*
By the time Zane reached the clubhouse, the executive board was in session. Shooter and two senior patch members were at the safehouse keeping watch. Zane had checked all the locks and run a perimeter around Sparky’s shop before he left to make sure there were no Jacks hanging around. Evie had been more bemused than angry to find Ty learning to use a gun, and after Zane cooked them breakfast she seemed to forgive him. Still, there was an undeniable tension in the air, and he wondered if she regretted what they’d done last night.
He hadn’t intended for things to go as far as they did, and although he had relished the feeling of being intimate with her again, it was the time after, when she’d come to him for comfort, that told him what he wanted to know. She needed him. And even though he’d fucked up, she trusted him with her body, and maybe even with a little of her heart.
Jagger gave him a curt nod and brought him up to speed. Tank and two of the junior patch had been out all night, hunting down leads on T-Rex. Their sources suggested Viper had an underground dungeon at his clubhouse, but because no one had ever left it alive, they didn’t have any details.
As expected, Viper refused to trade Doreen for T-Rex. Undeterred, Jagger had tabled a motion to defy National, the Sinners’ mother chapter, and go ahead with a raid on the Jacks’ clubhouse, not just to rescue T-Rex but to put down the Jacks for good.
“All in favor.” Jagger lifted his hand and all the board members followed suit without hesitation.
“We need someone inside now,” Gunner said. “We can’t wait for National’s approval. I know Cade’s been working up local Black Jack suppliers, trying to find someone who owes us a favor—”
Cade shook his head. “No luck so far. A favor isn’t worth the risk of being caught by the Jacks.”
“What about Mario?” Zane rocked back in his chair. He hated board meetings. They were the worst part of his role as VP. Give him his bike and the open road and he was a happy man, but sitting around the table, taking hours to make a decision he and Jagger could have made in three seconds, grated on him something fierce. Gunner shared his view. Always on the move, the club’s sergeant-at-arms could rarely sit through an entire meeting, and he was already on his feet, pacing the room as he spoke.
“We burned down his restaurant,” Gunner said. “He won’t be taking any risks for us.”
Zane would have killed to pace the room with him, but as VP he was forced to maintain decorum. “I had some of the junior patch check him out when we first talked about getting someone inside. The only reason the Jacks took over his restaurant, aside from the fact he’s a good cook, is ’cause he owed them fifty large that he gambled away. Even though the restaurant is gone, the Jacks won’t wipe out the debt. They still think he owes them.”
Gunner nodded, following Zane’s train of thought. “What if he offers his services as a personal chef to Viper? Once we get the intel we need from him, we give him the cash, he pays them off and we help him disappear.”
“That’s a huge risk and a lot of cash,” Cade said. “I mean, what if he cooks up a bad meal and Viper decides to off him ’cause he doesn’t like shrimp?”
“You ever have a bad meal at Mario’s?” Gunner licked his lips. “He’s a genius. The things he can do with salmon are fucking sinful.”
“Christ. We’re not interested in hearing about your kink,” Sparky said, his nose wrinkling in mock disgust.
Zane bit back a smile. “Maybe Mario shoulda thought about the risk when he borrowed fifty grand from the Jacks.” Just like he should have thought about the risk of what he’d done with Evie last night. But she was as much an addiction for him as gambling clearly was for Mario, and one taste wasn’t enough.
Jagger drummed his fingers on the boardroom table, once a fancy dining table, now carved with the Sinner logo and stained with coffee rings. “Without the restaurant to pay off the debt, he’s out of options. He knows the Jacks will be coming to him for the money, and with all the connections they have now there’s nowhere he can run. I like the plan. Everyone vote.” All hands went up and Cade and Tank offered to pay Mario a discreet visit that afternoon.
“Don’t forget the party tonight,” Jagger said after he officially ended the meeting. “We’re having it at Sparky’s shop instead of Rider’s Bar because it’s more secure.”