I was actually surprised it took Pops this long to ask. “Serious.”

“So she’s your ol’ lady?”

“Yes.”

“She agree with that?” he asked, smirking.

“Working on it.” Both Pops and Diamond full out laughed, causing me to do the same. “Pops, she’s tough, but I’m not giving her up.”

“Good. You got that bitch, Mel, under control?” Diamond asked.

“Burnzies drew up the paperwork. She should be gone for good in a couple of days. And if, for some reason that doesn’t work, I’ll make her gone.”

“Good. Shit’s gonna get deep.” I eyed Pops as he spoke. “Insider says that Babs is feeding Rabbit a bunch of shit about Princess threatening her.”

“Shit,” I groaned while lighting up a smoke.

“That’s why the shit storm. I called for a meeting, but he hasn’t responded. But there’s more.” He paused to look at Diamond. “There are whispers of another set-up going down to put Princess back inside.”

Anger surged. “What the fuck?”

“And if Princess kills her, there will be a million dollar bounty on her head.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Babs’s pussy that good to get Rabbit to fall for this shit?”

“Apparently.” Diamond stretched back in his chair placing his hands behind his head as he eyed me.

“So, what’s the plan?” I asked, rubbing my hands over my head.

“We’re gonna go through all the info that Princess got, see what we can find and what clues we can come up with for this supposed set up. You need to keep a short leash on her. Which I know will be easy.” Pops chuckled. “We wait to hear back from Rabbit and see if he’s got any sense left. And you go find that bitch who came in here with Danny and get what you can out of her.”

“What about her?” I asked, wanting to make sure that when I opened my mouth to her it wouldn’t be the end of me.

“She knows what she needs to for now.” Nodding my head, Diamond gave me the chin lift, which meant I was dismissed.

Princess was curled up on my corner recliner holding Cooper in her arms as he slept. As she brushed away the silent tears, our eyes met. The pain inside of them made my heart ache. Kneeling in front of them, I placed one hand on Coop and the other on her knee. “You okay, Baby?”

“No. I’m not,” she whispered.

“Talk to me.” Princess looked down at Cooper in her arms taking one hand and brushing the hair out of his face as she placed a kiss on his forehead.

“She can’t have him. I won’t allow it.” Princess’s tone went from gentle to fierce in seconds. “Cooper’s mine. I won’t allow him to be hurt. I’ll kill her before she touches him again.” A grin covered my face. “I’m not kidding, Cruz. I will end her if she touches him.”

“I know Baby. It’s not gonna happen. She’ll be gone soon.” My hand began rubbing up and down on her thigh trying to calm her, but damn if her fierce protectiveness for my boy didn’t make me want to fuck her right here and now. Not to mention it filled my heart with more love, than I ever thought possible.

“Good. She shows her face here again it won’t end well.” She squeezed Cooper tightly. “I’m going to hold him while he sleeps for a bit.”

“I got shit to do. I’ll be back in a bit. Don’t go anywhere.” She didn’t argue; she just nodded, pulling a blanket over the top of herself and Coop. I thought she was beautiful before, but seeing her with Coop did me in even more.

Kissing both her and Coop, I left, knowing that I needed to get shit handled.

Finding Mindy wasn’t hard. Heading to the Clayton chapter, Tug, Rocky and I rode fast. I had this urgent feeling that I needed to get back to Princess and my boy.

“Danny!” I barked as I took my lid off, and we parked at their clubhouse. “Guys, stay here.” With our chapter being the mother, all the sub-chapters didn’t say a word as I walked directly into their clubhouse. “Danny!” I barked again looking around their club, set up similar to ours.

“What’s up brother?” Danny called from the hallway.

“I need to talk to Mindy.”

“About?”

“None of your fucking business. Get her out here, now,” I clipped. Fuck him if he thought for one second about protecting her ass. Sighing, he left and came back with a very scared Mindy.

“Tell me what you know.” I stood crossing my arms and standing to my full six foot two inch height. I knew my presence was menacing, and I didn’t give a fuck.

“I… I don’t know anything,” she stammered out.

Moving closer to her, Danny stepped in front of Mindy, which pissed me off more. “Get the fuck out of my way,” I said, my nose touching his.

“You’re not gonna hurt her,” he demanded, which sent my rage in fury.

“Get the fuck out of my goddamned way before I put a fucking bullet in your head.”

“You’d shoot a brother in his own clubhouse?” he asked, puzzled.

“If the fucker keeps me from protecting my family, then he’s not mine in the first place.” My eyes stared him down. After a few beats, he moved out of the way of Mindy, as she shuddered.

“You will answer my questions and tell me what you know about Babs. Now.”

“I… really don’t know anything.”

“Sit and talk,” I said motioning to the couches to the side of us. I really didn’t want to hurt the bitch, but if she didn’t open her fucking trap soon, shit would fly.

Mindy looked at Danny for reassurance, and when he nodded his head she began talking. “Two years ago, Babs was pissed that Princess was, well, Princess. She had everything that Babs ever wanted. Princess had the club and all the guys at her beck and call. She’s a badass on a bike, and she knew how to shoot and not miss. She also had power. Princess never flaunted it; that just wasn’t who she was. But Babs didn’t like it. She wanted it, and it was something she could never have.” Mindy paused to think. “Babs wanted to get rid of her once and for all, but didn’t think things through the way she should have.”

“What do you mean the way she should have?” Tapping down my anger was getting harder and harder with this bitch.

Blowing out a deep breath, she said, “She thought that if she got rid of Princess, she could move in on the guys at the club and take her spot. But when that didn’t happen, her anger turned to fury, and it took over. She wanted to destroy Princess. It was stupid of her to think that the club would welcome her after sending their prized woman to jail.”

“Yeah. Pretty stupid. What was your role?” Mindy’s hand started to shake with nerves as she reached over to Danny. He didn’t tell her or me to stop; he just squeezed it.

“The only thing I was asked to do was get Princess to Studio X. All I did was put in a phone call to her. I swear. I didn’t have anything to do with the rest of it. I wouldn’t say that Babs and Princess were ever friends, just respectful acquaintances. Babs did a little work for her regarding Studio X, but I would never say they were friends.”

When Princess got locked up, they wanted to make an example of her like all the rest of us when we get locked up. She was convicted of blackmailing and cooking the books at Studio X. We all knew it was bullshit, but somehow that bitch Babs got into Princess’s office and switched all her books. She even had pictures that looked like Princess was taking money from our very own prominent mayor, Stan Mason. He went up on the stand and lied through his teeth about Princess blackmailing him because he spent time at Studio X. When Pops shook him down, he stuck to his story. But the mayor didn’t live to tell anything. Babs did a hell of a job with the proof she had, because our lawyer didn’t see a way out of it. The kicker was that we didn’t find any of this shit out till about a year after Princess was inside. I got all this information secondhand from Pops when I started prospecting for the club.

“So what’s the deal now?”

“What do you mean?” she asked, puzzled.