I offer her my hand. “You’ve probably read my name badge already, but I’m Jinx.” She slides her palm against mine. “You are?”
“Rowan.” She gives a firm, professional shake and then lets go.
“Figure we may as well be on a first-name basis if you’re going to be a regular.” I head toward the cafe, ensuring she does too.
“You’re probably right.” Rowan studies me a second before asking, “Have any of your members successfully escaped major charges in this kind of scenario before?”
“Nervous about how you’ll do?”
She lifts an eyebrow. “Gauging what I’m up against with your Sheriff’s office.”
I scan the street again.Stop it.She won’t be here. Not after yesterday. “A couple of times, yeah. A couple of times, no.”
“Just how often has this happened before?”
“In the last few years? Or in the club’s history?” I ask. “Because they’re two very different answers.”
She exhales heavily. “It’s going to be like that, is it?”
“Hope you didn’t expect any different.”
I open the door for her when we reach the cafe, ushering her in first. “Head to your left. We’ll have more privacy to talk.”
“Sure.” She doesn’t spare the place a look, turning toward the annex as though she can’t wait to get this over with and be out of Temperance.
I follow her down toward our usual table, the contrast of this woman laying it out in plain black and white for me: we run things differently around here, and the way we do isn’t typical.
The Kings have held ground in Temperance for four decades, and for three of those, the community was stuck in a time loop, refusing to move with the times unless forced to. Since taking over at the table, a lot has changed, and not just within our walls.
The town started to move with the times, and with that, new blood began to flow in. Take Vanessa, for example. She traveled the country before passing through Temperance and deciding this was where she wanted to settle. How long before the flow of people like her outnumbers those already here?
How long can the Kings of Anarchy hope to maintain order around here before bigger dogs show up, ready to fight over the territory?
Considering why I sit down today with a defense lawyer, I’d say they’re already here.
We’ve simply been too blinded by our own inflated self-worth to see it.
THIRTY-TWO
KYRA
I fucking knew it.
Jinx walks into the cafe with an absolute bombshell of a woman. Young and slim, her long, sleek hair is impeccable, makeup perfect, and her poise that of somebody with a rich education.
I can’t compete.
“Who the fuck is that?” I growl to Theresa as she walks by my booth.
The lunch rush has arrived since I dragged my sorry ass in here, and I relocated to a quiet corner of the cafe to browse decor for my house on my phone until I felt ready to face the world again.
My new friend stalls and looks toward the door. “I have no idea. But I’m about to find out.” She sweeps between the tables and stalks Jinx and his visitor, ready to take their order.
My irritation doubles when he leads the woman down to his secret little garden at the back of the cafe, out of view.I’m going to throw up.I left the farmhouse super-early, unable to sleep, and walked the mile back to town with the express purpose of confronting my father.
Instead, I allowed him to confront me. Now I contemplate moving all my things to the new house and turning into a hermit: quitting my job, figuring out something new to do that doesn’t involve people, and avoiding the drama of this goddamn town—namely the stupidly attractive biker that just marched his trophy into the annex.
It’s not you.My ass, it’s not.
