And just as he finished having the thought, every man in the room turned and stared at him. Wolf knew those looks – the fact that he hadn’t seen them for almost a year hadn’t dulled his memory of them – and God knows, he knew what they meant.
The boys were ready for vengeance. They’d do anything to get it. They’d die if they had to.
That was when Wolf understood – really, really understood – that all of them had been wearing flimsy paper masks ever since he’d taken The Road Devils legit. Oh, sure, they’d all played by the rules, they’d colored inside the lines, they’d led beige and vanilla lives. Maybe, like him, they’d even believed that they were different men, a different club.
But as they stood there in front of him, unmasked and honest, Wolf saw his brothers. And in their faces, he saw himself reflected back.
This is who they were, in their cores. They were men who operated outside the law of the civilian world, but that’s not to say that they were lawless. No, they just lived by their own laws and rules and honor systems. They meted out justice as and when they saw fit… and at its heart, that justice system’s credo was ‘You fuck with my family, you die, asshole.’
“You all know what we’re goin’ to do,” Wolf said now, and though his voice was low, it carried. “Whatever truce or understandin’ we had with Dawson and his boys is over. Law-abidin’ is fuckin’ over. Tonight we go lookin’ for blood. I’m gonna rip that asshole’s head off his goddamn shoulders with my bare hands, and if any of you has a problem with that, or are thinkin’ about talkin’ me out of it, you can go now. I release you from the club, no conditions or hard feelings. Just leave your cut at the door as you go.”
Nobody moved.
“Last chance, guys.” Wolf met every one of their eyes. “You stay here with me, you’re with me all the way to the end.”
Silence. Stillness.
“OK.” Wolf exhaled hard. “We need a plan.”
“Besides shooting out The Blood Crew’s clubhouse?” Ice asked coolly. He was so clearly back on well-worn, familiar ground, Wolf wondered if he’d ever really left. “And leaving no survivors?”
“Yeah,” Wolf said. “We need more weapons, for starters. We need everyone in an assigned position, too, military-style, Ice, the way you and Cain did it overseas, so you and your Enforcers plan that for us. Finally, we need to work in waves, you get me, man? Separate assaults, and we need one group to stay outside and pick off any runners.”
“No problem.” Ice’s blue eyes were pools of zero emotion. “Give me and Cain and the twins an hour to pull shit together.”
“Good,” Wolf said. “I want to hit them in no more than four hours. Call in every favor we have, get our weapons stash way bigger.”
Dux and Drake nodded, and Cain said, “I’ve kept my old contact with someone local. He’ll get us what we need.”
“How fast?” Wolf asked.
“Two hours, tops.”
“Go, man. Go.”
Cain headed out, closely followed by the MC’s other former – or not really ‘former’ anymore – Enforcers, Ice and the twins. Wolf watched them go, then switched his attention back to the rest of his brothers.
“Stay here,” he ordered. “If Dawson hit the parlor, then there’s a damn good chance that he also set up bombs or whatever the hell that thing was at Satan’s and the garage. Maybe our houses, too.”
A dark ripple went through the room as the men muttered to each other. Wolf waited, and they fell silent again.
“Silver, Cole, you guys are up,” he said. “Pull all footage you have… everythin’ and everywhere. If you see anythin’ weird, you let Kansas know.”
“Me?” Kansas asked, surprised. “Usually I do the surveillance and intel stuff with Cole…”
“Yeah. But you’re my temporary right hand man, just while Scars is out of commission, so Silver’s with Cole for now.” Wolf stared around, fiercely daring anyone to contradict him, to even breathe a hint that Scars being down and out wasn’t temporary. “Everyone reports to you from this moment forward. Call Ice and his guys, make that clear.”
“And what about you, Prez?” Jinx asked hesitantly. “You going off the grid?”
Wolf sighed heavily. “I’m goin’ to be with Zee. She’s all alone with her baby, and I don’t like that. But I don’t want this shit creepin’ into that little girl’s room… this all stays outside that door, you follow me? As long as I’m in with her, no calls, no visits. I’ll come back here and check in every thirty minutes. So unless the fuckin’ Blood Crew are standin’ in this very room and openin’ fire, you wait for me to come back. We clear?”
They all nodded again, and Wolf gestured to his remaining men. “You all stay here… you keep an eye out. It’s possible that Dawson’s boys might start somethin’ here at the hospital. They got us all in one place, pretty much, and that may be one hell of a temptation.”
“Gotcha, Wolf,” Rebel said. “A few of us will be outside and some on each floor. We’ll for sure put someone outside Scars’ door, wherever he is.”
“OK. I want Arrow and Holt on Scars’ door first shift.” Wolf pushed back his wild hair with two hands, wondering if he’d ever been so enraged. “I’m goin’ to check on Keira now.”
They parted so he could get through the group, and Wolf headed down two floors. He took the stairs, and took a few minutes to calm himself down. The last thing that Zee needed was to see him in President mode and persona. She needed her friend, the one that she’d known since the age of ten, and Wolf was damn well going to make sure that she got that comfort. She had no use for a cold-blooded killer.
He paused outside the door, listening. There weren’t any voices, so he gently tapped, then eased the door open a few inches. He stuck his head in, and there was Zoe sitting next to a crib. She was holding a tiny hand through the raised bars, and staring at her daughter. It was hard to see Keira, though, because of the tape holding a tube in place down her throat.
“Zoe?” he whispered, shutting the door quietly. “Hey, baby girl…”
Zoe looked up and over at him, and Wolf froze. God, he hadn’t seen that dazed, lost look on her face since that night in the bar back room. It was a look that he’d hoped hard that he’d never see again, and his heart hurt for her. Wolf moved to her now, wanting to hold her, to show her that she wasn’t alone in her fear and worry. Zoe stood up and took a few steps forward – to meet him he thought – and he opened his arms to her.
“Zee –”
The shove against his broad chest shocked him, and he staggered a bit. Yeah, OK, he hadn’t seen it coming, so that was part of the surprise, but what really stunned him was the rage behind it. She hadn’t held back, not even a bit, and she was a strong, tall woman. The push had some serious power behind it, and Wolf just couldn’t fucking believe it.
“You prick!” she said, not bothering to keep her voice low. “You lying sack of shit!”
“Zoe…” The rest of his sentence was knocked out of his mouth by another hard shove. “Hey…”
“You promised me, Wolf!” she cried. “You promised me that I’d be safe here, me and Keira. Well, look at her!” She pointed at the tiny form in the hospital crib. “Does that look safe to you? Huh? Does that look like a kid whose Mom has nothing to worry about?”
“Ah, shit,” Wolf said, realizing that he’d completely missed this whole aspect of things, somehow. “I didn’t think – Zoe – I didn’t mean –”
“You didn’t mean for this to happen? Is that what you were going to say, Wolf? Well, it did happen! And my kid almost died, and the man that I love is half-dead, maybe. I told you that I’d only come back if it was safe, and you told me that it was. You lied. You put me and my daughter smack in harm’s way, in the line of fire of a bunch of one-percenters. You almost got a bunch of your own brothers killed at work. You – oh, God.” Zoe shook her head, catching her b
reath. “Wolf – you swore up and down that it was OK with Dawson and his dickhead friends, that I was in good hands and could trust you. How could you? How could you?”
She flew towards him again, pummeling his chest this time, weeping now, crying out her anger and helplessness. And Wolf just let her, just kept his massive arms hung limp at his side, letting her release all her worry and fear on him, because he deserved it. He fucking deserved it.
This was all his fault.
And now, in one fell swoop, he’d maybe lost his sister and his favorite brother.
Oh, and his soul. That too.
Zoe stepped back suddenly, and his heart ached as she stared at him like she hated him.
“Get out,” she spat at him. “Get the hell out, and don’t come back.”
“Zee…”
“Get! Out!” she screamed. “Get away from my baby! From me!”
He backed up now, his hands up in front of him in a placatory gesture. “I’m gettin’ away from you, baby girl. But I can’t leave you alone here –”
“You can, and you will! I’m staying here with Keira, and I’ll be moving between her and Scars for as long as it takes, and when I do, I don’t want to see you. You hear me? Don’t talk to me. Don’t touch me. Don’t have one of your guys check in with me and report back to you. Don’t even look at me. Just – pretend you don’t know me. Pretend we never met.”
“No,” he said, horrified. “No, please –”
“Leave me alone,” she said, her voice so hollow now, so lacking in any emotion at all, it scared him. “Leave us alone. Now.”
“Please…Zee. Let me be here for you.”
“No.”
Her tone was so final, so done-deal, that Wolf knew that he had no choice. He knew that he couldn’t reach her right now, and maybe he wouldn’t be able to again, not ever. Maybe this fuck-up was too awful, too destructive, and maybe there was no way back to a friendship from here. Maybe he’d broken it beyond repair.
She was standing there, in so much goddamn pain, and he knew that he was just causing her more. Wolf had spent the past twenty-two years of his life making sure that no harm befell Zoe, and no matter how much of a prick he was with other women, he’d made it his life’s mission to be good to her, to not harm her.
And here he was – hurting her, just by standing in front of her.
That’s totally fuckin’ unacceptable.
So, he left. It was with a heavy heart, and cement in his boots, and actual damn tears in his eyes. Badass, brutal Wolf Connor, a man who hadn’t cried in over twenty years – and here he was, tearing up today. It had been one hell of a day and he’d seen more than his fair share of hellish days, but still… today was really bad.
Today threatened to finish him, because today, for the first time in more than two decades, he didn’t have Zoe in his corner.
So it killed him to walk away, but he did as she said. It was the least that he could do. It was the only thing that he could do.
**
Wolf was back in the lounge, staring at the TV without seeing it, wondering just how the hell he’d messed everything up quite this badly. How had he gotten Dawson so wrong? When had someone actually plant a bomb at one of his businesses? Why couldn’t they figure out whose finger was in the box? What had they missed?
What have I missed?
“Wolf…”
The voice came from the doorway behind him, and Wolf shot to his feet and spun at the same time, his hackles rising, his heartbeat accelerating.
“Dawson,” he said, in complete disbelief. He was too stunned to be angry right off the bat, because this was like Dawson wandering into a lion’s den, playing a kazoo and carrying fresh, bloody meat. This was literally the stupidest, most dangerous place on earth for the man to be, and just by showing up and breathing, he was being full-on provocative. “What the fuck are you doin’ here?’
Dawson entered slowly, his hands up like someone surrendering in a Western. “I came to talk. I’m alone. Nobody at the hospital but me.”
“Oh, yeah?” Anger was coming now and Wolf advanced, shifting seamlessly into predator mode. Without a word or even a glance, his brothers flanked him. “What do we have to talk about, do you figure?”
“I didn’t do it, Wolf,” Dawson said in a rush. “It wasn’t me or my crew. I swear it.”
“What didn’t you do, Kinley?” Wolf asked, the menace heavy in his tone.
“I didn’t blow up Blue Dragon, OK? I didn’t… I didn’t hurt Scars, or any of you. I didn’t, and I wouldn’t.”
“Is that right?” Wolf stopped a few feet away from him, watching him closely. “Wasn’t you, huh?”
“Lookit.” Dawson glanced behind him, saw that his ex-brothers had him surrounded, and he was in a slowly-closing circle of muscle and blame. He spoke more quickly, realizing that time was running out on him. “It makes no sense for me to do this. Right? If I did this, or any of my boys did, the blow-back would be huge. Wouldn’t it? Every single MC Prez who already disliked me or who saw me as competition, or who still hoped to work with you again someday, would be out for my fucking blood. I’d be a dead man walking, I’d have a target on my back.”
“And maybe you didn’t care,” Wolf said. “Maybe you thought you’d be able to bluff your way out of it and get away with it, act all honest and up-front… like you’re tryin’ to do right now.”
“No,” Dawson said desperately. “I’m not acting anything, Wolf. I’m not – not throwing up a smoke screen here, OK? I’m not here proclaiming my innocence to make you look elsewhere for who did this to you all. I’m here because you do need to look elsewhere, man. It wasn’t me. It just wasn’t.”
Wolf shot out his large hand now, wrapped it around Dawson’s throat. The other man gagged, tried to back up, but came up against Cowboy, Saint, and Kansas.
“Watch the door,” Wolf growled, and Rebel moved quickly, stepped outside and shut the lounge door behind him.
“Wolf…” Dawson choked out his name. “I didn’t…”
“Shut up,” Wolf hissed the words right into the other man’s reddening face. “You said your piece, now it’s my turn. Clear?”
Dawson grasped Wolf’s hand in both of his, desperate to get air, nodded.
“Now. You think for one second that I’m gonna believe a lyin’ piece of shit like you?” Wolf asked, giving Dawson a shake. “You started a whole club behind my back. You showed up at Satan’s every single goddamn day and smiled in my face and called me ‘Prez’, and the whole time, you were settin’ up your own crew. You were negotiatin’ and takin’ up my dropped contracts with Jensen’s people. You were the perfect fuckin’ snake in the grass, so I know good and well that you can lie to my face, no problem. I also know that you’re all about lookin’ out for number one, boy, and hurtin’ us like this helps you. A lot. Especially if you show up and offer help and support. Makes you look good to anyone who might get suspicious, right? Well, I ain’t buyin’ it.”
“I promise you,” Dawson said, in a strangled tone. “I didn’t do this.”
Wolf stared down at the man who he’d once loved and trusted like a brother, and felt nothing but disgust. To think that he and this man used to shoot pool and drink beer and talk about everything – women, bikes, Dawson’s kid, vacation plans, the secretest of secret club business. God, Wolf had never seen any of this coming. But he was seeing clearly now, man. Crystal clear.
“Bullshit you didn’t.” Wolf nodded at Kansas. “Find me a wheelchair and a blanket. We’re takin’ out the trash in a few minutes. Makin’ it look like a sleeping patient…but he won’t be sleepin’.”
“No,” Dawson gasped as he understood that he was going to die right there in that room, in a circle of men who he’d once have died for, who’d have died for him in return. “Wolf… no. I didn’t –”
“You did!” Wolf t
hundered. “If not you, then fuckin’ who?”
“Gil Purdie.”
Wolf’s head snapped to the lounge door. Sam was standing there, Rebel behind him.
“Sorry, Prez,” Rebel said apologetically. “But he says that he knows who did this. Says it’s not Dawson.”
“Gil who?” Wolf spat out, not loosening his grip on Dawson one iota, not at all interested that Sam was seeing him strangle a man where he stood. Some things were worth jail time. “I don’t know a Gil.”
“Gil Purdie is Keira’s Dad,” Sam said. “He’s been on the run ever since he killed Zoe’s sister Hailey… but he’s here now. He did this, Wolf. He did this to get Keira back.”
“How do you know?” Wolf snarled.
“Because a woman down in the E.R. just told me all about it.” Sam approached slowly, like he would a wild animal. “Gil has been holding her for weeks, using her for information about Zoe and Keira, about Blue Dragon, and about all of you. He – he hurt her, Wolf. He tortured and mutilated her to get what he wanted to know. I guess he was done with her and decided that today was the day to make his move, because he beat her up this morning and dumped her up in the mountains. Left for to starve out there. But she managed to crawl to an empty weekend cottage and break in. She called the cops for help, and they brought her here. I just finished talking to her, and she’s hysterical, saying that Gil was going to hurt Zoe, you, Scars, anyone that he had to to get his daughter back.”
“The fuck you say,” Wolf rasped. “For real?”
“Yes. She didn’t know about the actual plan, about the bomb, but she knew that he was watching all of you, and he was ready to kill. Maximum damage, Wolf… payback for Zoe taking his daughter from him, and you for helping Zoe get back here, and Scars for being with Zoe as a Dad for Keira, and the parlor for helping her earn a living… he was out to wreck Zoe’s whole life, at any cost. And if Zoe died, then Scars would have to live with the fact that he hadn’t protected her – you all would.”
The Devil's Scars (The Road Devils MC Book 1) Page 28
