Page 46 of Vortex

“You can say some terrible things to an innocent woman at times. I’ll have you know I was never the one to wear the handcuffs. I would never be that vulnerable to any man, let alone these brothers. They’d have forgotten to take the damn things off and left me in their room for days.” Pattie looks down the road as we hear a bike approaching. “That’ll be Twang. He’s finally got himself a bike. This will be the first time I’ve seen it.”

Twang swings into the compound, and his grin is enormous. Pulling up beside Vortex’s hog, he flips his stand down and revs his machine. It is loud, I’ll give him that. Pattie dashes over to him grinning broadly herself.

“What do you think? Isn’t she a beauty?” He whips off his helmet just in time to receive a slap from Pattie, and not a gentle love tap either. “What the fuck?” He splutters loudly, almost falling off the bike.

“I said you need to buy a Harley or an Indian! I was very explicit about what you needed to be an accepted biker. A Harley or an Indian. At no point did I mention Kawasaki. For fuck’s sake, Twang, don’t you ever listen?” Pattie scolds him.

“What’s wrong with a Nagasaki?” Allegra looks at Pattie. “It’s a lovely two-tone blowjob. I love it. I’d ride it.”

“It’s a Kawasaki, and a two-tone paint job. Not what I told him to get.” Pattie is beside herself with anger, and poor Twang is getting the sharp end of her tongue.

To his credit he lets her vent at him, but then he steps off the bike while he hands me the keys. “You like it so much, you can have it.” Looking at Pattie, he continues, “This was never my bike. Mine is covered up around the back of the clubhouse. This is Allegra’s machine, though I still think it’s freaking awesome. It rides like a dream and pulls like a freight train. That cream over pale blue, two-tone paintwork is gorgeous. You may want to think about smaller handlebars, Allegra. If you’re going to use it for any distance, they may just be a touch too wide for you.” Twang gives my new machine a last look over.

“If that’s the case, my love, you could ask Leo to put a little more curve in them. That would preserve the originality but solve the problem,” Vortex tells me.

I thought there would be an outrageous speech when he saw her for the first time, but he seems very happy with me having a bike of my own. I think she’s fooking fantastico! I jump on her, flick up the stand and almost drop her! She is a heavy beast, I hadn’t counted on that. Vortex grabs the handlebars and corrects her.

“I think I’ll need training wheels for my first few rides.” Nothing can stop the beaming smile on my face until…

“Finished fucking around on your new toy? Pres is getting prickly that you’re out here and not in his office,” Cannon booms from the clubhouse doors.

Flicking the stand down, I hop off and thank Twang for being a part of my reveal. I wave over to Noah at the gate and blow him a kiss. Hooking my arm through my man's, we walk inside to see what Pres called us in for. As soon as we walk into the office, I give him my best ‘sorry’ look and apologize for getting my bike delivered at this time.

“Humph. Don’t make a habit of keeping me waiting, or I’ll give the important missions to someone else.”

“Mission? You’re giving us a mission? Pattie, we’re going on a mission.” I am so excited I don’t realize everyone is waiting for me to shut up so the meeting can continue. “Is it dangerous? Do we get to take weapons? When do we go?...”

“Allegra! Shut the fook up! That’s the only Italian I’ve learned from you, but be quieto! Silencio. Anything Italian that means stop!” Pattie puts her hand over my mouth before I can say more.

*~* Whack *~*

Watching Pattie silence Allegra makes me smile, but I only do it inwardly. This is some serious shit we are getting into, and I don’t want it to appear anything less. Giving Allegra a scowl, I see it has the desired effect, and she calms down.

“Listen carefully, because I don’t want to have to go over this a dozen times. What I’m asking of you is important and could be dangerous, but I doubt it. It’s not something that I would expect you to go into packing. There’s no need for Allegra to scream ‘lock and load’ before dashing through a door into a heavily defended building! This is an intelligence-gathering mission. Don’t for one minute think it’s a low-priority mission. There is a lot riding on getting the right intel for everything that follows. Do you both understand?” I look from one to the other and back again. Pattie has a serious look on her face while Allegra looks like she’s going to piss herself with excitement.

“I hope I’m not making a mistake here, Allegra.” She jumps from her chair, stands to attention and salutes me.

“Yes, sir. No, sir. You are not making a mistake, sir.” Allegra sits back down, and everyone in the room takes a moment to look at her.

Vortex leans close to her and whispers, “You need to calm the fook down and pay attention or Pres will send someone else. Take several deep breaths and get a fooking grip. I’m not going to spend eternity listening to you bitch and moan that you didn’t get sent on a mission. Just chill, my love. Okay?”

I see Allegra looking a little panic-stricken at his words, so I give her a moment to get a grip. When she looks calm, I start again.

“We need to know where Cottonwood Glades has an office or similar where they use a computer to conduct some of their business transactions from. It can’t be their headquarters, wherever that is, because it will be too busy and have large-scale security on site. What we could do with, ideally, is a small satellite office or perhaps a private residence that isn’t widely known. It must have a computer or laptop that we can access to make financial transfers on.”

“Oh. So not much of a mission after all. Just sitting at a computer and doing research then.” Pattie sounds disgruntled that she’s not going to be running around waving her shotgun at everything that moves, speaks or just gets in her sights.

“No, that’s not the mission. The mission is to go talk to Candi and get a location that we can use that fits our parameters.”

“Who is Candi?” Allegra asks, looking at Pattie, who shrugs her shoulders and then looks at me.

“She works at the realtor's office with Chris Everett. Home and Hearth, in town.

“Oh, her! I know who you mean. What if she doesn’t know anything or just won’t spill the peas?”

“Beans,” we all say at once.

“Whatever.”