tonight.”
“You realize, Exotic, this isn’t a game right? That people have been killed for doing what we are talking about doing. Tuck, my brother, all the others, they were all trying to take the club back. You can’t make Matt do this and you shouldn’t try. It could get us all killed.”
“He isn’t happy, Jamie. He’s been pissing and moaning ever since Leo was kicked out that the club was heading in the wrong direction. He knows something isn’t right. He used to go on the intercepts. He felt like he was doing something good. But now, he’s on the outside. I don’t like seeing him like this. Before, he would come back from an intercept and we would fuck like wild animals. Now, it seems like all the life has gone out of him. He has no fire anymore. To be honest, if something doesn’t change, I’m out of there. If I wanted a nice steady relationship I would have hooked up with a rancher, or a farmer, or something. I like the passion and the fire of a biker. I liked him coming back from an intercept and throwing me around the bedroom as he fucked the shit out of me. Maybe Matt needs the danger to make him feel alive. I don’t know. But I need him to feel alive to make me feel alive.”
“I understand, but this can’t be about you.”
“I know, and it’s not. Not really. It’s about Matt and how he feels.”
“What do you know? Or a better question, what does Matt know?”
“Nothing. Only what Kat told me. But I know that Matt would have never signed on with Lima 6 if it were involved in drugs. His sister died from an overdose while he was still in the Navy.”
“He doesn’t know Lima 6 is muling?”
“No. Kat says you have proof?”
“Wait here.” Jamie went to her purse and pulled the photos out. She has been carrying them with her to prevent them from accidentally falling into the wrong hands. She hands them to Exotic. Exotic began to flip through them.
“That’s Ron, Gigolo and Carson. Who are the other two?”
“Cartel.”
“That’s the dairy bar out on 118?”
“Yeah.”
“Where’s this?” Exotic asked as she showed Jamie a picture of Carson and Gigolo in Odessa.
“Odessa. They ran the drugs all the way there.”
“Son of a bitch. Matt is going to fucking hit the roof.”
“There’s more.”
“More than this?”
“Yeah. Remember the cartel hit a couple of months ago? The one where all the members were killed?”
“Yes.”
“Ron set that up.”
“You’re shitting me!” Exotic squawked. “Do you have proof of that too?”
“Only circumstantial.”
Exotic sat quietly a moment, staring at Jamie. “When can Leo meet with Matt?”
“How about tonight, after the bar closes?”
“You’re open again? What happened?”
“The DEA is leaning on me, trying to get Leo to give up the club.”
“So Leo didn’t go to the DEA either? Has Ron told the truth about anything?”
“Not lately, no.”
“We’ll be there. Can I take these with me?” Exotic asked as she flapped the pictures back and forth.
“No. Too much risk. But they will be at the meeting if you can get Matt there.”
“Oh, trust me, he’ll be there, if I have to drag him there by his balls.”
Jamie snickered again. “You’re just the kind of person we need on our team to make this work.”
“I have lived in this town my entire life. The best thing that ever happened to me was getting married to Matt. I’m not giving him up, and I’m not going to be treated like some dime store hooker by people I grew up with either. Matt, Copper and Leo are taking the club back and I’m getting my life back, or I’m going to cut Ron’s nuts off with a butter knife.”
“I’m sorry, Exotic. You are going to have to stand in line behind me for that.”
***
Just before the bar closed, Matt and Exotic walked in, and neither looked happy to
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