“I’ll refrain from bringing up theonlytime you were witness to mine and Dante’s sex life…”
“Ouch.” The man actually flinched at my words. “But you’re wrong.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’ve witnessed other occasions other than the night that shall not be named.”
“When? What occasion?” I demanded.
“The night Dante came home after being kidnapped. I waited outside that door for over an hour, hoping to say hello to him. I heard things I’ll never recover from,” he shuddered and then grinned at me. “And then when you were finally fucking done—Ieven went and got a snack whilst I waited, by the way, I came in, trashed the bedroom, flipped you both the bird and left.”
“And you had the nerve to call me weird,” I muttered under my breath.
“There was also another occasion where—”
“Change of topic,” I said quickly. “What point are you proving, and to whom?”
“To Jenna.”
“What? Why?”
“She won’t let me hold the baby,” he shrugged. “She says her child is not my experiment, and she’s not letting an ‘emotionally unavailable man child who can barely hold a pint’ pick up her baby — her exact words, by the way.”
“For fuck's sake,” I laughed. “So you’re going to tell her I let you swing Axel’s pram around like a madman to prove she’s being an overprotective freak?”
“Exactly,” he beamed.
“I hope she kicks your ass.”
“That would mean putting the baby down for five minutes, which she never does.”
“Only five minutes? My, my, aren’t we the intimidating biker?”
“Do you want a repeat performance of this morning?” he asked, raising his knuckles threateningly.
“I’m good. Since I’ve got the pleasure of your company, let me ask you something? Why is it so busy here? Are there a million new members I don’t know about?”
“There’s a few,” he nodded. “But I’ll let the gossip queen tell you about them. Most people you’re seeing, though, they’re not members.”
“Then why are they here? I thought you didn’t like outsiders?”
“We don’t. But it was one of the first things Dante changed. He said that people are curious about what they don’t know. We opened up the compound to the public, and there’s been a lot less shit. When Crash was in charge, we were the scary bikers they came to when they had an issue that needed fixing.”
“Like what?”
“Domestic violent victims, for example. Instead of going to the police, which usually ends up in sweet fuck all happening, they brought the proof to us, and we handled it.”
“Wow,” I murmured. “I had no idea.”
He gave me a weird look. “You had no idea that we protected our own community? Leeds is our home. We don’t want abusers running around more than anyone else does.”
“I suppose.”
“But other than shit like that, we were pretty isolated from everyone else. And it inevitably made people curious. Or suspicious, as was the case with your good friend Officer Bradley. People are now free to come and go as they please. They can use the tattoo shop, the hairdressers, the cafe… anything they want.”
“And Dante doesn’t see it as a security risk?”
“He did. We all did. But it’s been worth it, and the risk turned out to be unfounded. We have new members, our numbers are boosted, and we have someone on patrol at all times. The income boost has been brilliant, which has allowed us to do some upgrades within the club. If you want to be bored with the details, you’d need to ask Shark. He’s the treasurer.”
