A commotion breaks out at the end of the hall, distracting me from Ian’s shady behavior. The man I haven’t officially met, Torque, waves a black plastic device in his hand and is individually checking the brothers’ out by waving the device over their jeans and boots.
“What the hell is he doing?” I ask. Torque has pitch-black hair and squinty brown eyes. He looks kind of like a real life villain with the way he waves that plastic wand and cackles at the men who stand in line at the door. Ryan stands in front of Torque. He pulls what looks like a mobile phone from his pocket and drops it in the box Jeremy’s holding.
“Paranoid fuck. Always been his thing. Asshole doesn’t trust anybody, not even us,” Ian says. I nod my head in understanding. I already know they don’t allow phones or weapons in Church. I’ve just never seen anybody play security detail before. I fight back a laugh when Ryan disposes of two guns, three knives, and a firework into the box.
“What the hell?” Jeremy asks as he pulls out the firework and eyes it curiously.
“Thought I’d shove it up your ass later.”
Jeremy’s face pales at Ryan’s comment. The foulness of it all doesn’t even surprise me anymore. Ryan is always going on about shoving things up people’s asses. It’s kind of his thing, which makes me wonder if he’s ever topped another dude. I wouldn’t be shocked if he has, to be honest.
“Here,” Ian says. He pulls out his mobile phone and hands it to me. “Waiting on a call from a breeder about a new line of stock. Call comes in, answer it. Tell that lazy fuck I need my product and I need it soon.”
“Um. What kind of breeder? What product?” I probably don’t want to know, but I can’t stop myself from asking anyway.
“Dog breeder. One of his bitches just had a litter, and it’s about time we replace Tegan and amp up our detail.”
“Oh,” I say and laugh to myself. “I so didn’t think that’s what you were going to say. Um, do you think I can go with you to get the puppy?”
I haven’t let myself be upset about it in a long time, but I really hate not having any pets. We used to have a dog, years back, but when Bugsy died, Dad refused to replace him. I loved that dog and really loved having the company. Heath and I never had a dog, and after Heath, I wasn’t in a place to take care of anything—not even myself.
“Won’t be getting a puppy. Our dogs come fully trained and old enough to stay focused on the job at hand. But yeah, my girl likes dogs, we’ll get her a dog.”
He’s still smiling as he heads down the hall and tosses his knife and gun into the box in Jeremy’s arms that’s now practically overflowing. I’m smiling so big, being so ridiculously happy, that I can’t contain myself. Ian’s getting me a dog. Holy fuck, I’m getting a dog! Even though I know this is likely a strategy to distract me from the whole “no sex” thing he’s trying to implement, I don’t care. I’ll let him distract me with pets any day. Maybe if I continue to push the topic of sex, I can get a cat out of him, too.
“This is bullshit and you know it, you stupid fuck!”
My smile falls from my face when I see Ian trying to keep the peace between Fish and Torque. Fish is yelling and trying to dodge Torque’s plastic wand. The device makes a loud beeping sound when it slides over Fish’s pocket. Something looks off about Fish. His words are slurred, and he’s unsteady on his feet. It takes but a moment for me to realize that he’s high. It’s not like being high is a no-no in the eyes of the club, but it certainly is during Church. Chel once told me that being a little stoned during Church is encouraged because it keeps them from whipping their dicks out, but being full on fucked-up is a pretty big problem since it’s technically a business meeting.
“You already got my phone, man,” Fish says and scrubs a hand over his face.
“Then you got another one. Get it out, motherfucker,” Torque orders. Jim appears in the doorway and demands they get a move on already. Looking defeated, Fish pulls something small and black from his pocket and tosses it in the box, then waits until Torque has scanned him with the wand and lets him into the room. Torque closes the door behind him, shutting me and Jeremy off from the chapel.
“For once, I’d rather be out here than in there,” Jeremy says and drops the box on the table beside me.
“I’m guessing those two don’t get along.”
Jeremy nods in response and sorts the contents of the box. He’s concentrating awfully hard on his task. Last fall, right before that night, I stayed with Duke and Nic and Jeremy at their house. Jeremy didn’t say much at first, but once he opened up to me, I couldn’t get him to stop talking. We bonded over our shared prison sentences. He’d been a lifer, looking forward to parole when he turned eighteen, and I was the new arrival he’d schooled on how to get by without too much bitching from Warden Duke. Much to Jeremy’s dismay, I never did get have to suffer the warden’s wrath.
“How’s parole?” I ask.
He snorts and shakes his head. “Wouldn’t know.”