Total pages in book: 40
Estimated words: 37638 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 188(@200wpm)___ 151(@250wpm)___ 125(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 37638 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 188(@200wpm)___ 151(@250wpm)___ 125(@300wpm)
“Not happenin’.”
“The fuck we will.”
“Are you out of your fuckin’ mind?”
All three of us spoke on top of each other.
“No fuckin’ way, Winter.” Roman shook his head and pulled his woman closer. “Not in a million years will I allow that.”
“You can’t allow me anything, Roman. I’m my own person. We brought this to your door. We’ll take care of our own mess.”
“That’s exactly what we’re here to discuss. And by discuss, I mean you’re going to do what the president of this fuckin’ club tells you.” I winced. Sting was in full president mode. He hadn’t yet learned to tone it down around the women. When it came to making hard decisions for the club, though, there was no give in him. The fact that his own woman could be in danger made the situation worse for him. Asking him to rein it in wouldn’t have been the smart way to calm him down.
“I know you didn’t just say that.” Iris narrowed her eyes at Sting. “We’re not members of this club, Sting. And I can promise you, you’ll catch more flies with honey than you will with vinegar. Don’t pull rank on me. It will always bite you in the ass.”
Roman barked out a laugh. I buried my face in my woman’s neck, shamelessly hiding my own smile. The girls were silent, none of them looking as amused as me and Roman.
Sting closed his eyes and took a deep, calming breath. “How about I start over.”
“Seems like a sound decision.” Iris was one damned fine ol’ lady for our president.
“You know the problems Warlock had before he left Iron Tzars. Right?”
“Yes. You told me about Warlock’s ex and what happened.”
“Right. Warlock, my dad, took up with a woman with questionable motives. The short of it is, she was a spy for the CIA. Things aren’t as bad with law enforcement and MCs now as it was back in the day, but some of what Iron Tzars does is on the wrong side of the law. Add to that our ties with Argent Tech in Illinois and they really wanted to get an ‘in’ into the club.”
“But Bones and Salvation’s Bane both have a close relationship with Argent.” Winter had blossomed with Roman. She was becoming as assertive as an enforcer’s woman needed to be. “You’re not unique in that.”
“No. But both Bones and Bane have something else in common we don’t.”
“ExFil,” Serelda said softly. “Rycks says Cain has government contacts through ExFil. Since they’re paramilitary and work closely with the CIA, it’s unlikely they’d target the hands that protect them out of the country.”
“Exactly,” Sting said, looking proud that our women understood the subtitles of politics in this situation. “They can’t get Argent to agree to give them the more sensitive software, and they can’t alienate their biggest, most reliable security contractor. So they chose us.”
“Did Warlock know?” Winter asked.
“I think so. Maybe not at first, but he knew. She was his woman, but he never made it official. It was unspoken.”
“So no property patch.” Again it was Winter who spoke. “What’s this got to do with us?”
“You’re all getting your vests today.”
“Great. Where are they?”
“There’s more, baby.” Roman brushed her cheek tenderly as he turned her to face him. “This club has been around since right after World War Two. The laws that govern us are there to protect us. From the very beginning we were outlaws. Not in the sense we were into the drugs and sex most MCs were at the time, though there was plenty of that. Back then, the Tzars were Nazi hunters when the war ended. Tried to round up as many as they could before they could escape Europe and scatter to the winds. Most of the original Tzars fought in Europe and saw the carnage firsthand. When they decided to take matters into their own hands, they did all of it underground. No one sanctioned it. They knew that getting international justice would never be possible, no matter what kind of trial the rest of the world put on. So they hunted and killed hundreds of the bastards. No trials. Nothing sanctioned. The only people they worked with were a few of the newly formed Mossad in Israel. And that was four or five years after the war.”
“After that, we expanded to hunting terrorists and, more recently, human traffickers. That’s been our primary objective for the last twenty years or so.” Sting took up the narrative. “Needless to say, there were times various organizations tried to infiltrate us. Some of them domestic. Some foreign. Other clubs who trafficked. Other branches of the government whose interests weren’t best served by ratting out high-ranking Nazi officials helping to develop rocket science. As such, the Iron Tzars took a stance early on that anyone in this club had to be a lifer. There is no leaving. No divorce for any of us. Not just you. If we decide we don’t want to be with you anymore, we’re shit out of luck.”