by LS Anders
He hopped into the back of the cab as soon as Lucian opened the door. Scanning his eyes over her as quickly as he could to make sure she was alright. He thanked Lucian for coming to her rescue so quickly.
Pulling up to the front of Mythical Ink, Alea had turned off the sign and was gone for the night. He hoped the other two guys had taken off as well.
No such luck. Vex opened the door.
He didn’t need Evana’s situation to have any more of an audience, and he still needed to get to the bottom of how the fuck Lucian had gotten to her first.
Lucian scanned the sidewalk one last time before setting the deadbolt into place with a clunk, locking them all in together.
“Let’s get her to the office. No need to be standing around in front of all this plate glass waiting for them to happen by,” Lucian said, leading the procession to the back of the shop.
“Wow, Evana Grey is actually standing in our shop.” Sevin looked at her in awe.
Her distress momentarily vanished from her face as she took in the men standing around her.
“Hi…” Her voice fell away when she got a good look at Vex. “Thanks for hiding me.”
“Anytime,” Vex said, offering her a fist to bump as respect poured out of the guy.
He relaxed his protective posturing, glad that Evana’s reputation preceded her and that Vex was proving to be at least somewhat sociable.
Lucian’s perfect face stepped directly in front of her. Wrapping an arm around her waist, Jason pulled her into his side, jealousy shifting into overdrive. Lucian made eye contact with him, somehow letting him know that he was only interested in who was following her.
Evana looked surprised at herself when her mouth opened and spilled the story she had kept secret all these years. That Lucian guy had a way about him that made people want to talk. He’d experienced that shit firsthand.
“There’s a bike rally up in New Rochelle. They must have come into Manhattan to sightsee,” Sevin provided. “If they already knew where to find you, they would have gone to Exotic Ink.”
“The bank is just a few blocks away. Maybe they had already been by there and saw the closed sign,” Evana rationalized.
“Is there anyone there now?” Sevin asked.
“No, everyone had already gone home when I left to go to the bank.”
“You need to stay someplace else tonight and let us take care of these motherfuckers for you,” Vex stated.
“That’s nice of you, but I don’t want to drag anyone else into my mess.” Evana smiled at him.
“After tonight, there won’t be any more mess for you to worry about.” Vex cracked his knuckles, rolling a massive shoulder.
“We got this, Evana,” Sevin backed up his partner.
“You need to find a hotel way outside the city and let us help you.” Lucian looked at Jason.
“That’s good advice, but if anyone’s going to take care of anything, it will be me. You guys don’t even know her.”
Dismissing Jason’s comment, Vex turned his back and pulled off his shirt presenting Evana with a wicked looking scene featuring skeletons in the midst of a battle that covered his entire back.
“That’s Kyle’s work.” Mesmerized, Evana stepped forward, touching the ink.
Vex jerked at her touch, but held still as she admired her late husband’s work.
“We all respect his work and yours. The cover ups you do are the best in the business. You’ve done well with Exotic Ink since his death, even expanding on his business. He’s very proud of what you’ve accomplished,” Lucian said. “When this is all over, I’d loved to pick your brain.”
Jason twitched over the comment. Lucian made it sound like he had recently talked to Kyle.
These folks just kept getting freakier by the minute, and yet he never felt anything but respect from them, even Vex.
After handing Evana off to Vehn, Jason couldn’t sit still, wringing his hands waiting to hear anything back from Sevin and Lucian. Two mind numbing hours later, still no word from the makeshift search party.
His whole body jerked as his cell buzzed in his hand.
Expelling a harsh breath, he returned Vehn’s text. “Evana and the guys are at the hotel.”
“Good. Now why don’t you go on and meet her there,” Vex insisted.
“I’m not going anywhere.” He gave Vex a cursory glance before resuming the path he was wearing into the floor.
“You’re determined to be pain in my ass tonight,” Vex snarled, pinning him with a hard stare.
“Look, I appreciate you all standing up for Evana, but I’ve known her for over half my life and if anyone is going to teach these assholes a lesson, it’s going to be me.” He tried to will himself bigger as he stood his ground in front of the colossal man.
He wasn’t a small guy, but Vex could flick him away like a booger off his finger without breaking a sweat.
Vex’s cell let out a buzz. “Sevin’s tracked them down.”
“Where?”
“Why would you need to know that? Your ass is going to go stay with Evana at the hotel.”
“I’m coming with you. She’s got three other guys with her. I want to make sure those dic—”
Vex bent at the waist, putting his face close enough to Jason’s that their noses nearly touched. The thin veins in his eyes seemed to glow red as he locked their eyes together. “You’re going to the hotel. End of discussion. Lock the door and set the alarm. We’ll see you tomorrow.”
He stood in a daze as Vex walked out the door leaving him behind. His resolve to follow greatly diminished.
He began his nightly walk-through of the studio, flipping off lights and double checking that Alea had locked everything up behind the counter—
Something clicked inside his head, bringing him to an abrupt halt.
What the fuck was he doing?
A kernel of urgency began to surface. If he was going to catch up to Vex and find out where the MC was, he needed to get his ass moving before he lost Vex in the city completely.
Grabbing his jacket, he set the alarm and locked the door. Searching around the sidewalk, Vex was easy to spot being a head taller than the other pedestrians as he rounded the corner at E 8th.
Breaking into a sprint, he made up the distance, catching up to Vex as he crossed Broadway.
Keeping a discrete distance away, he kept his eyes on Vex’s back. A few more streets later and Jason caught a flash of Sevin’s silvery head as he popped out of an alley.
Dropping back, he sidled up to the building he was currently in front of, waiting for the guys to make their move. Vex went for the entrance into a well-known biker bar, and Sevin ducked back into the alley where he had been waiting.
He would bet that’s where the action was going to go down. Jogging to the alley closest to him, he cut through and turned down the next street drawing up short, taking a quick step back as he spotted Sevin hanging back in the shadows near the back door of the bar where Vex had ventured inside.
His back flat against the corner of the building, he tried to calm his racing heart. He didn’t want to go all surprise on them and fuck up their plans. With Sevin hiding in the back, he guessed they were going for the element of surprise. Maybe Vex’s intent was to lure the bikers out the back door and he and Sevin would jump them.
Peeking around the corner, Sevin hadn’t moved, still hidden in the shadows casts by the surrounding buildings. Jason had every intention of getting involved in the fight when it broke out. Vex could kiss his ass—
The back door swung open, and he paled over the number. Twelve to three weren’t very good odds even if you had the element of surprise on your side. Where the hell was Lucian? Surely the guy was coming to help. They needed back up. Having Vex on their side was a plus, but they were seriously outnumbered.
As the bikers filed out behind Vex, it was unnerving that no one was speaking. No insults were flying from either side, and Sevin remained where he was. No defensive posturing. Just a calm me
eting as Vex stepped to the side and the bikers formed a tight circle.
What the fuck?
The air above Vex became wavy as if he were a human toaster and some sort of glow that appeared to be coming from the guy’s eyes washed the ring of men in a red light.
Concealed weapons were pulled out from various places on the bikers bodies. Turning to the side as if in a choreographed move they’d rehearsed a thousand times, each cocked and pointed their weapon at the back of the head directly in front of them.
The sound of twelve guns going off at once blasted out through the back alley. The ring of men dropping as one.
“Fuck!” He hadn’t meant to shout.
Now that he had gained everyone’s attention, Vex cursed and Sevin hustled over to where he stood with his mouth hanging open.
Vex stalked over to them with an exasperated look slapped on his mug. “I’ll take care of the human. You cover our tracks before the police show up. We won’t have much time, you’d have to be deaf not to hear that shit.”
Jason watched Vex’s mouth move, but stood rooted to the spot, dumbfounded at what he’d just witnessed.
“I’ll take care of it. Get Jason out of here,” Sevin said.
Sirens could already be heard in the distance were moving in fast.
“Sevin, no. You’re gonna get busted. You can’t stay here.”
“Jason, trust me. Now go with Vex,” he said, pulling off his shirt.
Vex sneered as he wrapped a beefy hand around his bicep and started to pull him along at a fast clip. He was forced to move his feet or be drug down the street.
Keeping his head turned, he watched as Sevin removed his shoes and went for the button on his pants. What Sevin getting naked at a crime scene had to do with him covering their tracks, he hadn’t a clue.
Vex shook him like a rag doll bringing his head to face front. “Come on fucker, you’re slowing me down.”
Just as they were turning up the side alley two buildings away, he glanced back in Sevin’s direction. As he was about to protest about leaving the guy behind, headlights swung around the far end beaming them in the face and illuminating the grisly scene. Blue lights flashed off the surrounding structures as a spotlight was shown around in a wide arc until it landed, stopping on the ring of bodies.
Sevin was already gone.
A huge gray dog with some kind of large bundle in his mouth hauled ass past them— No, wait. That wasn’t a fucking dog. How did a wolf get into the city? And where the fuck was Sevin?
Evana couldn’t stop shaking. Seeing the Satan’s Disciples again brought every fear she had ever had of those members back to vivid life.
She had never stopped looking over her shoulder, but had grown a tad bit complacent over the years that she’d been living in New York City. Settling into a routine and making a life had her feeling more comfortable with the situation than she ever had been when she was, literally, on the run.
Jason had left her in the capable hands of Vehn, Cale, and Gabriel with a promise to meet up with her unharmed. They had driven over an hour away from the city, circling around until they were certain they hadn’t been followed and checked into a hotel. The handguns the guys had stashed under their clothes were a terrifying reminder of just how ominous this situation was.
Just as a precaution, Tegan had remained behind in the city with all the girls holed up in his and Rayna’s townhouse. Moving Tegan and Rayna’s newborn baby, Caroline, wasn’t an option.
She was scared for Jason. It didn’t matter that he had those three guys from Mythical Ink with him. The Satan’s Disciples MC were no bunch of pussies and someone was going to get hurt. Or dead.
She hadn’t found the opportunity to tell Jason she loved him and prayed the MC weren’t going to rob her of her chance. They had taken enough of her life away from her.
A knock on the door had her jumping out of her skin. Popping the gun muzzle up that Vehn had hanging at his side, he peered through the peephole in the hotel room door before dropping back into an easy stance and unlocking the door.
Gabriel came in carrying a large paper bag that smelled like heaven, and a sack full of drinks and chips.
Her stomach grumbled, but her throat was so tight with worry that she didn’t know if she would be able to even swallow the food.
Vehn relocked everything back up tight and helped Gabriel sort through the bag of sandwiches.
Sitting on the end of the bed, Cale dropped into a crouch in front of her.
“Come on over to the table and eat, E,” Cale gently coaxed.
“I don’t know if I can, Cale.” Looking down into his boyish face, she was tempted to question him about his wife, Avie. Maybe even tell him about the bizarre dreams she had had of the girl in hopes he could shed some light on the strangeness of it all.
“You gotta try. For me. My health depends on it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Jason threatened me with bodily harm if I didn’t take care of you. He might not be as big as Tegan, but he’s agile. I wouldn’t want to fuck with him. Not that I’m a pussy or anything, but when it comes to you, I have no doubt he would go all super-human-strength on my ass. So, you gotta at least attempt a couple of bites.”
Unable to stop the smile from spreading across her face, she brushed away the length of dirty blonde hair that always seemed to fall in his face, tucking it behind his ear.
“I’m so glad you talked me into letting you work at the studio. You’re an asset I didn’t know I needed. You’ve brought a new element to the business. Thanks for that.”
“Fuck, E, don’t go all sentimental on me.” Despite his surly tone, he ducked his head pulling her into a hug.
Squeezing him back, her eyes instantly teared. She’d had to come clean about her past, and it felt good to talk to her friends about her secret. She had been a poser for so long. Getting close, but not too close to anyone, afraid they might discover her truth.
They had all embraced her, none turned their backs or judged her. Now that her friends knew about her mom’s involvement with the MC, that didn’t inadvertently put them in danger. Really, she had been naïve in thinking that her friends were safe if they were left in the dark. The MC would come after them get to her whether they knew about her secret or not.
Good lord, she had hidden who she really was from Kyle the entire time they’d been married. What would he have thought if he really knew about her and where she had come from? Would he still have made her his wife?
Being raised by an all-female MC didn’t exactly put her in a sociably acceptable category. And she had married a guy that was, in the tattoo industry, a freaking celebrity.
Bikers were notorious for sporting tattoos. It was a miracle they hadn’t found her just by her association with the industry or being Kyle Grey’s wife.
She had managed to keep pictures of herself out of the magazines. Turning her head at just the right moment or ducking out of frame all together, fibbing to Kyle that she was camera shy.
Pulling away from Cale, she brushed a hand under both eyes to wipe away her tears.
Vehn gave her a reassuring smile as she took hold of Cale’s hand as he lead her over to the table stacked with hot deli sandwiches. Reaching for one of the Rueben’s, Vehn’s cell dinged a text message, commanding all eyes his way.
Looking at the screen, he smiled releasing a heavy breath. “That was Jason. Everyone’s fine, and he’s on his way here.”
“What about the MC members?” Cale questioned.
Tapping on the little screen, it wasn’t long before Vehn received a response.
“He didn’t say, and I don’t think it would be a good topic to document over text messaging.”
It would be another couple of hours before Jason arrived. More time for her to worry over the situation. She was relieved that Jason and the others were alright for now, but how long would they stay that way?
Setting the sandwich aside, the weighty blanket of guilt settled over her. T
his was all her fault. She shouldn’t have gotten Jason involved in her mess or the guys from Mythical Ink.
Her heart sank to her feet. You might be able to reason with some MC’s, but not with the Satan’s Disciples. Now that those guys had made contact with her enemies, they would become theirs as well.
“Vehn, can you ask Tegan to get the girls out of the city? Just until we know for sure everybody is safe.”
Nodding, Vehn sent a text off to Tegan who responded immediately. “T said he just spoke with Jason and all is well. Nothing to worry about.”
“How can that be? Once the MC figure out I own Exotic Ink, all of you will become targets. How is that alright?”
Vehn called Jason. “I’ve got a worried lady here making some valid points. Is there any way you can elaborate on the situation?”
Vehn listened intently as he stared at the toes of his shoes. “Alright, I’ll let her know.” Touching the tiny screen, Vehn sat down across the table and smiled. “He said there is nothing more for anyone to worry about.”
“What in the hell does that mean?” Cale asked.
“Sounds like him and the Mythical Ink guys took care of business,” Gabriel stated with a firm nod.
Cold dread turned her blood to ice. Exactly what she never wanted to happen was happening. Now the Satan’s Disciples MC had even more enemies to target.
She’d thought her life had been a nightmare before, it was just the beginning. All her friends were now involved, including the one’s she’d just met.
Evana had rushed him the moment he stepped through the door, telling him she loved him. Jason didn’t dare entertain the notion that it was romantic love. More like love for your friend that you were relieved to see had made it through a dangerous ordeal.
Opening his eyes, he looked around the hotel room. He couldn’t have slept if he’d wanted to, his mind was racing with all the crazy shit he’d seen.
Vex had ignored his questions until they’d reached Mythical Ink. Sevin and Lucian were both there already when Vex man-handled him through the door and into the office in the back.
