by Franca Storm
"So, how's business?" I asked, finally putting it out there.
"You already know."
"What?"
He rolled his eyes. "Come on, Luke. I don't hear shit from you in years and a few weeks after I get a black eye, here you are? She sent you, didn't she?" He scrubbed his hand over his face. "I knew she wasn't gonna let it go. Every time I saw her, she was harping on it."
"She's worried."
"Anything she can't exert absolute control over worries her."
"This is different. You think she would've sought me out if it wasn't?"
"I'm fine."
"Yeah? Then what's with the bodyguard?"
He shrugged. "A precaution. Just being smart."
"Matt–"
"So, tell me, who's this lovely lady?" he asked, gesturing at Sky and giving her a smile, doing his best to redirect the conversation. "You actually settled down and got yourself a girlfriend?"
"Yeah. She's mine."
Sky leaned forward and held out her hand. "Skylar Wright."
Recognition flashed in Matt's eyes as they shook hands. He didn't voice it, though, and I wanted to know why. How did he know her? By reputation, or via that asshole, Walsh?
"You've heard of her?" I asked.
"Uh… yeah," he stumbled.
"How?"
"Jeez, Luke, is this an interrogation?"
He was making it that way with his evasiveness. "Stop deflecting and just answer the question."
"I don't know. She's been in the public eye a lot, I guess the name stuck."
I scrutinized him.
He was lying. "It was Patrick Walsh, wasn't it?"
Sky tensed. I wasn't surprised. If Walsh had been invoking her name, it meant he wasn't over her and still felt some sort of twisted connection to her. That would make him even more dangerous and unstable than I'd already pegged him for via Sky's intel.
"Well?" I pressed, when moments went by and Matt still hadn't answered.
His gaze hardened. "You need to leave."
"I'm not going anywhere until you cough up a few answers."
"I can't."
"I'm your brother and I'm here to help you."
He scoffed. "My brother, huh? I haven't heard squat from you in years"
"That was your choice. You broke contact."
"Because it was too hard!" he yelled. "Trying to keep a relationship going with you knowing you weren't ever coming back! We were close! I never thought anything, or anyone could ever come between us! But it did! You let it! Your freedom was more important than me, than your own family!"
I shook my head. "You know it was more complicated than that. And you've done the exact same thing. Dropping out of law school? Leaving the Reilly estate behind? Cutting off Mom and Dad? Turning your back on all the family money to start this place?"
"It's not the same, Luke! You just don't get it." He blew out a breath, ran his fingers through his gelled-up hair and muttered tiredly, "And you don't need to. I don't need you to. There's nothing here for you to do. I'm good here. The black eye and all that was just a misunderstanding. It's over with now. I'm fine. Go back and report that to Mommy Dearest, and then you can ride on back to all of that freedom of yours."
He'd flipped from defensiveness to outright attacking in mere seconds, since I'd pushed him about Walsh. He was so afraid that he wasn't just unwilling to answer my questions, but he was also down with pushing me away too. The things he'd said, they weren't like him at all. He wasn't the bitter, vindictive type. Matt Reilly didn't hold grudges.
Something wasn't right.
"Matt–" I started.
Looking away, he grunted, "Just go, all right? Just go."
Fine. We weren't getting anywhere, and we weren't going to while he was being this defensive and… strange. I'd wait until Spartan came back with that intel on Walsh, then I'd go from there. Hopefully, it would point toward another tactic.
Coming in blind like this had been a mistake.
I'd just been anxious to check on my brother and to try to get things sorted for him. I should have waited. It wasn't like me to make such a crappy tactical decision on any kind of mission.
But Matt was my major blind spot. Sky was the other.
Given that, I really should've brought somebody else down with me. Somebody rock solid who couldn't get under my skin like they could and jeopardize my good sense. Spartan or Wraith would've been ideal. But Wraith risked hell every time he left the protection of the club, because of his wanted status. And I hadn't wanted to involve the club directly anyway. Partly, it had been to protect them, by keeping them out of it. But a great deal of it had also been about me wanting to deal with it on my own. It was the whole leadership thing that had been hanging over me lately and bearing down on me more than it ever had before. I needed to prove to myself that I could lead a successful mission without help or supervision from Spartan and the club.
So far that wasn't working out too well in my favor.
Although, it was still early stages. Tonight was just first contact. I wasn't giving up, especially not this easily.
As I rose from my chair, Sky grasped my arm, making me pause. I eyed her in question. She gave me a discreet wink, then asked Matt, "Can I use your phone? My cell battery's dead and I need to leave a message with my assistant, so she gets it right when she gets in."
What was her game? She was a real stickler about making sure her phone was always charged. Plus, she'd never leave anything last-minute.
I went with it, watching as Matt softened from the sweet, vulnerable tone she was putting forward, the whole damsel in distress thing. It wasn't something that Skylar Wright was, by any stretch of the imagination. The woman was a powerhouse ballbuster.
"Sure," Matt told her with a smile.
"Thanks."
He got up from his desk. "I'll give you a few minutes." He eyed me. "Might take me that long to kick you off my property. From what I've heard about you these days, Tag isn't gonna be able to manage it."
So, he'd looked into me? That showed interest and completely negated everything he'd said in his tirade moments ago. Yeah, something was wrong. What he was putting out there wasn't the truth of how he felt. And he'd just admitted it.
I realized then.
He was trying to send me a message.
He couldn't talk right now. Someone was listening then? Watching, maybe?
I followed him out into the hallway. Tag was standing rigidly against the wall, looking tense and on high alert. They were both anxious that I was here asking questions. I doubted you could cut through the suffocating tension with a fucking machete.
Matt lifted his chin at him.
Moments later, I watched Tag withdraw some kind of remote. He aimed it at the security camera in the far corner of the ceiling and the light went out, indicating it was offline. He held up two fingers. Matt nodded and pulled out his cellphone, typing away rapidly.
Moments later, he turned the phone my way.
I stepped forward and read the message he'd typed into a notepad app.
Two mins and that camera's back up. Sound's still on. Need it to look like I'm kicking you out, that I don't want anything to do with you. Walk away from this, for my sake and yours. I know Walsh. Goes by Rebel mostly. He knows your girl. Get her out. I'm handling it. Don't want you pulled in. We're good. You'll always be my brother, Wild.
I nodded my understanding and I couldn't help smiling. Wild. So, I'd been right about the reasoning behind the name of his restaurant after all. He returned my smile, a look of understanding passing between us.
I lifted my chin at him and stepped back, signaling that I was willing to back off. For now.
What else could I do? He was shit-scared and I couldn't fix that in just a few minutes.
The bull in the china shop approach clearly wasn't gonna work here.
I had to ease off.
For now.
Matt's office door opened, and Sky came out.
She thanked Mat
t for the favor, then, twenty seconds later, he was throwing us out like he'd warned me about moments before.
The situation was beyond fucked-up.
If Matt thought I was walking away, he couldn't be more wrong. I wasn't leaving this hellhole until the mission was done.
Until he was free.
14
~Skylar~
"REBEL, HUH?"
D nodded, swallowed a bite of the steak dinner we'd ordered from room service, and responded, "From what you told me, it makes sense he'd try to reinvent himself."
"Yeah," I murmured, staring down at my plate and aimlessly pushing my food around with my fork.
I was still trying to process everything he'd told me about Matt's message to him out in the hall. It was disturbing on several levels. For one, the fact that Matt was being watched so closely. Another, that Patrick had been invoking my name. It sounded like he hadn't let the past go. But was it re-connection or revenge that he wanted? Either way didn't bode well.
It was a good thing I'd made an excuse to hang back to allow the two of them some time without an unknown third party in the way. It had worked and gotten Matt to pass on a message to D.
"If we can get into his office again for a longer stretch, we can access his computer and phone and try to pull some intel on that asshole."
"You know how to do that?"
"I know people who do."
D took a swig from his glass of beer and said, "So do I."
"Anarchy?" I queried.
"Yeah. He's a frigging whizz kid with that stuff. There's also the next-level genius with that sort of thing, Jesse." He shoved his hand through his long hair. "But we can't bring more people onto the frontlines of this."
"We might not have much of a choice." I knew he was going through this whole thing of wanting to prove himself, to step out as a leader from beyond Spartan's shadow. But we had to be realistic. Besides, he was a member of a brotherhood. Nobody had to go it alone as an Iron Kings club member.
He slammed down his cutlery and slumped back against his chair at the frosted glass dining table. "Sky."
"This is a case of pulling on any resources at our disposal, D."
"And we're doing that. Spartan's on the intel aspect and you're also here."
"You know what I mean. You're still trying to go it alone."
With an agitated grunt, he shot to his feet and started pacing our swanky hotel suite. He would've been more than fine with staying at a hole-in-the-wall motel. But there was no way I would've been. I liked my luxuries and top-of-the-line amenities. The only time I'd made an exception to that was when I stayed overnight in his room at the clubhouse. But that was one night at a time, not a couple of weeks, as we were anticipating with this mission. His back to me, he said, "You're overreacting. Tonight was just a rough start. There's a lot we can still do."
"This mission is more important than your ego, Luke!" I snapped, his stubborn denial pissing me off something fierce.
He stilled.
Not only had I blurted that out, but I'd called him by his real name, something I usually only did when I was majorly pissed at him. I wasn't sure if he was more surprised by that, or upset by the shot I'd just taken at him. Either way, it was tough shit. He was well aware that I wasn't a woman who would ever pussyfoot around her man just to spare the ridiculous concept of the fragile male ego. He needed a reality check. Period.
He turned back around slowly and the moment I saw the look in his eyes, it had me tensing.
Emptiness.
He was shut down.
It was the way he'd been most of the time when we'd first hooked up, purely for mindless fucking. He hadn't wanted to reveal any of himself. I hadn't wanted to either, so it'd been fine taking that from him then.
But it wasn't now. We'd come a long way since those days. There was no way that bull was going to fly with me anymore.
"Don't," I warned him.
His expression didn't change as he rumbled, "I need you to leave."
I shot from my seat. "Excuse me?"
"I need you to go home."
"I criticize your strategy and you're done with me?"
Finally, a little emotion sparked in his eyes. "Done with you? Never."
"Then what—?"
"I told you that Matt warned me. It's not safe for you here. Walsh is gunning for you in one way or another. He had eyes on Wild Creek, so now he's seen you're here."
I scoffed. "I'm not afraid of that wannabe."
"Maybe you need to be."
"Maybe he needs to be."
"I caused this. Me, Sky. Leaving all those years ago, not keeping in touch. If I'd been here, this never would've happened. Matt wouldn't be in this mess."
"You don't know that. Both of you could've been instead. The club hardened you and made you into a force to be reckoned with. You weren't that powerful person before you left here."
He shook his head. "You don't get it. Matt might seem like a punk-ass ex trust fund kid, but he's more than that beneath the surface. He's hard edged and he doesn't scare easy."
"He was a teenager when you left. When kids grow up and they're thrown into the world, there's a lot more to be scared of. All that fear kicks in. It's all part of developing self-preservationist instincts. Some people can control it, like you and me, but others let it control them."
"No. It's more than that. It's not just a disagreement with a loan shark. This guy is controlling him. He's like a fucking puppet master. It's twisted shit. I don't want you around to get caught up in all of that. With your connection to him, it's even more likely, and I won't allow it. I won't risk you becoming collateral damage."
"D—"
He took my hands, urgency radiating from him. "I can't lose you, Sky."
"You won't. I know what I'm doing. This is my wheelhouse."
"You mean it was?" he questioned, giving me that some concerned look he had earlier when I'd played a little dirty with the bodyguard in order to get us access to Matt.
I rose to the challenge, confirming, "No. It is."
Muttering curses under his breath, he let go of me and stepped back. "Fuck, Sky."
"Look, whether you like it or not, there's only one way to fight these kinds of people. That's by getting down to their level and hitting them hard before they have a chance to take their own shot."
"Playing dirty, you mean?"
"Absolutely."
"I'm not going to compromise you like that."
"What are you talking about?"
"You're an addict."
I spluttered out a laugh. "I'm what?"
"You're addicted to the dark. You managed to claw your way out once. Now, with this situation with Walsh coming up again, it's tempting you back to it. I won't let that happen. You shouldn't either. You've worked too hard."
"How dare you?" I seethed, glaring up at him. "Don't patronize me, Luke. I know what I'm doing. And what I do isn't your call."
"I'm making it my call."
"You can't just—"
His phone started ringing, cutting through our heated discussion.
He pulled it out, eyed the call display, then held up his hand. "This is my mission. Tomorrow you head back home." With that, he answered the call and turned away, walking over to the other side of the suite for some privacy.
Urgh. He was being ridiculously overprotective.
Did he really think he could sideline me? I wasn't somebody who would ever accept being benched.
Besides, whether he could see past his feelings for me to admit it or not, he needed me involved in this.
15
~Deviant~
I COULDN'T SLEEP.
It wasn't just the ridiculously uncomfortable couch I was lounging on either. The thing was definitely more about style than functionality. Even sitting on it was a bitch of an experience. But I'd been relegated to it by Sky thanks to the fight we'd had earlier.
It was her keeping me awake. The impact benching her was gonna have on us and all the
bullshit that lay ahead with this mission of mine was haunting me. I couldn't get Matt's terrified expression out of my head. Knowing my little brother was in very real danger and that I couldn't fix it right off the bat with a few threatening words and a beat down to his enemy, was a bitter pill to swallow. When we were younger, I'd always lived up to the role of protective big brother. I'd never failed him.
Until now.
Despite what Sky had claimed, I did shoulder the blame. Yeah, I'd been weaker back then and untrained without much of a shot against the likes of Walsh. But somebody like Walsh would never have happened, would never have been in Matt's orbit. If I hadn't left, Matt wouldn't have gotten it into his head to do something similar, to turn his back on the path that the Reilly name had carved out for him. I'd led him to it with the example that I'd set by taking off on all of them.
And now I was the one who needed to fix it.
I shucked off the blanket I'd grabbed from one of the closets and pushed off the couch.
I needed to stretch my legs, pace for a while, or something. I'd rather go for a ride, but I wasn't gonna leave Sky alone in this piece-of-shit city in the middle of the night. Being cooped up in this hotel suite with all this shit on my mind really wasn't helping. I needed to feel free in times like this. There were two ways that I did that. Riding or sex. Neither were an option right now. So, pacing around aimlessly like a wild animal in a cage it was then.
I eyed the bedroom door that Sky had slammed while I'd been on the phone earlier with Wrecker, who'd wanted to check in with me and make sure I hadn't landed in a load of trouble. The guy knew me well. Outside of Spartan, he was the closest brother to me. He was well aware that I was a stubborn bastard and that I didn't like asking for help unless there was absolutely no other choice. As a club, we always had each other's backs, but I liked to handle my own shit if I could. Knowing the club was there for me if I needed them, was more than enough for me.
I scrubbed my hand over my face as I continued to stare at the door while I paced, wondering if Sky was sleeping or feeling as restless as me.
