#ryder003

“Hey, sexy,” Bowie greets Ryder with a warm smile and an even warmer, inviting laugh. If it weren’t for him, they’d still be trying to haul River, their cats, and the rest of their shit over to the community center in the midst of the storm. At that point, they all would’ve just stayed home and hoped for the best. But when Ryder offered to pick them up, they jumped at the chance and thanked him the whole way there. “Made this special for you as a thank you, baby,” They say, giving him the mixed drink before dropping their hand down to their hip. Sighing, Bowie looks around, taking in the all too familiar scene. Hurricane season has been a way of life for them as long as they can remember. Some storms come and go. Others leave damage that runs far deeper than the damage done to infrastructure. They bring their attention back to Ryder. “You settled in for the night, or you gotta go back out?” They ask with a bit of concern they don’t bother to hide. The wind and rain is starting to pick up, the grand sound of it penetrating the center’s walls.

After all the make-up was done and all of the tools were put away, Izzy finished getting ready with Rowan taping her into place and headed on out the door to the event, leaving the lovebird Thanes behind. As she walked in, the crowds only starting to trickle in, she went backstage to put her make-up kit back there, as an emergency stash. It was part of her marketing idea, where if she handed someone mascara and one of her new fancy cards to advertise herself, it was a good deal. She was being kind to her fellow auctionees and she might have some new clients in the older women who would certainly judge her but they couldn’t when she did their make-up for their divorcee dates. Once she was finished stashing her make-up bag, she walked out from backstage, spying the fiery red hair among the crowd so from on the stage stairs she called out his name, putting a hand above her head. As a petite woman, she knew had she stepped down, even with a decent heel on, there would be no way he’d ever find her in the crowd that seemed to be multiplying by the second. Once his attention is caught, she beelines for him, ignoring everyone’s looks considering she just screamed for him across the way. Taking her final steps to close the gap, she turns her walk to a strut with a turn in front of Ryder, a bright smile on her lips. “Hey baby, you like?” she asks before eyeing the suit that Rowan and Isobella talked him into adding a tie to. “Oh and you? Gosh, you’re lucky your man is over there because Ry, you are looking great tonight,” she complimented, knowing that her friend was going through a rough time right now— what with Finn and him on the outs. Izzy wasn’t looking to bring it up tonight, not again. “So, you still gonna bid on me? Get my price up there? Or are you backing out of helping me?”

It’d been far too long since Maddox had seen Ryder. Last time they’d met up, Ryder had been in the hospital, broken and bruised. The odd encounter, considering Maddox had been at the vote to put Ryder in the hospital and Ryder was a part of the group that did the same to Allana, came to an end, Maddox had vowed to himself that he would seek revenge, no matter what. Whether he was tied to some of the Trojans or not, it didn’t change the fact that they had gotten what they deserved... a whole fuck ton of property damage. The fact that Ryder’s car was there in the flames too was collateral damage. Still, Maddox felt a bit bad. However, he’d checked diligently to ensure Ryder’s bike would not be touched. So, he’d get over it.

“You here to talk about your favorite cell or are you coming to yell about your car?” he asked with a smirk, knowing that the answer would be more likely to be the first option. Maddox also knew even if he admitted that he was the one that set the car ablaze, Ryder wouldn’t rat him out. Still, no one would watch him saying he did it out loud. “I let all the guards know you’d see them soon,” he added, smiling at the ginger. 

Now that shit was settled and the votes had been cast, recorded and the new Trojan hierarchy was in place, Seth knew that running a whole new team was going to mean working together and getting their heads right. They had decisions to make and a whole operation to take over. There was a new leadership in town and Seth was in charge of that. So far, he’d taken the job seriously, heading down to the Dive earlier with the keys passed off to him as the new owner to try and figure the inner workings of the bar out and try and make sure he had a list of shit to talk about with Ryder in the empty bar. They needed to get a plan together, make sure their affairs in order and move on all of it. Although Seth really didn’t want to divulge personal shit, he knew it was a part of the position he was in and considering Ryder and Seth weren’t exactly whispering secrets into one another’s ears yet— it was time.

When the redhead arrived, Seth stood up, walking behind the bar to serve himself and the new Vice President a beer. The Dive was empty save a few rats that inevitably were hiding somewhere in the walls— thankfully, Seth was pretty sure James couldn’t fit in them or he would probably be spying from inside there. The image of Kane’s head on a stake still haunted the Dive and admittedly, Seth was worried he wouldn’t be able to bleach that memory from the town of Olympus at least enough to turn the same sort of profits. But that was a business problem for Seth, not necessarily a Club problem. Sitting down at one of the tabletops, Seth pushed the beer to Ryder, before reaching into his back pocket for the notepad he’d scribbled notes on. Instinctively, the man reached for his glasses so he could read his own shit before looking up again. “Look, I ain’t tryna make this some sort of blood oath bullshit or whatever but we need to get on the same page if this is gonna work,” Seth started, not wasting any time before he continued onto his first point. “You and Ford gonna be okay workin’ together? Because I ain’t got time to babysit y’all. I got two kids of my own. I ain’t lookin’ for two more,” he explained, knowing that the pair weren’t exactly best friends but then again, who was in this fucking Club?

“Second— protection obviously extends over my whole family. My kids, my brothers, my nieces. My younger brother-- Finn and his wife, Amelia live outta state with ‘em but just in case,” Seth shrugged, deciding to dive right into the second point. “You got anyone, kid?”