Chapter 26: Roman Hayes

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Unfortunately, I don't get to spend the entire day in bed with my woman because I get called into the club at fucking eight am. I swear Bear never sleeps. I turn over onto my side, moving to wake Peyton up so that she can come with me but she snoozes so gently with a smile on her face that I decide it's best to leave her. 

She'll probably turn up later anyway.

I kiss her forehead before having a quick shower, brushing my teeth and throwing on some clothes. I write her a quick note just so that she knows where am I and doesn't worry when she wakes up and I head out the door, back to the club.

I take my seat in Church first and spark up a cigarette, ready to get this shit over with. The same people walk in as last time and take their respective seats. Prez sits down and looks at me with confusion. "Where is Peyton?" He seems genuinely stunned that she isn't here and keeps looking at my lap and then back at me as if she'll just appear out of thin air.

"She's at the house, sleeping." I return his confused look, wondering why he's so freaked out by the absence of my woman.

"Well since it's Church I figured she'd be here." He says this casually but I recognise the intent behind his words, he is going to make her a Rider.

"You're swearing her in?" I ask, my giddiness pushing me forward in my chair to rest my arms on the table.

"Her jacket is on the way, Lex suggested to get it instead of a cut. Says it sexier or whatever."

"I'm guessing Lex is designing the patches too, what's she planning?"

"Her road name will be sewn on later but it's the standard cut layout just with her property patch where we have our title patches."

"You know I haven't actually asked her to be my old lady, right?" The men all look at me in surprise, oh they didn't know that.

"Are you kidding me? You mean that woman was up for grabs for the last few weeks?!" Blade squarks with indignation.

"No, I do not mean that. Even think about her Blade, I will fucking end you. I swear to Apollo, I don't care if you're a brother."

"So she's an Old Lady and a Rider, she just doesn't know that yet. Paws off boys, you'll have Lexie and I to deal with as well if you even try."

"What a fucking let down." Blade grumbles and we all ignore him.

"Peyton!" Is heard from outside and I smirk when all of the guys perk up, expecting her to come in. She doesn't.

"What the fuck? Why isn't she coming in?" Bear's confusion continues as he stares at the door instead of at me this time. "Go and get your woman, would ya? We have important things to discuss." He shoos be out of the room and I head into the lounge where Peyton is leaning on Lexie and laughing softly.

"Baby, Bear wants you in with us."

"Well you're gonna have to carry me because I literally drove from my house." She reaches for me as Lexie laughs at her statement. Probably knowing about the reasons behind Peyton's inability to walk. I gently lift her into my arms and walk back into Church, resting her on my lap and letting her get comfortable. "What's next, boss?"

"Next warehouse needs to be knocked over, chosen one?"

"We can either take down the one that I knew about before or one of the three I've found out while monitoring there movements." She takes the laptop from Romeo and pulls up the information she's gathered and shows Bear. "Take your pick, though I wouldn't pick the last one, you have no need for drugs. Wait, actually, if we knock that over we can hand the product to the Mexicans to sweeten the deal and we keep the cash. Oooh, we can work with this."

"When?"

"Tonight sounds good, that means I can arrange a meeting with the Mexicans tomorrow night. I'll call one of my guys and see if I can get in with Matías, I'm sure he'll be happy to see me. I want Runner in with me." Runner seems surprised at the request and so am I, surely she'd want me to go with her.

"Reign is my enforcer." Bear suggests, lighting a cigarette and taking a puff of it contemplatively. Runner isn't the attack dog, we keep him back to defend the club since he's a sharp shooter. We have him on roofs and balconies, not hand to hand combat. "I don't know how much help Runner will be."

"Runner is Latino, he blends in and he will also be able to understand the conversation alongside me. Two heads are better than one and I know that he's more intelligent than you guys put across." Runner seems genuinely warmed at her words, a small smile gracing his face as he thanks her softly.

"Okay, I trust you'll keep him alive." Bear moves onto the next item on our docket which is our own run going out tonight, we have ten guys riding protection because of the threat HR possess and we don't want to lose our shipment to those bastards. As Peyton says, wounded animals are dangerous, we need to fucking cripple them.

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I mount my bike along with my nine brothers on this run. Blade, Prez, Mac, Hunter, Rubble, Red, Gears, Boulder and Breaker, we're known as the A team. The strongest fighters in the club and we all have to finish this run before midnight since that's when we're taking the warehouse.

Peyton leans against my bike, facing me with a soft smile on her face. "Stay safe." She whispers, giving me a soft kiss on my cheek and squeezing my hand. I'm forced to pull away from her as Prez calls for us to pull out, I wink at her before catching up with Prez since I ride beside him.

We flank the truck with Prez leading and me to his left, dropping back slightly to guard the passenger side with Mac on the opposite side. Hunter is behind me and Rubble is behind Mac with Red bringing up the rear. Boulder and Breaker flank Red, riding his tail with Blade right at the back. His job - if anything goes wrong - is to turn tail and warn the others, not a particularly important job and one that was made just to keep him quiet.

The run goes smoothly, four bags of cash distributed to four different members of the convoy because if we get attacked now we can split and hopefully get all the money back to the club.

We ride in formation but fuck with each other and race back, laughing and swearing at each other. The camaraderie is halted when the emergency light comes up on our bikes, Romeo wired this so that we can always be made aware of problems happening back at the clubhouse. It means there's something going down at the MC and we're at least half an hour out.

This was HR's plan. 

Get us paranoid and therefore get us out, leaving our clubhouse available for an attack.

And Peyton is smack bang in the middle of all of it.

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