I Set the Sheets on Fire, Then the Clubhouse novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Gate

Becky's POV

Pearl turned the porch light off herself, so Dario's men couldn't count us.

We stood in the dark yard, thirty women in coats and nightgowns, with one shotgun, six frying pans and a rolling pin.

Dario's trucks were parked across the gate.

He walked up the lane alone with his hands open, the picture of a reasonable man.

"Evening, ladies," he said. "I'll be quick. Cade Ostrow signed for sixty thousand dollars tonight. That's a debt to the club, and a man's debt follows his woman."

"He isn't mine to owe for," I said.

"The table says otherwise. I'm the acting president, and I say it moves to you."

"You swore at that table nobody would move money in my name."

"I swore to a table I've since closed." He smiled. "Come out to the truck, Becky, and I'll leave these good women to their dishes."

Pearl stepped in front of me with the shotgun broken over her arm.

"You'll leave my gate, Dario Rangel," she said.

"Pearl, I'm doing you a kindness."

"You're doing me a trespass."

Two of his patches came up behind him and stopped at the edge of the lane.

I knew them both.

One had married his high school girlfriend, and she made lemon cake.

She stepped forward out of the line of women.

"Honey," she said to her husband.

He flinched.

"You take one more step toward that porch, and I'm staying here tonight. In this house. With these women. And you can explain to your mother why."

The patch looked at his boots.

Then another wife moved up beside her, and another, until twenty women stood in a line across the lane with their arms linked.

I had never seen anything like it.

The men they'd cooked for and slept beside for years stood on one side of the gravel, and they didn't cross it.

Dario's smile came off.

"This is the club's business," he said.

← Chapter 17 · All chapters · Chapter 19 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend