Whizz looked at Angel then at Gash. There was nothing going on there. He recalled what the other brothers said about Raven. She was known for being jealous. Steven, one of the brothers who’d gotten voted in some years back, wouldn’t have anything to do with her because of her jealous streak. Whizz recalled Steven telling him about it late one night.
“Get the fuck out of here,” Gash said, glaring at Raven.
“I really don’t understand what the fuck she’s got. She’s fat, and no one else sees that but me.”
Raven hadn’t seen Lash enter. Lash had obviously heard enough. Whizz watched as Lash grabbed the back of Raven’s neck and pulled her away from Gash.
“I don’t give a fuck what your mouth is doing when it’s serving other brothers, but you run your mouth against my wife then I’ve got a problem,” Lash said. He looked dangerous. Whizz only ever saw him like this when he was ready to hurt or kill. Raven had fucked up, and from the fear on her face, she knew it.
“Lash—”
Angel stepped closer, but Lash put his hand out, silencing her. “I don’t care what’s going on, Angel. No one, and I mean fucking no one, mouths off to you or calls you shit like that. I will not stand for it. I don’t want to listen to it. Get the fuck out of my sight, Raven. I hear anything else from those fucking lips other than slurping noises, I’m going to fucking hurt you.”
Raven scrambled away as Angel turned toward Lash, looking shocked.
“Why did you say that?” Angel said. “That was totally disgusting.”
“No one talks to you like that, baby. I won’t stand for it.” Lash reached out to touch her, but Angel jerked away. “Baby, what are you doing?”
“I don’t want you to touch me.”
“Angel, I’ll always take care of you. You understand that.”
She shook her head. “No, I can handle women like Raven. Tiny’s going to be giving you the club one day, and I’m going to need to handle myself. I can’t have you interfering like that. What you said was wrong, disgusting.”
Angel turned away from Lash. In all the years Whizz had known the couple, Lash had never said something like that in front of her before.
Whizz watched as Lash turned to Angel.
“What? I’m a little confused here,” he said.
“You can be so damn crude. There was no need to say something like that.” Angel’s face was scrunched up in disgust. “I don’t know who you’re turning into.” She shook her head. “There’s Lacey’s pancakes. You can fend for yourselves.”
She thrust a plate at Whizz, which he took, before fleeing the room.
“What the fuck did I do?” Lash asked.
The pancakes looked delicious. Seeing no pointing in helping Lash figure out his problem, Whizz took the pancakes upstairs to Lacey. Whizz had never seen Angel react like that before, least of all at Lash. She was sweetness, and she’d clearly seen a side to Lash she didn’t like.
****
Lacey listened to the rest of the clubhouse as it started to wake. She heard Murphy and Tate arguing about something across the hall. Murphy had finally got out of hospital even though he’d only suffered minimal damage from a gunshot to the shoulder. Their son Simon was repeating swear words as if they were a second nature to him. The tears had finally stopped, but Lacey couldn’t bring herself to get off the floor.
Keeping her face against the cold tile helped her to think.
“What are you going to do, Rose?”
She didn’t recognize the voice but knew it had to belong to Hardy. The information the Savage Brothers had gotten on The Skulls was accurate concerning all the people.
“I don’t want to talk about this. Please, leave it alone. There’s so much going on. We’ve not got time for this.”
Their voices faded. They were all talking loudly because of the hustle and bustle in the clubhouse. The silence in the room helped her to hear the rest of the club. This was something she’d never had with her own.
Wiping a hand down her face, she waited as silence took over. They were gone about their business. She couldn’t hear anything else that was going on downstairs.
Was this why Whizz liked being on this floor? He could hear everything?
Swallowing past the lump in her throat, Lacey looked opposite her. The tiles were pristine, not a speck of dust in sight.
The sound of his bedroom door unlocking didn’t ease the tension that had built up inside her.
She stared at the doorway into the bathroom. Within seconds Whizz stood over her, staring at her.
“I brought you some food. Angel cooked it. She’s worried about you and asked how you were.”
Lacey didn’t even know the woman and yet Angel was concerned about her. It made no sense to her for another woman who was younger than she was to be worried.
“I’m not hungry.” Her stomach chose that moment to protest.
“You’re hungry.”
“I don’t want anything you’ve brought me.” You’re being petty, Lacey.
Whizz sighed. “I can’t trust any of the other women coming. Your threat this morning stops me. If something happens to Angel, Lash will kill you and castrate me.”
She looked up at him. “I wouldn’t hurt her.”
Lacey wouldn’t. She knew enough that Angel was the kind of woman you were friends with. Throughout the whole of her life, she hadn’t had a female friend. There was only ever Dalton.
“I don’t know that. You keep trying to hurt me, even if you don’t actually go through with it.”
“Angel’s innocent of everything. I wouldn’t harm her. It would be like hurting a puppy or kitten.” She wiped a hand down her face. Her head was aching from the tears.
“Why are you on the bathroom floor?”
“None of your business.”
He let out a breath. “You’re going to continue to be stubborn and a brat?”
She stared up at him, licking her suddenly dry lips. “I’m thirty years old, Whizz. The only friend I’ve ever had is dead.”
“Which one was your friend?” he asked, taking a seat on the toilet.
“You’re not going to mock me?”
“I’m asking you who was your friend? I’m interested to know about you.” His hands were gripped together in exactly the same way as Dalton’s had been while she’d been in the hospital.
Placing her hands on her chest, she stared up at Whizz. He looked sincere, and she didn’t want to fight him.