Rolling my eyes, I pulled a chair over and sat down. “Am I interrupting?”
“Yeah,” Judd said immediately. “Thanks because these two are fucking idiots.”
Vaughn grinned. “Ignore his bad mood. We kicked their asses at pool a few minutes before you got here. His ego is still weeping the tears of a fool.”
Judd flipped off Vaughn who acted shocked. The women laughed then I knew Raven was going to bug me the way only she could.
“Why are you alone on a Friday night? Don’t tell me the mohawk was your bait to get dates.”
“Why do people in relationships obsess over those who aren’t?”
“Pity,” Raven said without missing a beat.
“I know a girl,” Tawny suggested. “I met her when I worked at Denny’s. She’s a friend of Lark’s too. Oh, and she’s cute.”
I shook my head while ordering a beer from the waitress.
“Are you still hung up on Lark?” Raven asked, squinting at me. “She’s sort of taken and currently gestating a litter.”
Vaughn snorted at the word, “litter.”
“My friend from Denny’s likes to bowl,” Tawny said, instantly making her more appealing to Vaughn.
I didn’t see any reason to hide the fact that I was dating Winnie. No other guy in his right mind would keep a hot girlfriend a secret.
“I just came from having dinner with Winnie,” I said, remaining silent about Harlow playing my chaperone.
The four of them instantly lost their smiles and studied me. Keeping it a secret was the smarter route.
“How’d that go?” Raven asked.
“Good. Thanks for asking.”
I took few long swigs of beer and nearly finished the bottle before Vaughn cleared his throat.
“You need to be careful with that one. She is club protected like Bailey. Do wrong by Winona and you’re toast.”
“She prefers the name Winnie and why would I wrong her?”
Raven looked worried about me. While her concern was endearing, I didn’t look forward to her advice.
“She’s got great hair,” was her brilliant addition to the conversation.
I smiled. “She’s beautiful.”
“Careful,” Vaughn whispered.
“Is she protected because she’s the daughter of a Reaper?” Tawny asked. “Wouldn’t all the kids be protected, so what’s the big deal about Winnie?”
“Kirk found her and claimed her as Reapers family,” Judd said.
Tawny and Raven frowned at him while I tried to act disinterested. Judd pretended like he didn’t notice their interest until Vaughn kicked him and the two growled at each other.
“Dish, bitch,” Vaughn demanded.
“I’ll throw the rest of these fucking peanuts at you, fuckwad.”
“Whatever. I could use the snack.”
Judd rolled his eyes and glanced at me. “This was before my time, but I heard about it from Kirk’s guys. So there was a club called the Vandals from Mississippi who moved out this way when they got in trouble with the law. The president was a guy named Sugar Bum, if you can believe it. He thought he was a badass and his club was full of young thugs he recruited from prisons. When they came into Kirk’s territory, they shoved aside people approved by the Reapers.”
Judd glanced around to make sure the bar was full of club loyalists.
“So they come to Kentucky and take out a few dealers and meth labs. Kirk doesn’t micromanage shit in the state. The club gives approval to certain groups to work his area for a piece of their profits. If the groups don’t pay up, they get forcibly replaced. The Vandals showed up and acted like they didn’t need to kiss the ring,” Judd said, leaning back and wrapping an arm around Tawny.
Vaughn gave me a dark look. “Everyone kisses the ring.”
“These Vandals fucks keep doing what they’re doing until Kirk decides he’s going to do what he does,” Judd continued. “Let’s just say that back in the day in Memphis, the old man didn’t do accounting work. The Vandals might have been badasses in Mississippi, but they died just like anyone else who doesn’t kiss the ring. Anyway, the club was living out of a shitty motel when the Reapers caught up with them. While doing a cleanup of the place, Kirk found Winnie.”
Tawny leaned her head against her husband’s chest and I saw something dark in her eyes that reminded me of Winnie.
“Kirk found out her dad sold her to the club to pay a debt. No one could find her mom, so he brought her to Tad and Toni who had taken in another orphan a few years back.”
Raven frowned at this information, so Judd explained. “You know Beckett doing time for punching a fat guy at the fair? Tucker’s best friend. The stupid guy.”
Raven shrugged. “Stupid people blur together for me.”
Judd rolled his eyes. “So Tad and Toni took in Winnie.”
“Poor kid,” Raven said, giving Tawny a quick glance.