Page 18 of Two Tricks

Immediately he glared at me, but then he settled back and focused on us. “I might have been short-sighted on how to deal with Dax.”

“Fuck,” Void said, getting up and grabbing the whiskey off the shelf to pour himself another drink.

“What’s your new plan?” I asked, cutting off Cognac from voicing whatever asinine thing he was about to say.

Eagle leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk, telling me that I wasn’t going to like this. “Instead of trying to get Two Tricks to play ball with us, what if we took his move and just took over?”

“Run that by me again?” I blurted, not sure I was hearing the crap that was coming out of my brother’s mouth.

“We have his second in command, whether she likes to admit it or not, so we turn her against him. We have rivals sniffing around, so he will be distracted, and not having his enforcer will cripple him,” Eagle laid out.

“It’s really rather smart,” Sprocket agreed. “Dax already has all the information that we could need to take him out. If we get her to side with us, then it’s game over for him.”

“Look guys, we have no idea what shit he has on her,” Void countered. “There has to be some reason that she joined him in the first place. Now that we know he isn’t her lover, what other reason would a woman have to be at his beck and call?”

“God Void, you really are an idiot sometimes,” Cognac said, shaking his head. “Why can’t she be in it for the same reason we would be? Power. She is, for the most part, untouchable, rich, and way fucking smarter than I think we give her credit for.”

“I have to agree,” Sprocket said. “Dax isn’t the type of woman that wants to be taken care of. She can handle her own shit just fine. To me, it would be her freedom that he’s got over her. He could take away everything she has and leave her with nothing.”

“What about her shop?” I asked.

Cognac grabbed his tablet from the desk and flicked it open. As treasurer, Cognac was our stock market money-making magician. He had a way of making the simplest moves that had the biggest impacts. He also knew his way around technology better than any of us did, so we left him to do research with Gaby.

“From the legal paperwork that Gaby found for the sale, it looks like she took out a loan for it with a co-signer, Weston Price. The odd thing was that it only took her two years to pay off a fifty-thousand-dollar loan. This was around the same time that Two Tricks was really making waves in the industry,” Cognac said, scrolling through the info.

“Okay, so she has another source of income, but no matter how good a tattoo shop does, it doesn’t pay as good as Tricks has to,” I said, frowning. “This doesn’t help us with getting her to turn on Tricks, though. If we take over, then we don’t really need her, do we?”

Eagle scratched the scruff on his chin as he thought. “If this plan works, it will only work with her being a part of it. This whole thing could be smooth sailing if we have a familiar face for them to trust.”

“That still doesn’t tell us how we are going to get her to turn on him,” I pointed out.

“Simple. We make her fall in love with us,” Eagle said as if we all should have thought of it.

Void shot out of his chair and slammed his fist on the desk. “Are you out of your goddamn fucking mind, Eagle?!”

Eagle just looked up at him with an expression I knew all too well. If Void didn’t back off, he was going to end up with a broken bone or two. My brother did not tolerate others second-guessing his judgment. There was a reason he was the president and had stayed in that position for so long. The five of us were close, brothers in all meanings of the word, but that went out the window if you were going to challenge him.

“Sit the fuck down before I make you,” Eagle barked, his eyes narrowing on Void. “This is twice in one day I’ve had to tell you to stand down. There won’t be a warning next time.”

Void froze, knowing he had made an epic mistake, and sat down without another word.

“Anyone else care to chime in on how they feel about this?” Eagle asked, looking at all of us in turn. “I remember the pact we made when we started this club. No woman is coming between us, turning us against each other. If we do this, then we do what we always planned. I know you all have a thing for her. I’m giving you the go-ahead to act on it.”

“Eagle, that pact was never meant to be taken seriously,” I said, totally blindsided by the turn of this conversation.

Grunting at me, he scooted back from his desk and walked over to the wall safe. He sorted through a few things, then pulled out a folder that was warped and stained from age. Flipping it open on the desk, he pulled out the original handwritten rules we made for our club ten years ago and read the section aloud.

“The club’s needs come first and foremost. As leadership, we are brothers united, letting no one get between us. We all agree not to take an old lady unless we all share the same woman. If we do not find someone who can do that, we will only deal with hang-abouts and other flings. If one of us takes a woman, we are all given the right to show our interest, but if they reject one of the leadership, then that brother breaks off all attachment. If they fail to do this, it gives the leadership grounds to remove this brother from his position.”

“God, we were idiots when we wrote that shit,” Void said, hanging his head. “So what you’re really telling us is that you have a major hard-on for this woman and need a reason to keep her around long-term.”

“I’m pretty sure if she had let him, Cognac would have fucked her this morning over the kitchen counter. I’m not the only one with a hard-on for her, and you know it,” Eagle retorted, sitting back down in his chair. “Look, if this all works out, it’s a win-win. We fuck Tricks over and get the girl.”

Sprocket’s fidgeting drew our attention. Typically he was the stoic one of all of us, so this whole thing must’ve really gotten under his skin. “You’re not factoring in the possibility that she might not want all of us. What happens if we try this and she tells us all to fuck off?”

“This can’t seriously be happening,” Void grumbled, turning to Sprocket. “I haven’t seen you show any interest in a woman for so long, I thought you might actually be gay. What about her has you all wound up?”

“I might have a clue,” Cognac said, grinning as he slouched in his chair.