I crossed my arms. “You wanna fill me in on what’s crawled up your ass, babe? ’Cause I got shit to do and you’re preventin’ me from doin’ it.”
“You broke her!” she bellowed.
“Paisley,” I ground out.
“No! You need to back off, buster. You broke her once and I won’t let you do it again.”
“Buster?” I smirked. “You wound me, Paisley.”
“Oh, suck it, Reese. You have businesses to run. Bars to open for people to get drunk. You don’t have time to ‘handle’ Lex.”
“Ryder’s got the bars covered, Paisley. My attention won’t be divided.”
“Regardless, Reese. You need to find someone else to handle her or I’m comin’ for you.”
“Not gonna happen, babe, so you better get used to the idea.”
She let out a screech and came flying at me again, but this time I was prepared. I caught her and gently pinned her arms at her side.
“You can’t do this to her again, asshole,” she hissed.
“Everything okay here?”
I craned my neck to see Cullen Wallace walk out my front door. Cullen was doing some work on my house, and he just so happened to be the brother of Hatch, who was the Sergeant at Arms for the Dogs of Fire.
“All good,” I said.
“He’s being an asshole,” Paisley hissed.
“Settle, Paisley, and I’ll let you go.”
“Let me go and I’m kicking you in the family jewels.”
“Noted,” I said, and held her a little tighter.
She tried to wiggle away, but I had her locked in. “Let me go,” she demanded.
“Feel better if you let the lady go, Reese,” Cullen said, but it was more of a warning.
“You gonna calm down?” I asked Paisley.
“Yes.”
“You lyin’?”
“Yes.”
“Reese,” Cullen warned again, and stepped toward us.
I released her and stepped out of kicking distance. “Always liked your honesty, babe.”
“Well, that’s good, because I’m going to cut you.”
“Not a fan of your viciousness, however.”
Cullen crossed his arms and Paisley studied him. “You don’t have to stand there all manly and stuff, Reese would never hurt me.”
I was glad she knew that, but a little surprised she admitted it out loud.
“I’m gonna go ahead and stand here ‘all manly and stuff’ anyway,” Cullen informed her.
“You do you, BooBoo,” she retorted, then turned her rage back on me. “You need to forget about her.”
“No.”
Tears flooded her eyes. “You really must hate her.”
“How do you figure?”
“If you ever loved her, you’d let her go. Let her live her life.”
“Paisley, I don’t hate Alexa,” I said, suddenly exhausted. “I’m gonna fix this. And I’m not lettin’ another handler near her. No one else can protect her right... obviously. I won’t let her end up in jail or on the radar of the people she’s testifyin’ against.”
“You broke her,” she repeated in a whisper, wiping a rogue tear from her face.
“Babe, I’m gonna fix it,” I rasped. “I love her. Never stopped, so I’m gonna make this right.”
“She won’t have it.”
“She will, Paisley. But when all this shit’s over with the Russians... if she wants out, I’ll walk away.”
Paisley snorted. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
“It’s gonna be her choice.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Then I’m gonna do whatever I can to make sure she stays strong and resists you.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“So you don’t want your best friend to be happy. Good to know,” I deadpanned.
“See, here’s the problem,” she said, wagging a finger at me. “You make her miserable. She was good... really good, and then you broke her and there wasn’t enough duct tape in the world that could put her back together. I can’t watch her go through that again.”
“Paisley, I’m gonna fix this,” I said... again.
She studied me.
“You gonna make this more difficult?” I asked.
Paisley shrugged. “Maybe.”
I crossed my arms again. “It’ll go better if you support her in this.”
“You mean, support you. You don’t give a damn about Alexa’s feelings. If you did, you wouldn’t be back dragging all this crap back up.”
“Enough,” I ground out. “We’re done with the conversation, Paisley. I gotta head out. You want to stick around and yell at my front door...or Cullen, knock yourself out.”
I climbed onto my bike and took off. I saw Paisley flip me the bird in my side mirror and almost laughed. I’d hoped she wouldn’t give me grief, but now that I knew what I was up against, I’d have to step up my game.
Pulling into the Dogs of Fire compound, I parked my bike and headed toward the entrance. I raised my face to the camera at the outside door and the door buzzed, so I stepped into a dimly lit hallway and made my way to another door, raising my head again. I was buzzed in and I walked inside to find Hawk waiting for me. He gave me a chin lift. “You got somethin’?”
Hawk nodded. “Follow me.”
He led me down a side hallway and to a control room of sorts, waving to a chair. I dragged it to where Hawk sat in front of a computer. “I had Booker do a search and Sergei’s in some deep shit.”
Booker was the VP of the Dogs and a computer whiz. If you needed someone found, or their identity erased, he was the man to do it.
“Figured.”
Hawk pulled up a series of photos. “Here’s your FBI mole.”
I leaned in. “Don’t know him.”
“Jaxon does,” Hawk said, facing me.
Jaxon Quinn was FBI and related to a few of the Dogs. He had helped get a couple of Dogs’ kids out from under Brick’s thumb.
Maverick was a recruit for the Club, married to Hawk’s daughter, Lily, and he and his sister had been kidnapped by Brick. That’s how Brick had met his maker. I wasn’t entirely sure who killed him, but honestly, I didn’t care.
“Once Jaxon and his team knew who Sergei was informin’ to, they dug deeper. His “handler” is Sean May and he’s a Spider.”
“I doubt that,” I countered. “I know all the Spiders.”
Hawk shook his head. “You know Crystal?”
“Yeah.”
Crystal was Shovelhead’s old lady and had been a club whore before that.
“It’s her son,” he said.
“Shit, seriously?” I breathed out.
Hawk nodded.
“This feels eerily like sleeper agent type shit,” I said.
“Agreed.”
“So Crystal groomed her kid to get into the FBI and work for the Spiders within the system?” I asked, sitting back.
“I think it’s more likely he made the FBI and she has somethin’ on him... or the Spiders do, and they’ve used that to their advantage.”
“Shit,” I hissed.
Crystal had fooled us. Admittedly, she was never really on our radar, but from what I could remember when it came to Crystal, she was either drunk, high, or both and not the sharpest tool in the shed. Apparently, she was smarter than anyone realized.
“Jaxon’s reading Cameron Shane in on this,” Hawk said.
I nodded. “Okay.”
“We’re gonna figure out how to get Sergei out. It won’t touch Alexa.”
“’Preciate it, brother.” I stood. “Keep me posted?”
“Yeah, man. No problem.”
I nodded and headed out of the compound.
Alexa
I’D MADE IT through the day without further incident and was looking forward to hanging with my other “refugees.” There were eleven of us being hidden from the Spiders and the Mob. We were all dressed in nun habits and trying our best to fake being Catholic (some better t
han others... well, better than me anyway). The youngest victim, Molly, was actually being fostered by the Reverend Mother, so she simply got a new name... no costume required. I found out that another material witness was among the women being held at the crack house, and she and I had become fast friends, especially when we started swapping stories.
Summer and I were in the chapel just off the main cathedral, setting up for a youth service beginning in a couple of hours and discussing some of the specifics of our predicaments.
“I can’t believe Bogdan Romanov was your father,” Summer said, her voice sounding slightly awed. “I never met him personally... just heard rumors.”
I sighed. “Most of the rumors you heard were probably true. Believe it or not, he was really good as a dad. As a man, not so much.”
Summer nodded. “Murdering countless people kind of makes that impossible. No offense.”
“None taken.” I was still working out my feelings toward my father. The disconnect between the man I knew as “Papa,” and the man who got rid of people who threatened him, real or perceived, was narrowing. I wasn’t so delusional to think my father was perfect, but I also loved him and nothing he did would change that. My question was, how did you continue to justify loving someone so evil? I still didn’t have that answer. “How long did you work for Mr. Markell?”
Tony Markell had been the “family’s” accountant and as crooked as they came. I had a feeling Summer had been hired not because of her skill-set (although, she seemed quite intelligent), but because of her looks. She was exotically beautiful with a Maggie Q quality about her.
Before Summer could answer my question, however, a surprise guest walked into the chapel. “Sisters,” Cameron said.
“Agent Shane,” Summer said, her smile quick and her cheeks pinkening.
“Hi, Cameron.”
“Summer, would you mind giving me and Lex a minute?” he asked.
“Of course,” she said, and gave me a questioning look as she walked out of the chapel.
“I’m not speaking to you,” I grumbled.
He chuckled. “I figured.”
I crossed my arms. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“About letting Reese take over or that I had someone watching you?”
“Both,” I said.
He waved to a pew and we sat facing each other. “I got stuck on somethin’ and should have put someone a little more senior on watch Alexa duty.”
“You don’t really call it ‘watch Alexa duty,’ do you?”
Cameron smiled. “No, but we probably should.”
“Sergei—”
“Was in trouble. I get it.”
“But why Reese?” I whispered. “You must know our history.”
“Didn’t have a choice, Lex. He’s been in this since pretty early on.”
“What?” I squeaked.
He sighed. “Thought that’d be less of a surprise.”
“I haven’t seen him in eight years, Cameron. How would he even know where I was?”
“Ryder.”
“Wait,” I said, trying to wrap my head around everything he was saying. “How would Ryder know?”
“His sister was being held in the same place you were.”
“She was in Savannah?”
“Yeah.”
“Ohmigod,” I breathed out. “How did I miss that?”
Paisley and I had both been drugged for days, so we didn’t realize we were in Savannah until we were rescued by the FBI. Then it was a day or two of debriefing before finally being allowed to come home...well, to the abbey.
“Outside of the fact you and Scottie were separated? Ryder didn’t want you to know, Lex.” He squeezed my arm. “But when Reese found out, it took all of Ryder’s efforts to keep him from getting involved.”
“Yeah, that sounds like Reese,” I conceded.
“What the hell is going on here?” Reese’s angry voice echoed through the room.
I glanced up to see him stalking toward us. My stomach flipped. He must have snuck in through the tunnels. There were secret passageways throughout Portland, believed to have once been used during Prohibition, and the church had utilized them when we’d been snuck in.
I focused back on Reese. Lordy, he looked edible. Dark jeans, motorcycle boots, and a ribbed, long-sleeved shirt stretched taut over his muscular chest.
“Hey, Reese.” Cameron smiled, slowly rising to his feet as though the fact a very angry ex-biker wasn’t walking toward him looking like he was itching to murder him.
“What the fuck are you doin’ here, Cameron?”
“Filling Lex in,” Cameron said.
“That didn’t answer my question,” he seethed.
“What do you want, Reese?” I asked.
“I need a moment of your time, sister,” Reese said, still glaring at Cameron.
“Well, as you can see, I’m busy,” I said.
“I was just leaving,” Cameron said. “I’m gonna be out of pocket for a little while, Lex, but if you need me, or Reese can’t help you with something, leave me a message and I’ll call you back as soon as I can.”
“She won’t need you,” Reese snapped.
“Can you kill someone and not get caught?” I asked, and scowled up at Reese. “I might need you to take care of a six-foot-two rat.”
Cameron chuckled. “Well, I’ll let you two talk.”
“No, it’s okay,” I argued. “You can take him with you.”
Cameron leaned down and kissed my cheek. “I’ll see you in a few weeks.”
The six-foot-two rat forced his way between us and Cameron smirked before walking out the way he came.
“Just how close have you two become?” Reese snapped.
“Excuse me?”
“I didn’t stutter.”
“He’s my handler.”
“No. I’m your handler.”
“You are unbelievable!” I snapped.
“We can talk about this in private.”
“No.”
“Lex.”
“No,” I repeated. “You don’t get to walk in here and stomp your jealous little foot and then demand we speak.”
He sighed. “Baby.”
“Oh, hell no,” I snapped.
Reese ignored my anger and waved me toward one of the offices in the back. “Shall we?”
I wrinkled my nose, but reluctantly led him out of the chapel. Reese laid his hand on my lower back and gave me a gentle push when I hesitated at the door, then closed us in.
I put distance between us and crossed my arms. “What’s up?”
He smiled slowly and leaned against the closed door. “I wanted to give you an update.”
“Cameron just gave me the low-down.”
“Not about that.”
I gasped. “You’ve found Sergei?”
“No...,” he said, but then added, “well, yes... sort of.”
“What do you mean, ‘no, well, yes, sort of’?” I demanded.
“We know who the mole is and who’s pulling Sergei’s strings, so the Dogs have a plan to get him out without it touching you.”
“What plan?”
“Can’t share that—”
“Why can’t you share it?” I snapped, throwing my hands in the air. “Gah! This is so like you. You refuse to share anything with me!”
“I can’t share with you, ’cause I don’t know the plan.”
“Then why are you here if you can’t tell me anything?”
He grinned. Slowly. Sexily.
Jerk!
“I’m here because I promised I’d keep you in the loop with information when I had it,” he said. “I wish I had more.”
“I bet Cameron would know.”
Reese hissed out a rather vulgar curse.
I shrugged. “Well, he would.”
“Doesn’t mean he’d tell you.”
“Maybe not,” I conceded.
Reese sighed. “Sergei’s gettin’ out, baby, and being watched until he does, so I figured
you’d want to know.”
I nodded. “I would... I do.”
“Good.”
I crossed my arms. “Don’t you have a job?”
“I have many business interests. I own bars and some commercial properties... Ryder’s lookin’ out for them so I can be with you.”
“Sounds pretty convenient.”
“Just brothers who have each others’ backs.” He studied me. “You doin’ okay?”
“Golden.”
He sighed. “Lex.”
“What, Reese?” I made my tone as acidy as possible.
He continued to study me and I dropped my head to stare at the floor. I’d counted the pattern on the carpet twice before the toe of his boots appeared in my view. I raised my head to find him standing very close... too close. I tried to step back, but a large, wooden desk stopped me. “What are you doing?” I whispered.
“Makin’ sure you’re okay.”
“I told you. I’m golden,” I repeated.
His hand slid to my jaw and his thumb gently brushed my cheek. “You’re lying.”
“I am not.”
“You know how I know?”
“Oh, please, handsome, enlighten me,” I deadpanned.
“You have a dancing freckle.”
I pulled away from his fingers. “Ohmigod, Reese, freckles don’t dance.”
“Yours does.” He touched my cheek again gently. “But only when you lie.”
“You’re demented.”
“Talk to me, Lex.”
“About what exactly?” I challenged.
“Anything. Everything.”
I shook my head.
“Did you forget I’m a good listener?”
“You’re a terrible listener,” I countered, and realized this had been his ploy all along. “But you’ve probably changed since then.” I squared my shoulders. “I have.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes.”
“You still do this little thing with your nose when you’re irritated with me.”
My hand flew to my nose of its own accord. “What thing?”
“It flares a little... like a rabbit.”
I let out a snort of derision and lowered my hand. “It does not.”
He leaned in and kissed my nose quickly. “It so does.”
“Move away.”
“How ya doin’?”
Reese Page 4
