Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 26232 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 131(@200wpm)___ 105(@250wpm)___ 87(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26232 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 131(@200wpm)___ 105(@250wpm)___ 87(@300wpm)
I rub my stomach. “I can think of another big sign.”
“No joke.” She taps the next card. “The Sun, for our family’s sunshine—perfect. Can also indicate children or fertility. And finally, the Ace of Wands. It can mean new opportunities and growth.”
“I’m definitely growing,” I agree.
She picks the cards up. “That’s a relief. I was worried that since I’m kinda doing this for kicks as a party trick, the readings would be garbage. But that was a dang good one.”
I can’t see how she could’ve rigged that to pull those particular cards for me. “I guess there’s magic in the air tonight.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Wrath
A few days after Halloween…
After everyone’s finished dinner, I stand and rap my knuckles against the table. Rock and I agreed to have an informal meeting that included everyone to discuss the Halloween party and charity event. Not exactly church, since everyone associated with the club was invited to family dinner night and therefore the meeting.
I glance at Rock who nods at me. For some reason, he gave me the honor of running the meeting. Something about how much I bitched when they chose Furious as the location of the charity event.
“This was the best meal.” Rav kicks back, resting his boots on the table and holds up one hand to capture our attention. “Don’t get offended, Swan.”
Little fucker’s been smug since Halloween.
Swan flashes a quick, patient smile at Ravage. “I’m listening.”
Rav’s eyes shift between Trinity and Swan. “This right here was even better than the food we had catered for the party.”
Trinity beams.
“Why would that make us mad?” Swan asks.
He shrugs. “I know you worked hard on arranging it.”
“Trinity and I worked harder on cooking this dinner,” she points out. “So did Shelby and Lilly.”
“I’m still finding butternut squash in my hair,” Shelby mutters, twisting her head to check out her blonde curls.
“Worth every second,” Jigsaw says.
“That’s ’cause you didn’t lose a fight with an immersion blender,” Shelby says.
Rooster curls his arm around her shoulders and whispers something in her ear.
I lean over to Trinity. “You got any treats in your hair for me to find later?”
She snorts. “No.”
“All right.” I slap my palm against the table to get everyone’s attention. “I’m only going to say this once.”
Everyone at the table groans.
“I feel like we’re about to be lectured,” Sparky moans.
“Careful, Sparky.” I flick my hand in his direction. “There’s a faint beam of afternoon sunlight over there. Don’t want you to burst into flames.”
“So funny.” He sticks his tongue out at me.
I tap Trinity’s shoulder, to let her know it’s her turn. “Checks were sent to both charities.” She nods at Teller to confirm. “Murphy and Heidi dropped off the food and other donations to the shelter yesterday. They were really grateful to have so much donated.”
“I gave all the receipts to Teller,” Murphy adds. He glances at Teller then Downstate’s treasurer, Hustler. “Not sure how you guys want to split that up.”
“We’ll work it out,” Hustler says.
“We should collect donations again for Christmas,” Bricks suggests.
“Sounds good,” Rock says.
“Why just holidays?” Jigsaw asks. “Shelters, food pantries, they probably need stuff all year round.”
“What do you wanna do, donate all your money?” Hustler asks. “What’re you gonna fix up your hog with, then?”
Before they start bickering, I slap the table again.
Z lifts his hand. “Downstate can host the next event, so the whole burden doesn’t fall on you guys.”
“But we have the nicer clubhouse,” Rav protests.
“Yeah, I’m cool with Ravage doing it,” Butcher offers.
Rock sighs.
“Jigsaw,” I say, wanting to return to his suggestion. “What do you have in mind?”
“Uh, I don’t know.” He taps his fingers against the table like he’s wishing he never opened his mouth. “It just seems people only think about donating stuff around holidays and people need stuff all year round.”
“We’ll think on it,” Rooster promises, leaning over to tap Jiggy’s shoulder with his fist.
“We need to do a better job with the guest list,” Teller says. “Couple people there showed some disrespect to our ol’ ladies and it wasn’t cool.”
Shelby lifts her hand. “I can confirm that one.”
I flick my gaze to Ravage and smirk. His eyes widen. Rock gave me the short version of what went down. It explained why Ravage has been going to great lengths to avoid Hope all week long.
Under my stare, Ravage yanks his boots off the table and sits upright in his chair. “Yup, yup. We’ll look into the guest list.”
I glance farther down the table at Grinder. “Any thoughts, Father Grumpy?”
Grinder sits back and crosses his arms over his chest. “Keep calling me that, fucker. You’re gonna find out how grumpy I can get.”
“I think we’re all aware,” Z says.
“I’m with Mister Mouth.” Grinder points at Teller. “Ran into a few folks who didn’t seem to know how to act right.”
Serena sits back and rubs her baby bump. Her forehead wrinkles for a second and she seems to be taking deep breaths.