“Sorry I dragged you into this.” James rubbed the lump on his head and stared up at the naked bulb overhead. Maybe they could use the wires to pick the lock.
Ryder snorted a laugh. “I’m not. Best time I’ve had since joining the fucking club.”
“I gotta get out of here. Find Lana.” James pushed himself to his feet and staggered as a wave of dizziness hit him.
“Easy there.” Ryder jumped up and eased James back down to the floor. “You got hit by the pipe after Rex smashed your head against the wall. You’ve probably got a concussion. You need to chill for a while.”
“Chill?” James shook his head in disbelief. “Rex is coming to off us. Lana is out there being hunted by Hades and the Wolverines. And you want me to chill?”
“We’ve got some time,” Ryder said. “They were planning to finish us off in the parking lot but Angel drove up. You should have heard her. Seems she’d hired a PI to follow Rex around, and she’d just received an email with pictures of him and Portia. She came here on a fucking tear, shouting the place down. Even the Wolverines were afraid of her. She grabbed the metal pipe out of Dawg’s hand and chased Rex into his office. Bones and Dawg didn’t want to do anything without Rex, so they locked us in here.”
Amused, James said, “She owes me a favor.”
“Well, call it in. She’s the only person besides Rex who has a key.”
Kickstand pushed up his sleeve and showed Lana the message on his arm. “It’s in another language. I think it might be German.”
Hands trembling, Lana traced the letters of the three words penned on Kickstand’s arm.
Ich liebe dich.
I love you.
A ball of warmth formed deep inside her chest, flowing through her veins like liquid heat. He forgave her. He loved her. For real.
“What does it mean?” Kickstand lowered his arm.
Lana smiled through her tears. “It means I have to find a guy named Hans and thank him for the German lessons. And it means you have to find Ice and tell him where we’re going to be since he doesn’t have a damned phone.” She grabbed an old receipt from her purse and scrawled down an address. “This is a motel between Kamloops and Kelowna. Tell him I’ll be waiting. But…be safe. The Wolverines and Rex will be after you too.”
Kickstand’s bottom lip trembled. “What if he didn’t…?”
“There is no if,” Jackie barked. “That Ice is a survivor. He’ll probably have wiped the floor with the Wolverines and is now working his way through Hades.”
A smile ghosted Kickstand’s worried face. “You’re right about that. I’ll find him. Don’t you worry.”
Jackie blew Kickstand a kiss as she slid into the driver’s seat. “You know where we are. You’re welcome to join us too. Nothing more fun than being on the run from a sadistic, ruthless motorcycle club times two.”
Kickstand grinned. “Nothing except leading them in the wrong direction.”
“Get the fuck outta my way. I’m getting my boy outta there.”
James and Ryder shared a glance as Angel’s harsh voice pierced the thick steel door and echoed around them as if she were standing in the room.
“Imagine listening to that every day,” Ryder muttered. “I’d hide in my clubhouse too.”
Low murmurs outside and then a thud. And then Angel’s shrill voice.
“Rex is having a rest, courtesy of this here pipe. So the answer is no, we’re not going to wait for him. And unless you’re feeling tired too, I suggest you get the fuck outta my way.”
Ryder and James plastered their ears to the door, unable to tear themselves away from the train wreck on the other side.
Voices. Low. Urgent. Crack! A grunt.
“Don’t tell me I don’t got any say,” Angel shouted. “Last I heard, I was still married to the cheating bastard, which makes me the number one old lady in the club, which makes you dirt under my fucking shoes. See these shoes? He bought ’em for me as an apology for fucking the babysitter. They look pretty but they got steel toes. You know why he bought ’em with steel toes? So I could kick losers like you in the balls and cause some permanent fucking damage.”
Thud! A long, low pained groan.
James winced. Beside him, Ryder grimaced and the color drained from his face.
“You sure it was a good idea calling out for her? What if she’s pissed at us too?”
“I told you,” James said, with a confidence he didn’t feel in the least. “She owes me a favor.”
“She doesn’t owe me.” Ryder paced his way to the back of the room. Away from the door.