“Good. Gave him the money we got from trunking to smooth things over. Told him we’d get those weapons back or replacements in the next two weeks.”
Sparky laughed, gesturing to the bandages covering Gunner’s shoulder, chest, and arm. “Gunner played the suffering martyr so well, sayin’ he took the hits to protect the weapons, the sheriff forgot to be pissed off and offered to buy him lunch.”
Jagger couldn’t even force a smile. He had a Mexican cartel riding his ass for the weapons they’d been promised and the reputation of the club was at stake. “We need to get our weapons back. Word on the street is that Axle sold them to the Jacks, which makes two loads of weapons they’ve taken from us. Anyone got a line on a fresh supply to keep our buyers happy?”
“I called in favors two states over but no one has weapons to spare.” Zane leaned back in his chair. “The Koreans aren’t getting a shipment in for at least four more weeks so they can’t help us out.”
“And the Irish have had to cool things off because they’re being watched by the ATF,” Sparky added.
Cade huffed his frustration. “How about the Mexicans?”
“The Pueblos Cartel were our buyers,” Jagger said. “They’ve expanded their drug operation to include the fruit trade and have gained a foothold in Michoacán. They’re trying to control the entire supply of mangoes to the U.S. and they needed the weapons to scare off international importers.”
“Don’t like mangoes.” Gunner wrinkled his nose. “Gimme an apple or banana any day. I eat simple, but tasty.”
“I thought you only ate pussy.” Sparky jabbed him with his elbow and Gunner was already halfway out of his seat before Jagger shut them down with a scowl.
“Enough. We have more important things to discuss than Gunner’s eating habits.”
“Yeah. We also gotta talk about this.” Zane flipped his laptop around, and a picture flashed on the screen. “I have a friend who’s got experience with digital photography. I got him to fill in the missing detail on the surveillance tapes from the night the Jacks burned down our old clubhouse. He did a bang-up job.” He clicked and zoomed in on the scene. Four men were now clearly visible. A blond near the weapons shed, two tall dark-haired Jacks with gas cans near the truck, and another blond-haired man with a load of Sinner weapons in his arms.
“I’m only showing you a few pics. But basically it looks like the truck drove into the yard through the trees. Jeff stayed at the weapons shed and loaded the guns into the truck. He’s the one who shot Gunner. The two tall guys were guards and one of them shot Cole. And this bastard blew up the clubhouse.” He zoomed in on the blond with the gas can. “Anyone recognize him?”
“Wheels!” Gunner spat out the name. “Goddamnit. He’s the fucking rat I’ve been chasing around. I’ve been going through all our data on the brothers, but I hadn’t gotten to him, ’cause he was new and I figured our screening systems are tighter now than they were before.”
A Black Jack rat. In his club. Jagger’s gut twisted. He wasn’t surprised so much as outraged. He’d known something about Wheels wasn’t right, but he’d been too preoccupied with Arianne to heed the warning niggle in his mind. No wonder Viper was always one step ahead of the game. With a roar, he rose from his seat and slammed his fist into the table.
“I want every brother in the club on the road and looking for him.” He gritted the words through clenched teeth as rage suffused every cell in his body. “I want every mark pulled, and word spread to every gang or club we know. But tell them I want him alive. He is going to fucking curse the day he was born when I get my hands—”
A sharp rap on the door cut him off and Jagger scowled. Everyone knew they weren’t to be disturbed during official board meetings.
“Come.”
The door opened and T-Rex stumbled into the room, his face a mask of horror. He stared at Zane, who was seated across from the door. “They have him,” he panted. “The Jacks got him.”
“Who?”
“Jagger.”
Zane motioned to the head of the table. “He’s standing right there.”
T-Rex glanced over at Jagger and jerked back, reaching for the open door to support himself. “You’re okay.”
“Of course I’m okay.” Jagger shot Zane a puzzled glance and then his gaze slid back to T-Rex. “But I thought I assigned you to Banks Bar. Clearly that job isn’t being done if you’re standing in my boardroom interrupting a meeting.”
T-Rex sagged against the door frame and let out a breath. “I was there like you asked. Arianne came in to say good-bye and Banks got her doing some work. I told Banks you wanted me to keep a low profile, so he said I could hide out in the stockroom. I texted you a coupla times and Banks called…”
Jagger reached beneath his cut for his phone. “Went for a run when I got back to the clubhouse and then came straight into the meeting so I haven’t checked my messages.” He saw four messages from T-Rex and a missed call on his screen and gestured for T-Rex to continue.
“Wheels came in. He brought Arianne to the stockroom and told her Viper had kidnapped you. He said the executive board was in a meeting deciding how to rescue you. Something didn’t feel right, so I stayed put. I figured if you were gone, Zane woulda been in charge, and everyone knows he hates meetings. I just couldn’t see him hearing Viper had you and then sittin’ around the table, trying to decide what to do.”
“Damn right.” Zane thumped his fist on the table. “If that had happened, I woulda be on my bike and halfway to hell before you’d even finished saying what you had to say.”
T-Rex grimaced. “That’s kinda what happened with Arianne. She didn’t hesitate. When Wheels said he knew where Viper was holding you, she told him to take her there right away. I was torn whether to go after them or come here, but when I heard Wheels tell her where they were going, I thought I’d better come straight here. I couldn’t believe anyone could take you, Jag, and since no one was answering the phone, I wanted to see with my own eyes if Wheels was telling the truth.”
“You did good.”
T-Rex scrubbed his hand over his face. “I was thinkin’ all the way what would we do without you, Jag? Nothing would be the same. And then when I walked in the door—” His voice broke. “Fuck. It’s good to see you. But we gotta go get her, man. Wheels betrayed us. It’s a trap.”
* * *
Stay strong. Stay strong.
Arianne carefully worked the lock on the handcuffs binding her hands behind her back. Bear had tied her to a chair in the center of the dimly lit warehouse, and she had to take care that no one realized she’d grabbed a loose nail when he’d thrown her to the floor.
Jeff was hunched against the wall a few feet away, clearly suffering the effects of withdrawal. “You got anything on you, Ari?” He spoke in a low whisper. “Even a joint? Or a prescription? Painkillers?”
“Unlock these cuffs, and I’ll take care of you the way you took care of me at Bunny’s.” She couldn’t keep the bitterness from her voice. Trusting Wheels, desperate to save Jagger, she’d walked right into a trap. Although she’d had her gun ready when she walked into the warehouse, Bear and Jeff had been waiting for her. Taking her by surprise, they’d grabbed her from either side, disarmed her, and thrown her to the floor.
She glanced around, assessing her best route for escape. Light filtered through dirty, broken windows dotted around the perimeter of the ten-thousand-square-foot space. Concrete floor. Boxes and barrels in the corners. Delivery truck in the far corner, back open, crates of guns on the floor. A second door at the back. Her weapon lay on the floor, only a few feet out of reach.
She had to get out before Viper arrived, because she knew what was going to happen. This wasn’t meant to be a family reunion. It was an execution.
A pained expression crossed Jeff’s face. “I’m sorry, Ari. I was tweaking and I couldn’t think straight. I just wanted to go to Bunny’s place to get some meth. It was Axle’s idea to sell you.”
“You could have s
topped him. You could have taken the drugs and gone.” She made no effort to hide the bitterness in her tone. “But you couldn’t, could you? Because you didn’t have any money to pay. But you had me.”
“I was trying to save you.” Jeff scraped a hand through his hair and whined. “Viper wants you dead. I figured at least you’d be gone and alive that way. I did it for you and I paid the price. He punished me for it. He beat me so bad, I was coughing up blood, and he cut off my supply. He cares about you more than he cares for me.”
Her lip curled. “He punished you because you tried to sell his property. That’s how he thinks of me. Property. And you’re pathetic. You’ve let the drugs and your need for his approval destroy your life. If you’d come with me that night you picked up the passports instead of going to the Sinner clubhouse, you’d be clean by now, and we’d be in Canada, living a better life.”
“I don’t deserve a better life.” He slid farther down the wall and moaned. “You don’t know what I did, Ari. I’ll never forgive myself, and the drugs are the only thing that takes away the pain. That and Viper’s approval.”
“Well, you’re going about it the wrong way.” The lock released with a soft click, and she stilled. If the cuffs slipped off her wrist, her efforts would be wasted.
The door opened and closed, and the air chilled. She didn’t need to look up to know Viper was in the building. His hulking presence sent a shiver down her spine, and she had to swallow back the bile that rose in her throat when he stalked across the warehouse toward them.
“Shut the fuck up.” Viper cuffed Jeff on the head. “Don’t get too cozy with your sister. She’s done. And you’re gonna be the one holding her down when I slice up that pretty face as a message to Jagger when I dump her body at his fucking gate.”
He grabbed Arianne’s hair and yanked her head back. “You disappointed me, girl. Thought you had balls, but it turns out you’re as weak as your brother. A man waves his dick in your direction, and you drop everything and run. Honor. Loyalty. Family. They mean nothing to you. Before you dishonored our club, if I had to choose between you and Jeff, I woulda chosen you ’cause I thought you had a spine of steel like your old man. But now I know you’re just like your whore of a mother, willing to throw everything away for a bit of cock.”
“Fuck you.” She braced herself for a blow, but Viper just laughed.
“Not me. But Bear’s earned a reward, and I gave him my word: You’re his after I’ve marked you until he doesn’t want you anymore.”
Her heartbeat thrashed in her ears, and her defiance trickled away. No one knew she was here. Wheels had betrayed the Sinners. Dawn and Banks would have thought she’d gone. Jeff was totally lost to her. And after last night, Jagger wouldn’t be looking for her.
She had never felt so alone.
* * *
He ran.
Up the stairs, through the house, and then he was outside. Arianne.
Heart thudding. Lungs burning. Thighs aching. Arianne.
He couldn’t remember the last time he had run—really run. Not the casual jog he took every morning, but a full-out sprint, his feet barely touching the grass as he raced toward his motorcycle.
Even as his mind screamed for him to go faster, and his heart pounded against his ribs, memories assailed him. A barren desert. A helicopter hovering just outside the range of enemy fire. The crack of weapons. Bullets pinging around him. But he wasn’t in Afghanistan now. And he wasn’t carrying an injured man on his shoulders. And the enemy fire … it came from within. But this time he drew strength from the past, from the pain. This time he would not fail.
Pounding his way over the grass, he heard shouts and yells behind him. And he knew. Knew. Every brother in the house would be behind him, streaming to their bikes as if they tasted his urgency, felt his despair, heard his heart thundering in his chest. His brothers. His friends. They would have his back the way he should have had hers.
Arianne.
Without slowing down, he threw himself on his bike, punched the ignition, and peeled out of the yard. For the first time in his life, he wished he had a foreign bike. Nothing matched them for speed—and speed was what he needed.
The roar of bikes starting up followed him down the long drive, but when he hit the highway, he kicked into gear and left the rumble behind. Too many speeding bikers would attract trouble. One would escape detection.
Arianne. Arianne. Arianne.
Her name was the beat of his weakened heart, the rev in his engine, the light in his soul. Nothing in his life had prepared him for the powerful emotions raging through his body. Not Christel, not the wars he’d fought, not the devastation he had felt upon being discharged and discovering he had nowhere to go and no skills beyond what he’d learned in the army.
No one to help.
No one at his back, until the Sinner’s Tribe took him in. Even now he could hear the thunder of their bikes, the rage in their souls.
Family. Freedom. Brotherhood. Loyalty. Honor. This was his world. Their world. Arianne was part of them—part of him. And he would move hell and earth to protect her.
He would not fail.
By the time he turned off the highway, he was running on pure adrenaline, liquid rage sliding through his veins. If they so much as touched her, he would rain down a fury like the world had never seen.
But first, he had to find her.
TWENTY-FOUR
Traitors shall die.
The warehouse door opened and hope flared in Arianne’s chest. But when she saw the two Jacks silhouetted in the doorway, she sank back in her chair. No one was coming to rescue her. She would have to figure a way out herself.
Viper waved them over to the truck. “We gotta get the weapons outta here in case someone comes nosin’ around. Load them into the truck and hurry it up ’cause I got business to finish here.”
“You did this to yourself,” Jeff said, pushing himself up. “If you hadn’t kept defying him, just like mom did, things would have been different.”
Arianne slid her hand out of the cuff. “All I’ve ever wanted was for us to be free and to get you help. I wanted us to be happy, the way we used to be.”
“We were never happy.” His voice dropped, devoid of emotion now. “Happy is not hiding on the roof while your mother takes a beating meant for you. Happy isn’t being a constant disappointment to your father because you’re always being measured up against your fucking perfect sister.”
Perfect sister? How could he begin to think Viper would compare them? She had dared to be born a girl. “I could have gotten us out.”
Jeff walked toward her, his face blurring into the shadows. “You don’t get it, do you? I don’t want out. I never wanted out. I want to make him proud—” His face twisted in anger and his voice rose to a shout. “—I wanted us to be a family. But you left when I was sixteen, and you’ve betrayed us again, just like mom. You’re a traitor. And now you’ll pay the price mom paid.”
Puzzled, she frowned. “What are you talking about? What does mom have to do with this?”
“She was having an affair.” His voice wavered. “Viper told me. He said sometimes a man has to do things he doesn’t want to do because there is nothing more important than honor. He knew about that bald-headed guy with the glasses who came to the house all the time. He killed her because she was cheating on him. She didn’t want us to be a family. And neither do you.”
Arianne looked at him aghast. “Oh God, Jeff. He was a doctor. Mom’s best friend’s husband. He came over to look after her every time Viper beat her up. She wouldn’t go to the hospital in case Social Services took us away, and he couldn’t bear to let her suffer. She took those beatings and she didn’t go for treatment, because she wanted us to be a family. Just like I wanted to leave so we could be a family, too.”
Jeff’s face froze in a mask of horror. “I didn’t know.” He slumped forward, clutching his head in his hands and his voice dropped to a whispered rasp. “I didn’t know. I was the one who
told him, Ari. I was too young to know he would think she was having an affair, but I told him she’d broken the rule about visitors in the house, because I wanted him to be proud of me. He was always so proud of you because you did everything right.”
She gritted her teeth. “If he was, he never let me know.”
“Even when we were older”—Jeff fisted his hands against his knees—“he said the day you put the gun to your head and told him you would rather die than live with him was the proudest moment of his life. He admired your grit and determination. He admired how you never gave up, no matter how hard he beat you. He said I would never live up to you. I loved you, but I hated you for that. And I hated needing your love. The only peace I ever had was when I was high. Then everything would go away. I just want it all to go away.”
* * *
When the warehouse came into view, Jagger pulled over and pushed his bike along the side of the road to the building. No point alerting the Jacks to his presence if the distant rumble of his bike hadn’t done so already.
After parking at the side of the warehouse, he plastered himself against the wall under the window, straining to hear through the corrugated metal.
Nothing.
Weapon unholstered and heavy in his hand, he stretched up to peer through the grimy window. There. A light in the darkness. He glanced over at the door and fought back the urge to kick it in, but he had no idea how many Jacks were inside or whether they were armed—or whether Arianne was even with them.
Jagger gritted his teeth and ran a quick reconnaissance around the building. Windows, mostly inaccessible. Front door. One rear exit. But without a visual, he would be going in blind.
Side exit, it would have to be. He reached for the handle, turning it slowly until it clicked.
“Don’t move.”
He froze and then looked over his shoulder.
The Sinner’s Tribe Motorcycle Club, Books 1-3 Page 32
