Center of Gravity (Marauders Book 3) (6 page)

“Doctor’s orders. You need to lighten up.”

When we came out Mitch was still sitting there.

“Can I have a look at that?” he asked, and for a second I thought he meant the vibrator and hugged my bag closer. He noticed and shook his head with a meaningful smile. “The cane, Anna. Can I see?”

“Oh. Sure.” I handed it over.

“It’s beautiful,” he said when he handed it back to me. “Where did you find it?”

“I didn’t. My parents did. It’s Russian.” I had no idea why I added the last part, but he didn’t seem to think it was odd.

“Do you speak Russian?”

“Some.” I knew what was coming, since it always did, and he didn’t disappoint.

“Say something.”

“What?”

“Something fitting.”

He was smiling, and I couldn’t help smile back. It wasn’t just his smile that was nice. He looked really good, with a full beard and slightly too long hair, both of which looked casually messy, but I was pretty sure it was by design. He had really nice eyes, too, so dark brown they were almost black, and his big smile was amazing.

This was actually the first time in a long while that someone had flirted with me, and I realized that I’d missed it. I couldn’t help myself when I smiled back and decided what to say.

“Ya khochu pivo i bol’shiye sis’ki”

“Do I wanna know what that means?”

“I want a beer and big boobs,” I answered and took Lisa’s arm. “We ready?”

“Hey! Say it again,” Mitch yelled behind us with a laugh.

“Were you flirting with him?” Lisa asked once we were out of earshot. “Because I’d set you up in a second if you wanted to. As long as you don’t expect anything else.”

“No! I don’t want you to set us up. But like I said, I remember him from school. That’s probably the only thing he needs to be able to say in Russian.”

She looked at me again. “Okay. But really, just say the word and I’ll hook you up.”

“You don’t even know if he’d be up for it.”

“He would. I know him and his taste. I bet he’s already figured out a few positions based on you being a ballerina. Trust me, he’d be up for it.”

While we walked back to the car, I was trying to decide if it was a good or a bad thing that he would.

-o0o-

Irina was at home when I got back, and I could smell the food the second I opened the door—goulash. I went into my room and quickly hid the bag underneath my bed before going out to the kitchen. Apparently Lisa was right; I was a prude.

“Zvezda!” she smiled when she saw me. “How was your day?”

“Good,” I gave her cheek a kiss. “Yours?”

“Drama! All drama! They’re about to cast the parts for a new version of the Swan Lake, and everyone is on pins and needles. It’s a mess.” She waved with her hands while she was talking. “So fed up with them. And you know those men are the worst. They always talk about women bitching, but men are no better.”

I sat down at the table and hung my cane on the windowsill. As much as I loved hearing about it, it did bring back some memories of what that was like. I didn’t like the drama, but I missed that feeling in my gut when we were waiting to find out who got a part we all wanted. I’d had the lead in Swan Lake several times, and it was one of my favorites, since it demanded so much, both technically and emotionally. I especially enjoyed the diversity—the shifts between the innocent Odette and the temptress Odile—that was what really did it for me. I loved it, and the new head choreographer had done some amazing things with it. I firmly believed his fourth act of the Swan Lake was the best ballet anyone could ever see. I’d been so proud to be a part of something so amazingly beautiful.

It was demanding, though. It meant about a total of an hour of dancing of the two and a half hours that the show went on, which might not sound a lot, but it really was. When I was dancing the Swan Lake, I avoided anything that could be dehydrating, and I took potassium in the morning and at night to avoid cramps. I remember nagging about it, but I even missed those damn cramps. Those cramps and that pain was a lot better than the pain and the cramps I had now, because there had been a purpose to it.

“How’s Violet?” she asked, as she put the casserole on the table. “How far along is she now?”

I was glad for the change of subject and took a deep breath to let go of the gloomy feelings.

“Not sure, seven months, or something like that. She’s fine.”

“And Lisa?”

“Lisa’s just fine. Her usual self.”

“Can’t she set you up with a nice man?”

“Tetya!”

“What?” she said with her hands up, still holding the ladle. “A man doesn’t have to be a bad thing.”

“Is that why you never had one?”

“I’ve had plenty of them. Never wanted to keep one, but they’re still nice to have once in a while.”

“Are you saying I should get a man, so you’ll get this place to yourself?” I teased.

“Maybe. Eat!”

“Just let me know, and I’ll spend a night at Lisa’s or something.”

“Or I’ll just stay with him.”

“Wanna tell me who ‘him’ is?”

I was actually thrilled she was seeing
him
, whoever he was, but I was mainly glad that we’d left the topic my nonexistent love life and focused on hers instead.

“One of the members of the orchestra. I’ll introduce you when I’m ready.”

“I’d like that.”

Later that night, I picked out the vibrator with a big smile. It had to be better than just my own hand and it was pretty. I just hoped it didn’t buzz too loudly; my room was wall to wall with Irina’s. Although I guessed I had to be more worried about me being loud rather than the vibrator.

CHAPTER FOUR

An Active Night Life

-o0o-

Mitch was working on a car when he noticed Lisa pulling in on the lot. He dried off his hands and went to catch up with her before she went inside the clubhouse. He’d been waiting for her, but she hadn’t been by all week. It wasn’t really something he was in a hurry to talk to her about, but since she was there he’d grab the chance.

“Hey, beauty. Got an ask.”

“Ooohhh.” Her smile grew big, and she tapped her fingers against her chin in a contemplative manner. “Means you’re gonna owe me.”

“Yeah. I’ll owe you. Gonna help me or not?”

“Ask me, and I’ll tell you.”

Lisa had always been an incredible tease. When he was fourteen and got a boner from seeing a bowl, fruit, hill, pillow, or pretty much anything in the shape of a boob, she used to ‘accidentally’ stroke her chest against his arm. He had to give it to her, though, she’d been very helpful when it came to make him understand women.

“The Ballerina who was at the sex shop last week, think you can give me her number, maybe address, and possibly put in a good word?”

“Mitch, are you trying to get me to help you do a ‘cum and run’ on my friend?”

“Hey! You let her loose in the sex shop last week, so I’d say she obviously needs some.” He moved closer. “And you
know
I’m very good at doing that and letting her go on and find the love of her life. I’ve done that with your friends before.”

“Do you even know her name?”

“Sure. Anna and some weird, Russian last name starting with D—I think it was.”

“Impressive.” She took a deep breath. “Truth is, I gave her the options of letting you nail her or a visit at the sex shop. She chose the shop. Apparently she very vividly remembers you fucking every girl at school.”

“Damn!” That was a bit of a disappointment, but at least Lisa’d had him in mind, which meant there was some hope.

“So why are you so interested?”

“Ballet dancer. Bet she’s flexible.”

“You nail dancers all the time. Got a strip club full of them, and I’ve been to it, those are some flexible bitches.”

Lisa’d visited the strip club a few years earlier, and that hadn’t gone over all that well with Bear. He’d been furious and had decided it was Mitch’s fault. Which it hadn’t been. Lisa’d asked if she could come, and he’d said yes, but despite Lisa defending him, he’d been on Bear’s shit list for months.

“Not the same,” he said as an answer to Lisa’s statement. He wasn’t sure how to explain it. “They’re easy, you know that, and they just love showing off how flexible they are. Once in a while I like...”

“Mitchell Baxter, are you saying you once in a while want an innocent girl?”

“Not innocent, but someone who isn’t a borderline hooker, and who doesn’t get down on her knees in front of me just ‘cause I say so.”

“You want some girl that not all of your brothers
and
you have nailed hundreds of times.”

“Something like that. Judging by the blush when she was in the sex shop, she’s a little innocent, she’s a ballerina, and pretty damn hot.”

“All this,” she swept her hands in front of him, “is of course
very
sweet, but there’s a small hitch. She’s a little innocent, and not all that easy to get into bed. Which means you’re gonna do your charming shit on her, nail her, and then leaver her behind crying.”

“I won’t!”

“So how are you gonna get her to put out then?”

“I was hoping you’d pimp me out again.” She just kept eyeing him with her hands crossed over her chest, and he sighed. “So, no deal?”

“Tell you what, if she says she
really
needs some, I’ll send her your way. No charming, just have sex with her—
good
sex—and that’s it, unless she calls you again.”

“What do you want for that?”

“You’ll owe me a
big
one. Not some little shit thing, a
real
favor, and I can cash it in whenever I want to.”

“Do I get her number?”

“Not today.”

“Damn, Lisa! You’re a better negotiator than your dad.” He pulled her in for a hug. “I’ll be nice and not hurt your friend.”

“
If
I give you a shot.”

He kissed her cheek. “I’ll trust your judgment.”

They both knew that the only point with the conversation was for him to let her know he was interested, and she’d give him a go if she thought Anna could handle it. He’d never mess with one of her friends in a way that could hurt them. This was just their normal dance, and even if it had been quite a few years since they’d done it, it was familiar grounds for both of them.

With a smile, she walked away, and Mitch couldn’t help himself.

“Hey, Beauty! Nice to see you still got it.”

“I’ll never lose it,” she said with a wink, and he laughed. “And I gotta say, even taking into account that nice speech you gave me, she’s not your type.”

“Why’s that?”

“She’s pretty, but she’s no knockout.”

He thought about it. He actually thought Anna was a knockout, and she wasn’t that far off his normal taste. She was pretty, really pretty, and moved like a real dancer, which he liked. Once in a while he liked some class.

-o0o-

“Chucky, Dutch, and the two members from the Dutch club are coming next month. And I’m guessing Sisco was right, and we’re all gonna have a problem keeping Dutch and ‘the Dutch’ apart. Either way, they’re landing in the US in two weeks, gonna stay in Englewood for a while, and then they’re coming here. So,” his dad leaned back at the head of the table and lit a smoke, “tell me what you got.”

Mitch started after a nod from Mech, “What could be expected on the two members. Did, however figure out that Örn, with the two dots over the o, means eagle in Swedish.”

“Eagle,” Sisco chuckled. “Tell me he’s at least tall.”

“He actually is,” Mitch nodded. “Anyway, both Mr. Eagle and Mr. Böhm have some priors. I’m mostly curious about the fact that Eagle did five years in Swedish prison for a drug-related charge that was considered a felony charge.”

“Five years?” Dawg asked. “You’re shitting me.”

“No. Apparently the most you can get for a felony drug charge in Sweden is ten years, and you usually only serve two thirds of that.”

There was a silence until Bear chuckled. “Think we’re operating in the wrong fucking country.”

“Yeah. Looks like it. They don’t really have life sentence, either,” Mitch muttered. He’d been pretty surprised when he’d realized that, and had sort of surfed off the tracks until he remembered what he was supposed to be looking for. “I checked Smiling Ghouls and their work in Europe. It’s one of the bigger clubs operating there, and the
only
one worth mentioning in the Netherlands. They pretty much own that fucking country, and they got their fingers in everything
but
diamonds.”

“So that’s what they want?” Bear nodded, so he’d probably suspected it.

“I’d say so. Amsterdam is the central hub for diamonds in Europe, kind of like New York is here. So I’d say it’s a safe bet.”

“Not pot?”

“No. Don’t think our pot is something they’re particularly interested in. It would be considered shit compared to the stuff they grow themselves,” Mitch explained. “They got suppliers for all the other drugs, and make their own chemical stuff.”

“Isn’t marijuana and hash legal there?” Bear asked. “Wouldn’t be much point for them to smuggle it at all.”

“It’s… a bit weird,” Mitch answered. “It’s legal at the front door, but illegal at the back door. Meaning, it’s legal for the coffee shops to sell for private use, but not for anyone to sell in big quantities to the coffee shops.”

“How the fuck does that add up?” Tommy asked.

“It doesn’t,” Mitch smiled. “And even without the pot, Holland is pretty much the continent’s gatekeepers to
anything
smuggled. Everything goes through there. They get the cocaine from Colombia, heroin from the Middle East, and the cannabis from Morocco except for the stuff they grow themselves. And the production of synthetic drugs in Holland has basically made it the Colombia of synthetic drugs. They supply pretty much the entire world.”

“And how the fuck do the bikers in Holland get away with that?” Bull asked. “Or do they have punishments in line with the Swedish ones?”

Mitch laughed. “I’d say so. Drug dealers rarely serve jail time, and sometimes they even get to deduct the expenses of their crimes when they pay damages. Like the cost for weapons.”

They all started laughing.

“Definitely working in the wrong fucking country,” Mace said and started to re-braid his beard, something he often did when he was focusing. “What about what Bull said last time, about the European clubs being slightly crazy?”

“Yeah…” Mitch cleared his throat. “I read about some of the biker wars they’ve had, and let’s just say they’re not doing toy runs over there. They’re not even trying to seem legit most of the time.”

“How’s that?”

“Denmark was one of the first countries outside America with any bigger biker clubs, and today it has the highest rate of bikers in the world. During a Scandinavian biker war in the early nineties, a biker club raided an underground storage owned by the Swedish military and stole sixteen shoulder-fired anti-tank weapons, and they used them in populated areas to blow up clubhouses of rival clubs.”

“You’re shitting me?” Brick asked.

“Nope. Also a shooting at an airport, and I’m mentioning this because the Ghouls are big in Scandinavia. They’re the main supplier to the Freetown Christiania, a freezone in Copenhagen, the Danish capital. It’s an area in the harbor where hash and marijuana is legal.”

“Hang on,” Sisco interrupted him. “There’s an area in the middle of the Danish capital where hash and marijuana is legal?”

“I thought Copenhagen was chewing tobacco,” Tommy mumbled.

“It’s also the capital of Denmark,” Mitch explained before he answered Sisco’s question. “And yes. It’s like a society in its own, if I got it right. Sort of like a miniature Amsterdam but run by hippies. Bikers have been fighting over the right to the sells there forever, but currently it’s the Ghouls who do it.”

“Are the Netherlands and Scandinavia the major areas they operate?” Bear asked.

“Yes, some in Germany, too,” Mitch answered. “They work with a few other clubs, but I don’t think that’s gonna matter much to us. It’s smaller, local clubs with no representation here in the states.”

“Well,” Brick said and cleared his throat. “There are certainly things that need considering. They seem butt-fucking crazy over there, but I’d still like to meet them before I say something for certain.”

“Question is of course if it matters to us what they do there,” Mech shrugged. “Kind of depends on what kind of cooperation we’re going to have. Not like it matters much to us where our diamonds end up, and we rarely notice. We just ship the shit.”

Brick and Bear looked at each other while they nodded.

“We’ll think on it, and see what they say when they come here. I can’t do shit without the cartel’s okay either. I’m guessing they’re gonna want big amounts, so the cartel needs to be onboard, too.”

The rest of the meeting was even more farfetched speculations, which somehow landed them in discussion about Russia and whether they thought that the other Marauder clubs would be interested in setting up clubs there. As usual, they wrapped up the meeting with the financial situation

Afterwards, Mitch went to the strip club with Mace, Sisco, and Tommy. Mace and Sisco soon disappeared to the back rooms, but Mitch stayed there to talk a little to Tommy.

“So… you were a sniper,” he mumbled. “How good are you?”

“Good,” Tommy smiled.

He wasn’t the smartest guy, but loyal as hell, and he’d served in the Marines as a sniper. He’d gotten his discharge soon after he’d been hurt in an ambush where his friend had died. His leg had been mangled, but it was hardly noticeable anymore; he didn’t even limp. He was a good guy, pretty funny, and was built like a bull. His neck wide, loads of muscles, and close-cropped hair.

“How does that work? Do you just lie on your stomach and wait?”

Tommy laughed and nodded, and Mitch was just about to ask more when he felt his phone vibrating. He picked it up.

“Yeah?”

“It’s Mech. Did you just try to log on to our server while drunk?”

“No. I’m at The Booty Bank. You know, this bromance we’ve got going is really cute, but since I’m single—as opposed to you, Mr. Married My High School Sweetheart—I do actually have an active night life. That’s when I get laid, and I don’t log on to our server while getting a blow job.”

“Someone did, with your user name but the wrong password. Meet me at the clubhouse.”

“I’m on my way,” he said and hung up before turning towards Tommy. “Gotta go. Have a go at one of them for me,” he added and nodded towards the girls on stage.