by Stacey Lynn
No one else seemed to mind.
Jaden’s arm dropped to my wrist and he turned so he was facing me, unease suddenly appearing on his wrinkled brow.
“Need you go to your parents’ tonight.”
My head jerked back. “What?”
A blast of cold shot up my arms and I scrubbed them, knowing it wasn’t from the chill in the air.
Jaden’s nose twitched. His eyes flickered to the group next to us before coming back to mine and he bit his bottom lip. His voice dropped, speaking low enough so no one else could hear, but the deep, gravelly rumble caused a tight, itchy sensation at the back of my neck.
“Got work to do tonight and I want you at their house.”
His tone left no room for argument, but it didn’t stop me from trying. “Why can’t I stay here?”
I glanced next to me and saw Marie, Switch’s old lady—and a woman who had practically raised Scratch and Jaden—eyeing me with a raised, curious brow of her own. Beneath the concern was a softness I hadn’t seen from her since before Scratch died.
She smiled sadly and looked away from me.
“Just do it, okay, Jules?”
“What aren’t you telling me?” I asked, suddenly thinking of Rob and Sophie. I knew there was stuff he had held back from me about finding him—about the whole day, really. None of it had made sense; how he’d found her so quick, yet it had taken him so long to get her back to me.
Jaden leaned down, cupped the back of my neck with his hand and pressed his lips against my ear.
“Club has shit goin’ down tonight. You’ll be fine, and Sophie’s fine, but shit could get messy with this and I need you away from the club.”
I swallowed, a lump in my throat quickly forming. Finally, I nodded and whispered, “Okay.”
Jaden pulled me back and then dropped his lips to mine before I could blink. His lips pressed against mine with a ferocity. I sucked in a quick breath, instantly parting my lips, and didn’t care that Jaden took my breath away with one touch and one brush of his lips.
“Break it up, fucker.”
Jaden jumped back and spun around.
Daemon walked by him, smacked his shoulder, and nodded to Finn. “Time to roll.”
“What?” Liv asked, her eyes widening.
“Got shit to do, baby. Party’s over. Clean it up—club’s going on lockdown.”
“But—”
Daemon pinned his eyes on her, rolling his shoulders and rolling off the vibe that had made him the President he’d become. Power pulsed off his leather cut as if he could summon the force at will. Even Liv looked as if she was attempting not to shrink under the heady weight thundering off him.
“Liv.”
He narrowed his eyes and all the fight drained from Liv instantly. “All right, Daemon,” she said softly and closed the small space between him to press a kiss to his lips. “Be safe.”
“Always.”
She snorted.
I felt Jaden’s fingers dig into the back of my neck. He nodded his head toward Marie and back to me. “Marie will get you home.”
Unease rolled through me. I had never been around the men when they got a call like this, had never witness how they so quickly flashed from men drinking and having a good time to the predatory looks and stances they all seemed to switch on in the blink of an eye.
All around me, men were grabbing their women, tossing their drinks, and heading toward the lot.
“You all have been drinking.”
Jaden’s grin was quick and then gone. “We’re good.”
He blinked and something unspoken flashed in his eyes before he dropped his head to my neck, and bit.
I jerked from the sudden sensation, the playfulness amidst the tension, and smacked his chest. “Hey.”
“Just wanted one last taste.” Then he stole my breath again with another deep kiss that left me shaking on my slightly drunken feet as he sat me down. “Be good.” He pointed a finger at me and winked.
“Be safe,” I whispered, but he had already turned his back, slapping an arm around Finn’s shoulders as the two headed toward the parking lot and their bikes.
“Well, crap,” Liv said.
I looked at her and her pouty frown.
“That’s not how I wanted your birthday to end up.”
I shrugged, feigning nonchalance. Reality of what it meant to be in the club began settling like a dead weight on my shoulders.
Was I really cut out for this kind of life?
Marie sidled up to my side. “Let’s get you home.”
Her warm command left no room for arguing and when I opened my mouth to say something, Liv and Faith smiled at me.
“Go, we’re good here.”
“I can help clean up,” I offered half-heartedly.
They disagreed when they leaned in, both of them kissing my cheek.
“Jaden wants you gone, go. It’ll give him a clear head to know you’re doing what he wants.”
The quiet warning came from Marie, and I turned to her, frowning.
I nodded, speechless, and not sure why. The air had shifted, as if the men had sucked the oxygen straight from the air when they turned their backs on the yard, leaving only tension and fear in the women as we watched them climb aboard their bikes.
“Okay,” I muttered, but it was useless. Marie was already tugging me toward her car, speaking quietly to me, although I didn’t register any of it over the thunderous rumble of the bikes as all the men started their engines simultaneously.
Near the front of the row of bikes, I caught Jaden glance back at me over his shoulder before shouting something to whoever was next to him—Ryker, I thought, but couldn’t be certain.
I walked silently with Marie as the men peeled out of the lot, two men standing guard by the gated entrance as the bikes whipped out onto the street.
The vibrations of their engines rattled the concrete beneath my feet.
“Come on,” Marie said, and opened the door to the car for me to get in.
I sat, folded my hands in my lap like a good little girl, like I knew what was going on, but so… lost.
God. The entire night had been strange—something I couldn’t put a pulse on, but it was off. They all had been, all night.
Or maybe that was alcohol clouding my brain and leaving me unable to think straight.
I didn’t notice Marie starting the car, or pulling onto the street.
My head spun. Jaden leaving. The look he’d given me. The way he’d kissed me. As if he didn’t know if he’d see me again.
A boulder settled in my stomach as I stared out the window, seeing the trees and the road along the winding road to my parents’ house, but none of it registered.
Marie’s soft but wise voice brought me back to the present. “I told Liv months ago not to worry when this happens. Our men are strong, and they’re fast, and they’re smart. Somehow, they always come back to us.”
Not all of them, I thought.
Fat raindrops plopped down on Marie’s windshield.
“I knew it smelled like rain earlier.” She frowned, flipped on her wipers as the rain began to pick up.
“How do you do this?” I asked, watching the rain splash against my side window, drops splattering the glass with increasing size and speed.
“It’s the life we signed up for, Jules.”
My eyelids closed, and I thought of Scratch—the last time I saw him smile, when I told him about Sophie.
God, had I known it was the last time I would have ever seen him… so many things I would have told him.
So many things I would have done differently, if only I had known.
“Jaden’s different with you.”
I swallowed the tears already forming in my eyes and turned to face Marie. With my head on the headrest, I pressed my lips together. “I’m not sure I can do this.” My shaky voice was barely holding on. Had I gotten so swept up into lust with Jaden, the way he’d originally reminded me so much of Scratch, that I’d los
t perspective? I’d already buried his brother.
I didn’t have the strength to bury another.
My chin wobbled as she reached over and squeezed my hand. Air Supply filtered through the speakers, barely audible over the rain now barreling down on us.
“You get used to it,” she said, her voice full of confidence and experience.
“Not when you’ve already lost one.”
With only the entryway lights on inside, my parents’ monstrosity loomed in front of me as Marie drove slowly up their curved driveway. The rest of the house was dark.
Like the night. Everything felt creepy, like an evil filth was languidly thickening the air. I couldn’t describe it, I could only feel it.
“Jaden’s always wanted you, you know.”
I snapped my head toward Marie. “What?”
She smiled, like an omniscient mother, and I suppose she was, considering she’d practically been the only mother Jaden and Scratch ever knew. “I heard the boys arguing back before you and Scratch got together. Almost tossed the boxing gloves at them and told them to fight it out for you.” She smiled wistfully, replaying a memory I had no knowledge of, in her head.
“I didn’t know.”
“Probably why he’s always been a jerk to you… trying to keep his distance. But I’ve always seen it—how he looks at you.”
“With hatred and loathing.”
“With guilt over wanting his brother’s girl,” she quickly snapped back. “And now he’s got you—something he’s wanted for a long time—and I can’t for one second think that doesn’t weigh on him, whether or not he’s gonna admit it to you. He knows—you both know—what it’s like to lose someone. Hell, even I still miss Scratch most days. And Jaden has a heavier side to him that he doesn’t let anyone see, but don’t let that anger in him make you think he doesn’t care.”
I blinked quickly, fighting off the burn at the back of my eyes. “I don’t know what I was thinking, getting involved with him, but the unknown… I don’t know if I can handle it.”
“You can,” she said, reaching over and squeezing my hand firmly, “and you will, because you love him. Besides that, I know he loves you and he’s too much of a stubborn asshole to die. Trust me, Jules… you’ll get time with him if you give yourself the chance to take it, but he won’t leave you like Scratch.”
I inhaled slowly, breath leaving my flared nostrils.
God. How had I been so stupid to fall in love with brothers?
“Get inside,” she said, squeezing my hand before letting it drop to my knee. “They’ll be done and back tomorrow and everything will seem better in the daylight. Not as scary.”
I nodded, too afraid to speak, terrified of what would come out of my mouth if I did.
I unlocked the door to my parent’s home and quietly let myself inside the house, only seeing a faint light on in the living room and knew it was my dad—who had some uncanny ability to always be awake when shit hit the fan around him.
It only made me certain that Marie had been wrong.
Nothing would be cleared in the daylight.
Everything would change.
I slid my leather gloves on my hands and cursed the rain that had decided to fall. That was all we needed with shit already starting to fall apart.
A fucking rainstorm, making hands and weapons slippery.
Not to mention the unease and dread that was coiled tight at the base of my spine.
I narrowed my eyes, trying to see through the rain and turned to Daemon.
“This isn’t right,” I told him, scanning the lot at the docks.
He’d gotten a call just two hours ago that Sporelli had a shipment being dropped off.
Wasn’t nearly the timeframe we usually had, and gave us shit time to plan.
The rain wasn’t helping, but neither was the uncertainty that kept flashing across Daemon’s eyes.
“None of this shit is right,” he muttered before reaching for the gun inside his cut. It wasn’t his only one. Out of the twenty men who had left the clubhouse thirty minutes earlier, we were all packing.
Shit would end tonight. Daemon had decided. I wanted to be out from Sporelli too, and drug-running was a bitch with pain-in-the-ass consequences, but I didn’t agree with handling it this way.
I didn’t get a say either, so I sucked it up and did what I was told, regardless of the tightness in my gut. Mostly it stemmed from leaving Jules at her birthday party. I saw it—the fear and uncertainty in her eyes as I walked away from her.
And I knew what she was thinking about. Scratch. The way he’d left her and never come back. Fuck if I was going to let that be me, but I couldn’t blame her for wondering if a life with an asshole like me, a life like mine, was good enough for her. If it was what was best for her.
I was smart enough to know I wasn’t.
I was selfish enough to not give a shit because I wasn’t letting her go, either—even if she tried to run.
“Men are in place,” Finn said on my other side.
I nodded, watched as the shadows that had descended onto the docks disappeared and melded into their surroundings.
We had enough men.
Enough firepower to end this, or create a war bigger than anything we’d dreamed of.
“Chief ready?” I asked Daemon.
“Should be.”
Wasn’t the best response, but nothing we could do about it.
“Go, then. We got your back,” I told him. Then I watched from a distance, on a slight ridge overlooking the docks, as Daemon and Switch headed down to the docks.
It only took them minutes, but my fingers already tightened around my gun, ready to go if needed.
I hoped to fuck it wasn’t.
“Shit, this doesn’t feel right,” Finn said, uttering the words that continued replaying in my head. I knew what he meant, though. My shoulders tried to roll off the nerves but nothing worked.
“Finn?” I waited for him to look at me out of the corner of my eye. “Shut the fuck up.”
He snorted quietly before turning back to watch.
The rain rushing down on my face and body didn’t help me see shit clearly either.
Fuck. This was a disaster.
Three figures stepped out of the shadows. The scenario felt so similar to our last run to the Cities that my back instantly went straight. My eyes scanned the horizons for movement, but all I saw was a black sky through the rain.
I tried to push it down. Two hours hadn’t given us enough time to plan, but no way could Sporelli have that many men called and ready—sneaking into our town without any word they were coming either.
“Fuck,” I muttered, rubbing my hands down my face. “When we’re done with this shit, I’m getting fucking wasted and laid.”
“With Jules’s pussy?”
“Fuck off, Finn.” But I grinned. I didn’t want another guy thinking of Jules’s pussy, but hell if it wasn’t always the first thing on my mind, anyway.
“Here they come.”
We watched as Daemon and Switch met the men. Words we couldn’t hear were spoken.
Then I grinned, seeing the shadows of the chief and his men stepping out from behind a barge, guns pulled.
We couldn’t hear the screaming over the distance and the rain as all five men, Daemon and Switch included, pulled their guns.
No shots were fired, though.
Sporelli’s men raised their hands and then dropped their guns on the pavement. More men, local police, surrounded the five. In total, fifteen men from the local force and surrounding areas had been called in, in order to bust Sporelli during a drop-off.
Daemon said the club had been granted immunity. I doubted the honesty of Chief Garrisson’s promise, and was still expecting everything to go ass-up, when something shifted in the area.
I breathed a sigh of relief as I watched Daemon and Switch lower their weapons, setting them on the ground and sliding them toward the cops.
Everything looked as if it was goin
g according to plan.
Cops stepped up, handcuffed the Sporellis. I only hoped it was Erik Sporelli—the son of the Sporelli patriarch, Angelo.
Daemon and Switch stood with their hands behind their backs, uncuffed, as the men were led away.
I turned to Finn, doing another scan of the dark lot, unable to see shit with the rain and thunder booming around us—when I saw something.
A quick glint of movement catching my attention under a streetlight.
“Finn!” I shouted, instantly drawing my gun toward the movement. “Your six!”
He spun on his heels, gun pulled, but it was too late.
Shots immediately began filling the air, smoke billowing from behind darkened hiding spots right as hidden men came out of the dark and into the light.
“Fuck,” I screamed. A burst of searing pain hit my gut. My hand flew to the spot, only to come away wet and sticky.
“Shit!” I heard Finn scream, but couldn’t find him.
My knees hit the ground, but still I raised my gun, firing off the last rounds as my body weakened.
I saw someone in the distance go down.
Or maybe it was my fucking imagination.
I couldn’t see shit.
I couldn’t feel shit besides a burning sensation that had started in my abdomen but now spread throughout my body.
The gun fell from my hand.
Both of my hands slipped to my stomach as I collapsed onto my side.
Wet rain pounded against my skin like a thousand knife slashes.
Pain radiated from my gut outward to every nerve in my body.
I was hurting—everywhere.
Finn’s narrowed, concerned eyes appeared in my vision. He shouted something I couldn’t hear.
Then everything went black.
“Damn it you fucker!” I gripped Jaden’s cut.
If I could beat the shit out of the bleeding asshole, I would. As the paramedics jumped out of the ambulance, I still shouted at him to stay the fuck awake.
His skin turned white, blood mixed with water creating a river that pooled and washed away as soon as they left his body.
Behind me, the gunshots had stopped. So many damn men were gone, and it was such a waste.
