Page 53 of Wizard's Spitfire
“Left front?”
“Good choice.”
We walk hand in hand to the station and sit on the stool provided. I hear the bells over the front door and look toward the front of the room. Wizard’s club brother Blue comes in with a stunning redhead I’ve never met.
Wizard leans close to my ear. “All of my married brothers ' ladies are expecting or breast feeding. I invited a few single brothers and told them to bring a date or a friend. Blue’s with CJ. She’s the premiere dancer at La Poule Rouge.”
“She’s stunning.”
“She is, but you’re breathtaking.”
I feel my cheeks flush. Shaking my head, I set him straight.
“I’m a single mom with stretch marks and saggy boobs. I have little doubt that CJ is utter porcelain perfection.”
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and in my eyes, you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
“I think my ovaries just exploded,” a new, yet familiar, voice says.
I look up to find Doc with Marshal Hayes.
“Hi, Doc. Hello, Marshal.”
“Shh, I’m just a friend hanging out. Call me Riley. I wanted to help monitor the situation, plus wine.”
I laugh.
“I’m all for the wine. I hope we can drink while we cook.”
“Same.” Riley says.
Then she points to the table across from us. “Let’s take this one.”
“Sure,” Doc says, following behind her.
“How did he get wrangled into being her date? They’re like oil and water,” I say to Wizard.
“She asked him when she overheard me talking to him about this afternoon.”
Before we could talk further, more of our friends entered. Decker and Madison. I met her at the employee BBQ. Saber comes next with two of the dolls, Tawny and Athena. Followed shortly by Hollywood and Alena. I remember her name because of her story. The young woman has been through more in twenty years than most people will go through in a lifetime.
A few minutes later, two people in chef’s whites enter the room. The first is a dynamo of a woman with spiky blonde hair. She introduces herself as chef Kimberly and her co-worker as chef Jimi.
We spend the next couple of hours cooking, drinking, and laughing. My face and sides hurt from laughing so much. Saber, Tawny, and Athena have us all in stitches. Blue and CJ randomly break out in song a few times and, of course, we have to all sing along.
The menu was seared steak with a marsala and shallot pan sauce. A roasted beet salad with goat cheese and a cabernet vinaigrette. And pears poached in merlot. It was good and I want to serve it for Sunday dinner sometime.
Chapter 36
Wizard
Last night was epic. We had a blast at a local nightclub and danced until the wee hours of the morning. Regina gave me the side eye when I dropped Charlie off as dawn peeked through the night sky.
Tonight, we’re having an epic party for Tully. It’s past time to patch him in as a full-fledged member of the Kings. As an added bonus and surprise, I’m presenting Charlie with her cut tonight. We haven’t talked about it before, so if I’ve misread the situation, she could totally shut me down in front of my brothers.
The Baton Rouge and Houston chapters are joining us for the patch celebration. They’ll start rolling in any time now. I’m looking forward to seeing Chief, Trinity, and the others. Being only an hour away from the mother chapter, our clubs spend a lot of time together. It’s like one big extended family.
An alert goes off and I dash to my command center. Pushing a few buttons, I see it's Robillard’s vehicle. He just pulled into a warehouse I’ve been monitoring. One that’s also tied to the Bratva. In less than forty-eight hours, there’s a shipment going out. The feds, Bug and I are doing everything we can to find out where they’re shipping the people and, if we can, who the buyers are. We’re casting our net wide, hoping to take out as many of the low life fuckers as we can. Human trafficking and sex trafficking turn my stomach. I’d like to raze all the fuckers from the face of the planet.