"Hi Riz," said Isabella as she walked over to him alone, Bishop having needed to go inside the clubhouse.
"Isobel," said Riz smiling as he leaned over the engine of the car. "I'm almost done with your car. It was a broken distributor cap."
"I have no idea what that is, but I'll take your word for it."
"Well, it shouldn't cause any more problems."
"Thank you so much for doing this, Riz. How much do I owe you?"
"You'll need to take that up with Bishop. He's in charge."
"OK. Can I at least bring you some churros or barquillos?"
"Now you're talking," replied Riz.
She sat down on one of the chairs near the car. "You can go inside if you want," said Riz.
"Don't want to bother Bishop or the others."
"Something tells me you won't bother Bishop," he replied with a side smile.
"He's probably busy with work."
"If you go inside and the meeting room door is closed, then yeah. If it's open…"
"OK, I get it. You just don't want me hovering near the car."
Riz laughed. "Yeah, you're making me nervous, hermana."
She stood and put her hands up in surrender. "OK. I'll go inside."
"I'll come find you when she's ready."
She walked inside the clubhouse and greeted the crew members and the regulars that were there before shooting a glance in the direction of the meeting room. Seeing the door was open, she walked quietly to it and stood in the door frame. As Bishop was focused on documents, she knocked lightly on the door.
"Come on in," he said closing the files.
She walked all the while looking around the room until she reached the end of the table where he was and sat on the edge of it.
"Car is almost ready. Riz said I should see with you about payment."
"It's on the house," he answered.
"Riz spent hours on it and there is the spare part. I need to pay for that."
"He'll get paid."
"By whom?"
"I'll pay for it."
She stood. "Bishop, you don't need to do that. I can pay for it."
"I know you can."
"Let me at least pay you back."
"If you pay me back there is no point in me paying for it, now is there."
"I didn't ask you for help so that I didn't have to end up paying."
"I know that," he said rising from his chair and placing himself in front of her. "You keep that money to pay your mom's medical bills."
"Why are you doing this?" she said her eyes tearing up from his act of selflessness.
"I already told you why," he said as he raised his hand and let his fingers caress her cheek.
"Sorry to interrupt, but we need to talk." Bishop looked toward the door and saw Marcus standing in its frame.
He lowered his hand from Isabella's face against his will, but if Marcus was there, it was important, more important than his growing feelings and attraction for Isabella.
"I need to take care of this," he said as he looked at her.
"I'll be fine, but we're not done talking about this."
"Good," he said smiling.
She nodded at Marcus as she passed him and walked out of the clubhouse.
Marcus closed the door and walked over to Bishop. "You, hermano, are playing with fire."
"Why is that?" asked Bishop as he returned to his seat.
"Isn't she Angel's girl?"
"Was and two decades ago."
"Then forget what I said. Besides we have more important things to discuss."
"What's going on?"
"Tranq went to the stash this morning. We're 5 packs short."
"How is that possible?"
"I don't know. Who was handling the drop yesterday?"
"Taza, Coco, EZ and Angel. But that doesn't mean anything. They left for Arizona yesterday with the shipment. It could be anyone."
"Then that is a problem we're going to have to resolve because when Galindo finds out, he's going to want answers."
"You haven't told him."
"Not yet. I'm hoping we can fix this in-house."
"I'll have Riz investigate. He was working on a car all morning, and he was running assistance yesterday, so I know it can't be him."
"Alright but fix this quickly."
"Count on me."
Marcus walked out leaving Bishop livid that someone within the club would do something like this.
