“Gotta be more specific. I know lots of people.”
I start with the safer choice. “Big Daddy.”
She makes a sour face. “My baby brother. Half. Wiped his ass as a kid, and now he thinks he can boss me around.”
I study her face, looking for any resemblance between them. She certainly has the same tough attitude.
“He said you’d keep me safe from Hector.”
“No one is safe, pumpkin pie. But you’re less likely to get sold to a coyote or wind up dumped in an abandoned mine. Depends on your attitude.” She gives me the mother of all up-and-downs. “Right now, you look like Hell’s anchor. Not gonna fly.” She leans across the table, voice dropping. “You ever worked a regular job?”
I want to laugh, but my throat’s too tight. “Define regular.”
She makes a tsk noise, but I ignore it and ask the other question burning at the back of my mind. “How do you know Hector and why did he want me to get sent here?”
“Now we’re getting somewhere. I’ve got something he wants. Information about a certain someone.”
I nod. That’s what he told me.
“Question is, what are you going to do when you get what he wants?”
“I don’t want to give him anything. I want to kill him.”
Hot Mama smiles. “My little brother was right about you.”
Chapter Eleven
“She’s alive and awake. That’s all I’ve got for you,” Prez tells me.
I’ve been worried sick about Daisy since Doc took off to Lonerock with her to leave her with Hot Mama. Big Daddy’s crazy assed half sister that runs Queens of Anarchy. She’s a fucking fruitcake. The only reason she’s alive is because they share the same blood. Hot Mama used to be married to the Lonerock Prez, Smiley. Rumor has it she killed him, but if you ask her, she says he ran off, and I wouldn’t dare ask her. Just like her brother, she’d rather kill you than look at you.
She took over his club and patched in women. Though Animal and Wild Thing stayed on with her. They’re a throuple or some shit.
“When can I go see her?”
“That’s up to Hot Mama. You know how fucking weird she gets about men stepping foot past her gate.”
I do know, which means I’ve gotta learn to have more patience. I don’t like it, but I understand. Knowing how crazy them bitches in Oregon are, they’d try to shove a crystal in my ass if I showed up unannounced. Daisy needs extensive therapy. She has moretrauma than I’m equipped to handle, but it doesn’t mean I don’t worry about her and want to protect her. We’ve got other shit to worry about like the Depraved Sinners pushing against our territory, trying to start a fucking war.
“You need to get laid,” Wicked tells me.
Maybe he’s right.
I do need to get my mind off Daisy. All this stress isn’t good for the soul.
“She’s just a whore. You need to find yourself a good girl to settle down with.” When Tyrant says it, I want to knock his teeth out. Instead, I match him beer for beer until we’re both slurring our words out by the garage. He’s a mean drunk, but I have a meaner punch, so we keep it civil. It starts to rain. The shitty spring kind that’s less about cleansing and more about drowning everything. I stand there, rain soaking through my shirt, and think of Daisy—Hope, whatever her name is. With her sharp little bones and haunted doe eyes. I’m losing my edge. I should be thinking about the Depraved Sinners. About next week’s shipments. About the fact that my old man is finally hanging up his tool belt after forty years and trusting me not to tank the business. Instead, all that’s pounding in my brain is the way Daisy fit against me in my bed. The way she didn’t flinch at pain. The way she smiled at the lake. The way she stepped into my shower and touched me like she needed me as badly as I wanted her.
We make little sense, yet somehow we fit.
Fucking hell.
I head back inside to take a shower and jerk off to the memory of Daisy, but it’s not as good as the real thing. It never is.
I’m not wild about the party at the clubhouse, but I’ll show my face for appearance’s sake. A couple of the club girls are already riding some of the guys on the couches in the corners. The music is loud enough to make my ears bleed. Any other night, I’d be all for this chaotic scene. I’d be joining them, but I still can’t shake the loss of Daisy.
It’s ridiculous. I hardly know her.
I grab a beer but can’t bring myself to down it as fast as I normally would.
