And even though I hardly wanted to admit it to myself, I wanted revenge for Lance. Yeah, he had gone behind my back and fucked things up in a big way. But they must have tricked him somehow. He was still wearing his kutte. He still felt loyal to the club. He wanted out of whatever deal they forced him into. And they killed him for it. Nobody killed my men without paying for it.
I heard a soft knock on the door to the bedroom and whirled around, expecting to see Brett standing there. But it wasn't her. It was Erica, and her eyes were huge as she looked at the knife I was still holding in my hand.
I put it down, feeling guilty for some reason I couldn't understand. "What are you doing up here?"
She looked at me like it was the stupidest question she ever heard, then sat on the bed. "So you're going, then?"
I nodded. She might as well know.
"And you're going to talk to the guy from last night?" I nodded again. She reached for a strand of long blonde hair and twirled it in her fingers.
"You don't like the idea?"
"What do you think?"
I sat next to her. "Nothing will happen to me."
"You don't know that. I'm sure Lance thought the same thing." She bit her full lip, and even though I was tensed up from what I was about to do, I couldn't help remembering the way it felt when I bit down on her lip earlier. The way she hissed. The way she loved it.
I cleared my throat, pushing the distraction aside. Would she always have that effect on me? "Lance was different. He trusted them. I don't. And I'll have backup."
"I'm so scared." I saw tears shining in her eyes, and the animal in me roared with the need to protect her. Someone had made her so afraid, she was crying. I'd make them pay for it.
"You don't have to be. I'm on it. I'll take care of everything."
"I'm so tired of being scared."
"I know." I took her in my arms and let her rest her head on my shoulder for a little while. I wanted to stay with her. I wanted to go out there and kick ass. I knew what I had to do, but it didn't make letting go of her any easier.
"I'll be back before you know it. Okay? Hang out here, get some extra shut-eye if you want. Play games on the laptop, I don't care. Just stay here. All right?"
She nodded as she wiped her tears away, then got up off the bed and walked downstairs with me.
I couldn't miss the look on Brett's face when she saw us walking down the stairs together. It pained me to see her like that, but she and I spent a lot of time talking the night before. It was all we did, actually, before falling asleep. She knew where we stood. It would just take time for her to get used to it.
My men were ready. I looked at Onyx, who was sitting by the bar. The look on his face reminded me of the way my mom looked whenever one of us kids did something she didn't approve of.
I couldn't worry about him then. I had bigger issues. "Okay, let's go," I said grimly. My entire body was tense, adrenaline pumped through my veins. I couldn't lie to myself. The excitement was addictive.
Then again, so was Erica. I turned back to take one more look at her before walking out the door. There was a time when I didn't care what happened to me when I went out on a job like the one I was leaving for. I didn't care if I got hurt, or killed. Now I cared very much. Maybe too much.
Chapter Twelve
It was a bleak, cloudy day. Just the kind of day I needed it to be. There would be plenty of shadows to hide in while we made our way around the Wolves' clubhouse.
I had decided before we left to split up a few blocks from the old warehouse the club used for a clubhouse. It was nothing like ours-the club had renovated our warehouse years ago, a long time before I sat at the head of the table. We had the money back then, thanks to the drug business. I wasn't interested in staying in that game much longer. It was too dangerous.
Like the explosion during the drug deal last week. I'd been using that in the days since as another reason to get the hell away from drugs and into more legit more business. I didn't want to lose any more of my guys.
Now that I knew it was a set-up involving Lance, I wondered if there wasn't more unhappiness over my decision than I thought. Yeah, the other members had been pissed off at first. Drugs made us rich. They could afford nice houses for their families, if they had them, or nice apartments for their girlfriends. They got used to living the good life, or as good a life as people like us could expect. Criminals, roughnecks. White trash by most standards.
When they found out the well was gonna run dry, they weren't happy. I heard all kinds of arguments, but they couldn't make me change my mind. I wanted us to be legit. It would pay off in the end, I had argued back. Less chance of jail time-after all, who made money while they were in jail? Who would provide for their families, their kids, while they were behind bars for drug running? The FBI would crack down hard on us if they got the chance. We had been lucky for a long time, but our luck had to run out.
Alex, president of the club before me, got us into drugs back in the eighties. Since then the Fury Riders controlled the drug trade as far as clubs went. He had vision, and he laid a strong foundation. Other clubs resented that. Especially the Wolves and their president, Alexander York.
Just thinking the name put a bad taste in my mouth. He'd hated the Riders for years, ever since he came into power and probably before then. He had turned his attention to us the minute he was named head of his club. He wanted to take us down and control the drug trade.
As far as I was concerned, he could have it. But handing it over wasn't enough for him. He wanted the club, too. I wouldn't let him have that. If he wanted both, he would get neither.
Was that how he got through to Lance? Did he promise him money? Lance had a family, young kids, a young wife. Maybe he'd been afraid of losing the revenue. Maybe he'd just been pissed off because when he joined the club, we were flush with cash and riding high. I knew not everyone joined for the reasons I had.
Why had I? Sometimes it was hard to remember, when things were as fucked up as they were as I rode to the Wolves' clubhouse. Friendship. Family, which I had none of after my brothers and sisters were split up. A support system. Fun. An endless stream of girls, just one after another until I was numb.
The men riding with me were my brothers. It would never have crossed my mind to betray them. That was why I was having such a hard time understanding why anyone else would do it.
We split up, just as I told the guys to do. Axel and I would come in from the south while Frankie and Chip would come from the west. To the east was the river, to the north was an old dump. They'd be trapped-if anyone was there.
I didn't know what I would find when I got there, but I learned to improvise when I was a kid. Nothing was ever planned out. Everything off the cuff. After Dad died, all the stability left my life. It was that, and the way I had to step up for my brothers and sisters when Mom was too zoned out to do much, that made me a good leader.
I only hoped I would be good enough to get us out of this safely.
We didn't run into any opposition on the way between the old, abandoned buildings. I wondered how long it would be before this district faced gentrification-the area was slowly turning into something more "desirable." What would happen to the Wolves? It wasn't them I cared about. It was the precedent something like that would set that bothered me. The idea that people could push a club out of town. Once people knew it was possible, the others would follow.
We stopped behind an old shed just next to the clubhouse. Frankie and Chip met us there. "We didn't see nobody," Frankie said, sounding as suspicious as I felt.
"This doesn't seem right," Axel said, looking around. "I mean, last night they were all over us. And today we don't see anybody, not even around their own headquarters?"
I agreed, but put on a smile. "They're making it too easy, aren't they?" The others didn't look convinced this was a good thing. I climbed from my bike. "Just keep a tight watch. If you hear a shot fired, come running. Got it?" They nodded, getting their weapons ready. Mine was already in my hand, held low at my side.
I crept along the side of the old warehouse, listening for any sound of noise inside. I didn't hear anything but a tinny old radio, full of static and some song from the hair band days of the eighties. I rolled my eyes. One thing about the Wolves was their love of the old days, when they had power in town. Before the Fury Riders took it from them.
I stayed low, passing under the windows. The music got louder the closer I got to the front of the building. I still didn't hear any voices, which was just as unsettling as not seeing any bikes on the streets. When I got to the front, I only saw one bike parked by the door.