At least that’s how I saw it. She had hurt my oldest friend and walked away without a second thought. Hell, the day she left she hadn’t just hurt him, she had hurt all of us. We had all loved her.
Was Hansel blameless? Probably not, but I didn’t know what went on behind closed doors. All I knew was that when she left, he broke. He had been on a mission to sleep with every woman in the state since.
“Thought you might need my help, you need someone to watch your back, big man.” He kicked his long legs out, his gaze darting down to the papers in my hand. “Everything in order?”
“You know it is.” Folding my hands, I stared at him, raising my eyebrow. “You sold The Drunken Otter?”
That had been the one business deal that I couldn't get behind. The Drunken Otter had been in club hands since the seventies. I didn’t like the idea that it wasn’t ours anymore.
“I sold a share. The woman who took over has the backing and the know-how to get the place running again. We were just letting it sit there and rot. Otter wouldn’t have wanted to see his baby like that.”
I had to agree with him there. Otter wouldn’t have. But that didn’t mean I had to like him taking the decision out of my hands.
“Wait, you said she?”
“Yep.”
“You put us into business with a female?” I groaned. I had nothing against working with women, or even women in business, but the club didn’t do business with women, and we sure as hell didn’t join forces with them.
There were only two types of women in our lives.
Club girls, who kept us satisfied and the clubhouse clean.
And the old ladies. Those badass bitches who were usually made of stronger stuff than the men they had tied themselves to. Our mothers and daughters not included.
“Yeah, tiny little thing. Tongue of a snake and balls made of brass.”
I groaned. That’s all we needed - some big shot, city woman coming in and trying to tell us how to runourbar. Before long she would be serving lattes and cosmopolitans.
Catching the look on my face, Hansel chuckled. “Give her a chance, I have high hopes for her.”
“Some big city bitch? Hansel, what the hell were you thinking?”
Holding his hands up, palms outward, Hansel grinned. “I have no doubt she is from a city somewhere, but she’s not what you’re imagining.” He paused. “Hell, she’s not what any of us were expecting, but I’ll let you see for yourself. I’ve asked Sylvia to go and give her a hand today.”
“Pope’s old lady?”
He nodded. “If that’s ok?”
I shrugged. I might not like some woman being in business with us, but if she made us money, I could live with it, and the less I had to see and deal with her the better.
“Sylvia has bar experience and...”
I didn’t let him finish. “Fine, it would be good to have one of our own in there.”
“Fang, she’s not the enemy”
“We’ll see. As long as I don’t have to deal with her…what is it?” I caught his suddenly pensive look and scowled. “What the fuck have you done now, Hansel?”
“I may have asked her to host your welcome home party on Friday. It’s no big deal, it's…”
“You’re an asshole, you know that right?”
He shrugged. “That’s why you love me.”
* * *
There wereghosts in my house.
