were apart a nightmare too. Fortunately, she found Andy, and he cushioned these blows so much for Mom, Dad lost the power to deliver them. So at least that part was good.”

“But he kept landing them on you.” His voice was rough and pissed, and he didn’t have it in him to hide it.

That was how big of a sucker he was becoming for her.

“He’s pathologically self-absorbed and a control freak. This is not a good mix. So yeah, until I told him to fuck off when I graduated from college, he managed to ruin a few of my days.”

Core wanted to ask his name and address.

He didn’t.

He gave advice.

“Don’t give in to his shit.”

He heard it himself, his words coming out like a threat, so she couldn’t miss it, which was probably why she didn’t start gabbing again.

“Your life. Your family. Your dad,” he grunted. “Not for me to say. I just got some experience with shitty fathers and the sooner you excise them out of your life, the better.”

“Your dad was shitty too?” she asked quietly.

She had a rich mass of dark hair.

She had tawny green eyes.

She had a beautiful mouth.

And he’d put money down the skin on her ass felt better than those fucking couches.

She was also smart, funny, loyal, she didn’t take any shit, but it was fun as fuck to shovel it at her.

But this was no longer about the fact she wasn’t his type.

Having spent time with her, it was about the fact he was tainted, had been since birth, that part not his fault, but he had committed his own sins that were irredeemable.

She was too good for him.

He was gonna take care of her friend’s problem and then he was gonna exit her life.

All this meant he wasn’t going to share about his old man.

“It’s an epidemic,” he said.

“Sadly, yes. The good ones are hard to find.”

Having a bad one, and being a bad one, he knew that better than her.

“Sorry to unload on you,” she apologized.

“Don’t mind, baby,” he murmured. “So Eleanor, who I know as Nails.”

“Nails?”

“Don’t ask.”

“Ulk,” she gulped audibly, guessing why her cousin was given that name.

He needed to keep their boundaries tight, but that still made him smile.

Beck, their president, walked in. He did a scan of the room and caught sight of Core.

They exchanged nonverbal greetings, and Beck moved Core’s way.

“The intel on her was spotty,” he continued. “She caused some trouble with a club we got an alliance with down in Phoenix, the Aces High MC. They got heavier shit they’re dealing with, and word is, as retaliation, she reached out to the people who were causing the heavy shit. These people are not good people and the trouble they could cause is intense. Other than that, we don’t know what she’s up to. We don’t even know if she made some deal with that crew.”