I looked down at the blood on my shirt. “Yeah.” Looking back up at him, I said, “I hear you’ve got something else for me to sort out.”
“We do,” he started, but was interrupted.
“Fucking Havoc,” came a deep voice behind me.
I turned to find Jason Reilly walking towards me with a huge shit-eating grin on his face. Unable to stop myself, I grinned back. J had been like a true brother to me before I left, and although I’d pretty much cut ties with everyone, I still counted him as a friend. “How’s your sorry ass?” I asked.
He pulled me into a hug and slapped me on the back. Hugging was not something I did, not even with women, but J had a way of getting shit out of me that I didn’t want to give, and so I let him at it. When he let me go, he answered, “I’m fucking brilliant.”
Nash groaned. “Don’t get him started, brother. Madison finally got that ring on her finger and the fucker’s been walking around with a grin full of pussy ever since.”
I wasn’t surprised at this news; J and Madison married was something I’d always seen coming. “Happy for you, J. Surprised as fuck that you and Nash are in the same room though.” These two had never gotten on, so to see them under friendly circumstances was a shock.
“One word for you, Havoc: Madison,” Nash said. He jabbed his finger at J, and added, “She’s sorted him out.”
“Well she must be a fuckin’ miracle worker to get you two talking,” I said, shaking my head.
J scowled and muttered, “Let’s just say she has her ways of making me do what she wants.”
I had to laugh at that. “A woman finally grabbed you by the balls, huh?”
“Laugh all you want, dickhead. It happens to the best of us.”
Nash cut in, changing the subject. “As much as I’d like to stand around counting the ways that Madison has him by the balls, we need to hurry this along. Did Griff give you any info on what’s going on?”
I detected a change in his tone when he mentioned Griff. “No, but first, what’s going on with Griff? You pissed that he challenged Scott?” Scott Cole was the previous vice president, and from memory, he had Nash’s support so I had to wonder about how Griff’s challenge for the VP role had affected club dynamics.
Anger clouded his face. “Yes, I’m fuckin’ pissed. Griff played us all for fools when he betrayed Scott.”
That was a feeling I knew well. Betrayal by a friend was the worst kind. “Yeah, I get that,” I murmured, lost in my thoughts for a moment.
Nash moved back to the topic at hand. “We’ve got a problem with one of the strip club clients harassing one of the strippers at Indigo. Need you to deal with him so he leaves her alone. She’s one of our best, and we don’t want to lose her.”
Storm owned the strip club, Indigo, and from what I knew, it was one of their more profitable businesses. The Brisbane chapter kept its nose clean so relied on various business ventures for income. “You got an address?”
J handed me a piece of paper with the information. “He’s an out-of-towner, staying at that hotel.”
I shoved it in my pocket. “No problem, I’ll deal with him tomorrow. I’ve got some family shit to take care of this afternoon.”
J raised an eyebrow. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah.” I didn’t want to get into it, but he continued to stare at me, his gaze demanding further information. “Dad’s not well so I’m in town for him.”
J nodded slowly. “Let us know if you need anything, yeah?”
Calling on anyone for help was not something I planned on doing, but I agreed so he wouldn’t push the point. “Will do.”
“Right, I’m out of here. Got a hot date, and if I’m late, she’ll withhold sex,” Nash said as he made to leave.
“What the fuck?” I asked, stunned that Nash had a date. As far as I knew, he never dated.
“I’m a changed man, brother. It’s about time you found a pussy to stick with,” he threw over his shoulder.
“Keep fuckin’ walking, Nash. Me and pussy don’t play so nice these days. Unless of course, it’s new pussy, and then I’m all over that shit.”
He shook his head and kept walking. J said his goodbyes too and left me alone to contemplate the afternoon ahead. Yvette, my sister, had texted me about half an hour earlier to let me know Dad had been taken to hospital, so that was where I was headed. He’d had a heart attack about three weeks earlier, which was why I was back in Brisbane, and it seemed he’d had another one. Fuck, if it wasn’t one thing messing with my family, it was another.
I started heading outside when a familiar laugh slammed into me, jolting my senses. The woman it belonged to was a woman I did not want to see, but her voice rang out as she caught sight of me. “Havoc,” she called out, and I heard the tap of her heels across the floor as she came closer.
For fuck’s sake, why can’t I have some peace and fucking quiet in my life?